catch-up
Like the bear emerging out of hibernation, I am back, now that the weather has (sort of) warmed up. Actually, the weather has been a bit ridiculous recently - it is the first day of June tomorrow and we are all still wearing jackets or parkas. The heat in our building is still on! Ah well, in about a month's time I will be complaining about the heat. I'd much rather be cold than hot, actually.
Anyway, the last time I wrote was in... March! As a sort of catch-up, this is all that happened in the meantime.
March
D came over for a conference and then we traveled to London together for a long weekend. We went to see the Harry Potter film sets, had a couple of very indulgent lunches, and did some shopping. I got a haircut, tripped on the pavement and sprained my ankle, and continued to hobble around the city undeterred.
Two days after I got back from London, J and I packed up the kids and drove to Provence for the Easter break. We used Avignon as a base and enjoyed looking around until I was struck down with a high fever (39.6°C, good times) that just wouldn't go down even with paracetamol. At one point I was lying on the sofa barely moving while J wiped me down with cold towels. Then it was the kids' turn to get sick. The worst thing about all of this was that most of the pharmacies were shut since it was the Easter weekend, and I had run out of fever medication. We ended up going to the pharmacie en garde, where I had to queue for a long time just to buy medicine, but that's how it rolls, isn't it. I only managed to go around 3 days out of the 7 that we were traveling.
After returning from Provence, I was still recovering and filled with so much inertia that I simple wasn't motivated to write. At all. It was then that I truly understood the term 'malaise' when describing illnesses.
April
Not much idea what happened in the first half of April. We did finally move Bao into The Bun's bedroom, which has changed the dynamics between the siblings. It was the big push into the proper preschooler phase. Bao has grown so much in the last couple of months that even I have been stepping back and looking at her in wonderment. She chatters constantly and has so many opinions about everything.
My mother and sister came to visit us in mid-April, along with a suitcase full of treats and gifts. The kids barnacled themselves to my mother, which was actually quite nice because it meant that I could read stealthily in the kitchen instead of entertaining them myself. My mother got a break from cleaning and cooking and actually put on enough weight that she couldn't button her trousers (!). My sister, despite claiming that there was nothing to buy here, managed to fill up her suitcase and more with lots of purchases.
We took the kids out of school for a couple of days and did a roadtrip - Lucerne, Lake Como, and Chamonix. It all went quite well, considering that it is never easy traveling in a group of six, and with kids to boot. Chamonix proved to be the most memorable, because we all went up to the Aiguille du Midi to see Mont Blanc and were buffeted by altitude sickness, strong winds, snow, and -20°C temperatures. Like I said, the weather is all weird.
J managed to do the kids' school pick-ups and babysit quite a bit, so I got to spend quite a lot of proper catch-up time with my mother and sister. It was nice, although predictably towards the end everyone started visibly chafing and they were pretty relieved to get on the plane back home. There is such a thing as too much quality/family time.
May
Last trip with my family - to Dubrovnik. This trip really deserves a post of its own because it was so spectacular. J and I are big GoT fans and it was quite mind-blowing to walk around the old city gawking at all the landmark buildings, but even without the show, Dubrovnik is wonderful. We did a day-trip further down the coastline and saw the oyster farms and vineyards and that was even better. I'd dearly love to return to Croatia some day. Amazing trip, one of the highlights of the year for sure.
My family flew back a couple of days after that trip, and that following weekend we went to Berlin. That was also a good trip, despite the cold and rainy weather. I was surprised by how child-friendly it was, and how modernity and history rubbed against each other. I wouldn't mind returning for another long weekend getaway - to shop, eat, and walk around. J and I joke that it's our new favourite city, and even Bao has been chattering about it a fair bit.
No traveling since then, which is fine by me because at some point I really wanted to stop and catch my breath. In the meantime J and I have been distracted by season six of GoT, Setlock IV (well, it's only me who's distracted), the bizarrely fascinating AIBU forum threads, and summer travel plans. J is also flying back to Asia in mid-June for a conference, and to my envy, will be stopping by Singapore for two days to eat and house-hunt and eat and eat.
The big thing now in our household is The Bun's upcoming residential camp in France, where he will stay for two nights in a rural dormitory campsite with his classmates and teachers. It sounds like fun! He had his first sleepover last weekend with his friend M to kind of test the waters for sleeping away from us, but I knew that he would be fine because it's not really his first time away from J and me, just his first time with a friend. He's always been a good sleeper and he ended up sleeping till 8.45am (!) and had a great time.
This weekend my old friend S and her daughter E will be flying in to visit us. The kids love the idea of another child visiting (we've only had adult visitors so far) and I hope S has prepared E (aged 10) to be besieged by the two younger ones. E is an only child so let's see how the dynamics work out.
So that sums up the last ten (!) weeks. Now that I'm back on the proverbial horse, I've got to start catching up on the travelogues and the other bits and bobs of what's going on here.
Anyway, the last time I wrote was in... March! As a sort of catch-up, this is all that happened in the meantime.
March
D came over for a conference and then we traveled to London together for a long weekend. We went to see the Harry Potter film sets, had a couple of very indulgent lunches, and did some shopping. I got a haircut, tripped on the pavement and sprained my ankle, and continued to hobble around the city undeterred.
Two days after I got back from London, J and I packed up the kids and drove to Provence for the Easter break. We used Avignon as a base and enjoyed looking around until I was struck down with a high fever (39.6°C, good times) that just wouldn't go down even with paracetamol. At one point I was lying on the sofa barely moving while J wiped me down with cold towels. Then it was the kids' turn to get sick. The worst thing about all of this was that most of the pharmacies were shut since it was the Easter weekend, and I had run out of fever medication. We ended up going to the pharmacie en garde, where I had to queue for a long time just to buy medicine, but that's how it rolls, isn't it. I only managed to go around 3 days out of the 7 that we were traveling.
After returning from Provence, I was still recovering and filled with so much inertia that I simple wasn't motivated to write. At all. It was then that I truly understood the term 'malaise' when describing illnesses.
April
Not much idea what happened in the first half of April. We did finally move Bao into The Bun's bedroom, which has changed the dynamics between the siblings. It was the big push into the proper preschooler phase. Bao has grown so much in the last couple of months that even I have been stepping back and looking at her in wonderment. She chatters constantly and has so many opinions about everything.
My mother and sister came to visit us in mid-April, along with a suitcase full of treats and gifts. The kids barnacled themselves to my mother, which was actually quite nice because it meant that I could read stealthily in the kitchen instead of entertaining them myself. My mother got a break from cleaning and cooking and actually put on enough weight that she couldn't button her trousers (!). My sister, despite claiming that there was nothing to buy here, managed to fill up her suitcase and more with lots of purchases.
We took the kids out of school for a couple of days and did a roadtrip - Lucerne, Lake Como, and Chamonix. It all went quite well, considering that it is never easy traveling in a group of six, and with kids to boot. Chamonix proved to be the most memorable, because we all went up to the Aiguille du Midi to see Mont Blanc and were buffeted by altitude sickness, strong winds, snow, and -20°C temperatures. Like I said, the weather is all weird.
J managed to do the kids' school pick-ups and babysit quite a bit, so I got to spend quite a lot of proper catch-up time with my mother and sister. It was nice, although predictably towards the end everyone started visibly chafing and they were pretty relieved to get on the plane back home. There is such a thing as too much quality/family time.
May
Last trip with my family - to Dubrovnik. This trip really deserves a post of its own because it was so spectacular. J and I are big GoT fans and it was quite mind-blowing to walk around the old city gawking at all the landmark buildings, but even without the show, Dubrovnik is wonderful. We did a day-trip further down the coastline and saw the oyster farms and vineyards and that was even better. I'd dearly love to return to Croatia some day. Amazing trip, one of the highlights of the year for sure.
My family flew back a couple of days after that trip, and that following weekend we went to Berlin. That was also a good trip, despite the cold and rainy weather. I was surprised by how child-friendly it was, and how modernity and history rubbed against each other. I wouldn't mind returning for another long weekend getaway - to shop, eat, and walk around. J and I joke that it's our new favourite city, and even Bao has been chattering about it a fair bit.
No traveling since then, which is fine by me because at some point I really wanted to stop and catch my breath. In the meantime J and I have been distracted by season six of GoT, Setlock IV (well, it's only me who's distracted), the bizarrely fascinating AIBU forum threads, and summer travel plans. J is also flying back to Asia in mid-June for a conference, and to my envy, will be stopping by Singapore for two days to eat and house-hunt and eat and eat.
The big thing now in our household is The Bun's upcoming residential camp in France, where he will stay for two nights in a rural dormitory campsite with his classmates and teachers. It sounds like fun! He had his first sleepover last weekend with his friend M to kind of test the waters for sleeping away from us, but I knew that he would be fine because it's not really his first time away from J and me, just his first time with a friend. He's always been a good sleeper and he ended up sleeping till 8.45am (!) and had a great time.
This weekend my old friend S and her daughter E will be flying in to visit us. The kids love the idea of another child visiting (we've only had adult visitors so far) and I hope S has prepared E (aged 10) to be besieged by the two younger ones. E is an only child so let's see how the dynamics work out.
So that sums up the last ten (!) weeks. Now that I'm back on the proverbial horse, I've got to start catching up on the travelogues and the other bits and bobs of what's going on here.