Sunday

We awoke to a spectacular day in Pitou Charente and headed for the kettle and coffee and then out to the porch and the chairs to soak up the early morning sun and watch the river lazily flowing by...ahhh peace.
After a breakfast of smoked salmon and baguettes - yes odd I know but I had been hankering after salmon...(need the oils to keep the brain functioning) we all climbed aboard the little green boat and went for a ride with Jess at the helm, okay then - the OARS. She used to do rowing in S.A. and has certainly not lost her touch, her confidence and handling of the boat is impressive. Of course I could not resist having a go myself and I was not too bad although my facial expressions apparently made for a good laugh and the kids spent most of my rowing time in stitches. Kirstin was delighted at getting a few candid pictures but I got to them and managed to oblierate them - thank goodness.

Enjoying being rowed around...

At about noon we got back to the cottage and I prepared bruschetta with a twist for lunch. i ahd no basil, olive oil or garlic so I used a jar of pesto with the tomaoes and onions and it actually turned out pretty well.
After lunch Malcolm and I donned our walking shoes and headed off to explore the village of Chenon and beyond. Chenon is literally a few homes, not sure if it even qualifies as a village because there is not one single shop there. The walk was lovely though and we vowed to have many more during our week long stay.
When we got back to the house the kids were playing badminton and they managed to cajole us into joining them for a game, the joys of older kids!!!
When in France do as the Italians do....pasta on the menu for dinner! I made spaghetti bolognaise as it is so easy and always provides left overs for another day. The kids went for another boat ride, took the fishing rods and tried to catch some fish, it was absolutley awesome to see them making the best of their surroundings, besides meal times I do not think they se a foot in the house!

Thinking...

I am actually sitting here in a quandary, do I give a day by day account of our holiday or just a broad overview...I have a feeling that some of you will aprreciate the day to day and others would be happier with a shorter version....so I cannot please all the people all the time...and I think my family would prefer a day by day, so skim over the next few posts...or don't read them...the blog will be back to its usual nonsence soon.

Bon Jour

We landed at the single strip airport in Poitiers at 16h30 on Saturday afternoon. The airport is tiny, literally opens and closes according to the flight schedules!
We had hired a car and to Kirstin's delight it was a Toyota Verso WITH the extra seats in the back. We got Molly out and plugged in our destination "Chenon" and discovered that before we even began to tackle driving on the wrong side of the road we had to figure out how to start the car without a key, finally figured out that you have to push the clutch in and then push the button that says 'start engine'.
Anyhoooo...off we went and Malcolm soon disregarded Molly's gentle direction to turning in 100m and turned in 10m and she started recalculating...but then I saw what looked like a mall and we needed groceries so we carried on ignoring Molly and made our way over to see if it had a grocery store. The first good sign was an advert for specials on the door to the mall, and then the beautiful sight of a family unpacking groceries into the boot of the car! Yay! Food. The grocery store - Auchan was enormous, I think I would have preferred a small store, less confusion! We managed to fill a trolley with what we felt would be needed for a week and only after paying considered the fact that we had no space in the boot...oops. Somehow we managed to get everything into the car and this time followed Molly's instruction and found our way to the cottage. We arrived at 20h30 and the evening was so marvelous we decided to light a fire and have a bbq. I got to work on salads, the kids headed straight for the boat and before long we were all sitting at the long dining room table enjoying our first meal in France.

Mad Rush

Saturday morning arrived far too quickly for our liking, we had really been enjoying Rob and Kirsty's company. The kids are little and so cute, and best of all not my responsibility so they can be enjoyed to the fullest!!!
We had a plan for getting to Stanstead which involved catching a 10h40 train in order to get to the airport on time for our flight to Poitiers. We bolted into the station to buy tickets with about 5 minutes to spare and of course there was a QUEUE. I stood patiently (NOT) and waited my turn, one eye on the railway line watching for the train. My turn just could not come quickly enough and when it finally did I breathed a sigh of relief and ordered the tickets...he made some kind of mistake and had to void all the tickets and reprint them again, by now I was in low grade panic as the train was arriving and finally £80 please. (to get to the airport...so much for cheap Ryanair tickets.) I only had £60 on me so I produced my laser card which was not accepted as payment. Thank goodness Rob walked in just then and like a knight in shining armour produced a £20 note and I grabbed the tickets gave hugs and kisses to Rob and Kyle and we all made it onto the train by the skin of our teeth.
When we got to Clapham Junction we disembarked for our next set of tricks, we thought we had to catch a train to Tottenham Hale, but it turned out that it was actually a subway ride so down into the underbelly of London we went, dragging all our luggage along with us. At Tottenham Hale it was back up to the light and onto a train headed for Stanstead.

London

Wow! It is SO busy here. Yesterday the girls and I only got into London at 13h00 and we zipped around, checked out the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square (climbed the lions!) AND Harrods. I am not sure how we managed but I think it had something to do with my excellent map skills and my ability to figure out the underground at impressive speed! Hee Hee. On my quest to find maps and information at the tourist centre I almost broke my neck, too busy reading a map while trying to descend a flight of stairs...misjudged it, thought I was at the bottom and there were still 4 to go, luckily landed on my feet dignity intact...it did of course provide welcome entertainment to the kids because they just saw me flying through the air and thought that I had been trying to race them, as they had opted for the lift while I feel that while my legs still work I ought to use them!
Sadly we had no camera for the day as it was in Malcolm's luggage so the memories will just have to remain in our minds for years to come....or we can do it all again...
Malcolm was supposed to be with us but the radar at Dublin airport was down so his flight was cancelled and he had to go home and organise another flight for Thursday. It was so frustrating and such a waste of time, he finally arrived in London at 18h00 on Thursday evening.
We took Rob and Kirsty out for dinner and the kids stayed home, ate pizza and watched TV which was just what the doc ordered for them.
Today we found ourselves back on a train heading for London, this time with Rob and Malcolm for company. Rob had managed to organise tickets to go and see South Africa playing at Lords and Malcolm was enormously chuffed as he has wanted to go to Lords for many years.
The kids and I were heading off to The London Dungeon - a history tour with a bit of a twist. The queue was LONG - we waited 2 hours!

Waiting in line...

Of course had we known it would be so slow...and that the queue continues once inside, we may have opted for something else but after an hour we were all loathe to abort. At 14h30 we finally began the tour with rumbling tummies because of course by now we had also missed lunch. We finally stumbled out of the Dungeon at 16h00 ravenous and headed back to Waterloo train station, buying food en route to enjoy on the long train ride back to Surrey. Would I recommend it? Difficult question, we stood for 2 hours, got rained on to add insult to injury and the tour is fun but tiring when you have already been standing for so long...I guess the best advice would be...buy tickets before you go, then it may be well worth it. There is a drop ride at the end - the kids FORCED me to buy the picture because they thought it was so funny, our faces are all absolutely terrified! MAYBE when I get home I will scan it and share it with you all...if you ask me nicely...

Tomorrow it is back on trains and planes and off to rural France for a week of R&R so this reallyIS my last blog post for a while...keep well and come on...play in my comment box...I dare you!

Joy of Trains

Tired is a terrible description of how I am feeling today! After a whirlwind trip home of laundry and packing, with a husband kind enough to make dinner - and not too shabby for a beginner I hasten to add...I finally crawled into bed at 02h00 and lay there thinking of everything I still had to do in the morning. I did not even DARE look across at the alarm clock because if I had I think I might have cried! I woke up at 04h50, setting the alarm had not been necessary...and I was worried we would sleep through it!
By 05h35 we were all in the car on the way back to the airport, when I did all the booking for our visit to Holland I remember saying 'You only live once' and I sat there thinking...I am dead, so much for all that living! Malcolm was saying he wished he was travelling with us, he had opted to fly in the evening in order to have an extra day at work and I was saying...I wish I had booked for the evening!!! He still has to go through the joy of the Luton to Surrey journey...ha ha ha ha (evil laugh)
ANYWAY...settled on train after catching the bus from the airport to the train station and marvelled at the 90 minutes I had to relax, not sleep sadly, too scared of missing my stop...but sadly someone decided it was 'pick on Natalie' day and the train terminated in the middle of nowhere, well that is not quite true, there was a subway stop. So luggage and all the kids and I had to experience London Underground unprepared, AND with all the luggage because we took it so that Malcolm could fly with hand luggage only! Luckily I shone at my navigation skills and I managed to get us safely to Victoria without a hitch where we finally managed to catch a train to our destination, of course we had to have one more mini event. The train was delayed for 15 minutes due to signalling problems grrrrrrr but we finally arrived at 13h30. Shattered may begin to describe how I am feeling. Of course I cannot sleep so while K took her kids to an appointment she has, I am blogging to stay awake! The kids were exhausted too and are now having an afternoon nap, wow, it has been many years since I used that particular sentence!

Whistle stop tour of our last days

I have not even gone through Sunday, Monday or Tuesday yet....a whirlwind tour then? After all it is 00:18 and I am due to wake up at 05:00 to catch a plane to London, so be VERY impressed that you are even been given this much!!!!
Sunday was Marianne's birthday.....we had breakfast at the hotel, went to Masstrecht -too tired to remember the spelling -SORRY!!!!! It is a very old Roman city in the south of the Netherlands and because I am exhausted you will need to Google for more information! We did wonder around, enjoyed lunch there and then made our way back to Kerkrade because we were having dinner at a Greek restaurant for Marianne's birthday....a GREEK restaurant with pizza and pasta on the menu...??? NOT that I am complaining because Jess was very happy to order a pizza! I was craving vegetables by this stage of being on holiday and ordered a VERY traditional Greek meal.....Baked vegetables in roomsous (cream sauce) - a mix of broccoli, cauliflower, peppers and spinach....YUM. Traditional....NO.
On Monday we went to Snoworld to have a look at options and discovered that we could have a 4 hour snow pass for €23....we wanted a lesson but the instructors were fully booked and as Marianne is a good skier we opted for a lesson from her!
Well....I really do not want to bad mouth myself BUT....I moaned like a baby about the ski boots. I have never been more uncomfortable in my life! I did ski, I DID fall and I DID have fun...but I still need a little convincing that a ski holiday is a good idea....I mean I wear CROC's!!!! Comfort people....
Anyway, the skiing was great, I stayed on the baby slope but felt like an expert when I managed to do a few turns and even got Eric and Lara down the baby slope on my own! This morning I felt vindicated when I discovered a beautiful blue bruise on my right shin from the ski boots...see...not moaning for NOTHING......The kids had an absolute ball and I think we will be saving for a ski holiday...aching feet or not!
Today we had to make our way to Eindhoven for our flight home, we had a lot of rain....Holland was sad to see us go!!! Kirstin was sad to leave, she was trying to convince us that pig latin helped her get to grips with Dutch..mmmmmm.

Illegal aliens

Saturday then....drove from the north of the Netherlands down to the south to Marianne's home town Kerkrade. Convoy did not last but we had given Molly to Mariannes folks, luckily she speaks Dutch...Jess went in their car with Eric and it was agreed that we would meet for lunch. We should have known from past experience that this would not happen. When we called and asked Jess where they were she told us the road she was on...Marianne was confused so we consulted the map and discovered that they were in Germany....sans passports...OOPS. Jess was not as surprising in her reaction this time, she was livid. They ended up arriving an hour and a half after us after truning poor Molly off and getting lost. My daughter was NOT impressed. The good news is that while she was tearing her hair out we were enjoying a traditional lunch, I got to try krokets, something a friend had suggested I taste (nice but rich, not sure I would eat it again) and Marianne ordered Frikkadel Special which I tasted too. Kirstin also decided to try a traditional meal and had pasteijie (spelling?) with chicken and mushrooms covered in cheese sauce. She absolutely loved every mouthful. She tried the frikkadel and kroket too, adventurous palette, made me so proud!!!
On Saturday evening we went to marianne's sister for her birthday and I got to try the apple pie thaat the region is famous for. I also tasted a cake made with rice pudding type filling, will have to find out what it was called and a yoghurt apple cake - all of it was good.
We went back to the hotel put the kids to bed, left Jess and Kirstin in charge for a couple of hours and headed off to see the night life of Kerkrade. Mmmmmmmm, sadly there was none, we had a drink in a very quiet pub, but Marianne knew the owner so it was worth it for her to have a chat and after that we headed towards the market square...it was actually eerily quiet, nobody walking the streets and a handful of people in the pubs, at least we did not have to wait too long for our drinks!!! We managed to stay out until midnight so that we could see Marianne's birthday in and then headed back to the hotel, I think we would have had a better party with more people if we had just stayed in our hotel room with the kids!!!

Loop da loop

Friday was another beautiful day, does not weaken Kirstin's resolve to move to Holland. Yep, from the day we landed Kirstin has been asking if we can move here, bizarre considering she is the one who likes moving least of all.
I looked after all the kids while M's folks went on a little shopping spree in the morning. Marianne was hoping to get off a bit early on Friday and she did so we all piled into cars and IN CONVOY went to Slagharen Adventure Park. We were very lucky because it was quiet and so we let Jess and Kirstin go off on their own, Marianne's folks went in another direction and we took the little ones on a few rides that did not have severe height restrictions. An hour later we all met up again and we sent the little ones off with their grandparents, Jess and Kirstin went charging off on their own again and Marianne and I headed for the roller coaster. It was such a quick one, we did it twice! After the second go we decided to look at buying the photograph and discovered that there is a VIDEO we can buy. We stood their and watched it..I sat down and 'buckled' up talking all the while...by the end of the roller coaster ride my mouth was still moving, my god I can talk!!!!!! I vetoed getting the video, thank goodness Marianne agreed that a picture was a good enough memory of the roller coaster!

Detours

Back to Thursday then...We had all been invited to Martin's house - he is a friend and colleague of Marianne's. VERY very brave as we were a large group, Marianne's folks, kids and of course my brood too. We left in 2 cars and my garmin was even allowed out to tell us which way she thought was best to go. We left the guesthouse and stopped outside the hotel to wait for M's folks, they never appeared so we turned around and went back to the parking area....gone. As far as we knew all they had was the address of where we were going and possibly a telephone number....oh and most importantly MY CHILDREN!!!! There was nothing else for us to do but make our way to Martin's and hope and pray that the other group did not get lost. Molly (Garmin) did a superb job, Marianne did ignore her a couple of times when she knew a shorter route, but Molly is a very agreeable creature and went with it happily.
We got to Martin and discovered that we were first, no panic yet, M's folks apparently drive slowly. 30 minutes later, irritation and worry, I am wondering how my kids are coping...they have been in a car for 90 minutes with people they CANNOT communicate with. Finally the phone rings and a rapid Dutch conversation ensues which leads me to believe that a) they have a phone number and b) they are hopelessly lost.
I dread the thundercloud that will be above Jess's head when she walks in the door, the daggers that will be shooting forth from her eyes, I even go as far as explaining to everyone that Jess will not be impressed, she HATES being lost, not knowing what is going on AND sitting in the car for 2 hours plus.
I under estimated my daughter....she emerged from the car looking........calm, smiling and a bit tired around the eyes, wow!!! Of course they had realised that they were hopelessly lost, Kirstin had a game going counting the U-turns (6 if you must know) and took to writing them on the seat between them with ehr finger. At least they managed to turn it all into a game! We drank wine ate Chinese food and made sure that M's folks FOLLOWED us home at the end of a wonderful evening.

Land of Cheese

We were greeted by a heatwave - 31 C so it really was warm! The girls and I had a good snigger at one of our bus companions from Ireland - he was complaining about roasting, shame he has probably never experienced temps above 22 C... Arrived at the train station, impressed myself ordering tickets and then discovered that I had no clue which platform to go to! I had to go all the way to information, stand in a long queue which turned out to be a life saver! The reason I could not find our train on the list in the station was because I had to change trains! Information staff were very friendly and helpful and printed out a schedule for me which told me whre to change, which platform to go to and what time the train would arrive -Dutch efficiency at work! From then on things went very smoothly until we arrived at Enschede and did not know which way to go to meet Marianne in the town square. I confidently told the kids that my Afrikaans would help get us through the little predicament only to discover that it really was not much use! I understand Dutch better than they understand my afrikaans!!! I decided to follow my nose for a while and then saw an approachable looking couple and asked for directions. Luckily we were heading in the right direction and found the pizza place, Pinochio's which Marianne had told us about. Gratefully sat down and ordered a late dinner, the kids had pizza and I had a vegetarian pasta. The pizzas were delicious...probably something to do with the Dutch cheese! Marianne joined us after her dinner and we had a glass of wine before heading off to Vasse, exhausted by now -it was almost 23h00 and it had been a very long day.
Wednesday was a stunning day! A little bit too stunning, I sat in the sun and got a little bit sunburnt, had a swim and lay in the sun a little bit more, followed of course by another swim because it was 34 C....The kids were all happy to see each other and my only frustration was the fact that I could barely communicate with Marianne's folks as they speak in a dialect. I did go to the supermarket and bought supplies for lunch and dinner which I prepared for everyone - after all I was planning on desserting them all on Thursday to go off on my own little adventure.

ZWOLLE

Thursday morning was pleasant enough to start. There had been thunderstorms the previous evening but blue sky was visible which was great as I was going to have a day just for me in a town called Zwolle. I had tried to look up some information online and besides finding out that it was just over an hour away on the train and that it has a VERY old church I was not sure what to expect!
The train journey was pleasant and I cannot tell you how friendly the Dutch people are! At one stage I started wondering if I had missed Zwolle so I turned to a man sitting across the aisle from me and asked if he knew how long until Zwolle, he told me 2 stops and then proceeded to give me a little bit of a background and gave me directions on how to get into town, appologising because he was going to Zwolle for business so did not have the time to show me the way!!!
Zwolle was lovely, I wondered around, enjoyed a coffee at a nice little coffee shop and walked down cobbled streets and into an old church which was being refurbished. I enjoyed a walk along the canal with a couple of stops along the way to enjoy the peace and quiet and watch the boats. I absolutley loved my day away from everything, not having to worry about a thing for a few hours was awesome.
Of course all good things come to an end and it was a very sad little me back at the station waiting for my train to take me back to Enschede!
In Enschede I had a coffee and a muffin and walked around a bit before heading off to Marianne's office for the trip home.
I have so much more to tell...but think I will have to do it in instalments or this post is going to be too long....so next time I will tell you all about....trips gone bad, children in Germany without passports and more!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESSICA!!!

Wow - 15 years. They have been 15 memorable years with so much joy. Looking back to the days we used to have to try and restrain you to get you into your car seat and then you used to unclip the belt and I would have to pull over and fight all over again...thought I would go mad!!! Now you are a fully grown young woman who makes us very proud, and remarkably so far no teenage madness, few arguments, a slammed door here and there and fighting with your sister, I think so far I am having it very easy....compared to what I put my poor mom through!!!
Thank you for 15 remarkable years of learning and loving, I have not regretted a minute!
Looking forward to the next 15, I am sure there will be some tough times up ahead - you would not be a normal teenager if you didn't contribute to a few grey hairs - and we will learn together through all the ups and downs that may come our way. We love you!!!!!!