I asked Nerys if she needed a clean nappy the other day. Her response was to run away and ‘hide’ at the end of the sofa.
Good thing we weren’t in a rush to go out and had the time to play the ‘come and get me’ game!
A great Friday now vs 10 years ago
You might have seen this great post that’s been popping up in various places this week. It’s from a cup of Jo and it’s all about life (particularly life for parents) in Sweden. It’s a great little read about the things they do differently over there.
One part that I loved was the writer’s description of the much-loved Swedish tradition of ‘fredagsmys’, which basically translates as ‘cozy Friday’.
From what I understand, it’s a really big ‘thing’ in Sweden for families to get into their comfy clothes, order pizza and all curl up on the sofa together on a Friday night.
Which just sounds amazing to me! Pretty much a perfect Friday night. Which has got me thinking about how my idea of a great Friday night has changed in the last 10 years!
A great Friday night 10(ish) years ago:
- Cheesy music blasting through the house while me and my best friend start getting ready to go out.
- About an hour of choosing something to wear, straightening our hair, doing our make up.
- All while drinking copious amounts of Archers and lemonade
- A quick dinner of something and chips, mainly eaten in the hope it might absorb some of the alcohol.
- Jump in a taxi and head to town.
- Spend the night drinking and dancing our way down Wind Street, maybe ending up in Time/Envy or Flares.
- Head home for some late night toast, seriously sooo good after a night out!
A great Friday night now:
- Kids in bed at a decent time.
- Spend 2 minutes chucking on joggers and a hoody.
- Enjoy the luxury of drinking a whole cup of coffee or tea while it’s still hot.
- Jump on the sofa and spend the night eating homemade pizza and catching up the week’s tv.
- Head to bed at a decent time to hopefully get some sleep before the toddler wakes up needing cuddles!
How about you? Have I just given away how sad I am these days? Have I now just given away how old I am by saying that? Do the kids still say ‘sad’?! What’s your ideal Friday night like these days?!
Camping du Pylône
I’ve spent a fair bit of time online over the last few weeks reading news stories and looking at photos of the aftermath of the recent flash floods in the south of France. When I first heard about it I honestly didn’t think that much about it, I didn’t realise quite how devastating the floods had been. Then my Mum sent me a message asking if I’d read anything about it, as the campsite they stay at every year, and the one we went to every year when I was growing up, might have been affected.
So I went off to search for news and very quickly found that Camping du Pylône, where I spent so much time as a child and teenager, has been devastated. There’s photo after photo of displaced and destroyed caravans on Facebook, along with the awful news that there was a fatality at the site.
All of which is just so hard to get my head around.
In my mind the place is just wonderful, so much more than ‘just a campsite’. And from what I’ve been reading online I’m not the only one who feels that way about it. I’ve seen several people refer to it as a home from home. The place holds so many memories for so many people.
Here are some of my favourite memories of the place from over the years:
Blah Blah.
Anyone who visited Pylone in the last 25 years will most likely have heard this amazing local band play, they were hugely popular there! I know we loved seeing them every summer when they would visit the site to perform, and I remember one particular night when I was probably about 11, playing table football with them – such a claim to fame!
Working the system at the restaurant.
I’m not sure we ever actually ate at the restaurant on site, preferring to eat my Dad’s lovely bbq’d food at the caravan. But what we’d quite often do is go and get some takeaway chips to accompany our dinner. What we worked out quite early on was that if you took the biggest saucepan you could find, they would fill it up for you, rather than just giving you a small polystyrene container’s worth of chips. Oh we felt so smug every time we saw someone collecting one of those while we walked off with our huge haul of chips in our saucepan!
Birthdays.
With my birthday being in August, we were often in Antibes for it. My parents would decorate the caravan for me and we’d normally head out to Flunch for lunch where they’d give you a yummy cake on your birthday, which as a teenager would always embarrass me a bit which my parents loved! On a side note, we always seemed to spot shooting stars when we were there over my birthday week, which I remember thinking was really cool. It was only years later that I realised that it was because the Perseid meteor shower takes place at that time every year!
Making friends.
Every year, almost as soon as we’d arrived, we would start nosing around our row of caravans, trying to suss out if there were any kids our age around. Which lead to the family joke of shouting ‘fogey alert’ when a car with just grown ups in it pulled drove past. Still makes me smile today!
We made some great summer friends at Pylone, quite a few of whom we actually did write to for ages after we’d all gone home, sharing jokes from the summer and stories of our lives at home.
The campsite itself.
I have such fond memories of Camping du Pylône. I can close my eyes and picture in great detail so many aspects of it – the swimming pool (including the cafe where we would buy Miko ice creams), the bar where we would spend our evenings playing pool and table football, the table ping-pong (as it became known to us courtesy of the French friends that we made) where we spent a lot of time not actually playing ping-pong; it’s all so clear in my head still!
A few years ago my husband and I went back to the area for a holiday with my parents to Camping L’Eden in Biot, and we actually went for a little tour around Pylône and it was amazing how these feelings and memories of past summers came rushing back. Honestly, the more I look at the photos of the aftermath of the floods, the more my heart aches. That place holds so many wonderful memories for me, I feel almost like I grew up there, a little more every summer, hell, I had my first kiss there!
My heart goes out to all the families that have been affected by the floods, I really hope that life gets back to normal as soon as possible. And as far as Pylone goes, I’ve been following the news about it on Facebook and there’s an amazing sense of community spirit and so much love for the place, I’m sure it’ll only be a matter of time before it’s back to it’s former glory.
Mmm, chocolate! (wicked Wednesdays)
The best way to eat a chocolate digestive is to lick all the chocolate off and then discard the actual biscuit, apparently!
6 glorious quotes from Roald Dahl
Saturday 12th September 2015 is Roald Dahl day; a day created to celebrate the wonderful author’s birthday.
One of my favourite quotes of his is “if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely”.
I’ve seen that quote floating around the internet loads though, so I wanted to have a dig around and find some other quotes of his to share today.
These are 6 of my favourites:
1) “A little nonsense now and then, is relished by the wisest men”
2) “I will not pretend I wasn’t petrified. I was. But mixed in with the awful fear was a glorious feeling of excitement. Most of the really exciting things we do in our lives scare us to death. They wouldn’t be exciting if they didn’t”
3) “But there was one other thing that the grown-ups also knew, and it was this: that however small the chance might be of striking lucky, the chance is there. The chance had to be there”
4) “You’ll never get anywhere if you go about what-iffing like that”
5) “It’s impossible to make your eyes twinkle if you aren’t feeling twinkly yourself”
6) “And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it”
Were you a big Roald Dahl fan as a child? What was your favourite book?
Someone is enjoying play time at school! (Wicked Wednesdays)
Day three of full days at school and Rhys seems to be enjoying himself! He came home today clutching a conker which he was very excited about. Judging by his muddy face and general dishevelled appearance he had a great time playing in the woods at playtime today!
The photo doesn’t quite do justice to the amount of dirt that was actually on his face, but he wasn’t really in the mood for me to take any more pictures!
The photo doesn’t quite do justice to the amount of dirt that was actually on his face, but he wasn’t really in the mood for me to take any more pictures!
I have to say, I do love the approach Rhys’ school takes to outdoor/mucky play! They do learn best when they’re hands on with things, and hey, that’s why we have plenty of spare trousers and jumpers for school!
Everything changes (a letter to my son at he starts full days at school)
Dear Rhys,
I wished on a shooting star for you, did you know that?
I was lying on a beach one night in the summer of 2010, longing for the clouds to shift enough for the perseid meteor shower to do it’s thing. Then it happened; a brilliant flash of light darted across the sky. And I wished. With all my heart I wished. For you. For you to come to us, to change our world.
And nine months later there you were. And right from the start you changed everything. You changed me. I found a strength and determination I didn’t know I had to get you safely into the world. You made me raw and vulnerable in a way that only a new parent can be.
You’ve kept me on my toes your whole life. Just when we thought we had things figured out a new change would come along.
Because that’s life, isn’t it. Life is change.
And right now, there’s a big change happening. You’re starting full-time school.
You seem ready. You had a great time in the nursery class last year, and you’re familiar with the idea of school.
So, I think this change is more dramatic for me. Our life together has changed, and it can never go back. Daddy and I are taking a deep breath and slowly taking another tiny step back.
There’s a part of me that longs to keep you close. To hold on tight to my little boy who, not long ago, I wished on a star for. I want to keep you just as you are, but I know that’s just now how life works. You have to grow, you have to change, that’s just the way it is.
So here’s what I’ll do; I’ll hold on extra tight when you hold my hand as we walk. I will cherish every last kiss you ask for outside school. Too soon I know you’ll be ‘too old’ for these things.
It really does make me so proud, seeing the boy you’re growing in to. How loving you are. How passionate. I just don’t want the outside world to change you. I want you to stay strong in who you are.
Everything changes. That’s just life. Just don’t let life change you too much ok? You are wonderful, just as you are.
I love you,
Mummy.
x
