The things you do while waiting for a baby...

...poor Max' lifestyle has taken a turn for the boring with me becoming partly immobile (oedema on foot and huge bump with a Standley head constantly pressing on my pelvis and bladder...). Except today, we had some real fun! Thanks to The Stones Max owns his very own face painting kit. And he has been at me ever since he got it that he wanted me to paint him a Spiderman face. And if you know Max, or any other three year old, being "at me" means almost non stop nagging with a very whiny voice that feels like Japanese war torture. First I tried to get away by saying Papi had to do it as I couldn't do such an advanced motive like Spiderman. A butterfly maybe, but not Spiderman. The roles in a family are quickly divided and Rick's in charge of all things physical and "adventurous" as well as all things creative, although I think I'm making some ground in that department, don't you think? So after Max kindly let me crash on the sofa for a whole hour after lunch (while he did watch Cbeebies with his dummy for company) I figured I needed to do the good Mum thing and finally offer to do the Spiderman face. It was so much fun. He ran to the mirror every two minutes checking up on progress and claiming that he would definitely be able to fly once I was finished. The disappointment was rather big when he realised he couldn't... He offered to do my face but that was taking things too far. Maybe he could turn my bump into a giant moon face?

Ah, how nice, I just wrote a whole paragraph about an hour of our lives without moaning, complaining and fishing for sympathy. What joy.

But really, it would be good if the baby came now.

See you on the other side!

Wow, it's been a while...

...I don't even know where to start.

We've had an amazing month in June with lots of holidays and travel back to the UK to see our new nephew Eddie. So it's no wonder I got a bit behind with keeping the blog going. But I'm back now and the only things on my to do list, which is to me what the bible is to others, is moving house in three weeks and having another baby in about six. I can't believe we're doing this again! The move I mean, not the baby. We've been in temporary, furnished accommodation for the first six months of being here - don't get me started on the nightmare of finding a place to live in Geneva - and are now moving into our permanent home. We are currently living in Carouge, the most quaint, beautiful, sophisticated suburb of Geneva (see one of the first blog posts). Now we are moving to St. Jean, a residential but more urban part of Geneva: see here. I can't wait but like I said: I can't believe we're moving again. I find moving the most uprooting, unsettling and chaos inducing happening in life. It's my worst nightmare. I hate it. You wouldn't think it as in the last nine years, since meeting Rick (let's call him the gypsie) we have moved eight times. That's sick! No wonder I have a nervous breakdown about once a year, it tends to coincide with an impeding or just recent move. On a positive note, you won't become complacent and you have regular clear outs of sh*t that other people keep for 20 years. And it keeps life interesting. But there's no denying it still really sucks. I shall report on what will surely be a colossal meltdown: moving house and having a baby within weeks. It'll be rad. So anyway, what I meant to say was that apart from moving in three weeks and having another baby in about six, I don't have anything else to do than update my beloved blog. Come on, admit it, you missed it! Oh, and did I say that I'm moving in THREE weeks and having a baby in SIX?

So here's a random video I took at the lido the other day. I've been spending a lot of time there. And so has half of Geneva. It's the only place I feel mildly comfortable in this heat wave. I've really struggled with the heat, it's been so awful. I hate to complain about good weather and the summer but man, eight months pregnant it feels like your stuck in that heat with a duvet snuggly wrapped around you. Our flat never cools down unfortunately so I can't even just stay in to stay cool. I've had to have several cold baths every day. Ridiculous. But just now, the heavens have gone gray and a big fat thunderstorm is on its way. Hurrah!




Mallorca:

So, at the beginning of June we went on a week's holiday to Mallorca with the Brown's. The Brown's are our very special friends. When we moved away from the UK we had the glorious idea to just meet in random places for holidays and/or long weekends to keep in touch. What a genius thought. So that's what we did, and here are some pics:

Market in Pollenca.

Pollenca Old Town

View to the pool from our amazing villa.


Whale in a boat.


Fun by the pool.

Tree p*sser. He's got to learn one day. And I'd like to say here it was Ella who taught him!

Our beautiful villa. We're booking it again for the same week next year. How square!

Flattering...

Ella, this is how real men fish.

Very exhausting this holiday business. Even a lolly can't keep him awake...

Happy 21st Mr Brown!

The lovely Mrs Brown. Spot the little naked feral kids in the background.

I may be pregnant but I can still be fun. Sometimes!

Always forever playing like angels, for a whole week. What great friends!

The love boat

Excuuuuuuse meeeee!

Edward John Eaton:

Eddie is 10 days old here. Look at Peta. Amazing. A-ma-zing.


Our lovely nephew and Max' cousin Eddie. He is beautiful. Look at him!

Martha & Max Photo Series:

Martha and Max. What can I say. They are like Bonny and Clyde. Thick as thieves, brilliantly entertaining, a comedy duo in the making. One of the funniest moments of our visit that had us in absolute hysterics was this one: Martha was pushing Max around in a doll's push chair (he was wearing her pink knickers...). She said "Max, you push me now", Max: "Ok". She gets in, he tried, grunted, walked off and said "nah, too heavy"...

I love you Marsda!

Let's run away together!

Oh go on, let me kiss you!

Best friends!

And here for a special treat...:

Glamping in Lake Annecy with the Stones and the Padwar:

So we went camping, meeting up the with the Stones on their Tour de France, eurocamping it with the girls. The Padwar joined us in Geneva (shame about the Whiteman!) and we drove the 45 minutes from here to the other side of Lake Annecy in France. What a beautiful place! A whole new world opened itself up for us for family day trips. Sadly, I don't have a lot of pictures. If you want to see really good ones, look at the Padwar's pics on Facebook :-) We had a brilliant time.

Ravenous beasts!

"Flowers for you Mummy. Uhm, no, for me."

No comment. I love it, but I know what you're thinking!

Relief

No one round here seems to care if you strip off and jump into a public fountain.



Wonder how they feel about little boys peeing in them?

Lake

First dip in the lake.
Pretty cold still.



But that didn't deter the boy from getting his tackle in.
If you look closely below you'll see a very white little bum.

Pimped ride

My name is Max and this is my ride.

Carouge Braderie

This is what happens when you move to a new place and only sort of speak the language: we stepped out this morning to go to the fruit and veg market and bang, we were in the middle of the Carouge Braderie. We had no idea that the biggest annual event was taking place today... Once a year they have what's like a massive garage sale throughout the whole town. People spill into the streets and squares with their wares (nice play of words there) and sell whatever it is they don't need any more. Some stalls were proper professional antiques and fleemarkety type things. A lot of them were just locals who pitched up, put down a rug and laid out their stuff. There was some impressive organisational laying out of things (all dinosaurs in one bag, lego in another) or outright total mess. We picked up the most random toys for Max: a massive truck where he can store his smaller cars - a world of fun! - small cars - motorbikes etc. We had an absolute ball. Max must have thought his new home has just turned into heaven with toys splattered all over the place - he did of course not realise that we frantically went after him paying off all the sellers for whichever toy he'd just run off with... The most impressive bargain was picked up by Rick, although if he'd known what would happen I'm not sure he would have bought it. A ski helmet and goggles for next season. Max refused to take it off for ages and we had to walk through Carouge with him wearing it. I suffered another almost bout of incontinence I laughed so much. Rick tells me that this is what "disabled" children in England are wearing to prevent them from hitting their heads. No one here would have mistaken him for that as we don't do that here. But the looks and laughs were priceless.

Inspecting the wares...

Gipsy garage sale Swiss style.

Helmet man.

He did take the helmet off after a while - not the goggles though - and continued pushing his new flame truck through the roads of Carouge. Noice.

Well that was not Michael Baulderstone, that was Max.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20100504/twl-spiderman-arrests-alleged-thief-in-a-41f21e0.html

Wet Weekend

As this blog isn't entirely about Max, I thought I'd post some pictures from last weekend in Nendaz.

Trouble is, the weather was pretty moody so I haven't got any decent pictures to post.

This was the view from the balcony straight up the mountain. The trouble with this shot is the lack of mountain.


When the cloud did clear, on the right hand side of the balcony, you could see the bottom of the piste and the sad remains of the snow.


The lifts have all stopped and the tourists have all gone home. All you could hear was birds singing and rivers flowing down the mountain. All you could smell was wet pines in the forest and fires burning in local's houses. It was brilliant.

The only other pictures I took this weekend were when we got home and I sat on the balcony with a glass of wine and a slab of chocolate. And a twig, for some reason.



BORING... I know. Don't worry, I'm sure there'll be more silly pictures of Max up soon.

Ciao for now yada yada,

R