Bonne Bouncy Weekend

As Murielle is at her French class and Max is asleep, I thought I'd hijack the blog and show you a couple of pictures from the weekend.

The first is when we went to the trampolines on Saturday.

Max almost enjoyed them as much as me. But he came out unscathed while I suffered a cut hand and a strained knee from trying to show him how to do back flips. From the picture though you'll see I did manage to master levitation, which was impressive.

The second photo is from Sunday when we went round to Max's cousin's house for lunch.

Leila is 3 weeks younger than Max but a great deal naughtier. And I'm not just being a naive dad, I know Max is a little monkey but Leila is proper trouble and Max just wants to copy her. It's amusing to watch but I'm already worried about what's going to happen in years to come.

You'll also notice from this photo that he too managed to master the art of levitation, so it was a fairly productive weekend.

So I'm back from my French class and feel compelled to add my two pence worth: the trampolining was definitely a success, even though Rick moaned and groaned about taking two toddlers (Max' human friend Milo was visiting) out to the fair ground in the rain. It was hilarious. I only managed one jump onto the trampoline, quickly realising that the baby might fall out (nothing much stopping it me thinks!) so I had to stop. The reason Max and Leila aren't wearing any trousers is because Leila took hers off, egging Max on to take his off and he was well excited to get naked. But technically they are second cousins far removed or something rather so I do think they could get married (Martha, Katie, say your piece now!).

Funny.

The Max Dance of Happiness

I haven't laughed this much in a long time. These are Standley moves, it's genetic. Oh and the black things on his head are my pants...

Sunglasses!

We found our sunglasses!! In between spices and shoes.

Delivery!

I am SO happy. All our essentials have finally been delivered, after 8 weeks of living on what we packed in three suitcases. Best find: Max' toys (thank the Lord), my coffee machine (thank the Lord almost more!), cook books (can't freestyle), dressing gowns, oh and a bag of dirty laundry. Bliss.

Will have lots of pics and comments later, must keep unpacking. Never enjoyed it this much before!

This picture was taken by one of Rick's work colleages when Max and I came past Rick's work to say hi - which we do like once a day...

xxx

A very Swiss Sunday walk

My Mum was visiting over the weekend. We went to my favourite cafe "Wolfisberg" on Saturday morning to have a coffee - I still don't have my beloved possession here, my coffee machine, life's hard without her - and let Max run around the playroom there. I burst into tears (blame the pregnancy hormones) when he came running out with the biggest smile on his face announcing "Mummy, it's a GREAT day!". Bless him. Then we walked around the Saturday market. It's so lovely. Now the weather is warmer it seems like all the Carougeois are coming out to buy their fruit and veg on the market. I want to do that too on a Saturday morning, what a lovely thing to do. A bit ironic when we used to live next to Borough Market for so long, but that was such a tourist attraction and so expensive that we never really went on a regular basis to actually buy stuff. But here it's another good opportunity to practice my French skills!
So. We went on to this big sports centre area where there are football fields, tennis courts and a big playground and Max and Rick played football - with the pink Hello Kitty ball. Much to my Mum and my amusement :-) Rick told Max to kick the ball into the goal. Which he did, cleverly, after walking all the way up to the goal and placing the ball right in front of it.

We revived an old Decaillet Saturday tradition by buying a roasted chicken off a market stall which we devoured for lunch. My Mum and Dad used to do that when I was little and it makes me feel all homey and nostalgic. Oh and those chickens are so yummy!


Rick and I went out for dinner in the evening which was lovely. It was the first time the two of us were having a night off in our new neighbourhood. We went to a lovely, local French restaurant called "L'Olivier du Provence" (http://www.olivierdeprovence.ch/maison.html). Great food and great company and conversation. Felt like I suddenly met my husband again after a long spell of stresses and responsibilities. It was good to have time to talk about all that's gone on in the past couple of months because you do end up just focusing on your thing and getting on with it. And of course Rick has been really focused on his work and I with setting up a life for our family here - oh and trying not to go mad during the first few weeks of "relocation depression"... There are lots of lovely restaurants in Carouge to explore so we'll have to start eating our way through the town!
This morning (Sunday) we went for a long and lovely walk through the woods up on the little hill five minutes behind our house. It was great, Rick had found a little farm with chicken, horses and sheep on one of his runs. There's a picnic area with a big BBQ for everyone to use so it's the perfect place for an Easter outing with the Stones! Max walked all the way without any (ok, almost no) moaning. It was a good two miles, that's a long way for a little man! I made a mean stir fry for lunch and then we all had to have a lie down.



I get so tired these days. I guess the pregnancy is not to be underestimated. That second pregnancy that just happens while no one is looking or noticing. There's definitely a sense of guilt, neglect (too strong a word really) and favouritism towards this little unborn child, in comparison of the fuss made the first time around.
So there's an account of a normal weekend in Carouge. During our walk I felt so happy to be here. It's just brilliant to explore new places that excite you, where you can go in the summer to enjoy the outdoors and bring your friends and family. There's a sense of being home, having arrived, even if Geneva is not at all home to me. But there's no denying that it is Switzerland after all, my roots, and there's a subtle feeling that I can't quite put my finger on that makes me feel like I somewhat belong here, more than I did in London.
Anyway. Better get some dinner under way, put an exhausted Max to bed and enjoy a quiet evening before a new week. Much love to all!

New Ball

So this is what he really wanted in the toy shop...

And this is what he got :-)

I promised him a ball so he could play football, after he'd seen a couple of boys play in the playground. There was no persuading him that a slightly bigger, possibly more blue, green or car clad ball would be a bit cooler. It had to be the pink Hello Kitty ball. Oh well...

Carouge - Impressions

It was beautiful weather today so I took the opportunity to take some pictures while wondering around while Max was at nursery.

Place du Temple, where Rick's office is.

The yellow building on the left is Rick's office. The black sign says "Saatchi & Saatchi".

Café Wolfisberg. Max and my usual hangout. It has a play area at the back with climbing frame, balls and a slide. Oh and a door that can be closed so the kids can be viewed through the window but not heard, while the Mums have a cup of coffee. Genius.

Beckham

Max in Leysin - 27/28 February 2010

We went to Leysin for the weekend. Our first weekend in the mountains since moving here, four weeks after moving here... Rick was getting very anxious - he said everyone at work is going to the mountains at the weekend, it's what people do here. He forgot of course that we had nothing: no snowboards, no clothes, shoes, jackets, gloves etc. That was all still in transit. So we borrowed what we could off of friends and family, hired a car (handy having friends at Hertz) and drove off. An hour and a half along the most beautiful scenic drive along Lake Geneva. Pretty. We booked a room in a hotel right next to the ski lift so it was very practical. Max had tons of fun in the snow, as these pictures show. Sadly they are in no order at all. I'll do it better next time. Rick got some snowboarding in and I got some down time too. We went out for dinner early and our extra treat was that Max was so exhausted from his day in the snow (it was really only half an hour because it was so cold...), he fell a sleep on the way to the restaurant so Rick and I treated ourselves to an almost romantic meat fondue by candle light. Almost romantic because meat fonduerarely feels very romantic after you've eaten copious amounts of meat and fries. But it was a treat to have dinner out just the two of us. The weather was a bit crap the next day so we left a bit early and visited some newly made (English) friends on the way home. All round a good weekend that made us feel like we live here and we like it.


That's the view across Lake Geneva. Pretty impressive.

This is Max catching some air. As you can tell from the photo above it, he loved it.



As soon as we got out of the lift he was off...

Just what the world needed...

...another blog!

Well, this is meant for friends and family who have an interest in following my daily ups and downs, struggle, joy and challenges of moving our little family (Rick, Max, bump and I) from a lively life in central London to a more chilled (in theory!) existence in Geneva. It is not meant as a form of self-expressionism and self-publicity at all. I have always found it interesting to watch what people's hidden agendas are when they blog. I don't feel the need to expose and express myself publicly for the world to see for some kind of gain. But Rick rightly said that this would be a good way for me to put into writing this rather ginormous experience and for family and friends to keep a tab on what we're up to. If they want to. So. I'm not sure why I'm apologising for starting a blog. I shouldn't. And if you're not interested, don't read it.

It's a bit of a shame that I'm starting this seven weeks into our life in Geneva, the past seven weeks have been full of blog worthy episodes. But I shall pick and choose them and retell. And photos. Grandad's been asking for photos on a regular basis so this goes out to him.

Today, the weather is absolutely beautiful. Spring is definitely around the corner. It's warm, sunny and the atmosphere is amazing. People sitting outside in cafes, picnics in parks (or on our balcony!), everyone has a smile on their face (ok, not everyone, but it's pretty rare with these rude Genevois. I'll get to that in a separate post...). It's all very French inspired and feels a bit Parisian.

I'm taking a moment to start this while Max watches his after-lunch-Beebies programme (my most important negotiation tool in stopping him from watching TV all day long). In a minute I'll take him to creche (nursery) where he's doing his induction. I think I'll be able to leave him for about an hour today, in which time I'll be running around to get non-child-friendly errands done.

I'll upload some photos later too.