Beware. Behold. Be happy. The wild child is two. Best birthday wishes from his whole family. We’d eat him up, we love him so.
France
Manchester, England, England*
I heart visitors! We’ve just had a series of them, the last in date being Joe Gunn. You might know him; he was a finalist at the Commonwealth Games this summer. Well, he has since retired from competitive swimming and moved to London where he is living the high life. In one move he has gone from one of the ten cheapest postcodes of the UK (you know how the Brits love measuring people’s worth by their postcode), to one of the top ten expensive ones. How’s that for social ascension? He’s living with our favorite one and only Hélène and working with his mate Charlie in their company Agon Sports Management. His latest news: he’ll be in Rio next week, on business. La classe à Dallas, moi j’dis.
He’s not the only one of our Crew to cross the Atlantic Sea, as Hanoushka is already on the South American continent (if I could remember which country, I’d tell you – but baby brain has interfered)**. Mom and Calum are also outside of their country of residence as they’re in Edinburgh at the moment for Calum’s International Baccalaureate November session. Go Calum!
Dad, I presume, is happily Ralphing away (of the Lauren variety, not the vom variety) somewhere in Italy. His schedule and mine unfortunately mean we have to rely on other members of the tribe to pass on news. But, Dad, if you’re reading this, my phone is up and running again and I’d love to hear from you 😉
Life continues (more or less) smoothly and as I’ve already managed to write 260 words uninterrupted with only a zillion or so interruptions***, I’ll be thankful for that, not ask for more, and leave you with a photographic summary of the past few weeks.
Grandma on the stoop
Oh, hi there!
Siblings
Autumn
Hanging out on the football pitch
Dans le vent avec Grand’maman
Who’s this dude?
“Wanna ride?”
“I’ll give you a ride! Hop on my dragon.”
Beautiful Marloushka
Friends since generations
Heading home, now.
And back out again, this time with Uncle Joey.
Dude.
Holding his own.
Yup.
Babbling at breakfast
“A TANGERINE? WOW!!!”
Who’s the champion of the cardboard box?
* Reference included within.
** Information retrieved: Columbia.
*** OK, it took me 5 hours total to write this. Efficiency = me, impersonated.
The Crew Flits*
Ran 5k this morning (yes, estimating upwards) and came home to battle stinging nettles and hack back rampant greenery. You can now approach the front door of Les Galignés without being whipped by dew dripping japanese anemone. Success. I would show you a picture (took one) but I can’t figure out how to upload things on my new iPad. Yet. I’ll give you a brief update on Crew flux instead. Furniture finally arrived from Morocco, so Megan, Henry, Bitsy-Betsy and Marcel, the 2 week wonder, moved into their new home near Toulouse last week. Hannah is in Edinburgh (with flights booked for Columbia, naturally). Joe and Hélène have agreed on an apartment in London. Jamie, Calum and I have found part of a big, old house to rent near Bologna. The crew flits.*
xxx lla ma
* to flit – Scots for to move
Allegro!
Drinks before music
Every year, my mother-in-law Bernadette and her partner Jacques organize a classical music concert in her home in the South of France. Last Saturday we were treated to an amazing performance by David Castro-Balbi (violin) and Lucas Debargue (piano). Eighty guests from our mountains and the valley came to enjoy the music and mingle with friends and relatives. Bernadette’s is one of the old, prominent families of the area, and even though many have moved on to Paris, Marseilles or abroad, almost everybody returns for the sacred month of August. The concert is the first large gathering of the season and allows everyone to exchange news and greetings.
Handsome Hubby
The sun setting
Not too bad for photos taken with 5 olive pits, a champagne glass and a toddler in my arms*.
The music was spectacular. I don’t know much about classical music, but the piano and violin on Saturday had me fluttering through a range of emotions. Just before the musicians’ break, a Tzigane piece by Maurice Ravel had us all merry and smiling at the conversation between the instruments – and just after the break, Allegro Molto from Sonate n°3 en do miner (Edvard Grieg) moved me to tears.
Music!
Zaz was there until the break and loved her first concert. I just love seeing the effect of music on small children. Magic!
Once the “official” music bit was over, there were nibbles, drinks and mingling, and then the fun began. The musicians, their friends and partners, and anyone who wanted to, played and sang til late. Champagne flowed, notes got sloppy, and yours truly “a filé à l’anglaise”.
Mom, Dad, I should tell you – the musicians (who remembered Dad fondly from last year) took their nightcap at Les Galignés with Calum and I hear a trip to the bottle bank was very necessary the next morning 😉
* I was drinking San Pellegrino. Twice during pre-music drinks, I was caught pouring fizzy water from my champagne glass into Zazzie’s mouth. Twice the comments were along the lines of “Oh she likes champagne, how chic!”. I guess they didn’t notice the 9-month preggo belly on me. Or maybe they did. Ah, France.
I don’t only write about wine…
I don’t only write about wine… really! I don’t even drink that much. But look at what F&G brought us last weekend in France…
All decorated up for your viewing pleasure.
and with a close-up on the label you’ll see why I couldn’t possibly resist…
especially since my initials happen to have been DM once upon a time. So of course we needed to drink to all the DMs we know…..
Peace and Love,
Limbo – and crazy French birth hand-outs
I used to think that I thrived on living in the unknown. That uncertainty was exciting. Life is an adventure! Close your eyes and jump!
I’m about ready to review that line of thought.
We still don’t know where we’ll be living in the near future. I don’t know for sure where I’ll be giving birth in August – Morocco or France. We’re in France now, but H is heading back to work in Morocco tomorrow and I might follow shortly if things don’t work out here, admin-wise. My aim over the next few weeks is to ensure that I get health cover here, so I can safely have my baby. My “case” is a tricky one, in that I don’t fit into any of the slots. I work for a British company, I live in Morocco, I want to give birth in France. C’est compliqué.
Why do I want to give birth in France? I actually don’t mind where I give birth; it has more to do with H being fed up of working in Morocco, and me shuddering at spending a 9-month-pregnant, boiling-hot, cockroach-infested*, month of August in Morocco – alone, all my friends there having temporarily emigrated “back home” for the summer.
So here we are in limbo land, unsure of anything and everything, incapable of making plans beyond next week, trying not to think too hard about anything (not very difficult when you have a case of double baby brain).
The thing is, France wants you to have babies here. France loves babies so much, they will pay you to have them. Not only do they make sure you don’t have to dish out one centime in medical care (ALL HEALTH CARE 100% FREE AFTER THE 6TH MONTH! GUARANTEED!), they then GIVE you money, on top of all the reimbursing, to make sure you can buy burp cloths and a cot. That’s something like 923€, handed over when you hit the 7-month mark of pregnancy. Then, once baby arrives (for free), they give you 150-180€ per month, for 3 years, towards nappies and formula (so, if you’re a breastfeeding, cloth-diapering mama comme moi, it’s pretty much pocket money). And THEN, on top of all that, from bub #2 onwards, you get child benefit. This, if I’ve understood correctly, is regardless of whether you work or not**. I definitely wasn’t expecting all that. I wasn’t sure about giving birth in France, but if they’re going to pay me to do it, I’ll definitely take that into consideration***.
This turned into a long post, so here are 2 photos of cake to reward you for all the reading:
Birthday Girl
Carrot Cake Deliciousness Eaten on the Terrace
* I’m not squeamish, specially not about bugs, but cockroaches have a way of squicking me out. Definitely not keen on the idea of my toddler crawling around where they crawl around.
** I’m approximately 80% sure of this information. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m suffering from a bit of the baby brain so some of this might be slightly off, or completely erroneous. Check all info for yourself and do not believe everything I say.
*** As a point of comparison, in Morocco I got 3000dh reimbursed, of the total cost of 8000dh for a delivery + 2 nights in the clinic. I was really happy with that! Cheap birthing! Until I found out that France pays you to have babies. Vive la France.
As the Crew Flew 