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trial and error
This parenting shtick is all trial and error. You know what? This LIFE shtick is all trial and error. I mean, sure, there’s good advice (there are whole books full of it) but it’s hard to be sure the...
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Are you pretty?
Louis asks me this question every day, multiple times. “Are you pretty?” This is his latest phase. He also asks if he is pretty, if Elena is pretty. This morning he wanted assurance that yes, in fact,...
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bouchons, bridges and beaches baby!
The grand plan went something like this: Friday night the kids and I would meet Luuk at a train station near his work, bypassing the Paris-bound traffic. Luuk had the suitcase in the car, ready to go,...
View Articlepreparing for battle
Some days feel like one fight after another. Getting breakfast into the kids, putting long pants, not shorts, on Louis, even getting up out of bed is a battle. This morning’s mission was to make an...
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the roquefort problem
Once you’ve discovered Roquefort, you’re always vulnerable. You’re always in danger because you cannot un-know how good it is. Once you’ve (inevitably?) purchased a chunk of this potent, brilliant...
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a few of my favourites
We will soon be visiting New Zealand, going home for the first time since we moved to France over 18 months ago. We’ve also been talking/thinking about what we want do to when/if our time in Paris is...
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Quoi?
Officially, POUR QUOI is the way to ask WHY in French. But with the right kind of eyebrow action (and a hand gesture might help) a good QUOI? does the trick. Literally, just WHAT? Perhaps it’s PMS but...
View Articleenough
I never realised how much I overuse the word enough until I started trying to translate myself into French. C’est suffit means That’s enough. But it’s unusual (or just doesn’t work) to say enough in...
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self determination pep
The concept of self-determination first impressed me at university, in a fascinating 400-level history course. I’m sure I had social studies and history teachers who touched on the subject at school,...
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(city of) art and light
Photos of Paris come in all shapes and sizes. There are the classic post card pics that a thousand people are taking at any one time up at trocadero… Comme ça. And then there are the lesser-seen sides...
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this side of the season
Tomorrow we are off! We have nearly a month in NZ and will be sure to enjoy all the perks of a summery christmas break, but for the past couple of weeks we’ve been doing the silly season Paris-style…...
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home comings
Excuse me if I go backwards for a few posts. I’ve been slacking off (ie. tripping around the land of the long white cloud, visiting rallies and all sorts, being actually sociable – and virtually...
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The Christchurch Bit
We spent the first 12 days for our time in NZ staying with my parents in Christchurch. Here we recovered from jet lag. Elena kept nodding off in the high chair. Luuk went to work the day after we...
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so much to do
Yikes, I’m getting rather far behind, telling the tale of our month long visit to New Zealand. I’ve been editing my heart out… which sounds violent, and it is. Cut cut cut those nasty adverbs and all...
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to the circus and back again
There’s another post about our NZ trip coming, but I thought I’d catch up on what we’ve been doing since our return to France, a month ago now. It being winter (though not of the polar vortex variety),...
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such love
In the spirit of St Valentines Day, here’s a poem - Your Pulse beneath my lips dictating rhythm to my unruly breath. That open collar pouting a space between shirt and skin where I might be -...
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vivre libre ou mourir
Live free or die. That’s what it says, front and center, at the Paris Pantheon. Elena would agree. Our little lady has embarked on the terrible before the twos, and boy can that kid run. All around the...
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where books meet girl power – London!
I spent last weekend in another land. Not a magical land, though I’m rather fond of all the magical stories to come out of it (finished reading Neil Gaiman’s latest one on the train, in fact). I went...
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think fast
There was this game I hated at intermediate school. Some mean kid would say, ‘think fast’ and on the ‘think’ they’d toss a basketball, hard, straight at your nose. Good for your reflexes. Or bad for...
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decision making ability, zero
We’ve (almost) made it. Luuk will be back by this time tomorrow. And I… I will be at a Backstreet Boys concert! I had great aspirations to write a post about the week’s highs and lows but – gotta be...
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