In the garden

A couple of photos from the garden, taken on 1st July...

Scott's first ever produce! We didn't have to buy any salad leaves all summer!

Happy Tom

 And Harry discovered blackberries at the bottom of the garden.

The rest of June

OK, I am carrying on with my big-blog-catch-up... As I look at my wall calendar for June, it's the usual kind of stuff - meeting Jack's mentor (ie. form tutor!) for him starting 2ndry school, Jack's day visits to his 2ndry school (which he loved), Stake fun day, book clubs, hair cuts, Lucy's parents' evening (which was unreservedly brilliant. Her teachers all said she is not only doing fantastically well academically, but that she is lovely too. I even had two teachers who we hadn't made appointments with come up to me to say Lucy is clever, and that they hope she will do their subject at GCSE, and will cry if she doesn't...)

My over-riding memory for June and July really though, is stressing over preparations for our church's Stake Youth Camp.

And here is Tom, on 16th June, very happy because the picture which he submitted to his favourite website - Club Penguin, got displayed in their online art gallery!

Paris (Day 4)

Monday 13th June - our last day in Paris. After another buffet breakfast at our hotel,we went by Metro to the Louvre, though decided not to go inside - had a play in the water outside instead.

We then headed down in the direction of Place de la Concorde, and stopped off by one of the large fountains to enjoy some very fine icecream.

After that, we went by Metro again to the Paris Opera House. Oh my goodness. What an incredible place. Here I am on one the wonderful stair cases. My great-great grandparents met at the Paris Opera House - her locket broke as she was walking up the stairs, he picked it up for her and that was it. They did some of their courting at Versailles.

Inside the opera (no phantoms spotted.)

View from the balcony of the Opera House. Katherine and I wondered how many tourists photos we ruined by standing in the centre of the balcony and waving for ages!

After that we went to Pere Lachaise cemetery - another incredible place - avenue after avenue of scary looking mini-mausoleum things. It was fascinating.

 (We may not have been totally respectful of the dead at all times, I'm afraid...)

 Oscar Wilde's grave.

From the cemetery, we popped back to our hotel for a last time to pick up our cases, then headed for the Eurostar station, and our train home. Everything went smoothly, with Katherine and I driving back from Rebekah's later that evening. It was a wonderful weekend, full of tonnes of laughter and beautiful sights.

Paris (Day 3)

On Sunday 12th June, we went to church in the morning - there was a separate room, with a TV link, and English interpreters. After church we went for a wander to the grand Town Hall, where we did a photo shoot - me taking photos of Rebekah with her amazing camera, with Katherine as artistic director...

One of my pictures of Rebekah

We also went for a walk to Notre Dame. Rebekah and Katherine went inside, but I stayed out, sitting in the square watching the world go by.

We headed back to our hotel for a rest, then set out again later, to go up the Arc de Triomphe (one of my favourite places to be - I could look at the views for hours.) Rebekah did well considering her fear of heights!

We then went to the Eiffel Tower, and had fun taking daft photos...

All three of us in the same picture!

After that we went to a lovely restaurant nearby, and had a great meal, while talking about anything and everything (definitely an eye-opener into Single Adult life to say the least...) We again left a restaurant in slightly less than elegant circumstances - we paid by card, but had literally no change for a tip, and there was no option for adding it to the credit card bill. We felt really bad, so decided to leave quickly, but our get-away this time was hampered by one of the waiters hanging on Rebekah (she had got chatting to him while waiting for the toilets), and lamenting he would never see her again etc... We are such classy women!

Paris (Day 2)

On Saturday 11th June, Katherine, Rebekah and I caught a train to Versailles. Rebekah had pre-booked this weeks before, and I hadn't really given it a whole lot of thought... I am SO glad we went though! It is truly an amazing place! (I didn't take any pictures this day - these are a mixture of Katherine's and Rebekah's - hugely annoyingly, my camera started playing up, and I didn't bother bringing it.)

A chapel in the palace.

Katherine and I in the Hall of Mirrors... we both read the 'Mobile Thrones' sign as 'Mobile Phones'...

After the wonders of the palace, we thought we'd have a quick wonder around the gardens... only to emerge 6 HOURS later! They were fantastic and hugely varied.

For lunch we had beautiful little quiches and the best chocolate cornflake cakes known to man, which we had purchased at a little shop that morning.

Rebekah and I posing by the 'curly chips'...

 We all love Marie Antoinette's Summer House. I think this was my favourite room of all.

And then there were the ridiculously cute cottages with their perfect vegetable and flower gardens!

We also spent some time just chilling in the 'English (ie. slightly scruffier than the rest of the place) Gardens'

Travelling back in Paris on our 'ghetto line'

We stopped off at a restaurant on the way back to our hotel, for a delicious meal, and the richest chocolate dessert I've ever experienced. We thought it would be nice to leave our waiter a church pass-along card, but then got nervous and legged it out the restaurant before he came back and saw it. Running across the pedestrian crossing, Rebekah did something to her leg, and continued to hobble as fast as possible from the crime scene, with Katherine and I killing ourselves laughing - feeling like a bunch of daft school girls... we then had to run (and hobble) for our metro train. I will never forget the expression of one Parisian gentleman as he watched Rebekah bandy-leggedly hobbling as fast as she could, whilst dying laughing, up the metro steps... it was priceless, and by the time we all collasped onto the train we couldn't speak for laughter and had tears streaming down our faces. What the other passengers thought, I have no idea... Who knew the fun you could have with pass-along cards?

Katherine and Rebekah, exhausted after Versailles and the six flights...

Paris (Day 1)

It's been pointed out to me by a few people lately that I haven't written my blog for a while... so, in an attempt to catch up, I'm going back to June 9th, where I left a Stake Council meeting in Northampton at 10 o'clock at night, and made my way to Cambridge, to spend a (very short!) night at my friend Rebekah's house. Another of her friends, Katherine, spent the night there too, and early in the morning, the three of us embarked on a little adventure to Paris!

We drove to Ebsfleet Eurostar station, and caught a train to Paris. We made our way to the Hotel Eden in Monmartre, where our rooms where not yet ready, so we stowed our cases, and went off to explore our local area. After taking a while to decide which was North, and which was South, we headed on foot to Sacre Coeur. We were so tired, but incredibly happy to be there - slowly making our way up the steep streets...

Finally at the top!

I love the view from up by the Sacre Coeur out over Paris. I secretly hope to have a flat around here one day...

After suddenly getting caught out in a downpour and sheltering in an old archway, watching gargoyles spewing torrents, we made our way back to the hotel to get into our room and have a rest. Our room was on the 6th floor of a pleasant hotel - Rebekah and Katherine preferred the delights of the winding, uneven staircase, while I risked the teeny 2 person deathbox (lift), with all the cases.

I loved the view from our full length window - felt very Parisian/poor starving artist/poet-type-thing... while we snacked on Rebekah's provisions of Tesco low-fat pretzels, Yeo Valley yogurt tubes and our favourite - the dried mango!

When we had rested, we headed out towards Place de la Concorde, and then wandered up the Champs Elysees in beautiful evening sunshine...bliss! We stopped off in one of the enormous perfume shops, where I had an assistant give me his undivided attention, helping me find a perfume that would be perfect for me... I still have yet to find my perfect perfume... we spent ages, but had fun trying!

We watched sunset at the Arc de Triomphe, then made our way on the Metro back to our hotel.