My World

And strangely enough it is connected to the outdoors and to skis again

Theo, Mathilde and I took ourselves off this afternoon for a spot of cross-country skiing. It was fun and hard work and used muscles that definitely are not usually used. We managed almost 5km before the light started to fade so called it a day. Will definitely be back for more though….

And today’s first thing was skiing at night. Mathilde, Theo and I went off to Chantecler this afternoon leaving Philippe and Oliver to demolish the kitchen

As ever it wasn’t too busy, nearly all the runs were open, the snow was well-groomed and not icy and it was beautiful watching the light change as night fell. It was blooming cold though!
Each time we got off the chairlift at the top of the mountain the sun had set a little bit more and the view across to other mountains had changed. The sky gradually faded from blue, to gold, to pink and then just plain old nighttime. Seeing all the runs lit up on other mountains managed to look pretty too.
The one bad note was Theo forgetting his ski pants back at Chantecler, me luckily realising on the way home, but still wasting 45 minutes going back to fetch them. At least they were still where he had left them.

The best bit was then getting home to Oliver bathed and in his pj’s, a roaring log fire in the living room and dinner cooking in the kitchen.
Perfect!

Well here I am back in Canada having survived the 2 week trip to UK and Singapore. The whole trip was full of positives – from travelling all by myself without any small children to consider, flying Business Class for the first time, seeing family, going to Singapore for the first time in about 8 years and then walking the Singapore Half-Marathon. I had been worried about the jet-lag and the heat and humidity but it was fine.
For the first time ever I tried some homeopathic jet-lag pills and never again! The first three nights in Singapore I had a total of 11 hours sleep so getting up at 5.30am for the race wasn’t a problem but I was rather tired by that evening.
The race itself didn’t seem as hard as the hypothermic one in Montreal and was definitely less boring – I really enjoyed it! One of the best bits was seeing Caroline half-way round and being able to wave and grin inanely.

That same day we all went on a ferry to the Indonesian island of Batam and had a couple of nights of complete rest and relaxation – beautiful pool, sea-front villa and spa treatments that were a first for me.

The couple of days back in the UK were a bit of a whirlwind but it was lovely to spend time with Mum and Dad and then with Alex and Kathie.
It felt like I managed to pack it all in and enjoyed every minute of the whole two weeks.
A big thank you of course goes to Philippe for making it possible for me to leave him and the kids and to Jon for the suggestion in the first place

The pictures say it all!

A 10km walk that is. Mathilde and I were up bright and early this morning to travel to Oka Park for an 8.30am start. Mathilde came to offer moral support and lots of distracting chatter and she managed both very well.

It was a chilly windy overcast morning (0c) but walking through the trees was beautiful. It was silent except for my very squeaky left shoe which squeaked at every step!

I came in 4th out of 48, just 10 seconds behind no.3 with a time of 1hour 23mins.

(And yes the toenails are fine…….so far.)

Brrr

I don’t leave for another month but just looking at the itinerary makes me feel exhausted!

30/11 19.50 dep YUL
1/12 arr 07.30 LHR
1/12 dep LHR 11.30am
1/12 arr MAN 12.35

2/12 dep MAN 09.15
3/12 arr SIN 06.15

08/12 dep SIN 23.55
09/12 arr MAN 06.00

11/12 dep STD (Stafford train station) 12.36
arr Charlton 15.00

12/12 dep Charlton-LHR
dep LHR 14.25
arr YUL 17.00

I hope that Philippe and the kids survive as well as I hope to. I have done a hypothermic half-marathon before but this time I will be training in sub-zero temperatures to then walk in temperatures of 90 degrees + and humidity of 80%.
Hmm, interesting challenge!

It will be one long, large trip but the benefits and memories should well outweigh any tribulations along the way.

I left the kids carving their pumpkins while I went to find candles. Came back to find Oliver had got a thick black permanent marker off Mathilde and in the space of a few seconds had scribbled on the dining table, the bench and more worryingly the light beech hardwood floor.

Told Oliver off, told the older two off because they had been arguing so hadn’t seen what Oliver was up to then set to with wet paper towels. Hopeless – did nothing. Got kitchen cleaner and wet paper towels – worked a little better but was nowhere near to removing all the marks.
Theo just carried on carving, Mathilde went to fetch all the money she had in her purse and her debit card to help towards the cost of fixing it but…..

Then I remembered the Magic Eraser lurking under the kitchen sink – took a lot of elbow grease and scrubbing but it worked!!! Thank Goodness for that.

Theo was the most excited to be getting a pumpkin and couldn’t wait to start carving it out. We ran out of time this evening to finish so he is all set to get going again as soon as he gets up tomorrow.
Oliver got into it too – everything Theo did he then had to do. Scoop out the seeds with a big spoon, scrape off the hairy bits inside with a grater, draw on the outside with a big fat marker. He then turned his attention to stirring up all the seeds in a big bowl pretending to be cooking.
Can’t wait to see how they turn out…………..

After 22 months of waiting for the CIC to process our applications it took two hours today of more paperwork and then a little bit of ceremony for us all to become Canadian citizens.
We duly swore our allegiance to the Queen, sang ‘O, Canada’, shook hands with lots of people and received our Citizenship cards and certificates. We also each got a flower and a piece of cake, a tree seed to plant and a flag.