Well, after feeling that September went really slowly, I can’t actually believe that we are almost at the end of October already! I guess it’s something to do with all the family birthdays we have this month – D’s gran’s, G’s, D’s, D’s dad and one of my sisters – an expensive, but fun, month!

So it may just turn out that a few of my “happy things” this week may be autumn-related – I think I love this season more each year, and I’ve been particularly relishing it this time. So here goes:

1. Top of my list isn’t actually anything to do with autumn, but down to B being home for the week for half term. My prayers were answered and the M6 was pretty kind to us last Friday, so we were all home by about 6.30pm and are really enjoying having a week together again.

2. A family meal at Zizzi on Saturday. I had got Tesco vouchers for Zizzi a few weeks ago but then we didn’t manage to get there, so the four of us ate there at the weekend, and it was delicious. I had spaghetti carbonara, which was cooked the more authentic Italian way, without any heavy cream, so wasn’t as filling as it often is.

3. It was D’s birthday this week so, although he was working on the day, we made the most of the time we had together, having a special breakfast of smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, then a lovely evening meal, cooked by B, of koftas and couscous salad – with a bottle of Prosecco, of course!

4. Inspired by last week’s “Back to the Future Day” on G’s birthday, we thought that it would be good to introduce the children to what it was all about, so we watched the first film on Sunday night, then the second on D’s birthday on Tuesday. A real blast from the past, but they are films that still really “work” – enjoyed by all!

5. A trip to the library! I absolutely love going to the library and taking my time to meander around the shelves and selecting a real mix of books. The most exciting find this time was a bit of a weird one, as it is a murder mystery by Richard Castle, who is actually a fictional writer in the fabulous American TV series, Castle, which D and I love, but I had no idea that “someone” (no one seems to know exactly who!) had ghost-written books under that name. Intriguing – and very well written.

6. Autumn walks have featured highly this week, with some taking place on beautiful, clear, sunny days, while others have involved some pretty eerie low-lying mist, into which B loved trying to disappear. I’ve frequently been reminded this week of one of my favourite autumn songs – Autumn days when the grass is jewelled…

7. Autumn breakfasts – I know that you can, and indeed we do, eat porridge all year round, but I’ve been particularly enjoying my seasonal version this week – oatmeal cooked with coconut milk, with apple compote, honey and cinnamon. Just delicious.

8. Layering! I love this time of year, as you never know quite how the weather may turn out or change throughout the day, so layers are definitely the way to go, with cool shirts under cosy jumpers, thick socks under my boots, etc. Lovely.

9. Candles – yes, G and I are a little obsessed with candles right now, but it’s so lovely to close the curtains, now that the clocks have gone back and it’s getting dark so early, and light some gorgeous candles. I even found a fabulous grey one which I now have on my desk here, so I think that I have just about every room covered now!

10. A trip to Kedleston Hall yesterday. It was a pretty quick trip around the hall, as we have been there previously (how I wish that G and B were more interested in history though, and savoured these places more) but it was followed by a very nice cream tea in the restaurant for lunch, so all in all, a nice trip out.

Happy weekend everyone!

Hi there – I’m back! I was asked a few times about the lack of Happy Friday post last week, but it honestly was simply due to a lack of inspiration and photo opportunities – not in any way a reflection of it being a bad week, just a very “ordinary” one. However, I’ve had no problem coming up with my “happy list” this week!

1. G’s birthday party last Friday evening. She invited six friends around after school, and, after getting changed and eating cupcakes, they went shopping for a couple of hours in Intu, Derby, where we then met them for a meal at TGI Fridays – sitting on separate tables, of course! The staff there were fantastic though, keeping us up to date on the progress of the girls’ meal, so that we could take our time accordingly, and really looking after them well. We then took the girls home for a quick tie-dye activity, before three of them had to leave and the remaining three stayed for a sleepover. I have to say that I love the fact that parties are now so much easier and low maintenance -they very much looked after themselves, and we didn’t hear a peep from them all night, so it was all very successful -and G has some lovely friends!

2. This was then followed by a lovely day on Saturday, which saw us heading up to Lancashire. We collected B from school and then went for a delicious lunch in Lancaster, before heading over to Lytham to visit D’s parents and gran, who had celebrated her 98th birthday the day before. We did try to see the Blackpool Illuminations on the way back to Lancaster to drop B off again, but failed in this mission, as the traffic was at a complete standstill – not moving an inch – so I’m not sure what the issue was there.

3. Sunday morning was a lovely, chilled affair – my favourite kind – which gave me the chance to make butternut soup and homemade bread rolls – so yummy!

4. G has been on half term this week (and next, lucky thing!) so it has meant that a couple of our mornings have been much more relaxed and slower, which has been lovely.

5. I had a wonderful evening on Monday, when I went out for a pizza in Belper with my great friend, Hettie. It was a while since we had had a proper catch up, as our outings recently have involved cinema and theatre trips, which are lovely but don’t give much (enough!) opportunity for chatting. We certainly made up for this on Monday – we hardly drew breath in almost four hours we were together – it was fabulous! (And the pizza was pretty good too!)

6. The pooches have been particularly cute this week – they were trimmed last week, so are all velvety and sweet-smelling, but they just keep cuddling up together, which is the sweetest thing!

7. It was G’s birthday on Wednesday, and we had a lovely girly day. This obviously involved shopping, as she had received some money and vouchers as gifts, so she had lots of fun spending them, on both clothes and things for her room, which is in the process of being decorated.

8. G and I then had a great trip to the theatre on the evening of her birthday. D was supposed to be with us, but sadly there was an accident on his way home from Stoke, so the journey took him 4 and a half hours, hence he missed the show completely. It was a great amateur performance of “Me and My Girl” at Derby Theatre, and it was lots of fun – especially seeing G cringe during the audience participation (which did only involve people clapping along with the music!).

9. As you can see from the photos, we had an additional houseguest at the weekend (along with G’s party guests) in the form of a beautiful racing pigeon. Lottie and Honey found it hiding in the woodpile when they went outside after we returned home from TGI Fridays, so D fetched it in, and found that it appeared to have been injured several days before, possibly on a telegraph wire. So we made it a temporary home in a cardboard box, and gave it water and corn, which seemed to help it perk up a little. On Saturday morning, D then managed to locate its owner, thanks to the ID ring on its leg and a website of all registered racing pigeons, and its grateful owner came to retrieve it on Sunday.

10. Well, the M6 beckons for me and G today, as we happily go to collect B for the half term holiday. I think that we are all very much looking forward to being together again for 9 days, so here’s hoping it’s kind to us!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Well, last Friday was the first time that I have missed writing a Happy Friday post since I began this blog just over six months ago, and I did have a good excuse – I was down in Kent for a lovely family wedding, so didn’t have a computer with me. But I’m back!

So, here are a few of the highlights of the past couple of weeks:

1. My niece’s wedding has to be my number one – obviously! It was all lovely – from the amazing sunny weather to the beautiful bride and bridesmaids, the men in their uniforms, the food, the amazing little touches like the welcome champagne slushy (a huge hit!), popcorn, candyfloss and the ice cream van. Not to mention that fact that my sister gave a fabulous mother-of-the-bride speech! It really was a lovely day.

2. G and I had a lovely girly trip down to Kent for the wedding, as D had to go up to collect B from school for the weekend. We had a great morning before the big event, wandering around Deal, along the pier and on the beach. It’s not an area of the country that I know well at all, and I was blown away by how beautiful it is.

3. The bed and breakfast we stayed in the night before was also a highlight. We had a lovely room, beautifully decorated, and the owner was very friendly and welcoming. And of course, there are few better ways to start the day than with a great B&B cooked breakfast – delicious!

4. It was then lovely to get back home to spend the weekend with B – so nice to all be back together again.

5. One of the things that B is loving about his new school is doing Food Technology, so he came home brimming with enthusiasm to demonstrate his new skills and recipes. He made sweet and sour chicken for Saturday lunch, followed by lasagne on Sunday. Not only were the meals absolutely yummy, as soon as he had finished cooking them, he then washed and dried everything he had used, put them away, cleaned all the surfaces and polished the sink! I could get used to this!

6. I have had a stinking cough and cold this week, so I have been indulging in plenty of comfort food, with the absolute ultimate being meat and potato pasties, made according to my mum’s recipe. It is so long since I have had these but they tasted so good.

7. Despite the dreaded lurgy, I have had quite a productive week at home, getting on top of all our home filing one evening, and then eventually organising the photos I took of doors in France (almost three years ago!) into a collage, which I have ordered in poster form, so that I can then frame it. I get there in the end!

8. Maybe in another nod to creature comforts, I have started knitting a blanket this week. I am not a great knitter – scarves and squares have been my only specialities in the past – as I really need to keep it simple. I decided that a blanket can be very simple, and I have nice, thick, chunky wool so it grows quite quickly which is satisfying, but it is going to take a while to be big enough for a blanket. A nice project though, hopefully with a luxurious result.

9. I made a decision this week that has also made me happy – I am going to try to volunteer at a nearby hospice. Ever since my mum spent her final days in one almost ten years ago, I have wanted to do this, but the time has never been right, with the children, home and work to deal with. However, there was a piece in the news earlier this week about how we are the best in the world at providing end-of-life care, which made me realise that now is actually a really good time for me to eventually be able to do this. I have contacted the hospice, and hopefully will be able to sign up for their training programme starting in January, so that I will then be able to volunteer once a week there.

10. A light-hearted one to end with! Whenever we come back through the back gate from a walk, Lottie plonks herself down in the low variegated bush just inside the garden. This has become a real habit – not sure why she does it, but how cute does she look?

So we are off to Norfolk this weekend, which I’m really looking forward to, as we haven’t been for about 7 weeks. As D has been away all week, it will be really nice to spend a lovely relaxing weekend together – although also poignant, as it will be our first trip there without B.

I hope that you all have a fabulous weekend

September has been a funny old month – unlike the rest of the year, it seems to have gone quite slowly. I’m not sure of the reason for this – maybe it’s something to do with us all getting used to B being away – but we are nearly at the end, and October, a month which for us is crazily busy with birthdays, is very much in sight.

So, here are some of the little things which have made me happy this week:

1. I eventually got around to making avocado toast for breakfast last Saturday, and it was delicious. I have been meaning to do this for months and fortunately was not disappointed. I added cherry tomatoes and fresh basil to it, and it went down very well with both me and D.

2. We went to Derby Theatre last Saturday to watch an amazing production of Brassed Off. I have seen some fantastic, and very varied, productions at this theatre over the past few years, but I have never seen the entire audience giving a standing ovation before, but this was so well-deserved. The performances were all absolutely fantastic – both the acting and the brass playing. On reading about it when I returned home, I discovered that some of the main parts were played by actors with relatively little experience, which was a shock to me, as they were all outstanding. They could take this production on a national tour very easily, it was so fantastic – I, for one, would most certainly go to watch it again!

3. Sunday, in many ways, was a complete write off for me, as I became unwell during Saturday night with a stomach bug, so spent all of the day in bed or under a blanket on the sofa, feeling completely wiped out. However, one good thing that came of this was that it gave me time to read my book for Book Club which I went to on Wednesday, and, as I had not previously started the book, I really needed that time!

4. I finally placed my Snapfish order for our holiday photos this week, which, again, I’ve been intending to do for weeks. In the end, it was a pleasant evening of looking back through all the photos we had taken in Grenada, which is never a chore and brought back some lovely memories, so I’m now looking forward to them being delivered, so that I can decide which ones to frame and which ones to put in the waiting album.

5. I ordered my dress for my niece’s wedding (which is NEXT WEEK! – how exciting!) this week and it arrived two days later. I am very happy with it – thank goodness – so can now relax knowing that my outfit is ready (well, when the handbag and fascinator arrive!). Just G to kit out now!

6. Signs of autumn have made me happy this week. Much as I do love summer more now than ever before ( I was always a most definite winter-lover, but now like summer just as much), I still enjoy to see and feel the changes of the different seasons. The chilly mornings, the changes in the leaves and trees, and the final blackberries have all brought a smile to my face these past few days.

7. One of the things that we love about where we live is the fact that we can walk through a gate at the bottom of the garden onto a lovely park. This is a very well used space, which is great to see, and it is also fantastically maintained, so although we most definitely live “in the suburbs”, it really does feel like our little piece of countryside, literally on our doorstep, which is so wonderful for walking the dogs.

8. Talking of which, seeing them chasing each other around madly on their time off their leads on our walks this week has made me smile – the little ones have so much fun together, and burn off loads of energy, which is always good.

9. A nice surprise came in the post on Wednesday, when we found out that B had won the Year 7 Reading Prize at his old school, which he left in July. They had held their Speech Day and Prize Giving last week, when it would have been presented had he still been there, but we knew nothing about it, so it was a lovely surprise to receive – and to tell him about. What a star!

10. Again, swimming features this week, as I continue to love getting back into it. My aim is to do 250 lengths per week, but I only managed to go for the first time this week on Thursday, so I have to make two more trips over the weekend – I completed 100 on Thursday, so I’ve made a good start though.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Well, the first full week back in the usual work/school routine is coming to a close, and it’s all been pretty good. It’s amazing how quickly we all become accustomed to the changes – early mornings, packed lunches, and, for us this time, Ben being away. We have all missed him, and he us, I think, but it has all gone far more smoothly than I thought that it might. We are seeing him this weekend as well, so that’s definitely something to look forward to.

In the meantime, here are some of the highlights from the past week:

1. My niece’s hen party last weekend in Chesterfield. This was just for the girls in the family, and it was lovely to all get together, as it doesn’t happen all too often. We had a very civilised afternoon tea (with Prosecco!) followed by a meal out in the evening in Bakewell, where my niece now lives. I’d forgotten just how lovely Bakewell is – G thought that it looked just like a “model town”. G and I then stayed overnight, heading back home on Sunday morning – a lovely little jaunt out for us both!

2. The location for our afternoon tea in Chesterfield was the H&F Vintage Tea Rooms, which is an absolutely gorgeous place. The vintage décor is fabulous, and means that there’s lots to look at. It was very busy, but we had a large table reserved towards the back of the room, which was ideal. The food and drinks were lovely, and the staff (dressed very appropriately in vintage outfits) very friendly and helpful – especially the very kind waiter who took our photos!

3. We had a great fire pit evening on Sunday, after a few weeks of not having one for a variety of reasons – being away, inappropriate weather, etc. It was lovely to get out there again – it’s just so relaxing, with the fire to keep you warm, candles and fairy lights to combat the dark and a tasty gin and tonic to enjoy.

4. We had a picnic tea out in the garden last weekend, which was so nice. We had been thinking of going to the classical music concert in Darley Park, so I had bought some picnic food in readiness for that, but we decided that we were just too tired, and would prefer to stay at home and eat in the garden instead. Later in the evening, we could hear the music and fireworks anyway, so all was not lost.

5. After having very little communication from B, we received a call from his housemaster on Monday, which was very reassuring. He was able to put our minds at rest by telling us that B had settled very well and seemed happy and to be getting on with everything well, which was exactly what we needed to hear.

6. One little thing that’s made me happy this week is the new nail varnish that  G and I chose when we had to get some change for the car park last weekend. It’s Rimmel/Rita Ora’s Go Wild-er-ness and is such a lovely shade of lilac – love it!

7. For some reason, we seem to have had some very relaxing evenings this week. We seem to have been able to keep on top of everything more easily, so have had time to listen to music, read, and watch a little TV at the end of the days, which has felt like a real treat.

8. My new Dublin River boots arrived last weekend, and I love them! They’ve had a few dog-walking outings already, of course, and they’re great – as long as you wear thick socks with them, which I found out to my cost one day!

9. One of the other things that I’ve been able to do this week is spend a little more time than usual playing the piano, which always feels like quite a luxury, so I’ve really enjoyed that.

10. Last night was G’s speech night at school, which is always a lovely evening. It is so good to see the whole school together, celebrating everyone’s achievements, and there’s always a great speaker, providing further inspiration for the girls. I always love going to anything associated with G’s school, as I’m just so happy that she loves it so much.

So that’s it from me for this week. I hope that you’ve all had a good week and have an even better weekend.

September already? How did that happen? I guess it was something to do with the busy summer we had – it’s definitely up there as one of our best. The combination of our holiday in paradise, the success of the French exchange, weekends in Norfolk and at Carfest, along with plenty of day trips, relaxing time at home and catching up with lots of friends, has made this summer so special, and one that we will remember for a long time.

Here are some of the highlights of the final week of the holiday:

1. We spent last weekend, as we have done for the past four years, at Chris Evans’ CarFest South festival. If you don’t know about this, it is a fabulous, family-friendly festival based around food, cars and music, with all proceeds going to Children in Need. It is held in the beautiful Hampshire countryside, at Jody Scheckter’s Laverstoke Park Farm, and we always have the most amazing time – so the pressure is always on D to try to buy the tickets for the next one as soon as they go on sale, as it generally sells out within 15 minutes! We had as great a time as ever this year, so there’s no let up for him!

2. We have tried various accommodation experiences during our four visits to CarFest. The first year we camped, the second we glamped, and last year and also this, we stayed in a nearby hotel. This is definitely my preferred option! This year, we stayed in a hotel in Basingstoke, which fitted the bill perfectly – it was an easy 20 minute drive from the festival site, was clean and comfortable, and had extremely friendly staff – all good!

3. As I said, one of the main aspects of the festival is the food. There is a Best of British marquee, which contains lots of stalls selling homemade produce, and has different demonstrations going on, whilst a lot of the site is taken up with stalls selling all sorts of food to keep you going throughout the weekend. You can get anything from pie and chips to curries, from burritos to churros, from Thai food to paella, etc., etc. – the choice is huge. My selections this year were a duck wrap on Friday, followed by pie and chips on Saturday, then roast chicken and potatoes on the final night. And we may have sampled a cheeky bag of gourmet popcorn at some point!

4. As well as the food, there are obviously drinks, and our favourite this year, making an appearance for the first time, was the Fever Tree Gin and Tonic stall. It did prove so popular that it constantly had a long queue (I did feel a little sorry for the Pimms stall next door, which was virtually empty for the whole weekend!), but it was worth queuing up for! My favourite drink was rhubarb gin with Fever Tree ginger beer – absolutely delicious.

5. The music was great again this year. Obviously we know some of the bands/artists better than others, but amongst our favourites this year were Sophie Ellis Bextor, The Feeling, Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott, Bellowhead, and of course, the final two hours were absolutely amazing, with Take That, followed by a performance by Lord of the Dance, ending with a huge firework display. Just brilliant!

6. The final aspect of the festival, which is clear from the name, is the cars. There are car displays all around the site, ranging from stalls from manufacturers to old vehicles in the Vintage Village area, and then with some incredible cars to see both in the paddock and on the hill climb – classic racing cars, stunt cars, Chris Evans’ Dirty Dozen, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, etc. I’m not overly interested in cars as a rule, but I love to see them here, especially in action on the hill climb.

7. One of the things that makes such a huge amount of difference to a weekend like this is the weather, and we were incredibly lucky. There was some rain for an hour or so on the Saturday evening, but we had fortunately positioned ourselves under a shelter, so were fine and dandy, and then there was a brief shower on the Sunday evening, but, by the time we had got our coats and waterproof trousers on, it had stopped! It could have been very different, both during the day and the evenings, and we were very aware of this as it rained all the way home on Monday!

8. We were lucky enough to be able to fit in one more swimming trip on Tuesday, amongst the chores of collecting new glasses for B, having his back-to-school haircut and packing, which was really nice. We took one of G’s friends and her sister, and they all had fun together.

9. Wednesday was the day we had been dreading for a while – taking B to his new school, where he is now boarding. However, the day went very smoothly and quickly, and there were no protracted, emotional goodbyes! B being B, he said goodbye with plenty of hugs, then just ran back into the building, so we didn’t have the time or opportunity to  get upset, which was a really good thing. We could have stood there hugging and crying, but it would have made us all feel so much worse, so the way it went was probably perfect. It would be good if he communicated with us to let us know how he’s getting on though!

10. So now it’s back to the routine of a new school year – obviously it’s a little different with B being away, but G was back at school on Thursday too, so it was a return to early mornings, school, work, back to walk the dogs before the afternoon school run, and straight back to piano lessons. Even though we have had an amazing summer, I do always quite like getting back to normal and having our routines, so it’s no bad thing.

So G and I have my niece’s hen party to look forward to this weekend, which should be lovely. I hope that you all have a great couple of days.

Wow – it’s Friday again already – that means it’s six weeks since the children finished school for the summer holidays and only one and a half until they’re back – it’s going far too quickly. With this in mind, we are definitely trying to make the most of our time together, so here are the highlights from the past week:

1. One that I forgot to mention from last week was the beautiful sunset that D and I enjoyed whilst we were in Norfolk. We sat in the back garden, overlooking the dense cornfield, glass of wine in hand, just watching the sun set. It actually went down pretty quickly – not as dramatically as a Caribbean sunset, but quicker than we expected nonetheless – and it was absolutely stunning. We are going again this weekend, so I’m hoping that we can repeat the experience.

2. We had a great family swimming trip on Saturday, with the complete luxury of having the pool to ourselves for most of the time. It just happened to be lunchtime when we had finished so we decided to eat in the restaurant there too – I opted for the burger which went down very well!

3. We enjoyed cooking together on Sunday, making pork with apples and tarragon. It was absolutely delicious – and all the better for having all made it together.

4. The children and I had a fun trip to Markeaton Park in Derby on Monday, with a jaunt on a pedalo followed by ice creams. It is so long since I’ve been on a pedalo that I’d quite forgotten the hard work involved, but it was great fun and involved lots of laughter – especially when B, who was steering, thought that it was hilarious to steer me into the overhanging trees!

5. We are very lucky, being close to Derby, that we have so many lovely parks around, so on Tuesday we tried out a different one – Darley Park. This had been recommended to us a couple of weeks ago and it is absolutely lovely. It is a large, popular but peaceful park, with the River Derwent flowing through, providing a natural path to follow. So we had a lovely walk with the dogs, followed by yet more ice creams, of course.

6. The blackberries out on the field behind our house have made me very happy this week! Quite a lot of them are now ripe and are truly delicious – and the good thing is that there are still plenty which are no where near ready to eat, so they should keep us going for a few weeks!

7. We had a lovely trip to Carsington Water on Wednesday, which was special for two reasons. First, I had (ridiculously!) never been before – the children have both been with school – and it is a great place to visit. There are plenty of places to walk, the scenery is beautiful, there are playgounds, etc. etc. Secondly, however, and more importantly, we met my school friend, Sara, there, as she was staying nearby with her family. I haven’t seen her in over a year, and she hadn’t met G and B before, so it was really lovely to have a walk, picnic and catch up with her – and her gorgeous youngest daughter and her dog, of course! It was a great few hours – and we were even lucky enough to just get home before the rain began.

8. G and I had a “girls night” on Wednesday, which was so nice – and very relaxing! It involved spending the evening in her room, with her scented candles smelling amazing, watching re-runs of her favourite TV shows on her computer.

9. As we’ve had so many trips and days out this holiday, we decided to stay in on Thursday and had an afternoon of board games – with special drinks and snacks, of course! I’m so pleased that both children still enjoy afternoons like this.

10. One more positive thing this week is that B seems to be getting quite excited about his new school. As it is now only 12 days until he goes, this is really good news! He has been full of questions and curiosity about what it will be like, all in a very positive way, which is great, as it is going to be such a huge change for us all.

So, as I said, we have a lovely family weekend in Norfolk planned, which will involve spending plenty of time on beaches, walking, collecting samphire – all the usual. I’m just hoping that the weather forecast is right!

Well, I’m not sure where the past nine days, since our French exchange children arrived, have gone. As we said goodbye to them yesterday, it was very strange to think that the time had passed so rapidly, but they seemed to have been a part of our family for a long time, which was lovely.

Here are the highlights of the past week anyway:

1. The tie dye activity we did one evening with the four children. This was incredibly messy, with the dye getting literally everywhere as they dyed t-shirts, pillow cases and canvas bags, but it was also such fun. They all seemed to enjoy it and were pleased with their efforts, and it was great to see them all wearing their t-shirts together the next day (and all the mess was very easily wiped up!).

2. We had a lovely few days in Norfolk, which started off with a great trip to Brancaster beach on our first afternoon. The puppies had a good swim in the sea, and we then walked along to see if the seals were there, and they certainly were – in force! We couldn’t go as close as normal, as they are currently breeding there and have babies, but we could get close enough to see them all basking on the sand very clearly – an amazing sight, as always.

3. It wasn’t just the dogs in the sea the next day, as the weather was glorious, so all the children went in for a proper swim. I’m not sure that you would have got me in there, but they seemed to love it and have lots of fun.

4. We had a lovely walk around the lake at Holkham Hall on Sunday, which we always love to do. The weather was beautiful, so everywhere looked stunning.

5. We had another fun day on Monday when I took all the children swimming and then bowling. The bowling was in a very “quaint” establishment, but it did the job and kept the children entertained.

6. A trip to Sandringham. Shockingly, we have only visited Sandringham once, and that was just for a walk, so we haven’t ventured into the house before, but I thought that this would be a good place to take our French visitors. We were very lucky in that, when we went in and I asked for a French translation of the guidebook, the lady serving asked if I’d like her to talk to the exchange children, to tell them about the rooms we would visit, as she was the French-speaking guide. What luck! She gave them a good overview of what to look out for, which was great – I understood everything that she was saying but there’s no way that I could have explained it all myself, so it was a very successful trip.

7. We did one of our favourite walks on Wednesday, from Holkham along to the beach, past the brightly-coloured beach huts, to Wells-Next-The-Sea and then back through the pine woods. Again the weather was beautiful, so it was so lovely.

8. It was nice to get home again on Wednesday evening to see D. He’d been with us until (very early!) Tuesday morning, but it was still good for us all to be back together – and to celebrate with a mojito!

9. Watching the meteor shower. We all had a quick trip outside at about 10.30pm to see what we could spot, and were lucky enough to see at least four shooting stars each. The children chose to lie on the trampoline for the best vantage point, and we learnt that it is a French custom to make a wish whenever you see one.

10. The French exchange has gone so well – better than we even hoped. Not knowing the children or the family, we didn’t know if they would get on well or not, or if they’d enjoy doing similar things, etc., but they all got on famously together. The house has been absolutely full of fun and laughter for the past week, so they are now all looking forward to when G and B make their visit next year. They are such lovely children – so polite and helpful and fun-loving, that it has been a complete joy to have them stay with us – and a great excuse for lots of fun trips out!

So we are now looking forward to a nice quiet, family weekend. I would guess that a trip to the gym/swimming pool and a picnic/walk will feature, but that is as far as the planning has got. Oh, and giving my brain a rest from all the translation I have done in the past nine days!