Just barely made it to the gates with the annual meme I try to do every year. Some of these questions are pretty dumb. I think next year I'll create my own meme. [Previous years if anyone can be bothered: 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010Am I looking forward to 2016? Less than 24 hours to the Sherlock Special broadcast, hell yes I'm looking forward to ( Read more... )

Our Christmas celebration this year was low-key as usual. The fact that the kids managed to sleep till 7am despite all the excitement the night before was a good start. They eagerly checked out all the small gifts and chocolates that they got in their stockings, rushed through breakfast, and then just about managed to sit still for a family photo ( Read more... )

Just two days more to Christmas. For some reason I've been much more organised this year - all the gifts have been bought and wrapped, the Christmas and Boxing Day menus have been planned, the gifts of chocolate and wine given to our neighbours and the concierge, and as I type this the Christmas cake is fresh out of the oven, cooling and ready to ( Read more... )

Nearly three months into the school year, and today is the first time I managed to get both kids to school on my own without either of them being late. The first time. Bao is usually the one who's late, since she gets dropped off after her brother, so if we're already running late it all snowballs from there. Luckily her nursery doesn't really make ( Read more... )

To my dismay, The Bun has started telling jokes at home. To me. Oh lord ( Read more... )

J is now in Nairobi and I am holding the fort for the next week or so until he gets back next Sunday. Beyond the more-frantic-than-usual morning school rush, life goes on as normal. We're lying a bit lower than usual because of the raised terror alert in the city; we live quite close to one of the key areas, and school has upped security and has ( Read more... )

It was last-minute, but J managed to get me a Coke-themed advent calendar so that I would have something to open along with everyone else. Inside it are mini cans of Coke (what else), magnets, cookie cutters, and other random bits. After dinner every night all of us open a new window in our calendars, the children eagerly swooping in to eat their ( Read more... )

It's the final stretch to the end of 2015! The kids have enjoyed starting on their advent calendars... because they are filled with chocolate. I can't be bothered with the Lego and Playmobil advent calendars this year because they never get played with and it's just a waste of money and plastic. Last year's Playmobil one is quite festive looking ( Read more... )

Our London trip turned out better than I expected (that's me, the travel pessimist, hi!), but that's because I was IMMENSELY wary of mixing Bao and large cities after our disastrous trip to Paris more than a year ago, when she was about seventeen months old. I never wrote about that trip precisely because it was such a non-trip - all my energies ( Read more... )

I am currently dealing with my third bout of acute bronchitis for this year, oh joy. I would have thought that living in a city with clean fresh mountain air would be good for the lungs (no haze here!) but nope, the moment I catch a bug from the kids, it's back to the cortisones, the antibiotics, and my old faithful friend, Ventolin. The kids ( Read more... )