Back

Bad photo sorry, but we are back. So many things have been happening here...familly stuff, work problems, renovations including our new kitchen as we received the granite work tops today.

The super guys from Easy Plan de Travail came today to fit the granite for the island and other work surfaces today.

I forgot to mention we opened up the kitchen to make a big open space living area beforehand...more to come later.  Changed the floor too.

Back from the mountains

After a three year break we went back to La Grange.  Tons of snow awaited us. O & C didn't come with us for the first time, instead Gaby bought along a friend and MK her rabbit.

A great holiday had by all, good food, lots of skiing, time for books and games of chess. Even managed to watch Lord of the Rings again.

Probably last time staying at this gite as it's up for sale, leaving me quite nostalgic after many holiday's here, first time which Alexis turned 7 and now he's 13!

I think La grange will be snapped up fast, and I love Norman & Gabrielle"s home that is up for sale at the same time as the gite, it's just beautiful.

Still talking about 2014

 December 2014, Birmingham UK, best burger and chips for a long time, eaten at  Handmade Burger Co, went with Alexis who still talks about it now.

Best bottle of white wine during 2014, shared at annual team meal at the Shang Palace in Palace.

Summer 2014 in Martinique, super swimming pool, awesome view, but villa a bit of a let-down especially due to the work in progress next door.  Owner did the right thing though and paid us back 500 Euros for the nuisance...

A rabbit called Sweet

2014 wasn't all bad.  Meet Sweet the rabbit who became a part of our family at the end of August.  He was a tiny ball of fur back then, but now he is a giant cheeky rabbit that weighs over 5 kilos!

2014 & 2015

A photo from Summer 2014 in Martinique.  Great holiday but not the best of years. Mum with health problems and one daughter with a broken ankle after getting hit by a car and another with a broken wrist after falling off a sleigh that was being pulled by husky's.

Hard year at work too, and not enough family time.

This year will be different (I hope).  Eldest son in Asia for six months and eldest daughter studying in the South of France which means tidier house and a never empty fridge.

This year we have plenty of renovation work planned and some already done, now we don't have a giant fire place that we can't even use taking up half of our sitting room nor does our house look ugly from the front as we have it re-rendered (cost a fortune and took two weeks to do).

Next week we are having some walls knocked down in the kitchen, sitting room and upstairs in the bathroom.

Soon we will have a new kitchen, parquet floor instead of our horrible tiles and a little later a additional bedroom and a revamped bathroom. Can't wait.

Kodu

We bought some programming books for kids this Christmas and so far we have downloaded Kodu for Kids. I have to admit that I'm really happy with this purchase and MK and Alexis seem to love it already, without needing the book, whereas I do, and I have taken the book to bed to be able to understand exactly what you have to do  to build your own  game.

Presents

 Some of the presents the children received this Christmas this year include a guitar for Alexis.
A furby for MK that drives me crazy and the children too, they even played "operation Furby" on it, but didn't get round to dissecting it (just yet), just taking the batteries out covering him with cling film!

They have a new gamer PC that we keep downstairs so we can monitor how much time they play.
We have bought some programming books for children too, more to come later
Also a present for all the artists in the family is due to come this morning, so it's quite exciting.

Meanwhile, Alain has arrived in Walvis Bay this morning and will sail and while performing tests until the ship arrives of the coast of Nigeria for its operation.