Moving along

Yesterday was relatively successful. Moving forward with the kitchen (hotte man coming friday am! and meeting with kitchen guy next week), bought new Dyson vacuum cleaner, fun fun.

Stocked up on beer and wine, in preparation for xmas. Need to think what I can get for the chalet that i can take up now - carrying a frozen turkey up across the snow is no joke. Oh and kids, we are doing xmas at the chalet this year, do not be surprised!!!!

Still buying xmas decorations, after all these years, but they are so tempting :)

This photo is from November last year, looking after two little yorkies for a friend. Memories.

Oh, and my dad called last night to let me know he is in hospital. As normal we had a weird conversation, but I think he is ok, you never know. It is his 81st birthday next Monday!!

So little time...

This is the new chalet kitchen, almost finished.....

Every wednesday, my official day off work, I set myself a list of things to do. This is always longer than the time available, and as I am daunted by it I delay starting for as long as possible. Yes, I know that doesn't help, but its what I do.

So here i am again, on wednesday, procrastinating. From his FB posts, my son thinks he is the only one who does this, but it is quite obvious where he gets it from, bless him!

So off to do battle with the geneva kitchen suppliers. Wish me luck!

Mwah!

time to play

I am exhausted today, not sleeping well twinned with unresolved personal issues. I should be doing housework, and I have done some, but am procrastinating by updating my blog!!

My first photo on the blog!!!

This is from the summer / autumn. After the chairlift closes by the chalet and the mountain bikers have gone, the farmer lets the cows out onto the slope outside our kitchen window. I love the babble of cow bells.

We now have snow on the piste, but it may not stay!!

(proud of myself, to have posted a photo. Little things...)

Off to hoover etc...

Snow?

Yes, here I am sitting in the chalet looking at the snow laden trees outside. Yesterday it did not stop snowing, gentle drizzle all day and its only October. Break out the fondue and tartiflette!!!!

We have a new dishwasher, and it works. We had brought up our old one from geneva, but it went schizo on us. Firstly it would fill up and not drain, then a week later it would drain but not fill up. Very strange. The new one is a very similar design, which is a help as I don't need to retrain people how to use it. You know the people I mean, the ones who claim they don't know how to load the dishwasher, so leave dirty plates etc on the side by it. Pff!

It is time for changing bedclothes on the chalet beds, ready for the new ski season, tis fun but back breaking. And I have discovered that the bunk beds will come apart into single beds. This is a definite plus for me. I will seriously have to plan the rooms now. :D

More soon......

Growing up

Both the eldest children (children being a term used loosely to describe a 19 and a 20 year old) are safely back at their respective universities, York and Durham. Neither have internet in their houses. Liam because it is the first time he has rented and is waiting for all the house mates to arrive before finalising things. Katie because the landlord decided to drop the connection because his son is no longer living in the basement, this at the end of August with about two weeks notice. So both are entering the real world and sorting out their lives. They are so grown-up now, proud but scared mother :)

Still dragging last child into the real world though, and convincing her that criticism is positive not negative. She is getting there, it will be a slow and sometimes cruelly painful process!!

I just love being a parent.

Oooo, went out to friends last night and had an excellent curry, with strictly come dancing as a side dish!! Fab time :) :)

Housework today to bring me back to earth, bleah.

its been a while...

I have just realised that i haven't posted since the beginning of summer. Its not surprising really, it was quite a busy and emotional time.

Holidays.......two weeks in not so sunny Ireland.....ideal for us as we were suffering from 30+degrees here in |Geneva. Liam came out of himself and took himself for walks of discovery, coming back with a camera full of photos. He mainly stalked herons, but he def had fun. Sarah enjoyed herself, especially the spa treatment we had together. And the last week in Kinvarra was heaven on earth. People are just soooo friendly there. I am sure living there instead of visiting is different, but still we had a blast and now know all the counties of Ireland and their car number plate codes (struggled with the K's a bit but got there in the end...Kerry, Kilkenny, Kildare, and hohum I forget).

Katie, the eldest daughter, ended up having a mare of a summer. Very emotional and exhausting. Still not quite resolved, but hopefully will be soon. She is my rock when she is here and motivates me to be a better person. She does like shopping though, and I am now on several missions for her, mainly involving clothes from Kookai. :)

Both the older children went back to uni this last weekend, and both have to organise Internet for themselves. They are so grown up now, its scary. Liam of course left his computer charger behind and managed to take a pair of his fathers jeans with him. Strange boy!

The rush of back to school is almost officially over, and I will soon have time for myself. I seriously need a haircut, and more highlights, or something different.....

ciao H

dog sitting

We have the pleasure of dog sitting for a few select friends. The dog has to be small and well behaved generally. On our list we have Poppy, Lily and Snowball.

Poppy is a Staffordshire bull terrier, black and looks like a seal. She is extremely nervous and not well trained to heel, but loves the freedom of the mountains, and adores snow. Whenever we give her back she sulks a week, this is to tell her family off for not being there for her.

Lily is an adorable Westie, and she barks at anything that moves. During the ski season she sits on the chalet terrace barking at the chairlift, and the passing skiers. In the summer she barks at the cows, the walkers, the vtt bikers, anything. We looked after her for a month last summer, and after a week at the chalet she had lost her voice and sounded like a squeaky toy. Funny!!

We now have Snowball, a bichon frisee, i think. Very well behaved. He has seriously gained weight since we last had him, and we are putting him on a diet. he has a way of looking at you to ask if is ok that he does something, usually going up or down the stairs, or jumping on the sofa. He also has a little grunt, which means he wants something. We are ignoring the grunts for now :) He is however the only dog we sit which tolerates our cat, which means that the cat is not locked up in the computer room and we dont have to go around shutting and opening doors to facilitate the moving of animals without one seeing the other.

Have had a lovely restful weekend, braced for the week ahead.

Katie home soon, she will teach me how to link and upload photos, if i havent worked it out myself by then.

ciao