Exploring our options

So, after our wonderful holiday to France in August, we are pondering a serious question….

Should we sell up and move to France?

There are a wide range of reasons why we might want to do that, and just as many reasons why we shouldn’t, so I am attempting to unpick them and explore them all as carefully as I can. I’ve been talking to a wide range of friends and family to try and understand lots of different perspectives and get a sense of whether or not it would be the right thing for us.

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August

Holiday mode in full swing!!

First week of August we went camping with a bunch of friends. It was wet and damp and windy mostly, but the sun came out occasionally. The kids loved it in spite of the weather (they always do because camping is fun!) and we packed in a lot. This year I brought S’s friend along as at 12 she is quite a bit older than the other kids and needed someone her own age to entertain her. Adding in more children means more stuff and less space in the car so we got a towbar fitted and borrowed a friend’s trailer. It was my first time driving with a trailer so I was a bit nervous but actually now I feel like a superhero after loading up the trailer and roofbox all by myself and driving it there and back! Feeling like an extremely capable goddess at the moment…

We were forced to spend a wet, grim day out at the Tank Museum, because a) it was dry and indoors and b) nothing says a family camping holiday like a realistic war simulation (yes there were actual trenches too). We also spent a wet rainy morning seeing the Barbie movie at the cinema (which was fab), and another damp and windy day out at the arcade on the seafront!

We also got a couple of decent sunny-ish days at the beach for sandcastles and frolicking and digging giant holes etc. Only a few minor strops and grumps from the children. The best one was when the exhausted and over-excited 5-year old handed me her enormous ice-cream cone and screamed into my face “Mummy it’s YOUR FAULT it’s MELTING!! STOP MAKING MY ICE-CREAM MELT SO FAST!!! IT’S ALL ON MY HAND!!!” and then she ran away screaming hysterically and had to be coaxed back to finish eating said ice-cream.

Another hilarious moment from my friend’s son: “Mummy you have to buy this cereal it’s so yummy” “Well I did buy it once and you refused to eat it, you wouldn’t even try it” “THAT’S BECAUSE I DIDN’T KNOW IT WAS DELICIOUS!! YOU NEVER TOLD ME!!”

We made it home in once piece and after unloading we started all the washing of the clothes and the children… I’ll be catching up on laundry for at least 2 weeks but it was worth it!

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Paris in December

I recently had my first work trip away since the beginning of 2019, almost 4 years ago.

Back in 2019, I went to Afghanistan in January and then to Ethiopia in March (in fact I was in the middle of a training in Ethiopia when I received an email from my social worker telling me about a potential match with A, who would become my daughter soon afterwards).

Since then I had a kid, then there was a pandemic, then I had another kid, so there hasn’t been much of an opportunity to go anywhere or do anything!

This December, I was asked to go to Paris to deliver a training (technically a training of trainers to train up a new cohort of trainers who can deliver our course worldwide).

It was a really fun trip and I had forgotten just how much I missed delivering training!

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An Ode to my MacPac…

As I was recently rooting around in my loft for something, I found my big macpac, and realised I’ve had it for 10 years this year. It’s the best rucksack I’ve ever bought, it has a lifetime guarantee, and it’s EXTREMELY well-made, so I thought it was worthy of a little shout-out.

I bought my matching big and little macpacs in 2007, before going to Nepal for a year.

My big macpac has gone with me to Nepal, India, Malaysia, Singapore, France, Liverpool, South Sudan, India again, Nepal again, Kashmir, Oxford, the USA, The Philippines, Thailand, Australia, Iraq, Jordan, Canada, USA again, Australia again, Senegal, Kenya, Iraq again, and Senegal again.

Other than an unfortunate incident once where my Big Mac got ripped in an airport and needed to be patched (I sent it off to macpac and they fixed it up and shipped it back to me), it has held up remarkably well! In Nepal I used to keep it empty under my bed, but padlocked as my passport was in there, and when I lost the key, I had to beg the locksmith to cut through the padlock carefully not to damage the zip!

It’s incredibly comfortable, exactly the right size, and I love that it unzips like a proper suitcase instead of rooting around in a normal rucksack. I also love that you can fold in and zip up the straps when checking it in at airports so they don’t get damaged en-route.

My little macpac has gone with me EVERYWHERE in the last 10 years. It’s literally my everyday bag, it carries my laptop into work everyday, it goes with me on mini-breaks and weekends, and in addition to all of the countries my big mac has been to it has ALSO been with me to Qatar, Madrid, Italy and Switzerland!

Obviously daily use for 10 years has left my little mac a bit grubby, but considering what it’s been through, it’s holding up INCREDIBLY well! It’s even still mostly waterproof, as I learned after a can of tonic water exploded inside it once in the Philippines…

This little bag goes with me pretty much everywhere, is still sturdy and comfy after 10 years, and it zips onto the front of Big Mac (although I hardly ever do that).

So, all in all, as a fairly frequent traveller, I give these bags 10 out of 10 and highly recommend them for your travelling adventures.

🙂

Weapons training with the French army…

Monday 8th December 2008

Hello again people!
So much to talk about!

With only a week to go before I head home, there’s a lot to do! I have an exam on Friday, and we have to arrange to pay our final rent and bills, which is proving to be very confusing!
Also, last week I went on a really amazing Security training course run by the French Army that was really fun, but also exhausting. Continue reading

A Halloween Faux-Pas!

Tuesday 4th November 2008

Bonjour mes amis!
Ca va? Hope everyone had a bon halloween!
The Bioforce party was AWESOME, and I plan to tell you all about it!
We went to the Chateau de Passins, about an hour’s drive outside of Lyon, which was gorgeous, and they had rented the place from Friday night until Saturday lunchtime. I had arranged a lift with some friends, and arrived to find everyone busily putting up decorations and setting up speakers and kegs etc.
I had been worried that not many people were going to wear costumes, and hadn’t really found anywhere to buy something, so I’d hastily fashioned some ears and a tail out of a cheap hairband and some black socks (That’s the beauty of having been a primary school teacher!).
Anyway, lots of people were in costume, and so I transformed into a cat wearing my sexiest clothes, and frankly looked pretty damn good (if I do say so myself!). Continue reading

The Anglo-Saxon Approach…

Sunday 26th October 2008

Hi again!
Well, things here are tootling along nicely, I’ve now had my first exam (which went ok) and have finished the first module without too much trouble, so fingers crossed I passed!

I’m also learning things at an insanely fast rate – it turns out there is so much I don’t know!

I’ve discovered that the humanitarian world has it’s own little language that requires translating (for example the word “coherence” when used in an evaluation context apparently means “sustainable” – who knew?).
So half of our time is spent arguing over the meaning of words and I have quite an impressive little dictionary with definitions of the difference between a hazard, a threat, and a risk, what constitutes a disaster, and the difference between disaster prevention, disaster preparedness and disaster mitigation! Continue reading

Life in the French Ghetto…

Monday 13th October 2008

Hey everyone,
It has been BUSY over here in the delightful ghetto of Les Minguettes, so get ready for a very long post!
I almost don’t know where to start, as there’s so much to say!

Ok, well I guess the most important things should go first, so I’ll tell you all about my new neighbours. Up until two weeks ago, Bioforce had been pretty quiet, with only us Masters students and a couple of other smaller classes going on. Then the new students arrived, 130 of them, to start their school year training in logistics, project management, administration etc.
Apart from a hefty smattering of filthy hippies (I have soooooo gotten over that look – maybe it’s cos I’m getting old, but it’s like, seriously, have a shower and wash your clothes already!)
but the rest of them are GORGEOUS! Continue reading