A Matter of Choice

This year we celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary.  We celebrated on the day (back in August!)  with a child free night out in Protaras.  It didn't go quite to plan, for Aaron anyway but it was a good night out nonetheless.  The plan was dinner and drinks,  I had not long started Slimming World again but decided to try and stick as much as possible to plan with food, avoid beer and cocktails but not worry about how many vodka and diet cokes I was having!  We wandered up and down the strip for a bit, stopped for a couple of pre-dinner drinks and eventually decided on a restaurant (that I now cannot remember the name of), the meals came (two steaks both medium rare)  but Aaron's was not cooked properly and got sent back, twice,  so by the time he actually received an edible meal I had finished mine.  He then had gone off the idea of eating and so we headed back to the pub! After listening to a bit of the duo entertaining wh...

Back in July I rejoined Slimming World, again. For those of you who have been reading my blog for years you may well roll your eyes at this point and say yep, been there done that, and you would be right but I got to target (3 times!)  and stopped going, again. Each time I was sure I would be fine, and of course the weight slowly crept back on, again! You'd think by now that I would realise where I go wrong wouldn't you? Well, maybe I have. So, back in July I joined, again.  There were a few familiar faces from a few years back and I had been  before for a little while with the consultant but it was a new venue for me and I made a point of treating like a whole new start, I even read the book from cover to cover! Like my original SW journey (Argh I hate that expression but can't think of a better description!)  this time my Dad has joined me, and like before he has powered through losing weight much faster than me, but that's fine, I'm very proud of ho...

As I published photos from our 2018 Halloween celebrations I happened to notice a blog post saved in my draft folder,  it turns out it was a  Haloween post from 2016 so I thought it was about time I actually published it! Halloween wasn't widely celebrated in the UK when I was a child,   I don't remember anyone 'trick or treating' or the shops being full of costumes.   It was starting to become a thing in my late teenage years,  I suppose once our generation was getting old enough to be able to choose to celebrate without having permission! I went to Halloween themed pub nights but my first proper party was a children's party here in Cyprus, thrown by my Halloween mad friend Sam.  It was really for our benefit I suppose, as our kids were only 1 and had no idea what was going on,  we made it spooky rather than scary with cartoon ghosts and Disney themed decorations.  We've been to Halloween events,   Cyherbia Halloween events are...

This week's Sunday post is a Halloween special!  I must apologise, Sam, if you are reading this, for cropping you out of the photo but it just lent itself to this! We had our now traditional Halloween get together for the kids - well I say for the kids but the get-togethers go on a bit later these days and include a little more alcohol as we are joined by the men and the kids get less demanding. The 'pack'   (as Leo now calls the 5 children we have between us all)  are less interested in the games we used to play,  happy now to disappear off to their bedroom and do whatever it is they do for hours on end, but they still enjoy a few once we 'drag' them out to be sociable. Hanging doughnuts had been requested once again so that went down well No themed gathering would be complete without a Tiny Acorns craft! And of course, you can't have Halloween without a bit of trick or treating. As trick or treating' isn't done generally ...

For the last few years, we have been working with the photo booth  over Halloween weekend at Cyherbia,  providing spooky photos for the hundreds of visitors they get each year. This year due to wedding bookings we were unable to work it but I did get the chance to experience it as a visitor once again when I took the boys up for a few hours on Saturday. I've lost count now how many times we've been to Cyherbia,  it's been a long time since our first visit in 201 3 - where I pushed baby Louka round the maze in his pushchair,  followed by visits with him on reins (also pushing the buggy for when he got tired - which of course he didn't, but undoubtedly would have done had I not taken it!) I loved every visit but it was hard work compared to now - it was always fun, but I would be exhausted once I got home - either from the effort of trying to keep up with them in the maze, trying to get the boys to go in the same direction, or chasing them around the gardens...

Photo Credit - The Hacks Photography As you may have guessed, my Sunday photo this week is not MY photo but it is awesome and  I didn't take any as I was rushing around trying to get ready for guests arriving at our house for my birthday drinks! The photos were taken in Ayia Napa by The Hacks and show the amazing and bizarre skies we experienced over eastern Cyprus on Friday afternoon. The day had started nicely, and fairly normal for this time of year.  It can be a little chilly first thing in the morning but we are still ok in shorts and t-shirt for the walk to school.  Louka decided to wear his fleece (with the hood up!)  but Leo realised he would be warm enough once we started walking. By lunchtime, as usual, it was hot but as the afternoon progressed the clouds came in and brought the rain with them.  We watched closely after spending time cleaning and rearranging our balcony ready for the evening celebrations.   Without the use of the ...

I love this time of year, Autumn is starting to show signs of appearing,  it's a subtle arrival admittedly as it's still warm enough to swim (once you get in and start moving!) and during the day it is still very hot. Nights are cooling now though,  we've been sleeping with the patio door shut for the first time in months and no fan on - it's not duvet time for a while though yet. Sunrise is usually gorgeous though,  who needs filters when it looks like this... I really don't mind my alarm going off when I get out of bed and see a sky like that. It's a great time of year - still enough of summer but the promise of a new season (and the 'off' season)  is just around the corner, the kids are back to school and routine starts to appear again,  people are looking forward to finishing work, and it's nearly my birthday! ****** My Sunday Photo - doesn't need much of an explanation but back in the day I used to join in with a blog li...

When the boys went back to school earlier this month I wrote what at the time was going to be my final blog post here. I was toying with the idea of keeping it live with that as the 'end'  as I thought it was likely that I would regret it sooner or later if I deleted it completely - 9 years and over 1000 posts is a lot to just disappear like that! I was chatting to Leo about it, about it was different now that he and Louka are older and how it's not up to me to put anything about their life on the internet, about how once it is 'out there' it is out of our hands etc. We spoke about the kind of things I'd written about over the years, and how he is welcome to look at all of it, and if he would like me to take anything down I will do so. I said how I couldn't write as often as I used to, and I don't fancy sharing as many photos and information about what we were doing each week.   We ended up talking about 'blog linky's',  You Tube, Meme...

It's the start of a new era in our family,  not only is it back to school time which is always a big change after 3 months off but this year both boys are in the same school for the first time! Louka has been very excited to go and has taken it all very well so far,  this morning was the first sign of reluctance - saying 'Well I don't really want to go to school today' but that was as much as we got.  Leo laughed and said 'You don't get to choose!'  and he got on with it.  They seem to be very happy so far being together, and its made school runs much easier. No more debates on who to drop off or pick up first, and no more driving!   As school is just down the road we are now walking which I am really enjoying and a great start to the day.  I could write more but after years of oversharing online I'm becoming increasingly reluctant to,  maybe I'm getting older and wiser, maybe it's because I have a much wider selection of facebook...

Dear Louka, Happy 6th birthday little dude! I should probably stop calling you the little one - I know you are not that little any more! A big year for you this year - you finished Prodimodiki (pre-school) and in 2 weeks time you move up to first grade and start your new school with your brother who will be going into fourth grade.  I really hope you enjoy school as much as Leo, and settle in well.   You are very excited at the moment anyway. This year you have changed a lot, so chatty and funny at home and you are much more of an equal to Leo when you play these days.  You have got so much better with playing games, and not always winning,  unless you play Leo, when you are more likely to get upset by losing.   It's like you don't mind not to win, as long as you are not losing to him! Your love of this year has been football, ever since you watched the World Cup with Dad.  I love your conviction that one day you wi...

After taking the boys to bed this evening, I suddenly fancied writing a blog post. I've no idea what prompted this idea after all this time (not counting Leo's birthday post, which I felt I should write, it has been almost 7 months!) I decided not to 'over think' it, not to think about what I *should* be doing, to forget the fact I should  maybe do some ironing, or write a work blog post, or many other things. I always wrote my blog posts on the balcony, and I've missed sitting out there in the evening. Now I have a desktop computer I'm always inside and sitting there just feels like I'm working, we also gave up smoking back in February which means we hardly sit there any more. So, what a great plan it was - grab my laptop, get a drink and throw together a quick post - easy! That was about an hour ago, I got my laptop, of course it was dead as a dodo.  Where might the charger be then? I found it, quite happily in the 3rd place I looked. Fab, plu...

Happy 9th birthday gorgeous boy! For the last 8 years I have written you a letter and published it on my blog, on your birthday. This year it seems a bit silly to do it as I've not blogged for a long time yet on the other hand it seems wrong to break the tradition. So instead I will not publish your birthday letter,  it's for you after all and not the world. I know one day you might not thank me for all the times you've been mentioned on here, I hope you'll forgive me!  Just be thankful that I at least thought it through a little bit and I never put on photos on you in the bath! Of course I have no need to wish you a happy birthday online as I will do doing so in that crazy thing we call real life but as you have grown up with this blog I couldn't let it go! Love you Leo mou!

Many years ago I saw some photos online of a small church built into the rock somewhere in Protaras, I'd often wondered exactly where it was and finding it has been on my 'to do' list for ages.  Walking has never really been our 'thing' especially with several years toddlers or pushchairs and the fact they don't mix well with exploring, but now the boys are bigger it's a lot easier to go 'adventuring'. After our successful geocaching day earlier this month, I decided to give it another go and started searching for our next geocache and was pleased to discover one very close to the church, making it very easy to find.  We ended up going with Sam and the kids, who knew where it was anyway and was surprised to find out we'd only been a very short distance from it when we went out last time! It's a fascinating little place and while it's only a few minutes drive from Protaras and Ayia Napa it feels like it is in the middl...