A Matter of Choice

This weeks  Gallery  prompt is Emotions . They have also joined forces with the Writing workshop at  Sleep is for the weak  something which as yet I've not been brave enough to attempt! For years I've wanted to swim with dolphins, I can't remember when I first realised it was something you could do, it was certainly before going to the Caribbean for a holiday rather than the "Med" seemed like an option open to "normal" people   We went to Mexico for our honeymoon in 2004 and one of the organised trips you could go on was so swim with the dolphins. It was an amazing experience. The part I was most looking forward to was the bit where the dolphins pull you through the water whilst you are holding onto their fins, everyone lines up on the floating platform and one by one you enter the water so the dolphins can take you the middle of the water.  Once everyone is in the centre they have a play, the trainers get them to jump and swim amongst everyone, it

Dear Weather, I know I've given you a hard time for years, you've been too cold, too wet, too windy and generally rubbish and unpredictable to me for years in the UK. I don't mean to complain now but I'm really  trying to get used to this hot sunny stuff which I've found out means it's summer. I'm really hot, but it's all good honest and I'd rather it this way, just maybe could you share it about a bit and send some to England, there's more than enough here and perhaps we could share? from a slightly sweaty Emma Dear Leo, Well done little man for learning to say "ta" it's adorable and very polite, especially as you are doing it unprompted when given things now. I think you are going to be walking soon too as you are really starting to get the hang of "cruising" along the sofa! From your loving Mummy. Dear AJ, Thank you, for working so hard to look after us and for wanting to move to Cyprus. I admire you for be

This weeks Gallery prompt from  Tara  is  Creatures.  This is Ellie our dog that we had to sadly find a new home for last October just before we moved, being mainly black she did not do well in the heat, especially as she always insisted on sunbathing until you could hardly touch her coat! Ellie came to us from a dog disliking  friend of mine who had been persuaded to re-home her by her kids in a moment of weakness, it turned out that the kids were also non-fussed about her and eventually they all decided she had to go. I have grown up with dogs and AJ had always wanted one so she was a welcome addition to our family in 2003. She is a lovely friendly mad thing, always nicknamed "The Puppy" despite being about 10 years old due to her excitement and energy for everything. I've been asked since if I know how she is doing in her new home, she has gone to a friend of a friend up in Cambridge, apart from hearing that she settled in well I have heard no more....actuall

We live on the east coast of Cyprus, in Derynia almost on the  Green line  which divides the Republic of Cyprus (South) from the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. I don't wish to enter into the politics of the island, the invasion in 1974 is still very recent to most Cypriots and I don't know enough about it to be able to get involved in any kind of debate. (You can read more about it  here , should you wish to know more) Our apartment overlooks  Varosha , the 'Ghost town' of Cyprus, I've had many a walk with the little dude around the village since arriving here, not so much now - it's just too hot to go out walking with him strapped into his buggy now. Here are some photos from my springtime walks - note the lovely greenery, long gone now with the arrival of the hot summer. One of the UN checkpoints, as far as you can go in Derynia. 75% of the village is in the buffer zone.  Looking into the buffer zone, note the barbed wire.

The thing I miss the most I didn't even use in the UK. For years I had planned and pictured life with a baby and a big part of that picture was Mother and baby groups and various activities. Don't get me wrong I am not the "pushy mother" type - I'm just the organised mother type who likes a but of structure to my week! When Leo was born I looked up all that was available, most things at the time he was too young for, and then at 6 months we moved. I could have gone to "Baby bounce and Rhyme time", Music groups, baby sing and sign, Mother and baby meets, baby sensory....the list is endless. After hours of trawling the internet I eventually found one, yep just one baby group here.Jingle Jangles - a music group for 6months to 3 years. I joined in March and loved it, problem is at 35 euro a month for an hour a week now we have more month than money (more musing about that later!) it's an activity I cannot justify doing. It is a great group and I met

Happy father's day Dadad! (in case you are wondering that's how Leo says it, I haven't got a typing problem!) This year is AJ's second father's day, last year Leo was only a few weeks old. My present to him was a "Daddy Cool" t-shirt and a phot keyring with this picture in it.  This year I was brave (well, I was talked into it by a friend) and let Leo loose with some paints and we created a card and a desk sign for him. It was very successful actually, no paint was eaten, and we ended up not that  covered in it, well apart from a couple of purple highlights in Leo's hair.  Here is the finished result....

Today would have been my brother Scott's 34th birthday, I never met him as he was born on 18th June 1976 too early and only lived for 3 hours. As a young child I moaned at my mother for the fact I was an only child and was the only one of my friends not to have a brother or sister, I can't imagine that must have been easy for her to hear. I was still young when she told me about Scott and some years later she had his birth certificate framed and displayed alongside our family photos so he is still a part of our family. I told my Mum that everything happens for a reason (very philosophical of me at a young age!) and that had he survived I wouldn't be here. There would only be 16 months between us and as she didn't fall pregnant easily with me I think that she would have left a longer gap before really  trying for number 2 (especially having one myself now!) I don't doubt that given the choice she would have had more than one child but the second child would have

This week's prompt from  The Gallery  is Motherhood. It's taken me a couple of days to think about this one and even still I don't feel there are the right words to describe what motherhood means to me, I could come up with many different words but I don't feel I would have done it justice. Looking through my pictures, (and that takes a couple of days!) I was having a hard time deciding, until that is I came across this one. During my pregnancy I had planned to breastfeed, I had a couple of bottles which I planned to use after a while with expressed milk, and had NO formula (hence the  midnight dash to buy formula ) but breast feeding didn't happen. I decided before Leo's birth that I wouldn't beat myself up about it if it wasn't working for us and apart from a slight hormonal wobble I didn't. Obviously breast milk is the "ideal" as it's designed for the purpose but I have a healthy happy little boy who doesn't seem to be dis

Ok, I'm going public... I have a love of really bad music, not just a bit rubbish but really bad. I even know the songs are bad and in the rare event someone agrees with me and says it's good I have to disagree with them an point out that it is actually terrible but for some reason I  still like it. AJ says I have a bad music gene in me! So imagine my delight on seeing this post by Emily O over at Babyrambles I like three of her five, and I'd never heard of one! (to see her five click here Five songs I shouldn't like but do) So I thought I'd share with the world some of the songs I hate to love, what's quite depressing is the fact that I've been thinking about this for a couple of days - there's a lot of terrible music to choose from don'tcha know. In no particular order Buck Fizz, Making your Mind Up I remember dancing around my front room to this at the time, I was only four though so it was cute rather than worrying, whenever I hea

Some weeks ago Tara at  Sticky Fingers  started a weekly photo showcase and with my love of pictures I though it would suit me down to the ground.  Here in her words is what it's all about..... The Gallery If you're new to The Gallery, here's the brief: I will give you a prompt, an idea, a notion and you go out and take a photograph using that prompt. Or just use a photo you already have. The prompt could be one word, an object, an idea, a phrase, anything, and you have to post a picture which you feel represents that prompt. Post it on your blog and write about it. That's it. This week's theme is Still life and I thought with my weather obsession this would be perfect. This was taken this afternoon, it's been about this temperature for a while and I love it! It's great to know that it's summer, and it will be summer for months. I know in England we all moan about the weather but I hated it, really hated it.  I'd be so confused on a hot su

It's been a long week this week, one which started off by my discovery that there was more month than money left in the bank, not great two days before a party! Fortunately we were saved by a good friend of ours and cake ingredients, jelly and beer (well, if you're going to be outnumbered by toddlers you may as well have a drink or three!) were purchased and all was well. The party went very well, the birthday boy seemed to enjoy himself and in fact all the kids seemed to play very nicely. He ate loads of food, and ended up wearing lots too! Then happily crawled around playing with his friends and lots of new toys. It was Sunday that it all went downhill, after a nice family afternoon round the pool Leo woke from a nap feeling very hot and was not  a happy bunny. I ended up being up most of Sunday night with him. He woke about every 10 - 20 minutes, despite being "calpol'ed up to his eyeballs and with a combination of air con and fan near his cot. Monday morning