A Matter of Choice

Who'd have thought it, that the rain would ever cause such excitement.  I've always hated the rain, traditionally the sure fire way to ruin a day for me in the UK  but once you approach the end of the summer and almost 6 months without a drop of the wet stuff and your outlook tends to change! There has been rain recently in Larnaca and surrounding villages but it had been yet to reach us. Today as the first few drops fell I remarked to Aaron that it would probably come to nothing as the first one usually does..... Leo who once said 'I don't like raining, we gonna need umbrellas'  (to be precise 3 years ago this week, thanks to the wonder of 'Timehop')   went a little bit crazy and ran around dancing and singing, oh and doing 'Power Ranger' moves - like you do. I was amused to see look over the balcony and see my Dad standing in the rain, with the garden hose aimed at the gazebo roof, after laughing at him though I did decide to get

Books and reading have always been a big part of my life, some of my earliest memories are sitting on my Mum's lap reading books together. As a pre-schooler I would insist on Mum reading the same books to me again and again, much like my boys to do me (and her!) now.  Often after I had dragged her out of bed at sunrise and run her ragged all day she would be struggling to stay awake once snuggled up reading books to me, her eyes would droop and I'd complain that she was reading my well loved stories wrong! My Dad is also an avid reader too, and our house was always full of books. I also loved our frequent library trips which continued until I could drive when I would go by myself after work. I can picture the library as well as I can my childhood bedroom and I have fond memories of how we would split up as soon as we entered and find each other later on at the desk with an armful of books each.  There was one book Mum and I regularly read, I can't remember the name

Five years ago, sat at my laptop in my parents conservatory surrounded by boxes and with a 4 month old Leo sleeping by my side I started a blog.  I'm not sure why I suddenly decided to do it, it was not something I'd previously thought of doing and I didn't stop to think about it in anyway, I found 'Blogger' signed up paused briefly to come up with a blog name - 'Why the hell not?'  (start a blog?, Move to Cyprus?  one of those two!) and started typing. I had a quick look at the layout and colour options, clicking a couple and I think going with a light brown colour for some reason, no images, no social media, nothing except my first little post - 'Do you want to move to Cyprus?'   I wrote seven posts that first week, to no-one in particular as I hadn't told anyone or shared it anywhere. Looking back the posts seem so short especially when you consider I was talking about such a big thing in my life - our imminent move to a new country

Several years ago after seeing a lovely idea by Lauren at Real Housewife of Suffolk County, I made a 'Leo loves' post and since then I've not missed doing an update post each year. Here is Loukas now he has just turned two years old...

People always say that you never get something for nothing but Tiny Acorns recently proved otherwise with their first Childrens’ FREE activity day.   Sam, the creator of Tiny Acorns Creavtivity Centre wanted to provide the children with something completely different to do that all the parents could get involved in without worrying about the cost, twelve weeks school holidays is a long time and it can get very expensive trying to occupy the kids as they get bored and restless towards the end of the holidays. The aim was to offer the children the experience to try something new, and in the process generate some awareness of the creative businesses that we have in the local area. Many companies were involved in providing activities for the day, along with the craft table, junk modelling and drawing stations set up by Tiny Acorns.  There was tile painting with the staff from ‘I Parea Mikron Filon' nursery    with donations from The Pottery Place, face painting by St Jo

Like many people, a trip to the dentist is not on my list of fun things to do and something I have always put off until really necessary. Over the years I have had a lot of work done and as an adult its not only been an unpleasant experience but also an expensive one! When I moved to  to Cyprus I was even less enthused about it, leaving the subsided NHS behind, figuring out a new system and probably paying more for the privilege  and then I eventually did battle with the general hospital for an appointment after losing half a tooth whilst pregnant. I've used the general hospital since being here for everything from the kids injections, general doctors appointments and giving birth, going private has never been an option when the kids injections are free, and the everything else was just €2 (now €3 for general doctors and €6 to see a specialist).   The treatment itself was ok but the fact you cannot make a appointment is a nightmare and saw me sitting on a hard plastic chair o

It's almost mid September and you can feel the change in seasons approaching, the skies are still blue, the sun is still hot and temperature are still high during the day, but the schools have gone back and the tourists numbers slowly start to decrease, there is more of a breeze in the air and the white fluffy clouds start to reappear in the sky. The swimming pools start to cool, and the wind gives you goose bumps when you get out, the sea no longer feels like stepping in a too warm bath.  The nights are drawing in but it no longer makes me sad like it did many years ago, it makes me look forward to a Cyprus autumn with its slightly cooler days and the chance to wear clothes long discarded to the back of the wardrobe. It's a chance to walk again, to go to the park and to not worry about the intensity of the sun and to always be on the lookout for a bit of shade. It's the chance to enjoy the beautiful September skies..... Linking to The Gallery - this week&

Although I still love my little blog, my new 'baby' the Famagusta Parents Network is the thing that just can't help but spend more time on at the moment - it's like the younger baby that accidentally takes more attention while you throw the older one a biscuit and put the tv on. I have all good intentions to write here and then I sit at the laptop and the words don't come so easily. I saw this post by Karin at Cafe Bebe and thought it would be a good place to start. Inspired by Bug Bird Bee, 'Right Here, Right Now'  is a monthly insight to where you are, what you're thinking and what's going on in your life. Currently I am : Balancing, managing two blogs and a magazine column, entertaining the boys whilst encouraging to entertain themselves and play together, dealing with the heat and humidity which has been hard going over the last couple of weeks and trying to come up with interesting things to do, dinners to eat and inexpensive places to go

I've lost count how many times I've recommended the Reading Eggs website to people since discovering it 2 years ago but just in case you're not one of those people, I'm going to do it again! Reading Eggs, I thought would be a great assets in helping Leo not only develop a love of books but also to read English seeing as he won't be learning English at school for a year or two yet.  At the age of three he loved to play on my laptop, usually on the Thomas the Tank engine website but I introduced him to Reading Eggs using a free trial offer.    He loved it and over a long period of time merrily worked his way up to lesson 120, pretty much abandoning poor old Thomas and sticking to this instead! Now it amazes me to hear him reading, books, adverts, you name it he's giving it a very good shot and usually figures it out.  He still loves Reading Eggs as there is so much to do on the site, and it doesn't feel like learning - the only problem being was having