A Matter of Choice

On Saturday we took Leo to his first firework display. I was unsure how he would react to them, given that he had a fear of thunder last year but he loved it. Firework displays are very few and far between here in Cyprus, there are very strict laws on the use and buying of fireworks so they are basically limited to the displays on the English army bases,  that and the fact that it's an English tradition. Someone last year actually posted on facebook - Why don't the Cypriots celebrate Fireworks night?  My response was to ask them why they would be celebrating Guy Fawkes night! There are two displays, one at Dhekalia and one at Ayia Nikolaos.  We went to Ayia Nikolaos as it's a bit closer to us and was free and we didn't know how well Leo would react to it.  Next year I'd like to go to Dhekalia as it's held on the beach! My friend and her son came with us and the boys both loved it, we waited quite a long time for the fireworks to start so it was n...

There has often been debate between Aaron and I over who you can class as friends, I am often known to mention something about a friend in conversation only to have him ask me 'Do you mean an 'actual' friend or some random person on the internet?'  I am the first to admit that I spend a lot of time online and through blogging I have made many acquaintances via twitter, facebook and forums and I can agree that many of them could be classed (in the nicest possible way!) as 'random internet people' However, there are 3 bloggers who I do class as my friends, the fact I haven't yet met them is completely irrelevant!   Jenny , Lauren and 'Me' (as in 'The Boy and Me ),  and yes I do realise the irony in having a friend with no name!) are three people who would definitely make it onto my Christmas card list. The three of them got to meet up recently at a blogging event in London and I may have sulked just a little bit that I couldn't go too! (not ...

It's quite a rare thing here in Cyprus to find somewhere that is totally 'buggy friendly'  annoying for a country that welcomes children so much! It's not impossible to find a nice place to walk though and one such place is just a short drive from us. Last week while Leo was at school I took Louka down there for a stroll along the Pernera beach path.  Leo loves the path too but it made a nice change not having to chase after him and it reminded me of the first year we were here when I often used to walk it with Leo in the buggy.  It felt like a long time since I'd been out walking, the heat and baby bump were a really bad combination for doing anything at all this summer!  Now the weather is starting to change and it's a great time of year, not too hot but still often shorts and t-shirt weather, at least during the day.  The beach path is a great walk, running all the way from Pernera to Protaras and is paved or decked all the way along so makes a ...

Yet again its been ages since I joined in with Michelle's Reasons to be Cheerful, that's not to say I haven't been cheerful though, I've had my moments...  including one of the best reasons in the world - the birth of my second gorgeous boy!    Which is also happens to be the main reason for not joining in for so long as I've not been blogging as much! So, what's making me cheerful right now? 1.  I got up this morning to a lovely parcel from one of my best blogging friends The Boy and Me  I won a bracelet in one of her giveaways and it arrived this morning along with a lovely card and gift for Louka.  I'm really touched that someone I've never met in real life (yet!) would do something so lovely.  Not only that but the bracelet is gorgeous and will always make me think of the day Louka was born as the tweet telling me I'd won was the last one I read before going into labour! 2. Aaron has finished work for the winter, after working for ...

Love it or hate it even in Cyprus where it's not widely acknowledged you can't avoid the fact it's Halloween, so it's no surprise that this weeks Gallery theme is 'Frightful'  It didn't take me long to figure out what photo to dig out the archives... Meet Scary Clown, aka my husband in his favourite fancy dress costume of all time!  This was his outfit of choice on a adult party weekend at Butlins several years ago. I tried to disown him for the night but as much as we tried we couldn't lose him even in a packed nightclub, you could always tell where he was by the screams coming from random people as they ran away!   

This week Aaron finished work for the winter, he's worked so hard for the last 7 months and we've both been looking forward to his time off.  Aaron is looking forward to spending time with the boys and having some time to rest and recover from working 7 days a week for so long..... I'm just wondering how long to give him before I hit him with the 'to do list' He's going to get off lightly in my opinion  there are few big things I want doing around the apartment but I certainly don't intend to do all the household / childcare jobs on my own now he's here full time too! We do seem to always fall into the same jobs though - emptying bins, cleaning windows and ironing are always down to Aaron,   Mopping and sweeping is usually a joint effort, but there is one thing that is always completely down to me...... Aaron does not do washing up.....EVER. To be fair, I did know this long before we got married and being a Kitchen Designer he knew how best ...

October is probably my favourite month now I live in Cyprus, it used to be July or August in the UK, working on the principle that there was the most chance of a bit of summer then.  The temperature here slowly starts to cool at this time of year, and after the long hot summer (made much longer and hotter by being big and pregnant!) its a welcome relief! Being quite excited by the change of season I thought it would be good to do something to mark it and teach Leo that there is more than just 'Summer' and 'Winter' Last year we made an 'Autumn Tree'  and this year my 'crafty' friend and I decided to make some Autumn wreaths with the kids after seeing 'The Boy' making one. I'm all for simplicity when it comes to crafts and this certainly fitted the bill! Cardboard circles, crayons, glue, ribbon and different coloured paper leaves was all we needed, along with the patience to explain why we there weren't just green leaves. The...

I've been trying to get back on track this week so I've been making an effort to plan all meals to Slimming World friendly and cooking enough to eat them for the following days lunch where possible. We've had home-made meatballs and spaghetti, omelette and chips and one of my current favourites, Spaghetti Carbonara. I've seen many Slimming World recipes for Spaghetti Carbonara over the years but they all use Quark and apart from the fact I can't stand the stuff (have tried SO many different ways of using it but I still know it's in there!) it's not at all easy to get here. I found this one which uses low fat fromage frais in one of my SW recipe books and adapted it slightly It's quick and easy and doesn't taste like a 'Slimming' dinner. Fry roughly chopped bacon in Fry Light for 2-3 minute until cooked Beat an egg, stir in some 'very low fat fromage frais' and chopped herbs. Add to bacon with heaps of boiled spaghetti and ...

This week's Gallery theme is 'Books' I can't remember a time when I didn't read. There have been so many books over the years I'd loved, I have no idea how many books I've read but for each time of life there are always a few which stick out in your mind, even as far back as  I can remember, back to my play-school days.... No prizes for guessing which classic book we were characters from... It was our playschools end of year show, I was the butterfly and all I had to do was crawl out of the cocoon (a table covered in brown paper)  after my friend the hungry caterpillar had crawled into the other side. I was very shy anyway and wasn't very happy about doing it probably but unfortunately, I hit my head on the table as I came out - I can still remember the pain!    I saw my Mum in the audience and ran straight to her crying! No amount of persuasion could get me back on stage, I think in the end my Mum came up to...

A rather random flashback but as we approach the winter season and many people here are coming to the end of their seasonal work contracts there is lots of talk of plans for home improvements (well, mainly from the women whose men will suddenly be off work, not so much from the men themselves! ) It made me think of the biggest and best home improvement we've ever done, with the possible exception of building a wall and creating a bedroom for Leo (when I say we, clearly I mean I made tea and Aaron worked!) When we moved into our first house together back in 2003 the garden needed a lot of work, so much in fact that we left it for several years while we worked out what we could do to make it better.  The problem was a raised section that was separated from the rest by a huge wall that was also on a steep slope and not really big enough to do anything with. After much debating, discussion and drawing of plans we decided that decking the whole thing would be a good ...

It's very hard when following any diet / eating plan to stay on track 100% of the time, the secret is learning how to get back on it, or preferably not veer too far from it in the first place. This hasn't been a 100% week for me, it was my birthday so I knew it was never going to be!  Despite the fact I always joke that cake is syn free on your birthday (well, it should be!) celebrations inevitably  mean the temptation to eat and drink 'bad' things. As often happens I celebrated my birthday over two days, my actual birthday and then a meal out the following day as it was the weekend. From a Slimming World point of view it could have been worse though.  I kept to the plan on the actual day apart from a big chunk of birthday cake and on the day of the meal I kept to it all day, until we reached the restaurant that is! I knew I had the choice, and I could have certainly made better choices in the evening but the fact was I'd been waiting 9 months for a good drink...

This week's Gallery theme is old. When my Mother in law got married she spent £5 on her bridal veil........   Five WHOLE pounds.  Her Mum was not happy and thought it was far too much to spend on something she would just wear once. It's a good job then that my sister in law borrowed it from her Mum for her own wedding and then..... I think it was money well spent, don't you?

Our family have always had a big love of reading and a house full of books, my Mum taught me to read before I stared school and Leo has also caught the reading bug.  He has had his own books and been read to from a very early age - in fact I often read out loud to him from whatever I was reading at the time when he was only few weeks old (it was the only time I got to read and he used to sit happily on my lap and listen) I'd heard many English parents here in Cyprus worry about their child's English and end up getting private tuition for them as they progress through school to keep them up to speed in case they have to go back to England to study at any point.  It concerned  me that there was going to be an extra thing to worry about, but I thought with the wealth of information and resources available surely we'd be able to do it ourselves? I know that it's often said parents should leave teaching to the teachers, in case we teach them 'wrong'. (In fact my...

Apart from the beach and pools there are very few good places to take little ones here in Cyprus. Parks are very few and far between and are usually not all that good and play areas are often a little bit worse for wear - usually sun-damaged and sometimes the toys can be quite dangerous.  So we were quite excited this year when an established restaurant in nearby Kapparis opened up a play area.  Initially we were disappointed that it didn't open until 6pm but realised it would be just too hot to go there during the day.   It costs €6 euro per child to enter and they can stay as long as they wish. We've been twice now in the last month, first for a 'Mum's and Kids' meet up arranged via Facebook for anyone who fancied joining us, and then again on Friday to celebrate my birthday (You know you're getting old when you pick somewhere like this!)  The play area has the best bouncy castle I've ever seen, and a huge inflatable bouncy slide, alon...

If I had to pick one product that helped me the most with Slimming World it would have to be Batchelors 'Pasta & Sauce.  Pre SW (and pre-children) I used to eat at lot of ready meals and processed food, 'Pasta & Sauce' being one of them. When I started the plan I was very happy to find they were 'free' on Green days (or very low in syns for some flavours). Although I started cooking most meals from scratch I found these to be a life saver many times and always made sure I had several packet in the cupboard. Not only were they quick and easy to make I actually really enjoyed them unlike most other SW friendly 'easy' foods.  Handily they are also in the shops out here and they are a sensible price unlike many other imports.  They are great on their own, or with the addition of some herbs or chilli flakes but I also use them to make a 'Slimming World Quiche' You need: One packet 'Pasta & Sauce'  any flavour but To...

After the hugely painful but overall brilliant birth of Loukas I was taken back to the ward. It had two beds but at that point I had it all to myself, with TV and free wi-fi plus a great view I was very comfortable. The midwives took Louka for a few hours so I could rest which was most appreciate. They loved this 'big baby' with his head of gorgeous blonde hair, something which must be very unusual for them. They often popped in for no apparent reason during my stay just to see him! I was quite happy in the hospital unlike when I had Leo where I couldn't wait to get out, although this time I was appreciating the time to rest before starting the new chapter of my life with two children.  Aaron came to see me after work and to meet his second son. He stayed just a short while so he could get home relive my parents and put Leo to bed.  My parents then popped in afterwards as I had not felt up to seeing Leo right away, preferring to be able to greet him properl...