A Matter of Choice

It's Sunday again and my second Sunday photo post in a row! I'm picking more random photos this week,   MY Sunday photo / photos posts have no rules,  accompanied by words, or not if I don't have anything to say  (ok, so that is quite unlikely!)  and not necessarily taken in the previous week,  or even by me, but it will be someone I know of course! Today is the last day of October and therefore the official Summer season comes to an end here in Cyprus.  It's been amazing,  our second full season of working and great fun.  With nearly 60 events this year we have had over 8000 photos taken in our photo booth and more laughs than you could shake a prop at. Aaron and I have travelled all over the island from Agia Napa to Paphos,  Limassol to Nicosia. We have been to so many different venues that I have now lost count,  and seen so many gorgeous views and simply stunning sunsets,  so I thought these would be great photos to sum ...

I was really starting to think that I wouldn't be able to get an interview video from Louka for his 4th birthday as every time I've asked him since his birthday he has refused to do it,   but after almost giving up I asked him again yesterday and he said yes! It's not the best video as he insisted on doing it on his bed (the bottom bunk) so the light is rubbish,   and I also tried to take his 'baby' cup off of him while I filmed but he was having none of that either.   (He does drink from normal cups, he just likes to have milkshake in ones with a lid so he can shake them! Strangely this was not his favourite drink when asked - which it usually is!   Leo always answered with the thing he could see or had most recently done so that answer was a surprise! I love that corrected me when I said biscuits to 'Biscota' as since going to school he always uses the Greek for them. I was also expecting his friend Jaxon to get a mention, but it was very sweet ...

It's almost the end of October and I can now announce that I am out of the swimming pool until next year.  I was last in a week or so ago and although I managed to swim several lengths I wasn't happy unless I was moving,   Leo loves his swimming and being the 'English' baby of the two he can take the cooler temperatures more happily but I think even he agreed it's just a little too chilly now. From April Leo and I swam,  actually I think Leo even managed a little swim in March,   and Louka started to join us in May.  We call him our Cypriot baby (born here in August and covered in blankets by the midwives in 45 degree heat)   as he is always cold and really only enjoys the pool in the hot summer months. This was Loukas year though,  although not strong enough to be on his own out of reach of us or the edge of the pool he has ditched the armbands! With a bit of help and confidence building from his SwimFin he went from not being able to swimat a...

It's been oh so long since the days of my regular 'Silent Sunday' posts,   in fact I think the last one was over four years ago now.   I don't take anywhere near the amount of photos that I used to but I do have quite a collection hanging around,  I don't even put them on facebook as much as I used too,  I still manage to upload them from my phone though, and keep them in different folders backed up and safe online. I opened up the old folders and scrolled through until one took my fancy,  going past loads of sunset and sky pictures, beaches and photos of the kids doing various things.   It may seem like a strange choice compared to all of those but this one jumped out at me today. It was drawn by Leo for me, as he loved that I had taken them to the beach. It's been a while since we've been to a beach now,  we've hardly been at all this year (again!)  as everyone prefers the pool and it's just so much easier and convenient.  But the...

When I was at school walking was the only option to get there and back,  it wasn't far and my Mum didn't drive so there was no debate about it.   My boys schools are both local,  one more so than the other but we have always driven so far.  Loukas is in walking distance but it would mean leaving earlier and as we leave at 7;30 anyway its quite precious time!  Also his little legs mean what would probably be a 10 minute walk gets much longer, and I'm also very lazy when it comes to walking anywhere!   Leo's really is close but as I drive Louka he just gets dropped off on the way past. It had been mentioned about Leo walking on his own at some point this year, to much debate from different people.  As I said, it's really not far (you can see the top of his school from our balcony)  but he does have at least one road to cross, and there is no pavement for some of the way. Many of his class mates walk without adults, and have been doing so in th...

It seems that many posts on my blog over the last year or two have had a similar theme but it turns out I'm not the only one thinking the same,   my long standing fellow blogger and friend 'TheBoyandMe' also feels the same.  I've just read her latest post 'I miss my blog' and it struck a cord with me.  I keep saying I miss my blog, but what I think I mean is I miss the blogging days, the time when it was a joy to write and create posts without much (or often any) thought to what I was writing or why, when there was no thought of how I should 'pimp' the post on pinterest or what time to publish and share for the best results,  when I didn't stop to think about what images to use or how I should edit them,   before I was working and distracted by other online activities and when we only had a few Arabic tv channels to watch.  I realise the problem is over thinking,   where once I'd sit down and type as I 'spoke' now I try to think a...

Last weekend was the second Daxifest - a charity music festival and great family day out to raise much needed funds for local charities KEPA and the SBA Food Project, both of which feed and look after underprivileged families in the area. We attended the first festival held in Achna last year, it was a brilliant day out,  although was not as well attended as the organisers had hoped.  As with most events, especially the first one, and especially in Cyprus of course it was not perfect but they took into account the feedback that came in after the event and made great efforts to improve for this years festival. The promotion of the event, stall prices,  location, entrance fee,  Cypriot entertainment and more were all looked at and amended as the feedback suggested.  So this year I was sure it would be an absolute smash hit - not only a fantastic day out but a huge amount of money raised for the cause. We had a stall with the Klik Photo Booth so we were the...

The new school year starts here! It's been a long summer holiday,  13 weeks of lazing around,   swimming, playing, watching tv, broken up with some great days out and a lot of late nights, and a surprising amount of lie ins! The boys went off happily enough to school this morning,   Leo was equally pleased and not impressed about the end of the holidays,   Louka didn't really seem to have an opinion either way,   I'm sure that will change once he remembers he has to go every day. It's not as big a change as last year, which saw both boys starting a new school.  This year is just a change of class,  Leo into 2nd class and Louka into Prodimodiki (pre-school)  rather than the nursery class.  So new teachers for them both but the same building so hopefully they won't take as long to adjust. We were pleased to discover that Louka has the same teacher that Leo had when he was there,  which made it all feel a bit easier too. I've ...

It was quite tricky listing Louka's 'loves' as they didn't come to mind as quickly as Leo's do.  I looked back at the blog archive to see last years 'Loukas Loves'  and remembered I didn't actually do one - I remembered that I had thought about doing a 'Louka doesn't like' post instead because our happy little soul was always quicker to tell us what he didn't like! I suppose it is good that he has a strong opinion!

Dear Louka,  Now you are four!!   Happy Birthday little man! The day has come, today is your birthday!   You have waited such a long time for your special day haven't you, asking so many times when it would be your turn but we are finally here, you are now four years old! I loved it when you said last week with such awe and wonder ' I just can't believe it when it will be my birthday'  like you could never imagine that it would finally come.  You don't remember your birthday last year so it must be so much more exciting for you after seeing Leo's and everyone elses come and go over the last year.  You have changed so much in the last year,  your vocabulary and general knowledge have increased dramatically.   You have done brilliantly with your swimming, being able to swim a short distance without your arm bands, and even swimming underwater to pick up toys! The skill you have at playing the wii astounds me,  not on...

I was browsing through some old blog posts this evening in an attempt to find some good 'uns to share over on facebook in the absence of me actually having the chance to write some new stuff, and I came across a post from July 2010 called 'The Five Year Meme'.  In it I answered a few questions about what my life was like and where I wanted to be in five years time so I thought it would be a good time to update it (albeit a year late!) Us five years ago.  Where were you five years ago? Five years ago I had lived in Cyprus for less than a year, I had a 14 month old baby,  and knew very few people in Cyprus. We were living in the same apartment as we are now, but had no plans to have a second baby.  Aaron was working 6 days a week in Limassol for a Kitchen company, with one and a half days of a week, early mornings and late nights. I was happy but not yet settled, I loved Cyprus but hadn't found my feet and I was desperately looking forward to a 3 week trip...

Another yearly tradition which started when Leo was 3,  in addition to the 'Interview'   is the Leo / Loukas loves...' post. All these years have passed and still 'Raff' is on there,  with the addition these days of 'Bunny'  his two best 'friends' as he calls them and bed time toys.  New additions for this year are taekwon-do and geocaching, and he is increasingly enjoying photography 'like Daddy'  mainly using his Nintendo DS and playing with the filters and special effects making some great creations.  Of course his main love and most common way to spend his time is attached to a device (much like his mother!)  so video games are high on the list, but swimming always comes up tops!

I had a sudden memory pop into my head today from a childhood summer and realised one of the ways in which my childhood was very different to the boys. It was always an exciting treat to have a paddling pool out in the garden or the chance to play in the sprinkler as it watered the grass, I had a slide in the garden that was also sometimes put into the pool which was even better! The actual memory which surfaced however was how cold the water was, I suddenly had a flashback to a lovely hot summer's day, but icy cold water going to the pool.  I remember the pool being in the bit of the garden that got the most sun, and my Mum filling the pool in the morning so it would be warm with the heat of the sun for the afternoon.  I think she even used to add hot water to get it warmer for me to play in! I loved playing in the sprinkler and remember screaming with laughter as the cold water hit me, playing in it until the grass got too muddy and it was turned off.  Kids seem ...

Earlier this year I started to see adverts for a new family attraction opening in Limassol - Cyprus Land Medieval Theme Park.  I was very interested in what they had to offer and of course just had to go and take the boys for a day out there. Now,  having lived in Cyprus for almost seven years I wouldn't say that I was overly optimistic about what the place would be like.  I knew straight away that 'Theme Park' does not mean theme park in the way you would expect having heard of Thorpe Park, Alton Towers and such like.  I was certain that by thinking along the lines of 'themed park'  I would be closer to the mark. Not that I was going to let that put me off, I will happily travel the whole island to visit something that sounds worthwhile and I knew that my boys would love the knights and enjoy the trip regardless. We arrived at 11:30am,  the park was quiet apart from a group of children who were left by the time we'd completed the first activity...

You may know that I do like a challenge every now and again and so it may be no surprise to you that Aaron and I decided that Klik Photo CY as a company would get our end of the island involved in a brilliant World Record attempt and a charity fundraiser that started off over on the west side of the island. Back in 2006 Cyprus had the Guinness World Record for the longest chain of bras and Aphrodite's Bra Chain are hoping to reclaim the title again in 2017 by collecting over 200,000 bras.   The attempt is being supported by the Guinness World Records and will also raise much needed funds for the Archangel Michael Hospice in Paphos in the process. After the event all the bras will be donated to charities which will repair or recycle them for women in developing countries. I loved the idea and am excited to give people on my end on the island an easy way to be involved, regular readers will know how much I hate the east of the island to be forgotten! Photo Credit: James Walt...