A Matter of Choice

 Happy 8th birthday Louka! I know you are very excited that your birthday is here and we hope you have an awesome day. You told me that you can hardly believe you will be 8 as you feel you are getting big fast,  I agree because it doesn't seem like a whole year has passed since you turned 7.  You often say that you don't remember things you did when you were younger, and you don't remember much about your previous birthdays or anything about the years that have passed.  I don't think you will have any problems remembering this year though.  2020 will be talked about all your life so I'm sure you will remember this one. It's certainly been a strange year for you, but you have coped with it all very well.  Last September you started 2nd class in school, although due to covid19 and the lockdown you've not been there since March.   Likewise with your Taekwondo lessons that you started earlier this year, I think you only went to 5 sessions before they ...

On our wedding day Aaron gave an awesome speech , one we can both remember pretty much word for word even now.  It was written in rhyme and definitely one of the highlights of the day.   Since then he has written several other rhymes over the years, usually writing them on facebook for me to wake up to, including this one on our 10th anniversar y and this one on our 14th .  On our 13th anniversary Aaron wrote this.. It's that time of year again when I break into into a poem in honour of my wedding speech so here goes.... So it's now 13 years that you've been my wife and that is exactly one third of your life. But I'm going to be a little bit naughty and remind you again that your nearly 40. We were married in England which was colder and wetter, then we packed up to Cyprus where things got better and better. 2 great kids, our house and our job and a life in the sun away from the mob What more could you ask for i know your thinking, as we sit on the balcony and carry...

Earlier this year Leo turned 11.  It seems crazy to type that, not because it's unexpected, of course they grow older and we all know how fast it seems to happen, but because I'm still here blogging about it.  When I wrote about his first birthday as much as I couldn't envisage his 11th,  I really didn't think I'd also have a blog that was 11 years old!   This year was indeed epic, not because of the party itself,  or the presents but because of the people. The same people that have been to every one of Leo's birthday parties and the people we have always appreciated but never more than this year.  As we approached the day it was unknown whether a party would be possible due to COVID restrictions on the number of people allowed to gather and the lock down measures that had been in place.  I was starting to think how we could celebrate online and have some sort of zoom party but luckily the first relaxations came into place a few days before and we were...

Time for a flashback post.  It was a weekend that wasn't all that long ago yet seems like a lifetime in many ways,  a weekend that had been planned for many months before hand that was supposed the be the start of a series of events.   Unfortunately that weekend was back at the start of March and no-one expected how the year was going to play out after that.    Last November you may have read my post on the fact that two of our best friends were getting married and I was to be a bridesmaid . The wedding was due to be on 23rd May this year and I had arranged several Hen celebrations leading up to it.  Of course the wedding had to be postponed due to the pandemic, which I am gutted about and it's not even my wedding so I can't even imagine how they feel.  We had our weekend away just before the world as we knew it changed, something that I am very grateful for at least.  Once we were in lock down I actually couldn't look at the photos at first ...

Way back in 2011 when blogging was second nature to me, when I wrote several posts a week and joined in with many 'link ups', blog parties and the like, I started a series of blog posts called 'My A to Z'.   In order not to put any pressure on myself and make a promise that I might not follow through I said  "I have no time frame in mind for these - just as and when the mood takes me." Which was lucky as I after starting in May 2011, I managed to get to February 2013 and as far as 'L is for Leo and Louka'  I'm pretty sure I had at least a vague idea of what I would do for each letter,  assuming I would struggle towards the end but maybe I didn't believe I would make it that far.  Reading back through old posts now is very strange for me,  I always want to go and edit them, mainly to make them a bit longer as they all seem so short.   I was always worried about waffling on too much and them being too long, which is strange as that doesn't se...

So 2020 isn't working out quite as I imagined back in January but we are doing fine and muddling through.  On one hand it seems like not much has gone  on this year, certainly it has been quieter than expected, however looking back through my camera roll it is surprisingly full of beach photos.  We have been to the beach more so far this year than we usually manage,  partly because they have been quieter than usual, assuming you pick your beach and the time you visit it well.   Also because I am appreciating the fact the we are able to,  that we are healthy enough to, and that we have opportunity,  and because it is a cheap outing with a bag of snacks and drinks from home.  In almost 11 years I had only been to a handful of beaches round here, something that always bothered me because I'm just so nosy and want to see everything. I love the beach - when I'm there, but only for a short period of time. I couldn't imagine spending a whole day on ...

It's R2BC time! If you're new here that's Reasons to be Cheerful!   It's been a good week so I thought it was time to join in again.  Not that I haven't been cheerful, but my slight plan of lockdown blogging went the way of many other good intentions.  So here's a few of the things making me cheerful this week... Although the lockdown measures have been gradually lifted since 4th May, we have been waiting patiently for the go ahead to use our pool. It has been crazy trying to work out if we were allowed to use it or not as there was so much conflicting information out there. As well as for our own benefit I needed to know to share the information on the FPN so I had to make sure it was 100% correct, which is not easy when people were ringing the Ministry of Health and receiving opposing answers! Many people just used their pools, and while I was not worried about catching the virus from doing so, especially as it's only us and maybe one other neighbour at th...

Last week here in Cyprus the country started to open up and attempt to get back to some sort of normality after many weeks of lockdown.   Not a huge amount has changed for us personally as the boys are not going to school and we are mainly working from home but it is liberating to be able to go shopping without requesting permission to, and most importantly to be able to see our friends.  We had a lovely afternoon in the park and an afternoon round our friends house,  the boys were so happy to be able to get out and play with their friends.  I am very grateful though that for us, lock down wasn't too terrible.  It sucked of course generally but thanks to us always finding '3 good things' we had some good times among it all and mostly focused on the positive things rather than dwelling on those we couldn't change.  PE with Joe was a lifesaver, especially at first and it started off many of our days on a good note. Louka wasn't so keen but would hang around ...

Since I started my blog I have written a post for boys on their birthdays, it was getting harder to do as they got older and last year I decided to stop at 10 years - conveniently of course as Leo turned 10, but it was a nice round number and also a good time to print them all off and give them to him now he was old enough to appreciate them all.  So this year I've saved myself a job but I can't have a birthday go by without a birthday collage... And a little flashback to his first birthday... For the last few years we have had Leo's party on a different day to his birthday because the last week of May is 'crazy week'.  Due to half term in the UK it's usually the busiest week of the year here in Cyprus for weddings, of course this year is a little different as we still have no tourists but luckily we are out of lockdown and so we can still have a party for him.   Our parties are always very small so we fit within the rules too! Every year I end up retelling the ...

Like most of the world Cyprus has been in lock down since March.  It all happened quite suddenly here, first the schools closed on 12th March, and these were quickly followed by bars and restaurants closing on 15th March and airports and borders closed with exceptions for repatriations who had to go straight into government quarantine for 14 days.  I was really surprised at the speed it all came about, it seemed like one minute people were sharing info on facebook with a list of European countries that were free of the coronavirus of which Cyprus was one, and then the next everything was closing around us.  Towards the end of the week of March 15th,  there had been cafes and bars voluntarily closing,  I was watching the comments and the general mood on facebook as it started to change.  Some were being praised for shutting up and many were being judged and also slated for continuing to open,  it was even said that bars were trying to 'profit from a pa...

I last published a blog post on here at the end of March.  The Cyprus lockdown had begun but had not yet reached the strictest measures.  What a strange time the last couple of months have turned out to be, a time that none of us could have predicted or even imagined just a short while ago.  Like many others I was full of plans, ways to keep busy, and making lists of educational online activities, home schooling plans and fun family activities to do. Exercise plans, jobs around the house and work.  I was going to blog!  (I always say that, but I do still miss the ol' blogging days)  I've not done everything, but I've not done nothing either. While it hasn't all been wall to wall productive time, I'm doing pretty well I think, I'm sure others out there are 'doing better' but I'm even more sure there are many doing worse..... and by worse I don't mean doing less productive things, but fighting with some sort of guilt that they are not 'doing en...

Be careful what you wish for...you might just get it I don't know when I first heard that expression but it was a long time ago and I remember thinking how ridiculous it was,  surely if you wished for something it would be good to get it right? I also don't know how many times since then I've realised just how true it is. This morning I woke up at 6am.  The curtains were open as they usually are on weekdays to make it easier for me to get up for school. I'd left them open for the last two weeks despite the shutdown just so it was waking me up naturally around 7 ish.   Not as early as a usual school day as my alarm is usually set for 6:30am, but not as late as I'd normally get up on a weekend these days. The clocks went forward yesterday, but I forgot how much lighter it would be in the morning so when I woke at 6am it felt later.  I lay there for a while trying to get back to sleep, I tried for about 5 minutes and but restless.   I debated w...

Well, that escalated quickly didn't it? Only a couple of weeks ago the word seemed like a different place,  then schools closed,  followed by restaurants, cafes and pubs,   then 'non-essential' shops and now  we have to text for permission to leave the house (or complete a form when the text message service is not working.) It's a crazy situation and totally surreal. We are doing fine,  feeling grateful for many things knowing that so many people are struggling in so many different ways.   We can't go out to the beach, and we can't meet our friends but it's a small problem compared to many, we can power through. At the start I thought slightly enviously of the people who could lay around watching endless TV, and spending their days exactly as they wished, while we tried to work from home, cook dinners and entertain and educate two over excited kids. Then I realised that they are actually a great distraction, although drive us crazy, th...

When I was going through old folders of photos to make my decade slideshow I came across a set of photos that Aaron took back in 2014.  I'd just started the Famagusta Parents Network as it was called back then and had been interview by the Cyprus Mail, and to accompany the interview I had to send them a photo.  I decided to use the boys as a cute distraction and asked Aaron to get a pic of the three of us.  Here it is... Looks lovely doesn't it, blue skies, gorgeous boys, happily family by the sea.  Just sit down, take a quick photo and then carry on with a carefree family outing.  If you think that you are spending too much time on social media! At the time I used the photo for the article, and I posted it to facebook.   While I've never deliberatley tried to portray a perfect online image by any means, I don't post the bad stuff - who wants to read that anyway, and who wants to look at 100s of photos of the same thing....