A Matter of Choice

How much magic happens in your house?   Does the Tooth Fairy visit?  Is the Easter Bunny an annual visitor?   Does Santa leave magical snowy footprints, eat mince pies and drink whisky?  (He ALWAYS has mince pies and whisky - no cookies and milk here!)    Will you have carrots left out  for hungry sleigh pullers or sparkly reindeer food scattered outside on Christmas Eve? Do you have a magical Elf that sits on your shelf, and gets up to all kinds of mischief throughout December?  I'm sure it varies but the Easter Bunny passes us by - luckily I'm always on hand to supply chocolate eggs.   The Tooth Fairy is pretty reliable here - only missing one tooth collection due to being ever so busy that night, and of course Santa wouldn't miss his whisky and mince pies in exchange for a couple of stockings here.  No Elf for us though, it was questioned once as to why someone else had an Elf  and I dodged the issue by being reall...

In July I had a great day out with the girls, this time a birthday present for Sam, in fact it was a present from Lucy but Rachel and I got to tag along too so it was a bonus for us!  It was great to have a day out that I had no part in arranging at all.  I had a vague idea of one of the places we were to stop at but the rest was just as much of a mystery to me as it was to Sam.    First stop was just off the Larna ca - Limassol highway just before the village of Klavdia to see the wind turbines.  This is something that Sam has wanted to do for ages and she was absurdly excited about it.   I do admit it was pretty cool though, and not something I would have ever even considered doing so it was great.  The turbines are really difficult to get a photo of, especially to demonstrate just how big they are.  Below you can see Sam standing at the base of one.  Next stop, Panagia Stazousa ,  a medieval monastery in the village of Klavdia ...

Today is the first day in a long time that I have seen a cloud.  Not that I am complaining as such,  after all I moved to Cyprus and who doesn't want clear blue skies day after day? They do make for much better sky photos though.  I was excited to see a cloud in the sky though,  and a little dip in temperature today.  It has been so very hot for such a long time now,  it's actually been record breaking this year with the highest temperature since records began of 46 degrees in Nicosia recently.  I'm eager for it too cool a little and for things to move on (and continue moving on hopefully!)   School returns tomorrow after being delayed by a week at the very last minute due to the heatwave rather than covid issues.    I'm looking forward to not feeling like I need 6 showers a day, to going for a walk, and so much more.  Its time for a new season and some normality to return please, I'm hoping the cloud is the start of all that!...

During lock down when facebook wasn't full of COVID posts there were several question and answer posts doing the rounds,  one was a list of questions to ask your child.  I asked the boys but didn't put it on facebook,  not when there's a blog post to be made of it!  I've had the answers written down for months now so thought I would share.  Leo was first, and as usual was very literal and slightly sarcastic in his answers   1. If you won a million pounds, what would you buy? Nothing because I'm not in England.  2. How long does it take to get to America? Depends from where and how you are travelling. 3. What does Mummy always say to you? "Love you"  or "Leave me alone I'm eating" 4. What job would you like to do when you're older? A good one, that pays well and I enjoy 5. What is the capital of England? 'E'   (then after my rolling my eyes and repeating the question with the word city in it )  London 6. Where do babies come from?...

 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 ...