Bells

They love tying bells on animals around these parts. If they can catch it they tie a bell on it. Horses, goats, cows, sheep, llamas......
I get the thing with finding your animals in the mountains but why does a cow in a tiny paddock need a bell?
Maye they just like the sound?
I'm buying one for my cat because I don't own a goat or a cow. I might get one for the dog too.

Interview with a 4 year old (and also a 5 year old).

Or should that be Interview with a number 4 because Mr I4 insists that he is a number 4 not a 4 year old (yep, my boy is a little odd - who woulda guessed?).
He's not the talkative one (Y5 can talk underwater. I once saw a stream of bubbles as he was chatting to his swim teacher and she asked him to put his head under the water) so it would have probably been easier to interview his brother.

What is Australia?
I dunno.

Do you know where Australia is?
In the sea.
In the South East.

What do you like about Australia?
It has all of my toys. We have a red car and a black car and because my school is there (CC).

Are you looking forward to going back to Australia?
Yes, because my bike is there. Are you riding bicycles Mum?

What's a bicycle?
It's something with pedals


What do you do with pedals?
You bicycle with them.
There's a funny road there with 8 lanes on the way to Parramatta.
I miss Australia.

Why do you miss Australia?
Because we went to France.

What do you miss about Australia?
Because I never see it, because my friends are there.

So, are you looking forward to going back to Australia?
Yeah.

What are you looking forward to?
I want to drive and bicycle.

Do you drive in France?
Yeah!

Tell me about driving.
I drive to all of the places. I drive fast and slow.

How do you drive safely?
I turn at the corners, I turn the steering wheel, I go over the bridges, I go around round-a-bouts. Sometimes BJ spins the back wheels!!


Do you have any specials words for your fans?
Nothing!!!


And now for an interview with Y5 because he felt left out.
Most of the clothes in Yasin and Imran's cupboard mysteriously fell on the floor last night. Yasin is the primary suspect.

Can you tell me how the clothes got on the floor of your room?
Because they were all in the cupboard and it was too heavy on the top and they avalanched to the floor.

Did you trigger the avalanche?
What's triggered?

Did you start it?
No but it happened and now I'm going round in circles *turns in circles and flaps his arms*.

Where were you when it happened?
It happened a long time ago at night time.

How did the clothes get so far from the cupboard in the avalanche?
I don't know. They were all heavy at the top and then they all fell down.

Could you have stopped the avalanche?
No. I could have got stuck in the clothes and agghhh, agggh, *waves his arms about* help Mummy. I'm stuck!!

Okaay...
Moving on.. Do you know what Australia is?

No. Mummy what is the blue button for?
I want to talk about bicycles

O.K. Tell me about bicycles.
Your feet bes the engine, and they go along, and you get run over if you're not careful, and there is a line of bicycles aaand tookus.
Did you type tookus?
No.
Well type tookus for them.
Make it with a triple O

Where do you ride bicycles?
In Australia. Are you saying it to somebody else or us? Is it for our friends and cousins?
(clearly I'm no longer in charge of this interview)
Write waagh!! Give me a boos (kiss)

Do you have training wheels?
I use 2 training wheels. Are we sending it to everyone in the world?

The interview was terminated at this point.


Thanks for tagging me Sarah. It was fun interviewing my little monkeys. And now Ima gonna tag
MrsB and lulu.

Congratulations!!

Congratulations to Y5 and I4 who have both earned the right to bear poles.
This is a big deal - they have been nagging me about poles for 4 months now. Today they both passed the 1ere etoile test which means that they can move up into the 2ere etoile class that uses poles.
For I4 this is a bit more of an achievement than for Y5 because he had to pass the test his class did and then the test that Y5's class did.

Goelands Agressifs

Don't be fooled by the fact that he has only one leg. This isn't the kind of disabled seagull that you feed your chips to.
No, no, no. He is a psychotic, vicious, highly aggressive seagull.


As if being freaked out by the bad vibes in the prison isn't enough the Ile d'If is home to the Gabian (AKA the Yellow Legged Gull)

The peeps in charge of such things have erected an information board about the gulls. It includes the usual fascinating details such as wing span (4 ft!!), appearance (just like the one flying around giving me dirty looks), endangered status (no longer in danger), breeding habits (lays 2-3 eggs in April and becomes highly aggressive). All very interesting, especially in light of the fact that it is April and there is a nest about a meter from the board *doh*.
I took a picture and beat a hasty retreat. Getting attacked by a giant angry mama gull is not on my list of things to do whilst in France.

They're everywhere!!! EEEEK!!

And they eat pigeons!!! WTF!?
(Don't click on the link if you're squeamish)

The Count of Monte Cristo

I'm reading it again. Why? Firstly because it's awesome and secondly because we went to Marseilles and visited Chateau d'If.


It was an awful place. It looks rather lovely from the sea but once I was inside it it gave me the heebie jeebies. I4 was vibed out too and despite being reassured that no-one is locked up there any more he was keen to get out.

The central courtyard. Those are the luxury cells; one tiny window and a fireplace.


Kinda like Sienfeld's door only not funny.


I4 shows his happy face.

The Cat Who Walked Across France

I found this awesome book while I was browsing Amazon (I do lots of window shopping* at Amazon).

It's about a kitty who lives with an old woman by the sea. One day the old woman dies and the kitty is bundled up with her furniture and sent to the town where she was born. The cat is neglected so he sets off in search of his home. He eventually arrives back at his home and finds warmth and love again. It's kind of melancholy and moody but the happy ending makes it work. The story of a cat driven by a memory of love and place is pretty universal but the illustrations are more specific. The cat travels from Rouen to St Tropez via some of the most memorable natural and built landmarks in France.


The art is awesome, kind of Impressionistic but with bolder brushwork.



Me and the boys have a scheme to visit all the places the cat traveled to. So far we have visited St Tropez, Mont Blanc, Montagne Ste-Victoire, Paris and Pont du Gard. So we still have to tick off the Canal de Bourgogne, Chambord and Rouen.


*I love the French expression faire du leche-vitrines - to go licking windows.

Spring has sprung

Spring has sprung
the grass has ris
I wonder where the birdie is.
The birdie's on the wing.
Nooo, that's absurd
the wing is on the bird.

Sorry, my father is fond of that particular rhyme and I figured that it's my turn to subject some poor innocent to dreadful doggerel.

If it weren't for the fact that spring means it's time to drag myself back to Australia I would be loving it because it's really a very gorgeous time of year. The days are long, the sun is shining, the trees are starting to blossom, the squirrels are out and about.


We went for a walk in the woods. There are 2 small boys somewhere in those trees.


Yasin found a snail shell. He freaked out a bit when he realised that a beetle had found the shell before him and made a home in there.


We decided against following the path any further. I might ignore a stop sign and a locked gate but never a red shirt tied across the path.

Found it!!

I just spent 10 minutes trying to figure out where my title vanished to when I removed the picture. I finally figured out that because it was black and my background is black it was there all along *doh*
What a doofus!!!

Way back.....

Lulu at Unperfect Life asked what they did before 'the position'.



Apparently they glided through the air a-la Mary Poppins. This poster is everywhere in the Alps and it makes me happy every time I see it.

The original fetched £17'500 ($A 28,800) last year when it was auctioned at Christie's.
You can find the zoomy image here.



It seems that they also poled down the hill looking tranquil and just a wee bit stoned.

I found a couple of youtube clips of people skiing old school too. I have no idea how they did it. Warren Miller recently got together a pile of old school equipment and the best big mountain skiers he could find and they could barely turn on the old wooden gear.
Article here

Just a boy and his Dad

Our house.....

In the middle of our street.......

I thought it might be about time I posted some pictures of our home and the little village it is in.
We're about 5 minutes drive out of town and I like it like that. It's going to be tough adapting to living in a town again. I've become accustomed to peace and quiet (except when Kieth next door cranks the Country and Western on date night).

Ah ha, ah ho, tracks in the snow.



Bee having a Sound of Music moment in the meadow under the village.


Playing with the panorama again. Looking up at the village from the meadow.



The road at the bottom of the village. The white dog has just had its annual haircut. We barely recognised it.


The neighbour's trees.


The boys love this van - it has been parked beside the road to the village for a long time now.

The Position!!

One of the things I love about our little town is it's enthusiasm for pyrotechnics. Every time it snows we wake to the sound of ski patrol getting happy with the dynamite and at other random intervals they have flare runs and fireworks for pretty much no reason at all.

Not so long ago we noticed that the road had been covered with snow and a giant "Squaw Valley" finishing line was at the end. We were a bit excited by the prospect of a race and slightly confused as to how a north American resort had a finishing line so we asked a few questions.

"It's tonight, for Jean Vuarnet"
"Who?"
"Jean Vuarnet, he won the Olympics"
"Ah, ok, Vancouver"
"No, Squaw Valley. He invented the position"

At this point the woman we were talking to demonstrated 'the position'

Ahhh...... of course....... 'the position'


So off we went to celebrate 'the position' and Jean Vuarnet's 50 year old win.



Some instructors from the boy's ski school held flaming torches while other instructors skied past with flares.

Then a few people whizzed past in 'the position'



Then there were fireworks.

It was wonderful. The boys loved the fireworks and Bee and I were so in awe of the randomness of it all that had to hold our sides.



The next day we found discovered that not only had they blown some stuff up and carried fire about they had put a statue up as well. According to the town website this is the Jean Vuarnet sculpture depicting his trademark tuck “egg” position.


They even have 'the position' on the Evian bottles.

Snow in Spring!!

W00t!!!

We woke up to this and the sound of ski patrol bombing the hills.

The boys posed for a photo.

I4 had his first taste of powder and loved it.