But just barely. There was a point in the flight when I had just pulled the last toy out of the carry on bag (and Georgia summarily threw on the floor with an insulted shriek...) and I glanced at my watch to see how much time we had left. I honestly, sincerely thought that my watch was broken because it said that the flight wasn't even half way over. I decided, judging by my level of mental and physcial exhaustion + the fact that we had no entertainment or snack food left in the carry-on, that we had about 2 hours left to go in our 9 hour flight. It was only when they flashed the flight info up on the screen between films that I realized that my watch was fine. I was nearly dead from the effort of entertaining the two girls- although mainly from trying to keep my favorite screamy toddler happy- and just had nothing left for the remaining 5 hours in the airplane. I prayed that atleast one of the children would fall to sleep but no luck. And the bitchy stewardesses made it very clear that they preferred to have the baby screeching in her seat to wandering up and down the aisle (which I find baffling but, OK! I'm sort of immune to her high-pitched wailing and was just trying to look out for the delicate ears of my fellow travellers.) It was a Very Horrible Flight and I thank the heavens that I don't have to do the return trip for seven weeks or I might do something desperate like run away and join the circus.
So we are here and atleast the jet lag seems to have been easy. We are up early but no earlier than on vacation in Italy. Georgia did do an extended scream fest between 3:30 am and 5 on Saturday night, but all the family was off at a wedding that night so I just let her scream her heart out. Ella slept through it and I have perfected the art of blocking the noise with a pillow over my head. She did good last night so I think we are sorted.
We did have a fantastic weekend of family fun which is exactly why I come here with the girls for so long each summer. It was my nieces 1st birthday and since her mom is pregnant again (brave girl...) my sister and I threw a party. We had bunting up and balloons everywhere, a homemade ice cream cake, brats on the grill and potato salad, a slip-and-slide, water guns, and a pinata! My favorite part was having my first brat of the summer- soooo good! I had mine on a wheat bun with grainy mustard and sauerkraut. Now tell me that I am not a Wisconsin girl through and through.
While the kids spent the afternoon running from from one water game to the next (hello killer humidity! I had forgotten how hot 'hot' could get) the grown-ups did their best to keep cool as well. We decided that hydration was the key and sucked down several pitchers of this fantastic punch:
Watermelon and Vodka Cooler
Muddle three branches of mint with a spoonful of sugar in the bottm of a pitcher. Throw in a big handful of ice cubes and pour a 1/2 cup of vodka over the top. Add 2 cups of pureed watermelon, a 1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice, 4 shakes of bitters, and 1 1/2 cups of ginger ale. Serve and beware of the danger of getting PHENOMENALLY drunk since you barely taste the alcohol.
Hello summer! Next up: forcing my mother into making a decision on dining room curtains after "thinking about it" for the past year. Getting Ella into swimming lessons. Most importantly- finding an adapter for my computer as the one I brought along is mysteriously incompatible with the computer plug. When did 'universal' start meaning "everything but my damn computer"? Photos to follow.
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Monday, June 28, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
Sardaigne
All in all we managed to have a great vacation in Sardaigne. Clearly, it was not as relaxing as a child-free holiday; in fact, I might go so far as to say that I was more tired when I came home than I was when I left. BUT it was so nice to see the sun and lay on the beach and just do vacation-y things that it was worth it. Ella had a great time. She asked (several times) if we could move to Italy. Georgia ate like a champ and I think she probably downed her body weight in pasta. B was enjoying himself so much that he tried to change our plane tickets so that we could stay a bit longer. Unfortunately we had flown with Meridiana, the Sardinian airline, and it was impossible to get anyone on the phone. When we asked the hotel travel agent if she could sort it out, she spent 6 hours on the phone for us and then gave up, saying, 'Well, they are Italian. Too bad you didn't fly with AirFrance.'
The hotel where we stayed was fantastic for the kids. The kids club was just amazing, as were the girls who worked there. Ella did bowling, tennis, 'trampolini', art projects, swimming, baking- you name it. We took both Georgia and Ella every single day so that we could have some free time. There was also a kids restaurant with tiny tables and chairs, small plastic dishes and silverware, and special healthy kids meals all of it served at times that worked for the kids. We went every night for dinner and then took the girls back to the villa for baths, bottles, and bed. Then, a very sweet lady named Cristina came every night to stay with the girls while B and I took advantage of all the different restaurants and had lovely dinners en tete-a-tete. Almost all the restaurants were open air so we could spend a relaxing couple of hours eating and talking and drinking wine, watching the stars and listening to the waves on the beach. Originally, we didn't think that we would get the babysitter every night (mainly since it cost a fortune!) but in the end, we were having such a nice time every evening that we figured it was worth the cost.
We needed a bit of a treat by the end of the day since the mornings were so rough.
Now, we had what was called a family bungalow. It was nice. It had two rooms, separated by a sliding door. The front part was a living room which we used for the girls. Ella slept on the sofa bed and the hotel brought us a cot for Georgia. The other room was the bedroom and B and I slept there. HOWEVER the floors were tile and the noise from Georgia waking up at 6 am was so loud that none of us really slept much later than that. And since Ella was in the same room, Georgia would laugh and shout 'Ella! Ella! Hey! Ella!' until Ella started to play with her. Normally at home, we can ignore Georgia until she falls back asleep for another hour or so, but it was impossible while in this hotel room. My God! 6 am wake-ups while on vacation! It was horrible. Needless to say, we were pretty much the first people at breakfast everyday.
After doing a tour around the resort, we realized that some of the other areas had nicer bungalows but I didn't look into it enough to notice that when I was booking. It would have been nice to stay in one of the places that had grassy lawns in front of each bungalow so I could have laid out on a lounge chair while Georgia napped (we only had a terrasse). We might have also liked the two-story bungalow so that the girls were a bit further from our room. Oh well. This hotel is so well set up for families that I definitely think that we will go back. It was pricey but I think that we got our money's worth. The only thing that was disappointing about this holiday is that we really didn't see much of Sardinia! We only left the hotel that one morning and saw a bit of countryside on the drive to and from the airport. Apparently it takes ages to drive all around the island- B's dad took an entire month to see all of the island when he visited a few years ago. Anyways, that is the sort of ambitious plan that I would not attempt until the girls are much older.
Oh, and since the first day of vacation was Mothers' Day, the girls surprised me with a brand-new camera! Its a Nikon D5000 which is not one of the models that I had asked for, but I am getting the hang of it. Even with only a quick read through the instruction manual, I managed to take some gorgeous photos of the girls. I think it will work out, although I will probably still be figuring out all the buttons for the next few months. I have two photos in frames on the ledge above my desk and I sit here every evening looking at them and sighing happily, remembering what fun we had.
Of course, now I am in the midst of frantically preparing for our NEXT vacation and am wondering why I am so hot on travelling. Really, what would please me most at this point in my life, is an entire week of calm. No appointments, no schedule, no 7 am wake-up call(or, while we are dreaming, 8 am or even 9 am), no responsibilities at all so that I don't even have a shadow of guilt clouding my relaxing days. Ahhh. I am doing a great big exhale, letting all the stress out, just imagining it.
I can tell you with 100% certainty that my 7 weeks in Wisconsin will not contain any days like that. But a girl can dream, right?
Enough of that. Its back to the salt mines for me. I need to dash out and find a portable DVD player with atleast 5 hours of battery life for the plane ride over. Stupid f*-ing Delta has taken over the direct flight between Paris and MSP and is using some old jalopy without individual TV monitors. Hell, this plane is so old it probably still has a smoking section. I could care less really except that the flight to Sardaigne did teach me one good lesson and that was that Georgia is a rather difficult traveller (uhm, okay, a rather Screamy Traveller). I'm going to need to pack every entertainment known to toddler-kind to survive without an extended screaming fit in midair. I beg you all, start lighting candles for us now. Divine intervention may be my only real option.
The hotel where we stayed was fantastic for the kids. The kids club was just amazing, as were the girls who worked there. Ella did bowling, tennis, 'trampolini', art projects, swimming, baking- you name it. We took both Georgia and Ella every single day so that we could have some free time. There was also a kids restaurant with tiny tables and chairs, small plastic dishes and silverware, and special healthy kids meals all of it served at times that worked for the kids. We went every night for dinner and then took the girls back to the villa for baths, bottles, and bed. Then, a very sweet lady named Cristina came every night to stay with the girls while B and I took advantage of all the different restaurants and had lovely dinners en tete-a-tete. Almost all the restaurants were open air so we could spend a relaxing couple of hours eating and talking and drinking wine, watching the stars and listening to the waves on the beach. Originally, we didn't think that we would get the babysitter every night (mainly since it cost a fortune!) but in the end, we were having such a nice time every evening that we figured it was worth the cost.
We needed a bit of a treat by the end of the day since the mornings were so rough.
Now, we had what was called a family bungalow. It was nice. It had two rooms, separated by a sliding door. The front part was a living room which we used for the girls. Ella slept on the sofa bed and the hotel brought us a cot for Georgia. The other room was the bedroom and B and I slept there. HOWEVER the floors were tile and the noise from Georgia waking up at 6 am was so loud that none of us really slept much later than that. And since Ella was in the same room, Georgia would laugh and shout 'Ella! Ella! Hey! Ella!' until Ella started to play with her. Normally at home, we can ignore Georgia until she falls back asleep for another hour or so, but it was impossible while in this hotel room. My God! 6 am wake-ups while on vacation! It was horrible. Needless to say, we were pretty much the first people at breakfast everyday.
After doing a tour around the resort, we realized that some of the other areas had nicer bungalows but I didn't look into it enough to notice that when I was booking. It would have been nice to stay in one of the places that had grassy lawns in front of each bungalow so I could have laid out on a lounge chair while Georgia napped (we only had a terrasse). We might have also liked the two-story bungalow so that the girls were a bit further from our room. Oh well. This hotel is so well set up for families that I definitely think that we will go back. It was pricey but I think that we got our money's worth. The only thing that was disappointing about this holiday is that we really didn't see much of Sardinia! We only left the hotel that one morning and saw a bit of countryside on the drive to and from the airport. Apparently it takes ages to drive all around the island- B's dad took an entire month to see all of the island when he visited a few years ago. Anyways, that is the sort of ambitious plan that I would not attempt until the girls are much older.
Oh, and since the first day of vacation was Mothers' Day, the girls surprised me with a brand-new camera! Its a Nikon D5000 which is not one of the models that I had asked for, but I am getting the hang of it. Even with only a quick read through the instruction manual, I managed to take some gorgeous photos of the girls. I think it will work out, although I will probably still be figuring out all the buttons for the next few months. I have two photos in frames on the ledge above my desk and I sit here every evening looking at them and sighing happily, remembering what fun we had.
Of course, now I am in the midst of frantically preparing for our NEXT vacation and am wondering why I am so hot on travelling. Really, what would please me most at this point in my life, is an entire week of calm. No appointments, no schedule, no 7 am wake-up call(or, while we are dreaming, 8 am or even 9 am), no responsibilities at all so that I don't even have a shadow of guilt clouding my relaxing days. Ahhh. I am doing a great big exhale, letting all the stress out, just imagining it.
I can tell you with 100% certainty that my 7 weeks in Wisconsin will not contain any days like that. But a girl can dream, right?
Enough of that. Its back to the salt mines for me. I need to dash out and find a portable DVD player with atleast 5 hours of battery life for the plane ride over. Stupid f*-ing Delta has taken over the direct flight between Paris and MSP and is using some old jalopy without individual TV monitors. Hell, this plane is so old it probably still has a smoking section. I could care less really except that the flight to Sardaigne did teach me one good lesson and that was that Georgia is a rather difficult traveller (uhm, okay, a rather Screamy Traveller). I'm going to need to pack every entertainment known to toddler-kind to survive without an extended screaming fit in midair. I beg you all, start lighting candles for us now. Divine intervention may be my only real option.
Saturday, May 01, 2010
Vacation plans
So, we may be stuck in Paris for the ENTIRE school holidays but B has finally agreed that a quick vacation is in order. Hopefully we'll book everything this weekend. But we can't decide where to go- Sicily or Sardinia. Anyone have an input?!! I am leaning towards Sicily because I seem to find nicer hotels (lots of agri-tourism farms which would be great with the girls, I think) but B prefers Sardinia for the scenery. The problem is, he is referring to the scenery around Porto Cervo/Porto Esmerelda which is the pricest area on the island.
We are (probably) taking the kids, so it has to be family friendly. I want to have a babysitter available so that it is not All Babies, All the Time. I suggested doing something like Club Med and that suggestion was met with a resounding 'No'. He wants a hotel that is small and chic with a great restaurant. In theory, I am in complete agreement. But did I mention that I don't want to be on duty 24/7?
Also, I looked into a highly recommended place called the Romazzino Hotel in Sardaigne, but it was over 1000 euro- a night! That is more than we would like to spend but we will only be on holiday for a week so we don't need to find a great deal either.
You would think, by this point, my travel agent skills would be honed to a fine point and yet I am stuck. Help
We are (probably) taking the kids, so it has to be family friendly. I want to have a babysitter available so that it is not All Babies, All the Time. I suggested doing something like Club Med and that suggestion was met with a resounding 'No'. He wants a hotel that is small and chic with a great restaurant. In theory, I am in complete agreement. But did I mention that I don't want to be on duty 24/7?
Also, I looked into a highly recommended place called the Romazzino Hotel in Sardaigne, but it was over 1000 euro- a night! That is more than we would like to spend but we will only be on holiday for a week so we don't need to find a great deal either.
You would think, by this point, my travel agent skills would be honed to a fine point and yet I am stuck. Help
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
I spent yesterday burning through my To-Do list- although a last minute cancellation by the cleaner/babysitter sort of threw a spanner in the works. When will I learn- life with small children means that nothing, not even cleaning out a closet, goes smoothly. I really am baffled as to how someone who works full-time is able to keep on top of things. I'm here all day and school holidays are always sorted out about a week in advance, all my tickets are last minute, my closets are stuffed with clothes that fit no one, I have boxes of stuff for Emmaus stacked up next to the door for weeks at time, there are currently 452 unread messages in my Inbox (most of which seem to from JCrew offering me free shipping...) and I haven't filed away my Important Papers (instead they are stuffed unopened in a drawer) in over a year. Granted, I waste a lot of time over the course of the day, but not enough to fit in a job. I know, I know. The busier you are, the more you get done. One of life's great mysteries.
Georgia continues to tormet us with sleep issues. We had a great week of quiet nights when she would lay down at 8 pm and wake at 6 am for a bottle, giving us another hour and a half of calm before waking with Ella at 7:30. I would LOVE to be able to sleep til 8 in the morning but I have come to grips with the idea that it will never happen. Besides, don't they always say that you can accomplish so much more when you get up early in the morning? I am stll waiting for that miracle to happen. In the meantime, I'm sort of like the commercial for the chicory cafe that is running on TV right now where the bear gets out of bed and only turns human once he has had his steaming cup of coffee. I'm getting to the point where I can deal. But THEN we went to the country and Georgia couldn't sleep in the cot that she had and woke us up hourly. Thank god for my dear husband who sent me into the other bedroom to sleep, knowing that there was no way that I would survive the weekend with his family if I had a sleep deficit as well. Things seem sorted out once we got home and then the night Sunday to Monday was just like old times. A shout out at midnight, a squeak at 1 am and then hourly wake-up calls at 4, 5, and 6 with a final hysterical meltdown at 6:50 (the meltdown was me and B, just to be clear...) But when Ella came home from school crying about a sore ear, it all sort of made sense. Georgia must have been suffering from the same thing. With everyone doped up on Doliprane and decongestants, we had a full night's sleep last night. Lets hope thats the end of it. Earaches are the worst.
One of the things I managed to cross off my list yesterday was 'Buy tickets to the US for summer vacay.' I hadn't really decided what to do for the summer. B and I tossed around the idea of me coming back to France the beginning of August so that we could fly together which would have been convenient. BUT, he will be working non-stop in August and no one else will be around and I just dreaded the amount of organization it would take to keep the girls occupied. Finally, I just typed in two dates, randomly, and there were seats available on the direct flight so the decision was made. We'll be coming back on the 15th of August, which gives us a week or so to go to the country to see B's family and plenty of time to get sorted for school, but it cuts our summer in WI down to 7 weeks, from 10 weeks last year. The time goes so fast that I hope I don't regret this.
As I was filling in the info to book the tickets I realized with a horrible panic that Ella's passport has expired. Thank god that they make you put the info with the purchase or I might not have remembered until we were literally checking in at the airport. I immediately went to the US Embassy website and sorted out a rdv for renewing it. Now I have to try and remember to get proper photos done. I don't know where or how B did the photos for her French passport, but Ella looks like the Littlest Prisoner on Death Row, complete with hopeless, lifeless stare, knotted hair sticking up on oneside, dirty sweater buttoned wrong, I think she might also have food on her face. Honestly, I have to scan it for you it is just so horribly bad (I pasted the extra copies in her photo album. This is something that will definitely come in handy some point down the road). I don't need a glamour shot (although suddenly, I'm thinking that it would be a little awesome to have her wearing mascara, lipstick and a bouffant in her passport photo!!), I do want something a little less mug shot. By the way, when did passports go up in price to 83 USD?! It seems like between me and the girls, I am ordering new passports every couple years and its always a new, and higher, price. When your passport costs more than any ticket on the Ryanair website, it seems like it might be too expensive.
And I probably lost 30 minutes yesterday searching for her social security card, since I never noted down the number ANYWHERE. Smart, Nicole. My dad is always telling me to destroy my card! before it gets stolen! and used for evil!! But I feel like that is a bit, I don't know, tempting Fate? I KNOW that I will suffer permenant brain damage the day after I burn it and will never ever again know what my number is. Further evidence that I have been living out of the US for too long, I don't ever remember my number and I don't what to do if I loose it. I don't actually know what I am supposed to be using it for, although I am always reading about when you should refuse to give out your number. Oh, my head hurts.
Despite lacking my sitter, I decided that I would make a cake with Ella and Georgia. I mean, the house couldn't possibly get any dirtier so why not just roll with it. I put Georgia up in her high chair right next to us and Ella and I made a Strawberry Rhubarb Cake that turned out fantastic! Rhubarb tastes like spring, to me. And its pink! I don't know what is going on- I let Ella talk me into buying three bouquets of pink roses this weekend and then cooing over the compote. Maybe there is to much estrogen in this house?
Georgia continues to tormet us with sleep issues. We had a great week of quiet nights when she would lay down at 8 pm and wake at 6 am for a bottle, giving us another hour and a half of calm before waking with Ella at 7:30. I would LOVE to be able to sleep til 8 in the morning but I have come to grips with the idea that it will never happen. Besides, don't they always say that you can accomplish so much more when you get up early in the morning? I am stll waiting for that miracle to happen. In the meantime, I'm sort of like the commercial for the chicory cafe that is running on TV right now where the bear gets out of bed and only turns human once he has had his steaming cup of coffee. I'm getting to the point where I can deal. But THEN we went to the country and Georgia couldn't sleep in the cot that she had and woke us up hourly. Thank god for my dear husband who sent me into the other bedroom to sleep, knowing that there was no way that I would survive the weekend with his family if I had a sleep deficit as well. Things seem sorted out once we got home and then the night Sunday to Monday was just like old times. A shout out at midnight, a squeak at 1 am and then hourly wake-up calls at 4, 5, and 6 with a final hysterical meltdown at 6:50 (the meltdown was me and B, just to be clear...) But when Ella came home from school crying about a sore ear, it all sort of made sense. Georgia must have been suffering from the same thing. With everyone doped up on Doliprane and decongestants, we had a full night's sleep last night. Lets hope thats the end of it. Earaches are the worst.
One of the things I managed to cross off my list yesterday was 'Buy tickets to the US for summer vacay.' I hadn't really decided what to do for the summer. B and I tossed around the idea of me coming back to France the beginning of August so that we could fly together which would have been convenient. BUT, he will be working non-stop in August and no one else will be around and I just dreaded the amount of organization it would take to keep the girls occupied. Finally, I just typed in two dates, randomly, and there were seats available on the direct flight so the decision was made. We'll be coming back on the 15th of August, which gives us a week or so to go to the country to see B's family and plenty of time to get sorted for school, but it cuts our summer in WI down to 7 weeks, from 10 weeks last year. The time goes so fast that I hope I don't regret this.
As I was filling in the info to book the tickets I realized with a horrible panic that Ella's passport has expired. Thank god that they make you put the info with the purchase or I might not have remembered until we were literally checking in at the airport. I immediately went to the US Embassy website and sorted out a rdv for renewing it. Now I have to try and remember to get proper photos done. I don't know where or how B did the photos for her French passport, but Ella looks like the Littlest Prisoner on Death Row, complete with hopeless, lifeless stare, knotted hair sticking up on oneside, dirty sweater buttoned wrong, I think she might also have food on her face. Honestly, I have to scan it for you it is just so horribly bad (I pasted the extra copies in her photo album. This is something that will definitely come in handy some point down the road). I don't need a glamour shot (although suddenly, I'm thinking that it would be a little awesome to have her wearing mascara, lipstick and a bouffant in her passport photo!!), I do want something a little less mug shot. By the way, when did passports go up in price to 83 USD?! It seems like between me and the girls, I am ordering new passports every couple years and its always a new, and higher, price. When your passport costs more than any ticket on the Ryanair website, it seems like it might be too expensive.
And I probably lost 30 minutes yesterday searching for her social security card, since I never noted down the number ANYWHERE. Smart, Nicole. My dad is always telling me to destroy my card! before it gets stolen! and used for evil!! But I feel like that is a bit, I don't know, tempting Fate? I KNOW that I will suffer permenant brain damage the day after I burn it and will never ever again know what my number is. Further evidence that I have been living out of the US for too long, I don't ever remember my number and I don't what to do if I loose it. I don't actually know what I am supposed to be using it for, although I am always reading about when you should refuse to give out your number. Oh, my head hurts.
Despite lacking my sitter, I decided that I would make a cake with Ella and Georgia. I mean, the house couldn't possibly get any dirtier so why not just roll with it. I put Georgia up in her high chair right next to us and Ella and I made a Strawberry Rhubarb Cake that turned out fantastic! Rhubarb tastes like spring, to me. And its pink! I don't know what is going on- I let Ella talk me into buying three bouquets of pink roses this weekend and then cooing over the compote. Maybe there is to much estrogen in this house?
Friday, April 02, 2010
Last minute
So, B announced rather late last night that I should probably cancel our dinner reservation for Friday night. Why? I asked, confused. Because, he answered me, it will probably be better to leave Friday night since they said on the news that the traffic was predicted to be Rouge on Saturday (rouge=red=hours sitting in standstill traffic to try and leave Paris=screamy babies for many more hours than I can handle).
So it was decided. I thought we would leave when he got home from work at 7:30 but he cleared that up this morning when he asked me to get Ella from school at noon so that we could leave at 3. This means that I have about 4 hours to squeeze in a full day's worth of preparations. So clearly blogging is the best use of my time... I know I know, stupid. But I think I am in denial.
I am just trying to pretend that there is no stress. Georgia spent the last hour bringing me books and sitting on my lap, making me read them over and over again (hence the photo. Ella took that the other day. I asked her to get a shot of me and Georgia and I ended up with a bunch of lovely photos of the book cover. Oh well. You get the idea.)
She has just laid down for a nap. I have an hour and half to perform miracles. I guess since it is Easter weekend, that is sort of the theme, right?
Happy Easter, everyone. May you get lots of chocolate and not be required by the resident 5 year-old sceptic to explain exactly how a rabbit managed to get it all to your house. Google to the rescue?
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Ski holidays
We all seem to be more or less healthy again so now I have really got to get on top of this ski vacation and book something. Technically, I did tell B that I was done with being his personal travel agent after he changed the dates on me AGAIN. To borrow a line from Charlie Brown, I wanted to knock his block off. Honestly, he does this to me every single time. He tells me a date that he is free but doesn't write it on the calendar at work, so without fail, someone else books their holiday and then one day, as I am running through the details that I have sorted out, he casually mentions that the date I'm basing it all on is no longer any good for him. ARG.
When he did it to me two days ago, I flew off the handle and said to just forget about the entire vacation, in that case. I had spoken to my mom early in the day and she really wants us all to fly out to Phoenix in February or March and meet them. Now that they are practically retired, they are going to spend 6 weeks out in the sun and they are begging me to come and visit with the girls. How tempting. A bit of sun, a babysitter, Bravo tv... I told B that instead of starting all over with the stupid ski plans, I would just book airline tickets for a flight to Phoenix and be done with it.
But then I thought it over. If I think he is being such a jerk, what kind of punishment is it for me to save him money by not booking an expensive vacation, instead giving him two weeks of calm at home while I wrestle with two kids on an international flight? Basically, I would only be punishing myself. So, my new plan is to book the ski holiday outside of the vacance scolaire and maybe still take the trip to Phoenix with the girls while Ella is off school. Tickets are really cheap for February, although the flight is minimum 14 hours. Yikes.
Only, that means that I still have to find a hotel for a ski holiday....
Geez, I don't know why I am being such a baby about this. I just have to book a hotel. B, in a peace gesture, said that I could book anything I wanted, anywhere I wanted. I bumped into a good friend of mine yesterday who is Swiss and she suggested Villars-sur-Ollon as a great family ski station in Switzerland. It does look nice, but it also looks like it would be difficult for us to drive to. I found a really nice family hotel in Courcheval but I need to verify on the map where exactly Courcheval is (I have to admit that I am BAD at French geography). B suggested Avoriaz, but I think that is only because his brother said that we should go to Avoriaz.
And then I was thinking Meribel, because whenever we go to Tignes or Val d'Isere, we pass the turnoff for Meribel hours* before we reach our destination and each time, I think to myself, "Meribel is supposed to be nice. We should just stop here."
I just need to decide something. I promise, tomorrow, I will have this done.
In totally unrelated news, the sun was finally shining today, allowing me to escape the house for a few hours with Georgia. I don't know which of us needed it more. I walked all over as I had a few little errands that I had been putting off so long as the temp was in the negatives. I bought Georgia a pair of shoes. Aren't they cute? They are from the boutique Filament on rue de Lesdiguières in the 4th, just off the Bastille. They also sell fur liners to put inside, which turns them into the sweetest little winter boots but, unsurprisingly, Georgia's feet were too big to fit in the shoe with a liner so I ended up just getting the shoe. She already had a pair in Liberty print when she was tiny but I've always loved the ones in the metallic leather. After making the poor vendeuse empty the cupboard to show me all the colors they had in this size, I chose these in a color called mauve, although they look a bit more lavendar to me. If you are ever in the neighborhood, this is a shop worth stopping by. They have a great selection of kids toys and clothes. The dress-up costumes are amazing. The soft toys that they have are also incredibly unique. I just always find something here that I love.
On the way home, I dropped into Papier+ for another photo album for Ella. I have taken over the dining room table, spreading out all the photos in chronological order so it was rather irritating to realize that there were only 5 pages left in the last album. I refuse to pick up the mess, because once its out of sight, back in the boxes, I'm sure it will be months before I manage to get at it again. No, no. I just have to push through and get this done. Now that I have another album, it should be done by the end of the weekend. Once the girls are in bed, I can normally get a lot done. Now if only, I could find a nice album for Georgia... No matter how hard I try not to let things slip for baby number 2, I can see that I am not taking nearly as many photos as I did with Ella (which is frankly a good thing, no kid needs thousands of photos of themselves). Don't get me wrong, its not like her life has gone undocumented its just that my standards are a bit higher. She can't just sit there being cute, like Ella, she's got to actually do something. Thats setting the bar pretty high for a kid that can't even roll over yet... (Crazy but true. I've never seen her roll over, although I have found her in bed on her tummy once or twice, so I guess she can do it. But, on the other hand, she's almost walking on her own. )
I don't why I'm still typing. I've got a To Do list a mile long and no babysitter today. Lets see if I can actually make a decision and cross something of that list.
*Ok, well, not actually hours. But that last little bit of twisty turny driving really feels like takes as long as the autoroute part, Paris to Albertville.
When he did it to me two days ago, I flew off the handle and said to just forget about the entire vacation, in that case. I had spoken to my mom early in the day and she really wants us all to fly out to Phoenix in February or March and meet them. Now that they are practically retired, they are going to spend 6 weeks out in the sun and they are begging me to come and visit with the girls. How tempting. A bit of sun, a babysitter, Bravo tv... I told B that instead of starting all over with the stupid ski plans, I would just book airline tickets for a flight to Phoenix and be done with it.
But then I thought it over. If I think he is being such a jerk, what kind of punishment is it for me to save him money by not booking an expensive vacation, instead giving him two weeks of calm at home while I wrestle with two kids on an international flight? Basically, I would only be punishing myself. So, my new plan is to book the ski holiday outside of the vacance scolaire and maybe still take the trip to Phoenix with the girls while Ella is off school. Tickets are really cheap for February, although the flight is minimum 14 hours. Yikes.
Only, that means that I still have to find a hotel for a ski holiday....
Geez, I don't know why I am being such a baby about this. I just have to book a hotel. B, in a peace gesture, said that I could book anything I wanted, anywhere I wanted. I bumped into a good friend of mine yesterday who is Swiss and she suggested Villars-sur-Ollon as a great family ski station in Switzerland. It does look nice, but it also looks like it would be difficult for us to drive to. I found a really nice family hotel in Courcheval but I need to verify on the map where exactly Courcheval is (I have to admit that I am BAD at French geography). B suggested Avoriaz, but I think that is only because his brother said that we should go to Avoriaz.
And then I was thinking Meribel, because whenever we go to Tignes or Val d'Isere, we pass the turnoff for Meribel hours* before we reach our destination and each time, I think to myself, "Meribel is supposed to be nice. We should just stop here."
I just need to decide something. I promise, tomorrow, I will have this done.
In totally unrelated news, the sun was finally shining today, allowing me to escape the house for a few hours with Georgia. I don't know which of us needed it more. I walked all over as I had a few little errands that I had been putting off so long as the temp was in the negatives. I bought Georgia a pair of shoes. Aren't they cute? They are from the boutique Filament on rue de Lesdiguières in the 4th, just off the Bastille. They also sell fur liners to put inside, which turns them into the sweetest little winter boots but, unsurprisingly, Georgia's feet were too big to fit in the shoe with a liner so I ended up just getting the shoe. She already had a pair in Liberty print when she was tiny but I've always loved the ones in the metallic leather. After making the poor vendeuse empty the cupboard to show me all the colors they had in this size, I chose these in a color called mauve, although they look a bit more lavendar to me. If you are ever in the neighborhood, this is a shop worth stopping by. They have a great selection of kids toys and clothes. The dress-up costumes are amazing. The soft toys that they have are also incredibly unique. I just always find something here that I love.
On the way home, I dropped into Papier+ for another photo album for Ella. I have taken over the dining room table, spreading out all the photos in chronological order so it was rather irritating to realize that there were only 5 pages left in the last album. I refuse to pick up the mess, because once its out of sight, back in the boxes, I'm sure it will be months before I manage to get at it again. No, no. I just have to push through and get this done. Now that I have another album, it should be done by the end of the weekend. Once the girls are in bed, I can normally get a lot done. Now if only, I could find a nice album for Georgia... No matter how hard I try not to let things slip for baby number 2, I can see that I am not taking nearly as many photos as I did with Ella (which is frankly a good thing, no kid needs thousands of photos of themselves). Don't get me wrong, its not like her life has gone undocumented its just that my standards are a bit higher. She can't just sit there being cute, like Ella, she's got to actually do something. Thats setting the bar pretty high for a kid that can't even roll over yet... (Crazy but true. I've never seen her roll over, although I have found her in bed on her tummy once or twice, so I guess she can do it. But, on the other hand, she's almost walking on her own. )
I don't why I'm still typing. I've got a To Do list a mile long and no babysitter today. Lets see if I can actually make a decision and cross something of that list.
*Ok, well, not actually hours. But that last little bit of twisty turny driving really feels like takes as long as the autoroute part, Paris to Albertville.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Slowly working my way back to human
I think that Georgia may also have caught my gastro. Although she hasn't vomited, she was awake about every hour last night, yelling. If her stomach hurt half as much as mine, I understand. Luckily, B agreed to do 100% of baby duty last night, and with a pair of earplugs in, I managed to get a solid night's sleep. Unfortunately, she is still acting sick this morning. Plus she has some weird rash on her wrist, which looks like impetigo. PLUS her one eye was crusty when she woke up this morning and I think it looks like conjunctivitis. Honestly, I feel like explaining to her that its one thing to wake us up at night if she is super cute, but right now she is all crusty and gross and her popularity has taken a nose-dive.
The only good thing about all this is that it is such an awesome diet; I'll have lost more weight in the past two days than I did in the past two months. I know, I know. There are plenty of people dying to tell me that it isn't real weight loss. I don't care. Its just the motivation I need to get back to the gym. Honestly, if I follow this up with a week of Bikram Yoga, I'll be at my goal weight by the end of the month- atleast for the half hour after I leave yoga (again, shut up! I know that its only water weight that you lose, but I am not fussy about how I get that magic number on the scale).
And since February ski vacation is just around the corner, I can follow up my pseudo-regime with some serious workouts soon enough. Thats if I manage to book the holiday. We cancelled our original plans because a good friend told me that they would be in town that week and now I've lost my momentum for the project. I keep thinking, 'Exactly how much fun is it going to be to leave freezing cold Paris for the freezing cold mountains, spending an entire day each way in the car, only to be trapped in an ugly ski station apartment where I have to do twice as much work as at home with absolutely no nights off to relax, since I won't have a sitter?!?" So I asked B if he wouldn't like to go alone with Ella and leave me and Georgia here in Paris. He wasn't too excited about that idea. So now, we are thinking of going to a hotel with a daycare center and doing demi-pension so that I don't have to worry about cooking/cleaning and we can leave the girls whenever we feel like it so that we can ski together and go out to eat alone together at night. Now, that sounds more like a vacation. However, the hardest part remains. Which ski station should we go to? I wanted to go to Switzerland this year but don't know anything about the Swiss ski stations. For the time being we are leaning towards Meribel, but it is so far away. And then I want to find a really nice hotel, but not so expensive that B shouts at me. Obviously, this is going to have to wait til I feel better. Even just explaining the problem has exhausted all my mental energy. Feel free to leave advice. I am hoping that there is a travel agent reading right now, who generously offers to organize the whole thing for me and all I have to do is pack our bags.
I'm heading back to bed for a nap while Georgia is quiet in her room. Normally blogging to resume soon, I hope.
The only good thing about all this is that it is such an awesome diet; I'll have lost more weight in the past two days than I did in the past two months. I know, I know. There are plenty of people dying to tell me that it isn't real weight loss. I don't care. Its just the motivation I need to get back to the gym. Honestly, if I follow this up with a week of Bikram Yoga, I'll be at my goal weight by the end of the month- atleast for the half hour after I leave yoga (again, shut up! I know that its only water weight that you lose, but I am not fussy about how I get that magic number on the scale).
And since February ski vacation is just around the corner, I can follow up my pseudo-regime with some serious workouts soon enough. Thats if I manage to book the holiday. We cancelled our original plans because a good friend told me that they would be in town that week and now I've lost my momentum for the project. I keep thinking, 'Exactly how much fun is it going to be to leave freezing cold Paris for the freezing cold mountains, spending an entire day each way in the car, only to be trapped in an ugly ski station apartment where I have to do twice as much work as at home with absolutely no nights off to relax, since I won't have a sitter?!?" So I asked B if he wouldn't like to go alone with Ella and leave me and Georgia here in Paris. He wasn't too excited about that idea. So now, we are thinking of going to a hotel with a daycare center and doing demi-pension so that I don't have to worry about cooking/cleaning and we can leave the girls whenever we feel like it so that we can ski together and go out to eat alone together at night. Now, that sounds more like a vacation. However, the hardest part remains. Which ski station should we go to? I wanted to go to Switzerland this year but don't know anything about the Swiss ski stations. For the time being we are leaning towards Meribel, but it is so far away. And then I want to find a really nice hotel, but not so expensive that B shouts at me. Obviously, this is going to have to wait til I feel better. Even just explaining the problem has exhausted all my mental energy. Feel free to leave advice. I am hoping that there is a travel agent reading right now, who generously offers to organize the whole thing for me and all I have to do is pack our bags.
I'm heading back to bed for a nap while Georgia is quiet in her room. Normally blogging to resume soon, I hope.
Monday, September 22, 2008
This weekend my biggest disappointment is not that I missed the Madonna concert, because really? after seeing at the Zenith while sitting in the VIP section (talk about crazy good luck), jumping around with the sweating hoards at Stade de France did not sound like fun to me. What I am bummed about missing out on is the afterparty with her dancers! Saturday afternoon, I bumped into a friend and I was teasing him about not being at the Techno Parade with all the kids. He said that the Techno Parade, and the post -parade party, were for losers. He had an awesome plan for that night. He was going to a party a friend of his had organized for after the Madonna concert. All the dancers were supposed to be there and while Madonna was unlikely to go, you never know... He was like, why don't you come? It'll be awesome. Hi! Let me introduce you to my life. I'm a mommy and need more than an afternoon to organize for a night out. If I had known ahead of time, maybe I could have sorted it out, but there were a million reasons that it wasn't going to work for me so I had to say, maybe next time? It would have been so so so much fun! I'm still bummed about it.
Atleast it was sunny all weekend, right? I was at Luxembourg Gardens with Ella and kicked myself for taking my camera out of my bag that morning. The flowers are so beautiful right now! I really love all the bright pink dahlias and zinnias. Well, all the plants are so lush that it makes it look like a paradise around that boat pond. Hopefully, Wednesday will be nice and we can go and do a little photo shoot for the grandparents. Its so easy to manage Ella when we are there because there are so many things to bribe her with- the ponies, the boats, the ice cream. And of course, when I do bring the camera with me, Ella grabs it and then I end up with a disc full of photos like this:
Atleast it was sunny all weekend, right? I was at Luxembourg Gardens with Ella and kicked myself for taking my camera out of my bag that morning. The flowers are so beautiful right now! I really love all the bright pink dahlias and zinnias. Well, all the plants are so lush that it makes it look like a paradise around that boat pond. Hopefully, Wednesday will be nice and we can go and do a little photo shoot for the grandparents. Its so easy to manage Ella when we are there because there are so many things to bribe her with- the ponies, the boats, the ice cream. And of course, when I do bring the camera with me, Ella grabs it and then I end up with a disc full of photos like this:
Obviously, to drown my sorrows over the Madonna party and also inspired by the gorgeous figs at the market, I decided that I needed to bake a tart. I think once a week for the last two weeks I've said the same thing and then been too lazy to bake anything so I just ate the figs plain with Greek yogurt and honey (which as far as fallback plans go, is actually alright). This time, Ella was down for a much needed nap and I had the afternoon ahead of me, so I very ambitiously attempted this tart, with the addition of a yogurt/cream cheese/honey filling. It turned out beautifully although maybe its a bit rich. Plus, Ella is highly sceptical of figs so will have nothing to do with helping me eat it all. But look at that photo! Doesn't it look just scrumptious? Oh well, all for me then.
Shame on me for being so self-indulgent- and I don't even mean the 2000 calories worth of cake that I ingested last night. I let myself go on and on about my disasterous weekend, almost forgetting that our Sunday afternoon project was planning and booking our holiday next month. First thing in the a.m., B's stepmom called and said she was willing to take Ella for the week. We had put our planning on hold to hear about this because a vacation with a toddler was going to be a much different affair than without. It would have been fine, we would have probably rented a villa or two (in different locations) and stayed for two full weeks so that we could just take it slow and hopefully manage to relax a little bit. After I put my foot down about the destination (ie, do not counter my proposition of Italy, with Club Med Tunisia. We are going to the Amalfi coast, end of the subject.), we could move forward with the hotel search and price comparison on airline tickets. So the final plan is to fly to Rome, spend two nights in a lovely suite with a view of St Peter's (although I am still wondering if maybe we shouldn't try for something more central, near the Spanish Steps...) followed by 5 nights on the Amalfi coast in this hotel. Once you bite the bullet and accept that you are going to be paying a fortune no matter what, it seems like there is an endless choice of amazing hotels from Sorrento to Amalfi. This hotel was the first to answer our email request re:availability so that is the place we are going to stay. I'm really excited. We are going to spend a day at Pompei, a day on a boat going along the coast and visiting other villages and probably a day on Capri, doing some shopping. I don't think that the water will be warm enough for swimming at the end of October, but I'm not too bothered about that. I just pray that it is sunny. By the end of October, the Paris grey will be wearing on my nerves and I'll need at bit of a break.
And just for fun, here is a picture of Ella's "lady", riding her cat. It cracks me up every time I stumble across the two of them, posed in some corner of the house. I don't know what it is exactly- the saucy look on the Barbie's face? The way the cat is absolutely the perfect size to be a Barbie horse? The juxtoposition of the slightly pornographic doll and the innocent little grey kitten? I can't put my finger on it; but I think that I might take this photo and blow up it to poster size and then hang it on the wall, claiming that its some expensive modern art I picked up on a voyage abroad.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Not really a slow week, I just keep getting distracted
I hate when that happens. I had all these posts going on in my head and zero of them made it to blog. I'll just bullet point some stuff so that I can stop rolling it over in my head as I am trying to fall asleep at night.
1. Its super sweet when Ella lays on the sofa after school, exhausted, watching cartoons. She "sings" along to each of the theme songs, making up the words as she goes along. Mostly its something about the guy in the hat who had a dog... I don't know. She get shy when she notices me listening in but I just want to gobble her up in one bite she is so sweet.
2. I nearly called the police last night to report our neighbors for disturbing the peace or, as they call it in France, tapage nocturne. 45 minutes of that crazy woman screaming with her daughter about the daughter's future. I thought it was bad in our apartment, but then I went out in the cage escalier to maybe go and knock on their door first but the screaming was so phenomenally loud that I was actually scared to knock. I should have had an inkling that if they sounded loud with a layer of concrete , acoustic flooring and a carpet between us, then they must be yelling pretty damn loud. As always, I have to wonder, what the hell is the rest of the family doing when the mother looses her shit? Do they all own a pair of those Bose noise-blocking headphones? I need a pair.
3. I think that this article is really good. I've been meaning to link to it for ages and kept forgetting and now all the interesting things I had to say about it have slipped out of my mind. Oh well. Trust me when I say that I had loads of insightful and interesting points to make.
4. On a thoroughly unrelated note, its my 9th wedding anniversary today. Both my husband and I had totally forgotten and then suddenly this morning, I looked at B and said, "Hey! I think our wedding anniversary is coming up (all the while thinking, God, I hope we didn't completely miss it...). What day is it?" "The 17th." he answered, nonplussed. He had even forgotten that the 17th was our anniversary. He had it in his head that it wasn't til the 22nd. So, technically, he forgot more than I forgot. Thats why he offered me an afternoon at the George IV spa to make up for it. I am so so so looking forward to that. I LOVE that spa. It is, without a doubt, a little piece of heaven on Earth. I was just looking in the mirror yesterday night and thinking that I needed some to get myself cleaned up. How convenient to have a forgotten anniversary pop up the next day.
5. Its been a star-studded week for the school pick-up; yesterday I saw the stars of this film picking up their kids and I saw the wife of the third shouting into her cellphone on a street corner the day before. Boring star sightings, I admit, but still worth-noting since the ads for that film are wallpapering Paris right now.
6. The other day, Ella and I got into a chat about bellybuttons, which led to a discussion of babies, via her main conversational technique of the moment - "And then what?" So I got out a pregnancy book which had some drawings of babies in the uterus, and she was totally fascinated. We looked at body parts and talked about where everything would be in Ella and in me. It was actually nice talking about stuff like that with such a little kid because it was such pure amazement and curiousity. Anyway, I told her that when the baby gets too big, then it comes out. She naturally asked how it came out. I asked her what she thought, and after a moment's reflection, she opened her mouth, turned her head to the side, and made a horking noise. Considering her history of violent vomitting, I can see how she would suppose this would be the most effective way to eject anything from your body. When I told her how babies really get out, she thought it was hilarious so I'm not entirely sure that she bought my version. The funniest part of the whole thing was later that evening when B came home from work. He asked her what we had done that day and she started frantically sputtering something about babies but couldn't quite get it out. Finally she turned to me, with enormous eyes, and whispered, "Maman, tell Daddy about the baby stuff! Tell him!" I tried to tell her that he already knew about it, but she insisted that I give him the lowdown.
7. Ooo- I got my haircut. I still can not get my main hair guy on the phone and so I just buckled and went to the cheap place downstairs. Its cute- very Ellen Barkin. But there is a big difference between a cheap cut and a very very good cut and I need to get this hairdresser situation sorted out.
8. The main reason I haven't been able to get my hairdresser on the phone though, is that I think I broke my phone. So if you have tried calling me in the past week, um, now you know why I haven't picked up or returned your message. I don't treat it very well, generally just tossing it in the bottom of my severely overstuffed purse, so its no real shock and all the more reason to not tell B. I mean, I hate that stupid phone with its stupid touch screen and complicated screen upon screen upon screen of useless functions. But its only like 4 months old. He is going to KILL me. So lets all light a candle and say a prayer for my little LG.
9. I am grateful for the cold weather because it has allowed me to be very very lazy in the kitchen. Every afternoon, I throw some stuff into one of my Le Creuset pots and stick it in a low temp oven for 4 or 5 hours to stew away while I take a nap and play with Ella. We have had braised lamb, braised pork, braised white beans, a killer tomato sauce. I fear that things might be getting a bit repetitive for the rest of the fam but they are going to have to learn to live with it. Great food with minimal effort is a winning combination in my book. The only downside is that I am not a huge fan of vegetables cooked beyond recognition. Well, nothing is perfect, right?
10. We are at it again, trying to plan a fall vacation. Why is it always such a chore? We can never decide what to do and spend hours and hours researching one holiday only to reject it a few days later for some non-reason. This year we want to stay in Europe- we think- since we probably will have to bring Ella with us. I am trying to convice B that a week or so on the Amalfi coast would be great. He is, as always, very lukewarm on the idea. So frustrating! His Italian father has always bad-mouthed Naples (like any good Northern Italian, I guess) so B just has an inate dislike of the region. I don't push it too much though because Italy is crazy expensive! Every time I find a nice hotel, my jaw hits the floor when I see the rates. Two weeks in Italy would cost us a fortune. I like a deal and so far, I haven't found any for Italy. He keeps suggeting Majorca, which we visited 3 years ago and granted, we had a nice time, but I want to go somewhere new. He also keeps checking out prices for Thailand, but I don't want to go so far. We would both like to go on holiday to Mexico or Central America but it is completely not the season for that. The problem is that if we go during school holidays we are going to have to book something really soon. And B still hasn't asked his parents if they want Ella to come and visit them while she is off school, since they were making comments about never seeing her. Ugh. So lots of stuff to sort out in the next week or so.
11. My good friend from boarding school, Preeta Samarasan, has come out with her first novel, Evening is the Whole Day. She is giving a reading on October 1st at the American Library in Paris at 7:30 in the evening and is hoping very much that there is nice sized audience there. The book is great, but the evening would be worth it for Preeta alone as she is an astoundingly interesting person. So, if you are free and in that neighborhood, mark your calendar. If you can't make it to the reading, then just read the book. The reviews are so impressive and the book definitely lives up to the hype; its gorgeous.
11. Finally, I got a really interesting email from a girlfriend of mine who lost her job in all the chaos on Wall Street. She has actually been off work for awhile and after a load of travelling, is now thinking of heading in a new direction, like starting up her own company. She asked me if I would like to go into business with her and if so, what kind of thing I would want to do. I have to say that I'm not motivated enough right now to do something like this on my own, but of everyone I know, she is probably the only person I would completely trust as a business partner. I mean, I would trust her with my money, I would trust to her to make any business she started a success, I would trust her to never give it less than 110%. Its completely out of the blue and its obviously still very much in the talking stages but, wow. This could turn out to be a very very exciting year...
1. Its super sweet when Ella lays on the sofa after school, exhausted, watching cartoons. She "sings" along to each of the theme songs, making up the words as she goes along. Mostly its something about the guy in the hat who had a dog... I don't know. She get shy when she notices me listening in but I just want to gobble her up in one bite she is so sweet.
2. I nearly called the police last night to report our neighbors for disturbing the peace or, as they call it in France, tapage nocturne. 45 minutes of that crazy woman screaming with her daughter about the daughter's future. I thought it was bad in our apartment, but then I went out in the cage escalier to maybe go and knock on their door first but the screaming was so phenomenally loud that I was actually scared to knock. I should have had an inkling that if they sounded loud with a layer of concrete , acoustic flooring and a carpet between us, then they must be yelling pretty damn loud. As always, I have to wonder, what the hell is the rest of the family doing when the mother looses her shit? Do they all own a pair of those Bose noise-blocking headphones? I need a pair.
3. I think that this article is really good. I've been meaning to link to it for ages and kept forgetting and now all the interesting things I had to say about it have slipped out of my mind. Oh well. Trust me when I say that I had loads of insightful and interesting points to make.
4. On a thoroughly unrelated note, its my 9th wedding anniversary today. Both my husband and I had totally forgotten and then suddenly this morning, I looked at B and said, "Hey! I think our wedding anniversary is coming up (all the while thinking, God, I hope we didn't completely miss it...). What day is it?" "The 17th." he answered, nonplussed. He had even forgotten that the 17th was our anniversary. He had it in his head that it wasn't til the 22nd. So, technically, he forgot more than I forgot. Thats why he offered me an afternoon at the George IV spa to make up for it. I am so so so looking forward to that. I LOVE that spa. It is, without a doubt, a little piece of heaven on Earth. I was just looking in the mirror yesterday night and thinking that I needed some to get myself cleaned up. How convenient to have a forgotten anniversary pop up the next day.
5. Its been a star-studded week for the school pick-up; yesterday I saw the stars of this film picking up their kids and I saw the wife of the third shouting into her cellphone on a street corner the day before. Boring star sightings, I admit, but still worth-noting since the ads for that film are wallpapering Paris right now.
6. The other day, Ella and I got into a chat about bellybuttons, which led to a discussion of babies, via her main conversational technique of the moment - "And then what?" So I got out a pregnancy book which had some drawings of babies in the uterus, and she was totally fascinated. We looked at body parts and talked about where everything would be in Ella and in me. It was actually nice talking about stuff like that with such a little kid because it was such pure amazement and curiousity. Anyway, I told her that when the baby gets too big, then it comes out. She naturally asked how it came out. I asked her what she thought, and after a moment's reflection, she opened her mouth, turned her head to the side, and made a horking noise. Considering her history of violent vomitting, I can see how she would suppose this would be the most effective way to eject anything from your body. When I told her how babies really get out, she thought it was hilarious so I'm not entirely sure that she bought my version. The funniest part of the whole thing was later that evening when B came home from work. He asked her what we had done that day and she started frantically sputtering something about babies but couldn't quite get it out. Finally she turned to me, with enormous eyes, and whispered, "Maman, tell Daddy about the baby stuff! Tell him!" I tried to tell her that he already knew about it, but she insisted that I give him the lowdown.
7. Ooo- I got my haircut. I still can not get my main hair guy on the phone and so I just buckled and went to the cheap place downstairs. Its cute- very Ellen Barkin. But there is a big difference between a cheap cut and a very very good cut and I need to get this hairdresser situation sorted out.
8. The main reason I haven't been able to get my hairdresser on the phone though, is that I think I broke my phone. So if you have tried calling me in the past week, um, now you know why I haven't picked up or returned your message. I don't treat it very well, generally just tossing it in the bottom of my severely overstuffed purse, so its no real shock and all the more reason to not tell B. I mean, I hate that stupid phone with its stupid touch screen and complicated screen upon screen upon screen of useless functions. But its only like 4 months old. He is going to KILL me. So lets all light a candle and say a prayer for my little LG.
9. I am grateful for the cold weather because it has allowed me to be very very lazy in the kitchen. Every afternoon, I throw some stuff into one of my Le Creuset pots and stick it in a low temp oven for 4 or 5 hours to stew away while I take a nap and play with Ella. We have had braised lamb, braised pork, braised white beans, a killer tomato sauce. I fear that things might be getting a bit repetitive for the rest of the fam but they are going to have to learn to live with it. Great food with minimal effort is a winning combination in my book. The only downside is that I am not a huge fan of vegetables cooked beyond recognition. Well, nothing is perfect, right?
10. We are at it again, trying to plan a fall vacation. Why is it always such a chore? We can never decide what to do and spend hours and hours researching one holiday only to reject it a few days later for some non-reason. This year we want to stay in Europe- we think- since we probably will have to bring Ella with us. I am trying to convice B that a week or so on the Amalfi coast would be great. He is, as always, very lukewarm on the idea. So frustrating! His Italian father has always bad-mouthed Naples (like any good Northern Italian, I guess) so B just has an inate dislike of the region. I don't push it too much though because Italy is crazy expensive! Every time I find a nice hotel, my jaw hits the floor when I see the rates. Two weeks in Italy would cost us a fortune. I like a deal and so far, I haven't found any for Italy. He keeps suggeting Majorca, which we visited 3 years ago and granted, we had a nice time, but I want to go somewhere new. He also keeps checking out prices for Thailand, but I don't want to go so far. We would both like to go on holiday to Mexico or Central America but it is completely not the season for that. The problem is that if we go during school holidays we are going to have to book something really soon. And B still hasn't asked his parents if they want Ella to come and visit them while she is off school, since they were making comments about never seeing her. Ugh. So lots of stuff to sort out in the next week or so.
11. My good friend from boarding school, Preeta Samarasan, has come out with her first novel, Evening is the Whole Day. She is giving a reading on October 1st at the American Library in Paris at 7:30 in the evening and is hoping very much that there is nice sized audience there. The book is great, but the evening would be worth it for Preeta alone as she is an astoundingly interesting person. So, if you are free and in that neighborhood, mark your calendar. If you can't make it to the reading, then just read the book. The reviews are so impressive and the book definitely lives up to the hype; its gorgeous.
11. Finally, I got a really interesting email from a girlfriend of mine who lost her job in all the chaos on Wall Street. She has actually been off work for awhile and after a load of travelling, is now thinking of heading in a new direction, like starting up her own company. She asked me if I would like to go into business with her and if so, what kind of thing I would want to do. I have to say that I'm not motivated enough right now to do something like this on my own, but of everyone I know, she is probably the only person I would completely trust as a business partner. I mean, I would trust her with my money, I would trust to her to make any business she started a success, I would trust her to never give it less than 110%. Its completely out of the blue and its obviously still very much in the talking stages but, wow. This could turn out to be a very very exciting year...
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Finally, everything you ever wanted to know about Turkey
Oh my god. I was desperately trying to finish up a photo album project of our Turkey trip in time for Father's Day, spending my afternoons sifting through the 500 photos that I took (and I still haven't gotten the disc with my mom's photos, but I think my brain would collapse at the task of sorting through the 500 shots that she probably has on her disc. I don't want this to sound mean, but my mom? She takes photos of really stupid shit and then? She gets mad at me when I don't put those shots in the album or try to delete them off the computer. I know, I know. Who am I to judge?) ANYWAYS, the album still isn't done since it turned out to be impossibly long, ie too long to fit in the printers' guidelines so I am now doing some more severe editting. I want to get this done though before I leave for the States, so I have got to just finish it up. I have lost all my momentum now, and its harder to force myself to face the task. Saying that, Snapfish has a really great program for putting together albums and the printing is nice, based on the last album I did.
So, I decided that since I haven't any interest in doing the album today, I might as well do a bit of a blog entry, to get down some of the details of our trip. The first three days, we stayed in Istanbul and hit all the big tourist sights- The Blue Mosque, where we were harassed by a carpet salesman/tour guide, the Aga Sophia, with its stunning mosaics, and dinner at the Armada hotel, where we joined by a very friendly (and tenacious) seagull who sat in a pot of flowers and begged table scraps off of us for the entire meal. We discovered that Turkish wine is not half bad. The second day we visited Topkapi Palace, which is pretty cool- especially the Treasury with its giant bowl o' emeralds and the harem. It was very big and by the end of the day we were exhausted, besides which, I was getting freaked out because people would not stop trying to touch Ella. It was a Turkish holiday weekend so there were lots of big groups of Turks, maybe people from the country travelling into the city I suppose, but I was shocked that they would be so impressed by a blonde baby. She's not that blonde and I didn't think it would such a rare sight in Turkey where there are so many foreigh tourists. I'm just happy that I had the backpack to stick her in whenever the crowds got too rowdy for my liking. Honestly, all that I could think about was Madeline McCann, and the idea that it wasn't really that weird for a stranger to just want to walk off with a pretty little girl that caught his eye. That night we took a ferry across the Bosphorus to the Asian side and ate in a beautiful little resto in Uskander, out in the gardens under the stars.
We did a quick tour of the Grand Bazaar and we were totally scared off buying by all the aggressive salespeople. Its really intimidating. I mean, we hardly dared stop walking to fix a shoe lace because if you weren't moving, you were fair game for a hard sell. Yuck. I was also thinking that most of the stuff was probably just tat and couldn't be bothered to look. I think that might have been a bit of a mistake. Just before we were getting on our airplane, I decided to go and buy a few 'pashminas' to use as blankets for Ella. I thought that even if they were the fake viscose ones, it would be good enough for using on the plane. Once I got home, I realized that quality was fantastic and since I bought two, I got them for 7 euro a piece. If I had bought more, the per unit price would have been even lower! I was kicking myself for not getting about 6 more, since they would also have been awesome presents to keep in the Cadeau Cupboard for emergencies. So, let me error be a lesson for someone else.
The very very best part of Istanbul though was the Archeological Museum, which is part of the Topkapi Palace, but a separate entrance fee. I thought I would pop in for an hour or so before we had to leave for the airport and ended up going by myself. It was so amazing that I felt bad that everyone else missed it. Honestly, I knew that modern day Turkey encompasses a lot of important sites from the ancient world, but this just drove home the point. There are stunning sarcophagus from the Alexander the Great period. Amazing mosaic floors and walls, statuary from temples. The most incredible headstones from a Greek cemetary, with the original painted inscription still visible. I loved this place and it was practically empty, which I cannot even begin to understand. The comparative exhibits in Paris at the Louvre are crowded beyond capacity and they look like a 6th-grade science fair exhibit compared to what you will find at the Archeology Museum in Istanbul. I cannot wait to go back, and recommend it to anyone who visits the city. For the price of entry, its a steal compared to lots of the other sites.
So that afternoon, we hopped on a flight down to the coast to get on the boat. 'Hop' makes it sound like getting to the airport was no big deal. I don't want to give you that impression. I very very stupidly decided to save 20 euro per person and booked us a flight out of Sabbia Gocek airport, that may have actually been located in Iran, when I think about how bloody long it took us to drive there. Seriously, don't make this mistake if you are in Istanbul. Cough up the cash and use Ataturk airport. So much easier. We arrived at Dalaman airport, our driver was already waiting and he whisked us off to the boat, at which point we all just died with happiness. The boat was so pretty and the crew was so nice and the manager, Petra, did everything possible to make sure that we hadn't the tiniest unsatisfied desires, that it was like heaven. We motored out of the harbor at 6 in the evening , with a golden glow over the water, a glass of champagne in hand, nothing to do but wait for our crew to put dinner on the table. Heaven, I tell you.
Every day was like that- even the not great things seemed really good. We tried to sail lots but the wind was not perfect, which didn't make it any less fun for us, I think. The water was also pretty refreshing- not cold, but you definitely had to force yourself in the first time. We visited some really beautiful places along the coast, like Oludeniz beach, St Nicholas Island, and Fethiye (with a sidetrip inland to the ghost town of Kaya). We really just loved being on the boat and having such a relaxing time. It was a million times more relaxing for me than any of our beach holidays, and Ella was along, so that is really saying something. Speaking of which, Ella loved the boat. No, she LOVED the boat. I think it was so fascinating for her, with all the little cubby holes, and gadgets, and ropes, and you could climb up and over everything with no one getting angry, and she could lay in bed and nap and still hear us just nearby. There was no TV, and we only remembered the Ipod doc on the third or fourth day, so we all kept occupied with books and talking and eating- absolutely no electronic amusements. And it was really nice to do it with my family. There are times that I have been on holiday and thought, 'Oh, I wish my parents/sister/brother could be here because they would love this so much'. I know that it was a lot of work to organize, but before we got off the boat, I was already pushing my parents to come back next year, or the year after, and make all my siblings come along. Its pretty tight quarters on a boat and you can't plan a trip like this with just anyone, in my opinion. We were all in such a great mood the entire time that I can't remember a single tense moment from the entire 6 days. Thats weird. I mean, we get along, but still.
An amazing thing about this part of the Turkish coast (which may be true for other areas, but I wouldn't know) is that there are Roman and Byzantine ruins still standing everywhere you look. For an American, this is particularly thrilling, I know. I loved walking through these ancient cities, amazed that I cold still climb the stairs that people had been using a thousand years before I was born. But even B was impressed. France has old cities that you can visit, but nothing as old as this. I think that the fact that these areas were no remote had a lot do with it. In France, I think most cities have just kept being built over and over so that the oldest party just melts into the new and you don't have many places that were just abandoned in the 5th century, or the 12th centry. I stopped in a bookstore and bought some Turkish history books because I just got so intrigued but there is a lot of cutting off the heads in those books, so I am slogging my way through. If this were a slightly more academic blog, I might bore you with my more complicated theories about why these places still exist, but I won't. My poor dear husband got to spend the flight back to Paris getting an earful. I can promise you, he wasn't the most receptive audience, not having a great interest in urban planning theory.
After the boat, we were sad sad sad. Thought that the villa in Kalkan would be a dull interlude before climbing on our flights back home, but how wrong we were. Ok, the villa in Kalkan was not awesome since it was not so much in the middle of olive groves as in the middle of a suburban construction boom. We had another house about 5 meters from ours, blocking nearly the entire view of the sea. Our pool was miniscule and the staircase was just about as rickety a child-safety hazard as you can imagine. But the old town was full of nice restaurants. The surrounding area had some great sights to visit and the roads were really nice compared to other places we have toured around (rural Ireland, I'm talking to you...) The BEST thing we did was to visit Salkikent Gorge. We thought it was just going to be a little fenced in walking path along the river, as we gazed up at the narrow canyon walls. A slight language barrier had us accepting the offers of a guide who quite literally hauled our big out-of-shape American asses up the canyon, over boulders, through waterfalls, in the most icy cold water you can imagine- all of this with Ella strapped to B's back, screaming 'Don't like it! Wanna go home! NOW!' Honestly, when we realized that we would have to actually go in the water (and even then, we thought it was just going to be a little bit of rock-hopping) we hesitated. Then we decided, no. We drove all the way out here. Let's just walk up the river a few hundred yards. Thats when this little Turkish guy (cotton farmer in the off-season) grabbed my mom's hand after doing some sort of incomprehenible negotiation with her, and told us all to make a line. He started dragging her in the water and we didn't have time to think. We grabbed hands and plunged in. Up to our crotches. In water so cold, it literally made my leg muscles seize up. I don't even drink things this cold. It was like there was a glacier up at the top of the canyon and we were wadding in the arctic run-off. To put it mildly, I was not prepared for that. Well, our 'guide' took off at a brisk pace and I was left hopping around on the gravel, trying to get my feet to work. For the first half hour, I would say, I couldn't step in the water without it feeling like burning needles. Then, I guess my nerve endings went numb and it wasn't so bad. I could even appreciate the Indiana Jones-ness of it all. The water wasn't particularly deep, although it was running quite fast, but our guide told us just where to place our feet and jumped in to push or pull whenever needed. I went crazy with my camera because it was truly hilarious to see my fam frantically scrambling over ice cold waterfalls, with our tiny Turkish cheerleader egging us on harder, while dressed for a quite lunch on a terrasse. I think it took us about 2 hours, and we went loads further than any other group of tourists, although apparently not quite far enough to reach the mud baths- which surely would have been good for some practical jokes and photo ops.
Our trip back to Istanbul was a nightmare and so was our drive out to the airport the morning of our flight- and let me warn you, if you miss your flight DO NOT count of the kindness of Turkish Air staff to generously offer you a seat on the next flight. Just leave for the airport way way way ahead of time. Whatever. We'll definitely be back, probably on a boat, and I can't wait. And I brought back the best souvenir!
Friday, May 30, 2008
Turkey, in a nutshell
Don't think that I have time today to do a complete blow-by-blow of our two weeks in Turkey, but I could sum up the whole thing very simply by saying it was an awesome vacation. I would even go so far as to say that it makes the Top Three Best Vacations Ever. I think that the 6 days on the boat were what made it so fantastic and I honestly cannot recommend this enough as a great way to spend a holiday. The boat was beautiful, the food that they served was the best that we ate in the entire two weeks, the crew was lovely and helpful, the sailing was so much fun, the places that they took us to visit and the scenery the entire time were superb and it was so relaxing because all we had to do is sit back and enjoy it. We booked a fairly small boat, only 22 meters, and this was an excellent choice since we wanted to do lots of sailing and the boats bigger than 22 m seemed to use their motor almost exclusively, which I think is an awfully boring way to do the trip. Having said that, we were only 6 passengers on the boat (although technically there was space for 10) and so for a bigger group I suppose it might be more comfortable to get something bigger. I saw boats that were much more luxurious when I was doing my research but now that I did the trip, I think it would be pretty unnecessary to pay more money just for that. In any case, I cannot say enough good things about Petra, the manager of Vira Yachting, or Yucel, our captain. We didn't want to get off the boat and spent the rest of the vacation dreaming about coming back next year.
Saturday, January 05, 2008
christmas holidays
So, 20 hours after having stepped off my flight from Brazil, I was back at the airport, with a different set of luggage and a child, waving good-bye to B. I was so exhausted that I hadn't had the energy to even glance inside our bags and hadn't the slightest idea what I had brought along with me. Luckily, I had had the foresight to do all my packing before flying off to Brazil. The only thing that I hadn't managed to pack was fois gras, thinking that I could surely buy it in Duty Free before getting on the airplane. Bad luck, they've decided that fois gras is too dangerous to carry-on the plane and so has been outlawed by security. High time, I say. Who knows how many innocent people have been killed while caught in the shrapnel of an exploding passenger unable to contain one more mouthful of pure unadulterated transfat.
Amazingly, Ella and I arrived in the States without having any major blow-outs, emotional or diaper-related. She napped nicely and I got to stretch out and watch the inflight movie, since both our planes were only half full. Little did I know that we were squandering a mountain of good luck and that we would pay for it on our return flight...
For the first time in I can't remember how many years, we arrived to snow; a nice thick, white blanket of snow all over everything. Global warning? Bah humbug! Not in Wisconsin. Its so pretty when it is white and snowy everywhere, the best thing is that it feels like Christmas right away. I went up to spend a few days at my Grandpa's house- which is even deeper in the NorthWoods than my parents house- and I think it was easily ten times more beautiful than the most beautiful beaches we had seen in Brazil. Granted, I am horribly biased, but Hollywood would have had a hard time topping this scene. The pine trees had snow piled thick on the branches; the sky was clear and blue and the sun was so bright on the snow on the ground that it hurt your eyes; the wind picked up just enough to blow a light dusting of snow off the roof and the air sparkled as if someone had emptied a container of silver glitter. And then, just as we all stood at the window marvelling at how pretty it was, a family of deer wandered out of the woods and into the yard. Honestly, Walt Disney couldn't have designed a better picture postcard. I tried taking a photo or two but I erased them because they looked completely blah after having seen how perfect it was in reality.
Everything was just perfect for Christmas this year. As usual, when we're in the thick of things, it seems horrible and stressful and disorganized, and but it all works out in the end and we have a fantastic time. This year we had a major crisis when we couldn't find the recipe for white fruit cake- toasted white fruit cake for breakfast is a Christmas tradition in our house so there were telephone calls flying about for two days while we scoured old cookbooks, the bottom of cupboards, and finally- in desperation- resorted to Google. Crisis averted. Let's see, what else? Oh, of course there was the missing fois gras. Luckily my brother was sent to Amsterdam for a few weeks for work. I called B and was arranging for an emergency shipment of fois gras to be delivered to the hotel, in order to save our Christmas Eve menu, when my brother decided to make a quick detour to Paris before flying home. Poor B was getting a bit lonely at home in Paris, overseeing the kitchen renovation, so I think he appreciated the company. Besides, the heat had been turned off while the builders were in and our apartment was freezing cold. B and the brother spent a few nights cuddled up in our bed- since every other room in the flat was stacked to the ceiling with kitchen cupboards and appliances and boxes- and there wasn't even a large enough square of free floor space for a boy to stretch out. Luckily, my brother had more reasons than just the fois gras for going to Paris because his bags were lost on his flight home and we had to do without, boo-hoo.
I tried very hard to minimize my stress by doing nearly all my 'Santa' shopping for ella over the internet. As soon as I arrived home, I scoured all the catalogs that my mother had collected for me, I weighed the pros and cons of all the different things (which generally boiled down to whether or not I would be able to get it home in my suitcase and find a place for in her already overflowing toybox) and placed my orders well within the deadlines for delivery. Well, naturally it is never that easy. I very nearly had a nervous breakdown waiting for her things to arrive. Finally, FINALLY, on Christmas Eve morning (slipping in just under the bell) I got the box I had been waiting for. I bought Ella a dollhouse, all the furniture and the little doll family to live there. Of course, I had to go a little bit overboard (it would be totally out of character for me to be reasonable), and I ordered the Christmas decorating set, complete with miniature candy canes, tiny wrapped presents, and a battery-operated lighted Christmas tree. Its entirely possible that I loved it far more than Ella did (or maybe, ever will) but it was definitely worth staying up late, after Ella was in bed, putting it all together. I think this is my first real Christmas as a mommy. We had one last little crisis, when I realized that I couldn't actually put the house together with screws because they were locking screws and I risked not being able to get it apart to fit in my luggage so I made an executive decision to put the house together with clear packing tape. Ok, it wasn't the ideal solution or very pretty, but at 11:30 on Christmas Eve night, I didn't really have the time to think up a better solution.
I got stacks of lovely things under the Christmas tree, obviously I was a very good girl this year. I don't know if I mentioned that B bought me a travel wallet at the Mulberry party that was the most perfect gift, and already is very well broken in. The best surprise gift was a camera tripod that has flexible legs that can be manipulated to make the camera stand (or hang from) any surface. I love it! I had seen it in a magazine weeks ago and the article said that it was only available in Japan so I hadn't even mentioned it to anyone. Ella decorated a picture frame for me, which I adore. She was so proud and excited to give it me, there is no way that I could not love it more than all my other presents put together.
Christmas day a big snow storm moved over, leaving a fresh blanket of fluffy snow over enerything and the next day (or was it the day after? There is an eggnog fog hanging over the post-Christmas days that makes it difficult for me to remember precisely...) I took Ella sledding for the first time. It was so much fun! We found a short little hill just near my mom's house and grabbed my nephew and my sisters and spent about an hour dragging her up and down, while she giggled her head off. Even better, when we went back to the house, my mom had homemade hot chocolate for us and we threw in a few of my homemade peppermint marshmallows. In a fit of Christmas spirit, I had spent an afternoon making these marshmallows about two weeks before and hadn't even tried them yet. How much better could a vacation get? If only we had flown home immediately...
The next day, the plague descended on the house and there was hardly a person left standing. Stomach flu. I'll just leave it there.
So, after recovering enough to pack my bags, I quickly decided that I would simply pay the extra baggage charge rather than repack and repack to squeeze everything into 4 suitcases, and we headed to the airport. It was an ill-fated trip from the get-go. First off, there were no 4-wheel drive vehicles available. My parents driveway could easily be confused with a used car lot and there is a constantly rotating choice of vehicles. My mother was just about hysterical over the idea that we would be forced to drive her precious Mercedes on actual roads, very possibly getting actual mud, which comes from dirt, on her car which may or may not be made of sugar. Personally, I didn't find it such a complete tragedy... Although, I did feel a bit badly when Ella vomitted in the car on the way to the airport. The plane was completely full and I had to put Ella to sleep on the floor. There was a horrific storm over Iceland and after barely making it to the ground, they informed us that we were stuck there until the eye (!) of the storm passed, when they would try to get us all out. 10 hours later, after the passengers of the Paris flight got so irate that they were required to call in the police to calm us down, they managed to find a crew for our plane and we were on our way once again. For the entire 10 hours in the airport, Ella only laid down for 45 minutes, amazingly. She is the best traveller and hardly fussed about anything, preferring instead to run up and down the hallways with the other 50 toddlers also trapped in the airport. I had barely slept on the first flight but apparently 3 hours of sleep was enough to wind her up like a Duracell bunny. By the time we did get back in the air, though, Ella was hysterical with sleep deprivation and hadn't eaten anything in about 50 hours (if you don't count half a box of smarties, which frankly, I don't), was so filthy that I would have been horrified under normal circumstance but I was so tired I was just happy to still be able to walk.
It's no wonder then that I am still totally exhausted. B has started making noises about how a week is surely enough to recover from the jetlag, but honestly, I don't know. The day after we arrived, I had to stay up all day playing with ella. Then that night we had NYE plans so we were out til 3 am. I felt like a bit of a spoilsport not going on to a club after we left our friends, especially since we were paying a fortune for a babysitter, but I was trying to be sage. Sweet Ella let us sleep until 1 pm the next day. Then I got a horrible cold- surprise surprise- so I am slowly snuffling my way back to normal. I've given myself Monday as a deadline. Ella is back to daycare, all her classes start, and it will be time for me to start sorting myself out for 2008. I have big big plans and I can't wait to dig in and get it at it. Only about 6 more New Years cards to get in the mail, and so i think that we can label Holiday Extravaganza 2007 a smashing success.
Thursday, January 03, 2008
But like I said, it wasn't all gloom and doom. Buzios is a gorgeous little fishing village with tons of fabulous shops and restaurants. And after taking a boat tour of the area, we found Tartaruga Beach, which me basically made our QG for the rest of our stay.
The beach was most easy to get to with the water taxis. We would get dropped off at the edge of the water, choose which beach shack looked nicest for the day and install ourselves in a couple of reclining chairs under an umbrella. Then the owner of the shack would come around with fresh cold drinks about every 45 minutes and when lunch rolled around, he would show us what the fishermen had brought in that morning so that we could choose our lunch. One day we were lucky enough to get two lobster, that were grilled for us. Obviously, it cost next to nothing and it was absolute paradise.
I had been told about other beaches that were supposed to be really nice but honestly, I can't think of anything that was missing from this one. The best thing of all was that this beach had the most amazing golden sand. The stone that lined the hills behind us were a dark color with flecks of shiny gold. You can see that the sand on the beach looks quite ordinary, but when you walked in the water and stirred it up, it looked like someone had dumped glitter in the water. I've never seen anything like it. Sadly, we couldn't manage to get a photo of it but it doesn't matter, as I'm unlikely to ever forget how gorgeous that was.
After a day at the beach, our taxi would come back to pick us up and we would wander back to our hotel for a nice sieste before getting ready for a night out. Buzios had far too many nice restaurants and bars for us to have worked our way through them all but we didn't find a single place that we didn't like. Of course, the downside was that the prices were practically the same as in Paris, but you can't have everything, I guess.
The best night out, we were invited by a friend to go to the main disco in the town. While we met lots of foreigners at our hotel and in restaurants and bars, this place seemed to be 100% Brazilian. The music was local pop music which was funny to listen and the drinks were beyond potent- which was unnecessary considering how cheap they were. The highlight of the evening was when a samba band started its show. It was so much fun! Everyone was dancing up a storm and the atmosphere was phenomenal, with the drums and the feathered dancing girls and the open air nightclub. I think my head would probably explode from excitement if I was actually in Brazil for carnival. It was better than I had ever expected it to be. Mostly, if its just B and I at a club, I think its really boring but I think we just got so swept up in things that I felt like I was there with 200 of my closest Brazilian friends rather than just being a tourist, hanging out on the sidelines with my hubby.
That night was also memorable (and I'm just using that as a figure of speech) because it is the most drunk that I have been in years. By the time we left I had drunk a grand total of 2 margaritas over the course of the entire night. I hadn't been drinking because I didn't want to poop out early and then these two drinks were so potent that I was drunk as a skunk by the time B dragged me out the front door. I think that either tequila is more potent in the southern hemisphere or margarita is just a loose translation and really I was drinking something more like lime juice mixed with rocket fuel. I may never know, but rest assured, I had enough of a hangover to convince me to never do that again. Also, B's unmerciless teasing is too too much for a girl to have to live with, when all she wants to do is be left totally unaware of her mistakes. Granted, I went home with the right person, which is very good. I didn't vomit at all over the club or the htoel or any unsuspecting spectators, which is very very good. But I must confess to a hopeless case of the giggles and general drunken shenanigans. First, I started undressing in front of the security camera to get into the hotel. I have no idea why, perhaps a clumsy seduction technique? Then once I giggled my way up all the stairs to the pool area, surely waking up every roomful of people we passed, I decided that it would be fun to get my feet wet. Bruno immediately ordered me to get out of the pool before I got my clothes wet, which inspired me to dunk myself all the way under water, in order to get all my clothes wet. Finally he persuaded me to get out of the pool and dragged me to the door of our room, where he shouted at me for being all wet, because now there would be water all over the place. Which convinced me that he was totally right, I definitely did not want the rooom all wet. So while he struggled with the lock, I undid the straps on my dress and left it in a puddle outside the room. B turned around to find me standing there as naked as the day I was born, although I think he was rather resigned to his role as useless babysitter at this point and could only shake his head in disbelief at how ridiculously drunk and stupid I was that night.
Oh Buzios, will you and I ever share drunken shenanigans again? I still have that 5 year Brazilian visa so once my liver recovers, there is no reason why not.
After all the adventures in the jungle, we were quite happy that we had planned on spending the next seven days at the beach just chilling out (our first morning, after looking out at the beach, B cancelled our flights to Iguazu Falls and extended our stay at the hotel). I had a reserved a really nice room at a hotel that had been recommended to me at a beach town a few hours up the coast from Rio, Buzios. Buzios is fantastic! Beautiful and chic and relaxed and very Brazilian. I loved it. Our hotel, Casas Brancas, was less of a delight.
Don't get me wrong- we didn't suffer through our entire stay. The hotel is beautiful, the music and atmosphere is the height of cool, and the food and drinks were great. Our room was less awesome but maybe other people would have found it perfectly adequate. Let me explain.
When we finally arrived at the hotel, it was nearly midnight and we had more or less been travelling since 8 am. We were thoroughly exhausted. The clerk showed us to our room and as we walked through the hotel we were so impressed by how gorgeous it was that I think our mouths were hanging open. Our room was enormous and very beautiful so we thanked him and quickly went about unpacking our suitcases. You see, because it had rained to hard the last night, everything in our bags felt a bit damp and after a day sitting in a closed suitcase, I was a bit worried about things smelling funny and getting wrinkled beyond repair. Once we were done we collapsed into bed.
Only to be woken bright and early by the sun shining in the room through the two windows that didn't have curtains! This didn't really matter so much though, as breakfast had started- in the room located directly above our beds and we could hear people chatting away. It sounded like our window was wide open; it wasn't just open, it was broken and couldn't be closed. We wrestled with it for about 10 minutes before giving up and climbing out of bed. I had a better look around the room and realized that we didn't have a balcony although I thought that I had reserved a deluxe room in order to have one. I figured that I must have changed my mind at the last minute. After stuffing our selves at the breakfast buffet (which was really fantastic, by the way) we flopped down on the deck chairs around the pool and talked about which of us should go and ask for a new room. By the time B finally went to talk to them, they said that there were no rooms free until Sunday night (we were Friday) so they couldn't switch us. I was feeling too lazy to actually want to repack all my things and it did look like all the ocean view rooms were quite close to the restaurant and therefore probably equally noisy, so we let it go. We had eyemasks and earplugs from the airplane, that would probably be enough to help us through the worst of it.
The hotel also has a spa and guests are treated to a 15 minute welcome massage (although I wasn't told this at the desk, it was only after a mix-up at the spa reception that I learned about this...) so the first afternoon, I went down and booked treatments for B and I. I managed to get in a facial straight away. The staff are lovely, and the decor is as lovely as the rooms but once in my treatment room, I realised that the equipment was all broken. After my facial, they asked me if I wanted to use the jacuzzi and gave me a gorgeous black bikini to wear (I wish I kept it, it was more flattering than any of them that I tried on when shopping!). I went to the room where they had a tray of drinks out for me, and... the jacuzzi wouldn't work.
It was the beginning of a long list of broken equipment at the hotel. The shower next to the pool was out of order; the pool filter was blocked, which you could see by the layer of grease and leaves floating on top of the water (and of course, as we were staying in a room just next to the pool, we were privy to the early morning meetings of the repairmen around the pool); the security gate to the beach didn't open so guests had to pull a fence aside and climb over the potted plants. It was all a bit disappointing for what was supposed to be the best hotel in Buzios.
The real disappointment though, was yet to come. We had decided that we couldn't be bothered to move rooms because it would be so much work to pack up all our things but one day, I happened across our reservation papers and lo and behold- I had reserved a deluxe room. I asked B what we had paid for the room and he said he wasn't sure because the rates were quoted in dollars but he had to pay in reales. We did the figures and sure enough, we had paid the deluxe room rate. I went to the front desk to sort things out directly and was assured by the deskclerk that my room, room 11, was definitely a deluxe room. I pointed out that there was no balcony as stated in my reservation. He admitted that there wasn't one, but that it was bigger room than the other deluxe. I insisted it couldn't be a deluxe room because it said on their own internet site (now corrected, atleast) that all the deluxe rooms had balconies. He said that they had finished up some renovation work and the website must not have been changed. I pointed out that it didn't matter to me what the excuse might be, I refused to pay the price for a room I didn't get. He couldn't do anything about it, I had to come back the next day. The next day, it was the same thing. Come back later to talk to the manager. The manager said the same thing, it was a mistake on the web, blah blah blah.
The biggest problem was then that our vacation was being ruined by having to go and argue about this everyday and then ruminate on the argument all day long. Obviously, they had our money and were convinced that it wasn't cheating to give us a room that didn't correspond to what we had paid for, so they weren't giving any of it back. We were having a lovely holiday in the sun even if we were in a (relatively) lousy room and were too lazy to move our mountain of clothes and luggage and souvenirs and books and sunscreen and... so we let it go. I think that there is a point when you have to ask yourself if the fight is worth it and in this case it definitely was not. On the other hand, how shitty. And quite frankly, what a scam. It still pisses me off.
Of course, the real reason for the trip to Manaus is to see the Meeting of the Waters, where the Rio Negro meets the Rio Solemoes and turns into the Amazon. The two rivers are different colors and end up running alongside each other for something like 6 miles before they finally mix. It seems like a bit of a tall tale, designed to get the tourists out on another silly boat tour but it was absolutely true and pretty impressive to boot. We saw dolphins playing in the water since there is a huge amount of fish at this point in the river, although I didn't manage to see any of the pink ones. Shame- how cute must that be?!
It took us literally hours to get there on the boat which was sooo boring- although they had a few coolers full of soda and beer for us. I finally managed to taste a Guarana Antartica, the local drink. I think that Red Bull is actually a base of guarnica, a hyper caffienated berry that grows in the rainforest. This drink is somewhere between a Coke and a Red Bull, I guess. Its quite sweet and fizzy and after drinking about one an hour for the duration of the boat ride, boy was I ready to kick some piranha ass on our fishing trip. Seriously guys, I could have paddled us up the river faster than the motor was pushing our little fishing canoe. Laugh, but I managed to hook the biggest fish of the day. It was so funny though because here we were out hunting for these little devil fish, half shitting ourselves thinking of them swarming around in the water under our (scary rickety) fishing boat, and what do they give us for gear? A cane pole, a tiny little hook, and a paper cup of cut up steak. I was kind of hoping for something more like chain mail and and an ax, you know?
We went out into this reserve area and hiked into the jungle a bit to see the giant lily pads and also get assaulted by children with jungle animals gripped under their arms for photo ops; I made B hug a sloth. The little baby sloth got one brush with B's furry chest and I think that he thought he had discovered his long lost daddy. Too funny- especially since that animal reeked to the high heavens and B had to grimace through every photo. I absolutely refused to pick up any of the animals offered; I did not want to hug a caiman or an anaconda or anything else on offer. Call me a spoilsport, I had had my fill with the monkeys.
On the boat ride back to the hotel, we layed out on the deck in the sun and drank beer, which was a super nice ending to an exciting of
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