Not sure where the time has gone but Squeaker has turned three! The good thing about living here in Perth is that you just go to the local park and have the party there. Lara did a great job making the cake, jelly and sausage rolls. We decided that it would be too hard to keep ice cream solid so missed it out all together. It was a lovely afternoon filled with trying to herd 3 year olds, something that can only be a likened to herding cats.
Au Revoir Gap!
I simply cannot believe that it is over already… On Tuesday the 17th Ellis and I were driven by Dave to Marseille airport to begin the journey to Australia.
We landed in Stanstead where Sue very kindly collected us. Dave arrived to Stoke-Holy-Cross the following evening in Gruber with all our Gaply belongings. A very good job driving in one day (and there was still some Redbull left in the van!).
Ellis made biscuits with Granny “Sniff” and did puzzles with Grandpops and baked a lovely cake for Great Grandpa Bill. Unfortunately, although everyone else enjoyed the Lemon Drizzle Cake, Ellis still prefers a Victoria Sponge!
On Thursday Dave headed off to Peterborough to renew his now expired passport… well it expired a few days before he left France to be precise. Despite the expired passport he managed to persuade customs in Calais that he was not an Eastern European immigrant and was granted access.
While Dave was sorting out his passport Ellis and I headed over to Surrey to visit Nanny Caryn, Grumpsy and of course Rommel! We celebrated being back in the UK with a lovely dinner in the White Hart where Ellis enjoyed showing the other diners her tummy.
On Friday we headed to Peppa Pig World. Finally! It was certainly worth the 2 hours to get there and back. Ellis had a fabulous time on Windy Castle and all the other rides! Dinosaurs, helicopters, cars and trains! She even got to talk to Peppa and George and stroke them in their furry extra large forms. Photos to follow!
On Sunday Ellis went to the Children’s club at Mum’s church which she loved! We had a pre-existing engagement to visit Louise and her brood so I had to drag her away early. She was not impressed but once she realised that she had more children to play with she was beyond happy again! We had a lovely time at the Ross Clan’s house – thank you for a lovely lunch, playtime and the fabulous catch up. Their newest edition, one very cute Jasper, was a delight to cuddle!
Next stop: Cosford for some time with Aunty Natalie!
Making mates with Mr Marmotte
We knew of a place that the marmottes where suppose to be pretty used to humans and decidedto take a walk up there with Ellis to try and show her the wonders of the animal kingdom that are Marmottes.
When we got to the area which we heard was popular we were not disappointed. A local friend gave us a tip that they love carrots and they were not wrong.
After waving carrots at a few, a couple of them found their balls and came and said hello and were rewarded with a share in a bag of the carrots we had lugged up with us.
I have to admit, they are very cool animals. I tried to give this one a hi5 after we had shared a carrot together but he left me hanging……
Ellis was a little scared of them at first but after having a brief chat with one she decided she liked them and then just sat there smiling at them and throwing carrots to them.
Holiday from a holiday
I know – aweful, haven’t updated this since leaving Aberrdeen. I assume no one looks at this anymore as it is so woefully out of date. I have decided to at make an effort as I was looking back at photos last night and i forget the things I am doing. At least this way I have a diary that I can refer back to.
There are a few Galleries in the Gallery section (link top left of this page) of things we have been up to since we got here, littel out of date).
Last week we went on holiday to the Greek island of Zakynthos with the Taduesz tribe. A week of fabulous weather and more beaches than you can shake a stick at.
A lot of swimming and loads of building of sand castles and Ellis jumping on them once I had lovingly made them
Ellis loved the water and became very comfortable in it, althogh she does pull the same funny faces as her mother when her face gets wet.
Think i went over board with the inflatables!
All the pictures can be seen by clicking here for the link to the gallery
A weekend in Collesalvetti
In the middle of last week we made an impromptu decision to visit family in Bella Italia. Vittorio, Cinzia and Mattia very kindly put us up in their spectacular home, very last minute. It was a long journey there after Ellis finished nursery on Friday. I don’t believe I have ever been through so many tunnels. After a long journey on busy roads we found ourselves heading up some incredibly tight hairpins in the middle of no-where. Dave began to question whether we were going on holiday or whether I was leading him to some remote destination so Vittorio could finish him off. We didn’t trust the GPS any further so we called upon Vittorio to lead us the rest of the way. We had a quick reunion then off to bed as by the time we arrived it was mid-night and after 7 hours of driving we were “stanco molto”.
We had a lazy day Saturday; friends of Vittorio and Cinzia popped by with their children which was great for Ellis. We ate a lot of food and thankfully went for a walk to ease the digestion. Cinzia’s cooking means that you can’t stop before you’re bursting as it tastes too good! Ellis spent most of Saturday terrorising Mattia and commandeering his football game and toy car collection. She also took a liking to his Ducati replica.
Leo drove down on Saturday afternoon to meet us and we had a good reunion involving more food and of course some good Italian wine!
On Sunday we headed into Rossignano so we could visit the beach. Ellis and Mattia (and Dave and Vittorio) enjoyed launching pebbles into the sea and digging holes in the sand. It was topped off by a visit to the play park and the merry go round!!! There was of course, being Italy, a cafe where the adults could enjoy a coffee.
We headed to the local pizzeria on Sunday evening where, amazingly, they had not only a mini-playbarn but also the most enormous bouncy castle! Ellis and Mattia burned off their dinner while the rest of us ate dessert…
Monday we finally visited the leaning tower. It had been a long time coming and I can confirm it is definitely squint. An Italian gelato, more coffee and much larking about on the green by the Tower all passed by very quickly and it was all too soon time to return home, to Gap. We said our farewells and headed off towards S. Stefano di Magra where Sylvia had kindly offered to cook us dinner on our way home. We only had time for a very short visit but Sylvia as usual cooked up a storm especially at last minute notice!
Thank you to all for being such fabulous hosts and we very much look forward to being able to return the favour one day.
La Ciotat en famille avec Davy, Sandrine et Line
On Sunday morning we headed south to the beach at la Ciotat to play at the sea-side with local friends Davy, Sandrine and Line, who used to live around the corner. They have a family apartment very close to the beach (you can see the sea from the balcony) and very kindly offered to let us share their break away. For more info on La Ciotat http://www.tourisme-laciotat.com.
We spent much time playing with the girls on the beach and also taking it in turns to go biking and running! Dave headed off to the hills with Davy on their VTTs and Sandrine and I opted for the ‘Route’ option to lessen our chances of becoming lost.
Sandrine and I rode from la Ciotat towards Cassis and continued the loop through Roquefort (no stops for cheese) and back again to the coast; a fairly easy but stunningly beautiful 45km outing with under 1.000m of ascent.
To celebrate our lovely rides we all went out for dinner at one of the port-side restaurants and en route of course we stopped at the play parks and random fitness machines that were dotted along the way. Line and Ellis demonstrated one of them to us all.
Today we spent the day in beautiful gardens enjoying the sunshine at the Calanques followed by a beach picnic and of course another trip to the sandy beach to eat ice-cream and build sand castles. The boys also went for a swim in the rather chilly sea. They wore wetsuits despite the local children splashing about oblivious to the cold water in their swimsuits!
Thank you very much to family Michellon for allowing us to gatecrash your holiday!
Chez Léo-Paul
On Saturday we went to Emilie and Philippe’s house to play. Sadly Philippe was working but Ellis had a wonderful time catching up with new pal Léo-Paul and visiting the brand new puppies at his granny’s house. The were only a few hours old! We also went to see their chickens and Ellis and Léo-Paul got to feed them and stroke them. One of said chickens tried to eat my mole, situated at the base of my back and was unfortunately exposed, AïE! Léo-Paul’s grandpa has also rigged up a rather fantastic tyrolean between a couple of his trees!
For the collection of photos see the Photo Gallery.
Not quite as planned
We had planned to go climbing, but a late night celebrating Scott’s engagement to Anna made this a bit more difficult, with fuzzy heads it was decided that just a ski would be best, I am not the best of climbers without a hangover so with a hangover I would have been useless. We still wanted to go to the same area Coire Kander and have a go at skiing ‘Y Gully’.
With a late start we had some good scottish ski conditions
Non of this full cover, powder snow stuff that you get in the alps, we are talking rock hard snow and that is only in patches as well! 🙂
It is not a real Scottish ski if you haven’t skied on heather and grass along the way. Above is Scott on the way up Cairn and Tuirc, half way up we had to put the old crampons on as the slope got quite steep and a slip would have meant sliding all the way to the bottom and having to start again.
Once at the top,. in true Scottish fashion the cloud came in and gave us problems seeing our hands in front of our face! Map and compass out and moving on bearings. Haven’t had to navigate in a while and we had a few moments where our man compasses did not tally with the real compass and we had to be good and fight the urge to not believe the compass even though it was completely against my internal sense of direction which is usually pretty good.
As we find the edge of the Coire and the Gully the cloud lifted ( which was nice) and gave us a great view of Y Gully in all of it completely rock hard snow glory making it a no no to ski. Never mind, was nice being up there any way and practicing our navigation skills again.
The way down was an entertaining affair – god skiing down ice is loud! A nasty scrapping sound is still ringing in my ears! Apart from the noise it was a surprisingly enjoyable decent.
When it softens up it is going to be great, looking at the amount of snow up there, I think it is going to be a good gully season this year. Lets hope I can make the most of it before we leave for Gap next month.
It was ending as a rather nice day which was not expected at all. One of those days that looked like it was going to be rubbish but actually turned out great fun.
Ellis is 2!
We had a little party for Ellis this weekend for her second Birthday. Granny Caryn and Grumpsi came up and we had some friends around
She wore the pretty dress she was given from Nanny and was poilt rotten by all the presents she was given. Thank you all for your generosity.
An awesome cake was made for her in a Koala style as we all know her favorite thing int he world is her teddy koala called ‘E’
The house was full of small ankle bitters every where and fathers looking around wondering what the hell was going on! a lovely day, thank you all. the rest of the pictures can be seen by CLICKING HERE or at the ‘photo gallery’ link on the top right of this page.
Gap for a ski Holiday
Just back from an amazing week in Gap with Nanny Smith and Grandpops. We felt we couldn’t leave Ellis behind so she cam everywhere with us!
We bought the ski attachment for the buggy and she came cross country skiing with us, she either slept, shouted at me to go faster, or watched Peppa pig on the ipad what was conveniently in there with her.
A couple of days the grandparents were great baby sitters and Lara and I went off skiing together. It is always special when we get out together now as it doesn’t happen as much as it used to for an obvious small blond reason!
An afternoon at Reallon after it snowed the day before delivered the goods and we had another great powder day there. I love these little Frenchie resorts that don’t get tracked out in a few hours like the bigger resorts, this pic below was from the last run of the day……
We introduced Ellis to French sledging, (ie much bigger slopes and not as cold) She loved it and me, Dad and Lara dragged her up the hill over and over and over again, each time at the bottom giggling then turning around and shouting “AGAIN – TOP” whilst pointing at one of us to drag her back up.
Even managed to grab a powder afternoon with my dad which was brilliant, one thing skiing soft stuff with wife, but with wife and Dad it was great. Dad proved he still has it. Again this was a little french resort 20 minutes from the house. 3 lifts and only about 20 people on the whole mountains, so all freshies!
A great week with family and some superb skiing Another 6 weeks and we will be back for the summer….. can’t wait! Rest of the pictures can be seen by CLICKING HERE – or the ‘Photo Gallery’ link top right on this page
The Blog of Dave Lara, Ellis and Freddy 