Friday Five - Favourites

I'm sorry I've not blogged this week, again I have been crazy busy, Harry Potter at the cinema, highlights in my hair, pedicure, going to my school's end of term party, watching the Year 6 production, and today I'm packing for a long weekend away at a friends wedding. Who said this stay at home mum business would be at home?? Anyway this weeks Friday five is in response to Kat's questions. Here goes!



1. Favourite cuisine: Italian. Hands down, I loves me some Italian food! Spaghetti alla vongole, risotto, tiramisu, pannacotta, you name it I love it! Oh and don't get me started on a really good thin based pizza with artichokes, olives, pancetta and mozzarella!

Our group, left to right: Me, Andrew, Amy, Delia, Fran, Kay, Dr Mel, Dennis, Paul and in front Graham.


2. Favourite vacation: In NZ and the UK we call a vacation a holiday, but I digress. I think (and this is quite a hard choice because I've been on a lot of holidays, both in Europe and further away!) I've chosen Egypt. We spent two weeks in Egypt with 9 friends over Christmas 2007. It was brilliant, I've seen all the sights, pyramids, tombs, the Nile etc etc, but do you know what the best part was? Two or three days in a town called Siwa which is very remote, only 50km from the Lybian border. We rode bikes, ate great food, relaxed in hot pools in the dessert!! and went sand-boarding down the dunes. Sometimes its nice to get off the beaten track.

Sand-boarding.
3. Favourite hobby: I've got lots of hobbies but my favourite is definitely scrapbooking! I love recording our memories, cutting and pasting and choosing the lovely papers. Some people (Andrew maybe) might say that I've got too much stash, but you can never have too much stash surely?

Andrew and I on a sand dune enjoying the sunset.

4. Favourite Holiday tradition: I've not done this in a while because we've been in the UK for Christmases but I love the $5 present. On Christmas night we have anything from fifteen to thirty plus people at our family camp-site (it is summer in NZ remember) and that is far too many presents to buy! Each person buys one present worth $5 that fits the theme set by my mum (she's the youngest of seven and the unofficial boss) last year it was bottles. All the presents get put in the middle and the first person in the circle chooses one and opens it in front of everybody. The second person looks at that first present (still following me??) and has to decide, do I want that present or a new one? If they take the first present, the first person goes back and takes another present and opens that, and then its the third person's turn, and so on. It gets quite hilarious because some presents (one year it was some naughty dice) get hotly fought over and someone always ends up with the duds!

Waiting to go on our bike ride.

5. Favourite “the-baby’s-asleep-the-chores-are-done-now-what-shall-I-do” pastime: Drinking wine. Lounging on the couch, watching some TV and (not often enough) blogging. It’s my way to unwind. Confession, I mostly read blogs, and need to write more, but thanks to Kat for the answer to number five.

Fran on the main street of Siwa
PS the photos are from our visit to Siwa!

Friday Five - On a Saturday. Foods Chicken has tried

Sorry for not posting yesterday, we are having a Harry Potter marathon in our house because next Tuesday Chicken and I are going to the cinema/movies (depending on what country you live in) to see the final film.  I'm quite excited it has to be said!!  Anyway back to the Friday Five - Foods Chicken has eaten.  I'm going to do a post about how we started weaning and how its going in the coming week.  But for now, I know everyone wants to see pictures of a baby with mush all over their face!




1.  Apple.  This was Chicken's first meal and well, she wasn't keen!

2.  Toast.  Chicken has toast for breakfast most mornings.  She only really sucks on it and I spend a good half an hour picking up the pieces from the floor, good times.  She likes butter and vegemite, french toast, houmous (sp?) and cream cheese.

3.  Pea.  This is mixed with sweet potato which she really loves.  Because of the skin on the peas they don't mush up completely which is good, we're moving on to more solid food.

4.  Yoghurt.  Chicken has yoghurt after her toast in the morning.  I give her the yoghurt because its a good way to get calcium in her diet and I'm not sure how much she actually eats when she has toast.

 5.  My personal favourite - Blueberry!  The blueberries are mixed with pears (another favourite of Chicken's) and a bit of baby porridge to thicken it up.  I love this just because how cute she looks at then end!

Stealing my stuff, already!

Last week I went to Topshop to buy a fascintator for my friend Alice's wedding and I found this funky cream flower on a headband.  I liked that fact that it was cream and wouldn't be too obvious.  By the way, why is it called a fascinator?  Is it fascinating?

I've never worn a fascinator before, and I especially don't want to stand out like Princess Beatrice at William and Kate's wedding.

When I got home Chicken was a little whiney so I threw her the headband to play with, and of course she promptly showed it in her mouth.  I then decided to try it on her for a laugh.

And that back fired, she looked cute, super cute.  It even fits properly, we tested it last week and it doesn't fall off.

Looks like I'm going shopping for another fascinator next week!

Friday Five - Things about me

I've had a rather big day today, I mean I had to get up at 6:30am!  Now I know for working people (and my mum and dad, and my brother) that this is quite late, but for us, well it was quite a challenge.  Today I went into my work to see my kid's assembly.  Kids you say?  Yep I have had for the past eight years, thirty kids.  Thirty kids in my class that is!   This week's Friday Five is not about my baby, or my brother, or my husband, what I've baked, or my latest scrapbook layouts, or where we've been on holiday but about me - five things about me.  Not that those aren't great things to blog about, must remember that for the future.




1.  I'm a teacher.  For the past four years I've taught seven and eight year olds in a school in London.  I love my job because I get to make a difference in their lives (well hopefully).  I really love teaching History and Design Technology.  Before I taught in London I taught eleven and twelve year olds in New Zealand, quite a different story to the younger ones!  I have a funny story about one of my students, lets call him Steve.  Steve had a habit of saying what he thought out loud without thinking about he consequences.  One day I came to school looking particularly rough, I'd had a cold and was very tired, and I had no make up on.  Steve asked me (very innocently)   Miss C, why have you got pen marks under your eyes?  I raced next door to the mirror to check, and what did I see, just my dark circles!  I made sure I was wearing make up the next day!

2.  I like old school crime novels.  My favourite series is Agatha Christie's Poirot, and I'm also partial to the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters, and the Alphabet series by Sue Grafton.  I like these books because while you have to think about 'whodunit' there isn't too much gore or scary things, I'm not a fan of scary things.  I also looooove Poirot on TV, there is no better way to spend a Sunday afternoon.  Any by Poirot I mean David Suchet, not that Peter Ustinov guy!

3.  I spend far too much time on the internet.  Now this is probably to be expected, I mean I (try to regularly) write a blog, but there's so much more than that!  I read lots of blogs, food blogs, mum blogs, scrapbooking blogs, photography blogs and travel blogs.  I also tweet, check three email accounts, read two New Zealand newspapers, spend far far too much time catching up with friends stalking people on Facebook, and then there's my Cityville game, and people.com.  Sad, sad, sad.

3.  I quite like the idea of gardening but never really get round to doing much.  I'd much rather leave that to Andrew, he used to be a gardener in a former life so is much better qualified, and then I don't have to get dirty!  When I do garden however, it seems to be the destructive type.  I'm quite good and pulling out things, or cutting things back, but I certainly don't like cleaning up the mess, that's a boys job!

4.  I played football/soccer for nine years.  From 1994 to 2004 I played soccer in New Zealand.  I started off as a goal keeper, and then moved up to right defender and finally ended up as right midfield.  During my first two years we lost every single game, talk about character building.  During the five years I played in the field I scored two goals, yep only two goals.  I'm sure I helped set up a lot and save a few even.  When we moved to the UK in 2005 I was sure I'd be able to find a team here, it is the home of football!  But no, it wasn't too be, there was no team in my area.  Never mind, I'm sure I'll get to play when/if we move back to NZ.

5.  I used to live in the Scottish Highlands.  In 2005 when we moved to the UK we stayed with friends in Dundee, Scotland for a while.  It soon became obvious that while we loved staying with our friends, Dundee wasn't the place for us.  Andrew found a job as a gardener on Attadale Estate in Lochcarron and I worked in the best pub in the village, the Strathcarron Hotel.  Lochcarron is a teeny tiny village on the west coast of the Highlands, about an hour and a half west of Inverness.  This was a very remote place, no broadband, no freeview TV, and not many people, about 1000.  We had the best time up there and even used a Highland name for our Chicken, Eilidh.

So there you go, five things about me, happy Friday everyone!

So there you have it

She's a half - Chicken's birth story

My little Chicken is a half!  Six months ago I was in hospital pacing in my cubicle, waiting for the call to go down to the operating theatre so they could get Eilidh out through the sunroof.  I'm not sure if I've blogged about this and I'm not techie enough to work it out, but I had to have a caesarean section because she was breech.

We found out just before Christmas that she still hadn't turned the right way round and the hospital told me that they would call me on Christmas Eve with a date for the operation.  By five that day I hadn't had a call, so it was a very tense Christmas.

By the 29th (the first day back at work after the holiday) I was getting quite frustrated and was on the phone at 9am sharp.  The person I spoke to had no idea, and they told me I'd get a phone call later.  At three that afternoon I was waddling around the supermarket and they finally called.  The news was not good, they had no spaces to deliver Chicken the week I was due!  I was like, "But you've got to get her out, she can't stay there forever!"  Basically I had to wait till either a space came free in their schedule or until I went into labour and I would have an emergency section.  Some how I made it home (no idea, a cab I think?) and phoned Andrew and then my mum in New Zealand in hysterics, I mean, how could there by no space??

The next day I was pottering around at home and the hospital rang.  The lady on the phone said that they had a date and that it was soon, so did I want to sit down?  As my due date was the 17th of January I was expecting it to be sometime just before then.  But no, the lady on the end of the phone said, its the 4th, like as in five days time, five days, OMG!!    Again I phoned Andrew and Mum to tell them the news and then I began to make some final plans, I was not at all ready!

Fast forward through a very quiet New Years Eve, and five days later we found ourselves driving to the hospital to have our little girl.  It has to be said I wasn't that excited that day, mostly I was nervous and sad.  I was nervous for obvious reasons, as Andrew liked to tell me, "They're gonna gut you like a fish".  But mostly I was sad because it wasn't going to be just the two of us any more, I mean, we really wanted children and I knew I couldn't wait to meet Chicken, but everything was about to change!! (Duh)

We got to the hospital and spent a nervous couple of hours talking to the surgeon, the anaesthetist, and the midwives about the operation.  We then got called and walked down the the operating theatre, which has to be one of the most surreal moments of my life, walking to my caesarean!  Not long after that, at 2:21pm to be precise my little Chicken was born.  And she was perfect and the most beautiful girl in the world!

Later this week I'm going to blog about what's going on for us at age six months, but for now here she is, six months ago, how was she ever that small?

Friday Five - My little bro

I've been thinking about my brother a fair bit lately.  We don't see each other very often, only three times in the last six years actually but I'd say we were quite close and we get on well.  It hasn't always been the case, our late teenage years were a bit tough but on the whole he's a cool little brother.  So my Friday Five today is all about my brother Scott.

1.  He lives in the USA.  Scott lives in Vermont and is the Director of Tennis at Stratton Mountain.  I haven't been to visit him there but we are going in September and I can't wait.  He's also lived in Miami and Indiana.  In 2008 my friend and I went to Miami for a week and stayed with Scott.  We were driving over the MacArthur Causeway from Miami Beach back to his apartment when he decided to stop at Star Island.  Star Island is a private man-made island that loads of celebrities have houses on, Gloria Estefan, A-Rod, Rosie O'Donnell to name a few.  Anyway there is a gate and Scottie just leaned over and asked the guard if we could go and look around since we were from New Zealand, I was sooo embarrassed and was sure we were going to get told to get lost, but no, it worked.  That's my brother for you, bold!

2.  He was the MC at our wedding.  Scottles loves to speak in public, in fact, my Mum, Scott and myself all like to, doesn't scare us.  He told funny stories, made sure everything ran on time and generally did a great job.  He also read a beautiful poem during the ceremony, The Key to Love.  About a month before the wedding I had dream that Scott stood up to speak and to get everyone's attention he clapped his hands teacher style, and everyone clapped back.  He then started to speak just like a teacher, e.g. oh I can see that Bob's table is ready to go and get their food, they are sitting nicely.  Thank goodness he didn't do this, but I was a little bit worried.

3.  He's quite tall.  6ft 5in even, yep my little brother is a giant.  Being tall has lots of advantages, and these two stories show a few of them.  Scott used to threaten to give our mum, Marg G 'The Rack'  The Rack is when you pick someone up by their feet and dangle them out in front of you.  As Marg G is only 5ft 4in it was definitely possible to give her The Rack.  And apparently one day he did!!  NB this may just be folklore, I wasn't actually there.  Sometimes when Scottle Modottle and I used to catch up when I was away at uni he would stand on my feet (without me knowing) and then push me over.  If someone is standing on your feet you can't regain your balance and you fall over, which I did.  I then went to get him and he would put his had on my forehead with his arm out straight (can you picture that?)  Basically because he was so tall and his reach so long I couldn't get at him, rather comic really.

4.  He comes home for Christmas every year.  This is quite a feat really, Vermont is a long way from New Zealand!  He runs a business with some friends selling ice to festival goers in our town and then goes to the festival itself for NYE.

5.  He is incredibly generous!  As a brother, brother-in-law and as an uncle Scott is kind and caring and we (Andrew, Chicken, and I) are  very lucky.  He also buys great gifts!  So far Chicken has been given Crocs, a Dior shirt, a giant bear, loads and loads of clothes just to name a few.  Scott is very excited about being an uncle and can't wait to meet his niece in September.