Abuelo's birthday weekend #EnsembleC'estTous

In so many ways, not having my phone (no photos, whatsapp, facebook, instant emails, calls, texts) is a   t.o.t.a.l.  n.i.g.h.t.m.a.r.e.  but in some small ways, it's also quite liberating: I have to wait for people to call me, there's nothing to look at while I'm waiting for the bus so I look around me, I have to be super efficient and manage my blogging and email time better.... Well, you can see how that's working out seeing as I haven't blogged for a week...but mostly that's to do with not having instant access to my photos. I have to rely on other people taking them or downloading them on to El Puma's computer and then him sending them to me. It's such a hassle. 

But of course life carries on, even when it's not recorded.

Last weekend was Abuelo's 68th birthday, inspiring many, many Gonzales' to fly in and celebrate. There was Moon, Tia Rosita and Pekka from Sweden, Philipp from Berlin, Tio Wipe from Nuremberg, Tonton LeDruz and Maêlle from Brest, and Pacotio, all the way from the other side of Paris.

The same weekend Small Fry also had his bestie's birthday parties - which led to an action-packed, chocolate-filled and over-excited weekend.

It was great fun though and a good opportunity to see everyone before we head to the UK for a Kelling Christmas. And we are SO ready for that. Everyone's exhausted and needing a good holiday. But first, the big smoke awaits...

Small Fry and Tia Rosita

Guisheng (family friend) showing what a good grandparent he's going to be...one day

It's not a weekend without the park. Small Fry showing off his specially requested pink skateboard that he got for his birthday

No family resemblance at all, no, none.

Phoneless #raging

Last Tuesday, Paris experienced a really, really heavy downpour. I got stuck out in it because I had to pick up Small Fry from school at 4pm. I'd only made it half way when I felt the water seeping through my jacket and soaking my skin. And I was wearing one of those parka jackets with a huge fur-lined hood. As the fur got wetter it got heavier, and eventually reached my nose, so I had to keep pushing it back off my face so that I could see, which kind of defeated the whole purpose of wearing a hood.

Anyway, it was all a disaster, but at least we could get home and put on dry and warm clothes. 

But I still lost 2 things in the deluge: my jumper (which had stained red from the dye in my coat), and my iPhone, which was in my pocket and drowned. It really was that wet.

And I hate dealing with phone companies. I pay them a ton of money each month and there's never anything they can do to help me. I never have the right documents and even when I do, they pretty much shrug their shoulders and say 'too bad'. I don't think they are brilliant anywhere, but I do find the French versions particularly frustrating.

I always feel like I'm going along to them begging for mercy, for help, for a sliver of kindness. But I rarely get it. I even brought along Fingerling to charm them, but all that happened is that we both ended up waiting, and getting tired and frustrated, for 45 minutes until the staff had finished with their other customers (why why why does it always take so long?!).

And sure enough, they may possibly be able to do something to help me (but they'd only go so far as to suggest that the best they can do is send it off to see if it can get fixed. Whether it actually gets fixed or not is not up to them), but for that I need to provide umpteen papers and proof of purchase and...wait for it...the original box the phone arrived in. Sorry, does it look like we have enough space to keep every box we get through the door??!

The whole set up is useless, and in the meantime they've given me a sony to replace my iphone. A Sony!!! Who knows how that works?! 

So I have no photos I can take (over Christmas! in Scotland! When we're all together! I could have cried...) as I can't download them on to my laptop, and I have no other apps like whatsapp, and..dum dum dum...I don't even have anyone's phone number. OK, so that bit is my fault because I failed to check whether all my phone numbers were being saved to the SIM card or the phone. And of course they are all on the dead phone.

And for all this, all I got was a shrug of the shoulders from my dear service provider (Bougyes, in case any of you want to avoid them in the future). So you'll have to forgive my random blogging for the next few weeks - I am completely reliant on other people's photos.

I felt a bit pathetic to realise how reliant I was on my phone. But I don't care any more, I just want it back!

Weihnachtsmarkt #Ausgezeichnet

Tell me, what is Christmas without the Christmas markets in Germany? It is a sausage-less, low-mulled-wine, much warmer affair than what we've just had. Because you ain't done Christmas properly until you do it the German way.

And that meant first getting to Germany. 1 parent, 2 children = zero reading time. Especially as I'd forgotten the DVDs. Small Fry can manage to entertain himself for the most part, but Fingerling only wanted to walk and walk and is quite a determined little lady.

Thankfully, Oma met us in Mannheim and accompanied us the last section to Graben.

Ah, much better!

In Germany, everywhere feels Christmassy. The streets are decorated, the houses are decorated, even the palace's are decorated.

Schwetzingen Christmas Market

Schwetzingen Schloss

First dampfnudel

And once night arrives, it's all about wurst, glühwein...and Santa.

 

He even paid us a visit.

Ah, I get how this works. Give the red furry guy a hug and I get a present? Open up Santa.

bye bye

We had the wine to warm us up. Fingerling had to be wrapped up as snug as a bug in the chilly air. Which is why when I tripped over pushing the buggy and her arms were trapped in this, she totally face planted on to the pavement. 

Anyway, I know we must have all had a great time as there are a lot of tongues being stuck out:

Except for...

Stoic as ever. Must.Not.Have.Fun.

2 parents: 2 child ratio = hello good book!

Thank you Tante Helga, Onkel Frieder, Meike, Tabita, Frank, Nelly and Antonia!

Living History #Startingyoung

The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) is being held in Le Bourget, about 10km to the north of Paris, from 30 November to 11 December. The aim is to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit global warming to an increase of 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels.

Although I can't get into the actual negotiation pavillion, a huge Generations pavillion was constructed near the private Le Bourget airfield. The pavillion showcases a number of environmental solutions currently operating in many countries, science and climate related games, and a great fish and chip bar. There was also free juice...but you had to pedal to get it. The music came from solar power and the place was boiling hot thanks to the fancy environmentally-friendly recycled air heating systems.

The logistics of getting there were slow but straightforward, with buses provided from Le Bourget RER (overland train) stop to the venue. Then things got horribly messy while all visitors had to cram through one set of double doors before entering the security check area.

And that's why you should always travel with a baby.

A few screeches and we were in. 

Us with my Irish friend Kelley-Anne and her 10 month old Clara

And boy did those kids steal the show. 

Until at least 14h we were the only people we could see with kids, although eventually we saw a couple of pushchairs too. And as the morning was nice and quiet we could let the girls roam around the stalls, revelling in the attention of the bored stand hosts.

We were pursued by TV cameras (focused on the kids: 'their future' type thing), photographers, tweeters, and eventually did a 30 minute interview with Sud Radio!

At the UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme stand) they kindly provided a swing. 800 photos or so later, we could eventually leave.

The main pavillion had the toilets, restaurants and information desks, and the three side pavillions had all the stands and projects. As we entered one of the pavillions, we could see a big hullabaloo  in front of us. We continued to follow the kids as they crawled and stumbled around, but the noise from just a couple of stands away was getting louder and people kept rushing over with cameras, microphones, iphones and radio mics.

The crowd amassing

And then just like that, the President of France, François Hollande, appeared right in front of us at the stand we happened to be waiting by. All of a sudden we had a front row seat, so of course I also whipped out my phone and snapped him meeting the stand hosts along with his Enviornment Minister, Ségolène Royal. 

Fingerling's new friends

And then security came and ushered us through the jostling throng with the girls, warning us that it was about to get quite messy. And so it was. I cannot imagine how the man lives like that - with people pushing and shoving to get closed to him, forced to make small talk and keep a fixed smile on his face, meeting only the people he's been scripted to meet...because of course he would've have actually really wanted to meet our babies...

Us from our safe vantage point behind a plant as the mad rush encircles him as he exists

And with him gone, we could get back to looking around the pavilion. The girls had a super time being sung to by a Congolese man at the project Terre d'école, having the wind blow in their faces from fans as they learned about wind power, touching hot rocks at the temperature they would be below the earth's surface, and trying to make waves in the wave machine.

Touching the rocks

I also downloaded the free app called One heart One Tree. It measures your heart rate using a nifty gimmick and you can then buy a tree (for between 3 and 10 euros) and select its location (one per continent). Your tree is projected on to the Eiffel Tower and grows in time with your heart beat, sending out a message of your choosing. All the trees purchased together will eventually virtually cover the Eiffel tower. And next year they'll plant the same number of trees that have been purchased, in the various locations. 

We'll have to see what sort of deal we end up with for these future generations, but for now it was just great fun recording this historical moment.