Christmas cheer #startsearlychezus

Christmas is well and truly upon the G-K household...which is a-ok in my book because I love advent and all things adventy. And this year I had a good excuse to start early as we are finishing the school year early in order to get to Scotland the slow way (via London, the train, a Christmas show, and 2 nights with friends).

El Puma is SO proud of his amazing Christmas tree purchase. To be fair, it's a fabulous tree - our best yet (maybe that's what happens when you buy one on the first day they are available). It is big, busy and perfectly round, and we had great fun decorating it. 

Advent calendars are out, our Christmas cards are already on display and we have the advent wreath waiting to be lit.

And this morning we invited our friends round to make reindeer cup cakes.

Not bad, and it's not even December yet.

That time of year #Christmaslist #cakeyeshorseno

Maybe it's something the kids picked up from school, but both were very keen to write a list to Santa this year.

Chances of getting all the gifts on the list? Slim to none.

Luxury ride #that'swhatunclesarefor

Just because #heaskedforthephoto

Small Fry turns 5 #notsosmall #sharkfan

So, Small Fry is 5! Much like when he turned 4, he couldn't wait to be 5. And to make sure that he really would turn 5, he had 4 parties.

The first was his actual birthday last Friday, which I couldn't be a part of. The second was on Sunday when we invited our friends and their kids and held his shark-themed festivities. The third was today at school when all his school mates drew him a picture and they were collated into a book - a fabulous idea. And the 4th will be with his invited school friends in December (the next available slot we could get at the soft play centre).

Fingerling is happy to be a free rider of bonbons, candle blowing, the soft play room (eventually) and even the party at school (sweet that they invite a sibling) but is less pleased that she is not on the receiving end of presents. She keeps talking about 'her party' coming up, and it's hard to explain it's 10 months away.

I'm sure Christmas will sort her out.

But anyway, the photos from the shark party:

The cake

Before kids or adults got near the grub

El Puma getting into the spirit of things

See above

Small Fry once again got awesome presents. How do people come up with such good ideas? A shark sleeping bag, a pirate ship, a batman robot thing, space stickers, slime, temporary tattoos...all star presents to a 5 year old. Thanks everyone!

O Canada #3dayworktrip #finalflight #NovaScotia

I'm in Canada. This marks my 4th flight over the Atlantic in as many weeks, my 25th overseas trip this year and 34th (and last) flight of the year*. And let me tell you, the novelty of work travel, international flights and new countries has well and truly worn off.

I'm sure I'd rethink that view if I were travelling in business, but I'm not, and I am very much looking forward to maternity leave starting in one month.

I was invited as an expert on seafood value chains, European seafood trade and seafood ecolabels to a 2-day workshop on illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing and the role of market states at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. 

Nova Scotia is the second-smallest of Canada's 10 provinces as is one of three maritime provinces: you are never more than 67km from the sea anywhere in Nova Scotia. Halifax is the provincial capital and I've always had a slight fondness for it, ever since I met Rosanna who attend Dal Uni.

And basically, the name means New Scotland in Latin, and it feels like Scotland too: bitterly strong atlantic winds with no Gulf Stream to tame them. And we just missed the snowfall by a few hours on departure day.

Still, I took an extra day there to hold side-meetings and also to be a functioning rather than jet-lagged human, and the weather was freezing but sunny, and I really enjoyed stretching my legs around the small city.

And that's literally the main sites of Halifax. The other 2 days I stayed in a warmly-heated seminar room, out of which should eventually come too peer-reviewed publishable papers.

Aaaand then there was the trip home...just missing Small Fry's 5th birthday by a few hours, which simply meant an extra party for him.

*and in case you are interested, it's been 29 cross-border journeys by train.

Rock around the Choc #Rainydaytreats

 It's been a weekend of rain and treats. Treats because of the rain. And because I forgot that as the 11th of November is a public holiday, there would be no swimming on Saturday afternoon. And seeing as we were all out the house, we decided to test the latest coffee shop to arrive in the quartier.

Yeah, sugar has no good results, even when taken as a treat. And have you ever noticed how when one child is happy then the other must be grumpy. It's like good cop-bad cop.

Anyway, the waffles were amazing, the hot chocolate was practically solid, and I had to stick to the bare minimum to keep that gestational diabetes in check. Still, it was fun. Sort of.

How do you wear yours? #11November

What's in a name #wewon #perseverance #Frenchsystemruledinourfavourforonce

This delightful piece of paper cost us €300 euros and 3 years of effort.

It's Fingerling's revised birth certificate and confirms that her surname does in face contain a "-", just like her brother's, which is in contradiction to French law and required a derogation, which we got, yahoo!

Now if only the British nationality were quite so 'simple'.

Hasta La Vista #Illbeback

And so finally, it was all about us. Even Oma quite rightly took off on a tour of Cusco and Machu Picchu (and brought back some stunning photos) while we went east of Lima to Chosica, a well-known little town in the Rímac River valley. On the way we passed Chaclacayo and El Puma's childhood home (for his first 2 months of life):

We didn't think 4 days above 3000m was the smartest thing for either me or the kids, but we did think 3 days lazing by the pool might be good for us. And yes they were. Except for the cold I picked up (mix of hot days and cold nights I think).

The 3-bedroom, 10-bed bungalow we had for us 4, Abuelo and Mamita.

Our van for the trip:

Small Fry and Abuelo doing some early morning Tai Chi (until the mozzies joined in):

Shadow belly-shot:

It really was a magical little place:

And while there, both Halloween and All Saints' Day came and went. I'm not a big celebrator of Halloween and there was certainly going to be no dressing up or guising, so there was nothing for it but to dook for apples.

The haul

The kids loved it. And were pretty successful. Dookin' for apples is one of the things I remember about Halloween as a kid. That and wearing fancy dress and having to sing to get any sweeties. None of that anymore, more's the pity.

And on All Saints' Day we remembered those who had gone before, but no day-of-the-dead type celebrations either.

When it was finally time to head home, we did so via the zoo as I was determined the kids would get to see llamas while in Peru. Zoos in developing countries maybe aren't the ideal, but we did get a good look at a Bengali Tiger, a lioness, a leopard, a puma, the aquarium, the llamas...

...and the temporary dinosaur exhibit with animatronic dinosaurs. Possibly the least appreciated part of the zoo:

And then we squeezed in an afternoon with Wendy and Eléanor's auntie Hannah, who also lives in Peru and our paths happened to cross, and who is just as lovely as their mum.

And it was a good excuse to eat cake:

So, viva Perú! What a great trip! And wonderful to celebrate such great life events as a wedding (and a baby on the way) and a 100th birthday. What milestones. And thanks so much to Oma who did so much babysitting and herding of cats/kids. It really did make it easier to have an extra pair of hands to help and someone to chat to.

And thanks to all those who organised our great two weeks in Peru and also Oma's trip to Machu Picchu. A great time was had by all. 

Hasta la vista!!