School started, and then it stopped. And in between we had 7 weeks of adjusting back to life in Scotland. It went so well that we then spent 2 more weeks in France to remind us of what we were missing. But it was worth it.
After school started, we gasped at how condensed our work days had become: 9.15-14.45 followed by quite a lot of ferrying different people to different activities. How wonderful said no parent ever.
Thankfully, we had some special family moments that kept us going:
The wider cousin meet up:
And even wiiiider cousin meet up to celebrate Uncle Gilbert's 90th:
Which we combined with two special birthdays to make a day out at the Water Park at Alton Towers:
And Fingerling also got her own at-home-spa-party on the day. Two words to sum it up: glitter EVERYWHERE.
Then there was making new friends (and using their at-home climbing wall):
Cousin time at the zoo (thank you Auntie Christina!):
Biking to school:
And settling in at home:
While Small Fry tried a number of new activities, and finally settled on fencing (here he is right at the back with the coach):
OK, and other activities too:
For me, 2023 has been the year of adding countries to my Been There list, beginning with M. I visited Mozambique in January, the Maldives in March, and in late September I had a last-minute unexpected visit to Malawi to sort out an issue on one of my projects.
Scotland has a long history with Malawi, thanks mostly to Dr David Livingstone, and many roads, hospitals and towns are named after him. Malawi is resource-poor and bears much of the brunt of climate change through floods, droughts and cyclones, while not being a large contributor to the causes of climate change. The Scottish Government believes that supporting climate adaptation and mitigation is part of climate justice, and I am part of an £8 million project that will try to right some of these injustices and support communities, using a bottom-up approach.
Can't say that a bit of warmth in the middle of the term wasn't welcome.
Anyway, we made it through and returned to Nantes for the October break. The main reason was so that Small Fry could get his tonsils reduced, and thereby sleep and breathe more comfortably, as well as open the door to future dental work.
Looking not very impressed with his new outfit beforehand and feeling cocky right afterwards (when still under the effect of the anaesthetic). That lasted about 6 hours and then it was 10 days of pain (5 days on a liquid diet):
While he spent quite a lot of time resting, reading, taking painkillers and eating yoghurt, the rest of us got to enjoy a wonderful 2 weeks in unseasonal heat.
A weekend in Paris connected us with friends, family and Batignolles again, and led to the discovery of a new museum, the Paradox museum: expensive but worth it.
I reckon little crevette had the best holidays of anyone though. She must have met up with at least half her class and had 2 sleepovers.
I think this is the only photo I got of our time in Brittany during the second week. I was focused on writing a paper and the kids had a wonderful time with their grandparents. Unfortunately it was cut a little short my illness, but we wish Moon a speedy recovery.
To get a break from the paper-writing, I took up running that week, and am doing an 8-week couch-to-5Km. Which is a challenge. But running on the beach with the sun and wind was a good way to start.
And so now we are in to our autumn-winter term, possibly one of my favourite. I'm a huge fan of autumn leaves, chilly evenings (as long as there is a fire) and some of the traditions and festivals that come with this time of year:
As they say, autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons.
