Thursday was difficult. I had 4 kids (Lucas, Oscar, Ewen and Iola) and Oscar was being a little brat. In the morning we just went to the market as usual and picked up some bits and bobs. Once the tide was at a sufficient height, we went down to the beach and chilled out there until about 2 o'clock ish. Afterwards we had planned to go razor collecting on the beach but couldn't do it until the tide went out so I put the kids in front of the tele and sorted some stuff out around the house. Fortunately, grandma and grandad showed up just and we were about to leave to go down to the beach so they came with us and it definitely made my life a lot easier. It was really fun getting the razor shells up through the sand but it was safe to say that all the kids were quite tired. When we arrived home, Isabelle was already there packing the house up to go back to Landerneau, which we did. I'm glad to be back here as it means that there is light at the end of the tunnel and I'm home on Saturday! See you all very soon.
On Sunday, we basically had a very lazy morning as we got
back to the house at gone 1am. I was fine with this as I had a lot of internet
catch up to do. We had steak burgers and green beans for lunch which was weird
but still surprisingly quite nice. After lunch, Isa and I went over the next
weeks doings and there is a lot occurring and stuff to remember. Once we were
done, I trekked down into town to see what was going on as it was the Kaan al
Loar festival. It was really sweet actually, a load of crazy Bretons doing
traditional songs and dances- not too dissimilar from Welsh folk dancing.
Apparently, there was a Pwllheli troop there but I didn’t see them. When I was
bored, I wandered home for tea which was a Spinach lasagne. As Isabelle was
working at Brest 2012, Yvon was left to deal with the 2 boys and they’re
friend. My god, he did not succeed at all, it was embarrassing on his part to
be honest. We left for the Beach House at about half 9 and dropped Leo (the
friend) off on the way. Oscar was being his usual disobedient, bratty self
which was exhausting. I was so relieved to reach the house where I could go and
get some fresh air, in silence!
The sun actually came out to play on Monday, thank god. In
the morning, we wandered into town to buy a couple of bits and bobs.
Afterwards, we had lunch which was left over burgers and pasta. Then we went TO
THE BEACH! It was full of people down there and the atmosphere was lush. There
was a bit of a breeze which kept picking
up the sand which was a tad annoying but it didn’t bother us too much. Oscar
and I swam in the freezing sea. I promised myself I would whilst I was here so
I took my chance as there might not be another one! We spent about 4 hours down
at the beach and it was really nice. Oscar wasn’t a brat and we got on really
well, he even told me he wanted me to come back next summer. I’ll have to think
about that one I think! In the evening, Yvon came home and he made Galettes
which I’ve come to love, will be brining some home for definite. Oscar began to
get difficult with his Dad this evening and it was embarrassing to watch as
he’d been fine with me throughout the day. Once we’d finished tea, I escaped up
to my room and put a bit of Lee Evans on for a giggle.
I was dreading Tuesday as Oscar was due to have a friend
come and stay for 3 nights. The day didn’t get off to a very good start. We
moaned at each other in the morning because I was being demanding and Oscar
wasn’t doing naff all. Either way, I managed to get him to his stress golf
lesson at 10 and I made a lovely phone call with the grandmother. After lunch,
we popped to the boulangerie to buy a few goodies for the relatives, plus we
were out of bread. Oscar keeps trying to get his own way with me by being
stubborn and blackmailing me but it doesn’t work as I have the password to the
pc, the tele is in my room, and I’ve hidden all the goodies so he’s ran out of
stuff to blackmail me with. Once we were back, the grandma, Mael and Lois
arrived (these are the kids from the previous family- the cousins). The sun
actually came out again today so we took the little ones down to the beach. It
took Lois and Mael a few minutes before they warmed to me again, but after a
while it was lovely to see them again. It was a bit embarrassing when they had
to leave as they wanted to stay with me instead of going with grandma. I’ll
hopefully see them again at the weekend though. Then, Mael (Oscar’s friend)
arrived, and I realised I already know this little chap. He’s very polite and
not as brutal as Oscar so hopefully it won’t be too tricky with them two. We
had a barbeque and played a few games. All in all, it was another good day but
as usual, I’m knackered!
Wednesday was my first day of looking after the two boys
(Oscar Mael). In the morning, we had breakfast together and they played a few
games whilst I got washed and dressed. We then headed into town to the
supermarket to get some bits and bobs for the picnic. Obviously, afterwards we
came home and I prepared the picnic for lunch and we then headed down to the
beach for the morning and the first part of the afternoon. The boys ran off
pretty much as soon as we got there to go and dig holes and find stuff whilst I
was quite content in sunbathing and reading. Once we had eaten the picnic, we
came home as they had an activity in the afternoon at the sports centre. I made
a friend too. Well sort of, a grandma was dropping of her granddaughter and we
got talking and we talked for quite a while, she was very nice and I’m pretty
sure I understood everything she said, it was a bit smalltalky but it was still
an in depth conversation with a new French person. Whilst they were elsewhere,
I took the opportunity to clean/ tidy up a bit and then chilled in some peace
and quiet for a bit. Once I’d picked them up, it had started to rain which was
rubbish as it meant that we could really do anything outside. Instead, I
introduced them to the webcam on my laptop and they made funny videos and took
funny pictures for an hour or so. Then, Isabelle came home (YAY!). She’d been
in Paris since Sunday and it was really nice to see her again as Yvon was
getting tired of handling Oscar himself, I think. Tea was lasagne and quiche
(leftovers) and a really yummy strawberry cream pudding thing that Yvon made.
Hoping for some better weather for tomorrow!
As Isabelle came home from working in Paris on Wednesday
night, she decided to take the morning off work for Thursday. This meant that I
could do what I wanted in the morning. She got the boys ready whilst I slept in
a little and took my time in getting washed and dressed. It was market day so I
wandered leisurely towards the town centre. In turns out that I bumped into
Isabelle there anyway and we went back together and nattered until it was time
to collect the boys (which she did, again). For lunch we had a roast chicken
from the market and a courgette dish that Isabelle made. For pudding, we had
koign amaan (I’m not sure how to spell it but they’re basically little cakes
from Brittany that are lush.)
Once we were done I gathered all the stuff together for an
afternoon at the beach as it wasn’t raining and it was relatively warm. We dug
holes, swam in the sea, lounged around and generally had a pleasant afternoon.
When we arrived home, the parents were doing the same and I was back to no
responsibility which I wasn’t complaining about. Some relatives of Isabelle’s
came over for a barbeque which was really nice except we stayed up chatting
until midnight or so. Either way, another pleasant day but I was knackered.
The sun showed itself again on Friday, thank goodness! In
the morning, we chilled in the house whilst I prepared the picnic. We couldn’t
go to where we were going too early as we could online get there when the tide
is out, this place was Ile Callot. It’s a really cute little island just off the
coast, walking distance from the house, inaccessible at high tide. We trekked
off about half 11 via the boulangerie (to pick up some bread) and headed
towards the little ‘port’ in Carantec. We walked along the path out to the
Island and set up the picnic. The boys ran off and played with rocks and
seaweed and other interesting things. We picnicked and whatnot and then we had
to leave because of the tide. We stopped by the house to pick up the swimming
gear and then headed down to Kelenn (the usual beach). We stayed there until
about 5 when we had to go back as Mael’s mum was coming to pick him up. After
that, it was clear that Oscar was very tired so I let him watch some tele for
an hour or so, until his Dad came home from work. When that moment came, I took
the opportunity to go for a walk in the evening sunshine and talk to my daddy.
When I came back (an hour later) we had pasta for tea and then the most amazing
cheeses for afters. I LOVE French cheeses, I could eat them all day. Needless
to say, I’ll be having some very strange dreams tonight, god help me!
The weekend finally arrived! In the morning, I popped to the
supermarket to top up on suncream as we’d gone through a lot in recent days.
Once I was ready, Yvon took me to Roscoff on the North coast. There are a lot
of English and Irish people there as the Ferry from Plymouth, Portsmouth and
Cork goes there. As soon as I arrived, I caught the boat out to Isle Batz about
half an hour away. I hired a bike when I got off the boat, bought a couple of
picnicky stuffs and then took myself off along the beaches on my bright blue bike.
The Island was lovely but very secluded. It was nice enough to visit but I
wouldn’t want to live there. At about 3ish, I caught the boat back to the
mainland and hopped on the tourist train- as you do. It was nice to see the
town but it wasn’t very big so once I’d been to the souvenir shops to buy some
tat I came home with Isabelle. The family went off to a barbeque at a friend’s
house, but I didn’t really fancy it so I decided to stay home and cook for
myself. It was nice and oeaceful for a change except the stupid dog was here
annoying me. Once I’d finished, I took a walk down to the beach in the sunset
and phoned home as it was my little brother’s 18th birthday, HAPPY
BIRTHDAY JON!!!
Sunday was a pretty busy day. We started the day by
gathering all of Oscar’s things so he could go and spend the weekend with
grandma and granddad. At about 11 we set off and met up with the other family
who were visiting and swapping the children over. It was really nice to see
them again, even grumpy Dad wasn’t very grumpy and he even spoke to me a
little. Once we’d eaten and I’d been shown around the farm a million times by
the children, Isa and I set off for a music festival called Vieilles Charrues.
I think it’s the 3rd biggest music festival in Europe or something
and it was super-duper. We saw Garbage, Bob Dylan (who was a bit rubbish and
the papers gave him awful reviews- he was just a bit boring really), Gossip and
most importantly: Kasabian. I didn’t realise Kasabian were going to be there
until that morning so that made the day 10 times better. They aren’t very well
known here so the family went and watched a French band who were quite good
whilst I made a drunk French friend and we watched Kasabian- they were awesome.
We didn’t leave until about 2am and we were all absolutely knackered- home and
bed at 3am! It was all totally worth it though.
On Monday, I didn’t do a great deal as most of us were
absolutely shattered. It was just Isabelle, Lucas and I in the morning so we
just mooched around in the sun and sorted out some bits and bobs. Lucas and I
ate lunch in the sun, which was a bit awkward as I don’t know him as well as
Oscar and he’s at ‘that’ age. In the afternoon, grandma arrived with Oscar,
Ewen, Iola and the dog. We went straight to the beach and went swimming- the
sea was lush! The only downside is that the tide goes out about 10 miles and we
went just at low tide so we walked for hours on the beach before we actually
reached the sea. Either way, we had a fab time down at Kelenn in the sunshine.
We came back together, just as Oscar and Lucas were about start World War III
and thankfully, the parents were already home to take over from peacemaking. We
had dinner outside in the sunset (wow that sounds cheesy) but it was lovely
anyway! I went to bed early as I’d clearly had too much fresh air in recent
days.
On Tuesday morning, Lucas, Oscar and I went down to the
beach relatively early as we wanted to go down for high tide so that we could
go swimming and Lucas could go on the diving board. The sea was super, very
‘refreshing’- that’s Oscar’s new favourite word. We stayed there for a good few
hours, in and out of the water but had to go back and let the plumber in. We
were having toilet problems in that my en suite was the only one that actually
worked. I made a salad thingy for lunch and we decided that we would go cockle
fishing this afternoon to get some food for the barbeque, we came back with
loads of cockles, a few limpets and one mussel found by yours truly. It was
really good finding the cockles down on the sand but once we’d found more than
our fair share of seafood, we trekked home to find that we had 2 fully
functioning toilets. Isabelle arrived home not long after us and suggested we
went down to the seafront to eat in the one of the restaurants which was fine
by me. I had an Italian pasta dish which was lovely and then we had icecream on
the sand. That night, there was a big, outdoor, inflatable screen on one of the
playing fields by the beach so we went home and got some warmer clothes and
went back down around 10pm to watch The Princess Bride in the sunset. It was
really fun as we were all huddled up in blankets watching a giant film on an
inflatable screen with an old fashioned projector and it was all free! Was very
tired once again so went straight back home, to bed.
Wednesday, we had a relatively easy day as we’d been busy
the day before. I got up early thinking Oscar’s activity was in the morning but
it turns out it was an afternoon jobby- never mind. We were generally relaxed
in the morning, we popped down to the beach for a quick dunk before headed back
for a spot of lunch before I took Oscar to Kin ball (whatever that is). During
my child free time, I tidied up the house and vacuumed my room- it needed it! I
then went chilled a little before going to collect the little devil, passing by
the pharmacy it was apparently 30 degrees today. Once we were back we gathered
the beach stuff up again and headed down to Kelenn and stayed there for about 3
hours or so when Isabelle came and met us with Iola and Ewen. We had a barbeque
for tea with the cockles that we gathered from yesterday and it felt good to
eat something that I found myself!
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