A Tea Ceremony

Yesterday, we went to the beach.  It is not far to the sea from here, about 15 mins.  We did not go the way of the new road, we went the old way which was terrifying, the most pot-holed road ever and lots of traffic.  We were in fact very amazed to get there at all.  We turned left and drove along a highway with the road on the right hand side and a very dry hill on the left.  Imagine the pictures that you have seen of Afghanistan and that is the idea on the left - dry hillside with low stone buildings.  There are a series of very new ultra-modern houses being built right on the road.  It is quite windy.  At the end of the highway there is a turning circle and a mosque.  and a little road towards the sea.  The road went down steeply and was narrow and was lined with little shops selling the kinds of rubbish that people might buy to play with on the sand.  It was quite decrepit.  When we reached the turn-off to the beach we drove past becuase it just looked like nothing but a rubbish dump.  But that was the place.  The beach was a rubbish dump.  But there were quite a lot of people sun bathing and playing and swimming (it was very hot)  We went through the remains of a barbed wire fence to walk along for a bit but it was just too horrible.
Back to the car and we drove back along the highway to find somewhere nicer.  At the turning place (it is interesting doing a u-turn on a motorway)  we saw a track leading down and went on it.  Not so much rubbish and a nicer beach - with the added advantage that there is a group of oil platforms moored just off the beach.  There were lots of little shells to pick over and the dog loved bounding into the sea to bring back a stick.  Once he missed the stick and we thought that he might keep going to Kazakstan.  Luckily he is not such a dumb dog and he came back in but a few local people thought it was funny. 
You need never think that you are too fat for a bikini or speedos here.  In fact, you could almost believe that you can never be fat enough!  Certainly the men think so.
When we discovered that we could not walk out along the jetty to the platforms, we decided to find a cafe.  So back in the car.  Alomng the motorway again to a restaurant that looked nice.  It is a bit hard having meals here in the day as it is Ramadan and so Muslims should not be eating or drinking anything at all during daylight.  The reaturant was thus deserted but was very nice.  It was right on the beach - just like a lovely Noosa place and there were a series of private rooms and then a few elaborate gazebos.  We chose a gazebo, the chairs had rugs on the seats and were extremely comfortable.  The table had a lovely embroidered cloth.  Eventually we managed to order.  The word for 2 is 'iki'.  tea is cay (pronounced  chai) . so i said iki cay and about 30 minutes later the tea ceremony began.  the children had ice cream.  First they brought a plate of mixed nuts: walnuts, pistacios, almonds, hazelnuts.  The plate was made from cut glass so looked quite glamorous.  Then came a cut-glass goblet filled with a lightly set strawberry jam.  We each were given a small glass saucer and teaspoon.  Then another goblet filled with sugar cubes and topped with 6 chocolates in wrapping.  Finally the tea was brought.  It came in a lovely tea pot and we were given a saucer and a cut-glass glass to drink it with.  Another saucer with lemon slices completed the arrangement.  It looked lovely and was lovely. 
The idea with the jam is that you pour a bit into your little saucer and then slurp it.  Harry has been to a cultural awareness session and that is one of the things that you learn.  It was nice jam.  We had a lot of it.
The little beach that it is on was very clean and there was even a life guard - bored as no one was swimming at all.
It was a bit dearer than we thought, in fact it was hard to figure out what to pay, we just had to keep handing over notes until we paid enough, and it is more than possible that we were ripped off.  Next week I plan to learn numbers.

Summer in Samoens

Some friends had very geneously said that we could stay in their apartment, but we decided to camp instead beause we like to camp.  Samoens is beautiful, it is right in the Alps with big mountains all around and it is a reasonably sized town with lots of shops and patisseries and a market on Wednesday.  the campsite is next to the river and looks up big valleys.  It is at a height of about 1700 m above sea level.Have a look here at some pictures of samoens. 

Some other friends, the Coopers were also staying there in their apartment and as they are also a rock climbing , outdoorsy family, we knew we were going to have a great holiday.

The waether was not great, there was a lot of rain and in fact our tent seemed to be pitched above a natural stream so everything got quite wet.  But we did som very fun things, like rafting.  the water was so high that they had to move the start as the gorge was too dangerous but it was such fun and althought I find that I am very anxious about matilda, she loved it and was the one that asked could we all stand up in the raft.  The guide was very careful and nice and responsible so we all got out alive like almost all rafters.

We did a lot of climbing.  9 days.  Everywhere somehwere differnt.  luckily the Coopers know where to go and we had some guide books so could find the places.  All bolted.  We had some lovely days with all the kids climbing, all except Matilda and I and Jay leading and it was just like a regular climbing trip.  Toby was ooooo keen, he could not have had a better time.  We got him a new rucksac and he even wanted to carry it loaded up with ropes and water.  Theo is now a very good climber and why not as he is 5 foot 11 inches and counting and looks a lot like a french bean.  Noone wanted to belay him as he was so fast it was just too hard.

Harry took the kids on a Via Ferrata, i decided not to go as I was cramping matilda's style and she went on to have a brilliant day and I was saved the worry.

One day we went to a very old fashioned cafe with a very old hostess who was a bit perplexed that we were 11 people and we all wanted a hot drink. 4 coffees and 7 hot chocolates.  The cafe was very dark from all the years of smoking, it had some large faded pictures of alpine scenes which turned out to be jigsaw puzzzles, Jay is a jigsaw enthusiast and we were investigating them to determine how many pieces 5000? 10000? As we were counting a sample corner, we imagined the catastrophe of the jigsaws collapsing with the ancient glue failing to hold it up against the constant force of gravity...  We imagined how the pieces would get stuck in your hair.  There was quite a long time to build this scenario up into a full blown horror show complicated by the fact that Toby somehow got his arm stuck in his chair and then Theo while replicating the movement also got stuck.  We imagined how we would beable to make a quick exit with bits of jigsaw falling off us and chairs stuck on arms which then might well get entanled in the ancient vine that was wending across the ceiling.  The coffee etc still had not come.  then the door opened and another lady came in, she had been summoned to help, then a third lady came.  Shortly after, the coffee was served, the boys got their arms out of the chairs and order was restored.  Everyone smiled and laughed a lot.  The old lady whose cafe it was could relax and cunt the money.

We went on a brilliant walk (although at the time, i found it hard going) up to the refuge de sales . Have a look at his website, it is beautiful.  While having a well deserved coka cola at the refuge, Theo saw a group of people which he said looked like the groups that he had seen photos of in our earlier albums.  the guys with the beards, the heavy back packs, all spread out in the sun, the non-fashion clothing.  He was quite struck by this and I think he thought that these photos represented the 'olden days' and it was like coming across people plowing with horses, you just don't believe it happens anymore. 

On this walk we went through some Alpine Meadows which were in full flower.  I had never thought about meadows except that they were all about the flowers, what comes with flowers?  butterflies and bees and all sorts of other insects too.  Reclining on the meadow with our honey sonadwiches we became a kind of target for these insects and were soon all hosting about 10 butterflies and assorted others as well.  It became a bit freaky and reminded Harry and I of the time that we had walked through the butterfly forest on Hinchinbrook island with the millions of blue butterflies which after 10 minutes became a nightmare.

This was all week one.

In week 2 we did much the same sort of things, every morning, walk to the boulangerie to buy assorted delicacies and eat them, then hang up all our things to dry then go to the Coopers flat to plan the days activity then set out.  back for dinner in the evening at the flat and games of cards, bottles of wine and lots of laughs, then back to the tent, creeping becuase we got back each night after the curfew.

The big walk in the 2nd week was to Lac Blanc.  We drove to Chamonix and caught the telepherique up to 2400 metres, directly opposite Mt Blanc, over the road really.  The panorama of mountains was mind blowing.  It was a hard days walking, Harry forgets about Matilda's ailments (the knee thing, the plantar fasciatus) and really should do a differnt trip but he was so excited about taking the kids to the alps, his spiritual home tha he could not resist taking usoff the beatd track.  there were many many people in the mountains as it it was the ony nice day for the week.  It was a hard day for Matilda and but well worth it.  We saw some chamoix and some marmots and the lake is very beautiful.  When we got back to the chairlift, there was a huge queue to go down.  It took more than an hour!  The can move 550 people in an hour it says on the sign.  There were probably another 600 people behind us when we finally got on.

The drive back was pretty good.  We stayed in Dijon, my new favourite town and mustard.  It is beautiful and ancient.  It was the seat of the Dukes of Burgundy and they knew how to make a town splendid.  We were there on Saturday and there were 5 weddings that we were in the photos of.  Everyone elaborately dressed (except us) and they drive around after beeping car horns on the ay to the party.  We had a lovely meal of steak and chips.  On the way to the meal, we encountered a performance artist who was just laughing.  That seemed to be the act she just laughed and there was a small crowd standing around laughing  at her in a kind of obliging but confused fashion.  As we approached, in full view of the crowd and the artist, harry slipped over in a huge dog pooh.  Then they laughed, oh, how they laughed.  there is no substitute for a real laugh.  We al laughed too, even harry who was then stuck with the pooh removal task, also funny.  But hewas a good sport about it.

All too soon we were back in Chilworth for our last night in our house while it was stiull habitable.  The holiday over.

Off to the Alps - the journey

As regular correspondents may recall, we have not always had the easiest of car trips to France. First there is the dilemma of what to do with the dog, but this year he went to stay with Alan and Muriel and I knew that when I dropped him off he was unlikely to want to come home when I heard about the projected series of activities all involving a 7 mile walk and pub lunch. 

The next thing is that the camping stuff has to be assembled, sometimes it can be hard to find everything because we have 3 sheds and an attic but this year everything was there.

After this there is the fitting of the roof racks and the pod onto the roof, this is hard to do if it is raining or you are a bit grumpy or it is dark, but luckily it was warm, light and happy.

The next thing is jamming everything in the car.  But as we were not taking the bouldering mat this year, it all seemed to fit (except the extra water container) .

Then there is the uncertainty of the drive to Dover on 'Black Saturday' the busiest day of the year for the biggest port in the world (I think).  It could take 3 hours or 1.5.  It depends on whether or not the French operators are striking - they often are, or how slow passports control are.  But this year no strikes and no passport control.  It is hard to emphasise what a differnce no passport control makes.  It takes about 3 minutes per car to look insolently at each passenger and try and determine if they look like their picture and there are thousands of cars and only about 5 lanes...  But this year we simply drove through after not encountering one single delay on the motorway.

Then there is the next worry that you have somehow missed your slot (that happened 2 years ago when we both misread the ticket confusing arrival and departure time) or that you have booked the wrong car on (that happened last year) and the bigger car 'may not fit'.  This year, correct time, correct car. 

After all this you must fill in the time between lining up in line 711 and the loading time, but we were able to fill this in with a bit of light quarrelling and so the time passed easily.

Then we were away and the first round of cards were dealt and you feel like you are in France.  I had set the brand new satnav to get us to Reims, where we stayed the first night so we drove off the ferry and were there in 2 hours, in the tiniest hotel room you have ever seen.  But only for 1 night.  Reims is beautiful but a bit too big for a single night so we just walked around a bit feeling the frenchness.

Next day, we headed to Samoens in the Alps along the French motorways where there are hefty tolls but, at least where we were going, not too many cars.  Most people head to the beach with the traffic jams.  The French Motorway Service Station is alovely thing in all but one respect: there are hardly any toilets.  Most people really only stop there to go to the toilet so huge queues develop.  In England there are so many toilets in the service stations that you have to wonder at the size of the pipes required.  Also there is always the risk in France of the squatting toilet....

The first interesting bit of the trip is when you come through the first tunnel through the Jura Mountains.  On the western side they look like lowish hills, but whn you come out the other side, it is a whole new world of steep mountains and waterfalls and dangerous looking motorways cantileverd off the sides.  The rest of the trip is lovely.

then there

Moving times and leaving parties

The school finishing was a bit sad, especially the finish of primary school.  Attending that last mass in the junior hall, singing along to strange hymns that all have actions it occurred to me that I may not get to do this again. 
Theo had a leaving party, 30 guests tops, I said.  I think there were about 70.  Luckily it was an absolutely beautiful summer evening, even balmy, so they were all outside in our big garden and even luckier the power kept cutting out to the music so people were talking, reclining on all the chairs that we had put around and trying to hide their alcohol from me.  I provided a lot of cans of soft drink and a lot of sausages in bread, packets of chips etc, followed by ice cream sundaes and they all had a great time.  We had put fairy lights in the apple trees and Matilda and I made some bunting which all looked very pretty.  Theo did not enjoy the party as much as he thought as he had not previously realised that being a host to a big party is more about facilitating than partying.  I had not bargained on the amount of trips to the toilet that would be made, in fact was stunned to realise that I had not even thought about it.
The highlight of the party was the arrival of about 10 girls. They came sashaying down the drive way wearing very high heels, tiny skirts, huge hair and skimpy tops and carrying very large handbags, which I later found was where the bottles of wine were stored.  Matilda, Toby and I watching from the lounge room just stared open-mouthed as they walked down to where a group of about 10 boys were already assembled in a half hearted sort of way and we witnessed the start of the party.  It was like magic. They were the fizz. The other big party animal is Rudy the dog, he had a ball, he thought the party was for him and he played with everyone, a onsummate host.

Matilda's party involved a huge bouncy castle with slippery slide and a tea party under those same apple trees with fairy lights and bunting and only 10 guests.  We moved a big round table down there and had it set up like a mad hatters tea party and it was lovely, although high pitched. 

Toby had his party later, while the packing was happening for his birthday and the weather was not so good.but they enjoyed it.  Harry and I did not have a party.