Andy's big night out (after several big nights in)

Well we did it - approx 20 million man-hours later (many contributed by 2 imported slaves), a healthy dose of (blind) optimism from my dear business partner and a sprinkling of panic we delivered 2500 chocolate leaves as table favours for a charity gala dinner.
The best bit was that Nisreen and I then got to dress up and go to the dinner. (suffice to say I couldn't face eating my chocolate leaves and still have them - sorry Nisreen).

Becky Turns 3

Autumn Falls

Last week we had the last day of summer in glorious sunshine. The next day day the temperature dropped by about 10C and hasn't gone up since, it was absolutely as it someone had flicked a switch over to Autumn. Not that it has made a huge difference to me this week as I have been stuck in work until very late every night - apart from one evening when I went bowling with some people from work. One of the Carphone contingent that had moved over had bid in a charity raffle to do lawn bowling with the CIO/Intl CEO and so I went along to that and took Dan too. The bowling was just round the corner from us near the lake where we go skating in the winter. My boss also brought his son along and we were having hysterics at Dan's super comptetitive behaviour (where does he get it from). When we won points Dan would be shouting and taunting the opposition saying things like 'We're like burning fire and you're frozen ice' - you really has to be there but lawn bowling has never been so rowdy.

Went cycling round a different local lake with Dan today and we saw some sort of snake in the grass - literally. Although I've seen snakes before I think this was the first time I've seen one in the wild as it were and I was amazed at how fast it moved. I managed to nip out of work and get home to watch Dan get off the school bus after his first day at school. He seems to have adapted remarkably well, despite not understanding a word they say (as it really is all in French) and we've had no issues (so far) about going in.

We've also just started to help with the church youth group on Sunday evenings. This was our first week and it was mainly just getting to know them and it was mainly social - we spent most of the time playing ultimate frisbee which is almost like American football with frisbees - only a lot more interesting than American football. The 'yoof' are all quite into sports, or so it seems, and appear to be a really friendly bunch. Difficult to know how it will go at this early stage but it feels as though it's what God wants us to be doing which is the main thing.

Has a couple of film nights recently - we just got some comfy chairs for the cinema room so we are definitely set for Winter now. Watched 'The other Boleyn Girl' - nicely acted, looked good but hugely dissapointing screenplay. The book on the other hand was excellent (Philippa Gregory) and well worth looking out for. Also saw 'Once' which made up for it, very low budget feeling musical of sorts which was really watchable and had a great feel about it - very tempted to watch it again straight away which is pretty rare for me - definitely recommended, although as it is set in Ireland it does have a salty dialogue.

Dan and the Yellow Bus

The End of Summer

We just had Labor Day (excuse the spelling) weekend which means: a bank holiday weekend, the official end of Summer, and schools start the next week.

Dan will not start until the 4th as he is doing only half days, but he still gets picked up by a school bus which is quite exciting and its hard not to feel a little nervous for him as he (and all the other children) are on their own the minute they get onto the bus before going to a school whee they only speak French. If it wasn't for the fact that this will be Dan's 3rd school I'm sure we'd be even more nervous.

To make the most of the last long weekend of the Summer we went to the local beach, which is now closed (you can see the sign) but it was 32C/90F outside so as you can also see everyone was making the most of it.

And Becky continues to enjoy ice-lollies



And now that Dan has learned to ride his bike he loves being on it, we often go for rides together in the evening after I get back from work. The other day while cycling he said 'I love cycling, I'm never going to walk anywhere ever again'. However we had a school open evening at our local park and he was racing someone and came off his bike and got some spectacular bruises, cuts and grazes as well as ripping some of the plastic off of his helmet. In fact it was a bit of a bloodbath all round with several children having bad cuts and at least on requiring stitches.

What is fast, goes round in circles and is only really interesting if there's a crash?
a) Grand Prix
b) Dan on his bike in the driveway

Answer is a or b, so by that definition the clip below is not all that exciting.