With Laura and the kids well-looked after in Ipswich, I took the opportunity to do some work related travel. My trip started at noon with a train ride to London from Ipswich, underground to Paddington, Heathrow express to airport, flight to Casa Blanca, then a three hour drive to my hotel in Meknes. I got in about 2:30am, and had a 9 am meeting, so was shattered. However, Geoff, the expat geology manager picked me up and we had a beautiful local breakfast called Cersk or something (two fried eggs with fried, dried salt lamb, bread, olives and olive oil, plus lots of strong Moroccan coffee). We then drove to the project site. The countryside is beautiful with rolling hills of wheat, olives and vineyards and the weather gorgeous. In the afternoon, he took me to a jeweller / antique dealer in the old town of Meknes pictured below. I bought Laura some earrings, and an antique Fatimah door knocker. Geoff kept the dealer honest, by checking for metal composition with his NITON gun. (I wish I could take the NITON to Bali).  

Dinner was garlic snails, ostrich steaks and beautiful moroccan red wine. The next day, Geoff organised a guide to pick me up and take me to the nearby roman ruins called Volubilis. This was the highlight of my trip as its almost as good as Pompeii, but far less touristy. Photo below is me in the ancient brothel. I know it looks like I'm swinging free, alas, its just a rock carving from the women's section of the brothel.

We then drove the three hours back to Casa Blanca. I'd chosen Casa over Rabat as I thought that was the place to see, knowing nothing about Morocco. However, there's nothing much to see, don't go here. This is about it, a really big, modern mosque, picturesquely jutting out into the ocean. The rest of the place is a slum. I did have the most delicious lamb tagine I've ever had though.

Next day I flew back to London and then to Oslo. I stayed at the airport overnight and then flew to Kirkenes, which is far north Norway in the arctic circle and near the Russian and Finish borders. I was hoping to eat some whale for dinner, but it wasn't on the menu, so I settled for reindeer. Kirkenes was freezing, had 24 hr daylight, and was very rugged looking. Fjords were quite nice, but not the spectacular ones like in the middle of Norway.

Kirkenes grew around the iron ore mine, which is one hundred years old this year. It was the focus of intense battles during world war 2, as the Nazis secured it for its iron ore, and for the fact its the northern most ice free port. The mine is owned by an Australian company and thus there has been an influx of Aussie miners into the town. According to the locals, this is not the first time Aussies have bombed the town, as during WW2, the australian airforce had the job of bombing out the Nazis.

Next day I flew back to Oslo and had some time to spend in the city. The best thing is the mordernish opera house which is, I suppose, designed to resemble an iceberg. You can walk all over the surface. The next day, a walk to the train station, a flight to london, heathrow express to paddington, underground to Liverpool St, train to ipswich, car ride to constable road.

Crowns, chainsaws and chickenpox

We started our stay in Ipswich with the Queen's 60th Jubilee street party. Bunting flew, crowns glittered and tables groaned with traditional street party fare - cupcakes, quiche and trifle.

There were games, music and dancing in the street. Flossie and Freddie didn't win the crown competition, despite sterling efforts from Grannie and Aunty Jess.

But Flossie had a fantastic time dancing, eating her own body weight in cake and getting stuck in to tug of war.

Freddie spent the whole party trying to grab pieces of the outdoor chess set. Lots of nerdy eleven year old chess buffs got quite annoyed with him.

But all in all, both children have had an amazing time in Ipswich. 

Stair fun

Flossie loves her new doll's house (actually my doll's house, renovated by Grannie):

She also loves the fact that Zeus the cat has taken to sleeping at the bottom of her bed: 

Freddie likes taking all the things out of Grannie's baking cupboard:

He is less enthusiastic about being used as a real life baby in the resident doll's pram:

After the excitement of the street party, Flossie, Aunty Jess and I headed up to London. I went over to Chiswick to see Heidi - a radiant new mum of the super-sweet Finlay, and then to central London to meet Clare. We had crispy duck at a Chinese in Soho and then relived our mid-20s with wine in a pub off Oxford Street. I made the mistake of picking up more wine on the way back to Jess's, which (of course) didn't survive the evening. I learnt all about Flossie's adventures with Aunty Jess at the aquarium and the three course meal she scoffed at Pizza Express.

Aunty Jess had to go to work the next day, so (despite my hangover) Flossie and I found our way across south London to Dulwich Village and to Emily's beautifully renovated house and garden. Floss had great fun with her daughter, Mia's, dressing up box and was reluctant to leave but we had another date in Ipswich. Her little running legs allowed us to just catch the 12.30 train so we could meet up with Monica and her daughter Cecilia in the park.

I'm so lucky to still be in touch with a bunch of great friends in the UK - nothing like catching up with people who have known you for years.

We got back to a slightly quieter house as Rob had left for a work trip to (believe it) Morocco and North Norway. He will be a guest blogger for the next post and a summary of his adventures!

Freddie, Flossie and I were so well looked after by mum and Jo for the week he was away. We've caught up with lots of local friends and eaten until our tummies bulged. The kids have had fun playing in the garden and trips to the playground, the duck pond and to Christchurch Mansion where Floss loved seeing the old doll's house and children's toys.

The weather has not been super-kind but we managed a short sail on Sunday. Floss like curling up in the fo'cstle and eating the chocolate brownies that Grannie bought.

Freddie was a bit more hands on:

Helming

Winching

Monday, however, bought new adventures. We have had some high winds and a big branch came off a tree that overlooks the garden, meaning the whole thing had to come down. A hunky tree surgeon did some fairly impressive manoeuvres to cut it down. Jo now has fire wood for the whole of next winter, but the whole drive was clogged with logs for a day and some of mum's plants got squashed.

This was fairly small beer, however, compared to the shock I got when I took Freddie to the doctor to get a nappy rash checked out. Dr took one look and diagnosed chickenpox. The poor boy is covered in spots and we got a couple of itchy sleepless nights to coincide with Rob's return. Fortunately he is on the mend, but it has meant that we had to delay our departure to Shropshire - we are now leaving tomorrow morning.

Paris in bullets

• Paris is a very different place when you have children to when you are 18, foot-loose and fancy free - more slides, less sites

• St Chapelle still takes my breath away, and my little girl seemed to love it too

• It was great to see Kate who is now living every girl's dream - a flat in Montmartre and the whole of Paris to explore. A wonderfully welcome grown-up night out in Le Marais, including delicious steak tartare. 

• Especially as the rest of our meals were picnics (albeit yummy rotisserie chicken from the butcher)

• Where did this little girl come from? Given the choice of any present for hooking ducks at the fair, she chose make-up.  

• The kids continued to make international friends

• Rob still doesn't like Paris, although he grudgingly admitted the Pompidou Centre was quite fun 

• We found the same weird Indian wire toy that I bought when I was in Paris when I was 8 - Flossie loves it 

• We have had enough of hotels for the time being. The Paris one was nice but the room was small. We had to relocate Freddie:

• I am really pleased we decided to hire a car and not travel by train - one Eurostar journey was enough 

• Rob is super beardy at the moment 

• God, it is nice being at mum's. Paris, je t'aime, mais Ipswich, je t'adore!