Snow!

From one Happy Norwegian in Toulon!

Workin' Mama!!

That will be ME! ThankYouVeryMuch!

I got a call last night at the very very end of French office hours and they offered me the job! Yooohoooo!

Can't get a better birthday present than that. Well, strictly writing, it's my birthday tomorrow but hey, I like looong celebrations :) On top of that I'm in Norway as of today, travelled with E all alone to see this part of the family for Easter.

All is just SWELL!

Happy Easter to all you internet Friends!

Mini Update

The interview went quite fine. I initially thought that a first interview would be done by the agency and then the "real" one by the company hiring. But no. I was grilled in a 30 degree Celsius room but I think I came across quite relaxed.

Now it's the waiting game and trying to puzzle out a solution for Emilio if they decide to give me the job. It would mean going to the kindergarden everyday, and it depends whether or not they have the space to accept the change in the contract.

But let's first wait for a reply, then sort out problems later :)

Crossing All Fingers

Minutes are ticking by and soon I'm off to a job interview! Cross all your fingers for me.

I got a call last week from an agency looking for... ME. I know they are looking people with my skills and apparently there are jobs in my neighbourhood. Could it get any better??? Yes, they could give me the job. 

Since my last job my CV has received a lot of interest and I'm positively surprised and happy about that. Especially since my hopes for finding another job around here was ZERO. My super optimism took too many blows the first three years here... So before jumping onto job ads not really corresponding to what I want, I'll give this another shot!

Tuddelu, Ciao Ciao and cross those fingers!

When Flu Strikes

So my little man got the flu and it soon became boring for both him and me to stay inside for a whole week. What we did?? We rolled up our sleeves and got our hands dirty, and hair, and clothes and filled the vacuum  cleaner with half kilo of rice made cool with food colouring. E worked very seriously for about 30 minutes filling, pouring, touching before it all escalated and most of it flew onto the floor.

 

 

Since E's favourite word to say is "Kjeks", which in Norwegian means biscuit.... Nothing more natural than to make chocolate chip cookies. Between the three of us they were all gone by evening but the best part of cookie making is of course tasting the dough!! NamNam!

I also stole a tip of someone's crafty blog for making fun bath sponges for kids. Get normal sponges from the supermarket in as many colours as possible. Cut them into strips and attach the strips together in the middle with dental floss or a rubberband.

And voilà, the result! I kind of regretted it later as the became really heavy with water and REALLY FUN to throw around the bathroom...

Hello y'All

I had good intentions to get back into blogging but then life took over again. But I'm still here and the blog post are continuously crossing my mind but they never seem to make the jump over to the my blog. So that means I have a storage of things to write about since November, right? Right.

So what have I been up to lately... quite a few weekend trips, updating my CV, putting off reading that book that makes me feel like the task ahead is like climbing Mount Evererst, discovering cookbooks and recipes I now can't live without, browsing creative blogs for things to do with E, redecorating, going to the cinema with friends, and latest news... getting a heavy duty cold.

The SHOULD DO & WANT TO DO list is a lot longer but lets not dwell with those.

So just 5 minutes ago I finished painting the hallway. Halleluja now there is light! There used to be a kind of beige wallpaper before, no company agreed to just paint over it, claiming it would come off. Meaning that they tried to get more money from us by "forcing" us to take it down first and then paint.

We were not willing to pay 3000 euros plus. So After 4 years in this house I decided I couldn't take looking at the dirty wallpaper and took matters into my own hands. A quick recalculation of the cost and it comes down to:

Paint               60 euros
Colour              5 euros
Ceiling profiles 40 euros
Paint roll            8 euros

So for a grand total of 113 euros I have now a new clean bright hallway. And the wallpaper is still sticking to the walls. Halleluja.

BEFORE with the contrast of the new paint:

AFTER: Et Voila!!

On Family Matters

Thursdays are Home-with-Mum days and E and I had a lot of fun. Apart from a quick run down to Decathlon to find some good winter clothing we spent the day in the garden. He helped me carry wood-chips for the fireplace and I kissed the big lump on his head when he fell. Never a day without a bump somewhere! His will to get somewhere is faster than his legs. He chased the cat on the grass, walked on the crackling autumn leaves and just kept laughing, and said "Hrrrrrr Hrrrr HRRRR" when he wanted to go on the swing.

Today he also wanted me to read his books for him. Whenever he spotted his books he'd pick it up and find me. So cute. He destroyed all my wodden cube towers, played drums on all the empty milk cans and finally had a long bath with the elephant, duck and squirty crocodile. What made him laugh the most was seeing his mum doing a crazy towel chase of an enormously big fly. I hate flies and I wanted it dead and squashed under my towel. But that made E bend over laughing so I continued. Nothing is better than hearing him laugh!

The funny thing is that he now is learning to say no (which in norwegian is Nei). And after an X amount of times telling him to move away from the lamp and cables he gently stood up, looked at me and repeated after me: Ne Ne Ne and raised his index finger to prove my point. IT CRACKED ME UP!


He's learning very fast and just recently he struggled piling up the stacking rings. So he'd get frustrated and give up. He wouldn't even let you show him how to do it. Then out of the blue one day he assembled the whole thing and here he's posing for the photograph.

So I have a question for you readers, maybe you can enlighten me. If I didn't have a little creature who loves it I wouldn't care so unless you have children or just happen to know...

WHY are there NO SWINGS in french playgrounds?? Honestly. There are 3 main fun things in a playground and of which you would see kids queue up for - the swing, the slide and what's-it's-name that goes round and round. In and around Toulon, or even at day care centers there are none. WHY? Some strange safety measure? The baby seat swing was invented a looong time ago...

Then there is another issue that baffles me here. Though we rarely have frost here it gets cold. Like this morning with 10 degrees celcius and strong winds which would mean that the effective temperature would be lower. How would you dress your kid? Or wouldn't you take him out at all? I'd go for a HAT, SCARF, a good windproof JACKET, TROUSERS and (surprise?) a TIGHTS underneath for protection when he feels like inspecting some interesting object on the ground. Let alone that if the ground is wet I will put on a pair of padded waterproof trousers. Maybe I'm too Norwegian?? Honestly. If you are out having fun throwing about wet autumn leaves but suddenly start feeling a little cold then it would be less fun, right?

FACT: There are no tights for boys! I was lucky to find a light blue one and a grey one in the girl section (with the shoesize sewn in pink under the foot). When I asked the shopkeeper how you would protect a boy from the cold winds sweeping in under the trouser legs, she simply shrugged saying "Hopefully the socks alone would be enough". Bof. And if the socks are not enough??? E's socks are short and more often than not I see his bare legs when he runs around high and low.

PUZZLING STUFF so please share your thoughts.