Yet More Animals!

I have nearly finished in my quest to photograph the animals, only Wilfred, Kenton, Maud and Brel have eluded me thus far. Brel was last spotted on a wander apparently, not unusual for him, and Kenton is a bit dim and forgets where he lives... still I have a week and a bit to work on catching them with my camera!

Jonathan the Seagull (more of his story can be found here)


Nessa


Stacey

Rufus The Cockerel

Some of the Chickens

Peppa (tabby) and George (black)

Sophia (Mummy of the kittens)

Grace

Vincent

Daphne


Arthur

Joyce

As for the other wild life, they are having a magnificent time:

and

Although poor Clara has developed a bit of a cold and is a touch grumpy. No sea for her today I think. We also have Dimitra's party later on this evening so I will find out if she likes the Wings and Tutu outfit I made her!

More Animals and some Jolly Holibob tales.

Today we went up to the Old Town on Alonissos and had crepes for lunch (adults had savoury Phoebe and Clara had chocolate ice cream ones...

Then we headed to the beach, Phoebe told everyone in hearing distance where we were going much to the look of horror on all the Greek faces (they now consider it too cold for swimming and were mostly wearing Denim Jackets, scarves etc to keep warm). We popped into a shop first and the Greeks are incredibly generous to children. On their first morning Phoebe and Clara scored between them 2 lollipops, a punnet of strawberries and some biscuits. This was lovely until Phoebe received the punnet of strawberries in the grocers and said:

"In the other shop, the lady gave me a lollipop"

Thankfully a, I wasn't there to pray for the ground to swallow me whole and b, the Grocer lady doesn't speak English... phew!

Today they got 2 packets of biscuits and a Tomato, well ok Clara got the tomato after pointing to it in a Justinesque way and saying"

"Look, Tomato"

Which she then proceeded to tell everyone we passed and us several hundred times before it was despatched into a hedge at the beach (it did look as though it had been occupied to be fair).

Anyway, at the beach it was pretty wooshy... I have never seen this beach wooshy so that was a surprise. Phoebe was in total heaven and literally bounced out of her clothes and into her swimsuit and was off. Clara a little more reticent but quietly enjoyed it I think. We all ended up going in which was nice and Phoebe was able to show off her swimming skills (she swims at a 6 yr old level dontcha know...) both with the waves and in the brief gaps. Here are a few pics:




Oh and I have more animals for you too:

Lil

Luca

Alix


Sebastian

Aren't they gorgeous!

The best thing about Papous and YiaYia's house...

The animals! Ones that don't savage you as soon as look at you (well not many of them anyway!) and the girls are in dog, cat, chicken, goose and seagull (yes you read that right) heaven here!

At last count my parent's own

2 Dogs (Nancy & Carter)
17 Cats (Joyce, Alix, Luca, Sebastian, Arthur, Vincent, Maud, Grace, Brel, Niles, Daphne, Kenton, Lil, Wilfred, Sophia, Peppa and George).
2 Geese (Stacy & Nessa)
Lots of Chickens (Cock is called Rufus and the best layer is my name sake!)
1 Seagull called Jonathan

There was a tortoise called Ursula but she has gone AWOL. I have decided my mission for this holiday is to photograph all the animals for you. The chickens I will do En Masse though as I have watched the making of Labyrinth and am prepared to take Jim Henson's advice to not attempt to direct Chickens.

As a start here is Nancy (smallest and least camera shy dog)


Carter: Large, gangly and lovable


I'll be back with more as and when I get pics of them!

We made it!

Hurrah Hurrah, here I am in Greece. Sat at my parent's dining table whilst the lovely Paul sits on the sofa reading Clive Cussler with Alix the cat on his knee (a novel experience for him as our cat makes Ted Bundy look like a misunderstood softy). The girls are out with Papous and YiaYia (who have been heavily warned about Clara's roguishness and shoplifting tenancies!). How perfect!

The journey wasn't too much of a trial, Paul's alarm clock went a bit haywire and decided we needed to be woken at 3am instead of 4... no idea how that happened as in a fit of over prepared and worrying I made him double check it was set right and show me too. However, in hindsight, I am glad it did as I used that hour to decide that cramming everything in one bag was probably not the best idea as we would doubtless be bringing things home so a little bit of spare room wouldn't go a miss! Paul's eyes may have rolled, I wasn't looking that closely.

Children got up and dressed easily and were angels through the airport. We had a minor wibble where Phoebe thought her best buddy Moose was going to have to go in the hold and was crying that he was scared of the dark and couldn't go. She soon realised it would be fine and jovially put him through for his Tummy Check (aka going through the x-ray machine). Clara was less amused by this but conceeded eventually. They were fantastic on the flight, Phoebe watched the first 20 minutes of several movies on Paul's iphone and Clara just pointed everything out and then they both had a sleep. As the rows on this plane were 3 and 3 Paul volunteered to sit between them whilst I got to sit on the other side of the aisle. Once I realised they were behaving and he was in control (well, ish) I cracked out my laptop and happily played Sims 2 for a few hours, how marvellous!

This is the first time we have flown with Phoebe as a talking child so she was a little upset by the steep landing (Skiathos has a very short runway that is more than a little unnerving even to a seasoned flyer) and her ears hurt. Thankfully some lovely ladies 3 rows back gave us some chocolate for her to suck on so that stopped it hurting so much. I was pretty much deaf in my right ear until about 5 hours later however!

Papous was waiting for us and, as Paul and I had agreed, I took the children through to see him while Paul got the luggage. I had a slight worry that Paul wouldn't get through the fever seeking camera set up at the entrance to the Arrivals Hall as he has a cold and whilst it isn't Swine Flu his temperature usually goes up when he is fighting one off. Still he made it through and we went off to the dock to get the Seacat over to Alonissos. We will skim over the numpties aboard who chose to barge infront of Phoebe and Clara, and then again behind them neatly blocking them off from their parents just to get a seat. They are the more numptyish because they hadn't realised the top deck was pretty much empty. The girl's were delighted to see YiaYia as soon as we got off the Seacat and bounced over for hugs. As a parent I cannot describe how wonderful it is seeing my girls adore their grandparents. It really is exactly how it should be with all 6 of them.

Of course when it came to bedtime Phoebe was less thrilled with being here and sobbed that she wanted to go home. All of us tried to get her to sleep when she eventually passed out with a huge rottweiler dog soft toy and we all heaved a sigh of relief. A few vibes for an easier bedtime here tonight wouldn't go a miss. That said I have, or will have later, piriton and I am not afraid to use it!

Packing....

I love love love going on holiday, especially as we generally go to see my parents but I hate hate hate packing! It always falls to me to arrange everything and then Capt Perfection whizzes in the last minute to rearrange everything and claim success over the suitcase, must be how the other dude felt when Buzz whathisface was first to step onto the Moon. Humph.

Despite being a family of 4 we have packing light down to a fine art and can currently get away with only one suitcase, 4 pieces of carry on (it was 3 but then Clara turned 2 and needs her own trunki... it was that or The Rage makes an airport appearance...) and the pushchair. Ok we don't really NEED the pushchair but frankly the thought of 2 hours of airport on one side and a lot longer on the other side of the holiday without it sends my blood running colder than an Arctic ice flow. Besides I really don't think being arrested on account of your light fingered 2 year old in duty free is the best start to the holiday now is it?

Anyhoo, back to the packing. I am currently washing EVERYTHING that we might want or need. The girl's trunkis have been filled with as many goodies as I could find on BOGOF and a host of snacks in their lunch boxes so they can gorge themselves on the plane (drinks will be purchased airside). Most of the clothes are in the suitcase but I will be going through it all and double checking we have all we need tonight and re packing (with the help of the Beloved). I will hoover upstairs and give it all a quick clean. Then I will be hoovering and washing the floors tonight before bed so when we get up at silly o'clock tomorrow morning to leave (Burglars please note the house is being watched so keep yer mits off!) all we have to do is get up, dressed, shove the last of the toiletries in the suitcase, load up the taxi and then grab the children and G. O. goooooo!

Of course if it actually goes that smoothly it will be nothing short of a miracle as we have a history of hiccups whilst travelling. First there was The Chicken Pox holiday, the CP was actually preceded by Capt Perfection leaving the tickets and passports at home, we checked in by the skin of our teeth (2 mins to spare). Then there was The Great Passport Debarcle, there was a mistake on Clara's passport that was only picked up in Pisa Airport (yes folks, not only coming home but after 2 other trips on said passport) we were also flying out to Greece a week later so I then had to play prancing about with the passport office, oh what joy.

However, we are hoping that we have already had our disaster this holiday... or at least a brush with it. I realised last week that we didn't have any tickets yet so Paul rang up the company to hear the sound no one wants to hear, the sound of a disconnected phone because the company had gone out of buisness. 12 hours of catastrophising later (well I am VERY good at it) we found out all was well and our tickets were en route to us... HUGE sign of relief! So we have 4 correct passports, 4 tickets and as of this evening 1 clean house, 1 packed suitcase, 4 packed pieces of hand luggage. Then I just have to worry about waking up on time, the taxi turning up etc etc etc...

Pre-School Update...

I managed to get the skinny on Clara's first day today... I knew she had a good time as she came running out with a smile on her face and several shades of felt tip all over her hands. I was in no doubt she would be fine, she always is. Clara has enough confidence for about 6 people combined and a streak of independence that puts most people to shame!

Anyway, activities on her first day included eating (PVA) glue... I am wondering if I should change her name to Ralph like in the Simpsons. She also claimed she was a monkey as her keyworker was reading Dear Zoo to them all, I would put money that she also did her Monkey noise which is fairly amusing. In fairness to her, her favourite cuddly is a monkey so she has a lot of experience with them.

Best yet she hasn't managed to get her name in the accident book once! This last bit is a bit of a shock as she is (fondly) known as the Kamikaze Kid for her amazing ability to injure herself doing anything. I swear she could be locked alone in a padded room and she could still come out looking like she has done 10 rounds with Tyson! I am planning a Superhero cape for her with KK on the back as part of her stocking presents, I wonder if you can pad them ...

Clara's first morning at preschool

Clara's first morning at preschool
Originally uploaded by *Puss*

A landmark occasion! She was so excited to finally be going, she wouldn't stay still for a picture but just raced down the path to the car and bounced to get in. When we go there I got her bag and her coat on her peg before she dashed off again, coming back only briefly to hug her keyworker and say bye to me.

The house is so quiet, I am about to go and pack for our holiday but I couldn't not share this with you all. I'll let you know how she got on later!