Will Dig Life

I cannot believe that we're already halfway through our time here! This week really feels like we found a groove, things aren't all new all the time any more, we're just relaxing into summer. That said, it's actually cooled down quite a bit, there's been some rain and even a short thunderstorm! In big news of the week, D(6) has his very first wobbly tooth. Which doesn't stop him eating his favourite food, whole apples (never cut up!) - but it does make it a rather more time consuming operation... This was Mr.'s birthday week and like last year, he had to celebrate without us... thanks to video though we at least got to sing Happy Birthday and even help him blow out the candle! At the start of the week though, it was still hot and we cooled down at the water playground and the pool... A butterfly landed on her! And then it finally got more comfortable and we decided to do a few fun things ... At the indoor playground on the rainy day Robinson Playground, a gr...

37 degrees. In public transport without air conditioning, even I am reaching my limits of comfort in the heat! We are staying at the very outskirts of the city. Regional services are easy to reach, making it simple to get far away (like to see my cousin, although we haven't managed it yet because she's got Covid) but quite hard to get around locally. There's one tramway and a few buses, that's it - to get to the other means of transport, we need to go 7 stops on the non-air-conditioned tramway. Frankly, that's put me off going to many places! Luckily we do have a family pool in walking distance, and we've become quite familiar with it. There's also an initiative by the city where there's free, supervised multi sports on offer locally where I could leave the kids, 9am-2pm. This is great because I can stay or go (although there's really nowhere to go from there, it's all residential and it's too far to go home) and thus far I've always stay...

This was definitely a baptism by fire for the kids - arriving on Saturday, Monday saw them start a full-day holiday camp! They did it last year too, so it wasn't completely unfamiliar, but there weren't any kids they knew. And they all spoke German too!  One of my better ideas at the start of this time away was to give N(7) a little notebook, which she's been using as a diary. It's amazing to watch her work through her emotions as the week progressed... First, a few impressions of our train journey (witness me not-sleeping in the bunk above!) There was a bit of a hurry to catch one of the trains... We spent the weekend getting to a few playgrounds and looking around the local area. I had already made contact with a lovely local parish who welcomed us very kindly (though no pictures of that). Come Monday, the week began with a bit of trepidation. They knew they'd be away from me all day amongst unfamiliar children... and so it was that after the first day, it took qu...

Back in 2020, I had booked Eurostar tickets to try and go to Vienna by train; it obviously didn't happen that year, and not the following year either because the connection train from Brussels wasn't running yet, but this year at last we used those tickets and made the journey part of our summer adventure. At the right time as well, considering what's going on with airlines at the moment... And an adventure it was! A 28-hour journey that really showed just what a distance we cover in a short 2-hour flight. It started in Bristol, going by train to Paddington. Because there was a night sleeper involved, I had somehow got my dates muddled up and my pre-bought ticket was for the wrong day!! So I quickly had to buy new tickets (to the tune of £90!) and hope everything else was booked correctly.... arriving in Paddington, we slowly wandered towards the Circle Line and a kind buggy driver offered us a lift - D(6) in particular loved sitting up front! On the Tube Arriving in London...