Busy Week & Iain in Scotland

I come to you, not from my usual spot of Saturday morning in bed with coffee and Dermott on the radio, but on Monday afternoon, coming up for air after a busy week + a weekend of solo parenting whilst Iain was in Scotland. Let me get you up to speed:

Last weekend

As planned, we spent quite a bit of last Saturday beginning the spring clean. Only once you start do you realise how manky the place is and how many toys William has. Aaaaargh. After a nice steak dinner and a bottle of red, we got William off to bed and finished off bottle number two. That should've been the end of things, but Steve, Laura, Macks and Hannchen were in town for dinner and came in for a nightcap. They didn't leave until about 4am by which time, a full record session was had, in addition to about two boxes of Heineken, a bottle of Aperol and two bottles of fizz. Needless to say, Sunday was horrible. Wracked with hangover induced guilt, we forced ourselves up and out for a picnic with William in Gelos where we also played football and basketball. It was a slow afternoon after that! 

This week

We started the week sluggish and full of the guilts from the weekends' excesses. We're not 20somethings anymore! In spite of the continued feelings of self-loathing, we both hit the gym first thing then managed to get our "jobs" heads on and crack on with the week at hand. After seeking counsel, I've decided to jump ship from my rubbish plumber and enlist the help of the guy Leesa and Antony use. If only I'd gotten him in, in the first place. There's been lots of other things ticked off the list including getting to Auchan (after the tradies left the square at 5.30pm) and making inroads on the big stains on the bedroom carpet. We met Jonesy and Sohpie for lunch at Blend on Tuesday. It was a great (healthy) feed and good to catch up with them.  Later on, I had a french lesson then went for drinks with Sylvie at Bar No 5. On Wednesday afternoon, I took William to swimming in the glorious sunshine (spring is in the air, even if it's just a little) then Iain finally got his own way with William agreeing to a haircut. He suddenly looks so grown up. 

After the tradies left the courtyard at 5.30pm, I headed up to LeClerc to run some errands. I needed to return a dress to H&M about which I'd changed my mind, and I wanted to buy items for the Ukrainian Humanitarian appeal that the council are running through the school. I was caught completely off guard at enormity of things and, as I stood in the aisle, trying to choose the appropriate tampons for terrified, displaced women that I'll never meet, I just fell apart. It was almost beautiful to see that many of the recommended items from the council's list had been sold out as the good people of the world rally to help the refugees but I was actually sobbing by the time I got back to my car. Fuck Putin and fuck war. 

Iain was busy packing for Scotland on Thursday morning but I needed to get out for a good walk and clear my head. I went east through Gelos and continued along the river to Franqueville. It was a good cobwebber and I loved seeing all the way points as I headed home again. France are so good at this. 

Iain left for Scotland in the early afternoon on Thursday and suddenly, I was thrown into a very familiar situation. Solo parenting for the weekend. Of course I missed the big man, but it was actually really nice, falling into our old weekend rhythm when its just the two of us. 

On Friday, we went to La Gourmandaise for goûter:

On Saturday, we cycled to tennis and got boggin:

Then we played at the river for ages before coming home, hosing the bikes, having lunch and chilling out for a bit. 

We did a small food shop in the afternoon and there were heaps of amazing motorbikes in town. William was mesmerised:

On Sunday morning, we went to Kai's birthday party at Acrojungle. Rammo very kindly picked us up as Iain had taken the car to Toulouse. William had a ball, as you can see from the sweat running down his heid. 

And then it was home for some quiet time and Sunday afternoon homework. The new Learn to Read (English) game is proving useful for his french too! 

Iain finally got home at about 8.45pm last night and although William and I had had a great weekend together, I was pleased to have the Big Yin back with us. It's always better when we're together. And although he'd had a really great time in the Motherland, I think he was pretty happy to be back in France too. 

Lorna. :-)