We arrived in France on the 30th August and to say I felt tired is possibly and understatement. I was physically and emotionally exhausted, I had spent all week running around trying to tie up all the loose ends while the contents of our house were being packed and I was attempting to hand over work, while in between I was bidding farewell to my friends and then obviously our family. The first week at my parents went by in a bit of a blur.
The next hurdle was to get both Madeleine and Amelie settled into a routine, this included school and nursery as well as going to bed at a sensible hour! As I have said before I think in my rose tinted view of the situation we would all arrive and instantly be speaking French and feel totally at ease - at this point a claxan should really sound like it does in cartoons as I needed a wake up call and to step right back into the real world - it didn't but the moaning and groaning of 2 children certainly did!
Madeleine and Amelie went to the local school in Nanteuil-en-Vallee. Madeleine did her usual and just got on with it and Amelie made me feel terribly guilty by crying and clinging onto me for dear life, however she did stay and when I picked her up she was always happy and had enjoyed herself. At this point I realised how poor my own French was and spent most of my time grinning like an idiot and nodding a lot when the teachers were giving me information - Mum was on standby but wasn't always able to come so I quickly started to pay very close attention and then go home and try to repeat what I had been told - surprisingly this sometimes worked, other times it was a mess but we would work it out eventually.
As time went on it was clear that neither of the girls were totally happy. In reflection I think that a lot of this was down to the fact that we had just got up and left everything we knew and replaced it with a new version that was being played in a different language and didn't have subtitles. We had many ups and downs and I also think that alot of this was due to me feeling out of my own comfort zone. I had gone from living in my own home, with all my things, a set routine and all of a sudden I didn't have this (or my other half).
I can only really write about this reflectively as it is obviously 2 months since we left but despite the odd fights and fallings out, the tantrums because of not wanting to go to school or wanting to go to school (depending on how the wind blew), all 3 of us enjoyed our time and I only wish we were able to replay it knowing what we know now. Ah yes hindsight, such a wonderful thing. In short all 3 of us were in limbo. I don't think it would have mattered if we had been in Edinburgh or the Moon we were constantly waiting to leave, which was a shame as we must have missed so much.
The experience for all of us (and I include Gordon) was hard going but ultimately I think worth it. Being back as a family was strange to begin with but within 2 weeks we all seemed to fit back together and I would say it has enriched our lives and made us a much stronger family unit.
Madeleine and Amelie both speak about France and it is always in a good and positive way. They both enjoyed having the time with their grandparents and many stories get told (mainly of Amelie running around with nothing on except wellies and felt tip pen all over her face). We were sad when Emma (the dog) passed away but again in some ways we were pleased to be there to say good bye to her. L'Eclerc supermarket is a favourite dining hotspot and it has already been requested that we go there for lunch in summer - take note mum and dad!
My only regret is that whenever I have returned home (back to my parents) to stay for any length of time it is always on the back of something manic happening which always has an effect (usually me and dad bickering like small children) but I am so pleased that we did get this chance to stay and would do it again in a flash, especially now I know what to expect!
I think that our stop over was well worth it and it was also great to get to know mum and dads friends better (they are all brilliant) as well as getting to know the area they live in. Beware we may land on your doorstep again (and not just for a holiday)!
Anything I would change? Yes, I would have finished work at least 3 weeks before, so that we could have had family time and to give me, Gordon and the kids a chance to adjust and to get settled so that none of us would have left with all the baggage, tiredness and exhaustion that we all carried for far too long.
Anything I would keep the same? Yes, I would have still gone to France only I would have carried out my instructions above so that I would have my head screwed on correctly and would have found it easier to adjust and therefore help the kids adjust so that the experience would have been easier on all (that includes my parents).
We left for London on the 16th November and played a game called, "how many hotels can you stay at in a week?" We managed 3, The Mercure in Bordeaux, The Grosvenor in London and the Hilton at Heathrow, all of them were super and I would stay at any of them again. We then also played the game "how much stuff can you get from the hotel bathroom into your suitcase" not surprisingly the kids were pretty good at this game and we came away with all sorts of body creams and shower gel!
Then it was the big day, we were in the airport heading to Brunei (shame the flight was delayed), I had emailed Gordon to let him know but he hadn't got it so we arrived to a rather panicked looking Daddy who had been waiting since 8am (it was now 12.30pm), but we'd arrived, we went through immigration and outside into the wall of heat and back to being all together at the Seaview Hotel.
No comments:
Post a Comment