Our Handsome boy

For once, this Sunday was a calm one with no lunch invitation or errands to run. Though there was frost, the sun was coming out. We went for a walk as a family in this cold morning. The temperature was around 3 degrees. A1 was on his bicycle and A2 was on his scooter.

I brought the camera along as I wanted to take some photos of Handsome. He is growing so fast and we hardly took photos of him.

He had a great time in the park running freely and sniffing everywhere. You can see that he is a tall boy in the photo with A1 on his bicycle. Handsome is heavier than my boys now.

Below are some photos of Handsome in action.

Isn't him a Handsome lad?

 

Aquarium at Palais de la porte Dorée

On 30 Dec 2012, we went to the Aquarium at Palais de la porte Dorée. I did not even know it existed. I always thought there was only one aquarium in Paris which we visited on A1's birthday. As Ah Yi, the children's nanny lived in the 12th district and we were visiting her, I decided to find an activity for the boys nearby. That was how I came upon this aquarium on internet.

 

 When we arrived, we were surprised that entrance was free as the place was upgrading its ticketing system. There were not many people and the boys were able to run around looking at all the fishes.

 

 Below was a tank of arowanas.  

 

Here was a tank of marine lives.

There was also a dwelling for turtles and tortoises.

 

The boys looking at the impressive fishes. Some were bigger than A2.

One of my favourite fish: tetra. I used to have them in Singapore.

Look at the sting rays below. The white spots striked out on the black colour. Unique.

 

There was also a big rainforest dwelling for the alligators.

This aquarium was smaller than the one we went to before but I actually liked it better as it was less crowded. There were many pretty species.

When we were done, we met up with Ah Yi for tea and had a good time catching up. As usual, she made chinese dumplings for me (the best I ever tasted), stir fried vegetables with seitan for Seb and braised chicken drumsticks for the boys.

It was a fruitful day.

Ski suit, rain boots and snowman

It snowed the whole day today. While Seb stayed at home to look after A2, I walked A1 to school in his ski suit and rain boots. I took a bag to bring back the suit and boots but his teacher told me to leave him in them. She told me when the kids played outside, A1 would be dressed. I noticed there were other kids in ski suits too. Even a few parents wore ski suits and ski boots. We had never ski with the kids but I bought this set of ski suit when Seb was in the states recently as Osh Gosh B'osh was having sale. A1 used the ski jacket and now the overalls came in handy.  

When I was young in Singapore, if it rained, I would wear slippers to school and change into my white school shoes when I reach school. And we did not play in the rain. Here, the children play everyday comes rain or shine or snow. What a cultural difference.

In the evening, I picked up A1 by car because I did not want A2 to walk along the slippery and narrow cleared path. Seb was still in office. After the afternoon snack, the boys and I tried snowman making. The snow was compact but it was not easy making big round balls. As each kid wanted a carrot, we had two carrots on a snowman. Looking at the photo above, it looked as though the snowman had been stabbed with a carrot in his tummy. Funny. I am inexperience in snowman making. Hopefully, I will improve with practise. For the next few days, it seems that I would  have plenty of chance to do just that. Snowman building practice.

 

Snowy weekend

It had been snowing the whole day today. We cancelled lunch at a friend's place in Paris as we felt that it was not safe to drive in this weather condition. We stayed put at home and the kids had fun in the garden.   

 

There was 10cm of snow fall. A2 wanted to play with the slide but we told him no. He would get his butt all wet. So, he went to play basketball. This boy plays basketball rain or shine or even snow. A1 tried to make a snowman with his father but the snow was too soft. 

The day before, it snowed during the night. Before we headed to Paris for lunch at a friend's place, the boys played in the snow while Seb prepared the car by clearing the snow and heating it up. It was A2's first experience walking in the snow. It took him a few minutes to step into the snow and walk around.

Our drive to Paris was smooth as it was not snowing and the highway had been cleared of snow. I had a great time catching up with my two singaporean girl friends. The kids had fun collecting snow from the steps on the City Hall of Paris District 15. The girls' mother was surprised that we brought a bag of snow home while she stayed with the baby.

It will snow tomorrow during the day. We are stuck in the village.Good thing there is still food in the fridge. I will just bring A1 to school and A2 to his baby gym by foot.

Tulips

Amazing. I bought these tulips from Carrefour for 2.90€ almost a week ago and  they were still standing.

The bouquet even came with a pill for cleaning the vase and a sachet of tulips food to disolve in the water.

I did not know that flowers from supermarket can be such value for money. 

 A1 asked if these flowers were bought by papa. I told him 'No, mama buys them for herself.' When Seb came home that evening, he was surprised that I bought flowers. Well, at this price, why not.

I am definitely replacing these tulips when they wilter with new ones. They are such a pleasant sight and go well with the new vase I have from Christmas.

Noddy, Oui-oui

 A1 calls him Oui-oui while A2 calls him Noddy. They both watch the cartoon in English more than French. 

Just 2 days before the end of 2012, we went to catch the show 'Oui-oui and the carnival' in Paris. It was the first time A2 watched a live show. The theatre was full of kids. The boys enjoyed themselves a lot. They paid full attention to the show. After 30mins, there was an entr'acte of 20mins. Then followed by act II which was another 30mins. 

 I was worried that A2 might be too young to sit for long but he did very well. The characters played well and I was entertained too. Seb however started to doze off in the second act. When we were exiting the theatre, A1 wanted a Noddy helium balloon. Almost all kids had one. So, we got one for each of our boys.

Lunch was at a Japanese restuarant nearby. After lunch, we headed back home but not before I made a quick stop at Chinatown to grab some asian groceries.

Oyster addict

Christmas and new year celebrations are usually the only time I had oysters. I love fresh oysters and had several during the christmas lunch. 

I felt that I did not have my fill and for the past two weekends, I had been buying them from the market. 

Now I am pretty good at opening these little delights. They are sold in dozens and can be kept for a week. My dozen are gone in a weekend. The ones in France are so fresh and good, I am becoming an oyster addict.

A2 marked the new year

A new year has come. 2013 is declared to be a difficult year in France and Germany. Since I am not working for three quarters of the year, I will not be affected in terms of work. I just hope next year will be better for the economy.

We celebrated New Year's day eve with Anca and family. We had lunch togather and the boys were well behaved. On the second day of new year, I bought some washable felt tip pens for the boys since they had fun using them at Anca's place. 

Yesterday, I was greeted with A2's drawing on the walls after lunch. While A1 was cooking lunch with me, A2 was having a blast scribbling the furnitures, the walls, the stair and the floor. I thought he was playing quietly with the floor puzzle. How wrong was I. Thank God the ink was highly washable and I managed to clean up the mess. Still, it took me a good half an hour to wipe everything off.

I took pictures before wiping the walls. I actually laughed when I saw what he did. If it had been permanent ink, I wonder would I still have kept my cool.

Handsome

Handsome is growing up fast. When Seb brought him for his vaccination a month ago, he weighed 10kg. Each morning he greets us, I notice that he has grown taller overnight.

He loves to sleep in this position. Just too funny. The boys love the dog. They would go to Handsome to play with him. A1 is being caution most of the time. A2 however, can be found rolling over the dog, playing fetch with Handsome and kissing him.

Handsome is usually gentle with the boys. He can get excited sometimes and starts jumping around. He still does stupid things which includes chewing on everything. Our furnitures, the corner of the walls, doors, cables, and whatever he could get his teeth on. Our house has never been so tidy and neat. We just put everything out of his reach. As he grows taller, we would really need to put everything upstairs or in the guest room.

Most people tell us their dogs calm down overnight when they reach around 18 months old  to 2 years old. I hope for Handsome, he would calm down at 18 months old instead of 24 months old.

Just one more thing to add, we find that he is growing more and more handsome each day. No, we are not being bias dog owner. He is not a photogenic dog. You really have to come see him for real to judge for yourself.

Year end gifts

It is common practise for companies in France to give year end gifts. In my company, we usually receive gift vouchers. For Seb, he has both gift vouchers and a goodies bag. This year, the gift box includes pots of foie gras, terrine de magret de canard fumé (smoked lean duck),  pâté de campagne (meat spread), spice bread, jam and French wines to go with these delightful french food. 

As most pâté contained pig's liver, I did not eat pâté. Nor could I stomach foie gras. I came to love foie gras after I had my kids. And slowly, my taste buds could accept pâté too. I remembered I gave away last year's pâté to some colleagues since Seb does not eat meat. This year, I am keeping everything for myself. I have friends from Singapore visiting in Feb. I will share these french food with my friends then.

Since living in France for so long, I have learnt to eat lots of french food like smelly cheese, foie gras etc.... There are still a thing or two that I just could not take. Boudin noir and goat cheese are two things that I will never see on my plate. Boudin noir is a sausage made of pig's blood. You might think I am not an adventurous eater. The thing is, I love pig's organ soup and braised pig's intestines which are local delights in Singapore. When I mentioned that, French people usually gave me an unbelivable look.

So you tell me, are you an adventurous eater? What new food have you accepted recently and what food do you avoid?

Froot Loops

I asked Seb to bring me peanut butter, Resee's chocolate and a box of Froot Loops from the States. My kind husband did as told and even bought two giant boxes of Froot Loops. Er... that was one too many. I wonder when will we ever finish these two boxes. I missed Froot Loops as the last time I had them was 11 years ago when I was living in the States for 2 months.

My boys love Froot Loops and ask for a bowl and a refill each morning. I am not surprised as looking at the composition, the first ingredient is sugar. We limit their consumption to a small bowl each morning followed by healthier biscuits.

The box was so big it won't fit into my cupboard. I had to pour out the contents into these chinese new year goodies containers. Aren't they pretty? Now, out of sight, out of mind. 

Not really. A1 knows where I keep the Froot Loops and wants a bowl still in the morning.

Late fall

It snowed overnight last friday and in the morning, this was the sight of our garden. It was white and beautiful. As Seb was on a work trip, I was alone with the kids. That meant that I had to bring the two boys out when sending A1 to school. I decided not to bring A1 to school as A2 was sick. I did not want to risk A2 getting sicker. Furthermore, the gate was frozen and could only open half way. The car was covered in snow too. The pathway was slippery. I was not motivated to sweep the snow and pour hot water. Well, we just holed up in the house the whole day. 

By afternoon, the snow had mostly melted away. As Christmas is coming, some neighbours put up decorations on the exterior of their houses. The best decorated house I would say belongs to our direct neighbour. The decorations look like display from a shop's window. The lights light up at 5.30pm and was beautiful. We are so fortunate to benefit from this display.

The weather had been rainy too. Yesterday I could not decide if I should pick up A1 by foot or by car as it was raining on and off. When looking out, I saw this double rainbow. Beautiful. It was dark at the front gate and clear sky at the backyard. In the end, the sky cleared and A2 and I went on foot to fetch A1 from school.

Snow is expected again this thursday. A2 is better now. Maybe I will let the kids play in the garden and make a snowman if there is enough snow.

Laptop repaired

Handsome is an active puppy. As with any new domestic pet, we have to teach him the house rules. Like no going up stairs, no going up on the sofa, no jumping on people, do his needs outside. We only have him for 2 weeks so he is still learning.

In these 2 weeks, he had managed to destroy a few things. He tore the sleeve of my leather jacket. He pulled the laptop cable and the laptop fell from the dining table. It was not working after. I thought I would have to buy a new laptop and even went to Carrefour to check out the models. Good thing the next day, I found in my letter box a commerical leaflet from a PC repair shop in the next village. Seb brought the laptop over and it was repaired. Still the shock has broken the screen and now, on the left bottom of the screen, it is dimmer. Yesterday, our music system could not work. Seb checked the cables behind this morning and saw that the Ethernet cable was chewed into half. He replaced the cable and pushed the furniture closer to the wall so that Handsome could not go get the cables. Handsome also tore up my cushion and when we came home from town in the afternoon, we found the stuffing all over the living room. We are learning from experiences on puppy proofing the house.

Ten years

Ten years of marriage for Seb and I. Wow. What a milestone.
On the anniversary day, Seb worked late and came home at 8pm. After the kids were in bed, we had an 'after work' drink. We opened a bottle of champagne and chilled out.
I asked my husband if he remembered where we had our honeymoon. He actually forgot the name of the place. So we started looking up internet to look for the name. I know that it was a resort in Port Dickson, Malaysia but I don't remember the name of the resort either. It was Avillion Port Dickson resort. We spent 3 days there. It was really a mini honeymoon compared to my many Singaporean friends who did 3 weeks of europe tour.
Seb replied that my good life in France more than compensate for that short honeymoon. As usual, my husband is right. I am happy with my life here though there are always little ups and downs.
The next day, Seb came home with a lovely bouquet of flowers to mark our anniversary. A little late but better than never. I just love to have flowers at home. Hoping for more good years to come.

Handsome

This is Handsome. Our new family addition. He is a Viszla and is 2 months old.

We were supposed to get him right after our Rome trip. But since the trip was cancelled, Seb went to pick him up on saturday. Seb did not cancel his leave so he could be at home to take care of our needs.

After 2 days, Handsome is adjusting well. He is an active puppy. He naps a lot in between his play time. He has 3 meals a day and drinks a lot; resulting in wet accidents at home. We tried to put him out as often as possible but sometimes, we just missed the timing.

I am getting better after the fall but still can't bend over to clean up the mess. So Seb is doing all the cleaning up. 

As for the cat dog relationship, hm... Bao Bei was not eating from her cat bowl because Handsome touched it. We had to put away Bao Bei's bowl on the table and gave it to her when she was in the kitchen. Handsome went to Bao Bei twice and got slapped by her. He is scare of her. The both of them are on their guard when they meet.

 The kids are happy to have a puppy. When Handsome got excited and jumped on the boys, they shouted for help. I told A1 that Handsome was going to continue to grow to be a big dog. A1 said he did not want a big dog. With proper education, this dog will be a great pal for the boys. Our family is complete. Or maybe not, I would like to have some pet fish. Well, one thing at a time.....

Rome can wait

Seb and I were to suppose to spend 4 romantic days in Rome starting today. With my domestic accident, the trip is cancelled. I was able to cancel the hotel booking with no cost. As for the air tickets, I bought travel insurance so I was able to get back almost all the money. Not that the tickets cost a lot since we were flying with the budget airline, EasyJet. Since my car accident in Singapore 3 years ago, I came to realise that travel insurance is important. I would always include travel insurance in our holiday budget.

Picking up from my last post, I did not wait until monday for my x-ray. I realised I could not drive in my state and my lower back was still hurting lots. So on sunday, Seb drove me to the hospital while his mother came to take care of the boys. Fortunately, we arrived at the Emergency just before the peak so I was received by the doctor after waiting for an hour. I did an x-ray and was told that my sactrum was fractured. Nothing much to do except bed rest and to sit on cushion. Pain killers were given.

Five days have passed and I am getting better though slowly. I am disappointed over the cancelled trip. It was meant to mark our 10th wedding anniversary. Many kind friends told me that Rome can wait. Indeed. With this accident, the whole household was relying on Seb. He has proven himself that he could be a full time working 'mother' taking care of the kids, me and the housework. His load will be heavier as we are welcoming a new family member tomorrow. One with four legs. Will update more with photos.

Be careful. Don't fall.

I slipped and fell down the stairs yesterday morning. Yeah, the downside of living in a house. I was coming down with a basket of dirty linens. The two boys heard me coming down and started to run towards me from the living room. At the last four steps, I slipped and fell. Seb heard the loud noise and quickly run to me and picked me up. I was in so much pain that I did not notice my boys. They saw everything. Seb carried me to the sofa and I just lied down and waited for the pain to subside a little.

We explained to the boys that 'maman had bobo.', 'maman fell down the stairs.' and 'you must be careful and hold on while coming down.' A1 kept asking 'Pourquoi you fall down?', 'Pourquoi you did not hold the rail?', 'Pourquoi you carry the laundry basket?'. Sigh. In the end, my answer came to something like this 'Because I love you, that's why I was washing your clothes.'

I spent the whole day in bed, lying down on my side as my tailbone was hurting me too much. Thank God, Seb was working from home yesterday so he kept a watch over the boys. I decided to see the doctor as I was still in much pain after a few hours. The doctor could only give me painkillers and a letter to do an X-ray on my coccyx. Even if a bone is fractured, there is nothing much to do except bed rest.  My appointment for X-ray is on monday.

The kids are behaving well. They know that their mother is not well. As I laid in bed, A1 brought me books and toys to comfort me. A2 came now and then and asked 'Maman, encore bobo?' (Mama, again pain?) They loved to jump on our bed and Seb and I had to told them to stop as the movement of the mattress hurt my back.

Today, I could stand and walk but sitting down was still too painful. I sat for half an hour to read books to the boys and then retired to my bed. I told the boys I needed to rest and that they had to play by themselves. They entertained themselves in their rooms and then started 'cooking'. A2 shouted 'à table' (Direct translation is 'To the table' but it meant 'meal time'.) and offered me his crunch up paper. A1 came along too with his. There were various plastic food; egg, cabbage, piece of tart, mushroom etc... My sweet boys.

Now when I used the stairs, A1 would go 'Be careful. Don't fall.' It made me laugh because for once, we had a reverse role. My 3.5 year old boy telling me to be careful.

School work

It is the Toussaint (All Saints') school holidays. A1 has no school and A2 has no daycare for 2 weeks.
On the last day of school, Seb went to fetch A1. His teacher handed Seb a big folder and an A4 size notebook. In the big folder were worksheets that A1 did in school.

In the notebook were photos of activities A1 did in school. Each month, the kids bake a cake to celebrate their classmates birthday. We saw photos taken from the Sept and Oct birthday celebrations. Once, I was told to bring two leeks to school. Now I could see why. I saw photos of all kind of autumn vegetables. The students cut up the vegetables and made a soup. They then tasted the soup. They also tried autumn fruits and different apples. A1 noted in his book that he liked green apples. Finally we know what our boy was doing during his time at school.

Extract from the notebook: A page showing Souricette, the class's mascot.
She follows us everywhere. She is very timid so she speaks in the ear of the teacher or the children. She is our friend and also that of Crokinou who is a little old, sometimes she will come sleep with one of us and after, we will tell what we have done.

Souricette spends each weekend with a student and the student is supposed to tell the class on monday what they have done togather over the weekend. For the 3 year old kids, it would be the teacher prompting and the student answering. We are waiting patiently for Souricette to spend a weekend with us.

We also got to view all sorts of paintings and colouring and handicraft done by A1. He used coton pads to dot a witch that had chicken poxs. He had fingers painting, hand painting, cork painting etc... There were songs about the week, poems about colors and shapes etc...

School seems like lots of fun.

The teacher left a note telling the parents to help the child fill up a page in the notebook describing a day the child spent during the school holidays.

With the rainy and cold weather, the boys stayed at home on most days. I took them to Paris to visit a friend on wed. Yesterday, being Toussaint, was a public holiday, Seb had wanted to take a walk in the forest but with the wet weather, we went to the indoor park/playground Woupi instead. I will wait until the end of the holidays to ask A1 which day in the past two weeks he wanted to tell his classmates.

The 'Pourquoi'

Pourquoi in french means WHY? Yeah, A1 is in this phase now. He asks 'Pourquoi?' for everything. Really for everything. It was sometimes just so hard to answer him. Even little things like me asking him to come to the table for dinner, he would ask 'Pourquoi?'. I replied: 'To eat dinner.' Him: 'Pourquoi manger?' (Why eat?) And 'pourquoi' for each reply I returned.
In the bathroom, he asked 'Pourquoi?' when I told him to take off his pants though he knew it was bathtime and the bathtub was filled with water. I know that kids asking 'Why' at this age is normal so we are being patient explaining things to him. However, some trival moments like those mentioned above can be tiring.

Since he started school, his speech has improved a lot. Yesterday morning, his father told him 'Vas chercher tes chaussons.' (Go look for your house slippers.) A1 came to me and said 'Papa say to look for shoes.' It was the first time I noticed him translating to me what his father just told him. I am delighted.

Today, he noticed the framed wedding photo and started identifying the people in it. He went 'Papi, Nainai, Papa, Maman. Where is me and ...' followed by his brother's name. It was too funny. We had to explain to him that they, the boys, were not around yet. Good thing he was distracted at that moment and did not ask that infamous 'pourquoi'. It would be hard to explain to a 3.5 year old how he arrived.

No more diaper for A1

Since a long time, A1 does not wear diaper during the day. He goes to the toilet by himself and even forbids us to enter with him.

At night, it was different. He requested for a diaper. Many months back, I tried to toilet train him for the night when he woke up in the morning with a dry diaper two days in a row. However, he wet the bed on the second night and then insisted in wearing a diaper to bed. I could tell he was not ready.

With the house moving and a new school, I stored away the idea. School started in the beginning of Sept and friends had told me that kids could have wet accidents in the first few days of school due to confusion and stress or not daring to ask for permission to go to the toilet. A1 did not have any accident. Seeing that he was doing well for the day, I decided to make him go diaper free for good.

On 8 September, I told A1 that he was not going to wear diaper anymore for night time. He was alright with it. We assured him that if he wet his bed, it was ok. We made him go to the toilet every night before sleeping though he did not use it each time.  

I did up a chart and in the beginning, the result was discouraging. This was meant as a reward system for him but when I tried to explain to him, he was not interested. So I kept this chart for myself. A sun image meant that there was no wet accident while raindrops on the chart meant that the bed was wet on that night.

When he had three wet accidents in a row, I actually lost my cool and told him harshly to make a big effort. Though we had a washing machine and a dryer, it was no fun stripping the bedsheet and quilt cover and mattress protector each morning and to put them back again after they were cleaned.

At his second triple wet accidents, Seb and I questioned if A1 was ready. We decided to persevere as he was already a big boy at 3 years and 5 months old. Our persistance paid off when from the 24th day onwards, I drew a sun everyday. He was off diaper for good since 1 October. Yipee!

This diaper business is not over for me yet. I am starting potty training on A2. He would sit on the potty when I removed his diaper each time before changing a fesh one. Yet, the potty stayed clean while he warmed up the seat. I wonder when will I do a post 'No more diaper for A2'. I'm being patient. Maybe in a year's time? Or hopefully less.

Well done, boys.

I am so glad. At last, the boys are adapting well; A1to his new school and A2 to his day care.
Since last week, A1 walked through the school gate by himself with a smile. We had progressed gradually from the beginning where he cried at home when putting on his shoes and again at the school gate where we had to carry him and passed him over to the teacher. After that, no more tears at home, just at the school gate. And after that, just being reluctant to walk through the school gate. Finally, entering the school by himself and turning and giving us (A2 and I) a big wave and flying kiss.
As for A2, since last week, he stayed from 9.15am to 12.45pm at the day care twice a week. He ate well for lunch and was always smiling and playing. As I left him this morning and walked out, I overheard the two ladies telling a new interne that A2 was crying a lot for a month and suddenly, he transformed and was enjoying himself at the daycare. The ladies were just as surprised as me as we thought it would take A2 longer to adjust. When I went to pick him up today, he was engrossed in his activity and did not even notice that I was in front of him.
Well done, my boys. I expected them to get use to their new environment one day and that day had come. A month to some might be long but I had no expectation.
The past two times, after picking up A2 from the day care, I drove by A1's school as I knew that the kids would be out at the courtyard after their lunch. I saw A1 playing happily with his classmate running around. Once it was raining lightly, the kids were out too. Ah, the french education. The french belives that kids should be outdoors be it rain or shine. And even when it snows so long as they are dressed appropriately and the rain or snow is not too heavy. If my mom sees this, I don't think she will approve it. I can imagine her reaction and remark. Just this thought makes me laugh. I better keep this detail to myself and not tell her.

To Tutoyer or Vouvoyer? Always a dilemma for me

After 9 years in France, I still get a big headache each time I speak to french people I just know. I never know if we tutoyer or vouvoyer that person. Tutoyer is the informal way of addressing 'you' while vouvoyer is the formal way. In english, we get away with this as everyone is 'you'. In chinese, it is easy as all seniors are '您' out of respect and others are just '你'.

In French, for people whom we do not know but we deal business with in our everyday life like the butcher, the baker, waiters, cashiers etc... we use 'Vous'.
For older people, we usually use 'Vous' even if that person uses 'Tu' at us. We can tutoyer the person if he/she invites us to use 'Tu'. Same goes for boss at the workplace and sometimes even colleagues, teachers in school and neighbours etc.

My problem is that I can't distinct some grey lines.
I vouvoyer my in-laws. So naturally I vouvoyer their friends though some told me that I could tutoyer with them. Yet, each time, I could not decide on which to use. Sometimes, I could start with 'Vous' and then continue with 'Tu'.

Neighbours is another grey area. I have been vouvoyer all my neighbours. And I never paid attention if they vouvoyer or tutoyer with me. I realised it was becase each time a french spoke, I translated in my head from french to english. So when someone said 'Tu vas bien?', I would naturally processed in my head as 'How are you?'. I would answer 'Oui, je vais bien. Et ....' That was when I got stuck. My reply was 'Yes, I'm good. And ....' But which YOU to use in french? I had not listened carefully earlier if that person asked in 'Vous' or 'Tu'. So to be on the safe side, I would end with 'Et vous?'. I did not want to upset someone if that person 'Vouvoyer' me and I 'Tutoyer' back. Now, that person might think I was being a snob by using Vous. She might continue to use 'Tu' if she understood that I am a foreigner or she might revert to 'Vous'.

Recently, we invited our neighbours opposite for an apéritif (a pre-dinner drink). We had a good 2 hours chatting and getting to know each other. They have 2 young boys like us. After they left, I asked Seb 'Did you vouvoyer or tutoyer with them?' Seb replied 'I tutoie as they are our neighbours.' I was like 'Ah bon. I have been using vous throughout the whole time.' Gosh.

I decided to open big my ears now. So far so good. Once I was going to my gym class in the village multi-purpose hall, I met up with a fellow gym mate on the way. We exchanged bonjour and she asked 'Tu habites où?' I paused for 3 seconds before telling her which street I stayed cos I was processing on the 'tu'. She must think that after living here for a few months, I still could not recall my street name.

Another strategy I used was to wait for the person to start a conversation and zoned in on the 'tu' or 'vous' used. These could cause awkward situations as each of us was waiting for the other to start talking. At the school gate each morning and evening, I would say the usual 'Bonjour' to the other mothers. Sometimes, I waited until a mother asked 'How are you?' before replying and asking back in the same way. Most mothers use 'tu' at me which was a relieve for me. Now I have to note who to use 'tu' on and who to use 'vous'. I would certainly need a little black book for that.

On top of that, I would need to note down who gives bise (kiss on the cheek). That itself calls for another post.

This is a long post but as I told Seb, I could write a book just on this. I doubt I can ever adapt this usage of tutoyer and vouvoyer as natually as the french do.

The first fire in this house

We finally started the first fire last wednesday. It was rainy and windy outside. Seb was working from home and we decided to start a fire. The temperature in the living room was 20°C before the fire started. Actually it was not that cold to call for a fire but well.... we were tempted to start one since we had all the materials.

Once the wood was burning well and the room was heated up, the temperature went up to 24°C. There were ducts that transferred the heat to the rooms upstairs. We opened the vents on the ceilings to have the heat in the rooms. As the boys' rooms were directly above the living room, their rooms got heated up from 20°C to 25°C. It was too hot in A2's room.

The previous owners told us that their girls were in t-shirts and shorts during winter as the rooms were well heated by the fireplace. They saved on electricity bills as the electrical heaters were seldom used.

It is great to have a fireplace. I'm already planning to buy a pan to roast chestnuts and Seb is thinking of having baked potatoes. Will share photos of the goodies here so watch out.