Good heavens! cant believe it is now 29th May and it would have been our father's birthday today.
All going well here still and I am catching up with family and friends in June so will be a busy month. I am excited to have filled almost all the slots in my itinerary for July and August in Europe and have factored in the Cinque Terra in Italy so another box ticked! Lucky enough to have made contact with another helper so looking forward to meeting up for the walk.
Went down to Leeds with Sarah and Simon last weekend as the Black Caps were playing cricket and David came up from Bath so it was a great opportunity to catch up. Mr sunshine came out and we shed some layers and enjoyed Leeds malls and the street theatre on offer. It was a great weekend apart from the cricket result!

We were greatly saddened to hear that James Watson had died back in NZ. What a lovely man he was, our thoughts are with Pam and the family once again as they cope with their loss. Carpe Diem comes to mind once again as Nana Black used to quote "we never know the day nor the hour", sieze the day and make every one count.

Peep today so will get my singing voice tuned up ready for another session of actions and song wih 20 babies and their mums. Have met some lovely folk here, helps of course if you have a beautiful wee girl as an introduction.

A bientot!
mx

Ok. It looks as though I may have this blog thing sorted at last! Another week is almost past    and we have had an interesting mix of weather! Yesterday while Sarah went out with Maisie, I shot into town to get some bits and bobs for Europe. It was a perfect day, blue skies, hardly a cloud and no wind! Has to be remarked upon! And there was me inside shops most of the day!

There is a learning curve to be negotiated regarding cloth nappies. I thought I knew a lot about them however..... there are infinitely more than I could have imagined and.. there is a group called Nappuccino where one can go to see all the varieties and get advice. Only in a densely populated country like this could that work.

So many groups for mothers and babies to socialise as well, great for the way of life here as one could go all week without passing anyone on the stairs, let alone a familiar face on the street. I have 64 stairs to get down to the ground floor so have become skilled at loading up with shoulder bag, nappy bag and baby on the hip so we can go out. The Phil and Ted stays downstairs at the ready.  Just a matter of remembering everything before I set off! And therein lies a problem... memory!

Ha. Monday 13th now. Forgot to mention Mimis cafe tearoom! Went with Sarah to fabulous place for coffee. All black and white stripes, raspberry pink velvet chairs and sofas, feathers around the lampshades-sumptuous! And the cake was damned good as well.

Now Sunday 12th and we have had a great week with Cobber and Heather staying. They had a wedding to go to in Edinburgh before joining a cruise in Italy. Had a couple of quite nice days so it was good to enjoy some sunshine with them.
It is very cool to see our children doing things their way and making such a good job of it. As a friend said "we had our turn to do things our way, now its the young ones turn". Quite right too.
I am on a learning curve with new ditties and action songs. So many groups here for mums and babies, must be really helpful given the housing is not conducive to intreaction with neighbours.
Sarah had been poorly last week so unable to go to work. Miles better now so back to sole charge tomorrow! Have discovered I am a fair weather Nanny, only want to go out for a walk if it is fine! It is so easy to stay indoors and watch past issues of Judy Dench in "As Time  Goes By". Maisie seems to be happy playing with me and we have a wee game of Blinking going on at the moment. Very cute and she knows she has us captivated!
Will try and add something each week but am still not sure how to get this out to whoever wants to read my ramblings!

Well here I am in the Capital City of Scotland! True to form, mostly windy, wet and cold but daffodils and spring flowers  blooming so the promise of better things to come?
Very excited to have booked my flights to Spain for early July so all good so far. I am very grateful to Gay from Telegraph Hill for putting me in touch with Helpx site. I am following up somising leads there and will keep you in touch with my whereabouts. All new to blogging so please forgive my errors.