Like it’s your birthday

April was a blur, so Peter planned a birthday party for me in May. It started with a cryptic set of instructions and a drive to an undisclosed location. 

Laser tag madness (I have some competitive friends...some military trained too!) followed by dinner and dancing at a fancy club with a bunch of friends. 

It was a great time and helped me to not feel old. I also got a fun new art medium to play with - oil pastels. 

Cobblestone and stilletoes

I’ve been busy writing my dissertation lately and have found myself needing to do some catch up in my blog writing. 

Several weeks ago, Peter and I attended an official dinner at the Belgian military barracks. Long dress was required so it was a fancy affair. The one challenge was that fancy dress means fancy heels and those do not make walking on cobblestone an easy feat. 

Turning the decade

As it happened, my 40th birthday fell both on a long weekend and right before Peter needed to be in Italy for meetings. What luck! 

We took off a little early and spent my birthday on the beach in a little town on the Sorrento peninsula called Marina dei Cantone. It was a wonderful, relaxing few days of Italian sun.

We were able to visit the ruins of Pompeii. 

Drove the Amalfi Coast 

Visited the Blue Caves in Capri (and saw the island) 

And had pizza in Naples, the place where it was invented (and home of mount Vesuvius) 

As I celebrated my 30th in Rome with Mara and Sarah, my 40th in Sorrento...I’ll be back! 

Ole, eh!

For Easter we took a trip to Seville in the south of Spain. After a cold, wet, grey winter we were looking for sun, and we found it. We  were travelling with another family so we rented a villa outside Seville and used that as our home-base for exploring Andalusia.

The villa had a pool, and like all pools in the south it was unheated. This did not deter our polar bear children. First, they dove in with wetsuits but soon it was swim suits only.

We set out the first day to see the traditional easter parades. We caught one of the smaller, earlier ones, as these go quite late at night and can be quite crowded. These parades are held by the various parishes in the city and represent mourning for Jesus before the resurrection. The highlight of the parade are the floats, one of Jesus and one of Mary, carried on the backs of selected parishioners.

After that we spent a day at the beach, a day visiting the traditional bullring in Ronda, a day riding Andalusian horses through olive groves, and a day experiencing flamenco.  It was a very Spanish and wonderfully relaxing holiday.

And yes, the Easter bunny found us.

Flooties fun

Back in October, Emily started playing flute. She has been progressing well and has joined both the intermediate band and a flute ensemble called the Flooties.

This past week, the Flooties participated in a music festival where performances were judged by a guest adjudicator. The Flooties received a "highly commended" result and were asked to participate in the finale concert. 

This was an incredible honour for Emily and a proud moment. 

A little artsy

Months ago, for Christmas, Peter got me a weekend at art school London. And this was the weekend! 

It was back to basics and a whole lot of fun. Immersing myself in creative activity for two days was refreshing. There is something special about spending time around other creative people. Over the two days, there were some successes and some failures, but I stretched my comfort bubble. 

Nearby my apartment was the Tate Modern, which had just opened an exhibit on Picasso. 

There was a bit more time for wandering, but the focus of the weekend was creating. And I’m feeling reconnected with my creativity. 

Sahara sunset

For the half term break, we took a trip to Morocco to experience something completely different. This was by far the most challenging and the most rewarding trip we have taken to date. It will take us all a while to process for sure.

The first day of the trip we landed in Fez. Entering the country took longer than we planned with multiple lines, many passport checks, and an extended process for picking up rental cars. The weather was also much colder than we planned and we were chilled and impatient by the time we hit the road. Then, the drive through the mountains brought us an unexpected surprise - snow! True winter driving conditions with drifts and limited visibility. But despite it all we saw some stunning landscape and monkeys!

Day two of the drive took us over more mountains and out into the Sahara desert.A quick reduction in baggage (down to just our back packs) saw us leaving the cars behind in favour of dromedaries. The ride through the dunes and into the sunset later we were at out camp. With the sun gone the temperatures dropped and we bundled up. There were many warm blankets but restless kids meant multiple times we awoke to replace blankets and warm chilled kids. The first night, the tents dropped to 3 degrees! But all that was worth it with unbelievable stars, incredible sunrises and long days playing on the dunes,




After two nights in the desert we drove back to Fez to explore the old medina. Maze-like alleys and limited landmarks made a guide essential. Fez is a crafts city with more than 75% of its inhabitants making artisan goods. The tour took us to the tannery, the weavers, the embroiderers, the potters...and more. There was more shopping than planned but it was all fun.






Overall, our expectations of sun and warmth were replaced with cool temperatures and life designed to hide from the heat of the summer sun, but the richness of the experience can not be understated.