Princess' Birthday

Princess is 1 today.  Who can believe it? 

It only feels like yesterday when I got the emotional call from Pete to say that Cerys Grace had arrived in the world and that both mother and baby were doing well.

And now here we all are to celebrate her 1st birthday.

Her party dress was a white dress, that I had bought for her.  It's a beautiful flower concoction that I just fell in love with and couldn't resist buying.  You're probably thinking, "practical for a 1 year old", but let's face it, she's only going to wear it once.

Like all birthday parties there was an abundance of presents.  I think this was probably the best part for her as she got to rip up paper without anyone telling her "No" or taking it off her.

And there's no party without the cake.  A vanilla and chocolate sponge, decorated with green icing and Princess' favourite characters from a TV show, that only adults with kids would know about.

It came out when everyone was in mid chorus of singing "Happy Birthday".  I took a picture of her whilst everyone was singing.  She's looking at the cake and I wonder what does she see?  Does she recognise the characters?...

...well I think the next picture says it all on what she was looking at.  The concept of blowing out the candle is lost on Princess on this occasion!

Happy Birthday Princess.

x

The Olympics Are In Town

The UK has been in the limelight a lot over the past couple of years.  2011 was Kate and Will's Royal Wedding.  This year it was the Royal Jubilee and now it's the Olympics.

The advantage of living in a big city like Birmingham, is that there is a big screen in the middle of Victoria Square that allows you to watch big events in public.  Tonight I watched the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony in London.

Luckily this week has been a hot sunny one, compared to the very wet summer we've had so far; so no umbrellas needed.

I have to hand it to Artistic Director, Danny Boyle, the opening ceremony was fantastic and original.  I haven't seen anything like it.  It was a fantastic depiction of how this country has evolved and how it went through the Industrial Revolution, mixed in with some British humour.  James Bond jumping out of the plane with Queenie in tow was fantastic and was rewarded with a lot of cheers from the crowd.   How the torch was put together was also very original.  Kudos to whoever designed this petal flaming cauldron and the flaming rings.

One aspect of the Olympic Games that always amazes me is the Geography lesson that you get as you see all the competing countries do their walk around the venue.  Half the countries I have never heard of.  Think I'm going to have to get the map out.

"Mack, Macks" and Dinosaurs

Cerys' first words are "mama", "dada", "ta" and my favourite, "mack, mack".  I think all are quite obvious apart from the latter which is a bit abstract.  But then if I were to tell you that it's her word for duck ("quack, quack") then perhaps it is obvious.  Actually she uses "mack, mack" for any creature with a beak, but it's still cute to hear her make the noise and to see her begin to associate words with what she sees.

Today we saw lots of "mack, macks" at Birmingham's Nature Centre.  For those of you that haven't been, it's a cute little Centre that has lots of different animals in well maintained grounds.  At £4 entry free, it's also great value for money and great for little families.

The Centre is not just full of "mack, mack's", but a wide variety of animals.  Ranging from Guinea Pigs, to Monkeys, to Lynx's, to Dinosaurs...

Actually the latter is refering to a Crane; there was one excited little boy at the Centre who went up to the enclosure that the Crane was in and at the top of his voice shouted "Wow Mummy! Look, it's a dinosaur!"

Cerys was also very fascinated with the little monkeys, watching their antics, as they jumped from rope to rope chasing each other.  At one point she started screeching like a monkey, so perhaps this is another animal she is now recognising.

I can't wait to see what other words she will come out with next.  So refreshing and so much fun to see the world through a 1 year old's eyes.

A Quintessentially British Affair

Royal Ascot, a quintessentially British affair; 

Pimms on tap, Strawberries & Cream by the bucket load, Boys in suits (Top Hats and Tails, if invited to the Royal Enclosure), Girls in smart dresses & headwear, British cloudy weather and Queenie sat in her Royal Box.

British transport was also on full form; the 1st train was delayed & completely full and the next train was cancelled.  So unfortunately we missed the royal procession.  But we managed to get there in time to see the 1st race.

I'm not much of a gambler and it's a good job as I pretty much lost every bet I made, with the exception of one where I won £9.50.  Although considering the £10 bet, I didn't even break even.

The most exciting race was the 3rd, where Aussie horse, Black Caviar won the race, literally by its nostrils.  Unfortunately it was the biggest favourite of the day, so the odds on the horse didn't really rake in the cash.

The day ended with Britain's favourite dish, a good ol' curry.  A perfectly quintessential British day.

Team Sarah or Team Marc?

The big THREE O.  This year it's Marc and Sarah's turn to celebrate a big birthday and in true Burkie style they had a BBQ party.  Although this year it wasn't framed around "Riding the Bus" (a drinking game that had Marc completely incoherent last year).  This year it was themed as a competition.  On entering you had to pick a team; Team Sarah or Team Marc?

Before the games began, the two teams were fuelled with Pimms and well-cooked (...ok burnt to a blackened crisp) sausages and burgers.

The initiation of the games began with Gabby and Tony stripping off to reveal their surprise t-shirts.

The first set of games were with balloons, which Team Sarah just excelled at.  Team Marc had prickly fingers and kept bursting the balloons, which just made it too easy to win.

The second set of games were with hoops and cones.  This is where Team Sarah began to rapidly lose points and soon Team Marc were cheating their way up the leader board.  P.S. Can you tell that I was on Team Sarah?

Team Marc won in the end.  They were more willing to get rope and key burns in the last game.  I guess they were in it to win it.

However there were no real losers in the end.  Everyone got to have lots of yummy cake and jelly.

The night ended with Black Jack, casino style.  I was up quite a bit and then got a bit wreckless.  Don't worry though, we were playing with chips, not real money.  Don't think I would have handed my money over to Marc, who won, quite so easily.

Happy Birthday Marc and Sarah.

x

Paris at Midnight

The last day of our French road trip, at least with me in it, began as many of our days have done so far, with a wine tasting.  However, after Chateauneuf du Pape, we now all have an air of snobbery at tasting wine that is not nearly as exquisite.

After tasting, we then made our merry way across vineyards to the train station to drop off "Robert" at Hertz.  The trip was not as simple as it sounds.  Due to diversions we ended up having to circle the streets of Avignon.  When we finally got to the TGV station, there were no signs or directions leading to Hertz.  We eventually rang them up, only to find out that we had to get a ticket to enter the parking zone, in order to get to their office.  Well Avignon TGV Station, I think better road signs are in order.  We are not psychic you know!

Lunch was more alcohol, bubbly champagne, 2 bottles to be exact.  One whilst we waited for the train and one for the road, with plastic glasses.  Very classy.

The train journey was a bit of a blur, pretty much because all 3 of us slept through it, the effects of the Champs I guess.  But before you knew it we were back in Paris.  With it being our last night together, we decided to get all dolled up and to go somewhere fancy.

Ruth chose the place; Hotel Athena, which we got to by taxi.  The ride was relatively pleasant as we got to see some of the sites, but we also got to see some crazy Parisians.

In particular, there was one lady who was walking down the middle of the road and staring directly at our taxi.  As she approached the car in a drunken stagger, she had this look of pure hate and started attacking the car, hitting the side view mirror.  At this point I had a death grip on the door handle to make sure that she didn't try to get in... She didn't.

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of Hotel Athena, but the place was stunning and definitely a glimpse of how the other half live.  As we entered the hotel, there was an entourage of 5 or 6 people standing at the door, who were happy to show us to the bar and to make a dinner reservation for us.  Although I have to say, had we not been dressed for the occasion, I am sure we would have had an alternate scenario of being shown the door.

The bar was lovely, very pristine and full of men in suits and cute bar men.  It has become a theme of this trip.  Here we had cocktails.  I had a twist to my fav cocktail, Mojito, which was made up with Champagne.  Yum.

Dinner was in the garden and was a three course meal that yet again reminded us that the French sure know how to cook.

After the meal, we then walked off our dinner with a stroll along the Champs Elysees and Rue Montaigne.  Personally I think this was a dry run for Mer on the shopping route Ruth had planned out for Friday.  We passed every designer you could possibly think of; Chanel, Gucci, Prada, Louis V.  The list was endless.  It also seemed that the route was marked by starting with the Eiffel Tower and ending with the Arch de Triumph.  I think the purse strings will be crying come Friday night.

Au Revoir Paris.

x

Sweeping Avignon

Avignon is a pretty place in Provence, also known as the City of Popes.  A city that used to be confined by medieval ramparts, but has since branched out over the years.

Tuesday is a big market day; the indoor market stalls were filled with fresh vegetables, meats, spices, cakes etc...  A feast for the eyes.

The outdoor markets were more antiques based selling anything from jewellery to books.

One of the main attractions in this city is the Palais du Pape and it is huge.  So big that I still couldn't get the whole Palais in with my wide angle lens.

The Palais was impressive.  The murals on the wall were stunning and it is amazing that people were so skilled in this art to create something so intricate without the conveniences of modern technology.

As I was walking around the Palais, I happened to lift the bottom of my maxi dress to climb some stairs and realised that my feet were completely black and filthy.  It seemed that my maxi dress was serving a dual purpose; as a dress and as a sweeper of the Palais.  Perhaps I should have asked the city for some taxes.

The Pont d'Avignon was our next stop, which is a bridge that leads to nowhere.  It wasn't always this way.  The bridge was a way of crossing the river.  But the high current of the river kept destroying it and so they gave up trying to fix it.  Now the bridge stops half way across the river.

Dinner was at an expensive restaurant just outside of the Palais du Pape.  We had a 7 course meal that was amazing.  The food was so fresh, light and so yummy.  It was hard not to eat so quickly.

The meal was also very entertaining, as Mer had the Sommelier and Maitre d' trying to decipher a text from her Frenchman in Beaune.  It did have some personal elements to the message and I think I saw the Sommelier blush.