Swing Time

One minute of silly girls.

Turn of Phrase

I've been noticing a few under-used phrases (mostly from British tv), that I am going to try to use in my everyday interactions.

"comeuppance"
"absolutely galling"
"see that it doesn't"

Further suggestions are very welcome.

Flavoured Sleep

This concept came to me the other morning, unsurprisingly, as I was emerging from my sleep. It didn't come as an inspiration, more a thought that I bet someone somewhere, has tried or will try to market flavoured sleep.

Claire's First Day at Nursery

Doesn't she look excited and proud?

Epiphany in detail.

Why am I attempting this? Bruno, feel free to correct any of my errors in explaining this French tradition. I know other Christian countries also celebrate Epiphany, some more so than Christmas.
Epiphany (6th Jan) celebrates the arrival of the three kings with their gifts. If you have a sister who lives in a French-speaking country, she can buy a pretty cardboard crown and little ceramic king and send you the recipe for the galette des rois, which I would describe as an almond paste pie. Very yummy. You hide the king in before baking and whoever has the piece with him inside gets to wear the crown. I think it is called a feve because it used to be a hard dried bean.
Further details Bruno? Does the finder of the feve get to be king for a day? Do people ever put money or other things in the cake? And why can't you bake any old cake recipe? And what does galette mean?
The above pic is a google image, and I think the little man looks more like a pastry chef, or a pastry chef apprentice than a king. Which could perhaps put someone in the position of pastry chef apprentice for a day. Wearing a crown.

Epiphany

The sparklers were on New Year's Eve, but the Galette des Rois was made on the 6th. If you look closely you can see where the wee ceramic "roi" was shoved in . I forgot to hide him in the cake before baking.

So that's it, the season is all over. All that's left is to box up the nativity set and for the council to come and collect the sad, dried up tree now sitting lonely in the front garden.

New Year's resolution already broken. Give up coffee. I made it through one day. And if you are going to break it, break it big. On day 2 I thought, "What a stupid idea. Who wants to be the kind of person who won't have a nice cup of coffee?" So I made a full pot and drank it all by mid-afternoon. Therefore I have taken on a new resolution: Start taking multivitamins. Two days in, two eaten.

Christmas/New year greetings

The Reids have had limited technology access since the camera got lost(we blame Laura who likes to tidy things into the bin). Thanks to Granda we have some self-indulgent footage from Chrsitmas and New Year. Happy new year!!!

John+girls