The Blog of a Full-Time Working Mum

When he was small, Dylan (who is now 6) enjoyed looking at his picture books. His favourite one  was a "Noddy" bilingual picture book.  He would point at the images, wait for me to pronounce the words and then try to repeat the words himself.  The problem with his picture book (actually with most picture books) is that the images are often drawings (rather than photos) and I am not convinced that the little ones always know what they represent (does the mouse on the picture below look like a real mouse? Not really...) Also I find that picture books often cover too many topics (or random topics), instead of focusing on the essential ones (not sure if musical instruments are useful to a toddler who is only starting to talk). This is how the idea came to me to create a picture book for Ryan, my youngest one (who is going to be two next month). It took me about 10-12 hours to put the photo book together (take photos, ...

Have you ever heard of Bunny Chow? No? Seriously, you gotta try it at least once!   A Bunny Chow is a South African dish consisting of a hollowed out loaf of bread filled with curry. It originated in the Durban Indian community (East coast).   It can be made with chicken, lamb or even vegetable curry.   It is the equivalent of our kebab here in the UK. It is what you buy on your way home after a night out clubbing (or so I have been told). I love eating with my hands (I love street food in general). You tear the side of the bread bowl and you use it to sccop out the curry filling (as it was a chapati). Yum! I love the chicken curry version (cooked with chicken drumsticks) in a nice crispy bread.   Finger-lickin' good :).  

I am an expat. My husband is an expat. I am from France. He is from South Africa. We met in the UK in 2005. We fell in love with England (and with each other of course). So much to offer (amazing people, culture, history, sceneries, etc...). We first lived in London. We met other expats like us. We shared amazing experiences with them. This mix of people was so refreshing and enriching. However they all left one by one. After a while it started to feel a little bit lonely in London. And, without all our friends, I started to miss "Home". It is funny how an expat always refers to his/her country of birth as their "Home", even if they made a new country their "Home". I struggled to make British friends at the beginning. Maybe because I did not really get the jokes or did not understand what they were referring to most of the time. The British culture was completely foreign to me. This is when I realised that I never really made an ef...

Perfect day for baking today. The weather is awful! I found a quick and easy recipe to make chocolate chip cookies on Good to Know: http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/310732/Jasmine-s-easy-choc-chip-biscuits It makes 20 cookies. Ingredients 225g caster sugar 300g plain flour (sifted) 200g of butter melted 1tsp vanilla extract 1tsp of baking powder A pinch of salt 1 egg 150g chocolate chips Method - Add all the ingredients (apart from the chocolate chips) into a bowl and mix together. - Once you get a dough texture, knead using your hands. - Add the chocolate chips and mix together using your hand again. - Spread some butter onto a baking tray. - Take some of the dough, roll into 2-3cm ball then flatten a little. - Place in the oven and bake at 160C, gas 3 around 15 mins. They're ready when the edges are golden. Enjoy!

We are moving to the countryside in November. Our current house is sold and the new one is being built. The public opening of the development's showhome was last weekend so I went to have a peak on Sunday morning. I met an elderly couple there and we got chatting. They were just having a peak themselves. They live a few roads away and wanted to see what was going on in their village. They have lived there their whole life, have seen the village expand and change in front of their eyes. They explained me where they lived (I knew exactly which house they were talking about. It was the bungalow with the massive "Leave" sign during the EU referendum campaign).  It made me feel so uncomfortable all of a sudden... You see, I am French. I worry about how people feel about having a foreigner as a neighbour. I have never felt this way before, but I do now, since Brexit... They asked me where I was from. I explained them that we only lived a few miles away. This ...

We are raising our kids bilingual (French/English). We live in the UK but I have relatives in France. The decision was fairly easy to make. How else would the kids communicate with their grandparents if they did not speak any French? So when our son Dylan was born, I tried to speak French to him as much as possible but it proved to be rather difficult. I tried to speak French to him whenever Trevor (my husband) was not around (Trevor does not speak French at all). We watched French cartoons and read French books but it just was not enough. As  I worked full-time and Dylan had an English-speaking childminder at the time, his exposure to the English language was far greater that his exposure to French. However, even if he could not speak any French until the age of 4 or 5 (except for a few words here and there), I knew he could understand pretty much everything. Now aged 6, Dylan can speak French rather well (but s...

The next 3 days passed by like a blur. Anna and I went for walks in town and around the block so I could show her the main points of interest: doctor surgery, pharmacy, school, bank, library, local convenience store, library, local children's centres, local parks... It was also a way for Anna to get used to walking with the kids, crossing the roads safely and me helping her through it. We also went through the different emergency numbers and I gave her a first-aid kit (for the small boo-boos). Anna also asked me if I could give her a list of what she should achieve daily and weekly, which I did: Daily: - Wake the boys up - Help them get dressed and brush their teeth - Help the boys dress their bed - Prepare their breakfast - Take Dylan to school - Prepare lunch for Ryan - Pick up Dylan from school - Help Dylan with his homework - Give the boys a bath - Help the boys tidy up their toy room - Help me around dinner time (lay the table and wash the dishes) Weekly...