It’s been just over a week or so since my last posting. I’d love to say that you’ve not missed much but having a job that requires travel each week and a family life that involves three kids under two, if I did say that, then I’d be lying.
The most recent news is that I’ve been out on the tiles...unfortunately not a night on the tiles, but more an afternoon on the tiles of my roof....we’ve had some awful weather in France recently and the hailstorm this afternoon was so heavy that it started to seep through into our living room! As a result I ended up on my roof with a mop and broom shovelling tennis ball sized hail stones for an hour in freezing temperatures with my brother in law. Thankfully things are now all back to normal although Maxime thought having a swimming pool in the middle of the front room was a great idea.
I suspect the most important news of the last 10 days or so was the hospital visit on Thursday. This was the “one week visit” – exactly a week after the little ones had left hospital. Things are essentially fine although Capucine has only put on 20 grams (babies that age should be putting on 20 grams a day). Gaston was fine. I also found out that there is a medical discipline called psychomotricity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychometrician) Basically someone clearly very experienced, (she had grey hair), waxes lyrical about the way a baby waves his leg in the air when you roll him over, or the way in which she sneezes after looking at a black and white spiral which makes your eyes cross. I felt thoroughly reassured. The visit also gave us the opportunity to give the nursing staff three boxes of Swiss chocolate from Zurich...the doctor seemed particularly happy. He even then told us to cancel the vaccination we had planned with the paediatrician in town because if they did it at the hospital, then they would keep the twins overnight meaning that Sandie would get a full night’s sleep and a lie-in. My granny always used to say that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach!
On the Maxime front we got thrown a bit when the crèche said they’d like to talk to us about how we think Maxime is adapting to life “in the collectivity”....Sandie saw straight through this and I was instructed to dig deeper and cross examine the head mistress Delphine the next morning. Indeed when I asked for further clarification, Delphine admitted that she was concerned that Maxime can display a certain refusal to accept no for an answer (not sure which parent that comes from), and that he has a tendency to launch the other children across the playground when he is upset, and to give them python like bear hugs when he is in a good mood. Clearly it would be better if used his determination and size to sell sweetcorm on the TV.
The penultimate thing of noteworthiness over the last 10 days is that I have lost my virginity in the Skype sense of the word. I have finally managed to get Skype installed and have made my first few calls. I have had a tour of an apartment in New York and seen snow up in Northumberland in the UK. Maxime has also taken to it like a duck to water (he’s clearly going to be a fully fledged member of the younger generation who I will need to rely on to configure whatever is the equivalent of the today’s iPhone in 30 years time). He regularly asks to see Papy and Mamy on Papa’s computer.
The final revelation of the last 10 days is that this blog has become a useful communication tool in my marriage. Sandie and I are often crossing each other like ships in the night as we prepare and deliver bottles of hot milk in the early hours of the morning (the 4AM shift is particularly difficult). At one stage in the day when we were both awake, in the same room, not dribbling from tiredness or in some form of sleep deprivation induced trance, Sandie said to me she had missed my posting from the day before because she often liked to read it in the middle of the night to keep up to date with what I am doing (I didn’t even know she had the web address!). Anyway, now that I now she’s reading it, just a quick one love.....would you mind picking up a 6 pack of Guinness, some fresh milk and a bag of carrots tomorrow pet? We’re running low on stocks. Thanks.
Sunday, 28 November 2010
Friday, 19 November 2010
18 minus 1
18 years minus 1 day. We’re off! Not long to go now......
In fact if truth be told, last night went fine (largely thanks to Sandie). We were up about 3 times in the night although I have to say that it felt much less of an adventure than when we did it for the first time with Maxime two year ago. Even Capucine’s best efforts to dirty the whole bathroom at 4AM didn’t raise my interest levels much above “basic trance”.
In fact it was only on waking this morning did I realise the magnitude of the situation when Maxime fell out of bed around 8AM and we had precisely 1 hour to clean, feed and clothe 3 children (I certainly didn’t have time to shave, and even now I can’t even remember if I had a shower). Thankfully Maxime was delivered to crèche on time and I only joined my 9AM conference call two minutes late. That has to count as a success.
I was also delighted to see our home help turn up for the first time. Raymonde was fantastic and after 3 hours of her help, the house was so clean you wouldn’t have thought we had any children at all! With a bit of luck she’ll be back three times a week for the duration of Sandie’s maternity leave.
Another sub 10PM bedtime now.....we’ll see how tomorrow pans out. It’s a real shame I am not able to make my godson Reuben’s christening tomorrow in the UK, but it’s now quite clear that if two’s company then three is most definitely a crowd. On the upside, Sandie no longer seems to be talking about a fourth......
In fact if truth be told, last night went fine (largely thanks to Sandie). We were up about 3 times in the night although I have to say that it felt much less of an adventure than when we did it for the first time with Maxime two year ago. Even Capucine’s best efforts to dirty the whole bathroom at 4AM didn’t raise my interest levels much above “basic trance”.
In fact it was only on waking this morning did I realise the magnitude of the situation when Maxime fell out of bed around 8AM and we had precisely 1 hour to clean, feed and clothe 3 children (I certainly didn’t have time to shave, and even now I can’t even remember if I had a shower). Thankfully Maxime was delivered to crèche on time and I only joined my 9AM conference call two minutes late. That has to count as a success.
I was also delighted to see our home help turn up for the first time. Raymonde was fantastic and after 3 hours of her help, the house was so clean you wouldn’t have thought we had any children at all! With a bit of luck she’ll be back three times a week for the duration of Sandie’s maternity leave.
Another sub 10PM bedtime now.....we’ll see how tomorrow pans out. It’s a real shame I am not able to make my godson Reuben’s christening tomorrow in the UK, but it’s now quite clear that if two’s company then three is most definitely a crowd. On the upside, Sandie no longer seems to be talking about a fourth......
Thursday, 18 November 2010
MGC Blockbuster!....Take 2
“Take two” – that’s what they said at the maternity in the hospital this morning. And so the latest releases came home and we’re now officially a family of five. It's life, Jim, but not as we know it….
At least that’s what Maxime thinks. Thankfully he seems to have taken to these new alien life forms quite well – he is particularly keen to clamber up and over the bars and into their (currently shared) bed. The lack of any emotion on their little faces when he tries to do this only goes to confirm that babies do not instinctively know fear.
Picking them up from the hospital this morning was also very enjoyable – there was not a client or meeting in the world that could have stopped me from being there today. It was also fun to see Sandie’s excitement as she finally got to take her babies home. We’ll be monitoring our levels of excitement at precisely midnight and 5AM as they start protesting (well they are French) for their bottles of warm milk.
I’m now going to hit the hay. It’s been a while since I’ve gone to bed at 9.30PM....but something tells me I’ll be happy about it tomorrow. I’ll try and remember over the next couple of days to tell you about the other events of the week including a glorious karting victory in Reading and lunch with some Belgians.
At least that’s what Maxime thinks. Thankfully he seems to have taken to these new alien life forms quite well – he is particularly keen to clamber up and over the bars and into their (currently shared) bed. The lack of any emotion on their little faces when he tries to do this only goes to confirm that babies do not instinctively know fear.
Picking them up from the hospital this morning was also very enjoyable – there was not a client or meeting in the world that could have stopped me from being there today. It was also fun to see Sandie’s excitement as she finally got to take her babies home. We’ll be monitoring our levels of excitement at precisely midnight and 5AM as they start protesting (well they are French) for their bottles of warm milk.
I’m now going to hit the hay. It’s been a while since I’ve gone to bed at 9.30PM....but something tells me I’ll be happy about it tomorrow. I’ll try and remember over the next couple of days to tell you about the other events of the week including a glorious karting victory in Reading and lunch with some Belgians.
Thursday, 11 November 2010
Blue Sky Thinking
As I write this posting I am currently sitting in a taxi going from the airport in Barcelona to the client site. It is cool but bright and there is a glorious blue sky above; I can’t help but have a spring in my step as a result, especially after two days in a grey and miserable Paris (and that was just the waiters in the restaurants).
Despite the soggy weather the two days in Paris were useful – amongst other things I took the opportunity to go to the Irish Embassy where I am trying to get a replacement passport and ensure that Maxime, Gaston and Capucine (MGC hereafter), are going to get Irish nationality. I was particularly surprised to find that I got more advice on having twins than securing official documentation – it turned out the lady who was serving me had had her twins in France 9 years ago so she gave me a number of tit-bits of information ranging from massaging babies to help them sleep, mixing breast and bottle feeding, and being sure to get vaccinations from somewhere called the PME. At the end of the conversation she was also convinced that I worked for Air France. I didn’t have the heart to tell her otherwise. I also managed to sort out one of my suits in Paris and I even had dinner with some old friends on Tuesday night which was excellent fun – it’s funny to see how people are growing up – one friend who I recruited into Accenture a number of years ago was now married and expecting his first baby.....that in itself made me feel older than having three of my own!
The downsides to the trip to Paris (apart from being away from home) was, as ever, some of the Parisians – I’m always astounded by their surliness – it is as if good will and pleasantness has to be rationed carefully – there’s just not enough to go round you know! I walked into a newsagents to a warm greeting but when I (quite apologetically) asked where the entrance to the local metro station was, the newsagents’ face turned thunderous and as I walked out sheepishly I could hear him tut-tutting and I could feel the daggers in my back. The other thing which always gets me about Paris, as with London, is the pace with which people have to walk in the metro itself and the general unpleasantness of the whole experience. For some reason it also always brings out my competitive side, which I’ve done well to control over the last few years (I think). On Tuesday I even found myself spontaneously clipping the heels of people walking on to the train just because they had pushed in ahead of me. Surely that’s not a good thing.....Something else that struck me when I was in Paris during our multi-cultural training meeting which included French, English, Irish, Dutch, German, Indian and Spanish people, was the fact that despite all being essentially very similar, you just can’t help avoid cultural differences – despite the obvious conversations about head scarves and what constitutes improper and personally intrusive questions, the image that will stick with me is the German who went to high five the Indian. The Indian clearly didn’t recognise the gesture and as a result and in the spur of the moment, he held up a limp risk. The (rather large) German then heartily slapped the back of his hand which almost made it look like he was reprimanding him. It was a most bizarre and awkward moment. Thankfully nobody from HR was in the room at the time.
One of the best things about the trip to Paris was most definitely the fact that it’s only an hour away from Biarritz, so I managed to get home on Wednesday night to see Sandie, pop in to see a sleeping Maxime, and sleep in my own bed. Similarly I am very happy to have discovered a little gem of an airport in San Sebastien. I went there for the first time this morning and although it makes the airport at Pau look like Heathrow, it has allowed me to do a day trip to Spain. This means that I can get home at a sensible time again tonight, before a day off tomorrow where I can spend some real time at home and in the hospital with Capucine and Gaston.
Despite the soggy weather the two days in Paris were useful – amongst other things I took the opportunity to go to the Irish Embassy where I am trying to get a replacement passport and ensure that Maxime, Gaston and Capucine (MGC hereafter), are going to get Irish nationality. I was particularly surprised to find that I got more advice on having twins than securing official documentation – it turned out the lady who was serving me had had her twins in France 9 years ago so she gave me a number of tit-bits of information ranging from massaging babies to help them sleep, mixing breast and bottle feeding, and being sure to get vaccinations from somewhere called the PME. At the end of the conversation she was also convinced that I worked for Air France. I didn’t have the heart to tell her otherwise. I also managed to sort out one of my suits in Paris and I even had dinner with some old friends on Tuesday night which was excellent fun – it’s funny to see how people are growing up – one friend who I recruited into Accenture a number of years ago was now married and expecting his first baby.....that in itself made me feel older than having three of my own!
The downsides to the trip to Paris (apart from being away from home) was, as ever, some of the Parisians – I’m always astounded by their surliness – it is as if good will and pleasantness has to be rationed carefully – there’s just not enough to go round you know! I walked into a newsagents to a warm greeting but when I (quite apologetically) asked where the entrance to the local metro station was, the newsagents’ face turned thunderous and as I walked out sheepishly I could hear him tut-tutting and I could feel the daggers in my back. The other thing which always gets me about Paris, as with London, is the pace with which people have to walk in the metro itself and the general unpleasantness of the whole experience. For some reason it also always brings out my competitive side, which I’ve done well to control over the last few years (I think). On Tuesday I even found myself spontaneously clipping the heels of people walking on to the train just because they had pushed in ahead of me. Surely that’s not a good thing.....Something else that struck me when I was in Paris during our multi-cultural training meeting which included French, English, Irish, Dutch, German, Indian and Spanish people, was the fact that despite all being essentially very similar, you just can’t help avoid cultural differences – despite the obvious conversations about head scarves and what constitutes improper and personally intrusive questions, the image that will stick with me is the German who went to high five the Indian. The Indian clearly didn’t recognise the gesture and as a result and in the spur of the moment, he held up a limp risk. The (rather large) German then heartily slapped the back of his hand which almost made it look like he was reprimanding him. It was a most bizarre and awkward moment. Thankfully nobody from HR was in the room at the time.
One of the best things about the trip to Paris was most definitely the fact that it’s only an hour away from Biarritz, so I managed to get home on Wednesday night to see Sandie, pop in to see a sleeping Maxime, and sleep in my own bed. Similarly I am very happy to have discovered a little gem of an airport in San Sebastien. I went there for the first time this morning and although it makes the airport at Pau look like Heathrow, it has allowed me to do a day trip to Spain. This means that I can get home at a sensible time again tonight, before a day off tomorrow where I can spend some real time at home and in the hospital with Capucine and Gaston.
Monday, 8 November 2010
The Week Ahead
After a good weekend, which even included Sandie doing Capucine's bath whilst Maxime and I played in the soft play area at McDonalds, I was up early this morning to try to catch the worms. That plan was scuppered when I was quickly followed my Maxime. He's in great form today and he seems increasingly interested in the cartoons on English TV (as well as trying to make phone calls on my Blackberry). I'm looking forward to the week - I am sleeping at home every night except Tuesday night, and I am going to try out the San Sebastien Barcelona route for the first time on Thursday. I'm looking forward to taking Maxime to creche and picking him up more than normal, and I've even taken Friday off so that should hopefully make a difference to Sandie and the tribe. Right off to play at tractors because Maxime has deemed it an essential addition to my morning routine....
Conkers
The last time I was preparing a blog posting on the plane, Sandie was preparing for a ceasarian. Whilst I will drive to the hospital again tonight after arriving at the airport at Pau, hopefully this time it will be only to help feed Capucine and Gaston around midnight. Although Sandie’s not rolling out the bunting just yet, they are doing well, are out of their incubators, are clothed, are drinking (milk) from bottles and we’re beginning to talk about bringing them home soon. Apart from that, I’m also looking forward to seeing the Little Giant at home tomorrow morning.
This week has been a long week with its good and bad bits. This week I’ve done 7 flights and 4 countries (France, Sweden, Finland and England). Whilst I was delighted to see so many old friends, I’m ready for a bit of time at home. When I was out running in London this week I was also struck by the fact that the autumn is clearly upon us – the streets are decked in orangey brown leaves. I even saw a street cleaner brushing up the leaves and chatting to an elderly gentleman who was passing by. It reminded me of my favourite street cleaner in Morpeth when I was about 7 or 8 years old who used to stop, chat to us and give us huge big conkers on our way to St. Robert’s First School. The only difference this time was that when I stopped to ask the street cleaner for directions to Paddington station (I was lost on my morning run), he looked blankly at the elderly man, they had a conversation in Polish, and then he shook his head and gestured to me with his hands essentially saying I was miles away from where I needed to be. How life has changed over the last 25 years (I never got lost when I was 8 years old).
The last two days of the week were spent in London at a marketing event where I was representing Wipro with another recent recruit, Rajesh, who does a similar job to me but for the UK market. It was the first occasion for us to spend an extended amount of time together. He’s a splendid chap and he really made me laugh when he discovered after 10 minutes on the first day that he had a huge hole in the inside leg of his trousers. We debated for about two minutes whether or not this was the right image we should be portraying, before he scuttled off to buy a new suit. He made me laugh again when he came back, clearly looking very proud of himself but unfortunately wearing what was a shiny black evening dinner suit. It was only 10 o’clock in the morning. Apparently his wife was even more scathing about his emergency purchase and she ordered him to take it back for a refund.
This week has been a long week with its good and bad bits. This week I’ve done 7 flights and 4 countries (France, Sweden, Finland and England). Whilst I was delighted to see so many old friends, I’m ready for a bit of time at home. When I was out running in London this week I was also struck by the fact that the autumn is clearly upon us – the streets are decked in orangey brown leaves. I even saw a street cleaner brushing up the leaves and chatting to an elderly gentleman who was passing by. It reminded me of my favourite street cleaner in Morpeth when I was about 7 or 8 years old who used to stop, chat to us and give us huge big conkers on our way to St. Robert’s First School. The only difference this time was that when I stopped to ask the street cleaner for directions to Paddington station (I was lost on my morning run), he looked blankly at the elderly man, they had a conversation in Polish, and then he shook his head and gestured to me with his hands essentially saying I was miles away from where I needed to be. How life has changed over the last 25 years (I never got lost when I was 8 years old).
The last two days of the week were spent in London at a marketing event where I was representing Wipro with another recent recruit, Rajesh, who does a similar job to me but for the UK market. It was the first occasion for us to spend an extended amount of time together. He’s a splendid chap and he really made me laugh when he discovered after 10 minutes on the first day that he had a huge hole in the inside leg of his trousers. We debated for about two minutes whether or not this was the right image we should be portraying, before he scuttled off to buy a new suit. He made me laugh again when he came back, clearly looking very proud of himself but unfortunately wearing what was a shiny black evening dinner suit. It was only 10 o’clock in the morning. Apparently his wife was even more scathing about his emergency purchase and she ordered him to take it back for a refund.
Tuesday, 2 November 2010
Cock-A-Doodle Madness
It was pitch black when I got up in Stockholm at 4.30AM today. There weren’t many cockerels around at that time I certainly didn’t feel like shaking my tail feathers with any real vigour. I have a flight this morning from Stockholm to Helsinki at 6.50AM. What to many might seem like a stupid idea, seemed to me like a good idea at the time of booking my tickets. In fact even now I still think it was a splendid idea because it meant that I was able to have dinner with an old school friend and his family last night at their home in Sweden.
It was a very enjoyable evening despite the obvious tiredness in the house as a result of a 3 year old who is slowly having his dummy taken away from him and therefore won’t go to sleep easily, and a 3 month old who just doesn’t get the difference between night and day yet, (surely a hard thing to learn in these funny Nordic countries which have 23 hour long days or nights depending on the season). The ability to stop and see old friends all around Europe and Scandinavia is most definitely the best thing about the job. It will therefore be of little surprise to learn that I’ve already had dinner with friends in Paris on Sunday evening and in addition to last night, I have another dinner planned with some friends in Helsinki tonight and then I’ll go out with another friend in London on Thursday for the Indian Festival of Light. It’s funny to see but regardless of location, background, current profession or anything else, we all essentially move through life at roughly the same pace and we face roughly the same challenges at roughly the same time. It’s hard not to develop a certain perspective once you see that your challenges are not unique. I suppose that’s what experience is all about – the number of different phases of life you’ve gone through and the range of different problems you’ve encountered and surmounted. And it’s also the reason why you can’t amass experience in a classroom or overnight. Thankfully by the end of the week I’ll also have had a few business meetings as well to justify all this gallivanting around and noddy philosophy; Monday was a software vendor, Tuesday and Wednesday are internal planning meetings and Thursday and Friday are a big marketing event that we’re sponsoring in London.
On the home front things are also looking better. Gaston was clothed for the first time yesterday and his incubator has been switched off. Capucine shouldn’t be far behind and we’re hopeful she might cross the 2 kg threshold this morning. I’m trying to get a load of trips done now such that I can be more at home when they finally get out of hospital, which should be soon. I’m already itching to get back home to see them. They’re growing up so quickly – I’m half expecting Gaston to be smoking a pipe and wearing slippers when I see him next on Friday night.
It was a very enjoyable evening despite the obvious tiredness in the house as a result of a 3 year old who is slowly having his dummy taken away from him and therefore won’t go to sleep easily, and a 3 month old who just doesn’t get the difference between night and day yet, (surely a hard thing to learn in these funny Nordic countries which have 23 hour long days or nights depending on the season). The ability to stop and see old friends all around Europe and Scandinavia is most definitely the best thing about the job. It will therefore be of little surprise to learn that I’ve already had dinner with friends in Paris on Sunday evening and in addition to last night, I have another dinner planned with some friends in Helsinki tonight and then I’ll go out with another friend in London on Thursday for the Indian Festival of Light. It’s funny to see but regardless of location, background, current profession or anything else, we all essentially move through life at roughly the same pace and we face roughly the same challenges at roughly the same time. It’s hard not to develop a certain perspective once you see that your challenges are not unique. I suppose that’s what experience is all about – the number of different phases of life you’ve gone through and the range of different problems you’ve encountered and surmounted. And it’s also the reason why you can’t amass experience in a classroom or overnight. Thankfully by the end of the week I’ll also have had a few business meetings as well to justify all this gallivanting around and noddy philosophy; Monday was a software vendor, Tuesday and Wednesday are internal planning meetings and Thursday and Friday are a big marketing event that we’re sponsoring in London.
On the home front things are also looking better. Gaston was clothed for the first time yesterday and his incubator has been switched off. Capucine shouldn’t be far behind and we’re hopeful she might cross the 2 kg threshold this morning. I’m trying to get a load of trips done now such that I can be more at home when they finally get out of hospital, which should be soon. I’m already itching to get back home to see them. They’re growing up so quickly – I’m half expecting Gaston to be smoking a pipe and wearing slippers when I see him next on Friday night.
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