...when you're having fun. This is my first chance to sit down and write something other than an email or a feature for weeks.
I am officially sick of winter now....we have lit so many log fires, which is lovely (especially now we have a chimney that actually takes the smoke away) but we've had sleet, freezing temps and snow in the village for the first time in years last month (luckily we were snug in Antigua!) Great for skiing tho, we went last week with friends for the day while the girls were at school and laughed so hard skiing off piste in two feet of fresh powder that we were down in drifts more than up on skis! We have had quite a few days on the slopes lately but I need some heat on my bones now!
Carried on celebrating Iain's birthday in Antigua last month, our little gang of 15 had a lovely time. Weather was stunning, beaches gorgeous (and empty) people lovely, I would very much recommend it, much nicer than Barbados. The reggae and steel band at Shirley Heights was brilliant fun and lunch at Carlisle Bay was fab too. Still have a little glow, but have been wrapped up like Arctic Annie since I got home so little chance to show it off. We had a laugh, rum punches on the beach, ate way too much and have tried to be sensible now I’m home but the cold weather makes salads very unappetising!
With the weather still so wintry, we have decided to crack on with the house and are DIY-ing like mad upstairs. I didn't know I was so handy with a paintbrush! It's a mini facelift shall we say, with the final fix happening later this year hopefully. I am soooo sick of mismatched tiles in every room upstairs and dodgy bathroom suites! The girls' rooms are priority, I feel bad that the last rooms they had any say in were at Carpenters Cottage, eight years ago when we renovated, and they were too young to say much then. So they are first on the list. Our guest suite leaves a little to be desired as yet but Iain has repainted it and it already looks and smells so much nicer!
Issy had her interview for Fenelon last week. All conducted in French with the head of the international section....I nearly fell off my chair, she is so fluent now, says alors a lot and sounds like she was born in Nice! It’s very academic and four times oversubscribed and she has to sit an entrance exam and have another interview but fingers crossed she will get in, we don’t find out til May/June.
Livvy is 15 in three weeks, God help us. We have been reading in French every night sinc Mme Savary said that she has to 'embrace' French life and culture. She clearly took those words to heart as she now has a French boyfriend, Theo, who speaks no English! Who'd have thought it? Checked him out on Facebook (much to her horror) and he looks nice. She has good taste, like her mom! I told her to brng him over for lunch or dinner sometime but she made choking sounds then left the room!
She is a proper teenager, rebellious, full of back chat and even dyed her hair brown a month ago. Brown? I did explain how much I pay to try and create her colour on my hair but she wasn’t listening. She was fun in Antigua, without Facebook and her mobile phone, which we banished for the holiday. She, Lydia and Luke spent two days driving around in a golf buggy on the domaine, with their iPod blaring, scaring all the locals and giving lifts to old ladies at the supermarket just so they could hare around. I had one lift with Liv driving at 30 mph (you are supposed to be 21 to drive them so they got banned by the rental guy on the second day for being so crazy) and that was enough for me!
Spoke to a party panner friend today about a feature I am writing for The French Paper on this year's Cannes Film Festival. She told me she is planning some great parties with major league celebs and films and I'm on the list! It's days like today when I really love my job. Particularly when you are on your hands and knees in your sweaty running gear (I was too cold to change or shower - gross I know) painting the floor of the loo and you get an email about a job with Elle Macpherson in Malaysia! Bring it on.....although I will not be wearing a bikini on a sunbed next to The Body, for sure.......
