Roundabout

For those interested, this is how the roundabout in El Saler looks like now when it's finished. Not bad, not bad at all. It's a pity that we're leaving and will not be able to look at it for months or maybe years... ;-)

Love - Amour

Miss Sunshine loves many things. She loves us, her mum and dad. Or at least we think so. On second place comes Doudou. That's the blue thingy she sleeps with. It has been there since day one. It smells and will be washed as soon as we are somewhere were there is a tumble-drier. Miss Sunshine can't sleep without her Doudou... I know, it's bad, but what can you do. We will deal with that problem later. Not know. She is only 15 months for goodness' sake! On third place come Lollo la leonesse and Vovven (The Dog).


She also loves food. That's good. We like kids who love food. Two favourites are parmesan cheese and strawberries. And mango and pineapple. And youghurt. And fish. And... And... She loves everything except red pepper and cinnamon. Then she loves to be outside and explore. That's also a very good thing. She is not too keen to be too long at the beach though. 20 minutes, then she leaves. Like parents, like daughter...

And then, and there is The Green Vest, her green down vest. She refuses to leave home without it if she spots it on her way out. It has been like that since the day they met, the green vest and Miss Sunshine. Instant love, at least for Miss Sunshine. I haven't really thought about it...until now. The last two days it has been 25 degrees Celcius outside!!! Not really a day when one needs a down vest. But here's the proof:

I know that there is water here in this thing...

A log! Great! I sit here and chill out for two seconds
before I continue exploring the terrain.

Ratatouille et la pétite

Aubergine, or egg-plant, is a vegetable to which I have a hate and love relationship. It is difficult to find a way to cook it so that you actually enjoy eating it. But it is perfect for ratatouille, and today I did my first ratatouille ever. One could think that I had made it before since I am living with a French guy, but no. Today, however, I had to. Monsieur had bought an aubergine like ages ago, and before it ran on its own to the dustbin I had to save it. So I made a ratatouille. By the way, the movie Ratatouille is one hell of a good movie. See it, if you haven't already. Ratatouille, the dish, is ridiculously easy to make. Chop aubergine, onion, red pepper (which I excluded today since I didn't have any), courgette and garlic. Let it all fry in a big pot with olive oil. A lot of olive oil! Add salt, pepper and herbes de Provence. Add two cans of crushed tomatoes and let it boil for about 10-15 minutes. Voilà! Your ratatouille is ready to serve. We had pasta with it today. It was yummy.

La pétite, miss Sunshine, est une vraie soleil. La vitesse avec quelle elle grandisse est impressionente. Elle court maintenant et elle parle des qu'elle se reveille jusq'a qu'elle se couche le soir. Elle est trop rigolotte! Aujourd'hui on a était sur la plage. Elle a joué avec l'eau et la sable, mais soudain elle en avait marre. Elle essayait de nous dire - elle essayait de prendre la poussette - mais on avait rien compris. Donc elle est partie. Toute seule. Sans la poussette, bien sur, mais elle est partie. On était bien obligés de la suivre. Elle sait de ce qu'elle veut, elle. C'est super. :-)

Parking problems?

No, not in Spain... You know when you had to reverse around a corner when you were at the driving school? Well, this is how to park on/in/at a corner:


And then, if you arrive to a street and all parking places are taken, don't hesitate to double-park your car. But don't forget: never apply the handbrake. If you do, the person in front of which car you have parked cannot move it to take its own car...

We definitely don't need more cars!!!

From snow to rain

Back again from one week in Val d'Isère. I should have known, I should have learned by now that one week isn't enough. One should always go two weeks, especially when you want to ski, see friends you haven't seen for a looong time, go out, and just take it easy. One week can be stressful. But, I didn't let it be that stressful this time. I only saw those I really wanted to see, not the other ones that I feel like I should see though I don't really know why I should see them...

A view to kill for... The glacier Grande Motte, Tignes.

We were so lucky with the quality of snow - it was like in January. We had four days with sun and two with snow and fog. We lived in a cute little chalet in the Manchet Valley. Miss Sunshine loved hanging out with her aunt, but sledging was nothing for her this time. Funny how kids change their mind. During X-mas in Bormio, Italy, she just loved it, now she hated it. We'll see what happens next time. Oh, next time she will try skiing. :-) Tonton Yannick did it and loved it. I am happy and proud to have been the one who showed him how to do it. It isn't easy to teach skiing if you're not a ski teacher... But with an excellent student like Y it went quite smooth. Well, then he had a real ski teacher the third day who helped him a little bit more, but his first steps in the nursery slopes were supervised by yours truly.

No, mum! I don't wanna do this!!!

Now we are back, and Valencia greeted us with sun, then grey skies and cold, then sun, and now rain. During our morning walk we were totally surprised by the rain and had to hide out for a few minutes under the protecting arms of a tree. Since I'm never really organized, I didn't have the rainprotection for the push chair with me. The world try to tell me to bring it - grey skies, wet pavement, no blue sky as far as anyone could see - but I ignored all warnings signs and left with a big smile on my face. You know, it smells lovely when it has rained and it is like summer warm. It's like an explosion of different scents. Mmmm. And that continues even when it's raining cats and dogs. Curious expression, actually. Have to try to find out where it comes from. But maybe not - curiosity killed the cat... ;-)

Mum, what on earth are we doing here???

Well, better go back to that Danish movie I'm translating right now. Miss Sunshine sleeps so it is nice and quiet.