Project 366 : Photo Diary Weeks 1 & 2

And breeeeathe ! Wow, what a start to 2020, as you'll find out from reading my photo diary ! So far, everything that could possibly go wrong has done so, so the lovely two week break over Christmas seems months ago ! But one thing at a time ... Happy New Year ! I've been convinced (waves at Galina from Chez Maximka !) to give the Project 366 a go this year, so here goes. I'll see how I get on, but most weeks, I seem to spend the whole time at work and then marking and doing chores on my days off ! I like the idea of forcing myself to find something to take a photo of each day though, so who knows ? Maybe I'll surprise myself ! My computer wasn't working last week, so this is (already !) a catch up, covering the first twelve days of the year. The twelve days of post-Christmas, if you like !

New Year's Eve. Time to see in the New Year with a fireworks display at the town hall. Welcome to the year 2020 !

The first of January started off with a quiet morning, with everyone tired after the late night last night. A trip to the park, to feed the pigeons and get some fresh air, was on the cards. The pigeons are quite tame and come to eat birdseed out of your hands - it's quite hard to get a decent photo though. This one was the best of the bunch.

The next day, stumbling across a new (to us) play area, the kids (even the big ones !) raced off to have a play. I grabbed a quick picture of the three of them together on the giant see-saw. As I took the photo on my phone, it took ages to take the shot, which resulted in this rather ghostly-looking image of Pierre. Scary !

The third of January was our final day in Hastings, so we headed off on a hunt for squirrels. I wasn't sure there would be many about, as it was so cold, but there were plenty. We always love feeding peanuts to the squirrels as you don't get them in France - boo ! 

Back to France and time to say goodbye to Sophie, as she continues her studies in England. It was lovely to catch up with her - see you soon !

Back to life, back to reality. Time for catching up on washing, drying and folding the laundry. We also had to unpack the Christmas presents and find space to put everything, plus get ready for going back to school/work tomorrow.

Monday was back to work. We all felt to so tired setting the alarm for 6.15am again ! This was a quick shot from the bus on the way home from work. The big wheel and skating rink will be taken down until next year in the coming days.

Tuesday was a normal day at work until lunchtime, when I took a phonecall from Juliette, telling me that the electricity was off - aaagghhh ! Pierre had gone in the bathroom, turned on the light and everything went off. I explained to her how to reset the electricity but it wasn't happening. All of the upstairs lights in the bedrooms and bathrooms were out, as well as the TV/modem/DVD player/phone downstairs. Fabulous ! I had a quick look when I got home from work but I was too tired to do anything complicated. Luckily the kitchen was OK though, so I gave up and made dinner. Baked potatoes, gammon and heaps of veggies, topped off with gravy and a dollop of apple sauce. Lovely !

Wednesday - my day off. I spent the morning shooting around all the local shops, trying to lay my hands on some fuses to try to solve the electricity problem. Eventually managed to track some down and changed them over - no change. Aaggghh ! Used my mobile to phone a friend and got her to send me phone numbers of local electricians. Finally got it sorted out - phew ! With no internet and (eeek !) no PS4 to keep them occupied, Pierre turned to his other Christmas presents and went "excavating" for various bones and "artefacts" in his plastercast pieces.

Thursday was a looong day. The buses were on strike so I had an hour's walk to school and then back again - boo ! Pierre phoned at lunchtime to say that he had just been sick - fabulous ! I told him to stay at home for the afternoon and phoned a friend to tell his teacher. Hope it's not the start of something horrible and contagious ! By the time I finally got home from work (in the rain - grrrr!), the kids had finished their homework and Juliette was busy creating a family home in the Sims game that she got for Christmas.

Friday was another busy day at work. Nothing exciting so you can have a photo of dinner- peri peri chicken, rice and veggies. Lovely !

Saturday was a busy day. After lunch at McDonald's, we went and grabbed a second PS4 controller so that the kids could play together, then I took Juliette to the hairdresser's. Luckily I took along a book to read as there was a long wait. After that, we went grocery shopping and it was already time to cook dinner - where does the time go at the weekends ?! At 2am, I was woken up by some cars beeping at each other. Grumbling to myself, I headed down to the toilet and was greeted with orange light flashing across the ceiling - a car was on fire on the car park just opposite our house. I phoned the fire brigade but they were already on the way. This was literally 50m from our house, on the corner of the car park, so I was watching, concerned in case it exploded and set fire to something on our house. The kids got up and we watched the firemen put out the fire. It took over half an hour - scary stuff !

Sunday - hopefully the traditional day of rest ? I certainly need one ! After lunch, I finally found time to put away the Christmas tree and decorations - phew ! We headed into town to see the end of the Christmas fun fair. Pierre ate a candy floss that was bigger than his head - I'm glad we picked the small size !

Phew - what a busy start to the year ! I'm looking forward to a quieter week next week - fingers crossed !