Sunday 12 January 2020

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 !


24 comments:

  1. Yay! Welcome to Project 366!
    New year seems such a long time ago. The display looks fab!
    That is a spooky shot at the play area.
    That sounds rubbish about the electric being off, the bus strike and Pierre being sick.
    The Sims is a Fab game. I can easily lose a few hours playing.
    That is so scary about the car being on fire so close to you. x

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    1. I was just thinking to myself when I wrote this how long ago New Year and the holiday seems - crazy !

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  2. Welcome to Project 365. What a pain about the electricity (and the strikes - a work colleague was saying their ski trip over Christmas was lacking in the usually good resort/snow clearance etc with lots of queues for ski lifts because people weren't doing the work.
    That candy floss is huge!

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    1. Aaagghhh what a nightmare. The trouble in France is that strikes go on and on and on so I'm expecting more days of disruption being announced in the near future. :/

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  3. Welcome to 366! Look forward to getting to know you and your family over the coming year. You certainly started with a bang. What a dramatic start to the year!

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  4. Welcome Cheryl - lovely to catch up with you and your family. I hope Sophie is enjoying England. That picture of Pierre is a bit spooky. Sounds like you have had a hectic start to the year. I hope it calms down a bit now.

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    1. Me too ! lol. Sophie's having a great time. She's staying at my mum & dad's this year but is thinking of getting a flat with a friend next year :)

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  5. I'm super excited to see you joining in Project 366! Yay! And what a start to a new year for you. What a palaver with the electricity cut-off and a transport strike. The fireworks display looks lovely, and so is the photo of Juliette with the pigeon. Pierre does look a bit "ghostly". I bet it was so nice to have all your kids around for Christmas. And just look at the size of that candy floss!

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    1. Not sure how exciting it will be when I'm at work, but I'll try my best ! lol. It was great to catch up with everyone at Christmas and have some time to chill out. Looking forward to the next holidays :)

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  6. Aww welcome to Project 366. It's been a while since we've caught up. I often think about how you are doing. The display looks great and that is quite a spooky shot of the play area. That doesn't sound good about the electric being off, the bus strike or Pierre being sick. That is so scary about the car being on fire so close to you too. x

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    1. Hopefully next week will be a lovely quiet week !

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  7. Welcome to Project 365/366. I always find taking a photo a day helps me a) get motivated, b) write a blog post and c) gives me inspiration for writing other posts. That is a spooky shot, hope the electricity is sorted, weird how the kitchen was working but no where else. Sorry to hear your son was poorly and I can imagine it was quite frightening having a car fire so close to home.

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  8. Oh, gosh! I was just dipping in to your blog to wish you a happy New Year but, having read about your problematic start to the year, I will, instead, send good wishes for the remainder of the year. Look forward to reading the next project instalments.

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    1. Thanks Susan - hopefully that's all the bad luck for the year out of the way already ! xx

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  9. Welcome to the project - gosh how your children have grown, I remember country kid posts and geocaching posts. Must be hard with Sophia away from home, what is she studying?
    My phone camera is the same. click and you have missed it.
    Does not sound like a great start to the year, hope you get the electric sorted. What started the fire?

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    1. Yep, it's all secondary school, exams and hanging out with their mates now ! Sophie's doing business - she's loving it, which is great. No idea what started the fire - I didn't see anyone hanging about but they could have run away by the time I got downstairs, or it could have been electrical or something. We'll never know !

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  10. Welcome to Project 365!

    Oh that must have been scary with the car....glad they managed to get the fire out and it didn't explode!

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  11. Welcome to Project 366, sounds like a busy start to the year for you all wih some drama along the way. I thought the same as Elaimne, the children are all so grown up now! #366

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    1. 18, 14 and 10 ... and all being followed by their friends online so I'm not allowed to post as many pics as before ! lol

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  12. Happy New Year. It sounds like the back to normal after Christmas has been busy. Love the New Year pic. Sorry about the electric issue. We have an old house and it often has issues like that.
    #project365

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    1. Yeah, that's what I'm slightly worried about, now that Madhouse Daddy has died - anything that goes wrong, I have to deal with it myself ! :-/

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  13. Welcome to 366, looking forward to seeing what you get up. My weeks are also normally full of work and I found that it did force me to take photos. Normally of my boys asleep! Sorry to hear about the car it sounds really scary and the fact it was so close. Glad you managed to get the fuses sorted x

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  14. Happy New Year! Great photo of feeding the pigeon; you clicked it at the perfect time. Your kids are lovely and that is a ghostly picture. SQUIRREL!! Dinner looks delicious and that cotton candy IS bigger than his head

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  15. Happy new year and welcome to #Project366. Great firework pic (mine NEVER come out properly) and that's a huge candy floss!

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