Another holiday ....

Half term has really carried on into May, much to my sons delight! This week he is at school que le Lundi et Vendredi. All the teachers are on strike on Tuesday, Wednesday is a free day as normal and then its Thursday 1st May, which is a public holiday. No wonder my Mum is always saying "another holiday". As Théo is 4 and doing well I am not that concerned but what if he was 14 and not doing well. Makes you think.

French public holidays / national holidays in 2008

Tuesday 1 January - New Year's Day (Jour de l'An).
Sunday 23 March - Easter (Pâques).
Monday 24 March - Easter Monday (Lundi de Pâques).
Thursday 1 May - Labour Day (Fête du Travail) and Ascension Day (Ascension catholique).
Thursday 8 May - VE Day - WWII Victory Day (Fête de la Victoire 1945).
Sunday 11 May - Whit Sunday (Pentecôte).
Monday 12 May - Whit Sunday (Lundi de Pentecôte).
Monday 14 July - Bastille Day (Fête nationale).
Friday 15 August - Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Assomption).
Saturday 1 November - All Saints' Day (Toussaint).
Tuesday 11 November - Armistice Day (Armistice 1918).
Thursday 25 December - Christmas Day (Noël).

Je t'aime

My soon to be 4 year old is in love. "Je t'aime", he says about a hundred times a day to his petite amie Romane. I am not sure if it is sweet or precocious!

We have recently had the halfterm holiday and the saying goodbye to each other at the end of the day has gone from peck on the cheek to a long cuddle, kisses on cheeks and lots of Je t'aime and I love yous.

His petite amie lives in a house in the centre of the village, complete with balcony, and the two have amused many a patron at the café opposite with their Romeo and Juliet styled partings.

Advantage:
Should Théo be having any type of hissy fit during breakfast, I only have to mention that we might be late for school, where his petite amie will be awaiting, and before you can count un, deux, trois he is reaching for his back pack and heading for the car.

Disadvantage:
Could get his heart broken at such a tender age.

This has all taken me by suprise as I thought first loves of this kind happened when you got to 8yrs old+. Help - got any advice???

DIY - I'd rather he didn't!

Hubby was home this week, (we are a couple of LATs, hubby's job necessitates that he spends 3 weeks of every month living and working in London), and as usual my son had put all his broken toys into "Daddy's draw" to be fixed.

After hubby had replaced the wheels on various toy cars, mended the Hungry Hippo game and sorted out the missing limbs on various toys he turned to me and asked the question most wives dread, "do you need anything fixed around the house?."

Now, you would think after all these years together I would know better but I actually said "yes" and here is the list:

fix the sticky lock on the front door
mend the garage door handle
screenwash and oil needed in car

Ok guess which job went spectacularly wrong, did you get it right? Yep, the screenwash. After 45mins a sheepish hubby returned and said that he had poured the screenwash into the coolant reservoir and had to drain it, this would mean taking out the battery etc. STOP, I cried and thrust a coffee into his hands.

I dashed across the road to my French neighbours house and asked if he had a moment. This gentlemen used to design helicopters, built his own house and is perfect for that DIY emergency.

Sorry I can't pass on his contact details, he is very much occupied at our house 3 weeks a month putting right my hubby's DIY disasters!!!

Note to hubby: DIY - i'd rather you didn't.


More on LATs - information from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Living Apart Together (abbreviation: LAT) is a term for couples who, whilst committed to each other, decide to have separate homes rather than one shared residence.

The Times Study speculates that quantum of LAT relationships equates the incidences of de facto relationships in the UK.[1]

LATs consist of three factions, concerning decision to keep separate domestic residences. There are firstly: the "gladly apart", and two minorities identified as being: the "regretfully apart" (due to work commitments, family responsibilities, legal/residency requirements, or other reasons) and the "undecidedly apart" (committed but not especially moving towards cohabitation at the time).