I hope everyone enjoyed their summer or still is enjoying it. We are back after a very long break. To keep you up to date, well, we have sold our one bedroom flat where we used to live and moved into a gorgeous villa with lots of space. No more stepping on each other's feet, no more stubbing our toes with the coffee table!
We sold our flat, moved into a rental villa, packed and off we went on holiday, all in one week. So you can imagine the stress level there!
Off we went, Skye and I to Lebanon where you can breath fresh air again and open your windows without being worried about the heat or the humidity. Lebanon was fantastic, spoilt by my mum, sister and brother, family lunches and dinners, enjoying the pool and the sun, lots of scallops and fish, suncream and salty olympic pools! Hurray!
So 3 weeks of being spoilt, we got back to Dubai to pick up our prince charming: Daddy and of course, our winter clothes and in 2 days, we were headed towards England to see the grand-parents. Again, great outdoors and it did not rain much. It never does when we are around. People complain about the lack of rain when we are there. I guess we carry the Dubai weather with us.
Anyways, life was good, quite heavy on the stomach though, we had feasts to fit a king and drank like an army. Skye managed to sit on the back of a horse.
After a week...We were off again, with everyone this time, to Belfast where we met with all the members of Michael's family on his mother side. They are such a big cheerful family which happened to be on holiday, so you can imagine the mood everyone was in. Between the singing, the drinking and the laughter, I manage to catch everyone's names, well I hope I did. Basically, the purpose of this trip was not only to gather all the family from every corner of the globe, but also to surprise Michael's granny on her birthday. So surprise granny! All your children are sitting at one table under the starry night with their own kids as well.
Each family rented a chalet along the river next to each other and we shared most meals together outside while Skye was feeding ducks and swans.
Belfast was marvelously green, a bit cold in the summer but nevertheless magnificient. We did some sight seeing and we found a few surfing beaches. Never without my thick wetsuit I say, the surfers looked freezing blue. Let's say I had 2 layers and a jacket.
We even drove to Dublin for the day, which was fantastic. It is such an overwhelming feeling to see and old city with lots of history again. Of course, we did have "The" pint of Guiness at the Templar bar with some fresh oysters from the sea side and passed by a market. We did not bump into any leprechauns but everytime Skye does something naughty she does blame them though.
After a week of taking family pictures and singing Molly Malone, we went back to England to unbutton our trousers a bit and relax, did a bit of forest mountain biking and some canoeing.
By the end of the week, I got so used to this atmosphere that I could not imagine life anywhere else. So I was in complete shock when we came back home. Our new house feels empty without the massive crowds and cheerful family. We are getting there, settling in and calling people left and right to arrange play dates for Skye and coffee mornings for me. Michael is back to work. And life goes on...
But thank you, thank you everyone for making this summer a very special one. Thank you for all the love you shared and all the warm meals.
