Eating out and shopping

After a week stuck at home with a sick child plus home schooling as well as the fact that James has been working very long hours, I was quite keen for some desperately needed time out.  My half day off on my birthday seems a very long time ago!

So Friday night Jasper was well enough to go off to the birthday sleepover and we had organised a babysitter, so James and I headed into Toulouse.  There are a crew of engineers, pilots and managers from New Zealand here at the moment to help James with the final stages in getting the plane ready to go so we organised to meet up with them.  The babysitter was booked for 7pm and James got home from work at 7.20pm, so a quick change and then back in the car for him.  It was pouring down with rain plus the last day of School so the traffic was terrible!  It took us over an hour to make a 20 minute journey.  It was frustrating to think we were paying for a babysitter while sitting in a car on the motorway - on the flip side James and I did get to chat and catch up!

So nice to chat to some fellow New Zealanders (not many of us in the South of France) and we had a lovely dinner out at a restaurant called St George.  I had duck and the most amazing looking profiteroles.  We had said to the babysitter we would be home by 11ish but as I ordered my dessert I looked at my watch and it was 10.50pm so maybe not home by 11 after all!  The French take eating out very seriously so having dinner is not a quick bite but something to be enjoyed and savoured over.

We got home by midnight and then James had to take Georgia home so a bit of a late night for us.

On Saturday we managed to navigate the one way streets and find our way to the house where Jasper was having a sleepover.  He had had a great time and so nice to see him with a lovely bunch of new friends.  The boys had played pool and playstation as well as got dressed up for Halloween so lots of fun - not much sleeping but that's what holidays are for!  Jasper is much better and is fully recovered from his mumps.

After lunch James said he'd look after the kids so I could have some time out, so I headed off the shopping mall.  It was so lovely to have a good poke around the shops without a deadline to meet or a child to manage.  The mall was packed and there were queues for the dressing rooms and at the tills of most shops so that put me off buying anything but I did have a lovely look around.  I also thought I'd save my money for some shopping in Paris!

I got home save and sound despite the crazy French driving.

It was daylight saving last night so I think we are now 12 hours behind New Zealand for anyone that wants to ring or skype us.

School holidays for the next two weeks so this week we will be packing to move to our house.  We drive to Paris on Saturday  for a week and then when we come back we move straight into our new house.