Competitive Mum

Picked Sammy up from school at lunchtime yesterday and straight away I clocked a silver star stuck to his jumper. Not a standard matt blue, yellow or green star but a shiny silver star. So I scanned the rest of his class to see who else had one of these little symbols of success to find there were no other silver stars.

A ha, I thought - what can my clever little boy do that no-one else in his class can do?

To my frustration I couldn't get it out of him, he wouldn't tell me what they had been doing that morning but then he rarely does when I ask him. It was later in the day when Sammy said that his class had been using a computer in the morning.

He got his silver star because he was the only one who could type his name on the keyboard.

Smug and proud mum.

Firsts

Sammy went on his first school outing last Wednesday and he was away for the whole day to the royal palm park in Alicante. It was the first time he'd been on the coach or his 'big school bus' and it was the first time he'd been out away from myself and Paul for any length of time. It was also the first time he'd had to manage the contents of his snack box AND his lunch box !

In the last few weeks Sammy has also been freely saying spanish words for the first time; he happily tells me that he is a 'niño' (boy) and Jessica is a 'niña' (girl), that he is in 'azul' (the blue team) at school and Cole's name is actually pronounced 'Co-el' (The way Rebecca says it)

Last week in one of those peaceful moments Sammy has when I am working away at something online and Sammy is concentrating on something and I realise he's been very quiet for a while and I ask him, or I creep over to have a peek at, what he is doing and it was this...

and I forget all the time but he's only three and a half.

Toilet Paper

Now I always thought that taking a newspaper to the toilet and spending ages in there is a male Rebera thing. Having lived with a Barton for 6 and a half years I realize that it is probably just a male thing.

Chip off the old block... eeeuuuwwww

Silver Surfer

I'm not a regular X-Treme sports participant although I have done a 360 flip on a quad bike down an incredibly steep sand dune - unintentional. I have also jumped off a snow-covered mountain in the Austrian Alps with nothing but a nylon sail to get me to the ground safely - intentional although I did question my sanity as I leapt into space. These activities are quite rare in my life but I do really enjoy them - they take me out of my self, put me momentarily on a different planet.

I had an X-Treme phone conversation with mother today.

Mother: Helen, I want to send an email to Roshanee & Noel
Me: Yes ok.
Mother: But I keep getting a message back saying there's no such address.
Me: Right, what address are you sending it to?
Mother: erm www.rosh...
Me: That's not an email address. you need 'something-at-something-dot-something'. I'll get you their addresses, hang on....
Right this is Noel's (and I said Noel's) and this is Roshanee's(and I said Roshanee's)
Mother: Oh don't they have a joint one? I want to send an email to both of them.
Me: Yes send the same email to both of them.
Mother: No, I want to send it to both of them together.
Me: Well in the body of the message write 'Dear Roshanee & Noel,' and send it to both of them. Put Noel's address in the 'To' field then a semi colon and then put Rosh's address.
Mother: Oh now you've lost me.
Me: The 'To' field, above the message, where you put the email address.
Mother: Oh 'To' I thought you meant '2'. So I put Noels address in the top one and then 'Dear Roshanee & Noel' in the next line down.
Me: No, the next line down is the 'CC' field. In fact use that one for Roshanee's address and then you won't have to bother with semi colons.
Mother: OK.
Me: Have you looked at the new paulnhelen site. I've finished it now.
Mother: No. Your father had it on the computer upstairs but I can't get it on this one.
Me: Mum, you have internet access on that one, you can look at the new site. (and I gave her the address)
Mother: Hey, I didn't know that Sammy was going to school in the afternoons now.
Me: You read that on the blog, so you've looked at that.
Mother: The what?
Me: The Blog.
Mother: Yes. We've both looked at that.
Me: Good so from the blog you can get to the new family site. At the top of the blog is a link to www.paulnhelen.com in the intro paragraph.
Mother: Well I can't because I can't see my list here. Your father can but I can't see mine.
Me: You mean your email?
Mother: Yes, I don't have it.
Me: Well I have just given you the website address so you can see the new site and the blog.
Mother: Well where do I put the address?
Me: You open your internet explorer, your blue 'e' that you use when you want to check your bingo pages or tennis pages or whatever and you type in the website address beginning www. OK?
Mother: OK then. But I don't think your Father has seen your new website.
Me: He has because he sent me an email through the new site.
Mother: Well I need to send this to Noel now. Although I don't know how to get the message out of Drafts. I'll probably have to type it all again.
Me: I've put a message on the new site for Noel & Rosh - On their wedding day with some pictures.
Mother: Yes , I've seen that, lovely pictures.
Me: So You have seen the new site.
Mother: Oh, I thought I was looking at my email.

At which point I knew that one of us was on a different planet.

Silver Surfer of the Year 2007 - Dora aged 92.

Teaching - Best Job in Spain.

Well it's the end of another week here in Spain.

"What?" I hear you cry. "It's only Thursday!"

This is true and actually it's only Thursday lunchtime and it's raining which seems to be good enough reason to close the school as far as the little ones are concerned. Actually it's barely spitting by British standards.

And there's no school tomorrow, Friday, as it's a 'Fiesta' - Dia del Pilar. Don't know who Pilar is, a saint presumably although pilar actually means post or pillar. So tomorrow instead of going to school we are dancing round a big stick.

Wednesday was a normal day; school for everyone as usual 9 to 12:30 and 3 to 4.30.
Tuesday, however, was a fiesta. El Día de la Comunidad Valenciana so that's like having an Essex Day !

And you'll love this...
On Monday there was no school because Tuesday was a fiesta and Monday, being the first 'working' day after the weekend, becomes a 'bridging' day. Yay !

So, it's actually been a busy week what with one and a half normal school days, half a day off because it rained (a little bit), 2 fiesta days and a bridging day. Phew !

And this is how we keep Sammy busy when he's off school. Which is a lot.

Sammy Barton Rebera (P.E.E.)

So I'll tell you what we've been doing. Sammy's about to complete his third week at school; no tears, lots of new friends, not a single bag of wet stuff although a faint smell of wee one day. Oh the glamour of being a mummy in Spain !

Sammy has been doing a bit of work on the side this week; last Sunday, not a school day so practically moonlighting. He's establishing himself as a Playground Evaluation Executive and he had his first assignment at Polaris' La Torre, 45 minutes south of us. Paul and I did chaperone him but we didn't force him in to it - we're not pushy parents or anything.

Here's Sammy's Executive Overview:

Sammy's been...

looking through the photos again.


"I love Grandad, I want to see him again."

Runner Beans? My foot !!

2 weeks is all I could manage before my right foot decided it was going to flex its authority. So last Friday, don't know where or how, I damaged my foot whilst running and have been hobbling since. The packet of frozen beans has been in and out of the freezer for 4 days and my foot is healing but I'm really frustrated about it and my super new trainers are probably feeling quite neglected.

When I next go for a run, hopefully in two days time, I'll be keeping you posted on my progress. I can hardly call it 'running' at the moment as there's a fair bit of walking going on but two miles, in the heat, mostly running and lots of heavy breathing is having a positive effect. I may be increasing my stamina and fitness levels but I've also noticed that the scales didn't go up after three packets of butter popcorn, a bottle of champagne and plenty of naughty Birthday nibbles. I wonder how long my metabolism will take to slow back down again?

And thank you for my Birthday wishes...

Virgin Blogger hits the net

Hello all, just checking out how to use this ready for travels to Noel and Roshanee's wedding.

Think I'll manage. As I'm typing Pete is booking accommodation and a hippy van for our travels in New Zealand so I'll definitely send some photos of that.

Thought you'd like to see a photo of Noel leaving for Oz back in August. He looks a strange colour because the setting on the camera was very wrong.

The Wonders Of Exercise

It's George here again. I thought as Helen sent a few emails it might be important to add things to her 'blog'.
Well here it is everybody. Pilates, and the wonders of it to be precise. Its absolutely grreat (trying not to sound like Tony the Tiger). It does wonders for your flexibility and the fantastic thing is that you don't need to buy anything; spending is minimal and you see differences in a few sessions.
Give it a go!
Love George

Fish Paste and Geography

Hello, I'm George for those of you who don't know ( Helen's first cousin). The picture was taken at my college award ceremony with my friends Talia and Sam, or Barbie and Kevin as Helen has christened them.
I was collecting the award for World Citizenship; it isn't as pretentious as it sounds. It goes to a committed geography student and I got it this year because I got 100% in my coursework.
There was a little gathering afterwards but the parents wanted to go home so I passed on the fish paste sandwiches.

New Beginnings

That's one full week at school for Sammy. It's been a slowish week for me - new routine I suppose. I'm sure that in a few short months we'll be looking through University prospectus' !

We are really pleased that on the whole Sammy has done exceptionally well this week.

• Monday and Tuesday were totally uneventful (that's good)
• Wednesday at 1pm (pick-up time) I was greeted with a carrier bag of wet shorts - Rebecca said it was no problem "no pasa nada"
• Thursday there were tears in the playground at 9am not Sammy's at first but then he did succumb to the pressure and had to be coerced to the classroom by Rebecca. Another carrier bag of wet shorts at 1pm.
• Friday, this morning Sammy was a bit clingy but allowed himself to be led to his class and not a damp patch in sight at 1pm. Well done Sammy.
  

We had a sit down chat with Rebecca this week too. She gave us a form to fill in that asked lots of questions about us, family life and Sammy. Rebecca said that Sammy listened well in class, shared really well with other children and we gave her the number of a good optician.

Hi, I'm Natalie.

This is a bit strange writing about myself to lots of people I don't know. I am 13 years old. I am in year 9 and I go to Oaklands School in Southampton. I enjoy going out with my mates and watching TV. I am the youngest daughter of Lucien who is Helen's uncle.

Natalie x

One of Sammy's favourite things is ...

to look through photos on the laptop and so this afternoon I indulged him to my amusement. When he saw this picture he said...

"Two Fatties !"

See - it's that easy...

You've already been invited which means you can register and start 'blogging'

• Your latest news
• Recent pictures
  
• Dates coming up
• whatever you want...
  

Want inspiration? then have a look at these...

• The Gibson family (we don't know them)
• a bit of politics
• and a bit of gawking

"I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand" Confucius

Sammy's first day at school...

Monday morning, 9am and Sammy was in a small queue with his classmates ready to be led into his classroom by his teacher; Rebeca. He was keen to go and so there were no last minute wobbles. They are staggering the youngest ones start days and there were supposed to be 6 starting today but 3 appear to have gone missing already? Not between 9am and 1pm - they just didn't turn up at all!

Paul, Granny and I watched as Sammy was led off down the corridor to his class. He wasn't really paying attention, too busy swaggering with his elbows stuck out and so he briefly joined a queue of 4 year olds waiting to get into their class but Rebeca gathered her ducklings again and off they went together to their new room.

Bless

At 1pm they were waiting in the playground with their balloons. Sammy was a little put out as his balloon had 'SAMUEL' on it and as he rightly said "That's not my name."

His next words were "I want to go to school again." I wonder if the euphoria will last another 16 years.