Mallorca, Majorca or whatever you like to call it...

(Our pics, otherwise known as other peoples fascinating boring holiday snaps. Aren't you glad I spared you all 500?)

Well here we are again, back in dear old Blighty after a very hot two weeks in Mallorca.

We try to go every year; for us it's not just a family holiday as much as a family visiting holiday. My father (and his parents) are from the little magic island and although that probably makes me biased I truly love the place!

If you've never been, you've probably heard (and read) horror stories about 'that dreadful Magalluf' place and hoardes of drunken, half naked teenagers doing unmentionables on the beach? I can't deny they happen of course, the poor Mallorcan police and locals would tell you otherwise. But it's worth taking a closer look at this tiny place to find the magic it has to offer.

Hundreds of small beaches or Calas, crystal clear water, nature reserves, very friendly people (as long as you don't shout loudly at them in English. Hmm, yes people still do that.) Archeological Talyot villages and boat trips to Islands with no inhabitants other than small lizards.

I love Valldemossa; the place where Chopin and his girlfriend George Sands came to stay. It is car free and one of the loveliest places to visit as long as you have a strong stomach for the windy roads.

Being a huge fan of Chopin it's an absolute thrill to see his piano in the Monastery there. He was a favourite composer of my English Grandfather  too so it makes me a bit teary now 'sniff'.  Anyway, moving on!

We spend fourteen blissful days hanging by the pool, eating more wonderful food than is good for us, boat trips plus of course, happy and teary family reunions. The twins also had their fifth Birthday over there and we spent the day at my Fathers house in Buger, swimming, eating, drinking fresh pomegranate juice and knicking his almonds.

I timed our booking to coincide with the Santa Ponsa festival. It's a yearly event, full of activities for everyone. The highlight for us was the 'Nit de Foc' or Night of Fire. Yes, it's as mad as it sounds and the public are advised to wear non flammable clothing... Locals dress up as fire devils and dance with fireworks.

That's it. No barriers; nada.

They also shake what sounds like cowbells and chase small children, great fun!

Of course for me, my holiday isn't complete without several of these.

 

and some long overdue family hugs.

My boys & twins with their Great Uncle & Aunt

The boys & my Father

 

The girls & their Great Aunt

The island is very child friendly. You can buy all the usual baby products, some of them are actually better than ours. They have fantastic medical care (great chemists too), especially if you have your E11 card with you and have one of the best new hospitals in Europe; in case those sorts of things worry you. Let's face it, as parents they usually do! I think my next post will be about travelling with small babies on aeroplanes? Just in case anyone would like any pointers.

Hope you all had fab holidays too!

Am off to try and finish a disgusting amount of laundry now...

Love,

SILENT SUNDAY

Love,

Crazy For You

I have to apologise in advance; this IS one of those posts where I ramble on about how marvellous one of my children is. He is, everyone who sees him says so, so there...

Anyway, if you're still with me?

Every Summer, the Theatre in our little town runs a Youth Project. They hold auditions early in the year and then for two weeks, 100 children sing and dance their little socks off to perform a show for six day/nights. That's just over 10 days to learn a whole show; pretty impressive!

My boys have been involved in it for a few years. The eldest with the technical side, painting props and playing with wires. The youngest has been in the chorus and had minor roles. Until this year that is, this year he was given the lead part. 'eeeeeek'! It was just the most perfect part for him too.

'Crazy For You' is billed as the 'New Gershwin Musical Comedy'. It has the most wonderful score as you'd expect and features songs such as 'Nice Work If You Can Get It' & 'Shall We Dance', heaven!

The story thus follows,

Bobby Child, a well to do 1930's playboy has one dream in life; to dance (sounds familiar!)

His mother and his fiance want him to work in a Bank. But Bobby has 'dream girls' in his head

He only wants to work with Bela Zangler; the famous follies director.

His Mother sends him from New York to Theatre in Nevada to deliver a letter of forclosure from the Bank. Here Bobby falls in love with Polly whose father owns the Theatre. They dance & they kiss 'ooooooo'

 Then she finds out why he has come and slaps him, telling him that the only person she wants to is Bela Zangler. who will put on a show and save their Theatre. Bobby has an idea...
You guessed it - wig, glasses and a stick on beard for Emile.That plus a Hungarian accent made for a lot of funny routines and a few dozen very quick costume changes as he played both parts. In the later part of the show the poor chaps face was bright red.

Well of course; Polly falls in love with 'Zangler' and wont have anything to do with poor Bobby.... 'sniff'.

 

But a few more dance numbers, six more kisses and two slaps later all is well and Bobby gets his girl.
Cue a starlit finale and a tearful Mumma as 'Bobby' sang his solo then spun his girl around.

Here is a little video clip of Emile singing and dancing on a car (carefully) in the first musical number in the show. I know the quality at the beginning isn't good - it's very hard to video without disturbing people and I couldn't see where I was filming! (It does get better)


I spent two weeks chaperoning and working in the girls dressing rooms, making head dresses and generally having a long but fabulous two weeks with the most amazingly talented group of young people. There were lots more tears on the last night and I know we all can't wait for next years show.

Hope everyone is having as much fun this summer holidays!

Love,

SILENT SUNDAY - Crazy For You

SILENT SUNDAY

SILENT SUNDAY - Broom Tennis

The Gallery - Tomorrow

I have been thinking all day about this weeks theme at The Gallery.
At first I couldn't think of anything particularly inspiring other than the things I do on a daily basis. More laundry, thinking of something for dinner again. Opening bills with huge amounts of inserts and adverts that I never read, the usual mundane motions that I go through whilst I try to retain some semblance of myself.
Now, after dinner, the twins are in bed and the house has stopped moving. I have a chance to hear my thoughts in more than just 'must do' snippets.
I am able to think what tomorrow means to me.
For the most part I hope that tomorrow brings no news, nothing of any major importance. I am content for tomorrow to be, for the most part as mundane as today. I don't mean that I wouldn't like a little glamour but in the absence of that I will settle for everyone being just where they should be. Everyone I love being safe and I hope that tomorrow my little girls face will not be quite so sore!

I hope that I will get a call from number one son finally. He has been in China for a week and I haven't heard his voice since I hugged him at the departure gate last Friday. I know he's in once piece; he has sent me text messages but nothing compares to hearing him.

When I go to bed at night I hope that tomorrow I will get to see and hug my Grandma again. She has been in a nursing home for three weeks now and she isn't very happy. I would love to have her live with us but we have absolutely no room. Add to this the amount of care she needs now she is unable to move at all and it just isn't possible. I am sorry about this every day. I hope I can see her again and that I get to say to her, " see you tomorrow" for a while longer yet.

Love,

The Gallery - Education

This is number two son Emile, having a full days Hoofing Masterclass with Tap giants Avi Miller & Ofer Ben of the New York Jazz Centre during their recent visit to London.

Jazz hands anyone?

And you thought it was going to be an old school pic, ha ha!
Some other brave souls may have posted some over on The Gallery?



Love,

Happy Happy Mummy!

I am a very happy mummy today!

#2 son decided to take a day from College and #1 son arrived home for two days so
I have a full nest, BLISS!!!

Hope you're all having a lovely Monday too,

Love,

 

Gotta Dance!

What a weekend!
My youngest son just lives to Dance - especially Tap.

So when I heard that Rusty Frank (whose book we just happened to have!) was over in London from the USA, doing a three day Tap Workshop I knew I just had to take him down there.
Here is Rusty in action, she makes it look so easy! :-)


American Style tap classes are virtually unknown here in the UK and the style is so relaxed and easy compared to ours here in the UK. It's just a joy to watch!

Of course, thanks to British Rail at it's finest there were NO trains early that Saturday morning.... so it was a taxi from home at 5:15 am, then a coach to Victoria and a couple of tubes to the dance studio in Old Street for 9:30...... We were sooo tired! I don't know how my son managed to dance all day but............

I don't know who enjoyed the day more, he or I :-)
He came out beaming from ear to ear from every class and I sat and listened to all those feet and that fabulous jazz, grinning from ear to ear! LOL.

He had two classes booked, beginners and intermediate. I wasn't sure how he would do.
You never know how hard these things are going to be do you?
In the end he did both of these and the advanced class.
I was so happy for him!


He's fifteen, loves to Tap, loves swing and jazz music and has just the best smile in the world :-) He's my baby, can ya tell?? Mummy was just more than proud of him!!!

Rusty turned out to be just amazing too.
After lunch she did a wonderful clip show of some fabulous tap dancers.
My all time favourite clip was included- that amazing dance with Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell, when they dance in front of mirrors?
If you haven't seen it, it's so adorable, makes me smile every time I watch it. Here it is on youtube


It was a lovely way to spend an hour for me (non- dancers were allowed to watch ) and despite having worked with and met some of the most famous names in the business Rusty was just so friendly.

Emile came away with a huge smile, a huge hug from Rusty and a dvd to practice all those moves he had learnt that day.

I don't think he will forget it for a long time and I know that he will keep tapping and hoofing until he is very old!
Thanks so much to Sam from Sam Hawkins Dance School for making us feel so welcome, we had just the best day and of course to Rusty who I hope we get to meet up with again if we manage to get over to the States.

Have a great one!

Fran x

Oh goodness it's been months since I even thought about this and since then we've had a

fabulous Christmas and I lost my first baby boy on his first trip abroad by himself.........

Isn't he just too handsome?? I miss him sooooooo badly! He usually has a fab afro but mummy persuaded him to get it braided before he went as I didn't think the afro would be too easy to care for in Ghana. Yep, that's right he's in another continent!! He had to have so many jabs you just wouldn't believe it, poor boy went to bed for a few hours after each of them.

Such nasty things such as yellow fever and hepatitis c........

Am so longing for him to come home and look down at me and say hi little mummy LOL!

BTW forgot to say that he is teaching kids to play Basketball while he is there and has been helping out an orphange too. I am just beyond proud of him. When I think of all he has gone through to get where he is I could just burst.

I just know that I will give him the biggest hug when he gets home even if he does smell like something the cat dragged in, cause I love the very bones of him - all 6ft of them.

And then in a few months he's off to UNI and I will cry all over again........ silly soft mummy that I am.

My DH says I am not soft, I'm a flippin' truffle! :)

Love,