Last week, we spent two great days at the Futuroscope. I had heard about this futuristic, multimedia and cinematographic themed park since my days at Uni (the 30th Anniversary is in 2017), but somehow, never really made it. However, Mila was really eager to go so between our return from Hossegor and our trip to Paris, we headed to Poitiers to squeeze the last drop of our Summer holidays before back to school!
Squeezing the last drop of our Summer holidays before back to school… We went to the Futuroscope on Friday (blog post to come) and Le Chateau de Versailles today (photos to follow too) and both were great in complete different ways. I like taking the girls to things that wouldn’t even enter their sphere of interest. Versailles felt like a chore when I mentioned it to them yet in the end we had a great day the four of us with my mum. I know the day will come when we will cherish and remember this day together fondly. I took this photo of Lily on our way back from Versailles. I know it’s out of focus but I still love it. Sometimes things don’t have to be perfect to be loved… How was Summer for you?
This is part of a series I call Life with Mila. A collection of funny things my daughter used to say when she was growing up. I hope, one day, she will cherish these priceless childhood memories. Mila: “Papa…at what age can I have a credit card?” Steve: “31” Mila: “Really!? But Hayley has one and she is like 21” Steve: “Yeah but its 21 in New-Zealand. In France it’s a weird rule but it’s 31” Mila: “OK…”
This is part of a series I call Life with Mila. A collection of funny things my daughter used to say when she was growing up. I hope, one day, she will cherish these priceless childhood memories. Steve and I have been feeling low in energy these past few days… Me: “I’m drained” Steve: “So am I” Me: “Do you think we’re fighting something?” Mila: “I’m good!” Steve: “Yes a bug called Mila” Mila: “It’s the best bug in the world!!” (silence from both of us) She carries on…“Let’s go with that!” Mila wears a sweatshirt I got from Topshop a few years ago. Here are few of my favorite sweatshirts currently available.
Mila is on holidays from tonight… Two months by the beach and for the first time I’ll be with her rather than working in London. I have tried to work out thousands of options in my head, how I could make this work, how I could make the most of our time together as we may never have another opportunity like this, how I have to breath in and treasure every second I spend with her because in about 7/8 years, she will sail off to University and lives her own life and yet I have to find the time to work. Will see… I bet you wonder why, let alone how, we are splitting our times between London and France…Well, initially we were supposed to move to Sydney so the idea was that Steve and Mila would live in France for a year to experience French life while I was running my business in London and commuting. In paper, it all sounded very glamorous. In reality, it wasn’t easy for any of us. Steve was a single father …
Imagine…your child makes a big mistake and she leaves you a letter of apology. How do you react!? Mila left us a heartfelt, apologising letter under our sheets which made me smile and one that I will treasure for years to come. I shared it to Steve and we both had the same reaction…going to Mila’s bedroom to reassure her. Her dad told her he was proud of her for being honest with us. I told her we loved her. Here is what it says: “I’m really sorry I can’t tell you this myself but I’m really worried by your reaction so I think it’s best you find out what happened that way. I put the iPad under the bed so to Lucas (our dog) wouldn’t walk on it and when I pulled it out, later on, it has this horrible big crack. I know you’re going to shout at me but I want you to know that I didn’t do anything and I’m really really sorry. I hope you will forgive me. I’m really worried and I …
It is with a very heavy heart that I have to inform you of what has been happening in our family lately… Last Saturday started like a beautiful weekend…Steve went off to Cardiff to watch the All Blacks beat the hell out of the French and Mila and I went to stay with some friends. Besides the fact that Mila left the car key in the boot of the car which locked itself with all our belongings for the weekend in it and I spent the afternoon trying to work out the best plan to get hold of the second set of keys we had at home, it was a nice afternoon. We decided to take the kids to the skatepark and enjoy ourselves. At 5pm, my mum called me and told me that my dad had taken his own life. In the past three years, my dad has been struggling with depression. This has been a tough journey for our family and one that I never mentioned on the blog. I mentioned my own depression here and …
We recently came back from skiing in Andorra and one thing I really enjoyed, was to witness the very special, close relationship Lily (11 years old) and Mila (10 years old). Both have grown into self-confident, caring and funny little human beings since we first took them skiing at the age of 4 and 5. In my recent interview with Motherland, I said that the most challenging about motherhood is letting your child become the person they are meant to be and not a version of yourself or your tastes and to instil self-confidence in them. As I see the amount of bullying going on in school or online, more than ever, I feel it is important to help our children to be self-confident and have a healthy sense of who they are regardless of how they look so here are my two cents… 1/Tell them you love them…every single day and that they are worth it My parents love all three of us but I also remember that each time I wanted to …
