Long distance blog hacker

Nad here, hacking the blog from Angleterre. Due to Papa's impressive prolific blogging of late, my holidays have been well documented so I can focus on my highlights and best bits; a bit like the short film they play as contestants leave the Big Brother house!
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Food wars - I'm not sure I've ever eaten so well! Due to the fact Loulou, Sylvie, Caroline and Remi were on holiday too, we had a lot of shared meals at alternating houses. On the day of their arrival we were slightly concerned about having enough food so decided to wow them with a stunning pudding. Maman pulled a blinder with enormous and delicious profiteroles, but this started the ball rolling with pudding wars... Having in the past had various food competitions (remembering the rice pudding stand off), an unofficial war was waged when Loulou presented us with a beautiful tarte aux pommes the next night. We didn't take this lying down and retaliated the next day with the stunning pear and chocolate charlotte which you've already seen. The war raged on and whilst Loulou's tartes were undoubtedly delicious, the phrase one trick pony comes to mind.... I think it's safe to say we won! :) Thanks to Jodi for her almond biscuit and gooey brownie recipes :) Unfortunately, pudding wars, wine and cheese have taken their toll and I must go into serious starvation mode in preparation for summer!
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Rock star boyfriend - A personal favourite moment was spotting Simon and his band Laruso in the Kerrang rock chart! I'd heard the video of their new single, 1998, had made the chart at number 38 so when I noticed it was on, I made Papa and Gill sit and watch. My heart was racing as track 39 finished but then cut to an advert break. I tried to keep a lid on my palpitations until 38 came... and went. Without Laruso. Gill left; I pretended not to be ultra disappointed UNTIL at 37 in came their video! Papa's quick thinking meant we could record it to show to Maman when she got home from work. It was a VERY exciting moment, seeing them on actual TV and not just a copy of the video! Look out for them on Kerrang TV and radio, Scuzz, Rock Sounds Magazine and who knows where next! Single out May 4th :)

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The zoo - We made a trip to the Zoo in Les Sables, just under an hour away up the coast. I've always seen the posters advertising this zoo, but had developed the opinion it wasn't a very good zoo for some reason. I think we all had slightly low expectations as we arrived, but in actual fact it was an excellent zoo. The variety of animals was really interesting with some exotic species you don't always expect to see. I really enjoyed seeing the tigers as I'm not sure I've seen them in captivity before. We got there around lunch time and so decided to sit and have our picnic at a table near the gibbon islands. As we sat down we kept hearing the most raucous noise which we couldn't assign to a specific animal. Before long we realised that it was frogs, and then we noticed that the moats which surrounded the monkey/ape islands were hopping with frogs, all very noisily trying to impress their mates! Once you noticed them, the water was moving so much and you could see the pockets of air under their chins filling as they shrieked and chuntered! The zoo in general was clean and well looked after. I loved the fact that lots of enclosures were open air and not behind bars/windows. There were even some small monkeys who had free reign of the zoo in the summer months! However, my personal favourites were definitely the giraffes. There were five adults and two babies who had only been born in January! The daddy giraffe was clearly in the mood for making more babies though which caused a little amusement and embarrassment! Not only were there so many giraffes, but on a couple of occasions, they all started to run around their enclosure. I'd never seen giraffes so active, it was amazing. All in all, an excellent day out.



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I had a really fab holiday. I loved seeing les Alexandres, having Gill down for Easter weekend was great and I thoroughly enjoyed going out for her birthday dinner (yes, more food!). The weather alternated between glorious and rainy, but I still managed to burn my nose a little! I was sad to leave, as always, but already counting down till May and Phil's birthday celebrations in Cheshire. And summer's not that far away, is it...?