knifed...

... or should that be knived? Anyway, someone slashed one of our tyres! The car was sitting innocently in the carpark behind my parents-in-law's house ... and I don't even think it was a racist attack as the car next to it had been attacked too.

Oh well, Marc was able to put his Basic Car Maintenance training into practice and change the wheel, and the car was in fact already booked in at the garage the next morning. (We had to get our dipstick changed because the bottom of it had dropped off into the oil tank!)

But it does annoy me when we have to pay for someone else's random violence.

no work and all play means we're on holiday!

After a year of deadlines and busy-ness, it feels odd to be able to relax ... but we're getting used to it! Simon is enjoying meeting the local "wildlife" - he's a real animal-lover! - and trying out the local playgrounds.

en France

I'm glad to say that we have made it to France safely, despite the slight hassles of trying to pack when we hadn't unpacked properly from our move yet! Also the move wiped me out, so I couldn't even find much motivation for unpacking.

On the positive side, I am definitely feeling less and less sick and finally feel like I'm actually getting some rest and finding a bit more energy. I know that theoretically I'm in the second trimester of this pregnancy, but I'm looking forward to actually feeling that glowing, all's-right-with-the-world feeling again.

It is good to be here, lovely to have sunshine, great to see family! Simon is loving the box of toys his French grandparents have, especially all the cars, buses and tractors!

No recent photos, as we ran the batteries down and didn't get round to recharging them until just before we left!

where all is revealed ...

... as Hilary admits that the reason she has been feeling sick and not blogging so much is because of this tiny being inside her:

We are of course very happy ... though I will be able to rejoice more when I stop feeling so sick. I've been back on medication which does help, but it's been eight or nine weeks now, and it really is miserable! Anyway, I'm not here to complain but to share good news!

Assuming all goes well with the pregnancy, and our support-raising, we will still leave for Benin in November, and I will give birth out there. Which is a slightly daunting thought, but not as much as it would have been for a first child.

on the move

We are Packing - definitely with a capital "P"! With a little letter it's the kind of packing we do to go away for a weekend/fortnight/month, but now we're actually moving out of our flat. So it's a big deal, but I just keep reminding myself that it's a much smaller job than when we moved out of our French flat a year ago. Then we had several years of accumulated junk to sort through, whereas now - because we did a good job last year - we have a LOT less stuff! And even what we brought over then, we've been gradually whittling down over the year.

Still, I suspect that come Friday it will still look quite a lot all boxed up!