Some of the many reasons I love Twitter....

If you know me at all you will know I am a Twitter addict.   My Tweets are rapidly approaching 16,000 and I think about 8 of those have been of any importance.

Mr B quickly realised that if he didnt join Twitter too he would never be able to communicate with me at all and so signed up.   One of the first people he followed was @stephenfry.   Everybody follows him.   It is Twitter Law.  It is also Twitter Law that you know he is on the Twitter Pedestal.  That is, he will Tweet but never you directly.   Nor will he follow you.   You accept this.

In February of this year Sir Stephen of Fry tweeted about a cafe in Paris that he had visited and one that should be on anybody's "must do" list should they ever find themselves in the city.    Mr B remembered that Tweet and today we visited.   It was a decent stroll but in Paris with the sun shining it seemed to be no time at all.


The cafe is called Le Procope and dates back to 1686.   Yes 1686.   Le Procope wiki page is here which shows some of the people were there before us.

It was hard to comprehend the history of the place when sitting there surrounded by other tourists.   Still, the carafe of rose seemed to be the perfect tonic for our mild hangovers.

I am so pleased Bruce remembered that Tweet.   Without it we would never had found it and it is great to now be able to say "I have had a drink in the same bar as Napoleon".

I had a similar experience earlier in the year with somebody I follow:  @emmaforbes.   Emma is in another class of Twitterati.   A celeb who Tweets regularly, replies to people who Tweet her and also who follows "ordinary people" such as me.

I love that about all the people I have in that category.  Not many people in this category for me, but I am touched that they follow me.    For me, it is really what Twitter is about.

Emma visited Paris earlier this year and commented on some extraordinary macaroons she had tasted.   My memory is full of day to day stuff and I cannot remember what day of the week it is most days so I instantly forgot the name of the establishment.   I tweeted Emma to say "what is the macaroon place called and where is it?"   Almost immediatly I got a reply from Emma that said "Laduree, on Champs Elysee".

"YES" I shouted to nobody in particular.

So after our wine in the Saint German district earlier we wandered north and found the very place.   The queue was out of the door but that didnt stop me joining the back of it in anticpation of finally tasting one of these amazing treats. .

Once inside we were taken back in time to the 1860s to a time of elegance and finery.    Their website is here: Laduree

The menu was wonderful and, unable to chose, Mr B asked the waitress to bring me a selection of four small ones.

All I can say is "wow".   They didnt disappoint.   Firm to the touch, but bite them and they turn to gooey fabulousness.

I have to find a way to buy some and get them back to Hampshire.   Even if it means buying a new bag to carry them in.

Now there's an idea.   Which one of the people I follow can recommend a handbag shop in Paris?

So, Ms Forbes, thank you for your recommendation and for replying so we could find the Salon du The whilst in Paris.

I also follow another Paris expert @sj_parker  who is the wife of a TV presenster we met through another twitter nutter @gowercottage.     SJ and Martyn have been to Paris several times and were quick to recommend the Bateaux Parisien dinner cruise.

We did this last night and what an amazing experience it was.  550 people on a boat that cruises along the Sienne for three hours, at night with a four course dinner.   There are various tarrifs, dependent on position on the boat and SJ suggested, if we could afford to do so, we sat at the front in the most expensive seats.

It was wonderful.   The food was superb and seeing Paris at dusk and then lit up in the dark was unforgettable.   If we weren't already married I would probably have proposed there and then.   We saw all of the sights that any decent Paris trip would include and the cabaret singer sang "New York, New York" as we saw the Statue de Liberte for the first time.

If I can work out how to upload pics I will, we have some crackers.

Twitter I love you.   Without you this trip would not have been as special as it is.

Preparations for going away for the weekend -- male and female perspectives!!

First of all some background:
For Christmas my parents gave us an all expenses trip to France and an offer of looking after the children and the dog.   So as soon as we heard April 29th was to be a bank holiday we booked it for this weekend.

That was January.   Fast forward to today.   Mr B has been working hard this week and has been out of the house for twelve hours a day.   Evenings have been spent keeping his dad company whilst any football match televised has been watched, along with a bottle of red / white / rose /  Scotch (you get the picture).

We are leaving at 6.30pm.  Mr B will arrive at 6.19.  Talk to the dog until 6.21.   Talk to the cats until 6.23.   Talk to his dad until 6.25.   Grab three pairs of pants, his toothbrush and a clean t-shirt, sling them in a bag, pick up his passport and declare himself ready at 6.30pm.

In order to go away for the weekend, leaving three children, a dog, three cats and my father in law (who is leaving tomorrow) I have had to do the following today:

1.  Do daily 30 mile round trip school run
2. Stock up on milk / bread / butter
3. Strip bed Father in Law has been in as my parents will need it.  
4. Strip eldest daughter's bed and move Father in Law into her bedroom 
5. Do nine.  Yes nine loads of washing
6. Go to the tip
7. Get nine.  Yes nine loads of washing dry.   As some of is the bedding I need to put back on beds
8. Walk the dog
9. Clean bathrooms
10. Clean kitchen
11. Vacuum entire house.   Re-vacuum bedroom when I managed to empty the damn thing all over the carpet instead of in the bin bag
12. Write an instruction manual for my parent of how various things work / where to walk dog / wi-fi password / etc etc
13. Remove Father in Law's hot cross bun from the toaster as he managed to wedge it in there. 
14. Go to son's school and attend Year 10 Parent conference, grab his laundry etc and bring him home.  A 50 mile round trip
15. Iron clothes for trip
16. Print off all travel documents for Eurostar and Hotel
17. Book dinner cruise for tomorrow night
18. Pack my suitcase and all forgotten items of Mr B's.
19. Make sure Father in Law stops for his lunch as he has been gardening like a demon all week
20. Remake beds

So as you can see there is a slight imbalance in this allocation of duties.   Is this how it is for everybody or am I alone?

Up shot is that in booking the posh candlelit dinner on the river tomorrow night I appear to have booked THE most expensive TABLE on THE most expensive cruise on Mr B's credit card instead of mine because I was too busy to concentrate on what I was doing.

Silly me

Playing tag with the neighbours

"ooh an email saying I have been tagged in a Facebook post by our lovely neighbours"

That was my first thought when I read the email notification this morning.   What could it be about at 9.30am? 

Could they have just found out they won the Lottery on Saturday and are asking to take half of it?

Maybe they are inviting us round to their house to drink Champagne and watch The Wedding on Friday.

Or perhaps they would like to come around and drink Pimms on our patio, having seen our lovely new Cath Kidston table cloth on the table.

Imagine my surprise when I read this (and I quote):

To, Mrs  Barrow & Mr  Barrow, Please could you ask Bob NOT to climb up our scaffolding at 6am & jump into our bedroom howling like a banshee scaring me witless! Kind Regards. Nicola xx

Now I should point at this stage that Bob is our cat, not one of our teenage children.

Mortified doesn't even come close to how I felt.   The house is going on the market immediately.

So this is it.....

I cannot believe I am actually doing this.  Blogging.   Ooh get me. 


The very idea that anybody would want to read what I have to say on a regular basis.   Well, I suppose 618 Twitter followers cannot be wrong.  Robots?  What you mean some of those might not be actual real people?  Right, so this is going to be read by just my kids and husband hoping I am not about to reveal closely guarded family secrets? Is that how it works?

In fact, how does this work?  I am using my best handwriting on this first page.  Like when we were in school with a new exercise book.   Page one was always neat and tidy and beautifully written.   Page 10, covered in Tipp-ex.  Pages 14 -- 17 in the middle had been ripped out and from 20 onwards normal service had been resumed and it was covered in scribble.


The same could be true of this blog.