Worry, worry, worry....

1. Will I catch swine flu?
2. Do I have any money at all to spend on make-up?
3. Is it considered ill-mannered to approach someone and ask "So why did you refuse to be my friend on Facebook, then?".

It is raining here, and I am over-run with hostas. They are beginning to move triffid-like closer and closer to the house. One tulip is about to bloom. I shall have to run out with a camera when it does, as it is the only one of fifty. The daffodil of two weeks ago was obviously too terrified to do anything else apart from sprout 2 Cm, then shrivel. The daffodil show is on this week-end - so I will drag the family off to join the purple-hair-rinsed populace, so we can benefit from a little floral colour.

There's been a falling out between myself and the raccoon. He gave me a very reproachful look last night, as he tossed the asparagus stalks about - he plainly missed his cat-food. I think he has forgotten he is a scavenger (although they sometimes also have rabies). In French they are called raton laveur - Wash-Rat - as they like to clean their food before eating it. Obviously a very picky sort of scavenger, then.

The radio here is excellent - loads of choice. In Switzerland I just listened to World Radio Switzerland, both because I'm very lazy and can't be doing listening to high-speed radio-French (second only to high-speed cartoon French and Molière in my list of "French I could do without"), and also so I could listen to my mate Rachel and get advice on child-rearing without admitting I need it. Oh and also to listen to "Pete on the Beat" (apparently, though this might be a fib) his real name is Warren. But I expect a show called "Warren in his Sporran" wouldn't quite conjure up the right image for radio).

Here I listen to either The Current, which plays a very pleasing mix of music a hip parent can listen with their kids without seeming too sad, and KFAI (KFAI Fresh Air Radio - Radio without boundaries), which plays music from Louisiana, the 50s, anything scratchy and a bit of ukulele. KFAI is run by volunteers and I suspect you can just turn up with your own record collection (Bucks Fizz, anyone?) and the right attitood, and you're on.

And my next favourite thing about Minnesota - old men at the supermarket employed to pack and carry your bags to the car, who then say "It's raining, you get in and I'll load the trunk for you".

Better than Tesco's.

Teenagers!

Bridgjo has decided to get into practice for when T is a teenager. So far, with regard to our stagiaire, he has said:

1. Have you seen the state of her bedroom?!?
2. All she does is eat, then go upstairs. We never see her!
3. Do you know she came in at 10 past 3 last night?
4. If she leaves that door unlocked again, I'm taking her keys off her.

It all seems rather familiar......

Coals to Newcastle

Great weather the last couple of days - it's super to feel the breeze on bits not normally out and about.

On my run this evening I noticed this big red truck outside a neighbour's house. It was there to drop off a snow machine.

And I have finally got my replacement product from Lush. I'd bought some shower gel about 6 weeks ago now, which turned to be pure water when I got home and opened it. I complained to the US, but they "didn't get my e-mail" (I've never trusted computers), so I sent an e to the UK branch, who then got the US to call me, who then sent me a parcel full of goodies. Except it didn't arrive and someone else, it turned out, signed for it. So they sent another parcel. Ditto.

Somewhere I have a neighbour who is perfectly rotten but who smells really rather nice. Anyway, I am English, and Do Not Give Up (unless I am playing cricket), so called them again this morning. This time she drove around, and voila, a nice replacement (bigger) bottle and a little gift-wrapped present of promised goodies.

Tonight we bathe, whether we need it or not.

Today was T's parent-teacher meeting. Very pleased, as I was rather concerned her refusal to speak French would mean her having to redo Kindy, but she is going up to 1st Grade (even though, obviously, she is still an ickle baby to me). The teacher said her maths was great, as she can do subtraction up to 10 in her head (ummm, yes....), and that her cursive-writing (yes, really) was already as good as the first-graders.

They are not reading yet in her class - the French way is to start with syllables. What they emphasise more at this point is their ability to communicate (so, for instance, they take photos of the child and put them in a little wallet, and get the child to describe each photo, writing it down for them and putting it in the same sleeve. Makes for better reading than Twilight), and developing their verbal skills. So you want your child to read at five, or hold a coherent conversation? - our decision is made.

PS I am trying to promote my blog (see one of the sites here: Blog search directory). I have been a bit dubious of web-sites since I joined Facebook and saw "Rachel-E. Hurley has no friends"), so we'll see.

Book critic

So the stagiaire's arrived. She's very sweet, and tends to spend all her time in her room, scurrying mouse-like each time she hears a loud noise (ie frequently). Bridgjo managed to winkle her out of her room last night, and they spent a mutually enjoyable evening (apparently) improving each other's second language.

I went off to Town (someone else drove) to go to the Book club for the first time. I think I upset one or two, as they are all a bit younger than me, and very into Twilight, one of their previous books (yes, it's one of those book-clubs, although the wine seemed to be rationed, and there was no male strip-tease. Damn'). They asked me what I thought, so I said it was poorly written, atrocious grammar, obviously it had never been copy-read, and as tedious as taking tea in an old people's home, without the benefit of the distraction of a ticking clock. One of the girls piped up nervously "Well....you're entitled to your opinion".

T has parent-teacher conferences at school this week, so we have Thursday and Friday off. You would think that it could have dove-tailed nicely into a long Easter week-end instead. But, then, the weather is in the high 70s at least for today and tomorrow (and probably snow next week). We planted pansies...I feel so grown-up.

Full Cavity Search

Alas, my age is now truly showing. And I am now the nervous possessor of my first crown. T was a little more optimistic than I about this news, not surprisingly for someone who wants to be a princess when she grows up.

It didn't hurt in the least, but I do not recommend the laughing gas. I would be dreadful in any night-club nowadays, as it took the dentist about 3 seconds to talk me into this (albeit, legal) drug. For anyone who's not tried it before, don't. It makes you feel tipsy, and not at all giggly. There was a time (about 19) when if you'd told me I could be flat on my back, drunk, in room full of strangers, and no-one would have tutted at me, I'd have looked from left to right, and leant forwards. Not nowadays.

I didn't like the way my mouth was propped open for 3.5 hours (except for 20 mins, when he said "We'll just give your mouth a rest now for a while", and they obviously all buggered off to lunch). I had video glasses (very Logan's Run, but without the need to top myself), so watched Shallow Hal, all the way through for the first time. I also wasn't too keen on hearing one of the nurses whisper to another "Well, she is English....".

Tomorrow we take possession of our stagiaire - the French girl who will be staying with us for the next 10 weeks. Worryingly, looking at her CV, I see she actually has more in common with bridgjo than I do (saxophone, tennis etc). Well, it'll improve his French.

Building Bridges

I finally gave up today trying to find a parking space close to the door of the gym, and instead decided to go for a bike ride.

There are two reasons I have never faded away whilst on a manic fitness regime:

1. I get hungry afterwards, and although I will cheerfully nod a brief hello to the fruit-bowl, that's only because it's on the way to the crisps. The training mantra for the Olympic Team, alas, has never been "Train hard! Eat lard!"; and
2. I get knackered afterwards, so instead of expending every-day chore energy in addition to the exercise, I normally nip upstairs for a Nanna-Nap instead.

Powered up by a bacon-buttie, I went off on the bike trail down to the Midtown Corridor.

Minnesota has a bit of history when it comes to bridges and their rebuilding. There's very little about this particular set on the internet, and bridgjo got very James-James on me because of its proximity to Town. It was "beautified" recently in response to the fact that it was a disused train-track bordered by disused oil refineries and mills, which encouraged broken windows, gun-crime and general naughtiness.

There's a pretty good chance I won't go there again, and instead turn right to Lake Minnetonka instead, which after all has a cafe.

However, it's quite intriguing. In the early 1900s they decided there were far too many rail-road-crossing-related deaths (too many hyphens?), so they put up 37 bridges, each about 200 yrds apart, one for each tiny street which crosses it. With amazing foresight they removed the track whilst building work was in progress, and, for wont of supporting HTML to say otherwise, it seems they then failed to put it back. Problem solved.

All the bridges were poured in place, and there was a bit of a problem with quick-sand. And unfortunately that seems to be all there is to know.....one of those things you should see when you're here, a bit like the lawn-mower museum in the UK.

In spite of the two bike pants, and the Gel-tech seat, I am suffering from Biker's Bum though tonight, alas.

I have spoken to the Lawn Nazi across the way (OK - Jerry) (oh, just realized). I asked his advice about lawn-upkeep - he seems very nice, and does not seem too upset that the council did actually dig up his lawn last week (I hid).

And Brian came round to sort out the garden for summer - I now have about 50 bin-bags to dispose of. Luckily for $70 a year, Randy's will come and pick them up for me.

Go back to Canada!

I have been reviewing swimming in the lakes here, as I noticed in Switzerland there were lots of rats around (well, I guess "lots" as I actually saw two), and am a bit wary of disease. Plus the lakes here do seem to be full of boats during the summer, i.e. lots of oil and sewerage.

But, it seems that Minnesota takes this as least as seriously as I do, with slightly less righteous anger against vermin. Their aims are to:

• Fence swimming beaches to exclude geese
• Relocate adults and young out of state during the molting season
• Prohibit feeding of geese on swimming beaches
• Herding geese off of beaches with trained border collies
• Pick goose dropping off of beaches daily

Geese - slightly more endearing than rats, plus the added entertainment value of border collies.

I was speaking to a chap in the hot-tub today (very "Housewives") who told me that the best place for out-door swimming can be found in the lakes on the border with Canada. Obviously the geese must be trying to keep away from there...

Happy Easter!

It has been a beautiful weekend. About 52 degrees; a temperature at which you feel compelled to cast off the down, and maybe even don a light sweater.

Yesterday we went to the Lowry Center and had great fun in the feeble sun-shine doing a treasure hunt. There was a short course in the woods, which T hared around, searching for hidden bags filled with pebbles - once she had collected eight, she could trade them for a bag of cereal or an orange (very health conscious). They were extremely tricky to find, hidden as they were in tree trunks and under leaves. They also had a small petting-zoo (with some fat rabbits, extremely stunned chickens).

Today's event was at Linden Hills, where there was a snack for the kids, with a puppet show, followed by an Ester Egg Hunt. This was slightly more traditional in that there were (it seemed) hundreds of plastic eggs hidden around the play-ground by the Community Centre, which were filled with small sweets.

I have rarely seen T run quite so fast, and she used her elbows admirably. We are very proud.



She wanted to take the bunnies home.

Linden Hills is a great area; I'd be quite happy to live there. Nice vibe to it, and loads of restaurants. We ate at a French restaurant today, and I appreciated the real tuna steak in my Salade Niçoise (yesterday, when I had it too, it was still in a cylindrical shape, perched on top of a pile of wilted greens). Purple potatoes too.

And another thing

Whilst I was in T's class today, I had to take umbrage (silently; I am, after all, English) at her English teacher. To explain, she's quite lucky in that Wednesday is not a holiday, like most other French and Swiss schools, but is actually taught in English. I always make sure, pushy-mummy that I am, I glance at the walls to check the words they are working on this week. The list today, was "Words rhyming with 'all'":

All
Fall
Ball
Hall
Gall (running out of the alphabet at this point)
Stall
Doll

I shall have to have (well-enunciated) words...

Hair today...

Yes, it is indeed the time of year a young man's fancy turns to spring, and a girl's more prosaically to "Well, what can I spend his money on now?"

In my case I have decided yet again to go short (hair, obviously). It is all a contrived plot on my part to get fit. I've got the clothes (too much spent in REI), the hair style - now I just need to fan the hidden flame of the desire for aching bones so I can actually be bothered to use that membership at the health club. I cannot find it in myself to criticise Americans, but you know, it really bugs me when all the parking spaces have been taken up closest to the entrance at the gym....

A little bit wary when I got at the hair-dressers, where I was greeted with "Have you come to have your hair cut? We are sooooo excited!". I am assuming here that this mad person actually worked there. At least, she brought me a cup of coffee when I said "Er. Yes. Tea?"

I had my teeth checked on Tuesday. As bridgjo mentioned, it's a bit like waterboarding (which I am reliably informed is something harsher than water-skiing), as they no longer use the "public spittoon" but insert a vast array of hard-ware into your mouth for hosing out, and sucking up. Quite unpleasant. I now have sparkly teeth - although she told me I drank too much tea (as if).

I went to T's school today to sit in with the class. One of the songs they sung was Savez-vous plantez les choux?) (do you know how to plant cabbages - quite a serious French subject, and not to be mocked). As you can see from the link, the idea is that the children learn parts of the body, by tapping fingers, knees, elbows, feet etc on the ground as they pretend to plant the cabbages. Great hilarity (bearing in mind they are 5) ensued when the prof asked "What shall we plant with?", and they all suggested "Ventre! Fesses!". Not really one for the video library.

PS I am having geek-type fun with the labels on my posts - they are used to identify the adverts placed at the side. I am starting to enter words just to see what comes up. See it as evidence of my puckish sense of IT humour.

Minnesota Weather, Part 365

Well, this is the view this morning from our back-room. Yesterday spring, and a "quite warm for the time of year, fancy a cup of tea?" sort of day, and suddenly (can you use "suddenly" when it's happened twice in one week?) another 4" snow. I checked on my one solitary daffodil yesterday, and it was looking decidedly peaky.

I don't hold out for much in the way of success this year with my tomatoes etc. I have the front-room set up like a drugs farm (but no need for extractor fans) with little seedlings sitting over heat vents, and a paddling pool full of potted plants (incidentally, we don't use that wing of the house much). However, the other night I was working away in my study, when there was a huge commotion outside. Two raccoons sitting next to the French windows having a row (or something). What with them, and the day-shift of rabbits and squirrels, there is the possibility that it will not thrive.

T thinks that if we set up an actual cafe on the decking for them, they may be distracted enough. Except that the raccoons (or rats) have already started nibbling through that too.

This last picture was taken a few weeks ago when the lakes were still frozen. The ice has all melted now (well, at least yesterday it was). I am beginning to cultivate friendships with people who have boats, although I was told it gets completely rammed at the weekend on Lake Minnetonka.