Bacon and Black Pudding

Would you look at all that yoghurt???

I can't believe it's 2014! Where has the time gone?  So I've been back to the UK twice in the last month - not good for my carbon footprint but very good for catching up with friends and family.  And it was my friends who pointed out that the blog has been a bit quiet of late.....





So, I thought I would rectify this whilst sitting in Dubai airport where I have about 6 hours to wait for the flight to Dhaka.  With 6 hours in Dubai airport, what to do to keep busy?  Well -

(a) I've been on the phone to the kids:

"mummy, where are you?"

"mummy, are you on the plane yet?"

"mummy, where are you?"

"mummy, when are you home?"

and so on.

Peter has been in sole charge of the kids for the past 10 days.  I say sole charge, I mean overall charge, afterall we have help from the lovely Anjouna who is our 'ayah' and who, entertainingly for all (including Anjouna!) is about 5 inches taller than Isobel.  Will Isobel catch up her before we leave that is the question??

Anyway, it appears Peter (and his 'team' as he calls them) has done well, the kids are still alive and clearly, judging by the noise, very well!

(b) I've drunk some coffee

Quite a lot of coffee actually.  I'm on a mission to try to stay awake so that when I arrive in Dhaka I can fall into blissful slumber for the whole night through....I wish.

(c) I've pondered going shopping

And then decided against it.  I've decided to stay still, sitting quietly in my little corner.  Dubai is a funny airport, it's all modern and swishy but it's also one massive shopping centre and it's rammed full of people - at 3 am, 6 am, 9 am - basically all the time, all milling about the shopping lane!

(d) I've pondered my visits to the UK

We came back to the UK for Christmas - back to the storms and the rain.  The kids woke up at about 4.30 am for the first week.  It's pitch black outside, kids TV hasn't started and you're in someone else's house trying to keep the kids vaguely quiet.  Ah, what fun it was. They muttered it was cold, they wanted to go back to Bangladesh where it was warm (and then were most disappointed when we got back to Bangladesh and it was noticeably colder than it had been!).  We kept them very busy (I've added some links in case anyone is wondering what or where on earth these places are!):

• The Blue Bell Railway to see Santa - http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/
• The Mayfield Village Church fete, also to see Santa (he is a very busy man!) - http://sussex.villagenet.co.uk/mayfield.php
• The Panto - Jack and the Beanstork - Isobel was slightly overwhelmed by it all, Arty was just screaming 'he's behind you'
• Ashdown Forest to find Piglet (who was hiding due to inclement weather) - http://www.ashdownforest.org/home/index.php
• The South Downs and Beachy Head - to be blown away by the wind and watch the brave (or mad) surfing
• Emmetts Garden and Knole - to see our lovely friends and sample the joys of the National Trust teashop only to find they were shut - http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/emmetts-garden/
• The Windmill at Lytham St Annes - http://www.visitlythamstannes.co.uk/
• The Circus at BlackPool Tower - Isobel was transfixed by the acrobatics- http://www.theblackpooltower.com/
• The crazy dancing snowman display at Barton Grange - this time it was Arthur who was petrified (see below)
• Beacon Fell - to find the giant snake in the mud....- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Beacon_Fell_235-35.jpg

And of course, seeing family, eating too much and generally having a good time.

And now we are back in the Desh.  We stayed up till the wee hours on New Years Eve for the first time in 5 years!  No more sitting in our PJs and recording the fireworks for us, it's party time!  I have been back to the UK again and am now looking forward to getting back to the crazy kids (and the crazy dad!).  But being back in the UK gives you time to contemplate things, including things you miss and things you don't.  So here goes:

Things I miss when I'm in the Desh (apart from friends and family!):

• Frost.  OK, there hasn't been a lot of frost this winter by all accounts, but when I saw the frost one morning this week I was so happy. I love it.  Cold, crisp and frosty.  Perfect day for a walk.
• Walking.  Obviously I can walk in Dhaka - I walk to work, we walk out in the peri-urban space, but to really walk - walk along pavements or along the river in London, walk up a big hill, walk walk walk.
• Bacon and Black Pudding - oh, I do.  I really do.  I hadn't thought about it but then I had some at the fabulous Regency Cafe (http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g186338-d1986778-Reviews-Regency_Cafe-London_England.html).  Thank you Maggie for taking me there and thank you to the lovely woman running the joint and her '2 toasts for the lady.....tomato and black pudding for the lady' (we were the only ladies in there at 8am!).
• Oxygen.  There is oxygen in the air in London - it's amazing how you notice how much cleaner the air is, despite being a big city itself.  London should be proud - the air is pretty clean and the rivers have fish in them!
• Supermarkets.  I know, sad I know.  I did get so much joy from wandering around Waitrose though....just wandering, gazing at the ridiculous choice in yoghurts!

And things I love about the Desh:



7 Sisters Country Park - beautiful

• The lack of requirement to wear 50 layers in winter - and then get too hot when you go into a shop or onto a bus and have to take them all off! Not having to bundle the kids up in so many clothes to go outside.  Lovely.
• Attempting to speak Bangla and seeing such smiles on peoples faces - and they have time for you to help you learn!
• Cycling to work in 5 minutes
• Not having to get on the Tube or a Train or a Bus to get to work....
• The help and support we have which means we can spend so much more time focused on the kids when we're not at work - it just wouldn't be possible in the UK
• .....and finally, the ever so slightly dodgy DVDs which enable us to keep vaguely up to date with the HBO hit series....and the Disney Princesses!

 

 

How many weetabix should a baby eat?

Well, apparently Arthur likes to eat 3 for breakfast! Yes, 3! I almost fell over.  He had one at home before going to nursery where he then promptly tucked into another 2......Oh my! Surely that it not normal.  Are we creating a blimp baby? Do we have an obesity crisis in development???

Three weetabix.  That's more than me!

So, it made me think about a few things:

(a) obesity levels in children - apparently by 11, 33% of children are obese in the UK http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7777108.stm.  That's quite frightening.  Obviously there are many reasons for this and there are lots of commentators who look at issues such as lack of activity, over-eating, eating the wrong things, poverty levels etc.  It makes me think of the story regarding the health visitor who commented to a friend of a friend that she had people 'blending macdonalds meals' to give to their babies when they were weaning them.  Now some might argue that 'in poor areas, there isn't the access to fresh fruit and vegetables and that for some, Macdonalds might be the nearest place to get affordable food to eat'.  Others might say that it was to do with education.  But whatever the reason, it's clearly a sad state of affairs as what you eat whilst pregnant and then what the child eats in the first 2 years of life is so important for it's future development.

I went to an interesting talk the other week by a lady working in Zimbabwe who was looking at issues of malnutrition and stunting and trying to work out what the interactions were in the environment which were impacting on children.  She talked about the first 1000 days of life - http://www.thousanddays.org/about/ - and the work they are doing to monitor pregnant women and children up to 18 months/2 years.  The statistics on child stunting, malnutrition and longer term brain, bone etc development were quite stark. 

(b) Being outside - there are all those statistics being shared at the moment about how children aren't playing outside as much. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/8623152/Children-no-longer-enjoy-playing-outdoors.html

The other weekend we spent most of the time inside (it was raining and raining and raining) but we still managed to go bowling - Arthur wanted to rush off down the lane to get to the skittles!

This weekend the sun was shining as a result we spent the whole weekend outside and there were families everywhere - running around, playing football, flying kites and generally enjoying themselves.So, the National Trust has started this 50 Things to do by the time you're 11 and 3/4! I was reading this in some magazine last week and it made me smile - I want to try some of these!   the link is below - it makes me laugh as they have to have the 'Health and Safety' comments added too - don't climb a tree on a wet day, don't roll down a really steep slope and so on...

https://www.50things.org.uk/parents-area.aspx

Which ones would I have a go at in my slightly older age?  Here we go:

- bury someone in the sand (I buried my dad and brother when I was young - but think this needs to be done with a certain husband now!)
- hunt for treasure on a beach - preferably find some real treasure with real sparkly gold!
- get behind a waterfall (apart from the fake one at Wisley in the greenhouse)
- go on a nature trail at night
- go wild swimming (do Hampstead Heath ponds count...? probably not)
- find a geocache - what on earth is this? technology enabled treasure hunting. 

And on that note, I'm hungry and need to eat something.  It's cold and wet outside (well it is May!) so I'm off to find a cinammon bun from the freezer, one we made earlier: