mothers on the verge

Finally, the sun is shining and Geneva is transformed. I lived here for a couple of years as a child and attended my first-ever school here. My childhood memories are of a city where the sun always shone, where ice-cream was a constant pleasure and of the astounding piles of treats piled high in every boulangerie. Memory is, of course, a highly selective thing. This year the visit feels extra-special as Firstborn is the same age now as I was all those years ago. It makes me see Geneva through the eyes of a child again, not just being reliant on my slightly rusty memories. The wonderful thing about Geneva is that nothing has changed all that much in the past thirty years; the trams remain the same, the toyshop Jouets Webber (which I once thought was the biggest and most wonderful toy store in the world) has the same facade and the same layout, the Flower Clock, the Jet d'Eau, les Jardins Anglaise, the Migros... all look remarkably similar now to how they did in the 1970's. First...

I am on holiday and while it is rather unseasonally cold and wet here in Geneva, I am sort of consoling myself with the fact that it is much more so in London right now. Watching the news and seeing the flooding in parts of the U.K. has been quite shocking, but the reporting of it has made me feel a little annoyed and a lot uncomfortable. OK, so technically the U.K. is in crisis. Obviously it's not going to be a barrel of laughs for those affected. Yes, it will affect livelihoods and it must be unpleasant to have to sleep in a community centre night after night, especially if you have young children. But we have to keep it in perspective - there is no large scale loss of life, there is no threat of malaria sweeping through the country to add salt to the wound, nor will people starve as a result. All in all, those directily affected will suffer upheaval, discomfort, emotional upset and will lose possessions (a large proportion of which will be insured). The farmers are likely to suf...

"Snake hand!" "Yah!" "Again!" "Yah!" "Spear hand!" "Yah!" "Again!" "Yah!" The sound of the Rabbit in a trial karate class and the smile on her face as she jabbed at the air, and shouted with complete confidence...

I just had to post a link to this site because I can't remember the last time I actually sat at the computer and just giggled and then laughed so loud I couldn't breathe and the Rabbit thought I might be choking on my "big people spicy gum" which is what I tell her so she stops trying to swipe my gum stash. So here it is: Go Fug Yourself . And I know at least 77.9 percent of you have already seen and read this, and the other 22.1 percent of you will think it's the meanest site in the world and I am equally mean for laughing with this extraordinarily sharp hilarious women but guess what -- I DON'T CARE! Enjoy!

MM's post about how a day in Gotham creates an echo in her wallet got me thinking about my own expenditure on the other side of the Pond. OK, here goes. Travel on the Tube - £1.50 in to work, one-way. And may I add that this vaguely reasonable price is only because I have an Oyster card, otherwise it would be a ridiculous £4.00 - and all for the 'pleasure' of being herded into a sweaty hot train and forced to inhale someones body odour while having my personal space invaded by all and sundry. Bah. Rip-off Britain. Etc. Starbucks Mocha F rappuccino - £3.15 (or thereabouts). Every morning, there I am, queuing up and handing over my cash like a good consumer mug. The sad fact is that I am totally dependent on my daily Frappuccino, even though I have been told that they don't even contain much in the way of actual caffeine. M y suspicion is that Starbucks Frappuccinos have a special secret super-addictive ingredient, something along the lines of Oxycontin or possibly...

Sure it's a cliche, but somewhat true: Every time I walk out my door, Gotham manages to make me $100 poorer. Okay, so some days it's $20, some days $4, some days $233.65. But I don't know how the city can act like such a money suck. Here's a tally of the Rabbit, Prince and my day yesterday: Ratatouille : $28 (2 adult tix, one child) Bagels/coffee/choc milk before: $20.65 Popcorn (SOOO necessary) $5 Apple store (not an iPhone and NOT drooling over it) $88 Cab home: $9 Drinks for friend's birthday: $43 Babysitter: $40 Tally: $233.65 Granted, it was a Sunday. Granted some Sundays are spent in the park with bags of grapes, cups of coffee, a $1 bottle of bubbles and the paper. But then there are those Sundays where money hoovers from our pockets. Makes me seriously long for an afternoon with just a book, some water and sunscreen for The Rabbit on the beach that it would cost us just $3000 to get to in Mexico .