New recruits for new school year!

Yes, that's right! Another school year started this 1 September and the Hoff population at Ecole Plein Air has doubled:) Jules and Louie joined Nikita and Jojo at the local school and so far so good.......well, in truth it could perhaps go better.

Day 1 (Thursday): Jules & Louie, 4 'accidents' a piece
Day 2 (Friday): Jules - 0 'accidents', Louie - 1 'accident'

Thank goodness for the weekend. Time to get in some intensive training!! Jules is on top of it all. But Louie......he CAN, but he simply don't WANT :/ (yes, he's the less smiley-looking one)





"I am the calm, the calm is in me" (new meditating mantra, like REALLY new....) LOL!

Summer holiday #2: North Steading Cottage, Isle of Lismore, Scotland

What an amazing place this is!!!! I cannot begin to describe its beauty. What I can relay to u is just how incredibly LUCKY! we feel to have found THE place to stay in THE most gorrrrgeous part of an already fabulous country. The land, the sea, the mountains, the people. We will be back to this lovely little isle with its foot ferry passage to mainlaind Scotland just 20mins sth of Glencoe on the shores of Loch Linnhe.

While here, we’ve feasted on fresh mussels, razor shellfish, wild salmon, mouth-wateringly delectable lobster, and I must say the juiciest pork saussies ever………..!!! Christian has been out running 10kms every other morning……I may need to join him from the amounts that I am imbibing;) Tommorrow night we will hopefully find our way to a Ceillidh (pronounced ‘kelly’) to boogie down with the locals traditional Gaelic style. We need to hitch a ride from our cottage to the Town Hall some 5 miles inland (we’ve left Darth Vader – our big 7-seater Volvo, on the mainland). We’ve been (knowledgeably) informed by the wife of the ferryman, that offers of whisky should ensure us a lift there and back LOL! Also what I find particularly lovely are all the parallels with New Zealand that we find here. Sooooo many people have either travelled or want to travel or family who lives, or who are planning to live in New Zealand.

Way of life here on the island is in fact very simple which is a major part of the attraction for Christian and I. It’s been very good to have this experience tho’ as we both have discovered just how simple we’d like eventually for our own lives to be (or not;) Christian, for example, needs his fresh bread each morning. I’ve been baking our bread most days and while it’s not too bad – in fact I am rapt at the compliments am getting, I’m certainly not up to ‘croissant-capability’ (yet!) He also needs to SEE people every so often. Myself? I need broadband and internet connection. I can rough anything else. Nikita and Jojo need other kids to play with. And the twins? I suspect they don’t need anything else except ‘vroom vroom’ and ‘bateaux’ (boats).

Summer holiday #1: Sailing in Denmark

Talk about great fortune!!!! This year, we were able to treat ourselves to TWO getaway holidays. First was 3 weeks in Denmark onboard friend Jens’ catamaran (LUXE!) Strictly speaking, it was 3 weeks for Chris and the littlies as I had to commute back to work the last 2 weeks in Brussels. Whatever! It was a gorgeous way to enjoy the summer days!

We were moored near Fregatten Jylland for most of our stay which meant enduring periodic cannon blasting during the days. Jules and Louie loved to point at it and say ‘BOOOOM!!!!’ and although we knew it was about to blast, it still managed to make me bump my head on something in sheer fright LOL! Actually, our mooring was well terrific as it was 2 seconds away from the best coffee in town PLUS! the lovely lovelies at Gemyttlig (great little eatery in Ebeltoft, if every u get there) had installed a beach volley/football arena complete with viewing platforms and a place to partake in a morning yoga session, or – as Nikita discovered, an evening’s zumba lesson.

Also during our stay, Chris and I sailed around the island of Samso, staying nearby on the much smaller island of Tonu, a veritable haven of peace and loveliness. It was a great long weekend’s sailing, even though it meant being a day later than expected back in Brussels due to a rather big storm hitting us on the day we were meant to leave. Oh darn;)

Go Jojo!!!

Our little Joakim turned 7 in April, but it was only later in May that he got to party with his mates. We all went off to the speedway for his party, which after a very quick height check (which they all passed – phew!) Jo-jo and friends all jumped into their little go-karts and did a few spins around the track. We think they had a good time;) More photos in the links.

So, Papa Hoff turned 40 - and then what?

Thx to the 15 of u who took part in our ‘Chris is 40’ survey. What answers we got!!! We shared them with Chris on the day – and boy did he laugh out loud!! He hadn’t a clue of what we were up to (hee hee sneaky laugh). As usual, there is no black or white, right/wrong response here and the fun is in the mashup answers we get. But for posterity’s sake here we are:

1. Christian was 2yrs old before he started walking. Mum, Kirsten told me that she’s more than sure that he knew how to well beforehand….but he was even earlier in developing his talent of getting people to do exactly what HE wanted, which at that time was ‘pick me up and take me there’ (pointing)

2. Christian has actually worked in each of the professions mentioned (I didn’t know about the checkout operator – still can’t see it!) and yes, the most ‘interesting’ was his turn at glamour photography during a year study in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

3. Only 3 of you correctly identified his fav musical as being West-side Story. Interestingly, it is my least favourite. My fav is The Sound of Music – which he likes the least. But then we meet very nicely in the middle with Hair (incidentally which Christian introduced me to only earlier this year)

4. And indeed, upon hearing we were having twins, Christian did announce ‘I wish I was gay’……a few minutes after he fell over and hit his head on the floor, I must say LOL!

5. And finally, how many hidey places does Christian have actually for all his chocolate and biscuits?? I have to be very careful here as do not want to let on of how many I am actually aware. Thank goodness for the save-all answer (which is in all probability, the most correct) ‘there are simply too many to count’.
Check out some photos from his b-day itself in links to the right. (Hopefully, I can remember my flickr account details!!)