“Brighton Rock”

Our last stint in mainland Europe was topped off with a visit to see the Pace-Derome family, old friends of ours who now live just outside of Paris. Although we were only a matter of minutes away from the center of Paris, a couple of half-hearted visits to the capitol failed to take in the Louvre, but succeeded in visiting the Eiffel Tower, the Arc De Triomphe, Notre Dame Cathedral and the gardens of the Versailles Palace.

One of the highlights of our visit was that Lela got to spend a day in the city with Olenka, a friend from school in New York, who just happened to be on student exchange in Paris at the same time as we were visiting. While Lela and Olenka got lost in the city, the rest of the family got a unusual guided tour by Axel Pace. Just like his dad Niels, Axel has a soft spot for high end sports cars and so we were taken on a detailed exploration of some of his favorite car parks in Paris, on the search for Porsches, Lambos and Fezzas

Fun in Paris with Lela and Olenka, Jule and Axel

After spending a suitably forgettable last night in a rather dull, grey and basic hotel in Calais it was blissful to be back in Claygate even though it was only for a week. It gave us a chance to post Christmas prezzies, repack, regroup, and renew the kids British passports. Most importantly, Ollie got a thorough wash, passed her MOT and was sold for cash to a charming Somerset retiree. We wish him the best of luck on his travels…..and that’s all we are going to say about that.

Kids trying to look sad as we loose Ollie

Asia beckoned but we had a few days left before leaving so as we were “vehicle free” we hopped on the train to Brighton to spend time with the Katsourides family. As always a brilliant time was had by all. We squeezed in a football game with Jasper in midfield; Nik, Jan and myself went on a “boys night out” to see the brilliant Dweezil Zappa, and the kids got creative with a skateboarding video – a huge improvement on the one that my friends and I made as kids using my Dad’s Super 8.

December 5th, the day finally came to fly to Sri Lanka! We left Brighton with a mixture of sadness (leaving our friends once again to step out into the unknown) and happiness (leaving 3°C for 30°C), though all of us feel a bit anxious about what is before us….here we go…wish us luck!