Gosh, we've been busy!

Well, we really must update this more often so I don't have to write an essay! But it's just getting the time to sit down and write it! So, since our last update we've done quite a bit. At the end of Feb, my best friend Claire was here visiting her sister. We managed to catch up and spend a day together and spend some time with our school friend Mich.

I started at my new job at Masterfoods. My first day was aboard the HMS Belfast for what they call an LSD day (and no that's not the drug, but stands for Learning, Strategy & Development). It was a great way to meet the whole marketing team, of course I couldn't remember everyone's name, I'm still having difficulties on that front!

It's been an interesting transition to Masterfoods, and after 5 weeks I'm starting to feel like I'm getting into the swing of things. I've managed to do some travel with work already, to Brussels, but that's going to be about it I think. I did manage to see some of Brussels other than the office which was good.

We had our first official visitor in March. Ben's cousin Claire came to stay with us for a week before heading off to Spain for 3 weeks of backpacking which we were most jealous of! She's tried out the sofa bed, has confirmed that it's quite comfortable, so for anyone else coming, don't be afraid of the quality of the guest bed (particularly when your alternative is a £100 a night hotel room)!!


Ben and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary by going to Paris for a long weekend. We were supposed to take the EuroStar over, but a fire at Victoria Station on the Friday meant that all trains were cancelled until the Saturday afternoon.



We managed to get some flights though, which meant instead of having Saturday afternoon wandering around Paris, we finally arrived at our hotel at 8.30 at night, with half an hour to get changed at to the restaurant for dinner. All of that was forgotten though once we were at the restaurant. It's called Sensing, and the name is very apt as it was an absolute taste sensation, and the atmosphere was fantastic.

Our hotel in St Germain was beautiful too, Ben certainly knows how to pick a good hotel. We spent Sunday in the Louvre and Monday shopping, which was good as the weather had turned and it was back to wintry weather after a week of sunshine. The language barrier was certainly no hindrance to Inge as she spoke the international language of Amex and manage to accumulate quite a few bags by the end of the afternoon. Somehow Ben suspects this may be the first of many shopping expeditions to Paris!

The following weekend it was back to France, but this time to Pau to visit my cousin Marianne as she was having a family reunion with her 3 children and their partners and children, and her brother descending down upon the tiny village of Rebenacq.



It was a lovely weekend, and we're so glad to have finally met Stephanie, who lives in England. There was a triathlon happening there, and on the Sunday morning we saw all these mad mad people, who in very cold weather, had run 18km from Pau to Rebenacq where they got on their bikes to cycle 35km to the ski resort to start the final leg of skiing. For a little village like Rebenacq, it was chaos having so many people come through!!

So now it's Easter and Inge's mum and step-dad are arriving on Saturday for the weekend before they fly off to Italy for a bit of a tour with her great-aunt who's coming from South Africa. It will be good to spend the weekend with them. Then, the next stage of our adventure is that we're off to the Carribean for the Cricket World Cup. Our brothers are there at the moment, and they had someone pull out the trip so they have some room on one of the boat charter legs, so we are joining them from the 14-23 April in Grenada to see Australia play NZ and Sri Lanka, and get a bit of sailing in as well as staying on a catamaran! But more of that later.

We hope everyone who reads this has a wonderful, restful break over Easter.

Inge & Ben xoxoxox