The first party's

The first party’s

I am going to my daughters baby shower tonight, I have no idea what to expect, I have never been to one before, at first I just thought it was another Americanism coming to England, but when you think about it, it is a really good idea. The new mum actually gets to enjoy seeing all her friends and family and opening the baby gifts, she looks fantastic, rather than everybody turning up when you look like crap after giving birth.

The night was amazing and yes I managed to get a little bit drunk, we put this down to nerves as I was meeting  my daughters ‘step mum’ yes that does sound strange, but she has been married to my daughters father for about 7 years , so can’t really call her anything else now.

It was so nice to meet Chris’s mum properly as it will be his family who will live close by and be there when I move back to France. If you are considering making a move like we have these are the things you will have to consider, can you let the in laws be the family that are there and will be in all the photos of your grandchildren growing up, it is heart wrenching but Debbie is so lovely, yes I can be happy. Plus we will be the family where you get to do all the nice things like summer holidays in France and sending over all the French presents.

The weekend after was spent at my parents, this was to have some time alone, as they had gone away for the weekend. It was heavenly to have a house to ourselves again. Until we realised they do not own a corkscrew, we searched the house from top to bottom and finally had to call them. I have now met their neighbours who were very nice and did have a corkscrew.

This weekend it’s off to Oldham to visit Kylie and Jacko, it was quite emotional as we realised we had not seen each other since we had all been on holiday in Spain, which was when they returned to England and we drove to France.

The following weekend its Jacqui and Steve, they cooked a fabulous meal (that is the royal they as it was actually Jacqui that cooked) and at approx 4am I realised I could no longer keep my eyes open, it is difficult trying to cram 6 months in to one evening.

We pretty much have every weekend covered with visits to friends or family, which is really nice but it just doesn’t seem to be enough, but all have said they will be coming out to France as soon as the house is ready.

Again if you are considering this type of move you have to be prepared to spend very little time with those who you have spent many years visiting, We used to spend many weekends with Kylie and I used to see Jacqui and Kate on an almost weekly basis, now it is going to be once every few months at the most. But if the friendships are strong enough they will adapt. But you will find out who your real friends are and who your fair weather friends are!