Easter chez les Bernard

At the Bernard Bunch, Easter is about peaceful moments of harmony with the familyA time for brother and sister to spend some quality time together

It's a moment of sharing, with our loved ones

and enjoying some precious moments spent togetherOk stop that loud violin romantic music, we're at the Bernard Bunch, things don't happen like that here. Anyway, many thanks to Anne Sophie and Franck (my yummy Godfather) for a lovely Easter family celebration at their place, and here are a few celebratory pix (NOT taken by a still livid Mama who stalks the garden wall in camouflage gear and face painted in green and white every night, but courtesy of Auntie Valerie who was modest enough NOT to send the ones taken of her on that fine day)

My Easter Egg from Parrain (that's French for Godfather, and that's what I call him - or that I will call him one day, the day I get round to talking - I'm a right chatter box but as yet have not uttered a single 'real' world - whats the rush folks????). This particular Easter egg had a great taste - not terribly chocolaty, but pleasant none the less ...

Now isn't this a nice, natural, spontaneous pose? This is US, the new generation Bernard Bunch (all my cousins are in the pic but Lena, who was throwing some zzzzz's in preparation for staying awake all night long)

Here's my Uncle Laurent .... he's the one discussing the injustice of professional football wages with my Papa at the top there ... and he's Lena's Papa, living in sin with my Auntie Valerie who has declined to have photos of her published in MY BLOG.... PFPFPFPFPFPF

That's more like it!!! Aren't I the EAster Bunny!!!

Here my brothers and my cousin Alexis admire my extravagent beauty

NO! They are NOT playing on a flipper machine AT ALL

Now when Lena finally got round to waking up, she and I had a good time wrestling... all that was missing as a bit of mud:

ANYONE who calls me 'Thunder Thighs' will get a biff on the nose

AREN'T WE A GORGEOUS PAIR OF MUNCHKINS THOUGH????

(OK, so I'm a little bit more gorgeous than my cousin Lena, but you have to make allowances in life for the less fortunate)

Mama's editorial note / intervention : OI Abigail, don't you talk about my Goddaughter like that!!! She is the most gorgeous little Pumpkin Pie that ever worked this earth, so cut the nonsense ok?

(Humble Pie mode) - ok Mama

SO HERE IS MY OUTSTANGLY GORGEOUS COUSIN LENA

Who I am not wrestling with

and from whose special places shines lots of sun

Lovely Easter Lunch Anne-Sophie!!!

Sigh ... what a lovely day that was!!

Happy Easter folks!!!

Mama is going Pippa crazy

I fear Mama has regressed back to childhood ....

(ok, so whats new eh?)

Mama was wondering if anyone out there remembered her collection of Pippa dolls which she got when we lived in Ramsey Forty Foot in the 70's ...

I'm sure my Auntie Sianie must have played with them!! do they ring a bell? With outfits like that they must surely be difficult to forget!!!

If she has told me once, Mama has now told me a THOUSAND times that her favorite Pippa was the Penny one, despite those horrific blue dungarees she always sports (so seventees - yeuck) - she's even started up a blog on the subject (eyes raised to ceiling, hands in air palms pointed upwards) ...

Mama gets all soppy on me

Beautiful In My Eyes by Joshua Kadison

You’re my peace of mind in this crazy world.
You’re everything I’ve tried to find, your love is a pearl.
You’re my Mona Lisa, you’re my rainbow skies,
and my only prayer is that you realize
you’ll always be beautiful in my eyes.
The world will turn and the seasons will change,
and all the lessons we will learn will be beautiful and strange.
We’ll have our fill of tears, our share of sighs.
My only prayer is that you realize
you’ll always be beautiful in my eyes.
You will always be beautiful in my eyes.
And the passing years will show
that you will always grow ever more beautiful in my eyes.
When there are lines upon my face from a lifetime of smiles,
and when the time comes to embrace for one long last while,
we can laugh about how time really flies.
We won’t say goodbye ’cause true love never dies.
You’ll always be beautiful in my eyes.
You will always be beautiful in my eyes.
And the passing years will show
that you will always grow ever more beautiful in my eyes.
The passing years will show that you will always grow
ever more beautiful in my eyes.

Prison break and 2002

Are you all sitting comfortably?
Then I shall begin ...

... once upon a time (last Sunday, to be precise), Mama bought my brothers four mice and a Guinea Pig ...

... who, on the way home, all very craftily escaped from their cardboard transport boxes into the freedom of Mama's car - I sooo had a wonderful time watching all these rodents scampering over my panicking brothers.... Come on guys, they are only mice, they are harmless, tincy wincy wincy and soooo terribly cute!!!

Now although Mama loves rodents, she wasn't overly keen on the idea of them poohing (and more) over her brand new car without restraint - hence upon(very speedy) arrival at home, she leaped out of the car, gathered up the various breeds of rodent, and shot into the house to put them into some form of immediate captivity ...

...forgetting me in the car in the process (ok, so I'm easily amused - and I did get remembered - eventually ...)

but also forgetting her handbag (which didn't)

And it wasn't until the next day that we became aware of the oversight .... and of the theft ... who would EVER want to steal an illuminous pink handbag anyway????? Some real weirdos out there ...

to be honest, Mama seemed generally quite unbothered by the theft of her credentials, passport, vehicle registration papers, credit cards, health insurance card etc....UNTIL ...


She realised OUR CAMERA HAD BEEN IN HER HANDBAG!!!



Now that, dear friends, for my Mama, is a tragedy ...













And I swear that if EVER my Mama finds those M)(*&*@) 's who stole her camera, they are SOOOOOOOOOO in trouble ... never mess with a redhead, thats what I say!!! and never, ever steal her camera!!! Fortunately, my Mama doesn't have a gun ...

To top it all, all four rodents escaped into the wilderness the following night anyway ... what a waste of an escapade that was! They have, however, since been traced, and we are trying hard to have them brought back home. Read this to meet the escaped mice.

One other piece of good news : Mama did find some of her credentials three days later, in the lemon-tree flower-pot where I had helpfully deposited them, prior to the handbag theft.

SO once we all got over the depression of no more camera fun (ok, so only Mama really cares, but we can sympathise can't we???) we decided to let her publish these old photos whilst we all collect enough pennies (eurocentimes, sorry!) to buy her a new one (soon methinks, she is biting at the bit here ... )

So here's a quick trip down memory lane!!! This was 2002, four years before I was born : William was four and Nathan ... wow, Nathan was my age now!!!




I can't believe William's little face there! (front left, looking almost innocent), nor is it easy not to giggle at Emeline's squeaky-clean little girl hair cut (she's such a cool teenager now!). And why, exactly, is Nathan swinging through the air like that? To see if that really is Papi disguised as Father Christmas?



Same Christmas, but thank goodness the hairstyles have changed since then!!!!


I love this photo cos I think I look so like my brother here!!!!

And I so love his look of concentration here ... by Big Bro is such a cutie! And my Papa isn't too bad either eh??!!!

Aw shucks, aren't I lucky to have such gorgeous big brothers????

That's my Aunty Sianie way over at the far end, with my groovy cousin Alexis. William obviously had just escaped from another scrape ... or fallen out of a tree .. one of those typically Williamesque things he's always doing - and that little squirt in the background is Nathan looking like he is exactly my age now... Gosh I would like to be able to eat solid food like that (not that there is anything wrong with pureed food! Its delicious when my Mama liquidizes our Sunday lunch for me!!) and it won't be long before I too can sit at a table on my own! I'm getting there, truly I am - I am a very determined little mite!!

What a titch William was in this photo - can't believe he was ever like that! Four years old, Gordon Bennet - and he already had that "you wanna fight?' attitude on his face!!!

Nathan sledging with his parrain / Godfather, in Valmorel ... I have yet to discover this skiing lark ...

Cool dood budding here

Alexis and Big Bill have their first skiing lesson

(Mama tells me she has a vague recollection that William got to the top of the mountain with only one ski ... the other fell off on the way up)

Big Bill with his first ski instructor

Dunno who this could be, but she's trying not to be a redhead on St Patricks day in the office

Grandad and Nathan ... Mama loves this photo

William bouncing, for a change (NOT)

Papa and his Papa, my Papi (defs the best French Papi in the whole world, Jean-Claude)

Papa and his Mama, Mamie aka Viviane

who also spoils us all rotten

and thinks the sun shines out of our special places!!

a bientot folks...

Uncle Huwie runs a Marathon in Lazarote

My Uncle Huwie (my only English Uncle) just run a very long marathon in Lanzarote which is somewhere in the Canaries, according to my big brothers ... let me see ..
I suspect this is the beginning of the part he likes best, don't you think??? Canaries, hmmmm, we have two yellow ones at home which make beautiful singing sounds but I don't think they like me very much - fussy scaredy-cat things that they are ... they flap away pretty pronto whenever I get my mits near them, and they don't seem to like the way I always eat, lick and bite their cage bars - Papa thinks that is disgusting, but its great fun, you should all try it. The lady canary has laid five eggs (I suppose it must get very boring in a bird cage - what else is there to do other than sing and lay eggs I ask???)


Anyway, I am very proud to show you all my Uncle Huwie running this race under a very hot sun - Huwie, what were your results? How long did you take, and did you come first????

Just as a word of warning, Mama had her handbag stolen almost the moment she got back from Hong Kong ... and in her handbag was her precious camera! So there may not be many pix of my beautiful little face on my blog for a while, whilst we wait for her to save up enough money to buy a new one!!! She is very, very sad indeed, cos she loved her camera almost as much as she loves chocolate!!!

Snogs to you all, and BRAVO Uncle Huwie!!!

Oh I do beg me pardon! Uncle Huwie has just made an important rectification:
It's a "Triathlon", not a "Marathon". Triathlon is swim, bike & run.
Is he a hero or is he a hero? I can't even walk yet, never mind swim bike and run!!!
A double bravo to Uncle Huwie!!!