March 2008

Hello lovely people,

Well, we have arrived. And amazingly all our luggage - including the 50kg of free (!!!!!) excess luggage - arrived with us. We were met at the airport with a big banner and two very happy grandparents!

The flight over was actually okay. Not good by any stretch of the imagination, but far better than we imagined! The boys did sleep despite the air stewardess' best efforts to clear the crap (i.e. the boys) from under our feet. Emirates were good to fly with but not the outstanding airline I had expected. All the staff were very polite but sadly we didn't get to practise our Zulu with the relevant Zulu speaking airhostess on the last leg. All in all I think Oliver only did a couple of hundred laps of the plane.

We spent the first two nights at my folks which was a godsend as the jetlag was bad for all of us. Oliver went to bed at the normal time but was up and raring to go from 12 until 4am on the first night, and thankfully only 12.30 until 3am on the second night. He also missed his daytime sleep on a couple of the days which was wonderful for all involved. Fred has been good relatively speaking, with basically being fed every 3 hours, 24 hours a day since Monday. He's loving it and has become even more hefty than he was. I don't think the doctors believed me when I told him his age.

The house we've moved into is gorgeous. Mum and Dad did a sterling job in getting it perfect for when we arrived, including plant planting, TV buying, and even painting! As always there were abundant thoughtful details like Marmite and raisins in the cupboard and buddas (strawberries) and grapes in the fridge for O. Oliver is sleeping very well in his "new bed" as he keeps telling us and the Thomas the Tank Engine bed sheets were a total hit. We are about 7 minutes walk from a brand new park which Oliver has already test run and given the O seal of approval.

Very excitingly, Fred has decided to take this week to learn how to roll and is now officially on the move. His first roll was about 4am on Tuesday morning. It wasn't long after the bath I'd had with Oliver to try and calm him down at 1am! He continues to be the smiliest baby on the block and is making friends left right and centre. He loves the vibrating chair that Mum bought him!

Needless to say, it's sodding freezing over here. I had completely forgotten the chapped lips and frozen fingers you get from taking a short stroll. My body has given up trying to cope with the mania of the past few weeks and sucumbed to a stinking cold; and we've already had our first trip to the doctors with Fred, who had an allergic reaction to the cream we massaged him with. Don't believe the hypo-allergenic crap Stella McCartney bangs on about - babies and certain essential oils in her cream don't mix well. Oliver spent the first two days refusing to put the coat on and then realised that it's much warmer with one on and now refuses to go outside without his hood up on the £9 dufflecoat we rushed out and bought him on Tuesday. Fred and him have permanently red cheeks.

Jeffy is back at work and did concur with the travel time my Mum gave when she tested the commuter journey for the bus. He was slightly disappointed when there was no welcoming party on his first day in the office but I believe he's met almost everyone since then. I think he's finding the shopping in Guildford good and a little too much. See previous emails from the US and Macys exploits!

You'll be disappointed to know it's a joy reading The Guardian again, being close to my family, Maison Blanc's almond croissants, watching (spectacular) football at a civilised hour; and you'll be pleased to know it's not a joy seeing The Daily Mail headlines, having permanently chapped lips and red cheeks, and dealing with all the chavs that live in Farnham.

I also have a confession to make. I didn't activate the roaming facility on my phone so that's out of order; but both Jeffy and I have new mobiles. We have been promised internut access by BT (so who knows when that'll arrive) sometime soon hence the lack of email contact. I'm having to rely on going round to Mum's the catch up on emails, which makes keeping in touch difficult.

We haven't done a great deal but eat, sleep and unpack since arriving but already we're missing you all. It's not just the lack of good coffee honestly.

Much love,

Em, Jeffy, Oliver and Fred xxxxx