December Already??

Well hello again folks!

Cannot quite believe that we are now mid December and Christmas is fast approaching the world!

It's been a busy and eventful few months. We are all loving our new lifestyle and everyone seems to be adjusting just brilliantly. Cerys is settled at schoola nd has begun to take piano lesson's and is singing in the school choir too. Tasmin and Ruben have a few little friends who they enjoy socialising with regularly and Rufus is enjoying his demanding workload. For the first time in many year's I think things may be falling into place. I too, have met some amazing and wonderful ladies who I am proud to call "friends" and I have been offered so much support and friendship that it truly does make you see that there is still plenty good in this life.
We are facing Christmas with the absence of my parent's which I am beginning to feel the strain of - I haven't had a christmas away from them since Cerys was born 8 years ago :( On the otherhand, we are lucky to have Rufus' mum and sister over to help us celebrate the holidays which will be lovely even if it is different.
Our Hot, Hot, Hot weather has been replaced with that of typical Autum tempreatures which we are ashamed to admit are pretty COLD - especially at night when they drop way down! Can't remember the last time our household saw shorts and t-shirts on but at the same time the sun does always shine :)
I have begun to take an exercise class 3 times a week complete with baby's pushchair, called stroller strides which is a completely new concept to us all but one we are loving!
We are off to Arizona for a week a over the New Year and are looking forward to some warm weather (!!) and a week of relaxation. In case I don't make it back, I wish you all a very Merry and Peaceful Christmas and a Wonderful New Year to come. Sent with all the love from Team Gandhi xxxxxxxxxx

LA Babeeeeeeeee!

Yup, we finally made it to Los Angeles 3 weeks ago. Apologies for not updating this sooner but things have been obviously manic. We arrived to find our new lovely home, just as wonderful as we had anticipated. We then set about the task of shopping for essential (in Rufus' opinion) items such as a Television and DVD player along with kitchen electrical equipment which we had to leave behind in the UK.
Our container arrived the following week and all our worldly goods were finally reunited with us

although I have a sneaking suspicion that much of it is still to be discovered as we still have many cardboard boxes around. Im just worried that they are going to become a permanent feature!!
Cerys started school last week and thinks it is amazing. Yes, you read that right - "it's the best school I have ever been to Mummy" came the cries after the first day. What's that all about? Not sure you are supposed to have so much fun at a facility for education. Oh well!

Rufus had his first day in the office today and is relieved to find that his co-workers are rather pleasant. This ment that I had the house and the babies all to myself for the first time in months and it was great. I had 2 very well behaved little ones and an over-all peaceful day. I am joining a few "mom" clubs so that Tasmin and Ruben can start to develop what we like to term a "social life"! Alright for some isn't it? LOL!

Im going to sign off for now but i promise to return soon, hopefully with pictures attached to show you just who you are missing!!
A x

OOoops!

Guess who has done way too much shopping in New York? So much so that we have had to buy another very large bag to transport the extra purchase. The culprit? That would be Mr Gandhi who has the love of all good clothes - well Sean John, G-unit and DKNY to name but a few. Of course it didn't help that Macy's has a massive sale on baby and children's clothes either - how could we resist? Simple, we couldn't!!
Rufus has spent the last day in the NY office today and has tomorrow "off" to do the last minute packing and last mad dash to the stores for a final check that we have not missed out on any bargains - I doubt it though as I think we have bought all of them!! Oops!

This is what is to be our new family home - isn't it lovely??!! Well I think so anyway!!

It's the oldest house in Monrovia, built by the founder of the village - William Monroe - sounds like Scottish roots to me!

General Recap or "where has the last month gone?"

Well now, firstly, we are still in New York! We said goodbye to the lovely people at the Westin after a week and headed to Madison Avenue where we had rented a 2 bedroomed serviced apartment.

At first, everything seemed alright but as the first week there progressed, we noticed it just was not child friendly in the least! Low lying furniture, sharp corners, mixed in with eye level wall plugs and slippery floors all added up to two things - cuts and bruises! Anyone who didn't know me would wonder about my ability to be a mother at all when they saw Ruben proudly sporting a black eye!

So we moved! Back to another hotel, but this time it was The Regency on Park Avenue where we were allocated a 2 bedroomed suite which in itself is wonderful and here we remain to this day!

The children and I have visited and purchased from many a shop in NYC but we have to admit that we are now just keen to settle down back into normality although we will complain about that soon enough I am sure! We have spend a few days exploring central Park which is on our door step and we are enjoying mooching around the Sunday Markets.

Robina joined us for a few weeks and was a welcome visitor. It was lovely to have some adult company although I think if she had stayed any longer we would have bankrupted ourselves!

You will notice not much has been said about Rufus. Simple fact - he's been working stupid hours! Infact, most hours!

However, there is some light in the tunnel beginning to seep through - looks like we are finally LA bound a week from today! Have to say though, that I will only believe it when we touchdown there!

Love to all

Ax

Touch Down!

Well wev'e done it - and survived.........just!!

We arrived in the "big apple" on Friday, 6th July after a 7 hour flight. Actually, the flight wasn't too bad for us - it's the other guests in business class who I felt sorry for. We took of from Heathrow around 6.45pm and Tasmin and Ruben were not very impressed by British Airway's initially. They cried (pretty loudly!) and were unsettled for about 90 minutes but it felt more like 4 hours to us but luckily they found their sense of reason (aka. exhausted themselves out) and slept for the next 4 hours in they're car seats which gave Ruf and I a chance to eat and relax - oh yes and for me to work on emptying the on-board champagne bottles!
Princess Cerys on the other-hand was a happy little bunny and had great fun putting the sky bed up and down, and requesting snacks adn drink's throughout the flight. BA staff were fantastic to all of us - no complaints from us - Thank you to you all!!

Eventually we reached out hotel - The Westin Times Square at around 11pm US time and we all managed to get a few hours sleep before Tasmin and Ruben decided it was time to get up at 6am! Poor Rufus then had to head into the office to do some work while Cerys, I and the babies embarked on some retail therapy! After all, we are in New York!!

Getting Real

Today we showed 2 prospective tennant's around our home. OK, we don't actually own the property but we have lived here for a while now and I really do class it as my home. I have a slightly emotional attachment here - Tasmin and Ruben came home here and it means leaving their lovely Zeddy and Rhubarb nursery and that makes me sad. We spent so much time on that room and thank's to Grandad had a really beautiful place for them to sleep.
Mum and Dad are down visiting at the moment and Cerys is staying overnight in the caravan, which is great for her. She loves spending time with Grandma and Grandad and even though they have lived over 500 miles away for many year's now, Cerys remains very close to them. I hope that they manage to visit us lot's in the US and form the same sort of bond with Tasmin and Ruben.
We have also had a delivery of more boxes today, so that we can try and pack a few more things away in anticipation of Monday. Our dining room really does give a new meaning to the term "Chinese Laundry"!! There are clothes EVERYWHERE. Charity piles, relative and friends piles, chucking pile, Shipping pile and of course the 1st month to take with us pile!
We are out tomorrow night enjoying some farewell drinks with friends. Even writing this down seems slightly weird - I wonder if my brain will ever engage and accept that it's body really is moving thousands of miles away!! Watch this space!!

Teabags!!

I have just received a delivery of 1600 PG tip teabags from tesco amongst other things. Even the delivery man said "someone likes their tea!" when he dropped them off. I then felt compelled to explain they were being exported to the US, to which he thought he would be funny and ask "so what happens when you run out?", to which i let him know that by the time I drink 1600 cups of tea, I would hope that some family or friends would be planning visit to take me more!
Have just packed them away, along with half a dozen packs of fair trade coffee, baby wipes (they seem so expensive overthere!), baby bath, baby body wash, shampoo and deodorants! By my crazy ordering, you would think that they don't shower or keep themselves clean in the US but I guess I just like what we are used too!
We have contacted a school in Monrovia, which Cerys will hopefully get into. The principle has either an Irish or a Scottish surname, so it must be a good place - ha ha! The school day starts from 8am and ends at 2.55pm and on a wednesday, the children are released at 1pm. Beginning to have nightmares about how I will manage to get myself and 3 children out of the house by 7.30am - man, I only get up at that time now. Think I may have to go to bed at 9pm every night at this rate!
All 3 children had vaccinations yesterday - Tasmin and Ruben finally had their 3 dose of dip/tet/whoop and polio and the Men C and Cerys finally had the MMR and dip/tet booster. The nurse clearly dissaproved that it had taken 7 years to get Cerys MMR'd and again I found myself explaining that it wasn't the injection I disagreed with, merely the fact that babies seemed too small to have all the virus' whirring around in their system. All 3 were so very brave, especially Cery who didn't even flinch! Little did nursey know that she only had it because the US school needs her to have it! I have time on my side for Tasmin and Ruben.
Off to do some more packing and sorting - oh the joy's!

Welcome!

Hello to everyone reading this!

We have set up this blog so that any family and friends can keep up to date with our little adventure!

Background!

We have lived in Pinner, Middlesex for the last 2 years although we have been in this area for 5 years. Rufus was born and brought up in Harrow and I was born in Inverness and brought up in Ross-shire and Aberdeenshire.
Rufus works in London as a solicitor and is being transferred to work in the Los Angeles Office. I am, by profession, a Paediatric Audiologist although I have now officially "retired" in order to raise our fabulous three children.
So, it's goodbye UK, Hello Los Angeles!!

3 weeks Today!!

OMG! How scarey is that? We are very lucky, in that the company who is relocating us, will do the majority of packing for us, especially the valuable ornaments, as if they break them, they are fully insured, but hopefully these people will be a bit less, well, clumsy than me!!
However, I still need to catch up on clothes washing - Mount Everest is beginning to be a normal feature of our utility room. I blame the babies! I also need to streamline the contents, so that we don't end up carting junk from one side of the pond to another! This in itself is a huge task, made difficult further by two little rug rats climbing at your knee constantly. Oh Well - the joy's of twins, I guess!
We have found a beautiful home which we can move to - it's in a city called Monrovia, 15 miles from downtown LA. It's much smaller than some of the communities over theer and it means i can actually walk places. I don't fancy driving on the other side of the road just yet. The house is fabulous, everything I could possibly ask for and I will try and post some pictures here later.