Still living - much bigger and bolder...

Still living - much bigger and bolder..., originally uploaded by Racmol.

Planting the flowering cherry

Planting the flowering cherry, originally uploaded by Racmol.

One of those 'I was there' moments outside my work

photo, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Dot enjoys a small snack

Dot enjoys a small snack, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Dot is a calm hamster. She really likes sleeping in the daytime. She likes to play at night and she kind of makes a little rustle rustle tap. By Sofia.

Introducing Dorothea (Dot)

First pet, originally uploaded by Racmol.

So, we have news! After two weeks of extensive research and many hours on Amazon, we are the proud owners of one enormous cage (designed for ferrets), occupied by one very small hamster.

We went out in the snow this morning (I know - it's mad - nearly the end of March) to choose a Syrian hamster, clutching the Minimals small animal carrier that had arrived earlier in the week in one of the (many) boxes from Amazon.

We meant to choose a male hamster, as the hamster book says males are less bitey than females, but the guy in the shop suggested we look at this girl who was a little older than the others (13 weeks) and very friendly. So we all took it in turns to hold her and she seemed a bit more robust than the tiny jumpy males and not freaked out by Willy so we brought her home and now we have our first family pet.

She has her own covered toilet, which she seems to be using - apparently they are very clean animals who like to choose a specific place as a toilet. In any case hamster poo is just small black pellets and not offensive at all.

We quickly discovered she can climb right to the top of the cage so we may have to string up some hammocks to avoid her injuring herself if she falls. (Clearly I have been spending too much time on hamster forums!)

Tomorrow we will be getting her out to handle her and hopefully not losing her around the house...

Northern Lights odyssey

So we're back from our adventure in Finnish Lapland and we can all say we've seen the Northern Lights. I know this isn't the steadiest photo you've ever seen but somehow it's the most atmospheric and it was taken just on the path outside our cabin.

We left home at 7 am on Saturday and spent most of the day getting there - flying first to Helsinki then on to Ivalo and then getting a minibus to Kakslauttanen. In my mind, I'd thought that it was a romantic exaggeration to say that the resort was just a collection of log cabins in the forest and that really they'd all be clustered together around the restaurant complex with covered walkways but actually they are dotted about in the trees. Here's a shot of ours, complete with sledding inhabitants.

The sledding was fun! So we did quite a bit of it. 

We were glad not to have stayed in the romantic glass igloos as apparently they were pretty spartan - just a bed, and then a walk through the snow to the communal toilets and showers. Some people we met seemed pretty disappointed to have paid extra for the experience. 

The first two nights were cloudy and we met lots of people who had not seen the Aurora at all during their stay. Finally on the third night it was clear and Jules and I went for a couple of walks (individually) before Jules decided to have a final look before bed and discovered a huge green stripe in the sky above our cabin. So we got up and had a proper look and got the kids up (as we'd promised to). They were unimpressed - but then we had just grabbed them in their pyjamas and carried them out to look, not wanting them to miss it. And of course it wasn't quite the multi-coloured display that you get in Brother Bear. 

Jules went on a snowmobile safari on one of the cloudy nights and then, when it looked like our last night would be clear, we booked a Reindeer safari for Jules and the kids and a snowmobile for me, as there was only one sled available for the reindeer one and we couldn't all fit. 

Unfortunately, Sofia was violently ill at the dinner table just before the reindeer safari left so they pulled out. Willy had also vomited in the night a couple of nights previously and now Jules has it - I really don't know how we could get ill when we basically ate toast and jam for four days, interspersed with meat and potatoes but anyway. (Soft-boiled eggs one day, Jules says.) The only good thing to be said was that they didn't get charged for the trip, despite the strict no cancellation within 24hrs policy. 

As you might expect, once we had snowmobiled up on top of a mountain, and waited in the cold for an hour, the Aurora came out properly and filled the sky from horizon to horizon with the shimmering waves of green that you hope for. So I got to see what I'd come to see. I got back and showed Jules the photos and he said: 'You're horrible.' 

The funny thing was that Jules was adamant he did not wish to go on a husky safari and did not understand why I was determined to make my family freeze to death on such an expedition.  Afterwards he said that it was the most fun of the entire holiday and he would love to do an overnight husky trip into the wilderness. Secretly he would love to have his own team, I think. 

It was quite fun, in an exhausting sort of way. My passenger (Sofia) was way too light a load for our team and I spent a lot of time standing heavily on the brake so as not to run over the team in front, who had an adult and a teenager as passengers and an adult male driver. 

The huskies are Alaskan huskies, not Siberian, and bred with quite a few other things, as you can see.  Sofia and William were a bit of a tourist attraction in their snowsuits - a few people asked to have their photos taken with them. We had to explain firmly to Sofia that there was no such thing as a girlie snowsuit, just one that keeps you warm. Willy coped pretty well with his pink and purple suit, in the end, once we pointed out that it had planets on it. 

Sofia has a new arctic fox, called Snowy and Willy did have a toy snowmobile called Pusher until Dad sat on it in the plane and now he has a new blue car instead. 

Back in London it was 1C today and we foolishly went kite flying without gloves or hats and nearly died. Luckily we live close to the park.  

The school run...

photo, originally uploaded by Racmol.

From bad to worse...

photo, originally uploaded by Racmol.

This doesn't really do justice to just how heavy the snow is at the moment, and I have to go and pick up William soon (which I will be doing by train).

If anyone is wondering why I'm not blogging:

We have no bathroom.

Or living room.

Or dining room.

The shutters were finally coming today but the van went into a railing and decided to go home to Brighton.

I have had eight cold sores. Four remaining.

And a bacterial infection requiring antibiotics.

We have to move out again next week so the hallway ceiling can come down.

So I am not really in the mood for posting pictures of sunny New Zealand.