Like dancing ballerinas...

Fuchsia flowers always remind me of ballerinas in full skirts, so dainty and graceful. Yesterday was officially the start of autumn but there are still a few pretty flowers in the garden, and rose buds too.

This morning I took Thomas to Kingston to get a few items of clothing as over the summer he has shot up and his trousers are all too short - every day he stands next to me and says 'I am now taller than you' - but he isn't quite there yet. Maybe by Christmas he will be taller than me - that is all he wants, it is a right of passage to be taller than your mum as he then feels he is finally grown up. As if...he still has to get taller than his dad...

Poor Luke is not having an easy time in Strasbourg so far. He has had to cope with so much admin and sorting stuff out for his room, it has been a real learning curve for him. Apparently foreign students get a rebate of €100 per month which needs to be paid into a French bank account. So today he went to open a bank account which involved making an appointment with the bank manager and then going back to have the meeting - all conducted in French, that would have been interesting to hear - his school boy A level French would have jumped a few levels this week! And despite giving all the information and forms they needed before he got there they need more forms, so I have been scanning and emailing documents across to him. They needed three copies of Gavin's payslips, utility bills, a declaration written out in hand and signed by Gavin....this is after we have already paid the fees.