Desperate Anglo Housewives : Bordeaux > she's back and dating in her 50s

Where reality meets fantasy... This will not be an altruistic, new year's rant. Promise. I have found myself slipping rather too happily into "holiday mode"... Sleeping in later than 7am  Reading in bed until 10 with steaming mug after mug of tea  Shocking my French husband's sense of "perfect wifely fashion" with my sagging grey sweat-pants. Yes, even went for the newspaper in them....noticed that there are no head turns for elegance and poised dress but definite turbo turns for sweat pants in public...ah, vive la France!! Leisurely bacon and eggs with the papers instead of healthy muesli shovelled down at top speed No work, no students, no marking, No talking, limited serious conversation Another glass of Sauvignon Blanc Not quite ready to detatch myself from this perfectly relaxing mode. Yesterday I put my business diary out on the kitchen table to remind myself that reality awaits. It's next year tomorrow and back to work next week. I

After finishing work last Friday, life has been a haze of Christmas drinks, crazed shopping and wondering what day of the week it is. This morning I realised I'd completely forgotten to make a Christmas cake. So, today is a kitchen day with BBC 4, mulled wine and my mother's amazing "Cheat's" Christmas cake recipe which short-cuts all the overnight dry fruit soaking with a simple jar of Christmas mince.  Fabulous Nigella Lawson also has a similar recipe in "Feast" which she unashamedly calls   The Non Cake-Maker's Christmas Cake. Here is the recipe I  use - eaten "natural" with a dusting of icing sugar or finished off with a plonky Cognac Butter icing. Cheat's Christmas Cake 125 gr butter 225 gr soft dark brown sugar 175 gr flour 100 gr ground almonds 2 t baking powder zest of a lemon zest of an orange 4 T cognac 2 eggs 400 gr Christmas mincemeat 1/2 cup sultanas 1/2 cup whole almonds Preheat oven 175°. Whizz butter and sugar

Getting through Christmas as an ex-pat desperateanglohousewife . We all know that Christmas is supposed to be the time of family togetherness, parties and fun. But frankly, for many of us, it’s a time of great stress mixed with extreme home-sickness plus the heart-wrenching pain of children leaving home for the divorced partner's over Christmas. All teachers understand the stress of end of year classes, marking and team-management. Our students are exhausted, the pile of marking reaches monumental K2 heights and colleague management takes every last drip of energy. For those of us ex-pats who live just too far away to fly home to our respective "home" countries, Christmas marks yet another time away from our loved ones. I dream of a warm  NZ Christmas surrounded by the laughter of my mad family and another top-up of fine NZ Sauvignon Blanc... One in three families also has to deal with the pain of children leaving home for Christmas. Every other Christmas my