November

1/11
Pete is due back early hours. He’s been greatly missed. It will take a long time for us to come to terms with Emily's passing. At least everything else seems to be slipping into place now. Elodie is finding it tough at school but I’m sure she’ll get used to it, though they’re off for Diwali for 3 weeks which isn’t the best timing. We have decided to make a real holiday out of it and try to enjoy ourselves after the emotional turmoil of the last couple of months.

4/11
Elodie’s first play date! Cecile and Michael came round. We had great time. Great getting to know Cecile more, I expect we’ll become good friends.

Anjuna – Sunset Rave

Our first family trip to Anjuna. Crazy time, so much fun for the kids. The setting is beautiful, as soon as the sun has disappeared the night begins. The open air dance floor painted in various fluorescent paint, with different levels and podiums. It is an eclectic mix of people, old and young (Elodie, Chloe and Michael being the youngest). I swear some of the others chilling out on the steps were in their 70s, though who knows they may only be 40 and 20years of decauchery has aged them significantly!!

The girls were fascinated watching the tea ladies make them fresh omelette rolls and egg noodles in front of them on the beach. Dinner for the Maudes £3!

Diwali

This crazy Hindu festival is all about good conquering evil. It’s a 3 day festival but the celebrations go on for days. Children have 3 weeks off school. Thousands of Indians flock to Goa to party. It’s nuts! One of the customs is to build huge effigies, fill them with fireworks and then on the third day at 5am, burn them, the fire sets off all the firework and the thing explodes, this is simply to signify good has destroyed evil. Bonkers!!

Arambol

14/11

Had a superb, memorable, trip to Arambol. We love arambol. We stayed at Monty’s guesthouse towards the south end of the beach. The garden is so chilled, had a coffee then hit the beach with our travel buddies Team Toms. Girls had a ball with Jessica and Millie, the while awayed the hours painting coconuts and playing in the sea, spotting crabs and starfish.

We experienced our first drum circle at sunset. Loads of people come together to play drums and dance. There were jugglers, dancers, drummers, people meditating, acrobats, people on stilts, fire jugglers and people like us just watching, taking it all in – wonderful.

Back to Monty’s for dinner, kids had such fun playing with the other kids, Jessica, Millie and Michael, they’d missed this. Was

great getting more travel tips from the expert Team Toms! Bed at midnight, girls exhausted BUT they still didn’t want to go to sleep since the room only had disco lights, all in all a totally exciting, unique day/eve

16/11 Our 10th Wedding Annivversary

To mark this special occasion we went back to Leela Palace, in

south Goa where we celebrated our marriage 10 years ago to the day. Mum and Dad had the girls for the night. We couldn’t remember the last time we had a whole 24hrs just the two of us. We were spoilt by the Leela staff, with free cocktails, wine, flowers and chocolates in the room, later on a cake and bottle of champagne. It all felt so special and wonderful.

17/11

As lovely as it was being together just the two of us it was we were very happy to see our darling girls. Mum and Dad brought the girls around noon. We introduced them to Enid our wedding planner, who arranged everything 10 years ago. Lovely to see her again. Had a party in our room – as it was SO cool and girls wanted to get room service. Had such a good

time we decided to stay one more night!

18/11

Lazed by pool most of day since girls wanted to stay in kids club. It was just what we needed. We reminisced about our wedding day, Elodie was fascinated and in true Elodie style wanted to know all the details, what we ate, our guest list – it felt very indulgent being able to talk about our special day at length.

Had dinner with a great couple, Nigel and Karen, who have a tea shop, Beaus Beamaris in Anglesey. Fab eve.

26/11

Crocks on the rocks trip today – although if you were in UK you could definitely sue under the Trade Descriptions act as there

were no crocks on the rocks, in fact there were no crocks whatsoever, or anything for that matter, on the rocks…actually thinking about it there were no rocks!! It goes down as the most boring trip ever. I think the girls were bored, I mean they only said ‘I’m bored’ about a million times……To top it all off Pete had bad tum. Now of all the places you would want to be with Delhi Belly – on a boat, for hours on end, with a blocked loo, is not the place of choice. You gotta laff!

29/11

Wonderful day to Spice Plantations. The spice tour was fascinating – even for girls. Girls had first elephant ride, wow was it scary. Pete bottled it – you couldn’t blame him. Discovered that it wasn’t actually a day of bathing elephants but rather they bath you! It was more of a Elephant downpour, it’s incredible how much water they can spurt out of their trunks, needless to say I was soaked through!! Lunch was buffet style, simple Indian cooking, Dal, rice, spicy potatoes

and fresh watermelon for pudding. Delicious – even girls enjoyed ?