Mrs Pitt Signing In.........

This will probably be the only time I will write on the blog as there is no way I could ever possibly compete with the 'Thomas Hardy' of Lima! Well where to start on our first week in Lima.
Tilly was amazing on the flight, I was prepared for hell and I was armed with my pack of pacifiers (dummies!) but she was an angel. This could not be said about the poor peruvian baby next to us who cried the entire 12 hours but maybe the ten blankets, hat, gloves and the fact he couldnt breath from being smothered by his mother didnt actually help.
Day one and we jumped in a taxi with Tilly strapped to Jon's front, the taxi driver as he asked us to pay upfront this is unusual behaviour(we are talking 5 soles which is roughly £1.25) after giving him 3 of the 5, he shook his head and claimed it was all 'falso', he asked to see more money 'falso tambien' and by means of offering a solution he very 'kindly' offered to take us to the bank.....I dont think so!well we didnt last long in the taxi as Jon started shouting 'dimembarko' and we found ourselves back on the street and away from the dodgy driver.
Jon tactically kept certain things quiet before our arrival.... I am a great believer in if you have a baby noone actually wants to hear about how many times he/she poos, what colour it is etc etc the fact is everyone i have met so far will inevitably at some point talk about their own toilet habits and their motions, simply because the amount you become ill in Lima is clearly more than anywhere else in the world. When you greet people with the puruvian one cheek kiss you then talk about your bowel movements, put it this way I am dreading when that time comes!
Crossing the roads........Jon never mentioned you take your life in your hands when you cross the road in Lima literally 'Frogger' eat your heart out (For Those of you too young to understand what frogger is - a 1980's amstrad game where a frog tries to cross the road without getting killed!) I have been shouted at numerous times because Tilly has only one blanket wrapped aroung her (as its 30 degrees!!) by not only numerous old ladies but even an 11 year old begga who told me off for Tilly not wearing a hat (this was in the Brazilian bar drinking the 2 for 1 cocktails like responsible parents that we are!) Tilly is also seen as being a freak here; she is a Gulliver like giant in the land of the Munchkins, the fact she can hold her head, smile and is now gurgling at just over 2 months....?dos mesas no no quatro mesas? the peruvians try to insist......
(Editor back again) Having Clare and Tilly here has made me feel like a tour guide through this mad city. Leading them through the life or death guidlines of how to cross the street, which roads to avoid, when to say 'si' and when to say 'no gracias' at the checkout for shopping and trying to combine all the high points of Miraflores, Surco and Barranco into the first week. I had the nervewracking job or trying to sort out injections (many thanks to Mrs Reeves ((with an 's')) for helping Clare with the job of a 6-in-1 jab! and taking her to the most religious clinic in the whole world (large Jesus statues peer down on you as you sit in the clinic and I have also been told that in the operating theatres they have paintings of Jesus guiding the hand of the Surgeons ((I pray they have also had some kind of training too)).
Then taking them to Barranco to try out the wierd and wonderful world of Peruvian food - Lomo Saltado is salted meat with Sweet potatoes and a red onion sauce, it has to be tasted to fully understand just how tasty this is. Also Cevice, which is raw fish dresssed in a lime and red onion sauce (again a Taste Sensation!). Barranco also enabled Clare and Tilly to see their first humming bird and for Clare to stare up at the sky as about 8 vultures circled overhead.
Today was health check day at work. You turn up and then wait in queues with other teachers as step-by-step you are taken through a health production line. Blood test, check. Height measurement, check. Weight, check. Eye test, check. Chest X-ray, check and general MOT overview, check. Everybody seemed amazed that it was all offered free as the Private health clinics pilled advert after advert into your hands for laser surgery, illness insurance plans and (most surreal of all) a man dressed as a giant tooth handed out balloons and dental insurance plans (free indeed!!!!. Anywho - back to today's guest editor.

Anyway I am missing a brilliant game of rugby ( Toulouse V Biarritz, vivo en ESPN mas) so to sum up: the house is amazing ( the boy did very good), the people are kind, the food is great if a little crazy at times and The Pitts are settling well into our life in Lima.
P.s I am now officially a lady that lunches...........

chiao