Middle Aged

Is this the start of middle age? I have got a personal trimmer as a Christmas present. It may be true that I have a slight nasal and ear hair growth problem but I can still handle it by pulling them out individually.

By the way how do you pronounce the name of the brand Tchibo? Is it Ch-eye-bow, Chee-bow or Ch-i-bo or something else?

A nice cup of coffee.

Our youngest has discovered the joy of warm beverages.

Christmas Day

Christmas day started with a candlelit breakfast:

Our youngest liked his Christmas lunch:

And our eldest took a self portrait with her new camera (which we are grateful for after the loss of ours):

A present for a special needs chef.

Black Christmas

It looks like we will have to have imaginary photo's on the blog for a while as a pick-pocketer got our camera.

Christmas Tree

We have put up our Christmas tree. We have got a 'real' one from the greengrocer around the corner this year after 3 years of having a Barbie (tm) pink one. The Barbie one was very nice but this one is much nicer. Though I hope it's still got some needles on by christmas day...

ASOK - Reincarnated but as part snickers.

Asok has been brought back to life but his DNA was mixed with "candy". Wonder what the HEFA make of that?

ASOK is Dead.

Poor old ASOK is dead.

We will miss him. I always liked him. Perhaps because I have some of the same naive idealism that he had. He may be resurrected - but then that would spoil the poignancy of his death in a kind of American vs. Not American style film ending.

New Bed

We have just got rid of the mattress we got when we were married. It had reached the end of it's useful life, with several large holes and odd pinging sounds when moved. It was also exceedingly uncomfortable. We are currently sleeping on our spare bed which if far more comfortable and lovely. We have also splashed out on new duvet's - mine is full of lovely fluffy feathers and is like sleeping under a warm cloud. Here's to many more comfortable nights.

Spot the difference.

My eldest.
Me.

Scanning

I have recently bought a scanner and have been obsessively scanning in photos from berofre we had a digital camera. It's so nice to look over so many happy memories. Our wedding, our eldest as a baby, me as a baby and many in between.

I am amazed at how many photographs we have. I thought we had a lot of digital photos - but it seems we have nearly as many normal ones. It's going to take a while to scan them all in...

Me.

My eldest.

200

This is my 200th post! It's a shame I can't think of anything exciting to write about.

Parent's Evening

We had our first parent's evening for our eldest at her new school this evening. It was really nice to chat with the teacher and find out how she is getting on. Our eldest seems to be settling in well and starting to make friends - she even has a birthday party to go to this weekend!

Our eldest before she ever started school

Vroom

I have got my new car - hooray! It is a bit strange after driving our Zafira and the handbrake is in a funny place and the bonnet sticks out at the front. Also it took a while to work out how to tune in the radio to radio 4. But it's done now. Phew.

New car

I'm supposed to be getting my interim new company car tomorrow. It's quite exciting. It's not brand new but it is still shiny. So if anyone wants to buy a slightly less shiny Zafira let me know.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Brrr. It's cold. Today was the first day of the year on which I had to de-ice my car. Also the minibus that takes my daughter to school failed to start and so I had to drive her there. Fortunately with my new job I could get her to school and still be in time for work!

This evening was a prayer and praise night at her school. A number of staff, parents and supporters get together regularly to pray for the work of the school - it was nice to be able to go and participate.

Eleven Years And Still Going Strong

Tomorrow is the 11th anniversary of my wedding. A lot has happened in those years - I have gained a couple of stone in weight, two children and a few gray hairs. We are still very happily married and still good friends. So here is a big thank you to my wife for 11 happy years and to many more to come...

Phew

Where has October gone?
My new job seems to be going well. (Well I am enjoying it - hopefully they are enjoying me!). Also this week, for one week only I am playing an Australian presenter in a childrens' holiday club. This is great fun, if a bit tiring. My wife is also presenting - we are a kind of comedy double act with bad Australian accents and a sparkly dress (Her's not mine.)

New Job

I started my new job today. It was quite a gentle introduction - just where the toilet is and how to get email. I think, in contrast, the next few days are going to have some quite serious learning effort on my part so I can be involved in some of the projects coming up.

Luckily I enjoy doing that!

Shoe shops - a comparative study.

Recently we have been to two different shoe shops to buy new footware for our eldest and youngest. Our eldest needed new school shoes for her new school and we happened upon a small independent shoe shop whilst we were on holiday in Frinton on Sea. There was no queue and we were served by a delightful lady with many years experience of fitting childrens shoes. She found some styles that suited our eldest and checked they fit well and would last a good long time. She even advised us on how best to proceed with helping our eldest get help for her slightly flat feet. The lady also advised us to just use normal shoe polish as we have been doing for years and we left happy. Today we went to a Clarks shop in our local shopping center. After battling through the crowds to reach the store we took a ticket from the dispenser to indicate our position in the queue. The number on the ticket seemed ridiculously high compared to the number on the indicator on the wall. We then waited for an eternity and were eventually served by a lady who measured our youngest's feet. She went to get him some shoes, the first attempt didn't fit but, after returning to what must be near the bowels of the earth judging by the time taken, we got a pair that fit. This was a victory in itself as generally they do not have any of the style we like in stock in the size we need. Then after refusing the obligatory offer of an opportunity to purchase special cremes essential for the care of the shoes (quite why they make shoes out of materials that purport to require such cleaners is beyond me, it's like having dry clean only tea towels) we leave with the newly purchased footware.
I think in future it might be more pleasant to drive the two and a half hours to Frinton on Sea just to buy shoes rather than braving the childrens' footware hell that is our local Clarks.

Two and three quarter years.

Well tomorrow is my last day with my current employer. I start my new job on Monday. It's been an interesting time with the merger with another company and then being sold to some venture capitalists. Parts of the job were interesting and parts boring but, as is often the case, it was the people that made the job enjoyable.
So here is a thank you to my colleagues and customers, and here's wishing you all the best for the future.

Letting the sides down.

Last night was our youngest's first night in his cot-bed as a bed and not a cot. He seemed to enjoy it and only woke us up at half six. So not too early, though a lie in would have been nice as our eldest was staying at some friends' house.

More and Less Sick

Well the virus did get me and so after a couple of days of not eating much, (I even had to miss free lunch day at work!) I feel much better. Unfortunately my youngest recovered quicker than us parents and so was a bit bored today but we have survived.

So now I am looking forward to watching Heroes and going to work tomorrow.

Sick

I am working from home today as there is sickness in the house. First my eldest succumbed and now my wife - who will be next...

Fortunately it seems only to last a few hours so hopefully my wife will be recovered soon as toddlers and work are an interesting combination and I am running out of DVDs. Though having said that my youngest and I are next on the virus's hit list.

Visiting

We have had a great day visiting my eldest's godfather and his wife. We met up for a picnic and church service in the park, went to their house for a cup of tea, went for a walk and a talk on Horsenden Hill, played in the play park and returned for crumpets. All in all a very enjoyable day.

Tutor Master Helps You Write Stories

My eldest's godfather is a private tutor and has also written a couple of great books. So if you are looking for a book that would help any children you know write stories then these are the books for you:

Party!!!

It was my youngest's birthday party today. He turned 3 a couple of weeks ago but his party was today. It had a dinosaur theme and was really good fun.

Here are some photos:

Niece's Hair

Me with my niece's hair:

Frinton on Sea

Frinton on Sea is a strange place. It's as if no one lives there. We went on holiday there for a week this summer and had a lovely time. But when we went for walks in the evening everywhere was quiet- most of the houses were in darkness. (Apart from the flat below us - but that is another story). The shops are all small and sell strange stuff - mostly for tourists. We do not know where the locals shopped.

Holiday in Frinton

Moonlit walk: A crab!:
More crabs!:
A boat:
The beach hut:

New Stuff

Exciting things are happening in the normal household. My eldest starts her new school next week, I am starting a new job next month and we will be getting a new car.

We have also just come back from a lovely holiday at Frinton on Sea. We stayed in a flat near the sea, had our own beach hut and spent time on the sand most days - catching crabs, building sand castles and in the case of my youngest jumping in the sea fully clothed.

Youngest's Birthday

It doesn't seem that long ago that we were a family of three. Now we are four and he is really adding a whole new dynamic to our lives as his personality develops.

Secrets

I quite like secrets, but I hate the fact that they are not much fun unless you can share them with someone else and then the secret is no longer secret. I suppose for maximum effect I need to tell lots of people individually before they find out from other people.

More Mundanity

Not much has happened over the last week. A trip to Glasgow with work was very pleasant - a nice way to get back into work mode from holiday. A fair bit of catching up at the office followed, with a fair bit to do still. And then just normal family stuff: a bit of shopping, a trip to the cinema to see Harry Potter and the Last Orders, Sunday school, but no gardening on account of the inclement weather. And some good news in that my eldest won some cool Simpson's stuff for inventing a humorous super pet.

Wearing pants on your head is fun.

Sorry to be so obsessed with potty training but a it seems quite a big deal at the moment. We are so pleased with our youngest's progress. When we started to try a month or so ago we had high hopes.

It all started with a trip to the shop to by him some pants. We made a big fuss of him and he was really pleased. we bought loads of stickers for his potty and made it look very special. He was still really pleased. He loved wearing his pants and sitting on his potty.

However he didn't do any wees or poos. Until... we went to my wife's mother's for tea. We took the potty and spare pants etc... and he suddenly needed a poo and a wee. We managed to get him to sit on the potty but there was no result. So he wandered off again. A short time later the urge came on him again and he ended up sitting on the potty in the middle of the living room. He did a huge long poo. This scared him a great deal. In retrospect in was a very bad idea to have the potty in such a public place. Once he had stopped shaking we praised him and encouraged him, but he was not going to be won over that easily.

From that point on he refused to sit on the potty at all. So my wife decided that the best thing to do was to leave it a few weeks. So we did.

We then decided to try again. We stocked up on pants and stopped buying so many nappies and commenced battle. For the first few days even wearing pants was not a popular move. We could put then on him but then we would suddenly find him without any and find the offending garments shoved in the washing machine. Gradually we won him over by making pants fun. Our eldest and I formed the "wearing pants on your head is fun club". He started wearing pants but wouldn't go in the potty. He would either not go all day until he went to bed for his afternoon nap in his nappy and let it all out at once or go on the floor or sofa or anywhere not waterproof.

Then we went on holiday and started the "if you do a wee on the potty you will get a sweet incentive scheme". He quickly got the hang of the whole thing after that, often pretending to do wees in an attempt to get extra sweets (to no avail). Poos came a few days later. He is still a bit confused about the difference between poos and wees - often trying many times to go on the potty with no result before the poo arrives. Hopefully now we are back from holiday and doing more things he will not lose the skill but we are fairly confident that he has got the idea.

Now the only problem is how to wean him off the sweets before he gets obese and his teeth fall out.

Proud member of the "wearing pants on your head is fun club":

If you would like to join please send a picture of yourself wearing pants on your head and having fun.

Another day in Bath

As Bath is one of our favorite places and as our youngest loves trains we took a trip on a train to Bath. The train was very full but the weather was lovely and we took a picnic and wandered about.

Eldest and youngest in a bandstand:
Costa coffee babycino poster boy: Me 'n' my boy:

A day in bath

Sign:
Southgate shopping centre:
Picnic in the park with my beautiful family:
Taking a dinosaur shopping:

A poo!

A poo in the potty. We are so proud! (I'll not post a photo).

A wee!

Today is an auspicious day. Our youngest has done a wee on his potty. Actually he has done three wees. Hopefully this is the beginning of the end of nappies.

Potty potty.

We are currently trying to potty train our youngest. As he is nearly three we think it is about time that he stopped using nappies - and besides they cost lots of money (even the cheap nasty one we use). The first hurdle was getting him to wear pants. He was not very keen on this at all. He would take them off, hide them and then demand to have a nappy put on. But now, after much encouragement from his mother (my beautiful wife), he will now wear pants. The next step is actually getting him to wee. He will not do it. He doesn't perform any bodily functions at all all day until it is nap time and we put a nappy on. He then lets it all out - pushing the capacity of the nappy to it's limit. Or again at bath time. Our eldest has, not surprisingly, started to demand to have the bath water first because of this.

Here's hoping that more encouragement will help him with this next step to adulthood.

Holiday Photos

Holiday Mk 1

Well we are back from our first holiday of the summer. A dual purpose trip to go camping for our eldest's eighth birthday and to attend my parent's joint 60th party. The party was good. The camping was good. The sleeping was not so good. Our youngest did not seem to think that he should go to bed in the tent. We suspect that is was something to do with a combination of it not being very dark in the tent, a lot of noise on the campsite and a lack of normal routine. On the plus side the weather was good. Sunny for a lot of the time and only raining whilst we were asleep.
We have two holidays left this summer so lots to look forward to.

New School Uniform

We have bought our eldest's new school uniform. It is lovely, if slightly big due to growing room. It cost loads but it seems good quality and looks very smart.

It feels like a new start in many ways and so it seems appropriate to have new clothes. Though I suspect that we may well get secondhand ones from benevolent friends in the future. Just new shoes to get now...

End of Term

Tomorrow is my eldest's last day at her current school. She is sad to leave her friends but I think she is looking forward to her new school. It does help that her current teacher is leaving the school and the supply teacher she has had for much of this term is going to be teaching at her new school. I suppose I'll have to decide whether to stay on as a parent governor or not. I want to but I'm not sure if I will have enough time and also I wouldn't want to take a place that a genuine parent might want. I suppose I've got the summer to think about that.

Product Review - Mamas and Papas Pulse Buggy

We have had a Mamas & Papas umbrella fold "Pulse" buggy since last summer. I have to say that I have not been very impressed with it. Though having said that it is definitely one of the lightest and easiest buggies to push we have ever used.
At first it was nice and looked very comfortable but after a few months the raincover split and the seat began to fray and now, after less than a year, it is practically unusable.
As you can see from the picture below it is an attractive looking buggy, but unfortunately not very robust.

Here you can see the aluminium supports which have worn through the stitching on the seat.

Even the wheels have not lasted long - here you can see that the tyre is half worn through.

So in summary I would say that this is a nice looking buggy. If you value lightness and ease of pushing over robustness a good choice. Ok for light use but if you want it to last, get a different one.
Fortunately my brother and sister in law have kindly given us their Maclaren buggy that their child has grown out of so we can still get around with out causing harm to our youngest.

Actually...

Actually a few things did happen.

• My wife did the talk at Alpha, she was very good. It was on God's Guidance. And there was pizza.
• I made a pirate costume for my eldest for her "dress up like a pirate sports day".
• My youngest fell over at nursery and gave himself a huge fat lip.
• There was a really weird rain storm where is was very very sunny and absolutely pouring it down - our youngest still keeps going to the window to see if he can see another rainbow.
• I bought my eldest two new raincoats so she could choose which one to keep.
• I went to work.
• My wife worked an extra day at the nursery.

We are off now to spend the money she earned.

Nothing much happened

This week nothing much has happened.

Cake Sale Extortion

We went to a fete at the school our eldest will be starting at in September. It was really nice to see the large number of people supporting the school by attending as well as to see how many people we knew. Our youngest had a nice time and sampled some of the wares on the cakes stall, leaving sticky finger marks all over the top of a rather nice chocolate cake. We were forced to then purchase this chocolate cake at an exorbitant rate by the proprietor of the stall. At least it goes to a good cause and we got the tin thrown in.

Our eldest's new school with the cake stall in the foreground. (You can see the proprietor arranging his cakes to snare another unwary family.)

Another view of the school with a tug-of-war in preparation.

Defecting

We have defected from Tesco.com to ASDA home shopping. In order to save money and also to try out the new ASDA delivery service which has recently started in our area. On the face of it the two services seem similar. However there seem to be better safeguards in the ASDA version. When you get a different product substitute for the one you ordered you only pay up to the value of the thing you ordered, with tesco you can get charged more if your chosen product is unavailable. We'll let you know how we get on.

Duggie dug dug

We went to a church service led by Doug Horley. It was very good. Our two children loved it, as did we. It was a really good mix of action songs, puppets, teaching and fun. It was especially nice as we got to see some people who we don't get to see that often who were also attending the event. So if you are a church looking for something special to do for a Sunday morning (or any other time) I would recommend booking Doug Horley and his team.

Playing nicely

Our youngest playing with our eldest's doll's house.
She was a skater girl...

Result

Well. I have finally heard the outcome of my recent interview. The outcome was that I didn't get the job. Whether this outcome will be negative - well only time will tell, but as all things work together for the good... I can hope for the best. As least the management structure at work is becoming clear and this should allow everyone to settle down and work well.

Lego and Swimming

We went for Sunday lunch at some old friends. My wife used to look after their children when they were young. We hadn't seen them for a couple of years and so it was amazing to see how the boys had grown. In addition, as they had grown so much our children were bequeathed an array of plastic dinosaurs and an amazing assortment of Lego.

Our children were also thrilled as they have a small swimming pool in their garden and we had a go in it after lunch. (I had to get in to stop our youngest drowning). And much fun was had by all.