Stuff and Nonsense

Viking Invasion (slight return)

noreply@blogger.com (Rowan) — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 07:52:00 +0000

The Vikings are coming, the Vikings are coming!!!

A Really Useful Engine

noreply@blogger.com (Rowan) — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 07:32:00 +0000

The weather here has utter crap recently - rain, rain and more rain - and while its fine to do most play areas with one adult to two pre-schoolers, its not really feasible/safe to do things like swimming etc. That does limit your "when wet" scope considerably. However, a week spent at my mum's meant we didn't have this problem; here they are on the East Lancs railway, enjoying a trip on the steam train from Rawtenstall to Heyworth.

We didn't do anything epic during the week; working farm, local parks, play area (and a first trip to the barbers for both boys!) as well as an afternoon spent bouncing on Aunty Amanda's huuuuuuuge trampoline and playing with cousin Hannah on their Wii. I think both of those items will be bought in the coming year.

Unfortunately, most of these photos are on my mum's new digital camera that I was giving a try out; as she doesn't have broadband or a cd/dvd burner, they'll have to wait until she visits next week and I can upload them to my gallery.

Meerkats United

noreply@blogger.com (Rowan) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:44:00 +0000

The Observer magazine is generally free of adverts for tat; you know the ones I mean - the Franklin Mint's Celebration of 20 years of Star Trek: The Next Generation with a specially commissioned plate with a portrait of Jean Luc Picard on it etc.

However, in Sunday's edition I spotted these:-

Made from real genuine poly resin, they are designed to sway in the breeze in your garden, apparently.

I think I might have to have some. I especially like the authentic feel of the one with the red scarf around its neck.

Speech Therapy

noreply@blogger.com (Rowan) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 07:54:00 +0000

Just after Sam's second birthday in February I took him to see the Health Visitor; he still wasn't speaking, he wasn't even babbling. And on Monday, five months after his birthday, we finally got to see a Speech Therapist. The wheels do grind exceedingly slow in the NHS sometimes.

Anyway, the therapist spent some time with Sam testing his play skills and comprehension and concluded that he's perfectly normal in all other aspects of development; he is just being slow with his talking.

Obviously this has come as a great relief to us; for the time being our fears of speech apraxia, years of therapy and special schools have been allayed. While there may yet come a time when (if he still isn't talking) he may have to be referred to a paediatrician, for the present the therapist is confident that we can get him talking after some sessions with her.

So, now we're in the system, it won't be another 5 months to our next appointment; we will be going back next month. In the meantime, we have to continue with our efforts to get him to talk - he says Dadada quite a lot now and even managed Mama yesterday, so maybe we are already making progress. Still, at 2 1/2 years he should have 250 words by now, so we have a long way to go.

What We Did On Our Holidays (Part 2)

noreply@blogger.com (Rowan) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 07:04:00 +0000

I turned 40 on 9th July, and by way of celebration, Doug and I treated ourselves to two days of child-free relaxation in London. We had originally planned for it to be four days of sight-seeing and catching up with old friends, but my mother-in-law didn't feel up to looking after the boys for that length of time; her rheumatoid arthritis is particularly bad at the moment. So we left it at two days of "us" time.

We took afternoon tea at Fortnum & Mason (lovely; so elegant - and Chris and Poy from CBeebies were at the next table!) and went to see Spamalot at the theatre (extremely stupid and silly and the funniest thing I've seen for ages).

On my actual birthday, we went to the King Tut exhibition at the O2 (to spend the morning with exhibits even older than me) and to the Globe Theatre in the afternoon. It was also the wettest day I've experienced since the day of the E Yorks floods last June; apparently London got a month's worth of rain in a single day. Needless to say, we got very wet feet and as Doug didn't have a brolly (until much later), he got extremely wet; he finally succumbed and bought a rain cape from the Globe:-

We ended up doing a bit of shopping in Hamleys and in the Haberdashery department of Libertys, which is possibly my favourite bit of shop in London; all that wool, all those different colours and textures, and still the same woman running the shop from when I used to go there over my years in London. There was even a chair for Doug :)

The rain eventually stopped and we managed a couple of cocktails and then dinner at the Boulevard in Covent Garden; we'd originally aimed for dinner at J Sheekey, but its proving impossible to get a table there now. But the Boulevard was where we went on our first date, so it was lovely to go back.

Anyway, a rather wet but very enjoyable break from the kids. Am I bothered about being 40? Actually, not really. I didn't like 30 as I didn't feel I had anything to show for it, but at 40 I'm a wife and mother, and while I might not have anything resembling a career, I feel content. That said, from September Sam will be starting Playgroup with a couple of sessions a week and it won't be long before he'll be there most mornings a week; if life begins at 40, its time to start thinking what to do with the rest of my life....

What We Did On Our Holidays (Part 1)

noreply@blogger.com (Rowan) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 17:04:00 +0000

We're just back from two weeks of sun and fun, lego and London, donkeys and Domes, and pythons and Play Areas. At some point during this period, I hit the big 4-0 (more of which later), but in this post I shall mostly blather on about the majority of the holiday, the bit spent with our kids.

First up was Brighton for the christening of Julian and Cass's twins, Eben and Eloise. I would like to say that I have loads of photos of this event, but as in the case of most weddings I attend, I failed to take the camera out of my handbag. However, we did have two very nice days in Brighton and Hove in a particularly nice holiday let that was only a stone's throw from the beach and this playground:-

We then headed up to our campsite at Pagham, via a very nice RSPB nature reserve in Pulborough. As you can see, the sunny weather and a two mile walk was a bit too much for the doughty Winter males:-

I was a bit unsure about what to expect from our campsite and caravan; a Toddler Group mum had been filling me with horror stories of her trip to a Haven campsite in Dorset, all about skanky caravans and stag/hen dos keeping them awake to the early hours every night. However, I needn't have worried; our caravan was absolutely fine and the campsite was stag/hen-free. Not rabbit-free, however, as this chap came by our caravan most nights for a small snack of the uber-tasty grass we were parked on.

There wasn't a vast number of things to do at the campsite (it wasn't CentreParcs, after all, it was about £700 cheaper), but it did have an indoor and outdoor pool, a play area for the kids, was situated next to a nature reserve and was only a 5 min drive from the beach. We weren't far from Bracklesham Bay either, which is supposedly fantastic for fossil hunting; except that when we got there, Jacob refused to get out of the car on the grounds that it was too cold - Not too cold for him to have an orange lolly, however. Sam was a bit more game and came down onto the beach with me, but I think it was a bit chilly even for him. Absolutely beautiful, though.

We headed down (up?) the coast to Portsmouth and wandered round the Old Town, looking at the old fortifications:-

And had a great time at Arundel Castle where Jacob insisted on telling all the staff that Mummy and Daddy had told him about the time that the Daleks had attacked the castle. Obviously, the worthy Dukes of Norfolk repelled the invading hordes with the aid of Doctor Who and his ye olde sonic screwdriver.

Here I am with the invading hordes:-

We had a good walk round the Pagham Nature Reserve, equipped with a very useful pamphlet titled "Know Your Vole", and I allowed Doug to attempt to take some arty shots of the flora:-

while I carried on taking less arty shots of the fauna:-

We were blessed with the weather for most of this part of the holiday; only on the last day was it really wet. And even then, it stopped raining for the afternoon allowing to go for a little walk around a place called Bosham, near Chichester. Although the tide was a bit too high for us to go walking on the mud flats:-

we were able to admire what is truly a most beautiful village.

After a week of caravanning, we headed off for Reading and a visit to the In-Laws. As Doug and I headed off for some more grown-up holidaying (stop sniggering at the back), we left the kids to the tender mercies of their grandparents and a trip to Legoland. I'm sighing slightly that despite our best attempts to keep the kids amused with castles and cannons and beaches and the like, all that Jacob can say about his holiday is that Granny and Granddad took him to Legoland....

We did have one more day out with them before we came back to York, a trip to Bucklebury Farm in Berkshire. Excellent play areas (Jacob spent hours going down one of the slides), but we did get them outside to feed a few of the animals:-

All in all, an excellent holiday, but after spending today mowing away two weeks' of lawn growth and ironing just about every item of clothing in the house, I feel like I need another break!!

Words Fail Me (Almost)

noreply@blogger.com (Rowan) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 11:13:00 +0000

Which retard at Kelloggs/Lego came up with this bright idea?:-

How much time do you spend telling your children not to put blocks in their mouth because they'll choke? And lo! Some learning impaired marketing bod comes up with the idea of making block-shaped sweets. How it got past their legal department, I have no idea. How it got past the common sense detectors of anyone involved in developing it beggars belief.

Poxy

noreply@blogger.com (Rowan) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 06:58:00 +0000

So its now 22 days since they were playing with their friend Aidan who came out with the dreaded chickenpox the following morning.

And so far, no sign of the pox.

If it hadn't been for the fact that we were due off on our holidays at the end of the month, it wouldn't be an issue, but if they were going to get it they were *required* to get it both at the same time and within a certain time frame.

But 22 days later and there is no sign of it. Even though all the conventional wisdom (and health-type websites) say that 21 days is the limit of the incubation period, as Doug was saying the other day, I won't believe they aren't going to succumb until at least another week has gone by.

Knitty

noreply@blogger.com (Rowan) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 06:32:00 +0000

I haven't knitted for a couple of months now; my right shoulder was getting quite sore so I just left it for a few days that turned into a few weeks etc. I've got a half-finished cardy that I had sort of intended for Theo, but its probably going to be for my cousin's baby, as I think Theo is a largish baby who won't fit in it now. Its also a new baby-style cardy, iyswim, not for a baby of a couple of months who has already had his fashion style shaped by his mum; if you'd seen some of the funky sleepsuits that Solveig has dressed him in, you'd know it wasn't really his thing. (In my defence, I was so convinced he was going to be a girl that I knitted a lovely cardy in Cashmerino, but Lola got that instead).

Anyway, holidays are looming and as I can knit in the car without poking Doug in the arm too much, I need a project. I can probably finish the cardy off en route to Brighton, so no need to worry about the journey down, but we have a whole week of long caravan evenings to fill, so I definitely need something. In an ideal world, I'd be able to pop along to Angel Yarns on the Saturday, but I think it'd be over-optimistic to think I could get there along with everything else we have to do that weekend.

So, a trip to Sheepish in the Shambles this morning; I can only go on when I'm in town on my own, its steps are too steep to get the pram up, and tbh, there wouldn't be any room for the pram even if I did get it in the shop. I've an idea of what I want, but I need to see the colours for myself. Irritatingly, a pattern book that was published only 2 or 3 years ago contains patterns in which the yarn has already been discontinued. While I can cope with that, its definitely a hands-on in the shop/ matching colours/ feeling yarn weight sort of problem. I can't do it online.

And just a final note that I've been having a shufty at Ravelry; its a nice site but their extended search facility is shit. Either that or people can't tag their patterns properly. Either way, it means that I found it impossible to search for what I wanted. Sort it out, Ravelry.

Childrens Book Meme

noreply@blogger.com (Rowan) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 10:56:00 +0000

Not sure if this will work, but I thought of it the other day when offmessage was apparently asking for book recommendations in the office; maybe this will provide a few suggestions (or simply reinforce parental smugness at having got their book choices just right).

Anyway, here are my selection (in no particular order):-

Mr Magnolia by Quentin Blake

We were given this by Bookstart through Jacob's day nursery in London. Its actually a counting book, although not obviously so, but I like it for its v eccentric main character; Mister Magnolia has only one boot, don't you know. We've also got a slew of other Quentin Blake books (Cockatoos is ace), but this is my favourite.

Lullabyhullaballoo by Mick Inkpen

I think we possibly have every Mick Inkpen book for the pre-school age group, and while I like most of them, some of the Kipper books are rather variable and have a definite sense of being written to cash in on the brand. This one, however, is a hardy perennial with both Jacob and Sam still enjoying it as a bedtime story. In a nutshell, its a rhyme about a princess who can't get to sleep because of all the giants, ghosts, goblins and brave knights making a racket outside the castle. Like most Inkpen stories, it has fold-out pages and is beautifully illustrated.

Sharing a Shell by Julia Donaldson

Julia Donaldson has got to be the queen of children's rhyming stories; I've yet to read a duff one by her. Whilst the Gruffalo is an old favourite (and actually the first book we ever bought for Jacob), I prefer this one purely because it isn't illustrated by Axel Schaeffer (I really really don't like his pictures). For some strange reason, when I read it I have to read the Anenome's lines in a Brummie accent.

Hairy Maclarey and Zachary Quack by Lynley Dodd

We bought lots of Hairy Maclarey and Slinkey Malinki board books for Jacob when he was little, and too be honest, they were a little too wordy for him at the time and had been relegated to a shelf in the playroom thats full of "That's Not My...." and Maisy books for the past two years. However, I started reading them to Sam a few days ago and he is entranced by them; last night Jacob heard me reading them and decided that he wanted to listen to them too. I like this story the best of all her books because the use of language, cadence and rhyme are all spot on and marvellous for reading out loud.

Mr Wolf's Pancakes by Jan Fearnley

There are a few in the series, but this is the best one; basically, Mr Wolf is trying to make pancakes and asks help from all his neighbours (the Three Little Pigs, the Gingerbread Man, Little Red Riding Hood etc) but in a nice turnaround, they are all uniformly nasty and refuse to come to his aid. What both Jacob and Sam like about this book (and the other Mr Wolf stories) is that at the end, nice Mr Wolf eats everyone who has been nasty to him. It makes me laugh every time I read it to them.

Well, that's my five; I'm sure it will be different in six months, but it'll do for now. Honourable mentions have to go to Aliens Love Underpants, Lost and Found, Wolves, Scaredy Squirrel and (my particular favourite, but only because it strikes a chord with me) Tickly Christmas Wibbly Pig.

So, I'd like to tag Andy, Solveig and Antonia to come up with their five favourite children's books. I have a feeling that Antonia's list won't include the one about the mouse that she was grousing about on her blog last week :)

Tesco Clubcard

noreply@blogger.com (Rowan) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 16:22:00 +0000

I've never really given much thought to what I do with all the points that we accrue on our Tesco Clubcard; once a quarter when I get our vouchers through, I have, up till now, just used them to get money off our next lot of shopping.

However, thanks to a passing comment from another mum at Toddler Group, I realised that if you use the points for one of their Clubcard deals, you actually can get up to four times the value of the points. So, thanks to this chance comment, when my in-laws take Jacob and Sam to Legoland next month they won't have to pay the normal £35 entrance fee but will get in using Clubcard vouchers that have cost me £17 worth of points. They'll still have to pay £25 (yes, TWENTY FIVE POUNDS) for Jacob to get in, but Sam still gets in for free.

Anyway, I reckon this is a bargain and it makes me feel much better that they're not going to spend £100 in entrance fees to a theme park that the kids might not actually appreciate or enjoy. The entrance fee for Jacob is still a farking liberty (scuse my french), but at least £25 for a day out for four people sounds a good deal more reasonable.

PS they've still not developed chickenpox, 15 days after being exposed to it. If they don't catch it soon, or don't both catch it at more or less the same time, we're looking at no holiday at all. Which will be arses.

Spiderman!

noreply@blogger.com (Rowan) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 07:36:00 +0000

"Mummy, I used to be all about wheels, but now I'm all about superheroes!" - Jacob Winter, May 2008.

Sam

noreply@blogger.com (Rowan) — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 20:37:00 +0000

We gave Jacob the digital camera to mess about with and after a while I realised that he'd set it to shoot videos rather than single shots, so we had a whole host of 2 second vignettes of life in the Winter living room; Jacob's feet, the sofa, the tv, Sam's feet etc.

However, he did take this one, and while it is only 2 seconds long, he has captured the essence of his little brother quite accurately:-

We are only 20 years away from his first Palme D'Or, I like to think ;)

Jacob

noreply@blogger.com (Rowan) — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 20:28:00 +0000

I tried to do this post on Jacob's birthday, but Blogger wouldn't let me add photos. It's now recovered from its little photo snit, so here goes.

Four years ago, he looked like this:-

And now he looks like this:

In many ways, it feels like a lot longer than 4 years; on the other hand, it feels like no time at all. But whatever, he is my fantastic Jacob; I hope you're enjoying life thus far, my little lad.

Pants

noreply@blogger.com (Rowan) — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 09:05:00 +0000

Jacob has a friend at nursery called Hattie. Apparently, she wears pink pants. He knows this because when she sits on the story mat at nursery and crosses her legs, all the boys can see them.

Bad Mood

noreply@blogger.com (Rowan) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 18:21:00 +0000

I've been in a bad mood since about 4.30pm. It stems from a) the tension controls on my sewing machine failing to maintain both upper and lower tension and b) being on my own for the day with virtually zero adult contact.

Anyway, I've drunk far too much already (and you have my permission to pass this to the prosecution barristers should something awful befall my children between now and their bedtime in 30 mins), and I'm getting the feeling that I should make myself something horribly indulgent like rice pudding and eat it whilst watching an appalling wallowy film like Slipper and the Rose or Gone with the Wind; the sort of film that any bloke walking in to the room while you're watching it would go "What sort of rubbish is this?" and immediately spoil any enjoyment you might have from it now or in the future.

Half Term

noreply@blogger.com (Rowan) — Thu, 29 May 2008 07:24:00 +0000

I usually try and have a little plan for school holidays that involves getting us all out of the house on most days ; Tuesdays mean Story & Play time at the Central Library in York, Fridays mean the weekly shop in Tesco (hardly Disneyland Paris, but hey! it gets us out of the house for two hours), and the rest is divvied up between going to the park, Wacky Warehouse if its wet, and either visiting or being visited by friends.

We've not done too badly at all this week, although yesterday was a bit of a washout - I decided to sort out all the filing in Doug's office as we haven't done any since we moved up here, and Doug hasn't opened a single envelope; there was a mountain of unopened envelopes in the corner of his office. I made a start on it at half ten and I wasn't finished until half five. The boys were pretty good most of the day, but by about half four I could tell they were climbing the walls; not even Spiderman on the tv was enough to keep them entertained and just when I thought we might go for a stroll to the local shops and get a bit of fresh air, the heavens opened rather spectacularly.

This has got me thinking about the summer holidays. The normal school holidays last six weeks, but in Jacob's case, its more like to be eight or nine weeks; the nursery staff spend the first two or three weeks of term making home visits to meet the new intake of pupils, so they don't open at the same time as the rest of the school. Its a bit of a pain, frankly.

Anyway, I'm looking at eight straight weeks of entertaining both kids all day. You can't help thinking that the routine of library, park, play area, shopping is going to pall a bit before too long; it'll have probably palled for me by about the second week. Certainly once Jacob is at school proper we'll be able to take two weeks of the holiday up by having our annual summer vacation; it might be more expensive at that time but it actually uses up a third of the holiday, so it must be a GOOD THING. However, this year, we haven't been that sensible and we're holidaying in early July.

With any luck, the school will come into its own; earlier in the year I indicated that I'd be interested in any summer holiday activities that they might be running, and once I know what they are I'll probably have to stop myself from signing Jacob up for as much as possible :)

Hopefully we'll have a better summer than last year, weather-wise; my driving is more confident, which means we're not reliant on public transport. Although being able to drive doesn't get away from the logistical problem of being the sole parent in charge of two pre-schoolers outside of the safety of home; just taking them to the local park presents all sorts of challenges when you're on you're own, especially as they're both fairly independent and want to play in completely opposite areas of the park. I doubt I'd want to sole charge of them at, say, the seaside or near any open water.

So, the planning campaign starts here; visits to family, visits from family, events in York, events not too far from York, things at school, things at playgroup. We welcome all-comers.

Who knows; we might have a blisteringly hot summer that involves us existing mostly in the garden, moving inside only long enough to get some cold drinks or more food for the bbq. I can dream.....

Grant Gone

noreply@blogger.com (Rowan) — Sat, 24 May 2008 17:10:00 +0000

Having spent the past 8 months wishing that Roman would sack Avram Grant, now its actually happened, I'm a little sad.

I was really starting to warm to him by the end of the season; true, he cocked up mightily in his tactics and team selection for the Carling Final and the FA tie against Barnsley, but he took us to within a hairsbreadth of our third Premiership title and even closer to winning the Champions League.

I don't really think that this was entirely down to him; the team is fantastically well organised and runs like a well-oiled machine regardless of who is at the helm. Also, I think as the season wore on, he, Clarkey and Ten Cate cobbled out the managers' role between them.

We were showing some signs of producing the sort of exciting football that Roman desires as the season got to an end; the second half of the CL final showed some scintillating football, with the midfield in total control and the defence mopping up what few balls Manure managed to get through to the final third. But I think it was some justification of Jose's stance over Scheva that he didn't get much of a look-in under Grant's regime either; that said, I wouldn't have minded him on the pitch at the final whistle in the final, he'd have probably slotted a penalty away no probs.

Anyway, good luck to Avram in his next endeavour. He always did look like he'd arrived at Stamford Bridge on a boat made out of skulls, so I expect his deathly long-oarsmen will be rowing him back up the Thames (the Styx?) as I type this.

So, who next? Sven, maybe; Rikjaard? My choice of Ancelotti is not available, unfortunately. At least, not this time on the managerial roundabout. Just as long as its never Wenger, that is all I can ask for; or Glenn Hoddle, for that matter. Or Ruud Gullit. Or Ian Porterfield (yes, I know that's technically impossible). I could go on ;)

Gazebo? No thanks, I don't

noreply@blogger.com (Rowan) — Sat, 17 May 2008 06:33:00 +0000

Its the morning of Jacob's first proper birthday party. I have spent the week tidying up the accumulated piles of debris from around the house and giving the place a good clean; this is mostly to get the maximum floor space from the house, but also to make sure that the visiting dignitaries don't catch anything from the festering piles of food in the dark corners of our living spaces.

I'm mostly ready - some burgers to make this morning, and the lawn to mow - and I've got a pass the parcel wrapped, and a long list of other games that we may or may not play depending on how the kids are. Up till now, our parties have been all about free play, but for the first time, we've got Jacob's own friends coming along (as opposed to our friends' kids), and there'll be about 12 kids here. Luckily, we shall have Bev with us, who is a school teacher and uber good with kids; she doesn't know it yet, but she's having a busman's holiday.....

But we are on the horns of a dilemma. Up until last night, the forecast for today has been partly cloudy, if a bit on the chilly side; however, having seen the forecast this morning, it looks like there is going to be a lot of rain in the S Yorks area. Bearing in mind that there will be 12 hyperactive under 4s, plus parents, in my house, we have to decide whether to fork out for a party gazebo from one of the DIY places up at Clifton Moor. Obviously, it'll take a little while to put up, so we have a cut off point by which time we have to get it. However, if it remains dry, it will be in the way and a bit of a pointless purchase.

Time to get Doug out of bed and discuss the subject. Maybe let him come round first before I tell him he was to get dressed, drive to Wickes, buy a Gazebo and then bring it back, mow the lawn and then erect it before 12pm.....

Catch Up

noreply@blogger.com (Rowan) — Sat, 17 May 2008 06:05:00 +0000

Has it really been a month since I last posted? I'm sure there have been occasions when I've had something to say, I just haven't seemed to find the time to say it.

For instance, I've started doing a family learning course at Jacob's school - Making Number Games for Children - which is free and comes with a free creche place for Sam. These courses are fantastic, not so much the content (but its v good), but just the fact that you can have a couple of hours time to yourself with other mums and chat and drink coffee and sit and make brightly coloured number games for your kids! They'll be running others in September term so I'm going to sign up for one or two, just as soon as I know what playgroup sessions Sam will be attending.

In other news, Sam has now got both his hearing test appointment and his Speech Therapy appointment; he's actually babbling quite a bit more recently, but not forming words, and stubbornly refusing to make any attempt if you try and encourage him. I took Jacob to see Lazytown Live last week, which he loved; it was miles better than I expected, and it was an absolute delight to watch his face as some of his favourite TV characters sung and dance on screen. Chelsea have finally made it past Liverpool in a Champions League Semi Final and although I fully expect them to lose against Man U in the final, its a great thing to be in the final. I made it up to the level cap in LOTRO, and despite thinking I'd immediately lose interest, I'm now working my way through the deeds like a trojan - good to watch my morale/power increase with every little thing I do in the Shire.

And we've finally arranged all the little components of our annual holiday. Two days in Brighton, mostly to attend Julian's twins' christening, then down the coast to Pagham and the Haven Holiday Camp there - we're staying in one of their top of the range static caravans, although I'm a bit apprehensive about this because since booking it, I've heard a few bad things about them. We'll be there for a week and then head up to Reading to deposit the kids with the in-laws and the day after will be heading for London for three days of wining and dining. When we first planned this, we thought of doing Paris, but I decided I'd rather be less than an hour away from my kids, just in case of emergencies!

We haven't planned much for London (I'm going to have a look at what exhibitions etc) are on, but we have booked afternoon tea at Fortnum and Mason (the Ritz books up about six months in advance, it would seem) and a trip to see Spamalot at the theatre. We are hoping to go to J Sheekey for dinner on the night of my birthday, but you can only book a month in advance, so at the moment we don't know if we'll only be able to go as a couple or whether there'll be bigger tables available so we can extend the invitation to our friends. I have had some memorable evenings there (wedding "breakfast", wedding anniversaries, past birthdays etc), so its a nice thought that we might be there on my 40th too.

I have also been busy reading my friends' baby blogs; it takes me back a couple of years! But although babies are lovely and I do feel occasionally broody, I'm glad I've got older kids; mine are incredibly demanding, but so very rewarding. They're still very dependent on you for everything, but in different ways and you get so much back from them (even from one that can only grunt!). I'm finding it hard to believe that Jacob will be starting school within 7 months and that from September, Sam will be old enough to attend playgroup without me! How time flies.....

Out of the mouths of babes and Jacob

noreply@blogger.com (Rowan) — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 17:35:00 +0000

I had my hair cut this morning, nothing drastic, just a trim. I think the salon must be trying to flog straighteners as the hairdresser made a big push to get me to agree to using them to finish off my hair even though I wasn't keen. Anyway, as expected (I have a pair myself that I use v infrequently) my hair ended up iron straight but completely lifeless and not really me at all.

I knew that Doug didn't like - it was obvious in the way he avoided commenting on it, but the look on Jacob's face was priceless - he really didn't know what to make of a mummy with this "new hair". So I asked him "do you like it?". He was quiet for a few seconds and then said "No. Mummy, can you go back to the hairdressers and get your old hair back?".

Nuff said :)

Here we go again

noreply@blogger.com (Rowan) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 06:22:00 +0000

After squeezing past Fenerbache last night (2-0 doesn't actually tell the story of difficult it was), we face Liverpool in the Champions League semis. Again. For the third time.

I really can't see us getting past them this time, either - Grant just doesn't have the tactical nous to engineer a win. But then Jose had all the tactical nous in the world and he couldn't manage to propel Chelsea past them into the finals, although there was all sorts of managerial baggage regarding him and the Fat Controller that might just have been getting in the way.

Anyway, I don't see it happening, but hey-ho, a fourth semi in five years. That's pretty good going.

And Adrian can now appreciate what its like to feel robbed at Anfield......

So

noreply@blogger.com (Rowan) — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 17:39:00 +0000

has anyone managed to prise Chuck's rifle out of his cold, dead hand yet?

I'm here all week. Try the veal.

171 is the magic number

noreply@blogger.com (Rowan) — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 14:35:00 +0000

Doug and I have been idly bickering recently over the type of breakfast cereal we give to our kids. This has arisen from his discovery that Special K with Red Berries (a current favourite) has sugar as its third ingredient and Doug has been saying, quite sensibly, that they'd be better off having Rice Krispies or Cornflakes or some other "plain" cereal.

I assumed that the sugar content was in the additional berries rather than the flakes and was less bothered about, but after a quick surf for the nutritional info of normal Special K, it seems the sugar is in the flakes too. So much for it being an essential part of a calorie controlled diet....

Anyway, today I looked at the calorie content of all the cereals in our cupboard as a comparison and found that cornflakes, Special K, Cheerios and Rice Krispies all have the same amount of calories for 30g of cereal in semi-skimmed milk - 171. I had a quick shufty at some other cereals online and although they didn't have the "per serving with milk" comparison, they did have the info for 100g of product. To my surprise, Cocoa Pops, Frosties and Crunchy Nut are roughly similar to plain cornflakes and Rice Krispies.

Of course, there is the issue of where the calories come from (ie from refined carbs like sugar), but it did get me wondering if there was something special about the 171 figure; is there some government guideline that means that if its over this figure then it qualifies as junk food? Or is it simply that a certain amount of cereal and milk plus some sugar will weigh in at about this figure?

Anyone know?

Deliciously Yorkshire

noreply@blogger.com (Rowan) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 18:26:00 +0000

I picked up the free weekly newspaper off the doormat, as well as the half a tonne of Netto/Wilkinson promotional bumph that usually accompanies it, and was just about to put it in the recycling bin when I realised there was something else in the bundle; something that felt substantial.

Turns out to be a rather glossy promotional mag called Tuck In: Deliciously Yorkshire, devoted to promoting fresh yorkshire farm produce and chock full of rather marvelous recipes - including an interesting take on yorkshire puds (beer and rapeseed oil?) that I shall be trying out just as soon as I find the rapeseed oil.

Anyway, look out for some of them appearing on Forkd in the very near future - marmalade lamb might be first up.