Odd Things Happen

Today's been pretty good so far and I've really enjoyed it. I've suddenly got quite conscious that the school holidays will be over at the end of next week and it'll be back to the "grind" for them (kids) and the rest of us, so I'm really trying to enjoy the whole thing and not get on their backs too often.

So today was good: took both swimming (big hurray) at the moment it's okay taking them seperately because kids go free (that finishes end of next week ). Started with the boy, that meant getting out of my pit "early" - which in some ways is a shame because the kids have gotten into a really good habit of playing really nicely with each other first thing. However we were up, fed, dressed and out for 9:30. And swimming was good - the little pool was really empty so me and him had a right good play. And he went down the slide and under water (because I didn't quite catch him accidently - heh, heh, heh!).

And then I took the girlie and she had a good swim, she's really coming on now. In yesterday's lesson she suddenly managed 4 (or was it 5?) widths ot the little pool unaided on her front - first time ever! And today she did more of the same in the big pool. Then with goggles on she started trying to do dolphin kicks (as we played mermaids under water). And she kind of/almost/just about jumped in for me. All in all we had a good one.

Phew... then after a family lunch (doesn't happen often enough) the boy and I went food shopping - because we're making Mum lunch tomorrow. That was fun, and then a quick stop off at Focus for some emergency undercoat. All of this done with his three "bad cars" which we talked/raced and drove everywhere. And then he and I did manly-jobs: removing tree stakes from the ground and sorting Toby's (tortoise) outside run out. This was really good fun because whilst I got my tools out of the garage, he ascertained what the problem was and when to his kids/plastic Black-and-Decker work bench and brought out: 1 x ruler, 1 x screw driver; 1 x spanner; 1 x saw; 1 x hammer and 1 x jigsaw. And we job-shared the work between us.

Then the girlie wanted to do something (spent most of the afternoon crashing in front of Scoobie Doo, to recharge her batteries!) So we decided to have an early tea and do the (new) scooter thing around the local park. Again, because it was 17:30-ish the park was nice and warm and really devoid of most people. So we/they had a blast scooting around and playing in the bushes.

And when we got home I ran the bath whilst they played on the front garden. The looked so funny I videoed some of it and the boy asked if he could watch it. So after bathing they had their supper watching what's currently on the tape. The boy cracked up seeing himself playing in the kitchen, and the girlie went all embarassed (and so she should!) at the bit of her doing 6-year-old Karaoke to ABBA on her birthday a couple of weeks back.

So now there in bed snoring away, and it's time to make tea before herself gets home. But just had to write because today's been a good one!

My little lad is a big (no not right, bloomin huge, enormous) fan of Pixar's Cars movie. And he's slowly collected most of the die-cast cars from said film. Now months ago he lost "Boost" (one of the bad-gang cars) and we looked everywhere: here, Granny's, Grandma's, Child Minder's, Play School... everywhere. Eventually deciding that it's lost, or left at play school and taken home by another child.

So as his birthday's the next on the list, I've started buying him his presents. And this morning Amazon delivered a two car set of "Boost" and "Snotrod", this was cheaper than buying them individually. So I've hidden them in the "usual" place, quite happy with my lot.

So then we go to my folks for lunch (and me to leave the kids before football). My sister and family are there this weekend, and in their making of the sofa-bed, what did they find? Go on, have a wild guess...?

So now (he doesn't know it yet) we've got two Boost cars!!!! Still he's very happy to have it back.

Very excited (because I'm just a touch sad). But noticed that Rick Wakeman is coming to the Opera House on Halloween. Spoke with herself she doesn't want to see him (again) so I'm off on my own. Ticket currently on our pin board so I don't forget.

This was a game which we should have won, but could have lost, but was a draw. And it was a draw thanks to a "Rob Styles" level of incompetance by the referee and the linesman.

We dominated the first half and should have been more than 1 - 0, at least Anthony Elding finally got back on the score sheet. But the real difference between the first and second half was the fact that Dicko (Liam Dickinson) didn't come out for the second half. He got crocked good and proper in the first 20 minutes and never really recovered. Even whilst injured (wrist) he, as one of the three strikers, was causing no end of trouble.

So second half, him off, and a more traditional shape saw us under more pressure. But we were coping and then the !)"!£ ref got involved. He gave a free kick (yes it was, so no problem there) but... (big but) he then made a right fist of the taking process and the ball ended up in the back of the net and is was 1 - 1. Granted my understanding of the finer points of the rules is a touch lacking but: it was a free kick, I think the ref said "wait until I blow my whistle" (may be he didn't) but they just took the free kick (into the box) just before he blew; he wasn't facing the kick, so didn't see that they'd taken it *before* he'd blown his whistle. But he did blow his whistle whislt the ball was now in play. So we stopped and they scored and the ref said "cool, that's good enough for me" and it was one all?!?!!

Now either (a) they took the free kick too early, because it was before he blew his whistle, so it should go back and be taken it again or (b) they were allowed to take it when they wanted but play should stop when the ref blew his whistle (during the now open play) and resume with, I don't know, a drop ball or something after the ref worked out he'd got it wrong. But surely not (c) hey let's just allow the goal because I am clueless with what's going on... no that's not right. And you could argue that he (the ref) didn't see the kick being taken before he blew (if that was the real problem) in which case - what's the linesman doing? Do none of them know the rules?

So we was robbed, and Jim Gannon got dismissed from the dug-out whilst explaining to the ref that he'd screwed up. Now I know a couple of years back we had a goal disallowed by the forth official for some "incident" that neither the ref nor linesman saw, so I know they can do this type of thing. But today... bloomin' useless.

Still it got the crowd all singing in unison!

Just what I didn't need to do today, and that was go and delete some 100+ files from our central (work) source code repository. I did mean to delete some 100+ files, just not those ones!

Oh it's all going to hit the fan some what tomorrow morning, I'm glad the boss is working from home!

I picked the kids up from my folks this last Monday. It was quite warm and dry when I arrived (about 18:30). Whilst putting in the car seats a (dodgy looking) chap arrived next door and after apparently ringing the door bell, took to (shiftilly) looking through the front windows.

My Dad noticed and did the nabourly thing (poked his nose over the fence) and said in an authorative voice that they were out and shifty blokes shouldn't be looking through windows. For the next couple of minutes we went back to doing what we were doing but keeping "an eye" on the miscriant...

When he left, it transpired that he was from some clothes-ironning firm (the nabours are posh) and they were in after all. But my "rottweiler" Dad saw them off - better safe (and without ironned clothes) than sorry

So much to say, so little time, so little will be written... To cut various stories short: the kids went to stay at my folks last week (from Thursday) and I've just picked them up now, and put them very happily to bed. They've had a cracking time - it's just so exciting

It's really good that they like staying at both sets of grand parents and have always got on well with them (both sets). We, as a family, are so lucky that both sets live 20 & 60 minutes away! The one downside of staying with my folks is... Jessica (the cat). Now she's a lovely old girl, but she's a cat. But for my boy with his pseudo-asthma, and excezma, that cat's a pain on his skin.

Mostly we get away with it because he's only usually there for half a day at a time, but this time it's bean four nights. And in the bath tonight his body (torso and arms, but mainly his torso) is a right horrible, quite angry mess. It's no ones fault, just his body hates cat hairs (and dogs - but we don't see any of them).

Now the kids want to go and stay at the outlaws (fine) except I don't really want him to go until his skin's settled down...

... Well you can fail to finish the outside DIY you started on Monday. Then you can tidy out the study, yes I know I work in there two days a week, but with my OH scratting around upstairs sorting the kids rooms out I thought I'd better sort the "big" kid's room out... And then start scanning all my little girl's school/art work. Oh yes I know the joys of a wet Tuesday on holiday in Buxton

... and so said my (very, very) tired little six year old. She's had such a good, and incredibly busy, day that by 18:30 when the Grand parents left (before tea!) we started having problems. She's almost out on her feet and the outlaws leaving was my fault (because she asked me if they were staying for tea, and I said no). Then whilst attempting Swing Ball before a very late tea (roast chicken!?) she decided that I was favoring her younger brother (not so in this case, your honour). And then when we came home from the park, where she'd been with her new scooter, apparantly it was my fault we came home without doing the swings, and slides, and... But it's 19:45 and you're only just 6 and your brother's not yet four!

So she said to Mum, that it was all my fault. So I get a dose of her's what our relationship's going to be like in 6+ years time...! Still we had hugs when she finally got into bed

But her birthday was really good - a good range of presents including a new bike (that she never expected - her face was a picture this morning, she stood there dumb founded for at least 10 seconds whilst her brain came to terms with what she was looking at). Then lunch/afternoon at the child minders where she was clearly spoilt (home made birthday cake etc). And then the outlaws around with more presents, then special birthday tea and then out round the park on her new scooter... All in all not bad really!

Oh and the boy had a good birthday as well, he got another couple of cars Cars(tm) for his collection and the grand parents got him Macc (the trailer/truck for the main car in the film). So he also had a good one.

Now a bottle of nice-white to the good, and happy that I've booked me and the OH a long weekend away for her birthday this weekend, it's time to bask in what's been a pretty incredable six years. Our little girl has come a long way in that time...

First game of the season yesterday - a "red hot" summer's day in the centre of Edgerly, and a cracking win for County. Of the new players, McNeil looked pretty good, as did new load keeper Logan (but he didn't have anything to do all game). Of the old players Ashley Williams was an absolute giant - prediction is that he won't stay with us all season because someone "big" will buy him. Also Liam Dickinson's cameo from the bench (including winning goal) was also pretty good. My guess is we'll finish somewhere like 6th - 8th this season (but I've been wrong before).

Oh yes, and don't forget that D & R were pretty poor. The quote I read from another website was "Although it soon became clear that league new boys Dagenham and Redbridge could not hit a cow's backside with a banjo".

Tomorrow's going to be one of those depressing days. Chris's dad has come up from Cornwall(?) to see where he used to work and meet his work colleagues. I guess to try and get a bit of closure to this tragic affair.

... I'll get to that slightly later. First post for ages. Basically we've been on holiday for the past week (today first day back in the office). Last week was a real blast. My eldest finally discovered what beaches and the sea is all about! And given that it was really hot Monday through Thursday she tried her hardest to make up for lost time.

The holiday photos are funny, because whilst there were a number of beaches around the place, we stayed mainly (okay all the time!) on one of them. So all the photos have an air of similarity about them. The main difference is in the attire of my girl: Monday - summer clothes and wellies for the rock pools; Tuesday - summer clothes and Crocs for the rock pools; Wednesday - shortie wetsuite and kicking the "waves"; Thursday - shortie wetsuit and way out in the deep (okay then, out of her, but not out of my, depth). Just a shame that Friday poured down, but given the last few months I'll settle for that really!

So why am I old? Well today I went swimming for the first time since the holiday, and what with kids in the water I thought I'd just do a kicking set. And my first length was agony. Infact all my (front crawl) kicking was agony, so in the end I just "faked it" for half an hour and hobbled out. And the reason? Well last Thursday I "raced" my little lad (three and three quarters) around a picnic site and semi-stumbled in a very shallow depression, in the process locked out my left leg and it would appear totally shagged my left hamstring. It's been alright - just achie until today, but this lunchtime... nightmare (and it still hurts).

Still I did win the race (no, only joking - can't beat the little chap!)