Mike's musings

Zoo time

27/09/2008
Originally uploaded by MikeCamel

We had a lovely, lovely time at Colchester Zoo today: just Miri, Jojo and me. I took the girls to give Moo a day off, as I'm off on work travel for nearly 2 weeks tomorrow.

Jo was considerate, patient, obedient, sharing, kind, sensible and generally a joy to be with, and Miri toddled around happily. One of the things that Jo wanted to do was to take some pictures, and this is one of them. She still hasn't got the whole "framing" thing yet, but she _is_ little.

Labels: girls, Jo, miri, zoo

Off to lovely Gothenburg

What a lovely city. I don't think I've ever visited before, and I've picked the right day for it: sunny, some wind, and around 21 degrees Celsius.

Just phoned home, and Jo's a bit sad: that's the way it is sometimes. She passed me over to her little sister saying, "Miri's a bit happier than I am." Seems she didn't want to tidy (know the feeling...).

Labels: girls, travel

More National Trust

So, after I got back from the 0800 and 1000 services, we headed off to Ickworth House, another National Trust property, and one which Si and D recommended to us, for the adventure playground, if nothing else. We had a very good time, and both girls did lots of running (or, in Miri's case, waddling fast) around. The adventure playground was, indeed, excellent, and both both Miri and Jo had a good time. We were just packing up when the rain started to come down pretty hard, so we were pretty pleased with ourselves.

I'm slowly getting better at the choreography involved with deaconing. Remembered the corporal at the 0800, at least. Got a couple of other bits wrong, but not too bad. I took the first part of the 1000 at Greenstead Green (a team service, though Viv wasn't there as she was ill), which went very well. I also deaconed at the altar for John, though he prepared the elements. We had to get extra wine ready (we realised in time), but then I came over with the lavabo, rather than the water in the cruet (apparently it really is called that), so we used that, as we were getting behind. I'd point out that we used the water _before_ John washed his hands.

Mel seems to have had a rather good hen night...

Labels: curacy, girls, nanny

You _can_ eat porridge through a straw ...

... but not the lumpy bits. And it goes everywhere.

Today's revelation brought to us by our sponsors: Jojo and Miri.

Labels: food, girls

Girls back home

(backposting) The girls got back this evening, and we got them both back to sleep fairly quickly, which was good. I was a little worried about Buster today, as he's only eaten 1 out of the past 5 meals, and has been dry coughing a little bit. So, I took him to the vet. The one I saw knew Suzy (who died from a heart complaint), and was very understanding about the fact that I'd brought him in. His eyes were a little gummy, and it turns out that he has a bit of a temperature, but at least his heart sounded OK. She said to bring him back tomorrow morning if he didn't seem better tomorrow.

Labels: buster, girls, Moo

Girls away

(backposting) Today, Moo took the girls to see Kirsty in Cambridge. I was privy to the further plan, though: to go on to London for Turtle's 5th birthday party. Turtle is Jo's cousin - Jen and Jake's youngest - and Jo loves her very, very much indeed. Jo slept some of the way, and realised as they got to Dulwich that they were going to Turtle's house. She then got stressed, on realising that it was a fairy party, that she didn't have an outfit. When Moo told her that she'd packed both girls an outfit, there was much relief, and Jo came out with the lovely phrase, "Mummy, what would I do without you?"

They were going to come back tonight, but to my great unsurprise, Moo decided to stay, which I think was the right decision. I went out to meet James - the other curate at Halstead - and his wife, Ruth, who'd I not really met before. It was my first - but probably not my last - trip to a pub in a dog collar (it was me in the dog collar, not the pub, in case you're reading this, Gary). It felt a little uncomfortable, to be honest, but I'm sure I'll get used to it.

I also met John and Mo, who are back from Africa, and seem to have had a good time.

Labels: curacy, family, girls

A busy day

Muffins for breakfast (freshly made by Moo), Disney princesses game (Wii - Jo and (mainly) me), hoovering, church (girls and me), scootering (Jo), lunch, bottle runs (recycling - me and Jo), drive to Braintree Freeport swimming pool (closed for a gala), drive to Halstead swimming pool - fantastic jumping in and even swimming by Jo, and swimming underwater, completely unfazed, by Miri - home, walk to the chippy for supper, only to discover that it's closed, drive with Jo to Sible Hedingham, fill up Moo's car with diesel, get some cash out, go to kebab/chicken takeaway, home, supper (chicken and chips and scampi for Moo), a few minutes of Mama Mirabelle's home movies (gotta love Floella Benjamin), bath (girls and Moo), bed.

Since then, I've put my phone back together (software, that it: it crashed and I had to hard boot it), and done an hour and a half of ironing. Now sitting down, watching Midsommer Murders.

Labels: church, girls

Kentwell Hall

Those fish are scary. There's a moat full of them, and when they realise that you're going to feed them, they swarm. Very scary. Jo didn't mind. Moo did.

The little lambs were nice, and Jo loved them, as did Miri.

The lawn got its first cut today. As usual, I had to do a major dog poo clearance first. And as usual, as I'd left it so late, the first cut wasn't with the lawn-mower, but with the strimmer.

Labels: girls

All's well

Jo didn't go to pre-school, but was fine other than that, and so we're relieved. Did lots of work on a document that's due on Wednesday, meaning that I should be able to make it to Infosec Europe tomorrow.

Miri went to sleep nice and quickly: not so Jo...

Labels: girls

Lovely kids

The girls were just lovely today. Mel gave Miri some stacking cups, and she spent ages and ages putting them up, knocking them down, putting them inside each other, pulling them out: you get the idea. Jo was just lovely, and they were a joy to be with. Sometimes it's just great being a dad.

Labels: girls

Pastoral work

Sometimes you need to reach out, and I offered someone on SecondLife my phone number to talk. She called, and we spent nearly 1 hour on the phone. Mainly, she just needed to chat, and that's fine. I actually can listen...

The girls have been away today with Moo at her parents. Mostly, I've been studying for my (last!) ERMC essay, doing lots of reading around the family and marriage, but I've also walked the dog, put the washing through, hoovered and general stuff. It's been lonely without Moo and the girls around.

Labels: girls, pastoral care, secondlife

Moo's off!

Yup, she's got a course till Friday evening, so I'm in sole charge of the girls until then. 3 full nights, and another evening. I'm hoping that they sleep really well. They both went to bed and to sleep very well, but I'm sitting downstairs and can hear Jo coughing, so we'll have to see how it goes.

Labels: girls

Back to Polzeath

(backposting) We arrived a little later, partly because we knew that the weather wasn't supposed to clear fully till the afternoon. On arriving we went and bought some postcards, a bucket and spade for Jo, a hat for Moo, and a wetsuit for Jo as well. We should have got one earlier in the week, but there's some room to grow into it, and we'll be back in a month or so.

Jo looked great in the wetsuit and it certainly kept her much warmer. We put up the UV-resistant tent (for Miri - it's been very helpful all week), and I took Jo to jump in the waves and do some rock-pooling (which she'd enjoyed yesterday). Then we went back to Moo. Although the weather had cleared from the morning (there'd been rain overnight), there was some _serious_ cloud coming in from the Atlantic. We then saw the rain coming down, which meant that we had some time to prepare. People were running for their cars, Moo put Miri into the tent, and got Jo in there as well. No room for me, so I hot-footed it to the sea and the surf. I was already in my wetsuit, and it was much warmer in the sea, and I stayed there until it finished raining, lovely and warm and happy.

I got back to the tent really worried that a UV-tent wouldn't be water resistant, but it turned out that the girls were all dry, and had had a fantastic time.

We had a good rest of the time, and towards the end of the time we were there, some people set up a booth. Turned out it was the Polzeath Family Mission. They seemed to be offering some good entertainment for the kids, and I was pretty impressed. Caught a couple of minutes of a - what? sermon? homily? chat? - well something that was being amped up. Arguing from natural theology - "we're called to look beyond what we see to a creator, who created all we see around us", that sort of thing - isn't my thing, but they had a decent number of people, and I picked up a flyer: they're doing quite a lot of work.

We stuck around for a late lunch (pasties, chips), and then headed back to the house. As we were heading back, we had a call from some friends of Kate and Mac (and therefore Moo): Sally-anne (sp?) and Mike. They live near Redruth, and we'd left them a call earlier in the week. Although it was last minute, we ended up joining them - and about another 20 people - for a lovely barbecue. Jo stayed up past 2100, not having slept on the way, being absolutely manic, mainly with the youngest of their kids, Christina. The family - and, in fact, all the guests, many of whom were also family - were great, and we had a fantastic evening. Because we're not stupid, and as I wanted to get some sleep - I'll be driving lots tomorrow - we put Jo in with Moo and Miri.

Labels: girls, holiday, weather

Girls back

Moo, Jo and Miri got back around lunchtime - in fact, we met at Freeport for something to eat. I'd slept through to 9am (!), and then got up and done things like get some more food for the dog, get rid of some of the more obvious thistles and brambles in the garden, get some food in, and even have time for some tea and cake at the Cafe Clare.

I took Jo to pick up Buster, who was very pleased to see us. I gave him a bit of a groom, which he really needed, and he seemed to settle down OK. Did some work on an ERMC assignment, watched an Alan Partridge DVD with Moo.

Labels: dog, ERMC, girls