Mike's musings

Back home

(backposting) We were heading home and decided to pop via Snape Maltings to have some coffee and cake. Clearly the café was closed. But we noticed that they have apartments for sale. We'd like one. They're rather out of our price range.

Labels: holiday, home

BeWILDerwood

Today we took the girls to BeWILDerwood, which they loved. We were pretty impressed, particularly as they had good bits for little ones like Miri. Jo really lost it after lunch, but recovered in time for the hot tub.

Labels: children, holiday

You can't get seasick on the Norfolk Broads

Moo and I decided that as we'd booked a holiday near the Norfolk Broads, it was only sensible to take a boat out. The weather looked half decent this morning, so we went off to Waveney Water Centre and hired a putta-putta boat for half a day. Life jackets all round, five minutes' instruction: you get the picture. And off we set.

And so did the kids. Zeugma there, in that we set off, and the kids did, too. I let Jo help steer a bit, sitting on my knee. And then she tried to steer into the reeds, so I had to steer the other way, and she hurt her wrist. Not badly: just enough to cry. Miri wouldn't sit still, or keep quiet. And after a while, when I asked Moo how she was feeling, she told me that she was feeling seasick. I know that she sometimes gets carsick, but seasick - on the Norfolk Broads? No swell. Seriously: nothing. We made it to Oulton Broad, and decided to tie up. Stern first, as per instructions. I had difficulty getting us backing in straight, so was hoping that Moo would leap personfully onto the bank, and she was hoping (against hope) that neither of the kids would attempt to follow her (and end up in the water, between the propellor and the wooden mooring posts).

We gave up, and motored back to the hiring place, phoning ahead so that they could jump aboard and tie up for us. They were very nice about it, and it was the right decision, and I hardly feel emasculated at all. It stopped raining once we tied up (or were tied up, to be more honest) - it had started about 5 minutes into the trip. Good work. The only positive outcome of this trip was the realisation that our decision _not_ to hire a boat for the week, but to stay in a cottage instead, was generally a good one.

We went to a pub for lunch, and I cried because they had a lovely Newfy who was very like Buster.

Not the best day, and Jo's going through "a phase". Luckily, Miri doesn't seem to have concussed herself when she fell off the dining room table and hit the back of her head on the chair behind her. So, the day ended on a good note.

Labels: holiday, illness, Jo, miri

Dunwich

Yet another National Trust outing: this time to Dunwich Heath and Minsmere Beach. We've got some holiday, and so off we went. The girls had a lovely time on the beach (it's always nice when the water's a little warmer than you might expect, due to the nuclear power plant visible just down the coast), and there was a little trail for us to do with flaps to lift up to identify likely wildlife. Though most of the wildlife fled at the sound of the four of us coming, or course.

Still not feeling 100% - sore throat, blah - but much improved by kippers at brunch and having lots of fun with the girls. However, getting them to sleep in under an hour would have been nice...

Labels: holiday

Princess

(backposting) We went to Sidmouth again today. Jo had some pocket money, and Moo, Kate and Mac took her shopping (Miri was asleep in the car with me). "Please, Mummy, just this once, can I have something with a princess on it?"

We're fairly firm about the pink thing and the princess thing. I'd generally say not firm enough, but on this occasion, maybe just firm enough. Luckily, Moo couldn't find anything.

But then Jo wanted a shrimping net. Specifically, a pink, princess shrimping net. I'd joined the party by this stage, for coffee and cake. It appears that nobody manufactures pink, princess shrimping nets, or if they do, then they don't sell them in Sidmouth. Even finding a pink one was causing a problem, but once we managed that, our joint brilliance (and a set of Disney Princess stickers) suddenly gave us options. We headed down to the beach.

Took a while for the sea to go out sufficiently, but once it did, we had a fantastic time in rock pools. Nobody had told me, when I was a kid, that I'd get a chance to do rock-pooling again when I was older. And, to be frank, it's even more fun when you've got kids to share your successes with, and their successes to share. We caught shrimps, (very small) sea slugs, a couple of small fish, crabs, sea snails and seaweed. It was great. It was really great, and this, for all those who were wondering, is what being a Dad is really about.

Miri just wandered around sitting down in the sea whenever she could. Chips on the beach, then off to Ottery St Mary to look around the church with everyone and "enjoy" a frankly catastrophic tea & cakes, then back for our final evening. (Foot note: Jo was more than a little disappointed to find that Disney Princess stickers come off shrimping nets when wet. Useful to know next time).

Labels: family, holiday, Jo

Rain and fossils

(backposting) I'd like to say that I'm a great fossil hunter, but I've discovered that I'm really not. Charnmouth is supposed to be pretty good for this sort of thing, but I took a while to find anything, and it wasn't very impressive. I'm sure that 2 of the 4 fossils _were_ fossils, though. It rained. Moo got concerned that if I didn't find anything, I'd force everyone to stay on the beach in the rain for ever until I did.

We then went to Lyme Regis. Not as posh as Budleigh Salterton, but pleasant, and we had a decent fish meal. The restaurant was astonishingly child-friendly, but the people at the next table were very, very weird. Sounded like an Internet date, with a _very_ dull bloke talking to a poor (?Eastern European) woman about how he didn't really like white wine, but they could have a glass of champagne in the hot tub in the evening if she liked. Oh, and his stomach problems. And how big spinach salads are in the US. And what happened when he visited HP. Et cetera. I wanted to sidle over to the table to her and say: "run, run for your life! We'll keep him occupied. It's not too late to save yourself..." On a side note, when I take Jo to the loo, and we visit the Gents, and I use the urinals, she's started to complain if I don't aim for (and hit) the hole. It doesn't help the concentration.

Despite the forecast (we're back on weather now), the day was pretty good. We wandered round Lyme Regis, and Jo got a braid in her hair, which she's very pleased with.

In the evening, Moo and I went out together (on our own) for dinner for the first time in over a year, we reckon. The last time was before Miri was born. It was lovely, and work was paying (some sales thing we won in Europe a few months ago). We really ought to try it again soon. Nothing romantic afterwards, however, as Miri decided to wake up and take over an hour and a quarter to get back to sleep.

Labels: family, holiday, Moo

Eden Project

(backposting) Although it's over an hour and a half from Venn Ottery, we all wanted to visit the Eden Project. Moo, the girls and I had visited it twice last year, but Kate and Mac had never been. Combined with the facts that their tickets were only £10.00 each (OAP), and the tickets we had bought last year were still valid, it was an easy decision. Miri did lots of walking, partly because Jo had failed to sleep in the car on the way down, despite being very tired from too little sleep the night before, so hogged the pushchair. Miri, however, was in her element. She particularly liked the tropical / rainforest biome. She held my hand and walked through almost all of it, raising lots of smiles from those around, and shrieking at all of the little streams and waterfalls.

Moo drove back to the cottage and I slept, as did everyone else. This caused problems later, as Jo just refused to go to bed, and ended up staying up early (she got "early" and "late" confused today, for no obvious reason).

Labels: family, holiday

Budleigh Salterton

We went swimming again in the morning, and then my Mum came to visit, given how close the cottage is to my parents': only a little over an hour. We felt strongly that we needed to visit Budleigh Salterton. One of the reasons that we wanted to go was because of the fantastic Giles Wemmbley Hogg, Budleigh Salterton's most famous resident. Budleigh Salterton is quite posh. Kind of. It has a very pebbly beach, and dogs aren't allowed on it during the summer. Which is fair enough, but a bit awkward, as my mum had brought their two dogs in the car. And as she'd initially forgotten they were there when she arrived at the cottage, we did feel that they deserved to be out of the boot. So, we took turns heading down to the sea-shore with the girls, and then sitting with the dogs on a bench. Had tea at a lovely tea-room up a side-street: Jo wasn't allowed ice-cream on its own, after an incidence of disobedience earlier in the day (and two warnings), but I did allow her to have it _with_ some chocolate cake. And I got to eat quite a lot of the cake as Jo wouldn't finish it (and that was after a lovely scone with jam and clotted cream).

Labels: beach, family, holiday

Church at Ottery St Mary

(backposting) Kate and I made it to the 0800 BCP Holy Communion service at the beautiful Ottery St Mary parish church. Fascinating place, modelled on Exeter Cathedral. After we got back, we all headed off to Sidmouth beach. Even better than Exmouth, for my money. Random Morris Dancers (female, though they would have been equally random if male, IMHO) on the promenade, then down to the rock pools. Great stuff, and I felt that I did my fatherly duty by finding a hermit crab. Rock pools are fun, they really are.

We wandered into town to grab fish and chips and started eating them on the promenade (morris dancers gone) until the rain really started to come down, when we headed to the car.

Played in the garden in the afternoon, after a trip to the Donkey Sanctuary (which Miri loved, as it had lots of donkeys in it - d'oh- and she loves donkeys, as they are animals, and she loves all animals...), had a good barbecue.

In two weeks I'll be ordained...

Labels: beach, church, holiday

Exmouth

(backposting) In the visitors' book, someone had suggested that Exmouth is a good beach, so we all went out, and had a lovely time. Jo and Miri both loved the sand, the sea and the rockpools. Jo also loved the ice-cream, which, for her, is a - no, make that _the_ - main reason for going to the beach in the first place. Both the girls got a little cold, and had to be bundled up to warm them up: Jo, for some reason, believes that ice-cream will do the same job...

In the afternoon, all of us bar Mac visited Woodbury Park Country Club's swimming pool, which rental of Burrows gave us access to.

Labels: beach, holiday, Jo

Actually to Devon

(backposting) We had a lovely morning with Rosie and Andy, sitting in the garden, watching people play tennis, and getting a quick tennis lesson for little Jo. It was interesting: after a few minutes, she sat down by the net, really dispirited, saying, "I'll never be able to do it: I'll never be able to hit the ball". It's really hard, as Rosie pointed out: it looks like you ought just to be able to swing the racket back and hit the darn thing, but, particularly if you're only 3 and a bit, it's really hard. In the end, she got it, and did very well indeed.

But we need to watch it. She's very sensitive to not being able to do things, and she's also reacted badly in the past to being called stupid: ability is important to her. This isn't surprising, given that "clever girl" has always been important praise from us and Mel.

We discovered, around 1030, that somehow, two bags hadn't been packed (this explains why it wasn't too difficult to get it all into the car). Neither of them was mine. Jo's, and ... Moo's. Oh dear. Rosie lent us lots of clothes, and we stopped off in Dorchester for a few more (including Upsy-Daisy pants - for Jo). We then headed off for Burrows, in Venn Ottery, where we met Kate and Mac. Lovely cottage. Settled in, had a barbecue, let the girls stay up a little (not point otherwise).

Moo was _very_ good about the fact that the bag-packing incident (or lack of it) could quite easily be laid at my door. And probably quite fairly...

Labels: holiday, Jo

Off to Devon (via Dorset)

(backposting) After a day at work, it's off on holiday! Moo got back around 1700, we fed and bathed the girls, and then drove down to Rosie and Andy, my aunt and uncle, who live in East Chaldon (or Chaldon Herring). Their daughter Merryn was there, which was an added bonus, and we got there sometime after 2200. When we set off I phoned them, to no answer, and as we were going round the M25 I tried again: no answer. So, we tracked down their local pub, and phoned them there. Yup, that did it...

The girls took a long time to get to sleep, and I probably shouldn't have stayed up till 0130 drinking single malt and rum (separate glasses)...

Labels: family, holiday

Last day of holiday

(backposting) Polzeath - went body boarding (despite Jo). Jo decided that the body board was for her, not me. I had to sneak it away. The surf was much better than yesterday, and I actually managed it a couple of times. Really got it together, and it was pretty good.

Had a work call in the afternoon - changed out of wetsuit, obviously. Changed Miri whilst on a conf. call: put the phone on mute, as I'm a professional...

Two things made me cry on the TV: Natasha Kaplinsky on the BBC's "Who do you think you are?" (family involvement in the Shoah - the Holocaust), and Rhys Jones' funeral (an 11 year old caught in the crossfire between two Liverpool gangs, it seems). I expect to be preaching on this at some point.

Labels: holiday, sermon

Meeting old friends

(backposting) It's been years since we saw James ("JP") and Alex, but we'd decided to ask him to be one of Miri's godparents (or at least a sponsor if he wasn't baptised - though it turns out that he has been). JP (again, it appears that we're the only people who call him that) and Alex live near Geneva, and we went on a very ill-fated skiing trip with them at least four years ago. JP was head of the student union when Jo was woman's officer at college, and we've always got on well. I spent a lot of time with JP, and Moo with Alex, and we got straight back in the groove, which was fantastic. They're both divers, and we're already thinking about arranging some sort of diving holiday (and no, Moo won't have to look after both of ours _and_ both of theirs while we're diving: we'll sort something out).

We met at Polzeath beach (well, obviously), and one of the best moments was when Gemma was following me and JP to the surf, and came out with the immortal "you're my two favourite daddies". Whoa...

So, we borrowed from body boards, and James taught me how. Not much surf, but fun nevertheless.

Popped up to Tubestation: impressive. A Methodist-Anglican initiative, cafe, skating area, Internet access, looks like a good place.

Labels: church, diving, friends, holiday

Barbecue

(backposting) My turn to cook this evening, so I barbecued. Got some local(ish) fish, some beef mince (for homemade burgers) and sausages. Some of the fish needed to go back onto the barbecue, but that was partly because by the end of the cooking period, all the light I had to see by was from the embers of the coals, but by the end, it was all fine, and people seemed to like it, which was good.

Oh, we went back to Polzeath: it's all good. Jo loves it, there are good places to camp out, and all the rest of it.

Noticed a cafe up the hill called "Tubestation", with a cross outside. Intend to check it out at some point.

Labels: cooking, holiday

BAck to Polzeath - and family crisis

(backposting) Polzeath beach. It's where we finished the last holiday in Cornwall, and was the obvious place to start this one. Even Dad came. Dad's not big on beach holidays, and it turns out that it's my fault. We went on a beach holiday with my uncle (his brother) Bob when I was around 6, and the plan was for us to have a lovely time at the seaside, bonding. I was terrified of the surf, it appears, so we couldn't bond, the family fell apart, the economy collapsed (it was a little before the Winter of Discontent), nuclear proliferation increased, and global warming officially kicked off. (Which is why, Catherine points out, we decided to try again 31 years on).

We had a lovely time, all joking aside, and people (read "my parents") were quite impressed by Jo's playing in the surf (she's 2 and a half, and not terrified).

Labels: family, holiday

Nightmare drive

(backposting) We had a terrible, terrible drive down to my parents today. We decided to leave after my work had finished and headed off around 1800 after a quick supper for the girls and a bath to settle them down. Jo slept for a little, and then was awake, and Miri really lost it. Despite our stopping twice on the M4, she cried almost non-stop for an hour and a half, and by the time she did quieten down, Jo was wired, and making so much noise that we were worried that she'd wake Miri again.

In the end, I turned up Radio 4 longwave and listened to England beating India in the one-day. Great match, fantastic finish by some up and coming players.

Labels: holiday, Jo, miriam, travel

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

Polzeath beach

(backposting) A good beach. Rockpools, surf, ice-creams (yes, I know), doughnuts (ditto), sand to build things with: you get the plan. Jo got very tired , and rather lost it around 1500, which is fair enough. She's still not at all well and although she's managing through most of the days, and it's really the evenings and night's that are the problem. But she got cold, and well, lost it.

Labels: holiday, Jo

The Eden Project

(backposting) It's a great place. We arrived at around 0930, and didn't leave till 1630, which is an enormously long time to spend anywhere with Jo. She slept for an hour in the middle of the day, and had ice-cream twice before noon, but that's really not bad for a two and a half year old with chicken pox. As yesterday, she found the end of the day a little hard, but that's understandable. A nightmare getting her to bed, though.

One of the striking things about the project is that all of the employees really seem to get it. From the waiters to the ticket office people, from the ground staff to the live drummers (as opposed to dead drummers?), they really seem to believe in the place. I've been to institutions - mainly in the US - where employees believe, but in a pretty big UK institution, it's a first for me, I think. I talked to someone there about it as we were buying some things from the shop, and she agreed.

I'm trying to get my head round the assignment on music and liturgy that I'm supposed to be doing, but by the end of the evening, when we've got Jo down and have a couple of hours before we have to wake Miri up for a feed and Jo wakes up again and insists on going in with Moo, other things seem to be more important. Even if it's just finishing off this blog and watching a pretty poor Sandra Bullokc and Hugh Grant film (Two Weeks' Notice).

The big deal we closed recently got delivered and accepted today: the last day of the quarter. I'm really pleased with the dev. team: one guy in particular needs lots of plaudits, and I'll work on that when I'm back at work.

Labels: ERMC, holiday

Lessons learnt

We ended up going to Trebarwith again, and had a lovely time. We arrived a little early, as the tide was still pretty much in, but it went out fairly fast, and we installed ourselves on the sand. Moo spent most of the time on a little chair we bought (apparently it's difficult to breastfeed on the sand) for her. Miri spent most of the time feeding and sleeping and gurgling. Jo spent most of the time running around saying "I love it" again. We found a green millipede, two different types of anemone, limpets, a sea louse, some small fish, barnacles, lots of mussels and some small waves to jump over. The bigger waves were a little too scary, obviously, but I was allowed to spent a few minutes in them later in the day.

Jo got a little cold and tired, and lost it rather, which was quite understandable. She's still not well, obviously, which doesn't help. Lots of running around in the garden again "I'm a bear", "now I'm a tiger", "you hide: no, let's both hide: here. Boo!" You get the idea.

Dad phoned me this morning to tell me to buy The Times. Hard to do, obviously, but a brief article about how the Jesuits are telling Catholics to embrace SecondLife for missionary work. Good for them.

Oh - and I forgot to mention. On Friday, Miri giggled for the first time, and then laughed. It's the first time, and it was for me, which was lovely.

Labels: holiday, illness, secondlife

Two important lessons

(backposting) These lessons are:

1. don't take a pushchair to the beach unless you're _sure_ there are no rocks to clamber over, and the sand will be firm;
2. don't try to change a baby only a couple of metres from the shoreline if the tide's coming in.

I think you get the picture. We had a lovely time, though, and Jo just kept running from pool to pool saying "I love this, I love this". I got to have a copule of minutes in the surf in my wetsuit, which is frankly too short, a problem which is not helped by the fact that I could do to lose some weight, if we're brutally honest.

Ice-cream, doughnuts (don't start - we're on holiday).

We'd started off in Boscastle, and then headed off to Trebarwith, which is a lovely beach. We were there around 1400, which was a little late, as the tide was coming in very quickly, but we'll know better next time. May well return on another occasion. Without pushchair.

Poor Jo's being very good about not scratching, and she's been better in herself today. Had a lovely hour or so running around in the cottage's garden, pretending to be various animals, hiding, chasing, playing with a beachball: all that sort of thing. She really gets play with other people now, and it was a real joy: _she_ was a real joy to be with. No spots on Miri so far.

Labels: food, holiday, illness, Jo

Bank Holiday Monday

(backposting) There are good things about Bank Holiday Monday: it's a non-working day. Well: one good thing, anyway. The problem is that with our current problems, the bad outweigh the good. It's a day when, between us, we have to look after both the girls, with no help from Mel. And I don't have any excuse to go upstairs and leave Moo to it. This isn't very good, but it's honest.

Labels: holiday