Category: Family

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Half Term Adventures

Pic of the week 29/10/17

Friday saw us all up early, on our adventures.

Becky & Sophie hopped on the train and went up to London for the day and had a wonderful time in the capital. A far better account – and more pics – can be found at Becky’s blog here.

Sam & I also got up early (too early for a holiday?) and went up the Poldens before sunrise. It was a beautiful day – my photography skills do not do it justice – the leaves turning into their beautiful autumn colours.

Home for breakfast, I then spent a pleasant morning sat out in the garden in wonderful October sunshine, reading, before nodding of for delightful 30 minute snooze basking in what may be the last sun for some months.

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Half Term – at last!

Pic of the week 22/10/17

And so half term has finally arrived.

September starts on a surge of adrenaline, but after a couple of weeks that wears of and the tiredness starts to kick in.  With working Saturdays, making it a six day week, I don’t think that you ever get the chance to fully recuperate in term time and the trick is to manage the decline from the end of one holiday until next.  This first half a term is always one of the longest, one of the hardest.

So half term began for me on Wednesday afternoon, but not until Friday for the children, so Becky & I grabbed the chance to go out for lunch together at GBK and it was, of course, lovely – the company in particular, but the food wasn’t too bad either.

No major plans for the half term, Sam’s nose is being put to the grindstone as he has mocks in the week he returns, Becky’s working much of next week and Sophie & Becky are going to London on Friday.

Me, I hope to do plenty of exercise (swam Wednesday & Thursday, spinning on Friday, refereed yesterday, played for Legends today – swim, run and spin, I hope, in the week to come), rest and catch up with stuff. Potter in the garden, wash the windows, maybe go up the Poldens …

I’ve already made a start at tidying up the garden – cutting back one clump of daises, and still mowing the lawn which is growing well in the warm, wet conditions. However, the weather does seem to have turned and we’re now into Autumn. Hence, rather sadly, I washed, ironed and put away my summer shorts for another year. A sad moment!

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Up the Poldens!

Pic of the week 20/8/17

For some time I’ve fancied going up the Poldens – the ridgeway that runs to the south of Street, seperating us from Somerton and the South. I first became aware of the area when travelling on the coach to Kingweston (take a different route when going by car).  So I researched a little and it seems the Poldens, and a public right of way, runs from Walton along the ridgeway, ending near Kingweston.

So on Monday, with the weather set fair, Becky, Sam and I headed for the hills (Sophie was at work.) We had a really pleasant afternoon, ambling along the pathway, stopping to examine Admiral Hood’s monument, pick a few blackberries and explore the woods.  If we’d kept going a bit further we’d have have emerged at Gilling Down – the big stone outcrop I’ve often noticed when driving back from Somerton way. A shame we didn’t quite make it that far as it would have opened up a quite spectacular vista across the levels.  Anyway, must go back there in half term – if not before – to see it in its autumnal splendour.

In other news, Thursday was a bit of stressful day. Awoken unnecessarily early at 6 am for Sophie’s AS level results, they finally pinged through at circa 7am – BBCC.  She was a little disappointed – got a C in Geog but was only one mark of a B and Maths.  My classes had done alright in their AS & A Level results.  Took the car (Mini) in for its MOT – fortunately it came through, with a bill, including service of sub £200. And just to add to the stress, we took same shopping for his school shoes.  Glad we won’t have to do that again (as long as he gets away with what we have bought, which look suspiciously like black trainers to me …)

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Birthday Boy!

Pic of the week 13/8/17

Sam turned 15 on Monday!

Growing up too fast, he’s definitely now a teenager – he has the height, the voice and the desire to sleep late into the morning.

A great day, he got a OnePlus 3 phone (with the added bonus that I now have his old iPhone 5C, finally consigning my Nokia brick into history …)

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Hols 17

Pic of the week 30/7/17

A picture tells a thousand words, so I’ll let the pictures above do (most of) the talking.

At the start of the week we went to Cornwall, the four of us squeezing into our trusty Micra and heading for the sun (ha!) on Sunday evening.

Monday was the summer. A day of sunshine, sea and sand, spent at St Ives, Sam and I taking to the water twice. It wasn’t warm, but we had two good sessions in the sea, the second time having fun in the surf as the waves broke.

An (early!) evening meal in The Hub before chilling on the harbour wall at St Ives.

Tuesday – and rain threatened. Once again, off to St Ives, but this time we walked from the car park to Carbis Bay, via the Knill monument, followed by another chilled afternoon at the St Ives harbour.

Wednesday, and the rain came, so we headed for home.

After a lot of early season promise, this summer is turning into a bit of a damp squib – rain again today and not much change forecast for the foreseeable future.  Boo!

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Holiday Time!

Pic of the week 9/7/17

And so the holidays have arrived – for me at least!

The first week, and the sun shone, let’s hope that that is an omen for the rest of the hols.

On Wednesday Becky & I had a day at the beach sans children, who are still at school (and with Sophie driving, no need for us to worry about the school run.)

So we hopped in the Mini, first stop Bridport. A pleasant enough market town where we enjoyed a street side coffee in the sun, but nothing to rave about. A rather “grey” population …

From there it was but a brief drive to Burton Bradstock. What a fantastic beach, lapped by the clearest of clear blue sea, it was idyllic to just sit and stare, to chill and bake simultaneously.  Of course, I could not resit the lure of the water for long and I was soon in for the first of my two swims. ‘Twas cold mind, testicle shrinking-ly cold. Nevertheless, on each occasion I spent circa 20 mins in the water, gently ploughing to and fro along the beach, breaststroke only – to cold to keep immersing the face whilst doing crawl.

A lovely day.

Happy hols!

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Father and Son – Cat Stevens


Track of the week 14/5/17

Sam went to see Guardians of the Galaxy 2 yesterday and he came home raving about the film and impressed with the soundtrack.

So I looked up the play list and this was on it and thought that it was an apt track of the week.

But take your time, think a lot
Think of everything you’ve got
For you will still be here tomorrow
But your dreams may not

I hope Sam’s dreams stay with him for a long time yet.

And as for me, well,

Look at me, I am old
But I’m happy

A wife of 21 years who I love as much now as I did when we first met, and two wonderful children – my dreams have come true.

 

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Becky & Granny

Pic of the week 7/5/17

Not too much to report this week.

Becky went to Cornwall on Saturday to see her Granny.

Sam spent an eye-watering amount of money on a pair of Nike Air Jordan’s – and I then got a text on Saturday:

How do you clean dog poo of shoes?

He’d evidently stood in some when out and about with his pals in Wells on Saturday.  Later that afternoon I got another text:

Can you pick me up or do I have to get the bus because my trouser have ripped

So, of course, I picked him up.

Despite the above, he had a good day.

Today I lined the U15 Div 1 Cup Final, another good day out, Taunton won 4-1.

Applied to de-register from VAT

All in the course of a “normal” week!

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So that was the Easter Hols

Pic(s) of the week 23/4/17

So today sees the end of the Easter hols.

Its been a great few weeks, with fantastic weather – it may have rained one day in the first week (but I’m not sure) but other than that its been as dry as a bone and unseasonably warm and sunny – perfect for enjoying the garden.

And I have enjoyed the garden – building the new deck where the summer house was last year and doing some planting – a couple of hydrangeas in front of the deck, strawberries, raspberry canes (although most don’t seem to be showing any signs of life), courgettes, aubergines and squash (I think the cucumber fell victim to slugs last night) hostas  … all is starting to look good, although temperatures are set to plummet next week – hope everything survives.

The end of dots of spots, the end of an era.  Quite a bit of time was spent over at the unit, moving and clearing stuff and stock. Thursday was a bit of a manic day, but at last the shelves are empty. Still a few lose ends to tie up, but the business is now closed. Very proud of Becky and what she achieved over those 8+ years, and equally proud of the sensible and pragmatic way that she decided “enough was enough” and it was time to shut up shop.

The Mini! Swapped the big Nissan Almera Tino for a less practical convertible mini, but my, it looks good! who needs a big family car? Not us any more.

Exercise: Have kept myself fit – have done 5 games (4 middles, 1 line) including a cup semi final today, ran 39.5Km in 5 runs, spun 5 times (burning off 2,925 calories), but only swum once, a measly 30 lengths (1Km).

(Reasonably) looking forward to the start of term tomorrow – 5 weeks, then 4 weeks doesn’t seem too daunting, no football to organise week in, week out and nearly all of my classes working towards GCSE, AS or A Level exams – easy street ’till the long Summer holidays!

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Not bad for a 48 year old

Pic of the week 2/4/17

So Tuesday was my (48th) birthday. I had a great day and I’ve been a busy boy since.

Over the last year it has dawned on me that my mid-life crisis is manifesting itself in the need to do as much exercise as possible.  Perhaps its some subconscious realisation that this body of mine has a finite life and I need to extract every last scrap of usage out of it? Who knows, but it’s got to be better than buying a motorbike, squeezing into some ill fitting leathers and roaring down the road is some forlorn hope to try and recapture ones youth.

I celebrated the day by sneaking off early at 3.15 (free lesson P5!) and heading down to the pool to swim 48 lengths for my 48th birthday – a mile to mark the milestone of another passing year. And then it was home for pressies & my birthday tea of curry, followed by lime jelly and ice cream – a menu not enjoyed or shared by any member of my family.

I was already tee-ed up to referee the girls football tournament on the next day (Wednesday 29th) when I got a phone call asking me to referee Wessex U14s in a game the same evening, 6.30 kick off. I agreed – come 8.30pm on Wednesday I gratefully hopped  (no, not hopped, stumbled perhaps) into the shower, realising I had just refereed for 3 hours!

On Thursday I played for the staff v the U6th leavers – was pleasantly surprised how my legs coped with another onslaught of physical activity. A great game, great fun, and great to come out 3-2 winners.

Friday was, of course, spinning night – with the added euphoria of the end of term. Saturday – a day of rest, before Sunday, more football, this time a Legends game v Castle Cary.

A beautiful Spring day, we took the lead and for a good ten minutes basked in the glory of being ahead as well as the April sunshine. But, alas, it was not to last. A very off-side goal and a missed penalty saw us ultimately lose 3-1, but a great game to end a great season veterans football (all of 4 games!)

And now the holidays begin in earnest, I need the rest, but I’m sure I’ll find the time for a little bit (more) exercise.