Category: Family

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Happy New Year!

2025 has arrived!

Sam was up in Carlisle, Becky, Sophie and I spent an unremarkable night in to see in the new year, before rising fresh headed at a sensible hour and waving Sophie off on her journey back to Cardiff before 9am. It has been a great Christmas/New Year period – relaxed, comfortable and calm. It has seemed a long holiday – Madeira seems a long time ago – and I return to school tomorrow refreshed and recharged ready for the term to come. I have put on a few (too many) pounds, have read a lot, pottered and enjoyed a slow pace of life for a few weeks. I have run a bit, including a couple of shorter 4K runs – perhaps this is the future: less time and less draining, but still getting some exercise – but annoyingly yesterday, 5k into a 6k run I tweaked my left hamstring and had to walk the last k. Also my back had begun to hurt, and got worse after I got home. Now is pretty much better, and my arm/shoulder/neck problem that plagued my last few weeks does seem to have diminished to the point of being over.

After a week or so of sitting under a grey blanket of miasma, on Thursday the weather changed and it was clear and cold for the first time in a long time. Becky and I headed of to Shapwick for a pleasant morning walk.

And on Friday – I was in school on Inset – it got really cold, a hard frost everywhere …

… that persisted into Saturday. I still had some geraniums flowering on Christmas day, so I fashioned a fleece curtain for them, hoping I can keep them going into the summer. But in the garden the seed heads looked specular coated in frost and and a number of bulbs are poking proudly up, something to provide hope and interest over the coming weeks and months.

And last night it snowed! It had been forecast, so no surprise, and at about 7pm it started to snow for a couple of hours – at first very wet, but then settling on cars and then the road.

But before we went to bed, it had turned to rain and this morning was just another grey, wet Sunday in Somerset. In fact, the temperature has climbed today and felt mild when I popped out to potter, but is due to turn cold again mid-week.

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Christmas!

Wednesday was Christmas day, and it was a lovely day. the four of us enjoying each others company, presents and a fantastic lunch. The day seemed to pass by quite swiftly (in a good way) – no arguments, no drama, and the day finished off with a couple of TV Christmas crackers – first Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance most fowl; and then the final ever episode of Gavin and Stacey to round off a great day.

Two days before (on Monday) we had been to Lifton in Devon to meet up for lunch with Becky’s family:

And Christmas eve was spent at home, en famille, getting everything ready for the next day:

On Boxing Day we enjoyed another chilled day (I did go for a run, but the weather for the last week has been constant grey mizzle and damp – not the sort of weather to entice you out for a brisk cleansing walk) and we all built some Lego.

One of the Christmas bag rounds was Lego – each of us drawing someone from the hat and tasked with buying them a Lego kit. Sophie drew me, and bought me this Lego Vespa that I enjoyed building. (Becky also bought everyone another small Lego kit. The Lego mini-figures we had bought of a street market in Nerja)

We also played a few games of cards – Sophie was “MC”, we played “Granny” – sort of real time solitaire with four players, Uno, and my favourite, Exploding Kittens.

Yesterday, I took Sam to Bristol Temple Meads for an epic train journey to Carlisle to spend New Year with Poppy. It was a long journey made longer by his connection from Manchester to Carlise being cancelled, and then the subsequent later train suffering techincal problems before departure; but he got there safe and sound.

Today the Christmas tree, decorations and outside lights came down. Other than the mountain of snack food and treats still scattered around the house (and the unforgiving reminder on the scales every morning) it does seem like Christmas is over for another year.

But its been great.

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Gathering of the clan

Today we all went over to Jane’s for a pre-Christmas gathering of the clan. It was a lovely day and a rare occasion that all my side of the family were together.

Yesterday Sam came home, Sophie having come home on Tuesday. Last night we all sat together in the sitting room.

On Thursday we (Becky, Sophie & I) went to the Festive Fiesta in Bristol which was, once again, an excellent night out and, I think, now an established Christmas tradition.

In other, more mundane news, but worth recording for future reference, this week I migrated my websites to Hosting UK. They moved my mathsteacherwrites blog for me (although some of the dynamic pages now longer work as they did – I may just ignore them and stick with the written posts, or investigate how to get them working again), I moved the other two blogs using UpDraft plus plugin, which went well, except the images didn’t move so I had to spend a few hours manually migrating them. But pleased that they are now down.

And my arm/shoulder/neck is getting much better – no longer painful, but still at times some pain in my lower arm, and pins and needles in my hand, particularly in my first finger. So not yet 100%, but significantly better than a few weeks ago.

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Grease

Its exeat weekend, which means I had a rare Saturday off yesterday (and, as bonus, I get tomorrow off, too) and what better way to spend it than by taking in some musical theatre at the Bristol Hippodrome. We (Becky, Sophie and I) went to see Grease – it was greats, a wonderful night out. The music and dancing got my toe-tapping, and before the show we had been for a slap-up Greek meal at the Hat Bistro.

On Thursday we had a fleeting visit from Sam, he’s been in London for the last couple of weeks. He got the bus to Bristol, then 376 home, had a quick bite to eat before hoping into his silver dream machine and driving back to Cardiff. Whilst he doesn’t start back for a week or so – the final year of his degree – it was evident whilst we were in Bristol last night that lots of students were there for the first night of their undergraduate adventure. Hope he does some work this year, graduates (I’m sure he will – but two, three years ago, this was not a given!) and starts thinking about a job/career.

The weather over the last week has been good – warm and sunny – but, inevitably, it turned on Friday and we have had a lot of rain over the last three days, typically in big bursts for up to, say, an hour, before clearing up.

I did referee this morning in Somerset County Cup, Vets competition (Pilton v Ashcott, Pilton won) I would say I get wet, not soaked, somehow we missed the massive downpours. Enjoyed the game, I’m thinking maybe referee one Sunday a month? Who knows, will see how things pan out. Everywhere is beginning to look distinctly autumnal as the leaves on the trees begin to change colour.

And after last weeks endeavours, the lawn is tamed and ready for winter. I had hoped to plant some bulbs into it this weekend, but its just been too wet. A job for another day … With the rain, and the (reasonable) warmth, everything is looking verdant and fresh, and growing well. Geraniums still in full flower, nasturtium leaves providing ground cover (and the odd flower) and we have a succession of sunflowers – with a fair number still to bloom – to provide colour and cheer and keep autumn and winter at bay for a little bit longer.

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Sorted!

Pic of the week 18/8/24

This week has mainly been about sorting, organising and remodelling my room, the sitting room, and the shed.

We’ve had two new chairs and a sofa arrive for the sitting room,

meaning the sofa in my room had to go, to be replaced with the sofa from the sitting room, necessitating a major re-organisation of my room.

Anyway, the job is nearly done – I still have to build my shoe rack, put my shoes away and do the final bit of organising, but I’m nearly there and the results so far are looking good.

Also this week, the Micra passed its MOT; not so good car news – I was woken at circa 1215 Friday night/Saturday morning as Sophie had broken down on the way home from Taylor Swift (driving from London to Basingstoke.) Her dashboard had lit up like Blackpool illuminations, and the car was losing power, so she pulled over. Her scanner said P0302 cylinder 2 misfire. Long story short, I got her to clear the code, the car then started and ran normally and she drove on to her friends house. The next day she drove home without incident, so I suspect some transient problem had put the car into limp mode. I will, though, change the plugs and coil pack.

Yesterday saw a return to FA cup action, with me on the line between Wincanton Town and Fleet Town. A feisty game that ended 2-2, I really enjoyed it. Meanwhile Shepton Mallet lost to Baffins Milton Rovers FC in their cup fixture, so a new team to follow in the next round.

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Birthday boy

Pic of the week 11/8/24

On Wednesday it was Sam’s birthday (22!) and we went to Cardiff for the day. We got to see his new house – a big imporvement on the squalor that was Richards Street – and his girlfriend, Poppy. We had a lovely meal in Honest Burgers , Becky and I in separate cars as I was driving his Civic back to do some repairs …

Which I duly did, fitting a new centre section exhaust. The previous owner had clearly been a boy racer, I had already replaced the tail box, quietening the car down considerably, but the centre section of the exhaust was hanging low, and had a couple of big dents in it from when Sam had “bottomed” out the car. It clearly wasn’t the original, and didn’t fit properly, so I ordered up the correct part and fitted it on Friday afternoon.

I’ve also been trying to resolve the triangle warning light on Sophie’s Fiat 500 – she’s been home since Thursday, and has just left to go home.  On Friday, I discovered one of her daylight running lights wasn’t working, so figured this would be the problem. Alas, it wasn’t as simple as a blown bulb, a wire was out of the bulb holder. I ordered a new one from Amazon and, with much fiddling (it is in a tight space!) got it fitted. Initially the light went out, but then came back. Saturday evening, and I was frustrated, unhappy and confused.

Anyway, I reverted to my initial plan A – buy and scan the car with MultiECUscan.  I had already downloaded and experimented with the free version, but this would not read DTC codes, let alone clear them. Saturday night I bought a copy and Sunday morning plugged in. Three codes popped up:

P0520-67 Oil pressure switch

B1022-12 Left or front side lights

B1033 – 19 Daylights current to high/above threshold

Anyway, I cleared the codes and the light went off and has (so far) stayed off.  I suspect the oil pressure switch was the original cause, and my tinkering had led to the others (since rectified). Anyway, I hope this proves to be a lasting solution, or for at least 10 days to get it through its MOT.

On Monday I ran – it felt slow and tough. To be fair, I haven’t ran for weeks, and even then I was slow, so I put it down to this. But on Monday night I began to develop a “bit of a throat” and all week I have been not well – on Wednesday and Thursday I was losing my voice.  Think I’m getting over it, but still suddenly have a bit of a coughing fit.  Will give myself a few more days before I run again (by which time it’ll be really tough & slow!)  Its not covid – have done two test. Just an annoying summer cold (probably picked up from sitting next to Mr Sneezy on the plane back from Athens)

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Back to normal

Pic of the week 7/4/24

On Wednesday, Becky, Sophie and I journeyed down to Devon – just shy of the Cornish border – to meet with Becky’s mum and dad for lunch. It was a pleasant day out, a journey of about 1hr 45 mins one way, and then on our return to Street Sophie hopped into her car and headed back to Cardiff.

On Monday I had taken Sam to Bridgwater station (in the still then noisy silver dream machine) from where he got the train back to Cardiff.

It was lovely to have them both home for a few days, but now they’ve gone back and the two of us are let rattling around the house again, trying to get all their bedding washed in between the poor weather. It continues to be wet and windy, although we have not had to endure as much rain as I feared. However, it is still definitely not shorts weather – I reckon this must be one of the latest times for donning shorts on record.  Trawling back through my blog, it seems this (when I start wearing shorts again) isn’t something I have recorded, probably because its something I just drift into doing in March or April, but currently it seems a long way away. I can’t see me wearing them before we go to Italy (on Tuesday), hopefully the weather will have turned by the time we come back …

This week I had my eyes tested – must remember to buy some new specs on my return – have run a couple of times, but not really done a huge amount else.  I did enjoy de-mod-ing the Civic (see other post) and have been doing battle with the catepillars that have been devouring the box bush out front (keep meaning to write a separate blog post about that.)  Given the grey skies and lack-lustre temperatures, I am looking forward to our Italian adventure and jetting off on Tuseday.

Ciao!

 

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Birthday boy!

Pic of the week 31/3/24

Its been my birthday week! On Thursday I turned 55 – no getting away from it, I’m definitely mid-fifties now – Sophie and Sam both came home for the start of Easter on Wednesday so it was been nice to have them home for my birthday tea, and it was nice to finish for the Easter hols at lunchtime on my birthday; a couple of tough weeks at the end of term made it a bit of a slog, but now I’m on holiday, all is well with the world.

Its been a busy week. On Wednesday I went for my blood tests and on Thursday I got my results – another nice birthday gift as I have been given the all clear as my levels are all within limits and I’m signed off from the docs “Normal, stable or satisfactory – no further action required” for all test. Here are the numbers:

  • Serum cholesterol 4.6 mmol/L
  • Serum triglycerides: 1.0 mmol/L (normal is range 0.6 to 2.0)
  • Serum cholesterol/HDL ratio: 3.7
  • Se non HDL cholesterol level: 4.1 mmol/L

Wednesday also saw me get absolutely frozen on the football pitch at Kingweston. It has been a wet winter, and rain was forecast for the afternoon, but after a huge downpour that morning, I headed over in sunshine, hoping that we’d escaped. But no, on arrival it started to rain, but by the time I trotted down to pitch 5 it had stopped, and we started the game. 5 mins in, the heavens opened with a biblical hail storm that lasted a good ten minutes. It was painful and cold!  Eventually the storm passed, and the sun even came out, but ten mins from time, the hail returned, I blew for full time early, much to the delight of everyone. A truly miserable experience!

The previous half term ended with the red shed dying at Kingweston, this term ended with me buying its replacement – “the silver dream machine”, “The Beast” or “The Asbo maker” depending on your view – or, more appropriately, hearing.

The Silver Dream Machine, aka The Beast

It is a 2003 Honda Civic – I really like it, drives and stops well, circa 102K miles, some good service history, but it is loud, very LOUD! I think that until 2023 it was well looked after then, for a year, was in the hands of a boy racer who added a “sports” exhaust and external air filter and some big sub-woofers in the boot (the speakers have gone, but the wiring is still there). Even Sam – and the car is earmarked to go to him in August – thinks its too loud.  I have a normal exhaust on order (£61) due to arrive on Thursday – should be a simple replacement fit and I’ll stop terrifying the locals as I cruise the streets of Street.

Saturday was a lovely day and Becky and I grabbed the opportunity to enjoy a few hours sat outside in the sunshine, Sunday remained dry (until the biblical rains returned Sunday night) but grey and cold.  On both days I took the opportunity to do some gardening – Saturday hacking back the box bush out front – it has suffered due to caterpillar action – and on Sunday I cut a lot of the top off the bush on the top deck that continues to grow and grow and, unforgivably, was casting shade when we wanted to make the most of the rare appearance of some spring sunshine. It will grow back, I’m sure, I just hope the same can be said of the box bush.

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Mothers Day

Pic of the week 10/3/24

Today’s is Mother’s day – Becky’s first not working Mother’s Day for seven years!  At lunch time we had a family Insta chat which was nice , the bambinos had sent their cards, and had instructed me to get some flowers, which I did on Wednesday.

Today has been quite chilled – we’ve not done a lot, I think Becky is enjoying her new job in the gallery, but is also then enjoying doing not a lot on Sunday, having worked on Saturday.

The weather has been dryer this week, but I wouldn’t say its (yet) been a warm March, it has been chilly in the mornings and nights, and the days plagued by a brisk wind. But the extra light makes a huge difference; this week we have seen some sun and the fact that it is still light as we approach six o’clock just makes everything feel better. Daffodils are in bloom, bushes are greening up and this last week we do seem to have – at last-  emerged from the grey grimness that descended in late October. Whilst its not been a cold winter, it has been a wet one, and that means the skies have often been leaden grey and oppressive. But I think, at last, Spring is here, or coming soon at the very least and one’s mood has lightened like the sky this last week.

The Magnolia is in full bloom – in fact, it is already starting to shed some flower petals (I often think the Magnolia is overrated – fantastic for five minutes, but lacking in the staying power to really earn its keep.) Its been a busy week, but a good week. Another busy one to come, I think …

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Bambinos

Pic of the week 5/11/23

It was Sophie’s birthday (24!) yesterday and she came home, bringing Sam with her.

Was lovely to see them both, have birthday tea together on Saturday (although I was on dining room duty on Sunday evening, so couldn’t also have tea with them then)

No he’s no longer insured on the Corsa, I’ve been a taxi service for Sam, shuttling him to friends in Wells and then Glastonbury.

Lovely to have the family back together for a weekend. in six weeks they’ll be back for Christmas!