Charlie Takes An After Dinner Nap

Slightly strange way to do it, but hey.

Ollie Bowling (cricket!)

He is a few seconds of Ollie bowling at the Leverstock Junior 'Ashes' a few weeks ago. I am rather pleased Ollie is into cricket, and what's more is that his bowling action has some potential.

The Wooz On Flickr

I have already posted on The Wooz and I going on a boy's weekend to Paris, here. At last I have posted all the pix to flickr, here. There are too many pix, certainly too many duplicates, and no labeling of the shots. I will have to go back to edit and label. At least they are up. Narrow boats next.

Ollie's Contrasting Weekend

On Saturday morning Ollie had his first football practice of the session which meant he could wear his new Nike boots, see here. And on Saturday afternoon he went and bought an iPOD Touch, 32g, with his own saved up money. Very exciting. He also needs a new tennis racquet - his coach says his current one is too small for him - so we bought him a new tennis racquet as well. Also very exciting. We also went to Tesco's and Ollie, for a little treat, chose some chocolate custard. Again very exciting. What a top day for Ollie.

It is funny how things turn, because today, Sunday, has been a little different for Ollie.

I took all boys for a sail today. They haven't done it this year, apart from with Rupert in The Solent which is not quite the same as dingy sailing, and I think it is important for them to keep their hand in. George was fine and enjoyed himself. The Wooz thoroughly enjoyed his crewing and didn't want to get out after a couple of minutes, but Ollie, a little nervous to be back in a dingy, managed to capsize! He wasn't happy. He got a soaking and didn't want to continue sailing solo so joined The Wooz and I, shivering and unhappy.

To make the contrast between Ollie's Saturday and Sunday even more dramatic, we returned home to have have salmon wrapped in prosciutto with herby lentils and spinach in yoghurt. Ollie was VERY unhappy at that.

At least he got to listen to the community shield on Sunday afternoon, play some tennis, watch Sherlock Holmes and eat pasta for the rest of the day.

Ollie's New Boots

They are Nike T90 Laser IIIs. Needn't say any more. 

Narrow Boat Week

We have just spent a narrow boat, gently taking in the delights of the Stratford and Warwick sections of the English canal network. For those of you who don't know much about narrow boats, they are very long (ours was nearly 70 feet) and very, well......narrow (less than 6 foot wide I would guess). They were originally built for moving cargo but today are generally pleasure craft, hired for holidays or owned like a mobile second home. If you are very interested, have a look here. This was our narrow boat.

It is slow going. There is no point even trying if you want to do something fast. Speeds are 2-5 mph (max), and what with having to negotiate the locks it is quicker to walk if you want to go any distance! Our longest day we did probably 5 miles including 17 locks. Here is a short 'flight' of them.

It is a great holiday for taking things very slow, and doing very little, though you need to keep your eye on the steering, as the canals are often narrow, the locks and bridges really tight and the bridges very low.

We chugged through some lovely English countryside, the stuff you forget about caught in the endless commuter existence.

 

We ate at some good pubs and saw some lovely village houses.

Including where Shakespeare's mother, Mary Arden, supposedly lived as a child.

We also went to Stratford-upon-Avon, home of Shakespeare.

And the castle at Warwick.

I will put the entire collection of pix up on flickr, hopefully, before too long.

House

We bought the house we were renting. At the end of last year the housing market, in St.Albans anyway, was going a little bonkers. Decent houses were being bought for way above asking price. We were lined up to buy a house, ready to exchange, when the sellers dropped out.

Then our landlords gave us notice that they were going to put the house on the market. We decided to buy it, offering a bid to take it off the market. That worked, and we exchanged late last year. I'm not sure I have posted on this, nor uploaded any pictures of the house yet, even when we were renting it. So here is one, albeit of the back.

Garden makeover

This is what our garden looked like not long after we decided to rip it up.

And this is what it looks like now:

We had a tree removed, the lawn flattened, and new glass put down. Oh, and we had the sun come out for the picture. Don't think that our little arch has half a door on it. I have just noticed that it is the chalet door opened so it looks like the arch has half a door! And if you look carefully, you can see the bounce-a-lene behind the trellis.

Boys get prizes

It was George's year's annual prizegiving last night. He won a prize for science, for his form and played in the band at the start of the evening. Unfortunately, I missed it as I was getting ready for a big pitch. One effect of missing the event was that I wasn't able to take a picture of George getting his prize on stage. So instead I have loaded a picture of George in York with at least three, if not four, beanie hats on. The number continued to rise in the thirty minutes after this photography was taken.

I did, however have my camera for Ollie's annaul St. Albans City football club awards a few weeks earlier. Here he is, with his team, receiving their awards. For easier identification purposes, Ollie is the one in the middle wearing a black tie and holding a yellow pendant.

Molly's 80th

Last Friday, 26th June, we celebrated Auntie Molly's 80th birthday. Molly is my mum's sister. She is quite an amazing lady and has survived quite a lot of tragedy in her life. She seems to get up, brush herself down and just get on with it.

The party itself was at Ponsbourne Hotel in Newgate Street. It was a lovely summer evening and lots of Molly's friends were there, as well as a full family turn out. I looked a little shoddy, having dashed from running a two-day American Express workshop.

For those of you who don't know, from left to right is Anna, Molly and me!