Duxford

Whilst Jill was playing tennis, boys and I went to Duxford aviation museum. We had an excellent time. Here are some of the highlights. First, the Blackbird, the fastest and highest flying plane ever:

Secondly, Ollie and Charlie underneath the bomb bay of the Vulcan. It is big. It was built to put nuclear weapons in:

A MIG -21 (very fast Russian plane):

The mammoth American Stratofortress:

And the 'never-to-go-into production' TRS-2:

There was lots of other good stuff too. Eight hangers of stuff. Too much to do in the time we had. We had a good look around the Big No.1 Hanger, the No.8 Land Warfare Hanger (including lots of WW2/D-Day/Monty), the No.7 American Hanger, and No.4 (I think), Battle of Britain Hanger. Definitely worth at least one long day, and probably two.

New Couch

Okay, so we have had this couch a while now, but I haven't posted for a few weeks. So some catching up posts to do. This corner used to be where the our desk was - it was butted up against the wall that you can't quite see on the left of the pic above. This corner sofa was from IKEA. We thought it would be horrible to assemble. It was pretty easy and the whole thing must have taken no more than 90 minutes to get up, and most of that was getting the covers pulled taut over the frame and cushions.

Easter Monday Trip To York

Weather a little dodgy today, so we drove to York. First stop, the world's largest railway museum, the National Railway Museum. All boys got very excited. It is a fantastic place. Best exhibits were a Japanese bullet train:

Officially world's fastest steam locomotive, 'Mallard' (there is some dispute over the real record holder):

The beautiful Duchess of Hamilton:

And a mad, but great looking ad, proclaiming that Skegness was bracing (in which case why on earth would I want to go there):

After the National Railway Museum we went into town. York is one of those fantastically historical towns, which has layers of history each built on top of the last. Founded by the Romans, then added to by Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, Normans and medieval Britain, it has historically been one of the most important English towns. It has considerable stretches of city wall and everything is a very walkable, because when it was built there were no cars. We had a look at the Minster:

The tiny Medieval streets, the thinnest being 'The Shambles':

And circled the very photogenic Clifford's Tower:

Before settling upon spending some more time with railways, this time a model railway exhibition near the real York station, before setting off back to Addingham with the feeling that one day is not enough. York really needs a long weekend, or two.

Easter Sunday Dales Walk

Up in the Yorkshire Dales for a week; staying in Addingham. Today we went for a walk around Grassington to get ourselves acclimatised to some walking. Here are a few pics:

It was one of those days when it was bright skies one minute and rain the next. The photo, above, illustrates this rather well.

Sportsman George

Not content with bagging a brace of goals recently for London Rd in a game against Evergreen FC (his first for London Rd) George had a good showing in his first fencing competition.

George has recently taken at fencing at Verulam. He also has a friend across the road, Clement, who fences with the local fencing club. They both went to the University of Hertfordshire recently for a competition; George's first.

There were six competitors and George came a tidy third (Clement came first). As they were leaving the University sports village, the venue for today, Paul, George's fencing teacher said "Well done George, how does it feel to be third in the county?"

I think henceforth we will be finding a few more minority sports and throwing the kids at them to see if we can get a decent showing.

Matthew's Bar Mitzvah

We were honored to be invited to Matthew Altman's Bar Mitzvah in Chappaqua. I managed to schedule it with a business trip to New York. It was a huge shame we were not able to all go. It was an amazing occasion. I have never been to a Bar Mitzvah before. It was a wonderful mix of traditional  - cutting bread, lighting candles, speeches, raising family members aloof on a chair - and modern - the karaoke style of the entire room singing along to 'living on a pray' and some of the more 'urban' dressing up, as demonstrated below, provided a rather intoxicating mix.

But the highlights were when the family came to the fore: the grand entrances (below Steve and Lydia), 

the speeches from Matthew, Steve and David, and of course, moments like this:

It was a special night. 

Charlie and Daddy go to Paris

On 20/21st Feb Charlie and I took a trip to Paris. I had taken the other boys away on their own when they were young and my previous trip with Charlie was a bit 50:50 (we went to Norfolk, Charlie was ill), so I was hoping for better this time. Charlie was very keen to go on Eurostar, and fortunately I had lots of 'points' from all my trips to Brussels. Charlie was very excited. Here he is in the business lounge at St. Pancreas (I have a card that gets me in):

We got on the train:

And stood by the front of the train at Gare du Nord:

We had a decent room in the hotel opposite la Gare. Here is a view of the station from our bedroom window: 

After a little rest, at Woosie's request, brought on by all the excitement of the train, we headed off towards the Eiffel Tower.

We went via the Tuiliers: 

And got our first glimpse of the Tower: 

We headed towards it: 

And then up it:

After all this activity we needed sustenance. We walked across the Seine and up towards the Trocadero. We found an excellent restaurant and tucked in. 

The Wooz had Le Menu Enfant, which included some ice cream, but he was desperate for a chocolate crepe, so he got both! 

We put the ice cream in the coke bottle so The Wooz could eat his crepe. After dinner, we checked out the lights on the Eiffel Tower.  

We got the metro back to the hotel and went to bed. Charlie could not go to sleep so he read a book. 

Next day we walked to the Sacre Ceour: 

And Montmartre:

We walked back to La Gare du Nord, where The Wooz took some photos of Eurostar, TGV and double decker trains.

We then made the return journey back on the train. Here is Charlie on the moving walkway at St. Pancreas:

We had a fantastic time, Charlie loved Paris - good chap - and walked like a trooper. And I got to spend some quality time with my beautiful third son. 

Charlie Joins The Table

Following this post, about boys birthdays, I found this charming shot of Charlie.

It may not look like it, but he is sitting at the table with George and George's pals on George's birthday. He clearly wanted to join in, but felt a little nervous so sat a little away from the table, but it was clear that he had his part of the table which was his: even from long range!

Boyz Birthdays

It's that time of year. Birthdays for boyz. They fall within 2 months of each other, and Christmas. 

First was Ollie. He was ten on 20th December. He is blowing candles out using some kind of swing-wing technique borrowed from dart shaped planes.

Then George, a teenager on 21st January. He is using the deep breath technique with bent arm to create a stout and straight back for better blowing efficiency.

And on 12th February, The Wooz was seven. And he is gazing adoringly at the segment of cheesecake that has no jam on and is earmarked for him!