Jill's Birthday

It was Jill's birthday in the week, but on the actual day, the Wednesday, I was in Manchester (5am start, not back until gone 10.30pm) so we had our celebration last Saturday, after the Indian with Ade.

We came back home and opened presents - a super expensive chocolate dippingfeist, chosen by the boys that had white and milk chocolate with a variety of sweet things like fudge, marshmallows and chocolate pieces to dunk into heated chocolate that the boys chose, see below (I bought the strawberries on health grounds) -

and we bought an apple tree (though we haven't actually bought it yet, if you know what I mean), a book (Blair's autobiography, which I have picked up and had a passing look at), and a load of excellent stuff from Poundworld, including the socks below, which George chose.

Adrian Visits

Ade visited last Saturday - 11th Sept - for a furious afternoon of activity. We had a round robin tennis competition followed by a kick about (George and I vs Ade, Ollie and Charlie) which was a close run thing. Inspite of Ollie turning in a man of the match performance, George and I sneaked a 7-6 victory after being 6-2 down. We went off and ate a very good Indian meal at the Chilli Raj, and Ade paid. Thanks Ade it was great to see you.

My Best Week (by Charlie)

Friday

At school every week theirs an achievement award for who’s been good at school. And guess who got it Charlie Barnett and Faazah Afzal. That very day I was special person.


Saturday

I am in a team this year. I played a game on the 11th September 2010 in the 1st mach I did not play but in the 2nd mach I did play. We beat those 11-1 and 1st mach we won, 2-1. I scored the 4th goal.

We didn't have a picture of Charlie from the week in question, unfortunately. So I have inserted this picture from the narrow boat holiday instead. For all pictures from holiday, click here

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.