Went to big town today to swap all the Christmas presents that didn't fit etc etc and blow me down if we didn't end up buying a bunch of sausage rolls from Baker's Oven. We are quite partial to the, ahem, occasional sausage roll it has to be said. How much do you think we'd get from Baker's Oven to use this a promotional shot? Free sausage rolls forever?
For this year only, the day after Christmas is officially Remote Control Boat Day since we got one this year. Here's ours all a-blur as it gets up to its full 58kph cruising speed... actually, it's more that shutter speeds on mobile phone cameras aren't all that because if our boat was traveling at almost 60kph I'm a monkey's uncle... 5.8kph perhaps.
We quickly worked out that anything costing under £30 runs on the same frequency. So when the little posh kid and his four wheel drive parents got too close, out of the water came our boat and we drove their little darling's machine for him. Hilarious as they fretted over its apparent loss of control.
Life is good sometimes.
I appreciate that I'm slacking on the posting front, but hey, it's Christmas - goodwill to people who sit in front of computers all day and all that.
Anyway, ventured into the big city this afternoon and it was brass monkey cold which made it feel all rather festive. Did a bit of final pressie shopping (half an hour or so without the kids in Hawkins Bazaar does a grown man the world of good), had a cup of coffee, got some new books for the children from the library and watched the ice skaters with Olive.
Lovely.
Random thought of the day. A normal, ordinary cup of white coffee, no froth, sprinkles or anything cost £1.70. And we had a biscuit with Smarties on it for £1.20. I'm thinking about buying one of those mobile coffee shop things, baking some nice biscuits and making a fortune. Would it work? Depends on where you sell I guess. I'm going to do the maths first. I am. I know, too much time on my hands. Well, it is Christmas.
Much excitement today as Olivia returned home from school clutching 'The Christmas Songs' performed by her school. The best £7.99 I've spent in some time.
As you will have noticed by the non-posting we have been sick as a family of dogs with sick baby dogs this week. Still, got it out of the way for Xmas I guess. The worst bit was being so sick on Tuesday I missed Olive's first Xmas play. Fret not though, our little girl can be some sort of angel at times and tonight I got a performance along with the music on the CD that almost made me cry.
Here's a song called 'Being Bossy' which is quite the most wonderful thing I've heard in a long time. Might not mean a whole lot to you, but it is a thing of beauty when your little girl is singing on it.
Could tell you all about nits. All very interesting, like little pets in your hair. Despite not having much hair, keep getting the wife to check to see if I've got my own pets yet.
Could tell you about the sicking up bug that's going round and having to clean up child sick as ours didn't manage to get to the loo in time. It's amazing how much of it there is and how far it can go.
Could tell you about the very lovely Xmas tree that went up yesterday.
Or perhaps I'm just filling because I've not been around since Thursday and it's looking like I'm slack. Can't have four post-less days...
I was rummaging around online today, like you do, and found a site about Ebenzers. They're model planes with tiny motors invented by a guy called Bert Striegler in the early 1950s. How fantastic do they look? I want one. Right... eBay first.
I think it's a sign of getting older, or maybe it's having children and feeling younger - whatever it is I seem to be developing some odd interests. Remote control stuff for example. I've bought Lukey a few cars and stuff which are okay, but for my birthday this year Caryn got me a remote control helicopter and a plane. They are both amazing. The helicopter can only fly indoors, but the plane comes with us when we go to the big field over the road in the hope that they'll be no breeze on an exposed open field. I might be getting older, but I still don't learn.
Seem to be a day behind myself this week for some reason, and the wife is a day ahead of herself which makes for some confusion. Anyway, yesterday my copy of War On Terror arrived in the post. Been waiting for an age and now it's here I can't wait to play... and I'm out tonight... and tomorrow... and the wife's out Friday.
Saturday then is War On Terror night in our house.
So we went for a pikey morning out on Sunday to Snetterton Market. Absolute rubbish apart from this great model shop, the UK's biggest apparently. There's a huge model train set in the shop which sucks kids in like a whirlpool. The number of small people leaving the shop in floods of tears - including our Lukey - was remarkable.
Anyway, YouTube, unsurprisingly, has a large number of RC (as people who do this sort of thing like to call it) films. You could watch an afternoon disappear watching crashes. Erm... oh. There's a great one of a B-52 the size of a small family car plummeting to the ground and exploding. Exploding. A model. Thought the one above was a bit special.
... it's 'The Bossy King'. We got a newsletter from the school yesterday about the play and Olivia has clearly been pulling our leg... or we just decided it was called 'The Grumpy King'. No wonder we couldn't find anything about it. Cunning.
So, it's the story of a very bossy king who hears about the new king born in Bethlehem and sets out to find him. When he eventually meets baby Jesus, the Bossy King decides to change his ways. I know this because I have looked at more Christian websites than any one person should have to.
Next week, a company are visiting the school to record the reception classes singing the songs from the play which they will then sell as CD. Can't wait. When we get our grubby mitts on it we will be sharing.
How foolish we were to try and buy advent calenders yesterday? Yesterday was still November and not December, the month in which Christmas falls. We wanted to get one of those ones with the drawers so we could put our own goodies in and use it for every Christmas until the children are too old for advent calenders. Not quite sure when that is, the wife is still keen on a chocolate a day between now and Christmas.
Anyway, could we find one? Nope. So we picked up the usual £1.99 Cadbury's one. Well, two. One each to avoid arguments... This morning Lukey served up a curveball by crying for an entire 20 minutes because he could only have one chocolate.
Child logic is a great thing. It's not like he gets a chocolate every day just after breakfast, but today, in an instant, it's become the most normal thing ever. When I was his age we were happy with a picture behind the advent calendar door each day and looked forward to the double door on Christmas Day. We were simple folk back then.
