Where to start?

Where does time go? I've not posted since last Wednesday! I find it hard to fathom sometimes. We have been extremely busy though - I finished off recycling the decking and it's made a big and quite wonderful difference to the garden.

It's a great place to be, especially as we can actually hang the hammock Jago brought back from Thailand for us about a million years ago. Despite living in four houses since we left London not one has provided us with suitable place for a hammock. Honestly.

We also cooked outside on the fire three days in a row - a brai as it is called in South African world. I have of course studied under a charcoal grandmaster - the father-in-law - who I'm sure would be proud that I lit a fire to cook six sausages. Don't really need much of an excuse to cook sausages outside slugging on a cold beer.

We've done the obligatory outing to Wroxham Barns for the fun fair and the fantastic junior farm to feed the lambs and the donkey, and the ponies, and the cow and sheep and when the food is finished you feed the paper bag to the goat. Hilarious. You kind of have to be there.

My favourites are the huge pigs, once of which is 'visiting her boyfriend' in the hope she'll have piglets in the summer. We will be there like a shot when they're born - piglets are much cuter than lambs... which reminds me that on Saturday we had both sausages and lamb chops on the brai. Hm.

Safe and sound

So everyone got back from Dublin safely last night. It was properly nice having time to myself, but much nicer to have all my babies back home. They were stars on the flight apparently, here's my two favourite pictures from the half a million or so Caryn took in four short days.

The picture of Lukey is encouraging. A pose I found myself in at various points last century. And how beautiful is our little girl. Very. But we would say that wouldn't we... even if she wasn't... which she isn't.

Bit like a camper van - no wheels, not £4,000

I do wonder how many people actually read this stuff aside from Ben, Rob and my little sis. Hello all three of you. I know the wife, who does live here normally, likes to have a look to see what's going on in my head, but has she looked while she's away? Let's see.

I saw this ad in the paper the other day and thought why not? I'd tucked £100 away which I was hoping to spend on a Topfield PVR5800 (sigh), but now that is going to have to wait because we're going camping... oh yes. Oh. Yes.

We're always going on about buying a camper, but face it, it's never going to happen is it? It's one of those things that seems like a great idea. The reality is that a standard rusting bucket is going cost in excess of £4,000, and a slightly rusting bucket about £6,000.

So I've bought a tent for £100. It's the new rock and roll. It is. And it's almost the same thing as a camper van except we've got a car to get us to wherever we want to go. And when we're there we can sleep in the outside. And I've even got a kettle. A kettle.

Now, no more talk of camper vans.

Wifey, take a look at this...

A picture that probably won't mean anything to anyone other the wife, but she's not here to see it and would probably like to. See, what am I doing while left alone? Drinking myself insensible and undertaking general misbehavior? Erm, nope.

I am dismantling decking and moving down the garden so we can use the hard standing underneath to park the car on and the decking to sit on in the summer.

I wish I was handier with this sort of stuff than I am. Trying work out how on earth I do DIY stuff makes my head hurt, as a result it's always a slooooooow process. The only way I could figure that the decking could be moved was by dismantling it. Not as easy as you'd think, natch.

Out came the screws, one at a time - there were almost 300 of them, many so rusted that I had to set to 'em with my new favourite tool - the crowbar... and now all I've got to do rebuild the deck at the other end of the garden.

I am also ahead of myself for once and bought some new non-rusting screws. Organised or what?

Where is everyone?

So, everyone else is in Dublin visiting the Oumi and Oupa, that's Grandma and Grandad in South African, and I'm at home alone for four days... which is the longest any of us have ever been apart.

It's so quiet here, but I've got plenty of jobs to be doing (yes Caryn, I have done the washing and hung it outside to dry too) which I am pleased to say I am actually getting somewhere with - no little people wanting to help, see. No longer am I King Of Halfajob, well, for four days at least.

You're Fired

Happy days, The Apprentice is back. You do tend to forget how great it is - 16 absolute halfwits competing for a job with the curmudgeon's curmudgeon Alan Sugar. He must just kill himself laughing off camera, he must. Being him must be the best fun ever at Apprentice time.

The Chapel Market coffee-selling was just idiocy of the highest, highest order. It wasn't just one person who reckoned they knew London and then decided to sell posh coffee on North London's greasy spoon capital, there was two of them. More astonishing is that they stood on an almost empty street for three hours, sold 11 cups of coffee and then blamed team leader Andy who duly got the boot.

Brilliantly daft. It can't be real, they're all actors surely. Surely.

On the move? Probably not

Thanks to both people who read this for wondering what we've been doing of late. We are still here despite the lack of posting, but we've been bean counting in light of the extended gardening leave which seems to have resulted in so much spare time some gardening is about to happen.

Mostly, we're wondering if and how we can live a more frugal lifestyle. Actually, how we can life a frugal lifestyle full stop. Lots of reasons - we're skint, not much work about, not much appetite for work and a desire to not curtail the time spent with ver children while they're so little and, for the most part, lovely.

First and most drastic stop is do we need to live in our rather nice hall entrance terrace with 230 foot garden? The answer is rapidly becoming yes, but we looked at a fantastic cottage the other day which appealed to both of us. It's about three miles from where we are now in a place called Spooner Row and it's about 10 feet from the Norwich to Cambridge railway line.

It'd mean being a two car family again (not all that frugal, then) and perhaps a change of school for Olivia which wouldn't go down well in five-year-old world, but when you've a primary school at the bottom of the garden it'd be churlish not to use it. The school run would become more of a wave. There were so many pluses, but equally there are as many minuses.

The maths for downsizing by around £40,000 is a real headbanger - stamp duty, agent fees, legal fees, redemption fees, blah blah blah. Is saving £150 a month on the mortgage and paying off a hunk of debt by buying a cheaper house worth the upheaval? And the cost? Rock bottom price for moving is about £6,000 which is some handy cash.

... and the first train past is 5.45am.

The trees, the trees

We seem to have gone bike crazy of late. We got hold of one of those bike seats that you attach to your crossbar for Olive last week. Tried it out on Friday and got to school the earliest we've ever been there... and on Saturday morning I was out on my bike for a rip across fields which I've not done in months and months.

Anyway, we went to High Lodge in Thetford Forest Park today. Lots to do there, we've been once before, don't know why we've only been once because it's just the best way to spend a Sunday morning. Our favourite thing to do is hire bikes and some bits and bobs that mean you don't have to leave the children locked in the car and off you go.

There's four routes of which we take the family-friendly green route. Much as we'd like the white knuckle 10 mile ride of the black route, don't think a bike trailor with the kids strapped in would cope. So green it is.

Today, Olive insisted on having the bike thingy that attaches to back of my bike. Which was great mainly because I wasn't the only one pedaling. She went all the way round no problem, not a word of complaint which is pretty impressive.

Next time we're doing the blue route - we would have done it today, but Caryn was chicken. Cluck cluck cluck.

I want to ride my bycycle...

We saw the sun today for the first time in weeks. It came with a bone-chilling wind, but hey, sunshine is sunshine so me and the boy filled up a flask with coffee, tucked a bag of crisps in our pocket and headed into the wilds.

When I say 'wilds'... the above scene is probably a 10 minute ride from our back door (amazing eh? I am getting old). We got a cracking chunky mountain bike for Xmas - big thick tyres, nice heavy frame, seat on the back for Lukey - and all we tend to do is backwards and forwards to nursery on it, so we thought we'd give it a bit of off-road.

We got suitably muddy and felt like proper country-living folk. We did.

Car Wash

Luke's got a bit obsessed about car washes of late. He's been desperate to go in one for a while and we've tried and failed on a couple of occasions. Our car is so dirty that car washes don't really do such a good job, so we only really do it for entertainment. We know how to have fun don't we?

Anyway, the first attempt failed because the garage with the car wash near us was broken. It happens quite often, the whole place just breaks - tills won't open, pumps won't pump, card machines won't take cash. It's very odd.

We used to have an old Toyota and put it through a car wash once and once only. Didn't do it again as a few parts fell off it on the way home. So when Caryn tried to to take Luke she couldn't figure out how to put the aerial down and very wisely gave up rather than sit and helpless listen to the sound of a car wash ripping your aerial off the roof.

But, finally we managed it. It's a great thing to behold - the kind of excitement that comes from the utterly unknown. He enjoyed it mostly, I think, I just got luck with this picture!

This'll cheer you up on a rainy day

It's a sight that really makes us smile. She is nothing if not a little ray of sunshine, especially on rainy days like we're having, oh, almost every day lately.

Wow, eh?

This has to be one of Olive's finest don't you think? Sorry about the crease, the quality of the paper coming home from school isn't what it should be for work like this... We'll have a word!

Despite her grumpy, sullen exterior our little girl isn't all bad moods, shouting and stomping about. We love the little flicks at the bottom the hair and the flowers in the hair too. Fantastic.

From The Luke Collection

Not wishing to be left out, Lukey was rather pleased with himself when we collected him from nursery this afternoon. And with good reason we think. He's not really showing the signs of artist bent - there are only so many hours in a day and these need to be filled playing with cars.

That said, he was really quite taken with this painting and was very insistent that I touch the painting to feel the amount of paint used. Van Gogh would have been proud.

From The Olive Collection... 1

It's been a while since we've had any of Olive's pictures up here - and yes, we know it's been a while since there's been anything new on the site full stop, but... oh you know. And no one's complained about the lack of activity.

Anyhoo, Olivia is really turning in some quite stunning artwork at the moment. She's gone big on people, and they are coming along a treat as you can see. There is another part to this picture - an alien - but you'll have to come round our house to see it. It's on the wall.

School Dinners

Rather fantastically, Olivia's school are having a family week where you can go an have school dinner with your child. Brilliant. Obviously, having absolutely no idea if she eats everything or nothing at dinner time, we jumped at the chance.

We decided on a pincer movement with me going today and Caryn going on Friday. So there I was at midday in a little person's chair, at a little person's table, waiting for Olive. I love seeing her in school, it's like a whole different child. I guess it's because this is her world - we only know what goes on if she decides to tell us. It's a really nice thing.

Anyway, on the menu today was pork loin (not lion as previously reported, thanks Ben), mashed potato, carrots, peas and gravy with jam sponge and custard for pudding. To my amazement Olive polished off the lot except the peas. And then tucked into the sponge. The dinnerladies - who were all brilliant - say that despite being super slow, she always eats that well! Blimey eh? Full of suprises our daughter.

Back to school

Half-term is officially over. Back to school with you, little monkeys.

Had a good time at the Play Barn today. Olive, especially, loved it - the happiest she's been all week. Think we'd forgotten how good it was, I had anyway. There's a place like it near our house which is a bit grin and bear it, but this one somehow seems very chilled. Maybe it's just a better class of child. And they do surprisingly decent food. Good bacon roll, bit posh, but good.

The wife wondered how long, in theory, we could be there before our children got bored. No 'five more minutes', or 'time to go soon', just solid, wall-to-wall at their beck and call playing. Maybe we should try it one week. Get there at opening time, set them free and wait... then again, maybe not.

Cloth Ears No.4

Mark Ronson feat. Paul Smith 'Apply Some Pressure (Version Revisited)'

I don't post as much music as I probably should, but by crikey when I do it's worth the wait isn't it? I might be a few light years behind - I do live in the sticks - but Mark Ronson eh?

We loved his version of Radiohead's 'Just' and knew about his Amy Winehouse/Lily Allen things and then this week I found his East Village Radio show (Fridays, 8-10pm, but don't fret it comes as a podcast).

Blimey is all I can say. Nicked this from the show hence the jingles all over it, but boy what a treat for a Friday. Play it on repeat for the rest of the afternoon. I am.

... whoops

So we took the kittens to the vet. They were as good as gold, got into the cat carrier thing no bother, didn't make any fuss in the car and let the vet mess with them. Apparently, they're at an age where absolutely everything is super interesting... even having a worm tablet and an needle stuck in them for all manner of horrid diseases.

So, job done and we found out that little Sage is in fact a boy flavour cat. Poor thing, hope we haven't given him some sort of crisis in the short time we thought he was a girl.

So... the cats then.

All seems to be going well. Olivia's little face was picture when she got home from school on Friday. I don't think it was something she would have expected in a million years which makes it all the better.

The cats seem to be making themselves at home. They even appear to quite like us, which is a bonus... although we are taking them to the vets today for injections and if they're really unlucky things stuck up their bums.

They won't be so keen on us then.

Life On Mars starts TONIGHT

Magic Alex 'Melody's Gone'

Magic Alex for those who have been living under a pile of leaves for several years were a band from last century featuring one John Simm on guitar. John Simm for those who have an apartment underneath the people living under the leaves is the star turn of Seventies cop drama with a twist, 'Life On Mars', which starts a second and final series tonight. Huzzah.

Anyhoo, Magic Alex's skunk rock louchness lead to their fair share of newsprint in our once esteemed music weekly. They also turned out to be very nice people which was always a bonus. There's a good interview with him in this month's issue of The Word.

What I especially liked was that Simm (very much on the up after his role in 'The Lakes') just wanted to be the guitarist in a rock band to see what it was like. Thing is, if they'd made it we'd have nothing to look forward to on the telly for the next eight weeks. Small blessings.

Interestingly, or perhaps not, they were managed by Sue Whitehouse who I recall went on to, erm, 'success' with The Darkness. How things could have been different eh?

Sage and Onion

The kitties have arrived. Onion is a boy, the black one, and Sage is a girl. They've been here since lunchtime and so far so good. They're having a good poke around and have found the litter tray which we are very grateful for. Luke doesn't seem bothered in the slightest about having pets, couldn't care less. Olive? Still at school, doesn't suspect a thing. Off to get her shortly...

They arrive tomorrow

The kittens, all two of them, arrive tomorrow. That's all I'm saying. May vary from illustration.

From the Olive Collection... 2

A dragon. "It's a Chinese dragon," says the artist. "We had to draw another one to go on the pile. I like it. I did the sky by rubbing on the side of a crayon and Peggy said, 'Can you do the body multi-coloured?' So I did the body multi-coloured, but I wanted to do the rest blue."

From the Olive Collection

It's been a while since we've had much from the fair hand of Olivia Rose. Too busy learning to read and write. Then this came home, it is a picture of her teachers. They look just like that.

The surreal chimney sweep

We got this postcard this morning. It's for a chimney sweep in the area. We will of course be ringing him on the strength of his advertising sensibilities.

One minute he was awake...

I thought it'd gone very quiet back there. How great must it be to be able to fall asleep pretty much anywhere at a moment's notice.

Cafe Open

Two of my favourite words. Especially when they are outside some sort of building, in a park of some description, on a cold day. Am having a bit of trouble finding anything along those lines at the moment... then remembered there's a place up by the University that would suit my needs. What's more it's weekend so it's bound to be open. And joy, it was.

It's a prefab, which from the outside, has seen better days. In fact, it looks like it's about to fall down. There's a hard-standing in front (you'd be hard-pushed to call it a terrace) which in the summer is filled with tables and people. Dead giveaway. Not today though. The only giveaway of what lurks inside is the above the sign.

The bitter cold ensured everyone was snuggled inside... with their dogs. We were probably the only table out of 15 or so that didn't have a dog or four. Every shape and size was there, like a Noah's Ark for dog. For a cafe, it had an uncharacteristic aroma too.


Olivia was keen to inform us that a dog under a table next to us had done a poo and another dog was eating it. Might have been a dog chew. Still, I got my coffee in a park and a fantastic bacon roll - with three rashers, very generous.

Think me and Luke might give it another go during the week when there's less dogs.

Cloth Ears No.3

Swell 'Everything is Good' (Beggars Banquet, 1998)

Second up from the swimming tapes come Swell, lo-fi heroes (if you ask the right people) who rode briefly on Nirvana's coat-tails in the early Nineties. Difference is, I'm still listening to Swell.

Nirvana weren't all that, really. Don't get me started... oh, go on then. Their Unplugged album exposes the songs - they don't stand up stripped down. In my humble opinion, Grohl not only writes better songs, but does acoustic so much better. He learned well.

Anyway, Swell. In the olden days, I used to receive a lot of records in the hope I'd like a few of them and want to write about them. It kind of worked. On occasion, I'd get an album like 'For All The Beautiful People' which I'd snuffle into my bag, whisk home and play to death without breathing a word to another living soul... especially not the PR (sorry John).

There's a handful of records that just bring out the schoolboy in me - this is one. As far as I'm concerned it's mine, I don't want other people liking it, I don't want other people even knowing about it... hang on. Doh.

Let it snow...

We got a decent dusting just before school this morning which was well timed. Me and Lukey headed to the park to kick a ball around a bit. Actually, this particular park has a cafe which is what we were after - cold, sunny winter's day, hot cup of coffee and perhaps a sausage roll. Wasn't open was it.

We peered through the windows and it looks like it's closed down rather than just closed which is a shame because it's in a rather glorious Victorian pavilion (pictures taken in 1932, hasn't changed at all)... so our quest continues to find outdoor coffee and warm snacks.

Apparently, we're in for more snow overnight, lots more. We're hoping for at least enough for some sledge action.

Cloth Ears No.2

Vince Guaraldi Trio 'Linus & Lucy' (Fantasy Records, 1965)

If you think I'm slack with my posts, you should see how slack I am posting music - one every three months if you're lucky.

As you'll see below, Olivia goes swimming on Tuesdays and whoever takes her gets to watch from poolside. She's been going for a year or so now and it's only dawned on me today to take the headphones for the N91.

Her spashing and floating was soundtracked quite nicely - which I may share over the coming days - it included a 10 minute version of 'Halcyon', a corker from Space Raiders, a true forgotten classic from Swell and this rather fine piece of music. I'm a real sucker for old piano music - esp boogie woogie - which isn't something you should probably admit too readily. Don't know where my liking comes from, but there's something fantastically uplifting about it. But it's not just the music, it's the rich history of bar-room piano playing and the characters it attracted. But that's for another time because this is jazz and that's a whole different wotsit.

Anyway, Guaraldi was responsible for the musical accompaniment to the Charlie Brown cartoons scoring no less than 16 specials. To be honest, most of it is muzak dirge, but there are moments of blinding musical genius of which 'Linus & Lucy' is one.

As an aside, some bright spark at the label decided that the album on which it appeared, 1965's 'A Charlie Brown Christmas', needed touching up and so it was re-mastered and reissued last year. Were the fans happy? Erm, nope. The fuss got so bad the label issued a flipping statement.

Music eh? Mess with it at your peril.

There she blows!

See this ravishing beauty fresh from her 4pm swimming lesson today? Well, she did something amaaaaazing today. She covered the entire length of the pool under her own steam. From one side to the other on her back. There was a float involved (sinks like a brick without one, bless), but it's still a huge achievement. And to prove it was no mere fluke she did it on more than one occasion. Marvellous stuff.

Of course, cool as cucumber, she shrugged it all off as an everyday occurrence as I was frothing about how great she was after and how brilliant it was to see her swimming after weeks and weeks - actually, it's months and months - of sitting and watching her struggle. The one thing you can't say about out little girl is she that she lacks determination. Roll on next week's lesson...

Four posts

Four posts? All year. It's a sorry state of affairs. Admittedly they have been high quality posts, but only four. Things really are beginning to slack round here. I will attempt to get back on track and bring the post average down from one every four days. I know people read this blog regularly and I wouldn't want either of them clearing off because I'm too lazy.

Oh, and the request for photos of the wife haven't fallen on deaf ears. Bought a new digital camera today (long story, I will get to it though now I'm in 'post more' mode), so it won't be long.

Thanks for hanging in there. It'll get better... perhaps.

Soul food

Going to the beach, says the wife, is very good for the soul. She's absolutely right of course and it's something we don't do nearly enough considering we live 40 minutes drive from some very nice beaches and an hour from some truly spectacular ones.

She also points out that it appears to be a very English thing to head for a freezing cold beach in the middle of winter. It is absolutely one of my favourite things. Given the choice of winter or summer, a winter visit would win every single time.

Today it was Wells-Next-The-Sea - no 'To' because, well, it's in Norfolk and that's the way things are done round here. It's a glorious place with a line of beach huts as far as the eye can see (incidentally, none being used today - wonder if you can rent one for the winter months?) looking out over a huge expanse of sky and today numerous seal pups basking with their mums (squint at the middle picture above and imagine seal pups).

Top it all off with fish cake and chips and a flask of coffee in the car and, well, life makes an awful lot of sense after a visit to the beach in winter.

Happiness is...

After we dropped mummy off at college, we spent the entire morning in a garden centre looking repeatedly at fish in tanks and scaring the guinea pigs with our short haircuts.

A dotty biscuit (seems they cost £1.50 everywhere, not just in architecturally pleasing buildings), sausage roll (6/10, not a patch on Baker's Oven) and a pot of tea later and a snooze was in order before nursery in the afternoon.

Couldn't resist this snap. He is just the most wonderful person. Please don't tell his sister we said that.

How to deal with head lice

If you haven't got hair, you can't get nits. Poor boy, it'll grow back we keep telling oursleves.

He's behind you... oh no he isn't... oh yes he is... etc

Hello 2007. The first post of the new year. Really slacking, but still hanging in there if anyone's still reading. Seems we got back to almost normal today - Olive at school, Luke at nursery - but not before the last gasp of Xmas yesterday. Went to the panto followed by tea at Wagamama after. Both were ace, actually.

I've always thought I didn't like panto - traumatised as a kid most likely - and have managed to avoid it so far in fatherhood. What ever was I thinking? It was ace. You kind of think that after two shows a day since mid-December it's just the pay-packet that's keeping the cast going. The mucking around was spectacular with what appeared to be a very fine who can crack Adam Rickett up competition which Buttons won hands down. I laughed out loud on more than occasion let me tell you... and the kids seemed to like it which is always a bonus.

Baker's Oven sausage rolls

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?

Remote Control Boat Day

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.

Happy Christmas!

A visit to the big city

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.

The Bossy King... The Song

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.

Friday... Saturday... Sunday

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...

Ebenezers... good

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.

New favourite game

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.

Model aeroplanes, eh?

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 not 'The Grumpy King'...

... 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.

Advent calender saga... Day one

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.