Earth, Wind and... crack, crunch, snap

So, to cut a long story quite short, the wife decided we should throw caution to the wind on Friday and go on our inaugural camping trip. Turns out the wind wasn't very cautious by the time we arrived at a very pleasant North Norfolk campsite, so un-cautious in fact it broke our new tent as we tried to pitch it while Olivia and Luke hid in the car wisely sheltering from the weather and from some very choice language.

Saturday morning then and off I went in search a full refund. Halfords put up very little fight, which I have to admit was a little disappointing. They did offer an exchange at first which I politely turned down on the grounds we actually wanted a tent we could use for camping. Seemed to do the trick.

And so to a proper camping shop, refund in hand, to buy the above very lovely tent which we duly popped up in the garden and spent almost the entire day lounging around in today. We are now looking forward to our our first proper, proper camping trip in two weeks time and in an odd way are quite pleased our first proper trip was such an utter, total, absolute disaster...

buymeabeer.com

In the line of research, I found buymeabeer.com today. Shame it's for over-priced, posh people's Corney & Barrow bars and shame they're only in London, but a good idea all the same. I do like the idea that if you're meeting someone and they're running late they can still get their round in. Not sure that buying someone a drink, even if they do it remotely, is a revolutionary idea though.

Welcome to the world little one

Quite early on Sunday morning, my little sis had a baby girl, Molly Amelia. And here she is.

Went round to see her after school today for the first time and crikey, she's a little tiny lovely - all wrinkly skin that doesn't quite fit her yet, she didn't stir while we were there, just slumbered though the visit from her new auntie, uncle and cousins. Not been an uncle before, wonder if it's like being a dad but without the grumpy bits.

Olive was very taken with Molly which was lovely to see. In some ways it doesn't seem that long ago that she was a tiny little baby.

Luke, well, he knows where the box of soldiers is at Auntie Vicky's now so he wasn't much fussed.

The bit I really like how there's a new person around now - a brand-new member of the family.

So, just wanted to say welcome to the world little one, it's okay here you know. And, although it doesn't seem like it now, your parents will get the hang of it all eventually. Well, some of it at least. And some is better than none.

The oldest person in the world, ever.

One of the throwbacks from my time as a newspaper sub is, for some odd reason, I like to know who the oldest person in the world is and who's next up. It's not a great title as the holder seems to die soon after receiving the honour. Still, if you're going to be recognised in your life for doing something, I can think of few things better.

Anyway, just read a great story about the oldest person in the world, ever.

In French France it is possible to buy property for a snip if you're prepared to wait for the owner to snuff it. It's called en viager and involves you making a one-off payment to some aging crock and then paying them a monthly rent until they finally shuffle off and, voila, the property is all yours. Simple. Or not.

There is of course a slight gamble...

In 1965, 47-year-old Francois Raffery, signed a viager for an apartment in the centre of Arles. The owner was a drinking, smoking 90-year-old woman. Anyway, 30 years later Raffery wasn't rubbing his hands in so much glee as he died leaving his wife to continue paying rent to the by now 120-year-old Jeanne Calment.

A herione to French oldies everywhere, Ms Calment managed another two and a bit years before dropping off which made her not the oldest person in the world, ever, but the smartest oldest person in the world, ever. Her record still stands today at 122 years, 164 days if anyone fancies a crack at it.

There's a lesson to be had in there somewhere is there not?

Out of interest for anyone still awake, the current oldest person in the world is Yone Minagawa of Fukuoka, Japan who is 114 and a bit. She's been the oldest person since the end of Janaury so we're due a change of crown pretty soon I'd say.

Our new favourite place

Went round our friend's place for Sunday lunch today. Nice roast beef, etc. They live in the burbs where I went to school, which was a little unnerving when they first moved in a few years ago, kind of used to it now, although driving down the road to their house, past my old school never fails to feel a bit odd.

Anyway, they've just had a new kitchen extension built and, I never thought I'd catch myself saying things like this, but it really is rather fantastic. I am truly getting old.

We've not had the pleasure of a sitting around in a kitchen since we moved out of the School House last year so it was lovely just to leave the kids to their own devices and chew the fat round a big table again.

Simple pleasures eh?

Pedal! Pedal! Pedal!

Olivia, bless, has taken her time to learn to ride a bike. We got her a proper bike for her fourth birthday, but it has only been since we moved house last August that she's really shown an interest in riding it properly.

We live on a cul-de-sac which is prime bike riding real estate. So, with her new-found interest we gave the old me pretending to hold the seat thing a go. The first time went amazingly well - she rode the bike on her own almost straight away... and that was that. Once she'd done it, we were off inside, like it's something you tick off a list never to repeat again.

A while later, we went out again and this time, she couldn't ride a bike. She was in a panic and begging me not to let go. I had little intention of letting go this time because she was would have just heaped herself in pile in seconds. We went out a few more times, but it was the same story and we both just sort of gave up.

And then the driest April on record arrived and we spent most of our time in the garden. For some reason Olive decided she'd try ride her bike on the grass. A few failed tries and she was bombing up and down over and over again.

Could she do it on the open road we wondered? Course. Now it's the stopping that's the problem.

I'm wondering where the week has gone...

Last post was Sunday after a busy weekend and here we are again at another weekend, and looking equally as busy. I honestly don't know where time goes. Friday already, O'Riley.

So bank holiday weekend and it's off to Auntie Vicky's tomorrow because it's her birthday (Happy Birthday sis!), back over here for a party, possibly a beer festival for me (yah), then the big smoke calls on Sunday for an overnight stay at the brother's place with the children.

It does seem that we just pass him by when he's up this way and when I'm down that way I get to see him, but Olive and Lukey don't. So we've booked up, weeks in advance, and we're off.

I also got paid for a job this week, so promptly banked the cheque and bought another new toy. It would have been better spent admittedly on bills, but where's the fun in that I ask you? It arrived this morning - double screen DVD fun for the car (this one, cheap as chips if anyone else is interested, or we could rent it out when not in use!).

Thing is, we're wondering whether to roll it out for the London trip...

It will come in seriously handy, but not sure the nips deserve it just yet. Olive in particular has been especially defiant of late. She has to learn and it does look like she wants to do that learning the hard way, which makes us very sad.

If only she knew we had this little box of in-car TV heaven hidden under the bed... it must be tough being five.

Suits and birthdays

We have had quite a weekend of it. Uncle Christopher is getting married in June so yesterday was suit fitting time for me, him and the boy. Lukey has never worn anything smart in little life (much like his dad, really), so it was a bit of shock to see him dressed like a man, only in miniature. I guess it was probably as much of a shock for him to see me dressed smart, like. He did look rather good though. And he found a hat which kept him entertained for some time.

Woke up this morning to an interesting sight. Caryn says she heard a dull thud in the night and thought it was one of the children falling out of bed. Couldn't find one on the floor so gave up and came back to bed.

We think, Watson, that it just fell over - the evidence? No rowdy noise before or after, no sign of any other damage on our street, no reports of silent wall knocking down gangs roaming the streets at night.

Next door reckon the previous owners rebuild that part of the wall which would explain its sudden falling over - arch DIY bodgers of the highest order... a tale for another time, or perhaps not.

Lastly, with my brother in town for the weekend, the whole family managed to make it out for Sunday lunch. Caryn (pictured, looking very lovely don't you think?) and my dad (he's not 65, no, no, no. Really he isn't. And he absolutely doesn't have a free bus pass. Nope.) had their birthday's last week so it was a good excuse.

For some reason, Sunday lunch seems to be the hardest meal to get right when eaten out (maybe we're just eating in the wrong places), but this was surprisingly good. Little pub just down the road - if anyone's planning on coming to Norfolk, let us know and we'll book a table. Good play bit outside for the kids too. Smashing.

All in all one of those weekends that you need another weekend to recover from. Gosh, is that the time. Bed?

Sunshine - flipping heck!

So, the rare night out was a big success thanks for asking Rob. Sunshine was amazing - right from the opening sequence you know you're going to like it. It looks absolutely fantastic and we loved the deep spaceship rumble that seems to be the constant soundtrack. Don't wait for it to come to DVD, it won't be the same.

Best of all though, we turned down paying extra for the posh seats and sat in the blooming things anyway - and didn't get caught. I know how to treat my lady right don't I? £2.80 spent on pick and mix too.

Quack Quack

Caryn's birthday today so we're off for a rare night out tonight at the pictures (think we're going to see Sunshine) with grandma kindly picking up the slack at Ebenezer Terrace.

She was at college all day (the wife, not grandma) so it was business as usual. Me and Luke popped out this morning to get some bread and feed the ducks with the old bread.

There's usually loads of ducks down by the river, but there was little sign today. Spring has really sprung though, we saw sheep and lambs, rats and baby rats (sure they're called something...) and we found this mum with her brood, we think there were 16 ducklings but it was quite hard to count.

Right then, off out now. Early showing as we might get dizzy if we're out when it gets dark.

900 years old is quite old

This weekend saw some birthday celebrations for Wymondham Abbey which has 900 years on the clock this year. On Saturday they held a fete as only small market towns can and it looked like the whole of the town turned out.

Despite being in our third year of living here, I've never been into the Abbey, but it's quite a treat. Above is the alter screen, tester and rood which is quite breath-taking. It's a recent addition in the grand scheme of things, completed in 1934.

Quick history if anyone's interested... founded as a priory in 1107 by William D'Albini, Chief Butler to King Henry I, who insisted the resident Benedictine monks let it be used as the local parish church, but foolishly forgot to say who could use which bits. Caused a ding dong that got so bad it had to be resolved in 1249 by the Pope.

Fat lot of good that did, because 162 years later, King Henry IV stepped in and dispatched the Archbishop of Canterbury to knock some heads together. Which he did in 1411, or eleven minutes past two as we know it today.

The Grand Designs team visited in 15th century to see how Sir John Clifton, of Buckenham Castle (near Banham Zoo) would get on with his West Tower project and whether his budget would run to a hammer-beam roof in the Nave with exquisite angel carvings. It did.

It became an Abbey in 1448 and was doing okay until Henry VIII got into a spot swapping Catherine of Aragon for Anne Boley. In 1529 (I think), he set up his own religion (CofE), stuck two fingers up at the Pope, and got married again... but not before shutting down all the catholic churches.

Much of the Abbey was demolished during this period including large sections funded by the townsfolk. Wealthy local tradesman, Robert Kett, took exception to, among other things, the King's heavy-handedness and lead his famous (well, round these parts at least) rebellion against social change in 1549 only to find himself hanging by neck of Norwich Castle by four o'clock. Probably.

The next 450 years or so was pretty quite in comparison. How could they not be?



Luke, hopefully, learned a very valuable lesson today. He had a bag of sweets and was happily muching away on his own when his little pal Daphne wandered up, feigned friendship (much to the excitement of her mum who thought it was genuine show of affection), scored a sweet and cleared off. All of life's relationships in one innocent moment. I hope he was paying attention.

Having your cake... and letting everyone else have some too

With Lukey's birthday being in the Easter holiday he didn't get to make cakes and hand them out to his nursery pals. So him and his mum decided to make a bunch of rice crispy cakes so he could hand them out today, his first day back. And very excited about it all he was too.

He was very good at handing them out - as each child left he handed over one of his cakes - no doubt in his mind crossing another that he couldn't eat himself off the list. I was surprised that he could wait until everyone had left before he had one himself. Full of surprises is our little boy.

BTW... The wife arrived home from college today looking rather sheepish. Turns out although she drove in this morning, she came home on the bus and forgot the car. We often joked when she was pregnant with Olive that we'd have to tie her to the pushchair in case she left her on the tube one day. It's a worry sometimes.

You Won eBay Item

I have been trying for an age to bag one of these handsome pieces of machinery on eBay and finally, finally, this morning I managed it. I've become very good with my bidding, I decide how much I'll pay and stick to it - no more panicing and paying hectically over the odds for me. Oh no. I am older and wiser. Being skint helps too.

So anyway, I am feeling very pleased with myself because this Topfield TF5800PVR with the 160GB hard drive, in silver, sells new for £226.96. Can't find it any cheaper than that. So you figure, used, you'd pay up to £160. Or the utterly butterly bargain price of £143.89. Ha-ha!

Mostly they go for anything in excess of £180 although recently a couple have gone for around the £150 mark. Anyone else fancies one, there's another finishing at 9pm-ish tonight and it's currently at £128.

I do love eBay. Right, off to bid on a rear, driver's side fog lamp cover for a Mitsubishi Carisma.

New car, pile of crisps, fizzy drink... must be my birthday

It's Luke's third birthday and it's been a very fine day indeed, or as Lukey sighed at bedtime like an old man, "It's been a busy day". We had trouble buying him something, he's happy choosing himself a £1 car so after visiting Toys R Us (twice), Woolworths and Halfords and collecting three new £1 cars along the way, in the end we got him a Hot Wheels track, which if you're a boy is about as good as it gets.

We had a spot of lunch which for Luke was just a huge bowl of crisps and fizzy apple drink stuff... for tea his other favourite - fish and chips. If he could live on tea, crisps and fish and chips... hang on, that's what I used to live on, but I balanced it out with beer and fags.



I really like this picture of my lovely family having birthday lunch in the outside. They are lovely, mostly.

Life On Mars - all done then

It's been a full 30 minutes since the last-ever 'Life On Mars' finished. How was it for you? Are we happy with that? I think I am. It was as good an hour of TV as I've seen for some time, but it's taking some time to sink in. And that includes what on earth I'm going to do at 9pm, Tuesdays.

Incidentally, the finale shoot-out involved the bloke off of the second best programme set in Manchester, 'Shameless', who incidentally was grassed up by the one with Tourettes from 'Shameless', names escape me. Nice touch.

Thankfully, the BBC have a spin-off, 'Ashes To Ashes', set in 1981 and starring DCI Gene Hunt as well as his sidekicks DS Ray Carling and DC Chris Skelton, but no John Simm. The series sees them transfered to the Met and is, although this sounds like a red herring, more 'Miami Vice' than 'The Sweeney'. Make of that what you will. It's due to start filming in the summer and will hit the box in 2008.

Tomorrow's Manchester Evening News site is worth keeping an eye on tomorrow because they're going 'Life On Mars' bonkers, especially Ian Wylie's blog. Poor love is getting way over-excited. And who can blame him?

I'll probably delete this...

I was just having a rummage around and found Andrew Collins' rather fine blog. His incredulity at The Apprentice made me chuckle, as does much of what he writes when indeed he does write these days.

In among some fine TV and music writing, I found the following post from March 4 which seems to sum up the sort of stuff that's filling my head as I teeter on the brink of 40.

Not that Mr Collins should be having wobbles, he's certainly filled his boots over the years. But it is quite reassuring to know that having trodden a similar path early doors it's normal to wonder what the heck the next bit of life has in store.

"Today I am the age that is also the meaning of life. This is handy. Thanks to Darren in Manchester for telling me that the popular song Happy Birthday To You was first published on March 4, 1924. This is also handy. I think it may be time for me to do or produce something profound. Having recently finished organising my working life (1988-2006) into a book for publication in May, I am more than aware of what we must call my achievements. I also know that I still haven't found what I'm looking for, jobwise. I've done quite a few things in the world of the media, most of which have been superceded by other things. At the moment I am still a DJ, albeit less of one than I was two years ago. I am, however, more of a scriptwriter than I was two years ago. The plates of my indecision constantly shift. I am an author, but not of anything made-up. I'd like to rectify that at some point in the near future. I'm not much of a journalist any more, even though that was my apprenticeship. I write occasional book reviews for the Times and at least one monthly column for Word, plus other bits and pieces when I have the time. I have just finished reading a beautifully written piece by David Denby in the New Yorker about the move from the fringes of filmmaking to the mainstream of fractured narrative. It would be lovely to write something as beautiful as pretty much anything in the New Yorker. It would also be nice to write something with a fractured narrative."

As for me, the next bit might well be starting with the launch of a brand-new, groundbreaking online-only publication - outrageous salary demands pending, natch... outrageous because of how cheap I've become in order to do some exciting work. Fingers crossed eh?

P.S. It's not the relaunch of Melody Maker as an e-zine, sadly. I did give it a punt - but there's no way IPC would go for it as it'd involve banging their own nails into the NME coffin and actually challenging NME.COM's dominance which is a bit like punching yourself in the head, thinking how much it hurts and then doing it again only harder. That said they have certainly done madder things in the past.

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.