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.