The best fish and chip shop in the world?

See this shed? It's on the harbour at Southwold and we think it's the best fish and chip shop in the world. It's called Mrs T's and for five of your pounds you get sublime cod and chips and 10 minutes complete silence while everyone scoffs them all up.

We were of course in Southwold for the World Crabbing Championships. Of course we were. It was an utter disaster as far as catching the little nippy creatures goes, but then with over 1,000 entrants dangling various sizes and strains of raw meat into the estuary all at once it's little wonder anyone caught a thing.



We cleared out after a fruitless time and promptly caught a bucketful of crabs just over the river in under 10 minutes. We were using chicken wings, figuring crabs eat fish all the time and might like a taste of the exotic. The winner landed a 5 1/2 ounce beast using fish bait. Sigh.

To give you an idea of how posh the event in Walberswick is, third place when to a nine-year-old called Mimi Haycraft Nee, who landed a 4 1/2 ounce crustation with some bacon.

Don't think we'll be back next year. We will be crabbing some more though.

Crab!

Headed for Splash in Sheringham today for some water slide action... but bailed pretty sharpish when we saw people queuing outside. It must have been people soup in there.

So West Runton it was, never been before, but what a treat when the tide went out - rock pools galore. And crabs. Which is going to be a recurring theme this week as we're heading for the World Crabbing Championship this weekend. Oh yes.

The toothfairy cometh... again

Yet another tooth bits the dust. They're falling out like there's no tomorrow. And best of all Olive has a brand-new bedroom to tuck the tooth under her pillow in tonight - well, a fantastic cabin bed off of freecycle and lick of (pink) paint. Pictures soon if anyone's interested in how to make a box room habitable.

Going to the dogs

Little brother's birthday was spent at the fabulous Walthamstow Stadium. It's a proper east end institution, which is soon to be no more. The developers will be moving in soon to rip the place down and build some flats. Doesn't seem right somehow.

Looks like summer's here

Day two of hot sunny weather and we headed for the river at the UEA for a little lunchtime picnic. Now, if only I could get paid to do this...

Frying tonight

We had some proper SA sausage tonight. Boerworst. It's made from beef and looks like the biggest Cumberland ring you've ever seen. It kind of gets very juicy as it cooks and ours split in dramatic fashion sending steam every where... just like a train said Luke.

Bye bye Busy Bees

Lukey is in his last week of Busy Bees before starting big school in September. As a registered charity, the playgroup is never one to miss a trick and they managed to sell us a CD full of pictures of our boy for £10. Worth every penny I'd say.

The whole CD is a rather interesting insight into his world without us. Here's a few of the highlights...

Luke and Daphne and Tuni - triple trouble most probably.

... and what appears to be the problem?

Lukey just checking the books at Busy Bees. He does this a lot at home, he has to check the books before we can read them. I do wonder if the playgroup set up a few cute shots like this one. Will have to ask if everyone else had this pose. Louise?

Sports Day, part two

After the excitment of Luke's sports day last week it was the turn of the professionals this morning. Touch and go as it was thanks to the weather changing by the second, they actually got a decent 45 window of sunshine.

And what's more, it was actually quite competitive this year. Even though no one actually said anyone won, the children knew.

Olivia has been talking about the sack race for ages. The other day she said she won twice during practice. Her little face lit up when her team made their way to the sack race startline. Not often you see her show any kind of excitement, but the sack race seemed to do the trick. And she was very good, bounced like something very bouncy as you can see.

See, we've long held the view that Olivia needs to take part in sport, she has a ruthlessly competitive streak that needs to come out somehow. Football and tennis don't seem to cut it, wonder if we can find a sack race club somewhere...

Sports Day, part one

Luke's sports day at Busy Bees was a roaring success, we thought. You could tell they'd really put in the practice as they deftly accomplished all sorts of races feturing water, hoops, hats and scarves, eggs and spoons.

And in this day and age of non-competitive sports days (and we wonder why the English are so bad at sport), it was good to see four teams racing against each other even if they did stop short of announcing winners. And the running race at the end was brilliant.

They were of course all winners. And they got a rocket lolly for their efforts, which makes it all worthwhile.

Next week, it's Olivia's very much non-competitive sports day. Sigh.

There goes the neighbourhood...

Back from our hols on the Isle of Wight, or Island of White, as various members of the family would have it. Here's the accommodation, it is as great as it looks. It was down a long and winding dirt track, past a farm house, through a gate and then on down towards the sea.

There were 15 or 20 similar shacks, all tucked away in their own corners along the, some were little more than modified sheds, others were old railway carriages and some looked rather grand.

The view across the bay was quite something. We want our own shack.

Not got many pictures yet because we've gone analogue with our photography and haven't sent the films off yet. It's quite exciting. More pics soon, then.

Oh, and the tooth fairy paid us a visit while we were away. Olive now has no front teeth.

Visiting

June already? May seems to have passed us by as anyone still bothering to look here will be painfully aware. So... May? Nothing happened until the last day, last Saturday, when we did the London sightseeing tour with the children.

It was a Luke's request. He wanted to see a 'henchman' (translation: those soldiers who wear bearskin hats), so we did Buck House, St James Park for lunch, wandered over the The National Gallery and then took a stroll over the river and down the South Bank to The Tate.


Above is what our babies would look like if they were little London people. Gosh eh? And below is one that will raise a smile with a few people. Olivia stood outside The Brunswick...


Had a great day, really made me miss London - don't think the wife felt the same though. I think it was the book stalls outside the NFT that did it.

Race For Life... run

Caryn did The Race For Life this morning. She was a bit anxious at the thought of running 5km, because 1) she'd only been out on two practice runs and 2) we didn't know how far 5km was or how long it should take you.

Turns out she was pretty good, clocking 29 mins, 10 minutes behind the winner. She could be fairly decent at this running lark if she manages to put in the time. Next run is one in London in September, we've decided she's aiming at 25 minutes for that one on the back of perhaps three practice runs.

The Tooth Fairy Cometh... tonight

Finally, after what seems like having a wobbly front tooth since Xmas, it came out today. Apparently it happened in assembly much to Olive's delight. There's something amazing about having teeth fall out at school. Don't quite know what, but just glad this one obliged. So, it's under the pillow now in the hope the tooth fairy will arrive with a shiney pound coin. Inflation eh? When I was losing teeth, admittedly a long time ago I got 5p. They were always very shiny though... and you could actually buy yourself a comic (2p) and 3p-worth of sweets for that.

I love how disheveled our wonderful daughter looks when she comes out of school. She just looks likes someone who has filled the day properly and lived to the full, even though she is only six. Must scan our favourite picture of O and put it up here sometime. It's a pic of her at school taken by her teacher. It is brilliant.

Tooth fairy fund - running total £2 (£3 tomorrow).

5... 4... 3... 2... 1...

Start your engines...

Boosters to full power...

We have lift off!

We were out in the sunshine this afternoon trying out one of the new toys. We managed a decent amount of height with a good stomp. Very entertaining, thanks Uncle Chris. Think we might be looking around for something more, erm, 'industrial'...

Happy Birthday to you

Here's Luke scoffing jelly and ice cream at his birthday party yesterday. Four, he is. Four. How does that happen? This year he got the works, the hired hall, the entertainer, hotdogs, jelly and ice cream. Smart new bike from his generous parents.

Lukey is so full of excitement on a normal day, we thought he might explode on his birthday. It was a great to watch him all day. None of the materialism his big sis revels in, he just soaked up his special day. He even loved opening his cards, taking time to look at each one, which is a bit weird.

The party was great too. We hired Dave Doughnut again, we've had him for so many birthdays we get discount. He was as entertaining as usual. The children laughed from start to finish, which is a joy to watch.

The chats we seem have afterwards are always as odd you'd expect from someone claiming to be called Dave Doughnut, he specialises in tales from the darkside of children's entertainment. This year, out of nowhere, I heard about a boy who filled his pants halfway through helping with a trick. I did wonder if maybe it was pure fear.

One milkshake, as big as my head please

Unbelievable as it is, Lukey is four on Saturday. Four. Starts school in September. How does it happen? We will see you at the party on Saturday.

looking at how lovely our children have turned out, I think it's time for another one, number three, Caryn is 100 per cent sure it isn't...

Lost cat

Sage went missing on Monday, he went out early evening and we've not seen him since. One or both of the cats do the staying out all night thing quite often, but they're always waiting at the back door for their breakfast when we get up.

Onion has vanished for a night and morning, wandering home at lunchtime on a couple of occasions, but Sage likes his food too much to wander too far.

We've put posters up, featuring the above pic by Olivia, and we're really hoping he'll come home soon, so he can continue to annoy us in only the way Sage can.

Big mud

Every Easter there's a duck race in town. We've not managed to make it in the four years we've lived here so I was quite looking forward to it this year. I think the idea is you sponsor a rubber duck, they chuck them in the Tiffey and first one to the Becketswell Bridge wins. We arrived, hung around for a bit and discovered it the race was cancelled. The river was looking a bit wild though.

Anyway, the second part of our outing involved the grand unveiling of a new sculpture over looking the Abbey. We squelched through the huge amount of mud and pond-like puddles with the usual warnings about not messing about, watching your step etc. You can see what's coming, really.

We saw the unveiling, the work is a living willow construction by local artist Kate Munro. There's an observation tower that I've mentioned before on the other side of town pretending to be art, but this is different. It is actually real art. A swift google and her work is rather wonderful. This is no exception.

It's very simple and frames the Abbey in the distance, echoing the windows in willow. The real beauty is that it's alive and will grow and change over the years. Not sure if her fee involves maintenance though.

Anyway, just as we were leaving, our friends Simon and Louise arrive. Turns out the artist is pals with Louise. Of course. They went to school together. I take my eyes off Luke for about five seconds when Louise introduces to me to Kate, "I like the arch," I say, "thank you," she says, as I glance back in Luke's direction to see him walking towards me covered, absolutely covered, in mud and crying his eyes out.

So that was us. Off home, washing machine on. Culture on the back burner.

Fish and Chips

Good Friday and we headed out to the coast. The plan was to visit a windmill... which we did, this one, scared the bejesus out of me. How many floors do windmills have? Five. And how windy was it exactly? Veeeeeeeery. Shame it wasn't working, but it'd have probably taken off if it was. Still, we got a sticker for making it to the top.

On the way though, we stopped off at Wells-next-the-sea for fish and chips. We ate in for a change. The fish was amazing, the surroundings less so. I find it odd how a place can look like a fast food joint - the illuminated price list above the counter, the horrid wipe-clean plastic tables and metal chairs - and yet they serve the most sublime food. What ever happened to big wooden tables and a bit of seaside charm?

Or perhaps they need to look this garish to attract the customers these days. Which reminds me, we must visit Mrs T's in Southwold again soon. Fish and chips served from a wooden hut by the quay. Proper.

The wife is going to kill me

When I was at NME, we did some work with a label called Wall Of Sound. Fine upstanding people who we all liked enormously. One day they turned up at the office with a pressie for me. It was a piece by a graffiti artist they were mates with sprayed on the back of fly poster. He did their record sleeves too. I never got round to taking it home.

Anyway, when I left NME it was still on my desk so I bequeathed it to our web designer. I mailed him recently to see what became of it because it's been bugging me a bit recently. Here's what he said...

"I held onto the Banksy until late 2004 at which point I decided that it really needed framing to do it justice but at the quoted £200, I couldn't quite afford it. After much debate and a desire to invest in some desperately needed equipment, I made the decision to cash in on what I perceived to be the peak in Banksy's popularity by auctioning the artwork on eBay. The auction fetched a pretty reasonable £450."

I'll pause for effect at this point.

He went on to say, "Obviously in hindsight it ranks up there as one of the dumbest things I've done, since the value today doesn't even bear thinking about."

It doesn't. To discover the ballpark value of something I gave away, click here. Bear in mind this version is on canvas, of an edition of five, signed. Mine was from the same stencil, but unsigned and on paper.

Doh.