My family have been doing some consumer testing of the NHS, with a new nephew born in Redhill hospital (exciting) and another 999 call for my dad and a night in St Peter's hospital for my mum. We are very committed to ensuring this exacting testing, with Rob's mum checking out A and E in QA, Cosham, with a broken arm after Christmas, and a visit this week to the General in Southampton for H's knee (and the rest of her).
I have found all this medical related chasing about quite exhausting, and that was without making it to see the new baby!
Anyhow, I am inspired to write more to you all as I found an old post from 2008, of Hannah's first ever sail, with Rob in the Mirror, Ariel. Since then, we seem to have acquired and sold more boats than was strictly necessary, mainly due to people giving us old ones they don't want. We currently have just the three, and are hoping to get to sail the new (to us) one this summer. It is called a Buzz. I have no idea whether a Buzz is good or bad, I think it is just old.
As well as doing medical research across Surrey and Hampshire, I have passed my NPQSL this week and also updated my Child Protection Officer training, with an up to date knowledge of FGM and sexual exploitation of children in the UK.
Other things going on: A is taking part in a Shakespeare project at school and is investigating joining an acting club; she is also learning swing dance at school. R is doing his NPQSL and getting fed up of all the reading you have to do for it. H has almost done her physics homework.
And that is all for now, but now I have found out how to log on to my blog I will try again more often, promise!
Sunday, 18 January 2015
Saturday, 12 April 2014
Chased by horses and popcorn
This sounds like the title of a novel. It is however just a normal day in the life of my beloved dog, who is eating a bone known as a 'postman's leg'. I am reassured by A that it is not a real postman's leg. H suggested it was actually the dog's own missing leg, preserved by the vet who sawed it off and then recycled into the food chain a year or so later.
Today, the poor dog got chased by popcorn, as I was making some, in our electric popcorn maker, won in Wrap the Crap circa 2009 and much appreciated after the early Sunday morning episode with H putting golden syrup in the last one and us smelling smoke. So, the popcorn machine has a sort of chute for the popped corn to come out of, but it has a hole in the top of it so half of it pings out of the top and then chases poor Lacey and her postman's leg around the kitchen floor.
Yesterday, much worse than popcorn straying was the evil predatory attack of 5 horses. R had L on the lead and we walked over a stile, following a footpath sign and a track through a field which contained horses. After making it three quarters of the way across the field, the horses took an interest and came over, blocking our way and whenever we moved, making a counter move to prevent us going forward. H and I were out of the melee, as H had no shoes on and was slower in progressing through the mud than the other 2. A and R were so brave, as one horse repeatedly went for the dog, trying to trample her. It was like the beginning of a nightmare movie with the four horses of the apocalypse (sp?) except there were 5, but one was only a pony. We are now thoroughly put off horses and the magazine Horse and Hound has not got any new readers in this house.
Today I have attempted to cash in some Tesco vouchers for Pizza Express vouchers, but it has been beyond my understanding how to remember /reset my password and access the account. I did win £15 of restaurant vouchers earlier this week, which the girls and I spent having lunch at ASK in Fareham. The girls had their hair cut, in adjacent salons at slightly different times, which was a challenge for me, but we did it. I had my hair cut in Wickham, and the very pleasant haircutter was leaving and heading for Winchester. Great! Wickham is so handy on my way home from work... unlike Winchester. I made the most of Wickham last week with a beauty appointment, a curry and having my tyres changed as well as a hair cut. I had my hair straightened too. But before I got to the car, in the rain, it was curly again.
Tomorrow everyone except me is doing a triathlon. Don't panic! not you! my family! Tonight, the girls were practising their transition and getting it down below 13 seconds for putting on belt, trainers and helmet. Unfortunately all the speed in the world at getting dressed might be against H as she has troubled knees, with a diagnosis from Sarah the osteopath of cruciate ligament damage, and advice to go to our GP. We don't have one, the new one who I have yet to meet Dr Qamar, is off having a baby, which is great, I hope she found the midwifery service as good as it should be.
Somehow I have found myself taking on responsibility for menu and food procurement for the sailing club galley. The good thing about this is that I can make sure there is lots on the menu I like. The bad thing is that I have to go to Makro, which is too big and confusing for me. Some marvellously good news is that LIDL are opening a store in Thornhill, near the Range, ie within walking distance, as is our handy Costa. We now will have no reason to ever leave the estate. Apart from to go on bike rides, although I suppose we could do laps. I did a good ride today over to Newton Soberton, Droxford and back via Dundridge, I was without my cycling pal Josh as he is in Australia, and could not be bothered to make the trip back to keep our Saturday morning expeditions alive! I found a new cycling pal last weekend too, Kate, mum of Millie, who seemed to be super fit on the bike and has previously set up an ex pats ladies cycling club in China. I feel so parochial compared to these far flung cycling heroes!
I am reading The Chimp Paradox and enjoying it a lot. I am working hard on school related stuff at the moment, enjoying it though, so doesn't feel like work. I also have had a restful few days with mum and dad and girls, with a sunny visit to Kew, and also a chilled out spa day with Ange, which was my Christmas present to her. I did gym workout, pilates class, swim and then a massage. She just did the massage!
Today, the poor dog got chased by popcorn, as I was making some, in our electric popcorn maker, won in Wrap the Crap circa 2009 and much appreciated after the early Sunday morning episode with H putting golden syrup in the last one and us smelling smoke. So, the popcorn machine has a sort of chute for the popped corn to come out of, but it has a hole in the top of it so half of it pings out of the top and then chases poor Lacey and her postman's leg around the kitchen floor.
Yesterday, much worse than popcorn straying was the evil predatory attack of 5 horses. R had L on the lead and we walked over a stile, following a footpath sign and a track through a field which contained horses. After making it three quarters of the way across the field, the horses took an interest and came over, blocking our way and whenever we moved, making a counter move to prevent us going forward. H and I were out of the melee, as H had no shoes on and was slower in progressing through the mud than the other 2. A and R were so brave, as one horse repeatedly went for the dog, trying to trample her. It was like the beginning of a nightmare movie with the four horses of the apocalypse (sp?) except there were 5, but one was only a pony. We are now thoroughly put off horses and the magazine Horse and Hound has not got any new readers in this house.
Today I have attempted to cash in some Tesco vouchers for Pizza Express vouchers, but it has been beyond my understanding how to remember /reset my password and access the account. I did win £15 of restaurant vouchers earlier this week, which the girls and I spent having lunch at ASK in Fareham. The girls had their hair cut, in adjacent salons at slightly different times, which was a challenge for me, but we did it. I had my hair cut in Wickham, and the very pleasant haircutter was leaving and heading for Winchester. Great! Wickham is so handy on my way home from work... unlike Winchester. I made the most of Wickham last week with a beauty appointment, a curry and having my tyres changed as well as a hair cut. I had my hair straightened too. But before I got to the car, in the rain, it was curly again.
Tomorrow everyone except me is doing a triathlon. Don't panic! not you! my family! Tonight, the girls were practising their transition and getting it down below 13 seconds for putting on belt, trainers and helmet. Unfortunately all the speed in the world at getting dressed might be against H as she has troubled knees, with a diagnosis from Sarah the osteopath of cruciate ligament damage, and advice to go to our GP. We don't have one, the new one who I have yet to meet Dr Qamar, is off having a baby, which is great, I hope she found the midwifery service as good as it should be.
Somehow I have found myself taking on responsibility for menu and food procurement for the sailing club galley. The good thing about this is that I can make sure there is lots on the menu I like. The bad thing is that I have to go to Makro, which is too big and confusing for me. Some marvellously good news is that LIDL are opening a store in Thornhill, near the Range, ie within walking distance, as is our handy Costa. We now will have no reason to ever leave the estate. Apart from to go on bike rides, although I suppose we could do laps. I did a good ride today over to Newton Soberton, Droxford and back via Dundridge, I was without my cycling pal Josh as he is in Australia, and could not be bothered to make the trip back to keep our Saturday morning expeditions alive! I found a new cycling pal last weekend too, Kate, mum of Millie, who seemed to be super fit on the bike and has previously set up an ex pats ladies cycling club in China. I feel so parochial compared to these far flung cycling heroes!
I am reading The Chimp Paradox and enjoying it a lot. I am working hard on school related stuff at the moment, enjoying it though, so doesn't feel like work. I also have had a restful few days with mum and dad and girls, with a sunny visit to Kew, and also a chilled out spa day with Ange, which was my Christmas present to her. I did gym workout, pilates class, swim and then a massage. She just did the massage!
Thursday, 13 March 2014
inspiration inspiration inspiration
3 things inspired me today. All people. First Dr Steve Peters at primary heads conference speaking about the Chi, p Paradox. I was already a groupie with the book but what a fantastic acco, plished humble man. Then after lunch Alison Peacock from Hertfordshire who was interesting and engaging and a shame people left and missed her. Cycled home in the sun to a not so inspirational flood of the washimg machine and a dog watching murder she wrote on the sofa. Lovely time with h and awesome evening at st annes school watching hairspray. Intending to reinvet my blog in light of my Twitter passion and because its fun, disciplines my thoights and I hope makes yoi grin.
Monday, 29 July 2013
Competing in competitions
You can tell it is the holidays, as I have entered a raft of competitions tonight! An old and profitable hobby of mine, which landed me in the past with a garden makeover, a year's sponsorship by Cyling Plus, a weird kaftan, a cleaning cloth, a trip to Exbury gardens, several trips to Paultons Park, night at the something hotel in Knightsbridge (can't recall which one), Large Family books and CD, and who knows what else I won but can not even remember now. I am sure you will remind me if it was you.
So, after tonight I will be winning a year's supply of washing up liquid (R gets through a lot with bike grease) a romantic break in Yorkshire (with up to 2 dogs allowed per room, they know how to do romance in Yorkshire), a wine tasting class, a trip up the cathedral tower in Winchester and a cream tea, a glamping trip to the Netherlands, £500 of Tesco school wear, a meat barbecue hamper for 20, a jam making session and hotel stay in Winchester, a bee hotel, a flight to Jersey... should keep me busy for the rest of the summer holiday.
Today I heard the bad news that my lovely friend and fellow Dart sailor Rosie has broken her ankle and will be out of action for 12 weeks at least. This was a sailing related injury, do not know the details yet but trust she is in safe hands. We too had a sailing trouble yesterday, we were winning in beautiful style and then our mast fell down, mercifully away from us (which I guess it would as the wind is pushing it that way, the shroud broke and the mast just fell down. After a lot of effort to get the sail rolled up and so on we were towed back to the beach, and now have a little light repairing to do to the rigging and sail has gone to the menders too. I had two glasses of wine, two chocolate biscuits and a twix to recover! No harm done to us, just the boat, so a blessing and we felt that we had bowed out to give someone else a chance to win for once!!!!
Today we are officially on holiday. Last week I carried on going to work after the children had left, combining short days at work with the dentist and the hair dresser (have pink hair for the holidays) and other such tasks, like taking dry cleaning, picking up prescriptions, things I NEVER get time to do in term time and skip with joy about doing! We went into town today to hunt for rhinos. All over Southampton there are model rhinos, decorated by artists and schools etc, and you can get an app and hunt for them. So we wandered the length of the city and found over half of them. This was an entirely free pastime, as we parked at the Quays, which is free parking for me as I am a member. We are going in for very very low cost holidays this year, our trip away camping is to Netley! We have gone through our finances with a nit comb and tracked down every spare penny ( found one today on the road) and are trying to get into a more solvent position than we have been in the last few months. The other day I cleaned our drawers etc (oh the joy, its the holidays!) and found £3.50, which was wisely reinvested as pocket money arrears. Even H has tidied her bedroom as one of the holiday projects.
The dog is learning not to be scared of the hall floor. R is going for a tough love approach and dragging her across it and she is getting much better - in fact, although she moans and fusses when we want to take her for a walk, and stays in the kitchen at all times, she can mysteriously make her way across the hall to go up the stairs when we are out! Last week was the Claygate Flower Show, and we proudly brought home a dog with two rosettes - first in the rescue dog category, and fourth in the sausage catching. And that was up against able bodied contestants, no t4 Paralympic amputee catergory to be seen. We were very proud of her, and it was worth the £1 a class to enter her in those two classes and see the rosettes of glory!
The girls were glorious the next day at Andover tri, coming in 6th and 7th places, which is truly awesome in terms of the progress they have made this season. A is really into her fitness programme and is not letting the long break from tri stop her - she swam a set of her own design tonight whilst R did his bit with the Southampton tri club, I spent the time in the gym downstairs and H was at a different pool doing her 2 hour stint! I forgot how much I like the gym, and am going to make a bit of effort to make most of it this next few weeks. I have entered another sprint tri in September, and also have a 50 mile sportive on the September diary, and R has entered a half marathon for next spring and is thinking about another half ironman- I guess two halves make a whole...
The bike business does not stop for the holidays, seems a really busy period and R is working every afternoon or evening at least on bikes. He made H a beautiful new cross bike for her birthday, which she tends to leave not locked up, and we try not to nag too much, as will already have spent time nagging for losing her goggles, swim hat, trainers, coat, wetsuit, sailing boots... no wonder we have no cash!
So, after tonight I will be winning a year's supply of washing up liquid (R gets through a lot with bike grease) a romantic break in Yorkshire (with up to 2 dogs allowed per room, they know how to do romance in Yorkshire), a wine tasting class, a trip up the cathedral tower in Winchester and a cream tea, a glamping trip to the Netherlands, £500 of Tesco school wear, a meat barbecue hamper for 20, a jam making session and hotel stay in Winchester, a bee hotel, a flight to Jersey... should keep me busy for the rest of the summer holiday.
Today I heard the bad news that my lovely friend and fellow Dart sailor Rosie has broken her ankle and will be out of action for 12 weeks at least. This was a sailing related injury, do not know the details yet but trust she is in safe hands. We too had a sailing trouble yesterday, we were winning in beautiful style and then our mast fell down, mercifully away from us (which I guess it would as the wind is pushing it that way, the shroud broke and the mast just fell down. After a lot of effort to get the sail rolled up and so on we were towed back to the beach, and now have a little light repairing to do to the rigging and sail has gone to the menders too. I had two glasses of wine, two chocolate biscuits and a twix to recover! No harm done to us, just the boat, so a blessing and we felt that we had bowed out to give someone else a chance to win for once!!!!
Today we are officially on holiday. Last week I carried on going to work after the children had left, combining short days at work with the dentist and the hair dresser (have pink hair for the holidays) and other such tasks, like taking dry cleaning, picking up prescriptions, things I NEVER get time to do in term time and skip with joy about doing! We went into town today to hunt for rhinos. All over Southampton there are model rhinos, decorated by artists and schools etc, and you can get an app and hunt for them. So we wandered the length of the city and found over half of them. This was an entirely free pastime, as we parked at the Quays, which is free parking for me as I am a member. We are going in for very very low cost holidays this year, our trip away camping is to Netley! We have gone through our finances with a nit comb and tracked down every spare penny ( found one today on the road) and are trying to get into a more solvent position than we have been in the last few months. The other day I cleaned our drawers etc (oh the joy, its the holidays!) and found £3.50, which was wisely reinvested as pocket money arrears. Even H has tidied her bedroom as one of the holiday projects.
The dog is learning not to be scared of the hall floor. R is going for a tough love approach and dragging her across it and she is getting much better - in fact, although she moans and fusses when we want to take her for a walk, and stays in the kitchen at all times, she can mysteriously make her way across the hall to go up the stairs when we are out! Last week was the Claygate Flower Show, and we proudly brought home a dog with two rosettes - first in the rescue dog category, and fourth in the sausage catching. And that was up against able bodied contestants, no t4 Paralympic amputee catergory to be seen. We were very proud of her, and it was worth the £1 a class to enter her in those two classes and see the rosettes of glory!
The girls were glorious the next day at Andover tri, coming in 6th and 7th places, which is truly awesome in terms of the progress they have made this season. A is really into her fitness programme and is not letting the long break from tri stop her - she swam a set of her own design tonight whilst R did his bit with the Southampton tri club, I spent the time in the gym downstairs and H was at a different pool doing her 2 hour stint! I forgot how much I like the gym, and am going to make a bit of effort to make most of it this next few weeks. I have entered another sprint tri in September, and also have a 50 mile sportive on the September diary, and R has entered a half marathon for next spring and is thinking about another half ironman- I guess two halves make a whole...
The bike business does not stop for the holidays, seems a really busy period and R is working every afternoon or evening at least on bikes. He made H a beautiful new cross bike for her birthday, which she tends to leave not locked up, and we try not to nag too much, as will already have spent time nagging for losing her goggles, swim hat, trainers, coat, wetsuit, sailing boots... no wonder we have no cash!
Saturday, 13 July 2013
Sun sea cycle
The isle of wight is there to be conquered, so last Saturday, with the evil sorceress Emma in tow we took to our steady and pedalled out from the wilds of Brokenhurst, across flat lands to a crossing point, where we hailed a boatman and paid in gold dust to cross. Managing an on pedal average of 12.5 mph, which makes Chris Froome look like a tardy paper boy, we toiled the length and breadth of the isle, no stone left unturned, no beach unpaddled, no rugby club toilet facility unchecked. Emma seemed to think that a bike ride with thousands of men was an opportunity to seek out a toyboy. Having been on many of these invasions before I know that all the soldiers are focused on one thing... The finish line.
I even got my medal putting on at the finish ceremony onto the official video!
I even got my medal putting on at the finish ceremony onto the official video!
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