Secret Entrance to the Baby Shard?

Snapped this morning (behind some sheeting) from the tunnel near the entrance to the tube at London Bridge...could this be the first glimpse of the new shopping arcade under "The Place"? ;)

Argos Catalogue from 1985

Oh this is just *brilliant*! Just in case you missed it (via @edgeonline - credit where credit is due) - someone has (*very* kindly) scanned 275 pages of the Argos catalogue from 1985 and popped them up on Flickr, here are just a few of my faves-

- top of the range car audio systems (note that FM radio aerial kits were still important at the time, even speakers needed installing in many vehicles!)-

- cassette tape storage solutions -

- the most amazing home cinema systems -

- noting that some things never change (well, apart from the complete lack of availability on the High Street for Chemistry sets in the modern age - you can get them online though) -

- (and now the really cool stuff) the Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k (£119.95 to you) -

- or, if you were that way inclined, the Commodore 64 with Ferguson Monitor (*sure* we had that Monitor) all for £408.95 (which is probably why most people I knew had Speccies)-

- or how about the classic Atari 2600 JT, a snip at £49.99 (with three games) -

- Return of the Jedi and Knight Rider toys -

- and last, but very far from least, Game and Watches (our price £14.99) or how about a Tomytronic 3D Sky Attack (£19.95) or even a "Speak and Spell"...Ah...the sweet memories of childhood! :)

Oh boy, have I just shown my age! Enjoy your little stroll down memory lane... ;)

Thomas' first pair of shoes!

So Sunday, Water babies being cancelled (as there were temperature issues with both air and water - brrr!) we went as a family to go and collectively experience a rite of passage (of sorts) -buying Thomas his first pair of proper shoes - he's been getting by with a couple of pairs of crocs and a pair of tiny sandals up until now, but what with the increasingly cold weather and an undiminished enthusiasm for outdoor pursuits, it really was time to bite the bullet (sweetened considerably from an offer from his Nanny and Grandad to cover the costs involved - thanks!)...so, we all got in the car drove to Reigate (parking in Morrisons)-

- and whizzed up to the high street where a convenient (Sunday opening) boot maker is located -

The process is actually surprisingly imprecise, after a quick measure -

- (his first pair needed to be in the 4.5 range, actually rather large, but considering Daddy wears an adult size fourteen, not that surprising)

- all that is actually done is to try a succession of pairs (all brown) and see if he toddles around as comfortably as usual -

- and so, after a couple of tries (some more successful than others) -

- and one rescue from the stock room later, we had made our selection, and off we went to scuff them into a complete mess in five minutes flat play in the park! Next size up due in approximately six weeks time (groan)...

Rather telling...

...look what I got when I bought my tea and milk this morning at Tesco Canary Wharf...guess that confirms I'm using the right clubcard then...! ;)

Baby Gap Canary Wharf - Window Dressing

Only shop dummies, I know, but something about the way they had just been piled up in the window of Baby Gap in Canary Wharf made me do a little involuntary shiver! <:0

Especially that shoe just thrown on top...

Eventful Weekend...

Crikey, where do I start...

One of the things you notice straight away when you leave the house with a tiny (although rapidly expanding) baby in tow is the number of people who sidle up to you (smiling) and ask the usual questions (name, age/sex(usually assuming the wrong one)/location birth weight), make some cooing noises, assume a wistful look and then walk off in a manner that suggests they are now surrounded by an invisible blanket...

On Saturday, when we took Thomas to Oxted leisure pool, we experienced a slightly different phenomenon...after all getting changed into our costumes (Thomas in his little waterproof swimming nappy with a picture of Disney's "Nemo" on the front) in one of the spacious unisex family changing rooms (with nappy facilities), blowing up his little yellow floating chair and parading down towards the water...I don't think it is an exaggeration to say that every single eye in the place was on us as we waded into the warm water, the unspoken group assumption being that as soon as baby met pool there would be a colossal screaming down of the place and we would (red-faced) turn tails, get dry and go home again...in actuality he *loved* it (although we did sort of suspect he'd be okay, as he happily hops in the bath every night with one or other of us - the purpose built baby bath only ever saw water the once)...all in all I suppose we spent about 25 minutes splashing around, Flyingpops even managed to do a couple of lengths in the sensible bit of the pool, while Thomas and I played in the wave area, and he only nearly drowned got ducked the one time, ironically when we were in the shallow end (and he didn't even get upset about that, just blinked his eyes a couple of times and got on with sucking the water off his fingers and staring around at the spectacle)...

Saturday lunchtime we spent at my folks, eating home-made soup and garlic bread, meeting potential new pet, Greek rescue dog "Bobby" (who is so laid back as to be almost horizontal)...then in the evening we went to Vodqueen and Uncle Scammell's house for a last-minute family party (which Thomas managed to pretty much sleep right through)...

Sunday morning we nipped over to Tesco to do the week's shop, Thomas got cooed over at the checkout by a sweet elderly couple, we pack up the car, just pull up at the Hookwood roundabout waiting for a gap in the traffic, Flyingpops commenting on the debris left by an earlier accident and how dangerous it is (despite the new traffic lights) and, as if calling down an accident upon us - **BANG** - Poppy the Beetle is shunted forwards - someone has crashed into the back of us!

I fly out of the passenger seat and wave both Flyingpops and the Fiat that has collided with us to the side of the road, peer through the back windscreen to make sure Thomas is okay (in typical Thomas fashion, he is still fast asleep - completely oblivious) and when the driver of the car behind clambers out (rather red faced) it's only the husband of the elderly couple from the supermarket...the wife is rooted to the passenger seat looking absolutely mortified, covering half her face with her hands...

Anyway, despite the initial shock and violence of the noise of the collision, there isn't actually much damage to see, the boot still opens, the bit of glass that fell out of the light from the number plate slots neatly back into place...leaving just two small scratches on the bumper, but we swap insurance details anyway and go our separate ways (amid many apologies and blushes)...

After dumping the shopping at home (and giving Flyingpops a cuddle) we head to Reigate and take a lovely fresh constitutional around autumnal-themed Priory park, stopping to score some sweet chestnuts to roast later on in the oven and I tell Flyingpops the names we used to call all the different hills (Bluebell, Break-neck etc.) to comments like "You took a sledge down that??", showed her the storm drains we used to play in (to looks of absolute horror) when we were kids and then we stopped for a drink and a shared four cheese pizza in the little cafe (which was a very messy, but satisfying affair)...

Sunday afternoon Thomas would not settle down, so in between putting things into roast or steam Flyingpops and I both spend time walking around jiggling him until he stopped whimpering, then put him down for 2 minutes, then picking him back up when the complaining resumed...but we could hardly moan ourselves as we'd had such an easy ride for all the rest of the weekend...

Newborn clothes - Shopping in Crawley

Back to Saturday now, we got up really early so we could be there before the ravening new-town horde descended (baying and slavering) scouring every corner of every retail outlet with their particular brand of covetous chaos...arriving just about 9am, we found the car park largely empty (plan going well so far), parked up on the second storey and rode the escalators down into County Mall, first stop was Boots (which we had practically to ourselves), and by some great fluke of luck they had a massive promotion on (loads of extra points and up to 40% off baby goods), so we picked up some new expensive electrical goods, *enormous* pots of hideously expensive creams and lotions and a few items of clothing (earning about £17 in points on the reward card)-

- we then hit Pumpkin Patch (where we got 3 lemon-yellow little outfits, with an incredibly cute little hat and matching vest, mittens and booties) - these will be the "visiting time" baby wear, for when the little one has to be all presentable for picture taking -

- after this we headed to Primark (me dragging my heels in anticipation of absolute hell), but it too was actually comparatively empty! In there we picked up the majority of the simple, everyday outfits required for the early days, and after a brief stop at Prémaman (another sale) to pick up a bargain cardigan, we finished off in Mothercare (who were *also* having a sale! Talk about the right weekend to go shopping for baby stuff!) but all that meant was they had wheeled all the rails out of the stock room and jumbled everything up (meaning it ended up being a much more confusing shopping experience even than Primark, as newborn was all mixed up with everything else)...not ideal...but anyway, we now have *plenty* of vests, socks, baby grows, etc. etc. and from that direction, at least, we are all ready to go! :)

The Ship Inn, Itchenor

After we had unpacked all our things and enjoyed our delighted nose around the static we popped into East Wittering (only five minutes drive away) to the shops to buy some food and drinks (as that was where we had been told the nearest supermarket lived), and I have to say, the place was absolutely charming, just a hint that we were seconds from the water, a couple of little shops selling buckets and spades (and that sort of thing), the rest of the town being made up of 40 or so bespoke stores (such a rarity in this day and age) from a wonderfully brimming greengrocer -


- to the fantastic pie shop -

- where you can see them busily making the pies you are about to buy (I bought a steak pie and a ready to cook cottage pie for later)...absolutely wonderful...

That first evening, we thought we would go and check out the local village to the site (Flyingpops having spent most of the rest of the day napping while I read in the sunshine)...on our way passing a large group of (no doubt ravenously hungry and desperately thirsty) ramblers on a grim charge, prompting us to put pedal to the metal (suspecting, correctly, that their destination was the same as ours), unfortunately we missed the entrance to the pub on our first try -

- affording us out first taste of Chichester harbour, unfortunately the two minutes it took to comment on how pretty it was, take a quick snap, then turn the car around-

- meant that by the time we had parked the car, the ramblers has beaten us to the bar and were monopolising the staff ordering gallons of real ale and time consuming dinners, so we checked in the restaurant, but were politely informed that there were no tables free and we would have to wait for about 20 minutes (oh well)...so we grabbed a couple of drinks and headed outside to find somewhere to sit, eventually settling on a bench next to a selection of fishing gear dumped outside the public bar (only some of it decorative)...

We didn't have to wait long, which was good as Flyingpops was starting to get a little chilly as the sun started to set, before we were being seated on a little table right by the door...

Dinner was rather good, when we did finally get it, Flyingpops choice was particularly interesting - listed on the menu as "Vegetarian Fish and Chips", it turned out to be chunks of halloumi deep fried (like a cod fillet would be), the fried potato was a little on the "well done" side, but I kind of like that...I went for their (extremely mature) cheese burger, cooked medium rare, which also came with chips, but mine were served up with a very interesting dip called French Ketchup, which tasted a lot like a mixture of ketchup and mustard...jolly nice anyway...after our meal we made our way contentedly back to the static, for a few drinks and a snooze in front of the DVD player...

NCT Sale North Holmwood

So this Saturday we went to have a look at the first NCT sale (in our area) of the year, taking place in North Holmwood (near Dorking) -

- we popped over and picked up Nanjan first and then made our way (about half an hour early) to the village hall -

- we formed up with the small queue of about 15 people already there (thinking that some people had been rather keen as we thought we were early) and after a wait of about ten minutes two ladies with official badges started to slowly walk up the queue from the entrance to the hall, collecting our entrance fee (£1 each) and handing over in exchange a large carrier bag -

- lined with promotional material from nurseries, aqua-aerobics instructors, toddler groups and music tutors (oh and a key-ring encouraging one to breast feed, which you could pop open with a coin to replace the message with a picture, if so desired)...

With five minutes to go Flyingpops told me to check how long the queue was behind us (as lots of cars and people had been arriving while we were waiting)-

- and the answer was extremely long...and the hall looked like it was quite small...and I started to feel a little bit uncomfortable about what was to come (recalling the chaotic scrum of dusty church/school jumble sales of old)...

When the doors opened and everyone flooded in (every third person either carrying (internally or externally), pushing (on differently sized sets of wheels) or dragging an infrant, at various stages of development) -

- we knew what we wanted, and I duly waded in to try and help search, but I got about half way round (the extremely narrow walkway between stalls) and became completely stuck, trapped between pushchairs being wielded by stern faced mothers using them like weapons (the baffled looking infants quite unaware of what was going on around them or how they were being manipulated), at one stage I honestly thought the tide of people was going to sweep me off my feet - I only stayed upright by gently nudging a pile of teddy bears under a nearby trestle table to make some room for my feet and pushing up against a colossal pile of "0-6 month" baby clothing (nearly new)...when I *finally* escaped, gasping, into the hallway, I threw open a window, shed my (stupidly thick) coat and gulped in air until the claustrophobia had passed...peering back into the fray I could just about pick out Flyingpops bobbing about in a sea of determined bargain hunters, clutching armfuls of spoils with an equally determined look upon her face...when she got back to the entrance she shoved a lot of it (and her coat) into my hands and just had time to utter "We'll just do the middle now" before vanishing again from sight...peering behind me, it quickly became apparent that it was so busy in the hall the ladies from earlier who had been handing out the bags were now blockading the doorway to stop anyone else coming in! It was 50 minutes before we saw the sunshine again...

Some lessons could be learned from this...leave the pushchairs outside and put into place a one way system with signs from the ceiling - 50 people equipped with buggies the size of shopping trolleys moving against one another in a space twice the size of my living room while fighting over bargain baby goods was never going to be a recipe for congeniality...

Anyway, we succeeded in getting a baby bath, a top and tail bowl, some baby towels (the kind with a hood on one of the corners), lots of baby grows (including a Disney one) some things to do with teething and a scattering of toys...and we only spent £15...so, not for the faint hearted, but there are certainly a *lot* of bargains to be had!

Fink's Links #50

Wow, 50 editions of Fink's Links...it's only two weeks to go and I've done the full *year* (when I will probably make a fuss about it)...So, without any other preamble - I present to you an offering of all the interesting stuff I stumbled over during my week on the internets -

Here we go then, first up check out this picture of Vancouver/the Cloud City of Bespin (separated at birth)...

Check out this Ugandan Woman's homemade mobile phone charger...! <:0

2009 Men's Health Magazine has updated their list of the most unhealthy food in America (always good for a laugh)...

Halo Fans - Enjoy - "We drove the Warthog!"...(yep, there is a real one, built by WETA for the cancelled (Why?) Halo Movie...

Steampunk goes up a gear (and fuses with Star Wars) - check out this steam powered R2D2!

Just *Amazing* aerial shots of London at night...it's almost impossible to imagine how technically difficult they were to expose (staggering)...!

Take a look at what it's like to fly in spaceship One...

A nice collection of shopping links for you now...although admittedly quite unusual items -

Be the envy of everyone on the beach with a 3D Star Wars kite!

Cover up that chopping injury with some rather amusing plasters...

An interesting candle that automatically extinguishes itself after a pre-determined amount of time...

How about a nice new bathroom accessory, a living bath mat, made from moss...!

These are really *amazingly* cool...new energy drinks that strongly resemble mana/health potions... ;)

Into the kitchen now, for an excellent shark attack tea-infuser (use Red Tea for the best effect, obviously)...

Japan, and a new gadget that does nothing apart from make different noises according to how far you push the pedal (you can see them queueing down the street for that one)...!

- and last, but not least, to finish the links for another week, an excellent Baby needs fail and a funny Drought fail...

If you like this sort of thing, my previous link posts are this way...!

Our Tiny Christmas Tree

Here we go, finally got around to taking a picture of our tiny Christmas tree...it's a live, pot grown spruce pine, apparently they grow about a foot a year, so next year it should be a little more impressive!

Had a bit of trouble actually decorating it though, almost every single decoration we owned was *way* too big (put the bauble on the branch and it simply sagged towards the ground and fell off), the smallest set of lights we could find in the house was a set of 200(!), which frankly would have completely buried the poor thing, so Sunday morning was spent on a bit of a mission to find the absolute smallest of everything on offer...

Tesco was a let down (only coloured light sets, or ones far too long), Woolworths we skipped thanks to a report that they had been already stripped of everything good, Dorking Car boot sale yielded a tiny set of hand-made painted wooden stockings and presents (for a pound), Dorking Garden Centre netted us a small pack of white glass baubles, but again no suitable lights...we finally scored a white set of 20 (just what we were after) from Knights in Betchworth (they even tested them for us before we left!) along with some adorable little hanging signs that say all sorts of festive catch phrases...and actually, it was Knights that had by far the best selection of Christmas decorations (for both inside and out) having turned over at least half the store to the purpose, so if we ever need any more, I know where I will be heading first... ;)

Christmas Shopping - The correct method...

Well, this has to be a record - Flyingpops and I, having taken a day's holiday on Monday, have now largely finished (a few interweb orders aside) the Christmas gift shopping...!

Last year we weren't in this position until the 26th of November (still fairly organised, one might say, but) this puts us well over a week ahead of schedule...and doing it a week earlier actually made a whole lot of sense, the Christmas lights aren't even switched on yet in Crawley, but all the potential pressies are sitting there sparkling away, the point being the very few shoppers who actually dragged themselves out of the house into the drizzle on Monday morning were largely ignoring them, for most people it's simply way too early - in fact I think at one stage we found ourselves on our own in Littlewoods gift section...and shopping for *gifts* (rather than just DVD/CD/Games) is so much better when you can actually pick items up and examine the quality...

When it came to pay it was soooo easy, in fact, when we did hit a queue (in the Disney store) Flyingpops just put what we were planning to buy back on the shelf again and we continued to another shop! The result was that we had a completely lovely time...! Shopping, especially Christmas shopping, is normally a stress-filled affair - screaming kids, battered boxes, millions of shopping bags, millions of shoppers, queues, tripping over (or being blocked in by) push chairs, card machines failing due to increased demand, yelling, no parking places (etc. etc.)...to walk the customer-free aisles at our leasure and calmly browse all the pristine goods was (and I'm astonished at myself for saying this) actually a pleasure...

Books etc. closing down in Canary Wharf

Wah...(well sort-of-wah)...spotted the other day that my nearest book shop in Canary Wharf, was closing down! I don't buy a huge number of books in book shops (as it's so much cheaper online), but if I've had a bad day, or if I've finished a book off and need something new for the way home, or if I'm off on holiday and need to quickly stock up, or even the odd present - suffice it to say it's saved my bacon on a couple of occasions (in a number of ways) and is near enough to not eat too much into the commute...so you can understand I was just a little bit upset when I saw the signs, but just not upset enough to run in and buy a load of 50% off books with a smile on my face...

Today I am wondering what on earth they bothered for...another shop is opening -but- it's a Waterstones (as you can clearly see if you click that picture and peer through the silver covering on the windows)...! Found a news story confirming it here...but the crazy thing is, they had the front doors open today, and when I peered in I noticed that they haven't even bothered to re-fit the store, it's exactly the same layout, same shelves, same tables...same books? Well, almost certainly not if they belonged to a different retailer, but I imagine the stocks arriving now won't be *much* different from those which populated them previously...

Rather a curious move...but not one I am going to question (as a consumer)...I'm just going to say "thanks for staying as a book shop"... ;)

Welcome 2008!

Hurrah! A *brand* new year to play with! How often does that happen? ;)

This next one has some pretty amazing things *already* lined up for it too...not least my *wedding*...*gasp*...and honeymoon, not sure if I mentioned it before, but we are going to Mexico (home of the chilli) and I am quite inexpressibly excited about both...and if that's just the *start* of the year, who knows what the rest of it will hold...! I'm already playing "My Spanish Coach" on my DS in preparation...(level 6 right now)...not, with it's proximity to the USA, I am anticipating *really* needing it, but anyway... ;)

Christmas was as wonderful as I had hoped, starting just after leaving the office with a nice trip on the DLR -

- that's Docklands Light Railway (for the non-Londoners), which slightly unsettlingly totters along it's elevated rails sans driver (one step up from Homer Simpson I suppose, but hmmm...) -

- anyway, passing the lovely docklands views, I arrived at Bank (it actually goes straight into the underground at this point), I rather stupidly decided to do some extra shopping in Oxford Street (which was complete Bedlam) -

- and Carnaby Street which was also crazy, but staggeringly wonderful in aspect -

- bedecked, as it was, in Empire-State-Building-sized paper chains (completely shaming Oxford and Regent's streets)...had a pretty dismal journey home too getting stuck at Redhill bus station for about an hour clutching my gifts, gritting my teeth and frowning at strangers playing rave from their mobiles (in a most unchristmassy fashion) -

- but made it home and totally collapsed...had a very happy Birthday, as already documented, Christmas eve saw us go to Tandridge Church where I snuck off a couple of shots of the preparation (as we arrived about 30 minutes too early) -



- which was (despite the wait) really lovely...which set the mood for the rest of Christmas, it's been an excellent break, and loads of fun, despite Flyingpops *and* Nanjan being a little poorly, but they seem to have both got over it now (just in time to go back to work)! Hehe... ;)

Anyway, a most heart-felt HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ONE AND ALL, and I raise my New Years Day glass to many, many more for you, and yours... :)

County Mall, Crawley, Christmas Shopping

So over the weekend we paid a visit to County Mall in Crawley to do our Christmas shopping, and it was fairly successful too, it *could* have been a disaster, as it was the grand "Switching on of the lights" ceremony, causing us to exchange slightly concerned looks upon spotting the sign announcing the event, as the whole idea was to *avoid* crowds of rabid shoppers...

...anyway, as it turned out it was a fairly low key affair, all kicking off with a half audible rendition of some Spice Girls numbers by some young singers, unhindered by any pretence of talent and overflowing with enthusiasm, it's just a shame the PA wasn't working very well...they were followed by some rather better Christmas carol singers (who had sensibly waited until all the problems with the sound system had been ironed out) -

- and then Santa's Grotto opened and the crowd swarmed away from the music...

Anyway, we took advantage of everyone standing around looking and listening to zoom around the largely empty stores (and I know I deserve to be dodging bullets for saying this, as many people won't be in a similar position so early in the run-up) but it's such a pleasure to shop at this time of year, when all the shelves are full (so plenty of choice) and all the goods haven't been picked up and squashed and shaken and poked (over and over again) until the boxes are tatty...

...it wasn't all plain sailing though, the "3 for 2" in Boots proved a little difficult to actually turn into a bargain (and in the end involved a bit of over-spending and 2 visits to the checkout to maximise value), a faff, but no *real* problem when the stores are devoid of shoppers...we wandered the rest of Crawley, and actually managed to get pretty much every gift we need (only 2 or 3 remaining now)...one could almost relax! ;)