A Little Adventure...

So on Sunday, Thomas and I got kicked out of the house by Flyingpops (for simplicity reasons due to extensive cleaning requirements) and decided to pop over to Horsham to see Nanny and Granddad (And "Cat!", And "Dog!", as Thomas pointed out)...

In what should have been a relatively simple exercise - we set off for our exciting adventure, well - just as soon as we had finished watching the F1, anyway - (Thomas practically running out to the pram, ten minutes too early, when he was offered the prospect of seeing a train - reacting like we had just had to explain to him that Santa Claus didn't really exist and he was going to have to sleep in the shed from now on when we asked him to come back inside for just "one minute", requiring we both wrestle him back into the house, fending off flying limbs and Toddler language that would have been unprintable, even had it been comprehensible)...

It all went a bit downhill from there...

First, we discovered that the next available train to Horsham from the train station that we could easily walk to (naturally) was at 6am the following day, so we shrugged and pushed our way to the hospital to try and catch a bus (which was 22 minutes late, and almost completely full by the time it finally wobbled around the roundabout)...then we learned that the fare had gone up by 10 pence so we didn't have the correct change (which was greeted with very little enthusiasm by the designated driver), despite this, Thomas clutched my ticket (apparently for dear life) as I desperately tried to stop his pram falling over while we screeched around the corners nervously singing "The Wheels on the Bus", during which Thomas continuously frowned with ill concealed concern at the peculiar and precarious position in which I had apparently decided to place him (which admittedly bore very little resemblance to the words coming out of my mouth)...

More by luck than anything else, we arrived, slightly ruffled, in Redhill and spent 10 minutes standing behind an elderly gentleman who clearly didn't know how to use the ticket machine (but was trying very hard anyway) he finally gave up, after several rejected offers of help, and walked straight through the open barriers without one (which he could have just done in the first place) we followed suit (with our long-awaited ticket) and then realised that it was going to be impossible to get up to the correct platform from that direction due to the enormous quantity of stairs...so we went back the way we came, crossed back across the road and puffed half way up Redstone Hill to the other entrance, banging noisily on the locked gate to Platform three for five minutes until a sleepy guard appeared to let us in...

We spent a very happy twenty minutes waiting for our first (and as it happened, only) train, Thomas pointing and shrieking as all the trains we didn't want zoomed merrily past, saying "Train, Useful!" - which, in my experience (at least) they often aren't, however Rev. W. Awdry (and his son, Christopher) appear to have already successfully convinced Thomas otherwise...I'll leave Southern Trains to complete his education on the matter when he is older...

At Gatwick Airport the train absolutely filled up with French people, who all appeared to need the toilet (which we, of course, were blocking with the pushchair), but at least that stopped me managing to change Thomas' nappy in the tiny cubical (I was terribly sad not to be able to avail myself of that opportunity, as you can imagine) and then we disembarked at Three Bridges, only requiring the assistance of three foreigners not to tip Thomas down between the train and the platform, as we hopped lightly out...after we had both calmed down (with the help of a box of sultanas), Thomas politely exclaimed "Bye bye train, bye bye peoples", and gave them all a little wave...

Finding, to my very great relief, after peering down a very long flight of rather dark stairs, that Three Bridges many platforms are accessible via elevator (thanks to a kindly guard), we then discovered (to some, not inconsiderable, dismay) that the reason 40 men in high visibility jackets were standing around supervising one person with a laser spirit level (up above us), was that our onward journey to Horsham was not to be by another train, but by a replacement bus service...to this piece of news, Thomas promptly fell fast asleep, my phone battery died and I spent the rest of the 40 minute journey wishing I had brought any book with me other than "My First Animal Words" (which Thomas hadn't even glanced at)...

It probably would have been easier to QWOP into Mordor (I'll let you Google it)...Lunch was delicious though... ;)

Ready for Hols!

Well, what a productive weekend! I think we are now pretty much ready for our little holiday (starting at the end of the week - yay!), we went up in the loft and got the surf board, wet suits and suitcase down, tidied up the garden and took down the gazebo (which wasn't easy as we had banged the 4 foot road pins in a bit too far - even bending one in the process), Flyingpops went to Crawley (while I baby-sat) and bought some holiday clothes for herself and Thomas, packed a load of food and condiments from the cupboards and then went and did a bit of extra food shopping for the break (which Thomas helped us out with as you can see), so just about all we have left to do is actually pack everything into the car (but we've saved that pleasure for Thursday)...can't wait to get away!

Water Filled Weekend...

Thanks, in no small part, to the extremely hot weather recently (*pant*), we had rather a water filled weekend (just gone), starting on Saturday with our weekly splish-splash at Water Babies -

- who oddly waited until the week after the deadline (to choose if one is to renew) to suddenly introduce a load of fun new activities (meaning only two of us are continuing, which also probably means the end of our class - as that's probably not enough to make hiring the pool worthwhile)...

...humph...Anyway, Saturday night saw Thomas having a bath (Al Fresco) -

- and on Sunday Flyingpops spent 2 hours (and went through three pumps - including the neighbour's - which she broke) inflating Thomas a Volkswagen Beetle-themed paddling pool-


- which as you can see he enjoyed immensely (although he did cry a little bit when I started putting water in it, until he realised that splashing was now possible)... ;)

Weekend update

Well, you couldn't exactly call the weekend just gone *relaxing*, but it was filled with fun, starting with getting up really early on Saturday to look after a little boy who wouldn't stop throwing up - five times in the space of an hour - four times into Flyingpops hair and once all down my front, but luckily I hadn't bothered to get dressed by that stage...we started the day proper with a trip to my folks (who had helped baby-sit on Friday night while Flyingpops was at a "book party" at her sisters house) for a hair cut and then a super-off-road dog walking session through some hugely overgrown paths out the back of Oxted (which the Bugaboo coped with incredibly well), then a quick stroll down the hill for an hour in the swimming pool, this time I went on the 70m water slide *and* had my first ever Sauna - incredibly, the temperature inside was roughly the same that I use to cook my roast chicken on a Sunday (I know because they have a thermostat on the wall), and there are scary signs warning you to remove all jewellery as the metal can get incredibly hot if you stay in too long...but you do actually get used to the heat extremely quickly and it does sort of become rather therapeutic, I swapped myself between there and the steam room (which feels like it's cleaning out your lungs, and probably is) and then (when you absolutely can't take it any more) you dive into the pool (which is 30 degrees, but feels like minus 50)! Thomas enjoyed being in his little inflatable again, especially when the wave machine kicked in (we missed that last week because we were only in the water for about 20 minutes... ;)

Anyway, later on in the day we went out for a lovely meal at the Box Hill Smith and Western, I couldn't make up my mind so I had the combo (where you get steak and chicken and ribs - just to make sure I didn't feel left out if anything tempting looking left the kitchen that I hadn't ordered), then we headed over to Box Hill village hall for Charlie's birthday party (which tried *very* hard to wake Thomas up with extremely loud music, but failed)...

Sunday morning Thomas decided we weren't having a lay-in, so we headed over to Tesco a bit early, discovering happily that they start serving breakfast long before the main store opens (so we totally skipped the normally enormous queue for the cooked breakfast - hehe)...anyway, we got half way round the store picking up our food for the week and then Thomas decided he didn't want to be shopping either, so we cut the visit short and ordered the rest on the Internet, I cooked us up an early roast (lamb) which we ate as we watched the F1 - Well done Jenson! - and then after X-Factor, it was baths and bed...and now I need another weekend (a quiet one this time), and so does Flyingpops (as I think she's coming down with a bug), but we won't get that for another working week...although at least Flyingpops can have a bit of a duvet day - don't think that would go down too well in the office... ;)

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...

Weekend update

So, the weekend is over (again), but we have a long one coming up next weekend thanks to Timmy and Gayle's wedding being on Friday, so that's something to look forward to... ;)

This weekend was pretty busy, saw Jinx (for about the first time since my wedding) on Friday night (we played games and caught up on what we had been up to in the meantime)...Saturday morning Flyingpops and I were just in the middle of making the house a bit more child friendly when our hairdresser arrived (half an hour before we thought she was supposed to) which led to a procession of hour-long hair colouring and cutting (in preparation for the aforementioned wedding) for various female members of the family, punctuated only by little Emily and Oliver crashing into me, smearing me with half chewed/melted (insert food-stuff here), or getting dirty or into trouble in unexpected ways in the garden - a pleasure to see them, but I think we should cut down on the high-sugar snacks they get as a treat when they do come round...oh and we ploughed through about 4 loads of washing (the sun was bright but quite weak, which meant the last load came in still quite wet and got hung around the living room to finish off drying)...

Saturday night I made pasta (bolognese with lots of garlic and herbs), and managed to overcook Flyingpops' pizza (she didn't mind), and then we watched "The Other Boleyn Girl", which was very enjoyable apart from the fact that the plot line follows almost exactly the same thread as "Carry on Henry" which made my mind sort of hop between the very serious subject matter (start of the Church of England/beheading etc.) and "Bom boooom"/"Do you want some more cream? My jugs are on the table" sort of comedy...

Sunday morning I went and did the shopping (so Flyingpops could have some extra shut-eye), got very frustrated with Mr Tesco as he had shuffled the fruit and veg aisles (for no good reason that I could see), the stuff for a roast dinner is now in two different ones, instead of all neatly together...Flyingpops said it might be in preparation for Christmas, but I dunno...the rest of Sunday was spent helping Flyingpops to get ready for her 2 night trip to Geneva (starting tonight flying out from London City Airport with Swiss Air), playing Splinter Cell on the 360, cooking up a roast dinner and then catching up with the week's action on "The Restaurant"...

Oh and this morning on the way in to London I managed to break Flyingpops' coat (which had got stuck down beside her seat on the train) - I broke one of the studs from the cuff pulling it out (which made her rather annoyed), but as her suggested alternative would have been to just leave the coat there, I think a coat with one stud missing has got to be better than no coat at all...and I can't have her getting cold in Switzerland!

Weekend Update

Where did the weekend go? It seemed to vanish waaaay too quickly...Saturday was largely eaten by the heaps and heaps of washing that seems to have accumulated over the last couple of weeks (thanks to me being away/Flyingpops entertaining guests last weekend)...well, I say vanished - apart from an exciting time when we tried to find the source of a rather unpleasant aroma in the back of the Golf, discovered that the carpets had got very damp (somehow?) and some deer food (that had obviously slipped under the seat during our trip to Longleat!  How long ago?) had started to go mouldy and smell (not surprising)!  So we vacuumed the entire car out, then sat there with two of Flyingpops hair driers (in the middle of the road) blasting the carpets until they were dry-ish - at this point I thought it might be an idea to run the internal heaters for a while (just to be on the safe side) but having run them for no more than five minutes with the doors closed - when Flyingpops tried to start the car to get it out the way of the neighbours drive we discovered we had managed to flatten the battery...(which *can't* be right)...

So, Colin to the rescue -  drove him next to the Golf and discovered that his leisure battery was flat as a pancake too...bah...finally, with a real stretch (thank goodness we bought the most expensive, longest jump leads in the world) we managed to connect him up via the main battery and get the car to start so we could at least move it from blocking next door's drive...I mean, we don't drive the Golf a whole lot - it's just popping to and from the station each day (about 5 minutes each direction) so I guess the battery doesn't get much chance to charge, but I was rather suprised to kill it with 5 minutes on the heaters...oh well...!

Saturday night was Tim's Stag do Part 2 (the revenge) which involved much beer/football, some arm wrestling and then a rather good Thai meal...Tim and I got the train back to Redhill and then took separate cabs home (where I fell asleep on the sofa until about 4am when I decided to go to bed and wake Flyingpops up with my snoring...sorry babe)...!

To make it up to her I went and did the Tesco shopping on my own in the morning, we then watched the F1 (very good race) and then I popped Flyingpops over to (and from) Fanny's Farm Shop (I kid you not) for Gayle's hen do (sandwich/tea/cake and Cava in a tree house), during which time I played a bit of Bully on the Xbox 360 (really enjoying it, about half way through now but a bit stuck on "Lola's Race" - my arm gets too tired tapping the dash button and I loose it on one of the last couple of corners - it's about a 5 minute long race, stupid! Think I'm going to have to cheat and do it using a moped or something)...and then Sunday night I cooked a roast but Flyingpops was too full of sandwich and cake to eat much of it (oh well, more for me!)...then we watched Wife Swap (typically inflamatory pairing of a gay pair and two homophobes, but it actually worked out much better than expected)...then bath and bed...

Weekend update

Well, had a pretty busy weekend (apart from managing to find a few hours on the Xbox 360 - Dark Sector and Bully at the moment, Bully being much the better game but Dark Sector has it's moments)..Saturday morning/lunchtime saw brother and sister in law (plus kids) come over to join in having mass hair cuts (and push cars full of barbies/Action men around)...Sunday morning, after doing the Tesco shopping, was spent nipping into South London (dodging speed cameras) to visit Grandpops and Hazel to fix some problems with their firewall (and install them some novelty Tomtom voices)...

Mustn't forget to mention that we have had a marriage proposal (and acceptance!) in Canada (very many congratulations to Sal and Jas!) which you can read about on their blog here (they are going to be flying back to Blighty soon so I imagine there will be some sort of celebration to be conducted upon their return)...then *this* coming weekend is another long one (for me anyway) as we are going to spend four days down in Cornwall to help Timmy celebrate his stag do, I am being picked up from home at 10am on Friday to begin the process of collecting all the attendees from around the South East (must remember to pack my stuff)! In fact, when Flyingpops was looking at the calendar yesterday morning, she announced that we don't actually have another completely free weekend now until October...!

Busy busy busy!

Weekend update

Well, I hope everyone else enjoyed their weekends as much as I did, mine was taken up having 9am lay-ins, shopping for the honeymoon (socks & pants/indegestion medicine/deet), getting about half way through packing my clothes, finding the US power socket converters, finishing the game "Mass Effect" on the 360 (very, very impressed, looking forward to part 2), enjoying the wonderful weather (even drying some washing on the line in the garden) and then producing two loaves of bread (in the bread maker my folks dropped off while we were out shopping on Saturday - thank you!) one of which came out half still flour (as I hadn't attached one of the stirrers properly), and the second one of which completely collapsed in the middle (and no, I didn't open the lid, and yes, I did measure the ingredients perfectly, right down to leveling the cups off with a knife)...maybe my water wasn't quite 21 degrees, dunno...Anyway *half* of the first loaf was lovely, and the collapsed one (although a bit of a funny shape) is still perfectly edible, so a partial success (I have sandwiches made from it in my rucksack)...I guess perfect bread will follow with some experimentation with ingredients (I bought Tesco's own everything for my initial trials)...can't quite believe I didn't take any pictures, but there we go... ;)

3 sleeps to go until Mexico! <:0

Weekend in pictures

Lal Akash, Reigate - Stag Do

*Somehow*, I am still alive...this keg got polished off *well* before we even made it anywhere *near* Lal Akash (in Reigate) where the beers are enormous -

- and the food is absolutely fantastic -


- the Indian waiter spoke to us largely in Spanish (which was a little confusing), only one car broke down, and bed didn't occur on Saturday night morning until around 4am...I honestly think I'm going to need to take a half day today and just go home and sleep...and if that isn't a stark insight into what an *excellent* weekend was had, I don't know what would... ;)

Thank you everyone for making it special...(and for letting me come out of it without ending up naked in Aberdeen tied to an alsatian)... ;)

The weekend in pictures

A *three* "WTF?" weekend...

Woke up to glorious sunshine on Saturday morning, had a quick haircut, did something extremely secret for the wedding (which took about an hour) then whizzed over to Gatwick, stopping when we spotted this incredible VW Beetle Trike to go and shake hands with the owner-



- into Hobbycraft, where I had not one but TWO "*WTF*?" moments -

- the first when I saw this £9.99 Batik Tjanting, turns out it's something to do with putting wax onto fabric, and the second when I saw this -

- which I think I can safely leave without comment, from there we went on to do the Tesco shopping in Hookwood -

- spotting a couple of funny(-ish) T-Shirts, then being asked nicely by security what I was doing waving around my camera (I told them I was Press) -


- nipped over to Capel to pick up the car (door lock had frozen on the drivers side so it needed car-hospital) back to watch the boxing (Amir Khan), woke up this morning with a nasty sore throat (and a grumpy Flyingpops who I had kept awake snoring), zoomed over to Tandridge to hear the bans of marriage being read out, passing this little bit of sweet irony, a Horse carrier being slowed to a crawl by horses, heh... -

- popped over to see my folks, and noticed that Dad had a large number of "dog" themed "Get Well Soon" cards, he is going a bit stir-crazy now, feeling better but duty bound to sit still and having now read the entire internet twice (promised him some more fresh links tomorrow) -

- went and did some more secret wedding stuff, then popped into Priory Farm just in time for another "WTF?" moment -

- Yes, Onion goggles (for goodness sake)...and I just know someone will buy these (and stand there in the kitchen looking like an idiot, even at £16.00)... ;)

Just cooking dinner now...*firmly* sans goggles...