Autumn Colour 15th November 2013

The weather was absolutely glorious on Friday so we headed off to Winkworth Arboretum. Not a lot to say about it really but the colours were superb. Since we were there last they have built a viewing platform. You can see for miles.

    Had to queue up to get this shot. Lots of folks wanting to capture the sunlight shining through the leaves.

 Beautiful maple.

  

While we were there we saw a bloke striding along bare foot wearing shorts. Very weird. His feet were covered in mud but he seemed ok, so we did the British thing and ignored him! 

Christmas Ideal Home Exhibition. November 2013.

We went to the Ideal Home Exhibition last year. Although its full of fabulous stuff, there is nothing that you actually  want to buy. However, it's a good day out. I managed to get some free tickets for the Christmas Home Exhibition so off we went. 

It was all very Christmassy, with lots of lights, Christmas trees and fake snow.

 

 So,while I'm mincing about taking photos of all things Christmas, Malcolm is taking photos of this soppy bint

                         

                           

   The place was full of groups of women and couples like us. We didn't have a clue who she was and neither did most people  walking past. Why the event managers thought she would be a good advert for the show is a bit of a mystery. Well, not a real mystery obviously, but wrong for the audience I think. Mary Berry would have been better 😊

Anyway..... it was a good day out. All things Christmas were available as well as all the other old rubbish like miracle peelers and super cloths. No, we didn't buy any. Malcolm would have done if he'd been on his own though! 

 They even had an ice rink.

Just a few nuts!!

William's Birthday November 2013.

Can't believe that this gorgeous little boy is now 6.

 On the Sunday after his birthday Emma had a family get- together. It's lovely to see everybody and William gets some help with his toys.

      

    

   Good old Grandad. Grandpa was also busy assembling but he was out of sight!

  

 

We bought William a skateboard.

I think he liked it. James took him outside for some tuition. Just as well James was there, William is fearless.

It's going to take a bit of practice.! We also had the obligatory pyrotechnic show

                                      

          

                      

     Vic, I'm not sure this is clear enough but can you see what Phoebe is wearing

     

After the fireworks we went inside for some yummy food and cake

Happy Birthday .xx

In the wars November 2013

For a long time I have had a lump on my eyelid. My GP has always been a bit dismissive about removing it. It's not dangerous and will be difficult to remove has always been the response. However,I now have a new GP who sent me to the eye clinic. If you've never been to Mayday eye clinic you can count yourself lucky. I spent hours there with my mum and was not looking forward to it. As luck would have it my appointment was with the consultant, a jolly chap called Mr Childes. 

"Yep" he said, "I can whip that off now" Had a little panic as  I was only expecting a consultation👀

It looked a bit grim but wasn't painful and it has healed completely now.

I also had to have a blood test

That did actually hurt, and still hasn't healed. Ouchy ouch.

October Half Term 2013

As always we were happy to help out with child care during the holidays. We only had the kids for two days this time and as the weather was rubbish on Monday we took them to the cinema. They wanted to see Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs. I didn't have a clue what was going on, but judging by the happy kids all around us it was clearly a popular film.

On Tuesday Jo came to stay. Phoebe, Abigail and William haven't seen Madelyn for ages and they were very excited at the thought of her coming to stay. On Tuesday morning Phoebe and Abigail played schools while we waited for Jo.

Spot the real boy!

They only had one real pupil and he soon got bored, so more teddies were brought in to make up the numbers. Not really sure why I've still got this many soft toys in my house.

Trying to make lunch for everyone was a bit of a challenge. I think Phoebe got fed up with me asking what they wanted so she marched into the kitchen with this. 

 

                  ⬆ and stuck it in front of me.

After lunch we went to the shop and everyone chose a magazine. There were lots of stickers to put in and everyone needed a bit of help.

Even grandad got in on the act.

 Madelyn was a bit under the weather but the kids had a plan to cheer her up

   Peppa Pig time. Yay!!

              

The weather was bright and sunny the next day so we got togged up and headed off to the park.

                                      

 It was lovely seeing everyone having fun together.

Despite feeling poorly Madelyn had a good time.

   Lovely girls xx

We got cold after a while so we came back for lunch

We had planned to go out again but the toys came out so did the chocolate,so we stayed put.

                                    

 

I took the kids over to the park to collect conkers. Grandad and William turned them into game conkers.

       

A few whacked knuckles and the game was soon finished.

It was super lovely to have all my gorgeous grandchildren together. Sadly it doesn't happen often

                               

     

All to soon it was time to take Jo and Madelyn home. We stopped off to pick up some shopping. Madelyn was feeling much better now

 Crazy baby . 

  These are a couple of photos that Madelyn's childminder sent to Jo. 

 

              

    Lovely smiley little sweetheart.

                It was Williams birthday on Thursday. He went for a curry.!!

                  Birthday boy.

                    And his lovely sisters

                            

   Cheers!!

Wet Friday. October 11th

 

We thought that we would do a London walk today but it was pouring down so we decided to do an indoor activity instead. We went to the V&A Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green. It wasn't as good as we thought it was going to be. We were expecting it to be an historical look at childhood but it was just a museum about toys and aimed  at children, lots of questions and things to play with.

However,there were a few things which caught my eye

Remember these? 

They have the little record player for sale, £40 now. Wish I'd kept it!

After the war china dolls were a rarity and most of our dolls were "rag dolls" I had a gollywog , just like this one. Robinson's jam had little silver gollies that you could collect and they were highly prized. Despite what legions of politically correct numpties say, we didn't actually call black people gollywogs, that came along much later after the seed had been sown by the  do gooders. As far as we were concerned it was just a toy like any other. Makes me a bit sad to see a much loved toy behind glass in a museum because they are now considered too offensive 😕

 

Instruments of torture.

 

These hideous things were nearly the death of me! We lived near a family that were a bit "odd". There was a mum and two boys called David and Norman. The family surname was Brander, so we kids called them Brandy Balls, a popular sweet back then. We used to dare each other to run past their house and shout Brandy Balls at the top of our voices and then run away before they came out. I don't think they ever did come out, but we just scarpered and never looked back to check. One day my friend Heather Wheeler said I could borrow her skates. Never skated before but thought it looked easy enough. These little beauties could be altered to fit your foot. There was a screw underneath that loosened to make the base longer to fit. Heather had feet like a fairy and so they had to be made bigger for me. The buckle on the straps was knackered so she tied it round my ankles instead. The front part was pulled really tight to compensate, and knotted with a gazzilion knots.I was expecting her to help me along. Wrong!! She pelted off at the speed of light yelling Brandy Balls at the top of her voice. I tried to run after her and these things promptly fell apart. She hadn't done the screw back up, so I was running after her with them tied to my little skinny ankles, making a diabolical racket as they dragged after me. The Branders came out that time.Don't know what scared me most, them,or the fact that I couldn't undo the piggin skates!  

    St  Pancras.
 

We weren't in the museum for long,so as we still had the afternoon to spare we went along to St Pancras  Station. It is huge,more like an airport really.The whole area around Kings Cross has been redeveloped. Instead of being nasty and a bit seedy it has been transformed into a very upmarket area with shops ,bars and restaurants, most of them very expenive.The champagne bar here is often featured in TV programmes.  £65 a bottle so we gave it a miss!

                                                       This statue is huge. Supposed to symbolise what travel is about, hello ......and goodbye .

        Around the base were other figures but it wasn't so easy to work  out what they symbolised

        Some were clearly soldiers,not sure about the rest.       

                      

         

Euro Star platform.

 There were little figures on the clouds but we  couldn't  see what they  were supposed to be doing. You can see how big the statue is. It is on the second floor which is where the trains leave from.The Euro Star leaves from here too.

There are also pianos,randomly placed and by the looks of it randomly used by any one who can play.

Very odd.