Already its Tuesday... blimey

So forgot to put this up yesterday... Partly because it was so wet and when I got home Cinderlla's fairy godmother had stolen my real wife and replaced her with a cleaning fairy... in a nice way.

The house is immaculate and the floor is quite comfortable, not because of the above comment mind... well not yet!

Moving on, swiftly, to clean the dusty alcoves of my forgetful mind. Yesterday, the park, as I walked past was just so blue instead of sugar frosted.



This morning I saw a lonely person in a snorkel parker, oh how I wish my phone had a decent zoom!



And I must remember to fix the light in my shed, its becoming a bit of a gamble going in and out. Putting things back is also a challenge and somewhat hap-hazard. The holistic approach to thrusting my arm into the dark and relying on gravity to ensure that the tools are put down on something is not the best thing...

The walk to work...

This week has seen the weather turn cold, sharp and the mornings remain clear and bright, Thursday morning was jst dazzling so it was an early start today!



After a very late night last night, we stayed up the watch The Queen. Looked excellent but was a dodgy disk so we put on Deja Vu. Turned out to be a superb thriller and as we didn't realise the oven wasn't working we watched it all before noticing that the bread hadn't cooked by 1.30 in the morning, ho-hum!



So this morning a bright and early start, stopped to take a picture of the park and bugger missed the train! Who expects trains to run on time early on icy morrnings!



I don't know, but I'll say this wearing my mobile duvet a steaming cup of tea and an empty platform is very therapeutic.

Agro of the commute...

Hmm, I'm not down, but amazed that there are a lot of commuters... that is wrong, I'll start again.

Commuters, (or as I typed by mistake a moment ago committers!), fall into two basic categories aggressors and sheep. There are those who stare owl eyed up at the boards waiting for an indication that their train will depart, if at all, if not on time and move in small knots toward the relevant platform. Others who, defy physics by trying to occupy the same space as other commuters.

By that I mean me, the other commuter, positive happy and often smiling. I have had two encounters today with people who thought I was in their regular spot or the exact spot that they would like to stand, sit or perch in!

Amazing, I think that from today I will start to photograph these interesting and challenged souls as examples of scientific interest and sometimes publish them here as examples of eccentric and fascinating behaviour.

Unusually they are not under threat, indeed they are a healthy and growing group of opinionated and robust individuals, I only hope that if two or more of them try to occupy the same space they will cancel each other, with a moist pop .

A new job and the hurly burly of commuting

So, this week I have started a new job, a bit of a shock to the system after my extended break and commuting as rather taken the gloss of the day...

I have to get up earlier, not a problem, leave before I have managed to have at least two coffees and some toast, that's OK. I have to iron clothes again, which sounds like I don't normally and then join a swirling, rushing mass of humanity that think London is some sort of assault course at which you must throw yourself with no concern for those you might step on, into or over as you race for work and chant (an internal monologue)- 'gotta get a seat, gotta get a seat- that's my seat!'.

I've noticed that the rush doesn't really slow down until people get to coffee shop and get their baby beakers, you know that cup with the plastic top that just takes you back to more innocent times? An eddy in the journey to work.

Similarly the rush home is an escalator fight of hips and handbags, strategically placed attitudes, as everyone moves rapidly along within their MP3 cocoons, to the evenings unique and personal soundtrack. Salmon heading home... 'nuf said.

Oh the temptation to play a Bond theme or the Bourne Identity... I feel quite relaxed when I leave my desk, but the journey, the aggression, being away has left me relaxed, but not immune to this! Its not a feeling I want to lose.

The job is good though, small company, focused positive and pleasant with real opportunities and challenges.

Venice, two adults, two kids - maybe three!

We went to celebrate my wife's birthday and our 10th wedding anniversary and Oh Wow!



I fell in love with this city. Although, I have to say that the city's beauty is heightened by the dodgy sandwich on BA (British Airways) economy class and the shock of having to shell out an additional £320 on my youngest cos British Airways did not think she was an infant anymore... all before 7:00 in the morning!

And the contingent of octogenarians who anxiously try to scope your seat number as you board in the hope that you and your family are not sitting next to them.


Once in the air they helplessly, (the octogenarians) attempt to gas all other passengers by farting for the full two hours 10 minutes of the flight... I can only assume that this was to help keep the plane in the air and subdue any screaming children.



Ho hum. A small price to pay. Venice is beautiful, entrancing and enchanting. Where ever you go the scenery is stunning the buildings against the back drop of blue sky and blue lagoon water, just... What can I say, you just have to soak it all up as you sit at Levanes drinking your tea and watch your children happily persecute the pidgeons in Saint Mark's, fueled on a cocktail of gellato and pizza.

The food is great, sea bass, fish risotto and Pizza with mushrooms the people wonderful and generous. It is a city that is hard to leave without promising each other that you will come back.

And then there are the the octogenarians who, at Venice Marco Polo, provided comic relief after our restful short break. Who, with a great sense of irony, drag their many suitcases to the check in desk and then over tax the staff with demands for wheelchairs to take them to their respective flights.

I can only assume to conserve there essential gases for the flight. There is nothing like airing your dirty laundry in public.

It's been 7 weeks since my last post…

So I went on holiday and discovered that France cannot be navigated by wifi hotspot alone! But with my wife and three kids, no problem. What follows is a quick description of the first few days, of what was the best holiday I've had for a long time:



Day one.

Friday. We are in Portsmouth and of course it's raining, but the tent is up and we are all warm and dry. We sail in two days.


Day two

Still raining. It started in earnest, (not a small town near-by, but rain that is committed to making it really wet), after the tent was up, the temperature fleeces are on and I hope it stops before we have to pack up.


Day three

Sunday. How ironic it's stopped raining! We have a window of opportunity and we are going to to take it. Packing the tent at the speed of Brian he snail!


Whooppee at the The Royal Beech hotel, showers and warm baths all-round, hot teas and dry clothes. Have we become fair weather campers?


After a walk on the South pier, admiring the rain, sorry the view, we introduced the children to the visiting community of geriatrics and business people in the chandeliered luxury of the hotel restaurant. We stuck it out. Managed the food fight, a chorus of I need a pooh and a change of dress, which was definitely not in the dress code. Bed!


Day four

Monday. On the ferry. Due to the trials of the pre-ceeding days three members of the family are in the cabin asleep. The eldest has succumbed to hardcore drug abuse and is unconscious . I have decided this is my personal preference and also that of Brittany Ferries who thoughtfully provided the drugs are very conscientious and dislike the idea of projectile vomiting as much as I do. Although she was a lovely shade of green.

Hard on the two of us who had to watch, Simpsons the Movie, brilliant.


The five hour crossing is over. We are in France. It is raining.


Day five

Tuesday. Falaise. Put the tent up yesterday in torrential rain, an upgrade on earnest! Would not have managed it if the Germans next door hadn't put down their dinner and helped. Lots of mopping up. The appalling weather creates the opportunity for deep thought, different ways of torturing the children who think that provoking Dad is a way of relieving the tension and more seriously, I think I am becoming a pessimist! Oh yeah it isn't raining.


Day six

Wednesday. Explore the town and castle. Do a drawing! Just fantastic and plan to chase the sun...


Day seven and eight

Thursday to Friday. St Laurent sur Sevre at a sweet campsite, La Rouge Gorge, in the Vendee. Tomorrow La Puy du Fou. It's stopped raining.


Day nine

The hottest day of the holiday so far and a little bit surreal! We went to La Puy du Fou, a French day a out with difference, not excluding a French bias to history!

Now with high expectations we are going swimming...



I'll add more when I get back from Venice!

It's a wind up!

This is the one I wouldn't buy, even though my daughter insisted! The one we, sorry I bought is green, it goes with my Crocs but my wife thinks that is wrong as well and the lantern pictured above is much better design wise, oh well.

The lesson here is that I should listen to my eldest daughter, who has taste. Perhaps it is something I should consider whilst winding the lantern continuously for 5 minutes for 20 minutes of light from it's 12 diodes. I will then be able to finish Harry Potter by the light it casts prismatically, rather weirdly, but brightly.

It will be like trying to read by moire! Not Moirai as I originally wrote ~ Moi•rai - Greek mythology ~ the fates .

We go camping for 3 weeks tomorrow. Enough said.

Wales and back!

We went away and I thought I'd be able to keep this blog up to date. Ho-hum.

OK we arrived in Wales last Saturday, if you are using TomTom the correctly entered postcodes is important.

Amazing views onto the most beautiful estuary, which is spanned by a huge bridge, which strides across our view.

Over the last 7 days 23 people, 14 adults and 9 children in total, have caught up with one another or met for the first time in nearly 20 years.

As a family we have discovered that we can't necessarily play snooker, but can take it in turns to cook for 23 whilst not very sober and be more terrifying than a coach load of tourists as we make our stately progress around the Pembrokeshire countryside with the aid of TomTom.

We listened to a no nonsense talk from an expert at Castell Henllys who did not want his time wasted, we even tried to row upside down up a gorge near Cardigan, the home of Howies. And of course we drank a lot.

Holiday - at last

l don't believe it. So I'm writing my first holiday blog. Everyone is awake and excited about the drive tomorrow! Actually, I hope they're not, awake I mean.Tomorrow we meet up and start having a great time with all the family. The first week of several!

But, whats really intetesting is that I am typing this out on the Nokia n800 I purchased the other day. I admit that many would find this a little retentive, but this is gadget heaven.

I just have to sort the install of Skype and I'm away...for real. What joy.

The last day and the first day...

Just a brief note, it's the last day of work and tomorrow is the first day of the longest holiday I have ever had...

So I'm off to enjoy some real rest and relaxation and to explore local delights and the opportunities to snack!

Decisions, decision, decisions

Should it all depend on the throw of the dice? What to take on holiday, what will the weather be like, should we leave the kids at home?!? (just joking).

What will go in the top box, well that is a surprise nearly everything and all the alternative footware can go in the gaps! The tent and suitcase will fit in the now roomy boot. But I bet there will be kipple disguised as holiday extras and essentials.

This is a bit of a watershed. It could be the first time we have all gone on holiday and that's five of us, traveling in a degree of comfort without having to twist our bodies into those rather comic yoga positions which, as you travel up the motorway get you sympathetic looks from other drivers who believe your family is suffering some horrific muscular afflication and that you are being rushed to the nearest medical facility to be untwisted and have the windows surgically removed from your face.

However I'm sure it won't come to that and besides I'm hoping that my Nokia n800 will arrive tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Aliens have landed

So my thoughts are following a theme, obviously encouraged by the things I pass everyday to feed my irrational paranoia and conspiracy theories about inanimate objects… although in this instance I don't really believe that the local authorities are providing directions and clear sign posting for extraterrestrial tourists, are they?

These little mosaics adorn various streets on my way to work, a couple of them are on buildings that are scheduled for demolition so I will try to photograph those, but I don't ever remember seeing a space invader on my Mac Classic II, from 1991 (I think I got that right).

Courage and the phones

From time to time over the last few years I have passed this building on the train and although it is an old advert for the beer of the Courage Brands Ltd, I've always seen it as a more personal message, for me and anyone else looking from the window of the train, but it has only been relevant on the way to work, never on the way home. I wonder what people think going the other way? It never fails to make me smile.

Then again it might be more of a warning. I need to get a grip. I put all the phones back in their cradles this morning and some how they congregated around one point in the kitchen by the time I got home. Gravitating toward the microwave…

Sunday is shed day

The whole day has been a progression toward getting into the shed, to make a stretcher for the image above. My shed is a small and perfectly formed building at the bottom of the garden, but full of kipple. In fact the shed is a kipple producer, a manufactuary of high grade kipple. A small part of a complex progress of kipple production and recycling.

But, before the shed I have had a morning in Bromley, eaten cookies, rescued my youngest daughter from an over zealous wasp, laughed on a train, nursed a grazed knee and pottered about in the kitchen.

So I approached the shed politely this afternoon and moved the kipple about so that I can at least walk in and stand in front of the bench. Trust me this is a major improvement on what it has been.

With a bit of space to work in I began to make a stretcher for the photo at the top of this page that I was given by my wife of the Penguin Pool at London Zoo. Its a photo that she took recently and had printed on canvas.

The first stretcher was a bit large due to an inability to measure things today, but fun to make and made more interesting by the parade of visitors who passed the shed door and ranged in age and size.

All of them had different questions from demands for Hubba Bubba to whats the tent like, but with a few small adjustments its now perfect and the photo is on it... There are more amazing photos, but I will tell you about them another day, I just love this one.

Back to nature

What a day. After food with friends on Friday night, we all begged out by midnight. I think its a sign that we are all showing our ages, a combined age of 189 years excluding the kids but including the 3 friends. We slept and dreamt of our great plans for the next day.

Saturday, fueled by a breakfast croissants, brioche and pain au chocolat, scrambled egg and fruit juice we were ready to face a day of indecision, which we are good at on a Saturday.

Watching the sky for signs of rain I spent a little time rounding up all the bits of escaped tent from the corners of the house where it has been planning it's next move.

Once it was all contained restlessly in the boot of the car and the car was sporting its rather eye catching, but not too dressy new top box, the challenge has been to round up the family, which is still reading Harry Potter, sleeping or causing mischief.

Finally we have spent an evening taming the tent in the wilds of Dulwich, hence the reference to nature, which is fantastic, racing against the clock to beat the rain, the tent is straight forward to put up and spacious and fits back into its bag!

Oh and its easy to take down, perhaps more importantly Harry Potter has been finished.

Tent bits, kipple and blink....

The quantity of tent related stuff in my hall is growing. Like kipple it is taking over, filling all the available space and has begun a slow directionless migration to all points various.

The worst thing is it's stealthy advance, it moves when you are not looking, bit like Dr Who, blink and you miss it! The individual parts are cunningly disguised as cardboard boxes, except for the carpet, which refuses to be contained and is leaking from its box a little bit more each day… the carpet is the piece to watch its much more clever than the rest, including the wardrobe that came with the tent!.

Tonight I will glory in the in the ripping away of the cardboard,a frenzy of recycling that will make me feel good! A stripping away if its boxy camouflage in an attempt to contain it in the hall for a short time, before I trap it in the car…

I might need help.

Story of the apathetic blogger...

After a great dinner with friends last night, Sophies Steakhouse, Fulham Road, where I had the swordfish and at which we debated the merits of blogging and why some do and some don't. Mostly apathy or a desire for anonymity, but mostly apathy... I felt inspired to think about it a little more.

And so today I've found an easy, perhaps not the best, but lets see, path of least resistance to writing a blog.

However it wasn't the dinner conversation that prompted me to write today. Nor the fact that I am about to finish a 3 month contract and will find myself with free time, no obligations to work or customer deadlines to meet. Just being able to stop, do a bit of navel gazing and have a holiday for as long as I want.

No, it was trying to work out how I was going to get the carpet (more on that in a moment) that came with my tent back into the box it came in, a desire to work out why so many objects are packed in such a way that you can't put them back into the box they came in once you have taken them out.

I'm dreading putting up 42kg of tent and finding that when it all has to be packed up I won't be able to get it back into the car. Even though I will be able to put the car in the tent if all else fails! A car that I can drive onto the carpet, which this huge tent includes.