End of the year

"Dear diary, sorry I haven't kept you up to date!!!  Don't know what happened or if I can remember what I would have put into the diary if I had kept it up... "

Some memorable recollections of the last quarter of 2010

We got a Vespa!  LX125 with open face helmets (one each for Ben and I).  Ben took his CBT and I did a refresher course before picking the scooter up and driving it home from Streatham (took me a good three hours - I got lost loads of times, travelled quite slowly and stopped frequently - definitely needed to build my confidence).  Ben uses the Vespa to travel to and from tennis and rowing and I use it for taking Beccy to home matches.  She is very confident on the back of the scooter and is quite happy that the journey takes longer (well at least it is quicker than the bus).

Alexander was very keen to wear a crash helmet so we managed to balance on on his shoulders (too much weight for his small head)!

Ben rowed in a couple of races.  His crew are quite fast and are progressing well.  He rowed in Maidstone and in Royal Albert Dock.   He got a lift to Docklands and I travelled up by train to watch and to meet him. We had lunch at Canteen in Canary Wharf and then travelled to Sydenham where Ben had a tennis match. A lot to do in a day!

Beccy broke her nose in a football match in early November and hasn't played since (no matches rather than she didn't want to play).  Her nose looked awful for a while and she has had a major nosebleed since but, hopefully, it is healing.  It isn't deformed at all.  The accident knocked her brace into her lip (which at the time looked worse than the nose) but, luckily, didn't break it.

After my car had broken down, fatally, and we had decided to make do with one car and a scooter, Brian's car did the same and was irreparable.  For five weeks we had just a scooter for transport.  This posed some difficulties but had the effect of slowing all of us down.  We all became more relaxed, more organised and less rushed.  It was a bit of a shame to end it by getting another car but we do need at least one to live comfortably.  At the end of November we found a Renault Scenic which suits us fine.  I think we have all learned something as the mileage isn't rising as fast as it did before.  Many things happen for a reason and I think this one happened to teach us that living life at 100mph reduces quality.  So far we are still walking, catching the bus and using the scooter, although it is nice to have the car when it is really cold!

Beccy and I joined the Maidstone Show Choir.  After around six weeks of practicing we took part in a Christmas show at the church in Maidstone.  The show went well (we will buy the DVD of it next week) except for a malfunction in the sound system which resulted in the melody singers getting ahead of the harmony singers during "True Colours" which was a real shame as it was our best song.

I stepped up the volunteering in the last few months.  I have managed one Shoresearch (with Ben).  I am helping to update a website for a museum project, uploading stories submitted by visitors.  I worked as a steward on the Climate Change Rally at the beginning of December and I volunteered for Crisis at Christmas, working two night shifts in a shelter for homeless single people with drug or alcohol dependency.  All volunteering is rewarding but the Crisis at Christmas was highly memorable as well.  The whole operation is so important for all the people who need it and the volunteer community were brilliant.  I am definitely going back next year.  Ben has been bag packing to raise money for a trip to South Africa to carry out a project in a school, the trip will happen next year, he also took his emergency first aid certificate on his way to getting Level 2 coaching assistant qualifications. Beccy joined the cadets where she will do some army training and, hopefully, take her D of E awards.

Alexander has stayed overnight twice now while Dan and Helen have gone out.  He slept really well and seemed to enjoy himself.  He had his second birthday (we got him a train set) and is starting to use more and more words.  He can say 'Grandma' (or 'Mam-mar') quite well and knows what all of us are called.

 

Midge has grown into a young cat, no longer a kitten but with mounds of energy.  Our first task in the new year is to get her vaccinations and to get her speyed so that she can start to go out.  She has a collar with her name and our telephone number on it and will be introduced gradually to the great outdoors.

Smudge now stays in all the time.  She is nearly 18 years old and is quite frail, the snowy conditions that we have had for the last month or so are far too cold for her and so she has become a house cat.

We have celebrated the end of the year now and I think I have fulfilled my resolutions from last year (I have definitely got more involved in trying to make a difference).  For this year I want to continue to increase the amount of voluntary and campaigning work I do and want to start to make an exit strategy (I hope I have ages to do this but as it is impossible to know, it might as well be done now).

September

The end of August and the start of September went really quickly.  We had a birthday celebration (mine, Dan's and Joe's) at the Robin Hood pub on Bluebell Hill where we had a Sunday roast.  Afterwards we went to Wouldham recreation ground to play rounders but about 5 minutes after we all got out of the cars it started to rain really hard and we had to retreat to the cars, then back to Natalie's to play tennis indoors on the Wii!  Regardless of the lack of rounders, it was one of the few times that Alexander, Amelie and Hiren were able to spend some time with each other and this made up for the rain.

On the August bank holiday Monday Ben took and passed his CBT course ready for when we manage to get a scooter.  Hopefully, this won't be long.  We looked at one on the way to Dan and Helen's on Dan's birthday but it wasn't what Ben was looking for (wrong colour)!  No scooter yet but we had a lovely meal at Dan's.

Back to school and work, clubs started up again and life became as busy as ever.  I will carry on getting the bus to work, as last year, but this time we don't have a second car as a back up.  This means that we are having to get the bus to things like football training, tennis and rowing, which takes up more time but, as long as we plan ahead, isn't an inconvenience and is surprisingly cheap.  Ben and Beccy still need to learn a bit more about planning ahead so that there isn't such a rush for the bus or the real possibility of missing it!

Midge, Beccy's kitten, is growing and is very active.  She likes to pounce on Poppy's tail and even sometimes to jump on her back.  Poppy and Smudge are gradually accepting her and she seems quite happy.  She needs to stay in until she is at least six months old, when she will have been vaccinated and maybe microchipped and speyed.

On Saturday 11th September we ran the Bedgebury Forest run (as we did last year).  Dan, Ben and Natalie ran 10k and the rest of us (me, Beccy, Helen, Sue, Mum, Josh and Izzy) ran 2k.  There were hiccups for all of us.  In the 10k race, the leader took a wrong turn and ran in the wrong direction down a hill before realising and turning back.  Of course, the rest of the runners, including Dan, Ben and Nat, followed him and all ran between half and one kilometre extra.  There were a few very cross runnners!  Ben came in around 6th in around 48 minutes despite the extra.  Dan did a very respectable 53 minutes but neither knows how long the actual 10k took them.  The rest of us lined up at the start with what we thought were the fun runners (there weren't very many).  The starter gun went off and we started running.  As we got to the first junction we realised that we were on the 10k route and we had started with the 10k runners.  Mum, Helen, Sue and I turned round and headed back to the start, we couldn't stop laughing especially when we realised not only that nobody else had done the same but also that Beccy, Josh and Izzy hadn't realised the mistake and were still running!  Fortunately for them there are very few occasions on which Beccy doesn't answer her phone, even in the middle of a run, and I was able to tell her to collect Josh and Izzy and come back.  The 2k had started by the time they got back and it took Beccy at least a kilometre to catch us up!  We eventually all made it to the finish line where we met Brian and Alexander.  As it was Natalie's birthday and she was the last to run in, we sang Happy Birthday to her as she ran to the finish line.  She had her earphones in and didn't hear any of it so wasn't too embarrassed!

That afternoon we went to Beccy's football presentation where we played rounders, then had fish and chips.  Beccy won the parents' player of the year award and we presented Steve, her manager with some goodies from the parents to show our appreciation for the amount of time he puts into the team.