August

The first week was spent preparing the house for our home exchange.  Beccy spent some time with friends and on Thursday 5th we travelled on the train to Gatwick to meet Antoine.  On the was back we stopped for lunch at Cafe Rouge near London Bridge Station.

On Saturday Beccy had a friendly football match at Aylesford, where they were opening the new club pavillion.  She, Antoine and I caught the bus to Aylesford and, luckily, the match finished just in time for the 12.23 bus back (otherwise we would have had to wait until 1.53pm - Aylesford has an infrequent bus service).  Her team won the match 11-0 but it was a reasonably good practice game before the start of the new season.

Earlier in the day Brian had driven to Norfolk to pick up Ben and other scouts at the end of Norjam.  Ben arrived home tired and with plenty of stuff to unpack.  As we were travelling that day, Mum had agreed to let him leave his stuff at her house, I took him round and he agreed to go with her to look after Natalie's dogs for the night (he hadn't organised anywhere to stay for the night).  I didn't like only seeing him for a short time and then leaving him there but it was what we had planned.

We finished cleaning the house and left at 5.30pm for Dan and Helen's.  Brian had sorted out the car (service, tyres, etc).   After a cup of tea and a play with Alexander, Brian and I drove to Stansted Airport to meet the Spanish family who we have exchanged with, Carolina, Kepa, Jon, Itxaso and Gaitko.   They took the car and left for Rochester.  We phoned for Helen to come and pick us up to take us back to their house where we stayed overnight.

In the morning we went over to the park to let Alexander have a play on the swings, slides, and other equipment then, after lunch, Dan drove us Brian, Beccy, Antoine and me back to the airport where we caught our flight to Santander (after standing in the wrong queue and nearly missing the check in time).  We found their car at the airport and drove to the apartment in Urduliz.  We found the apartment OK but struggled to find the parking space in the garage (it was in the house instructions but we didn't manage to digest them properly).  Our exchange family didn't fare quite so well and the car wouldn't start after they had stopped for a meal in Rochester.  They phoned us and we started thinking about how to sort it out so that it didn't happen again.

Carolina had left us some pizzas and wine in the fridge, which was just as well as there were no shops open when we arrived.  We went for a quick walk around the village and found a shop that sold ice creams, cakes and bread.  With what we found in the fridge and what we bought we had a nice meal and didn't go to bed hungry.  After dinner we had a game of cluedo and went to bed. The apartment was right next to the Metro station and the trains were very regular but they weren't too intrusive.

On our first morning we drove to Plentzia to have a look around.  After a long walk around the town and an ice cream, Beccy and Antoine decided that they wanted to swim in the bay so we sat on the beach while they swam.  The sand, where the sea was washing over it, had many bubbles erupting on the surface.  These were persistent but it wasn't obvious what the gas was.

We managed to find a small supermarket in Sopelana and bought dinner and some supplies.  After dinner we went out for a walk around Urduliz.  Beccy and Antoine had found some skateboards and wanted to try them out.  They didn't find a skateboard park but managed to board on a few slopes before we headed back (it was late and they were making quite a lot of noise with the boards). The area was full of apartments (where people live, not holiday apartments).  Most people had windows open as the weather was warm, so the boards were disturbing them.

  

On Tuesday we drove to a few beaches to see what they were like.  We didn't find any that looked any more interesting than the one we found at Plentzia.  We walked towards the first beach from the top of the cliffs but got to a point where the path ran out.  Coincidentally, this was the first point from which you could clearly see that this was a nudist beach.  We didn't really want to go any further and the path seemed to indicate that others didn't either.


We found another cliff top where we sat and had lunch while watching a P&O ferry sail out, presumably from Bilbao.  After this we drove to Plentzia, found the car park for which we had a pass, and headed for the beach.  Beccy and Antoine took body boards into the sea and used them to swim out to the buoys they hadn't reached yesterday because the water was too cold (the water on the top was warmer than the tidal water coming in from the Atlantic).  I had a quick swim and found the same cold water, Brian paddled to clean off his flip-flops and then we left the beach and headed for the skate park (next to the beach and on top of the car park).   Antoine had a nasty fall and hurt both his elbows, luckily he didn't break any bones and he recovered quite quickly.

  

We returned to the apartment and had a short rest before going out for a walk to try to get to a cross we could see on a nearby hill.   The views from the hill were worth seeing and there were plenty of paths to walk and rocks to climb.  Many people were climbing the rocks, it looked like a climbing school.

We reached the top and managed to get just about to the cross.  On the way down we found a spot where there were butterflies flitting around.  By standing in the sunlight and staying very still you could get them to land on you.   Beccy and I managed to get a red admiral butterfly to land on us, although Beccy couldn't get it to stay long enough for a picture.

  

After the walk we went to the basketball court for a short game.  Beccy and Antoine beat Brian and I by 10 points to 6.  Finally, back home for omelette and pasta.

Wednesday was another nice day and so we headed again for the beach.  This time we went to find Bakio where there were more waves for the children to bodyboard on.

We drove to Bakio and found a car park, then we walked along the beach before finding a restaurant where we had lunch.  We ordered menu del dia but had difficulty finding something that Beccy would eat for starters.  One dish was 'patatas' with some other stuff that we didn't understand but she was interested in the potatoes and so we ordered it for her.  Antoine had the same dish.  When it turned up the potatoes were in a squid gravy.  To her credit she did at least try it, but didn't eat it.  Antoine managed to eat his and both were fine with the ham and chips they had for their main course.  After dessert (creme caramel), we went back to the car and got out our stuff for the beach.

The children spent a long time riding the waves and both ended up with a rash on their stomachs from the bodyboards.  Brian and I lay on the beach and tried to keep out of the sun as far as possible

After the beach Brian suggested that we walk to a little island that was connected to the mainland only by a narrow path.  It was a long walk down to the path and then a long walk up to the church at the top of the island with over 200 steps to climb.

We used the most disgusting toilets I have had to use in a long time on the way up (with no water or toilet paper) and then, when we got to the top there was nothing there (seeing the buildings we had hoped that there would be a cafe or at least a small shop but there was nothing, only a further toilet that smelt worse than the first ones.

After a short rest we walked back down.  Brian didn't want to go back on the narrow path and walked back along a road that had joined it.  The children and I went back the way we had come and stopped for a drink in a bar at the end of the journey.  We waited what seemed like ages then walked back towards where the car had been parked (Brian was supposed to be meeting us at the bar).  He had just got back to the car, the road had been a long detour.


We drove back through a town called Mungia which had a hypermarket.  This gave us the chance to stock up on supplies for packed lunches and dinners.  Following this we had another very late dinner and went to bed after midnight again.

At Bakio we had walked back to the car park and passed this car.  Ben has told us we would love a Ferrari, we wondered if he would like this one!

On Thursday we got the metro into Bilbao.  Our first stop was Arrieta where we walked across the Biscay Bridge.  This has a gondola which transports people and cars across the river at a point where many tall ships need to pass through and so a conventional bridge is not practical.




We paid for the walk across the top of the bridge, went up in the lift to the top and walked across so that we could visit the market stalls on the other side. We had good views of the river and some of the town (although the bridge is quite a way from the centre of Bilbao).

 

While on top of the bridge we spotted a large dinosaur in a park on a small peninsular then, when we were at the market stalls we saw that there were quite a few more dinosaur statues.  We decided to have a look and to have our lunch there.  We crossed back over the river in the gondola which was just as exciting as the walk and much cheaper.

On arriving at the peninsular we found a set of closed gates and a hut where you could pay to go into what was essentially a landscaped and planted area with statues of dinosaurs in amongst the trees.  The cost was €3 each and so we decided against it.  We sat outside an had our lunch instead, watching a young boy in the water crying for his mum who had swum out into the wider river.  He was standing on the bottom and trying to swim every now and then but was obviously afraid to swim and just kept crying out instead. Occasionally he ducked under the water and eventually a lady on the beach and the SOS staff ran out to rescue him, only to be told that he didn't need rescuing, he just wanted his mum!

Our next stop was the Guggenheim museum.  We took the Metro to Moyua station and walked to the museum.  The building was really impressive.






Beccy was really impressed by the giant puppy made of flowers outside and both she and Antoine were impressed by the fog that was sprayed out over the water in front of the museum.

  

There was a really long queue to get in and we noticed that Anish Kapoor was exhibiting there.  Instead of going in (the children were unlikely to be interested) we went into the cafe for coffee and coca-cola before heading back to the Metro and onto the Casco Viejo (the old town).

We did some shopping and looked around the city a little before heading back to the Metro for the train home.  The next train didn't go quite as far as Urduliz and we had to get off at Larrabasterra and wait 8 minutes for the next train to Plentzia.

Brian didn't want to wait and decided to walk (the rest of us had done enough walking and were happy to wait 8 minutes for the next train besides, Beccy had enough to keep her occupied!  Brian arrived back 35 minutes after us having walked 2.3 miles.

After dinner we played a game of Rummikub before bed.  We had to look the rules up online as we couldn't remember how to play and couldn't understand the Spanish rules in the box.

During the day we heard from Ben who reported some success in the tennis tournament in both the consolation draw of the boys under 18s and in the mixed doubles where he and Megan had reached the finals, beating the number 2 seeds.  It was good to hear from him.

Not so good was the news that the family who are staying in our house had been getting no hot water.  I sent an email back to them to give some suggestions but we had no idea what had gone wrong.  Things haven't gone so well for them.  The car wouldn't start on their first journey back, they couldn't get into the house after deadlocking the door and then they didn't get any hot water. Hopefully, things will get better!  This is the worst part of home exchanging, the worry about things going wrong at the house that mean that the exchange family don't have as good a time as they might have.  This is the first time in nine years that we have had this number of problems and it is a worry.  When you let some one use your house you want everything to go smoothly and you feel guilty when it doesn't but can't really do much about it because you are miles away.

Friday 13th was a bit of a disaster day.  It was raining and the children had wanted to go to the beach.  We couldn't find any alternative activities that they were interested in and so we decided to go to the wave beach on the off-chance that it would be sunny by then.  We went further around the coast to Mundaka but couldn't find anywhere to park so carried on to Bakio where we ate our packed lunch near to the beach and then got back into the car to escape the rain.

 

I had found a sports centre using Google and had got the address so we decided that we would go swimming.   Unfortunately we could find the area but couldn't find the sports centre.  We did, however, find a bowling alley and had two games of ten-pin bowling followed by a quick go in the amusement arcade.  Back for dinner and Beccy and Antoine went to play basketball for a while.

Notes

Everywhere we go in this area we are surrounded by eucalyptus.  It was apparently introduced about 200 years ago as a fast growing resource for the production of paper and is used for sustainable forestry management.  It seems to self-seed quite readily and there are many seedlings and young trees dotted around as well as many established stands.  You can see whole plantations of eucalyptus on the hillsides and, when you walk through the forests, although there is a good variety of tree including beech, ash, oak and others, the predominant species is eucalyptus.

There were posters throughout the metro system for a film called 'London River'.  This is about two parents each looking for their child who was in London at the time of the 7/7 suicide bombings and who has not been heard from since.  It doesn't seem to be showing much in London (only one cinema listed) but might be shown in Bilbao with subtitles if we are lucky.  Worth a look.

July

On the first Saturday of the month, as it was very warm (we had a mini-heatwave with temperatures up to 30 or more degrees for around a fortnight), Brian, Beccy and I went for a walk at Cliffe Pools RSPB reserve.  I was surprised that Beccy wanted to come with us but she brought a football and practised some tricks as we walked.  She also managed to find plenty of places to do some free-running!  We managed to see a young kestrel still sporting its fluffy feathers, an adult (probably keeping an eye on us while her young was hopping along any available high perch alongside us), a flock of long-tailed tits, a great tit, little grebe and little egret.  Ben had decided that playing some football in the park with his friend, Ben, was more exciting.

Earlier in the day, Beccy had started her referee training.  I dropped her off in Faversham at 9.30 for the day and returned to watch Ben compete in the school sports day (javelin, 1500m and 4x400m relay).  It was really hot and he looked exhausted afterwards.  His friend Rob, on taking the baton from Ben after the first lap, sprinted amazingly fast for around 300m, then obviously hit a wall which meant that he couldn't quite make it to the line.  The next runner had to prize the baton from his hand as he lay on the floor.  Apparently he took quite a while to recover but it was a brave attempt to catch his team up.  They came fourth in the end and I'm sure Rob's run helped.  Prior to the sports day, Ben had been at Rochester Cathedral for the Founder's Day ceremony where he had to carry out prefect duties for the first and last time (he'll have left school by next year's ceremony).

On the 7th, Beccy helped out at the talent show at school.  She was a stagehand this time as the sound was covered by a returning sixth former.  She is obviously keen to be there but not in the limelight.  During the day, Ben had travelled to Portsmouth University to their Open Day.  He went by train and spent the entire day in the biology department and the marine institute which, unfortunately, left him no time to see the accommodation and campus facilities before the event closed.  It isn't his first choice but was good to visit just in case something jumped out at him that wasn't in the prospectus.

On the 9th, Dan rang at around 6pm to say that Helen had gone to help get things ready for her sister's wedding the next day in Tonbridge and the car had broken down. It was the gear linkage and couldn't be fixed straight away.  The trouble was that they were travelling to the wedding the next day and then going camping for a week from Monday, they needed a car.  I said that they could borrow mine (I can easily manage without it if necessary, but we are all generally too lazy to cope with necessary!).  Helen arranged to get the RAC to tow her to our house so that she could collect my car and go home.  Poor thing, the guy didn't turn up until gone 9pm and she arrived at ours at 10.15pm.  She finally got home at 11.45pm and had to drive back to Tonbridge the next day.  Just to add to their lucky weekend, they got caught in a horrendous traffic jam on the way to the wedding caused by the closure of the southbound Blackwall Tunnel.  The traffic was stacked all the way back nearly to the M11 junction and they were stuck for 2 and a half hours in temperatures of 34 degrees!  Poor Alexander was a bit de-hydrated.  They arrived at the wedding just after the vows!  Apparently they enjoyed the rest of the day and made it back home OK.  Let hope they don't have any more travel bad luck!

On the 10th, Ben went to Gilwell Park for the Gilwell 24 event where they stay up and do activities for 24 hours.  He said it was far too hot to want to queue for anything and they tried to stay in the shade as much as possible, making it more of a non-event.  When he returned home on the Sunday morning he was tired but determined not to sleep too much so that he could have an extended sleep overnight.  To stay awake he went out to play tennis and have a water fight with Jeni.

Also on the 10th, Beccy did the final part of her referee training and came home very keen to get started.  We ordered her kit straight away so that she could be eligible to run the line at a ladies match sometime soon.  While she was there I visited Sandwich and Eastry and went looking for information about ancestors who came from there.  I didn't find anything much but did get an idea about buying a flat in that area, especially near the waterfront, so that we can rent it short term, long term or holiday let or we could use it as a base if we rented our own house out.  It's close enough to use if we were to re-arrange our working to only work three days a week and then two days at home.  Otherwise the travelling would be at least an hour each way.  I came back with my head full of ideas about this but, unfortunately, there aren't any available flats in Sandwich.  Still, we can afford to wait.

14th July - this was a good day for both Ben and Beccy.  First Beccy had her school sports day.  She won the long jump with a jump of 4.36m, then she won the 800m, then her team won the 100m relay.  Her house won the overall competition so she was really pleased.  The house system has only recently been brought in at her school and it has been, as far as Beccy is concerned, a great success.  It really added to the atmosphere of the sports day that students were cheering for their house rather than for individuals.  Unfortunately, there is a good chance that she will be doing work experience on sports day next year and the year after that will be on study leave and so she may not experience this again.

Ben was presented with the Trustee Prize for Physical Education at his school prizegiving.  This recognises his achievements in PE at the school and he was pleased.  He had to choose a book that the school put an insert into and presented to him on the night.  The book was called 'Diving the World' about the best dive sites.   Maybe he will try one or two out, although he was disappointed that they were almost all in the southern hemisphere and therefore more difficult to reach.

Beccy sat her referee exam. She went a bit early to do some revision before the exam started and then she had to sit 9 papers (some very short and some involving video clips to make refereeing decisions about).  She passed!  Her kit arrived the same day and so when she got home she could dress in the kit and blow her whistle.  We took a photo of her giving Brian a red card but he deleted it! The whistle was so loud it deafened us - it probably won't sound quite so loud on the football pitch but should do the job it was meant for.

Dan and Helen's bad luck continued when, on their way home from Norfolk, my car broke down!  They got the recovery service to get them home and then we arranged for our recovery service to bring the car to a local garage.  The cam belt had gone and, as they had been accelerating at the time, it had ripped the engine to pieces.  Luckily, Brian had fixed their car and it was ready for them to pick up, so they came down on the train with the car seat and were able to drive it home after we had been out bowling and eating for Sarah's birthday celebration.

What to do?  We have managed for over three weeks now without a car and haven't missed it.  Although it generally gets driven once a day, this is because either Brian isn't home in the evening and his car is, therefore, not available or because we have a choice of cars and mine is the most economical.  Obviously if we had to lose one car it would have been better to lose Brian's but you can't choose these things. The cost of repairing my car will just about match what it is worth.  We could sell it for dismantling and cover all our costs.  Then we can cash in the insurance, transfer the breakdown cover to Brian's car and cash in the tax and we will be quite well up at the end of the day. Both children were very happy to encourage their father to come home more often so that we can share the car more easily and I'm all for this as well. Ben's solution to the problem was to suggest getting a scooter (he wants a Vespa) that we all share and that gets used by anyone who is going out on their own (including Brian going to work when he doesn't have any equipment to move about). So we have started to look into this.

This week, Beccy visited Howletts Zoo (which she said was quite boring as they were marched around and she didn't get to see the creatures that interested her - like Ben, she likes the reptiles and sea creatures).  Ben visited the University of Greenwich and started the UCAS application process.  He also attended a talk on taking a gap year and decided that he wanted to take a gap '3 months' between leaving school and starting university - what a brilliant idea!  He needs to start looking into it now if that's what he wants to do.

Friday was my last day at work before the summer holiday.  We have been told that we are moving departments and staff rooms. This is no problem and should be a fairly painless move.  It is a bit worrying, however, that most of the implications of this in, especially in terms of resources, don't seem to have been considered.  It could be a disaster but we just need to work hard to make sure that this doesn't affect our students.  They were affected very badly last year due to staffing problems that I don't think anyone could have foreseen or done anything about but which, under our Head of Faculty at the time, were expertly handled so that the effect on the students was minimised.  Without this we may have lost many more students.  It should be an interesting year next year, especially in light of the many cuts that are likely to be put into place.

The weekend of the 24th/25th July was really quiet.  As the children have got older and have their own social lives, Brian and I have more and more time to ourselves.  I am in the process of learning how to fill that time but at the moment, I am often quite underemployed.  I have had the luxury of not having to depend on the TV for the last 30 years and now that I am sometimes at a loss for things to do there is, more often than not, nothing interesting on.  I keep the TV listings handy so that I can pinpoint things to watch or to find on replay and need to get a little better at this.  The big advantage of public transport is that it provide plenty of reading time, so I don't feel the need to do this at home.  In the next few years I won't have to be at home so much and can find entertainment in outside activities (I am really looking forward to doing some voluntary work as soon as possible).

Ben played at the Sundridge Park tennis tournament starting on Monday 26th.  He played in the under 18 and under 21 competitions.  He won his first match but lost his second in both competitions.  He went into the consolation draw for under 18s and won his next match.  This put him in the semi-final (small draw) with a very good chance as he had beaten his opponent before.  Unfortunately, winning this match would mean that he would need to get the train to Norfolk for Norjam and I don't think his heart was in it.  He lost the match.

On the 31st Ben travelled to Norjam with everyone else.  It was a good week for him, although he said he didn't get much sleep.  He had a good go at the trapeze and was apparently quite good at it.

June - the rest of it!

This month has gone by so quickly that this posting is being hurriedly made to ensure that there is a posting for the rest of June!

Having done that, I can now write the rest (at the start of July).  Having not had time all month to write anything I now find, looking back, that we didn't do very many things to write about.  The month was busy due to work.  Ben and Beccy both had exams.  Ben had his AS exams in biology, physics, PE and history.  Beccy had some GCSEs, English and biology, and some creative and media diploma coursework.  Brian is still trying to sort out cash flow problems.  He needs to get enough money coming in to create a surplus but it comes in too slowly and he is always too busy to look at how to improve things.  I had loads and loads of marking and have been working overtime.  Although it is nice to have the extra money, I am now not getting a day off and am often not home when the children come home from school.  Even though they are old enough to cope with this, I don't feel comfortable with it.  I will quite likely work five days again next year but will try to ensure that each day finishes early enough for me to beat them home from school.  At least then I will feel that I have an evening.

Beccy's main events this month were a dance presentation evening at school where she was in charge of the sound production and a win at another football tournament.  This is the second production that she has been involved in and it looks like it will become a regular thing.  She is really keen to be involved in all school productions but not in the limelight.  Aylesford Girls Under 15s won the Castle Colts tournament on the 5th June and she brought home yet another trophy.

Dan, Helen and Alexander came to visit on the 20th, Father's Day.  We had lunch, which I cooked on the griddle of my new(ish) cooker, then played in the garden for a while before going for a walk.  Alexander ran around in the garden having a whale of a time.  Dan would spin him round a couple of times and he would try to walk, staggering from side to side.  He made us all laugh.  Ben and Beccy played ball with him and Beccy fished a newt out of the pond for him to see (he wasn't impressed and didn't even try to touch it - he wanted to get back to running).  Dan had cooked Brian some delicious custard cream biscuits as a present, really tasty (obviously he wasn't allowed to keep them to himself).  After lunch we went for a short, local walk and found a thatched house in a residential street not far from home.  It was quite an unusual sight for us.  Dan and Helen have many thatched cottages in their area.   Many are very old.  This one was quite strange for three reasons: one, because there are very few, if any, thatched houses in this area; two, because the house was relatively new; and three, because most of the roof was obviously a replacement for a tiled roof (some was covering a new extension)!  The house was named 'The Thatched House', presumably it had been renamed.

On the 27th Dan, Helen and Ben ran the Stansted 10k.  It was incredibly hot, which made it really difficult to run, but Ben and Dan ran it not too much slower than other 10k races they have done and Helen managed an impressive hour and a quarter.  There were, apparently, a number of casualties from the heat.  A few days before this, Ben competed in the Kent Indoor Rowing Championships and came third in his race.

 

 

After the race, and lunch, we went for a short walk to the local park.  Alexander showed us how he can slide, ride the roundabout and swing (with a push, of course)!  Then he showed us his climbing skills, climbing the frame to the top with little difficulty and without using his knees.  Impressive stuff!

 

For Ben, I think the highlight of the month (or possibly the year) was a trip to Wimbledon with Jeni. They travelled there by train, leaving Chatham only after Jeni's final A level exam finished at 4pm. This meant that it was nearly 6pm by the time they got there. They bought evening admission tickets, which let you wander around the courts and, presumably, get a seat in the outside courts where there is one available. They were quite happy to do this but shortly after they got into the complex, an older couple came out of centre court and asked Ben and Jeni if they would like their seats as they had to go. Obviously they said 'yes, please' and they got their seats in time to see the final set of Andy Murray's quarter final match, which he won. They must have been so pleased with themselves. Ben rarely phones home when he is out but he phoned specifically to tell me where he was. That was how important is was! Many thanks to the couple who were kind enough to think about those who can't afford the extortionate cost of centre court seats.

 Indoor rowing championships.

We have had to pull out of the flat purchase, which I am really upset about.  There was outstanding work from the conversion (6 years ago) which means that there is no Building Regulations certificate and some of the mortgage was withheld until the work has been completed.  Unfortunately, to get the work completed it seemed that the property management company would be charging all the leaseholders, so it would be unsurprising if they said 'get lost we're not paying, charge the development company, whoever they are' and the work didn't get done, which could cause some problems for us, and them, when it comes to selling on.  As the mortgage offer will soon run out and we wouldn't then be able to apply for another mortgage until the work was done, we couldn't do anything but pull out.  I felt really sorry for the lady who was selling it, she had waited such a long time already while we got all the information and now she could have problems selling it at all.  From our point of view, we know at least one property management company to avoid in the future!

Glastonbudget and half term

We had bought tickets for Tonefest, a small music festival that we went to last year and enjoyed very much. Unfortunately, the festival had to be cancelled due to poor ticket sales.  As we had been looking forward to a festival on Bank Holiday weekend, we decided to find another festival on the same weekend.  We found Glastonbudget, held in Wymeswold in Leicestershire.  This was a festival of tribute bands with a just a few new bands in the line up.  In normal circumstances we wouldn't probably have considered going to a tribute band festival but it was great to find an alternative festival on the right weekend, which had tickets at a late stage.  As it turned out, it was a really good weekend.

On the day before we left for the festival, Chloe's dad, Steve, rang and offered to swap cars for the weekend.  He had a Multipla which seats 6 comfortably.  I wasn't sure at first as it was likely to use more fuel than my Clio, but the extra room was an attractive proposition so we agreed to swap.  Steve picked me up from work on Friday, when we were leaving and, having taken me home, he took my car and left me with his.  I drove it round to the local shop to get cat food and to make sure I was comfortable before taking any young people up north.

Brian had left with Ben and his friend Ben at lunchtime with the tent and all the other camping equipment.  I left with Beccy, her friend Shannon, and Ben's friends Chloe and Jeni at around 3.45pm.  Brian rang while we were on the way to say that they weren't letting gas bottles onto the campsite.  We decided that he should try to smuggle the gas bottle in, otherwise we wouldn't be able to cook or heat water for washing and washing up.  He managed it and we used it with no problem for the weekend.  The girls and I arrived at around 8.30pm.  We unloaded our stuff and went into the arena to watch 'Four Fighters' and for Brian and I to have a beer and relax.  At 9am I was at work in Gillingham having taken the bus to get there.  At 9pm we were in a field in Wymeswold, drinking beer and standing in front of the stage.

The night was cold but we all slept OK.  On Saturday morning we drove into Loughborough, drove into the university campus to have a quick look, then went into town to get something to eat.  Ben, Ben, Chloe and Jeni visited the Bath Store and picked up 36 rubber ducks, which they brought to them with the cafe.

We found a place to eat called 'The Cafe' next to the Rushes shopping centre.  As there were 8 of us and we couldn't all eat at the same table, we divided into 3 tables.  As the children were taking ages to make their minds up about what they wanted to eat, Brian and I ordered and paid for our food first, then ordered and paid for Beccy and Shannon, then Ben and his friends.  As we had ordered separately, this made it easier for the cafe to deal with it and the lady we assumed was the owner offered Brian and me a portion of cake each free to say thank you for spending so much and making the orders easier to deal with.  The food we had was good and the cake, although difficult to manage as we had eaten so much already.

We shopped for supplies in a supermarket, then returned to the festival site.  In the arena we watched The Splitters, a new band who were really entertaining.  They were very good to watch but were asked to cut their set short to make the stage available for the next act.  Shame, as we were enjoying watching them.  They were followed, after a long gap, by Mercury, a Queen tribute band.   They were very good and kept the audience singing and dancing.  They did a good rendition of 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.  I had forgotten about the head-banging bit in the middle and when it happened, Brian and I were knocked from side to side.  Just before this, Beccy and Shannon had been near the front of the crowd and we could only see them every now and then.  Afterwards they were not far in front of us.  I think they had been 'bounced' back by the crowd!

There were many people in fancy dress, we saw scooby-doo, a group dressed as a hot dog with ketchup and mustard, superman, batman, the Blues Brothers and many more.  We came across a group of adults and children dressed as Where's Wally.  We wondered if this was a strategy for making sure they didn't lose the children, they could spot them in the crowd as you find Wally.  However, every time we passed through the part of the arena where we had seen them, they were still there.  You don't have to find many of a group that never moves!

In the evening Brian and I watched Duran Tribute and then Money for Nothing.  Each was OK but neither was a tribute to any group we would have watched originally.  We had managed to cook a meal for all 8 of us and had left Ben and his friends to do the washing up.

When we arrived we were quite worried about the number of toilets available for use on the campsite.  There must have been more than 500 people on the family camping site and there were 8 toilets!  There were more toilets at the arena and it was only a 5 minute walk to get there (which avoided the queue).  We had visions of the toilets being disgusting after a short while.  However, the toilets were cleaned at least three times a day and, due to the open urinals provided for the men, they remained pretty clean throughout the weekend.

On Sunday morning, I walked to the arena toilets as the queue at the campsite was too long.  On the way back I saw two men trying to smuggle a gas cooker onto the campsite (we had already smuggled ours in simply by carrying it to the tent in a bag).  They had one man in the car park and one in the site and between them there were two fences each around six feet high and both about 10 feet apart.  The man in the car park threw the cooker over the fence.  Unfortunately, it didn't make it over the second fence and crashed to the ground, smashing into pieces.  At the same time, it attracted the attention of the security guards who gave them a good grilling but probably didn't take any action as the cooker was beyond repair anyway!

From lunchtime onwards we watched bands.   We watched Green Date then went back to the tent to have some very quick lunch before going back to the arena to see Cold Place, then Blings of Leon and One Step Behind.  After this band, they announced the winners of the fancy dress competition and we realised why so many people had been dressed up (we thought they were just doing it for fun - there were a large number of men dressed in women's clothes).  The competition was won by Jesus (who had a real crown of thorns worn all weekend) followed by the 118 team and the Rainbow Builders.  While we had been watching Cold Place, I had turned round to find Dangermouse standing behind me.

Later in the evening we watched the Stereotonics and ex-Simple Minds.  The first band were really good.  We didn't know any of the Simple Minds tracks but the crowd invented a dance involving clapping up and right, then left, then down left and right.  It started with a small group of people in the middle of the crowd, then it was picked up by the people behind them, then by the people to either side, until at least 70% of the crowd was doing this dance.  There had been a number of mass congas earlier in the day and many people who got their picture taken with dressed up people.  There was a real feeling of  camaraderie among the crowd, that I'm sure you get at many festivals.

On Monday, we drove home.  Brian took Ben and Jeni, along with much of the camping stuff, earlier in the morning as Ben had a tennis match and Jeni needed to get back for her sister's birthday.  The rest of us took the tent and travelled home later in the morning.  It was a really good weekend.  The children were able to fluctuate between arena and campsite as they wanted to and Brian and I could do the same. We spent a lot of time just the two of us and even had a little time to ourselves in the tent!

Once we got home, we swapped the cars back and spent Tuesday recovering and washing.

On Wednesday, we took Alexander to Colchester Zoo.  We had a lovely day, the sun was shining, Alexander wanted to walk everywhere and we covered the whole zoo.  He is not old enough to be able to recognise or get excited by animals for the sake of it, but he managed to find things to move around and to shout at.  We took him to the play area and he played in the ball pit and with the soft equipment.

May - half way through

It's been a busy week.  On Monday Beccy and I attended the Creative Writing Awards evening at the University of Kent.  Beccy had sent in a poem which was being judged against poems written by adults.  Entries had to be about childhood and Beccy wrote a poem about her relationship with football and how she sees it as part of her childhood, not envisaging it to be part of her adulthood.  It's difficult to imagine Beccy without football but it might happen.  Her poem wasn't shortlisted (she didn't expect it to be) and the standard of what was read out from the winning entries was very high.  I think it was a good experience for her, even though she also doesn't see writing as part of her adulthood.  I thought her poem was well written and written from the heart, I hope she writes some more.

I have started working almost full-time for the next 6 weeks at least.  Ben prepared by buying in stuff for the freezer that he can cook if he has to wait too long for his dinner or if he needs to eat early because he is going out.

I decided to start rowing again and arranged to meet Josie at the rowing club.  I had planned to start with a leisurely row in a double but there was a scratch race in the run up to the universities boat race and I put my name in the pot.  My scratch crew lost the first heat (I caught a few crabs, probably helping us to lose the race) and then in the second race (for third and fourth place) the bow rower lost his oar down the side of the boat and, as we were travelling too fast, he couldn't free it, we had to stop rowing to allow him to sort it out and we lost our lead.  I had caught a couple of crabs as well in that race but was quite pleased that mine wasn't the worst!  This was my first row for over nine months and I was very out of practice.  I stayed around for a while to help out at the boat race.  One thing that made the races really special was the seal who bobbed its head up out of the river and watched us turn the boats round ready for the start of the first race, then again watched us leave the boathouse to head for the start of the second race.

On Sunday 16th, Beccy and I ran the Race for Life, the tenth year running for me and the sixth year for her.  we ran with Helen, Mum, Natalie and Izzy.  Beccy ran it in 30 minutes and I ran it in 38 - not particularly good for me but I had thought that with a dodgy knee and two rowing races the day before it might have taken longer.

After the race we went to the Bull on Penenden Heath for lunch.  Alexander was obsessed by going up and down steps and I held his hand so that he could keep his balance.  He was trying to count with me when we were playing with his stacking cups.  It definitely sounded a bit like one-two-three!

Ben and Jenni came along to watch and, after they had eaten, went bag packing with the Explorers at Tesco to raise funds for their South Africa trip.

In the afternoon, we went to Cobdown Sports Ground to watch Beccy's football team collect the trophy for winning their league division and the trophy for the Fair Play award.

May - 2nd post

Ben and I visited Dan and Helen for lunch on Saturday 8th.  Lunch was to celebrate Helen' birthday the day before and we had home made courgette and cream cheese bread, homemade quiche and homemade birthday cake (made by Dan - Helen made the quiche).  All was delicious.  Mum and Sue went along as well but Brian needed to take Beccy and her friend Abby to a football match in Ramsgate.  As it was nearly the end of the season, Beccy didn't want to miss any matches.  They drew the match in Ramsgate and then won their match on Sunday which meant that they had won the league.  Parents and supporters were very pleased, more so than the girls, I think.

I sent a photo to the home exchange company we are registered with to give permission for journalists to contact us about exchanging for the Olympics.  We have tentatively agreed to an exchange (non-simultaneous) with two American couples.  The children and I have volunteered for the Olympics and so we will be staying around here for some of the time (possibly camping).  The exchange means that we can ski in the US, which Brian and Ben are very keen to do.  Let's hope it all goes ahead and that we are able to  go to the ski resort.

Our purchase of a flat for renting out is progressing amazingly slowly.  It seems to be incredibly difficult to get information from the property management company to whom we would need to pay our service charge and we can't go ahead without the information.  Hopefully it will be sorted soon.  We've probably missed the boat for renting it out to a teacher this term but might have some luck with other local large employers.  Otherwise, we might be able to rent it out for short lets during the holiday season (although that would then mean getting it furnished).  We will have to see.

May - first week

Sunday 2nd, after a visit to Sue's for Amelie's 2nd birthday, Brian, Ben and I went to Maidstone to see 'The Lovedays' again.  Ben's friend Jenni came with us and so did Claire and her new man, Lee.  When we arrived at the Babylon Live Lounge in Maidstone another band was preparing to go on stage. The published time for 'The Lovedays' was 8pm and so we asked if they were going on late, only to be told that they were on at 5pm due to a last minute programme change.

After one drink we headed back to Rochester and the Sweeps Festival where we ended up at the Gordon Hotel listening to a band with a similar style to 'The Pogues'.  We knew this time to try some different ales.  The band were worth listening to and we had a really good time.

Thursday 6th, Brian and I walked to the polling station to find a queue.  We only needed to queue for 10 minutes before we got in but it was encouraging to see that there enough people to form a queue, the turnout must have been reasonably good, we didn't remember queuing before.  We got some fish and chips on the way home and had them with a glass of beer for dinner.  Both children were out so we had a very quiet dinner.  Brian said his fish tasted bad and didn't eat it all.  Unfortunately, he chose to give what he didn't eat to the cats.  I fell asleep watching the first election results on the TV and he went up to bed.  At 2.15am I woke up to a really nasty smell.  I spent a little time looking around to see where it was coming from but didn't see anything immediately.  I put the cats out and then I found it, in the hall (the smell had been strongest in the lounge so I had been looking in the wrong place).  One of them had been sick on Beccy's shoes, had diarrhoea and had pee-ed on Beccy's bag (she needs to learn not to leave her things lying about).  By the time I had cleaned everything it was nearly 3am and I had to be up at 6.30am!  Needless to say I was tired the next day.  Brian also had a bad stomach.  Luckily my fish had been fine but I think I suffered enough of the effects.  We'll stick to our normal fish and chip shop in the future.