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.

April

The first 18 days of April are holidays!

April 1st - Beccy and Brian travelled to Millwall FC's ground to watch England Ladies in a World Cup qualifier against Spain.  They went with Beccy's Aylesford football team.  Most of the girls and a number of parents went.  I was unable to go because we had interviews for new students and I didn't get home until 8pm.

I got home to a letter that stated that someone had made a claim on my car insurance for an accident, stating that I had driven into the rear of their car. Unfortunately, the claims office was, by then, closed for Easter.  I had to wait until Tuesday 6th to find out that the accident had taken place in Chorley, Lancashire and that my registration number had been quoted.  I can only assume that they quoted the number incorrectly.  It did cause me some anxiety for a while.

April 3rd - we had an afternoon and evening in London.  We caught the high speed train to St Pancras and then the Piccadilly line to Covent Garden.  Ben and Beccy immediately spotted the clothes and shoe shops and asked if they could go off shopping without their parents.  So while they went fashion shopping, Brian and I went shopping for tea and cheese.  We visited The Tea House where we bought four different types of tea (leaves rather than the dust we seem to get when we buy our tea in the supermarket).  We then visited Neal's Yard Dairy were we bought Colston Bassett stilton, Montgomery's cheddar and Tunworth soft cheese (like a camenbert).  We had gone prepared with a chilled plastic box and bag to pack it all in so that we didn't stink out the restaurant or theatre.  Quite expensive, but all three cheeses were well worth the effort.

After the brief shopping trip, we went to the Fire and Stone pizza restaurant nearby where we had pizzas, garlic bread and salads.  It was a good enough meal and the pizzas were quite different to those you get elsewhere.

Finally, we walked to the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, where we had tickets for the penultimate night of Becket's Waiting for Godot with Ian McKellen, Roger Rees, Matthew Kelly and Ronald Pickup.  Ben and I enjoyed the play but as it lacked action and had a message that was fairly difficult to understand, Brian and Beccy found it boring and didn't enjoy it at all.  I had bought gallery seats which were the most uncomfortable seats we have ever sat in at a theatre.  Brian couldn't face the second act and decided to stand outside instead.  Luckily, though, there were spare comfortable seats in the upper circle and we were allowed to move into them for the second act.  Brian conceded to stay but, although he was now actually able to hear all the dialogue, he still didn't enjoy it and wanted to get home for the football!

April 4th - Dan and Helen came over for lunch and dinner.  We spent the morning painting eggs for rolling.  Alexander was more interested in painting on paper than on the egg but managed to get some green and orange paint on the egg.

We had a selection of our Neal's Yard cheeses for lunch and then walked to Jackson's Field to roll the eggs.






Alexander got the hang of throwing the egg and watching it roll down the hill while he clapped.  His egg broke first but managed to stay in one piece for quite a few rolls.  Ben launched a number of eggs as far into the air as he could once we had rolled them so many times that it became clear that they weren't going to break.  Afterwards, we went into the play area to put Alexander in the swings, on the slide and to bounce him on the trampoline before walking home again.  Mum joined us for a roast beef dinner.

April 5th - we went for a long walk with Claire, Nathan, Sue and Mum taking Cosby and Tilly with us. We walked around Jeskyns Country Park, a new park created on the outskirts of Gravesend, which has a number of wooden sculptures and a lot of new planting.  There is, however, a fair amount of established woodland to walk in.  We had a long walk and I think the dogs got enough exercise.  We volunteered to look after Cosby for Claire while she takes Nadia back to university in Bath.  This involved taking him for a long walk on Thursday to tire him out, then me sitting with him until midnight to make sure he had been out late enough not to need it during the night.  Around 11.30pm he obviously got an idea that Claire and the others weren't there and he planted himself in the garden and wouldn't come back in.  I had to drag him in!  I returned at 6.30am, took him for a long walk (which was beautiful in the early morning sun), fed him and Cola (the cat) and waited for him to go outside before I left him.  He did exactly the same as the night before - planted himself in the garden and refused to go back in.  I dragged him in again (I had to get back home in time to drive Beccy to Greenford, Middlesex for a Kent football match)

Kent Football
Beccy played half a match for Kent against Middlesex.  She got into the game quite well and fed the ball in from the left wing.  Kent scored two goals early in the match.  She was substituted around 10 minutes before the first half and went back on around 15 minutes before the end of the match.  By the time she went back on Kent were losing 4-2 and they conceded another goal towards the end.  On Monday, she played a similar amount of time, and in a similar way in a game at home (Gravesend) against Surrey.  This game had a better result, a 4-4 draw.

Babysitting
I looked after Alexander while Dan and Helen went out for a meal.  He was really good and we had a great time.  We shared the spoon while he ate his dinner.  I would put food on it and give it to him, he would eat the food from the spoon and then give it back.  He also ate his tuna bake with his fingers.  For dessert, Helen had made some biscuits and Alexander had his without cream in the middle.  He ate all but a small piece of biscuit then started poking the biscuit to make it into crumbs.  When I realised what he was doing I said his name in a gently reprimanding way, to which his reaction was to raise his eyes and say 'o-oh'.  I couldn't help laughing and he started laughing too!  Grandma is not going to be very good at discipline!  After dinner we played and read a story (The Enormous Crocodile by Roald Dahl).  He loves being read to.  I got him ready for bed and we laid down and read the whole story.  He listened attentively all the way through and only turned pages when I stopped reading.  Dan use to listen attentively to stories from an early age and Alexander is just the same.  I had a wonderful time looking after him, he is developing his personality and is great fun to be with.

Travelling
The day I looked after Alexander was the same day that I walked Cosby at 6.30am and took Beccy to Greenford.  It took 2 hours to reach Greenford and, as I tried to avoid the M25 on the way back and took the south circular instead, it took 2.5 hours to get home.  I had an hour at home before I set out for Dan and Helen's.  I left at 5.20pm so that I would arrive over an hour before they went out and could feed Alexander and look after him while they got ready.  Unfortunately, careless drivers put paid to that plan. I sat in almost stationary traffic on the M25 from just after the Dartford Tunnel until just before the M11 exit and then, due to another accident on the M11, I sat in a 3 mile tailback trying to get to the Stansted turn off.  The journey took 2.5 hours and I arrived just as Dan and Helen needed to leave to get to the restaurant (their table was booked at 8pm).  With the one hour drive home, ending at 12.30am, I had an incredibly long day and 8 hours driving!

Monday 12th also involved a lot of travelling.  I took Beccy to Gravesend for her Kent game and then, on arriving home, I had to take Ben to Orpington to play in the Knoll Easter Tennis Tournament.  He played a really good second set to bring the score to one set all and then, unfortunately, lost in the Championship tie-break 10-7.  He played well as his opponent was a higher rating meaning that he had much more match practice, so I think Ben can be pleased with how he played.  His friends Ben and Chloe came along to support him.

Ash Cloud


All flights in and out of the UK were cancelled making travel plans difficult for many people.  This didn't affect us as we weren't travelling at the time but it meant that Brian's sister Alison couldn't get back to Hong Kong.  We arranged to got out for a meal with her and Brian's parents as the children and I hadn't seen her during her two week visit (we aren't on her list of people to see and don't always see here when she comes home).

We saw a few lovely sunset pictures, made more striking by the presence of the ash cloud.  On the 10th we decided to go for a walk in Nashenden Valley to watch the sunset in the hope that it would be a spectacular one.  It wasn't but it was a nice walk anyway.  Ben's friends, Chloe and Ben, came along and then came back to the house for something to eat.







Back to school
Beccy got her GCSE chemistry paper results, a B and a D (I don't think she can concentrate long enough to perform well in the second paper, she managed an A and a D in physics).  We need to work on helping her to concentrate for much longer.  Her teachers gave very positive reports at her parents' evening.  Having been the only child in the family not to go to grammar school, she has every chance of getting the highest GCSE grades if she achieves her potential!

25th April
We went to Brian's parents' for a barbecue on Sunday.  The weather had been lovely all week and was especially bright and sunny on Saturday.   We did quite a bit of work in the garden, tidying it up and planting vegetables (carrots, shallots, courgettes, squash, peppers and pumpkin).  Brian made some progress on fixing the shed and we both had turns at painting shed and playhouse.  The garden is looking reasonable at the moment.

On Sunday, unfortunately, the weather wasn't particularly good.  We did, however, manage to sit outside and were warm in the intervals when the sun came out from behind the clouds.  Dan and Alexander came with us.  The barbecue was a farewell do for Alison, Brian's sister, who was returning to Hong Kong over a week late due to the volcanic ash cloud that grounded all flights for over a week.  She was one of the few who were quite fortunate to get more time at home rather than stuck away from it.  There were stories of people getting taxis across Europe and spending a fortune to get home.  Others just extended their holiday, although I'm not sure how good that would have been if it wasn't planned and they didn't know how long they were extending it for.

On that morning, Ben filled in for another coach at the David Lloyd Tennis Centre in Dartford.  He was quite pleased with the way it went and thinks there might be some work for him in the summer.  He is starting to make enquiries about running some of his own coaching sessions.  I hope that he can.  He is very keen and committed and should do it well.  He also went out for his first go in a rowing four at the rowing club in Rochester.  He is working towards the coaching qualification for this at school.

29th April - Ben did his performance and coaching assessment at school in front of the moderator and, with his coursework so far has been awarded 97% for AS level PE.  A great result so far.

30th April - a last minute decision to visit the Rochester Sweeps Festival meant that I bought tickets to see local bands playing in a marquee in Rochester Castle Gardens.  We arrived too late to see the first act but saw two bands, The Flowing and The Lovedays.  Both were really good but The Lovedays especially so.  Brian and I really enjoyed it and have decided to try to see them again (one of the reasons for going to the local bands evening, the other reason being that the headliners, Bellowhead, had sold out).  The setting was brilliant, standing at the foot of the castle as you queued for the loo and having a sneaky look at the stalls set up for daytime.  As soon as we got into the castle grounds I could smell fish (Brian couldn't, he lost his sense of smell years ago).  We spied a smoking cabinet, lit and full of herring. Needless to say we had kippers for next day's lunch!  The bar was serving Adnams and we were enjoying our third pint when we were asked to leave (at 10pm) so that they could pack up.  We found a small beer festival at the Gordon Hotel, where there was a band playing to a small audience.  This was, unfortunately, where we made the one mistake of the evening.  I chose an ale I hadn't tried before, didn't like it and had to leave most of it in the glass.  Brian chose a cloudy cider which, although he enjoyed it, gave him a nasty headache the next morning, presumably because he mixed drinking cider and beer in the same evening.  We managed to miss the last bus home (I was at the bus stop when it came but, unfortunately, Brian was still in the kebab shop) and so we had to walk, only a 25 minute journey, which gave us time to talk, which we don't often do.  This was one of the best evenings we have had for a while, we both thoroughly enjoyed it.

March

The pace of life is so fast at all times and there are too many distractions.  When we are on holiday I keep a diary with great ease.  There is time; not only time, but no responsibilities or chores to fill it.  There is time to read and time to write and I can choose what I want to do rather than what I do first.

Unfortunately, we had no holidays in March!  So I am writing this diary entry in April and will be in danger of missing things out.

The first week of March was incredibly busy for me.  I had an exam meeting in Coventry on the 1st and took students out from college, to visit a local company, on each of the following three days.  This meant that I had to drive to work and park for the first time in the car park during term time.  I was really grateful to be able to get back on the bus by Friday.  It isn't a bad journey to work and only take 20 minutes but you don't know where the traffic jams will be or how bad they are and so you need to leave at least 30 minutes for the journey, which is the same as the time it takes by bus, door to door.  Then, when you arrive at the college by car, there is no guarantee that you will be able to get a parking space.  If you can't then it costs as much as the bus fare to park in the street and you can't park any closer than the bus stop.  So apart from the 3 minute walk to the bus stop to and from the house, and the wait for the bus (which is invariably on time, even when I am not), there is no advantage at all in driving.  In fact, it means that I can't read during the journey or prepare my mind for the day during the walking part.

Beccy had been rehearsing hard for the school production.  She started out on the sound team but there wasn't a great deal to do once they had got the equipment set up and so she volunteered to operate the space monster.  This meant that she was on stage but not seen or heard, which suited her.  Nearer the production time, however, she was persuaded to become a backing singer.  She still didn't appear on stage but we could hear her sing.

I went to the performance on the final night and heard her sing well.  Katie, our next door neighbour, took her two boys Austin and Rory to see Beccy in the production.  They, amazing for their age, sat through the entire production (about 2 hours) and then clapped and waved like mad when Beccy came on stage.  They really love her and she spends quite a bit of time looking after them.

The end of the week settled into the normal tennis and football activities with not much else.

On the 8th March, Beccy and I attended a football seminar where she found out about the ways in which she can become involved in coaching and refereeing, both as paid and as voluntary work.  She gave up her paper round with the idea that she would try to earn money working in football.  If she does some coaching, it will be voluntarily, but refereeing is paid and she enrolled on a referee course.  She wants to coach as well but would like to earn money in the meantime.

  

On 13th March, Ben and Dan ran the Miles for Missing People 10k in Hyde Park.  We all travelled up on the train with him and met Dan and Alexander in the park.  They both ran really well.  At one point we thought Ben was in the lead but we had missed a few people in front of him.  He finished a very respectable 8th place overall, 7th in the men's race and 1st in the under 20s.  His time was 41 minutes and 38 seconds, his fastest so far.

Dan also came a very respectable 52nd with a time of 49 minutes and 6 seconds.  This was an excellent time for both of them.  The course wasn't especially easy as there were people in the way at many points.  Alexander helped us cheer his dad and his uncle on.

After the race, as it was Mother's Day on the Sunday, Dan, Alexander and I went to lunch at Canteen in Spitalfields and had a lovely lunch.  Alexander had Welsh Rarebit, which he devoured, only stopping to give his best smiles to the waitress every time she came to the table.  He is a real charmer.  Helen was attending a first aid course on her incredibly long journey to register as a childminder.  If you need to get a childminder today and she (I am assuming that most will be female) is properly registered, you can be assured that she has gone through extensive training, assessment and inspection in order to become registered and, hopefully, this means that she will be incredibly committed to the job.  I know that Helen will do it well, as long as the house passes the inspection.  Their house is a beautiful little listed terraced cottage, which means that it probably isn't as child friendly as it could be.

On Sunday, Mother's Day, we went for a walk along the beach at Whitstable.  I had suggested that we went to the Harbour Village market, had some food that we could eat outside, then went for a walk along the beach.  Unfortunately, Sue and Nat had brought their dogs and dog walking was the top priority.  Nat parked miles away, and we spent the first 30-40 minutes trying to find her, then we met up with Sarah, Ian and their children before walking miles along the beach.  We didn't get anything to eat or visit the market stalls but the dogs had balls thrown for them and walked, which seemed to be more important.  Mum apologised the next day for the plans being spoiled.  I think that maybe some of us had forgotten it was Mother's Day and thought it was yet another dog walking day!

From the 16th to the 19th, Ben undertook a 'quadrathlon' to raise money for Sport Relief.  He rowed 10k, swam 1.5k, ran 15k and cycled 50k, doing one activity each day at the end of school.  He managed each leg in well under an hour, except the cycling, which he had to do in two legs in the end because of a puncture and then it getting too dark for a bike with no lights.  It was a great achievement and he raised £215 for the event.  On the 17th, I ran four laps of the brand new athletics track at Medway Park, dressed as a pirate.  I took two groups of students over to do the mile, one group did the mile as a three legged event but there were six of them.  It took them an hour to do the mile but they completed it!

On the 17th, Beccy went on a short school trip to DisneyLand and Paris.  They left from school mid morning on the 17th and returned at around 8.15pm on the 19th.  They spent the first day travelling on coach and ferry, arriving at their hotel at around 10pm, the second day was spent in the Disneyland park and the third day was spend with a driving tour around Paris (on the coach) and then the journey home.  She really enjoyed it and said that she got on well with all the other students.  This made the trip worthwhile.  Otherwise, one day in the park and two days on a coach is not good value for £200, especially as the only meal included was breakfast and I had to give her enough Euros to feed herself!

Other events


20th March - Brian, Ben and I went to the scouts' Quiz Evening.  Brian and I joined a table of other adults involved in the group and Ben was part of the Explorers team.  Our table did quite well, coming third overall.  Unfortunately, the questions required you to be at least 40 years old and so the Explorers had very little chance of getting anything than a really low score.  They got the booby prize!

25th March - Beccy took part in the Medway Schools Biathlon.  She ran 1000m and swam 100m.  She finished 3rd overall and qualified for next stage of the competition.

27th March - there was a meeting for scouts who want to go on the next trip to South Africa.  they will have the chance to do some more work at the school.  Last time, they dug a vegetable garden and a bore hole to provide fresh water and fresh vegetables for the school and the community.  They also attended a jamboree camp and built a small play area at an orphanage run by by Patrick Ben is keen to go again.  He got such a lot from the last trip but this time wants to go with his close friends.  Unfortunately, the trip will not take place until 2011, when a number of them will have done a year at university.  It is difficult to know whether they will still be involved with the group by then.

Flat purchase - this is now going through.  The mortgage offer is through and we now need to wait for a completion date.  I have already chosen curtains and nets and can't wait to get it all sorted and ready to rent out.

February

This month is flying by the same as February did last year.

11th February, Brian noticed an unusual cloud formation in the sky, visible from our back garden.  An unexpected benefit of not having central heating is the need to go out to the woodshed to get wood for the fire.  Without this, we would have missed the cloud scene!

6th February - Ben's 17th birthday

Beccy organised a surprise party for Ben.   She did the whole thing on her own, even sorting out and presenting the food and drinks.  She used Facebook and the phone numbers she had to contact around 14 of his closest friends, who all turned up at the right time.  Ben was attending the final day of his tennis coaching assistant course all day and returned home qualified.  Ben's friends hid behind the dining room curtains and out in the garden until he came in.  Beccy had written Ben's name in peanuts on the table and said that she wanted to show him what she had made.  When they went to the table to look, all his friends jumped out shouting 'surprise' and I think he genuinely was surprised.  They all kept the secret really well.  They all played games, ate pizza and salad, talked and, I am sure, had a really great time, all thanks to Beccy.

  

We paid for a set of driving lessons for him, which could start as soon as he got his provisional licence sorted out.

13th - 21st February - skiing in the Alps


The plan was for me to go to the exam board meeting in Coventry that I needed to go to.  Brian, Ben and Beccy would get the 8.30am ferry to Calais, then would drive across France to meet me in Grenoble.  My flight from Birmingham International was due to land at 10pm French time and, from Grenoble we would drive into the mountains, arriving at Le Sauze at around 2am on Sunday.  It was a very ambitious plan that was bound to have some hitches (my biggest worry was that it was far too dangerous for Brian to drive the whole way to grenoble on his own, even if it was during the day, but he didn't want to wait until Sunday to leave).  The most unexpected hitch (although it should in no way have been unexpected) was that Brian was dealing with a work problem he couldn't fix all Friday night and didn't go to bed until 4am.  Luckily, even he realised the danger of continuing with the plan and he rang the ferry company to get a later reservation.  At around 10.30am he range me and said they wouldn't be on a ferry until around  12.30pm.  This would make it impossible for him to get to Grenoble for 10pm and I would have to find a hotel.  Worse, although he thought he could make a 12.30pm, he wasn't actually ready yet!  We decided it would be best for me to get home so that we could share the driving.  The compulsory part of my meeting was finished and it was OK for me to leave.  Two high speed trains later and I met them, with a packed car, at Ebbsfleet from where we could take the A2 to Dover.

We finally boarded the 3.30pm ferry, 7 hours later than planned!  We ate on the ferry to save time but on the other side we wanted to try to avoid autoroutes where possible so that we could spend more money on skiing.

Having tired of conventional maps, Brian chose to use the navigation system on his mobile phone.  He programmed in the destination and, I think, some instruction to find major dual carriageways as a priority.  As a result we followed the navigation system into Belgium!  We were taken on many highways but on a very indirect route.  Brian agreed to be sensible and use a map!  At 2am we had reached Troyes (not even as far as Lyons!  We found a F1 hotel (I had put my foot down and insisted that we stop and sleep, I'm sure we would have been in trouble if we hadn't).  We had about 6 hours, theh drove towards Gap, leaving at around 9.30am and stopping just once on the autoroute (the road of choice now) for brunch.

After what seemed like an eternity, we arrived in Le Sauze at around 6.30pm.  at least we had time to hire out ski and snowboard equipment before they closed the shop (but only because the shop owners were friends of Jean-Francois).

We had some tea and cake with Jean-Francois, Antoine, Baptiste and Marion (who had come for the weekend) then unpacked the car and made the studio flat homely.

Beccy cooked us some pasta, cheese and ravioli and did the washing and drying up. We had hot chocolate and went to bed as early as we could so that we could get up and on the slopes in the morning.  Unfortunately, the studio was so warm it was difficult to sleep and, as we had forgotten to change the time zone, our alarms went off an hour late!

Next day I woke up feeling terrible.  I became so hot that I couldn't cool down at all (it eventually took an hour of sitting on the slopes in the snow with my coat open!)  My head felt terrible, like the worst hangover ever.

I got everyone's ski passes (5 days for them and just one day for me) then Brian and the children went with JF and Antoine on the chair lift and up onto the mountain.  This was Beccy's first experience of snowboarding on real snow since we had an afternoon lesson in New Zealand.  She, apparently, did quite well.

By the end of the morning I felt up to some light skiing and I tried out the nursery slope.  Things were fine and I tried out a few of the lower runs until the rest came back for lunch.  we had lunch with Antoine while JF checked on Baptiste, who was feeling unwell.

After lunch Beccy, Antoine and I took the chair lift and met up with JF to ske some of hte higher green runs while Ben and Brian went further up.  JF was impressed with the standard of Ben's skiing.  With just a little practice, he said, he would be better than the instructors.

After the skiing we had some time to relax and then went up to the Olivaris' apartment for some dinner.  We had another reasonably night (except for Brian, of course).

During the day I found that my headache and dizziness seemed to improve after a large cup of tea.  Brina said he felt a similar improvement.  We had been drinking water on the journey in the car byt maybe didn't drink enough.  Around 5 cups (actually we were drinking from breakfast bowls as the cups weren't big enough) we felt fine.  We definitely need our tea!

As I hadn't managed to finish all my exam marking before we left and had brought 20 papers with me to mark, I didn't ski on Tuesday.  Brian, Ben and Beccy went out at around 9.30am and I cleaned the studio, had a bath, made a large bowl of tea and sat down to do some marking.  At about 11.30 I started out for Barcelonnette to get provisions from the supermarket.  Horror of horrors, the car wouldn't start!  I went back to the studio and carried on marking thinking that we could try to bump start it later when the cars around it had gone and we had a bit more room.

I had only marked one more paper when I had a call from Brian and a tearful Beccy who said the others weren't waiting for her and had taken her on a run that was too difficult and she wanted to come back down the mountain on her own.  Brian didn't want her to do this but he wanted to ski for another 45 minutes until they met with JF and Antoine, he wanted her to wait.  I also didn't think she should snowboard down on her own, I didn't have a pass to go up the mountain and so I asked her to wait.

Thirty minutes later, she appeared at the door.  She had realised that if she just went, no one could stop her and she wouldn't have to go back!  She was quite distressed and feeling hard done by (she wasn't put off snowboarding and went out with Antoine on the lower slopes in the afternoon).  We had a drink and a talk and waited for the others to come back for lunch, which we shared with the Olivaris along with the left over pasta from the previous night's dinner.

All this was a distraction from the problem of having a car that wouldn't start.  We decided to use the breakdown assistance and, when Brian and Ben went back out to ski, I called them.  Within 30 minutes or so, a local mechanic had come out and had diagnosed the problem.  A further 30 minutes and we had taken the car into Barcelonnette and it had been repaired.  It needed glo-plugs.  Apparently, modern diesels will start in most temperatures without glo-plugs and so many people don't know that theirs don't work.  In temperatures of -20 degrees C, however, glo-plugs are needed and mine were defunct.  I think we were very fortunate to find this out on Tuesday and not on Saturday morning at 6am when we needed to return home.  We were booked on the last ferry (11.15pm) and missing it meant another overnight stay in a hotel.

By the evening I was able to drive to the supermarket and buy the ingredients for a chicken risotto for us and the Olivaris.

Before dinner we went out to the slopes to watch the torchlight procession where the instructors ski down from the top of the mountain.  This was followed by fireworks, hot wine and hot chocolate.  This event is organised by the resort to welcome the people of the Marseille region who arrive this week because it is the first week of their holidays.  We rounded off the evening, after dinner and after the Olivaris had left by watching "Yes Man" starring Jim Carrey.  This was a very entertaining family film.

Ben and Brian went out at around 9.30am on Wednesday and, again, up to the top of the mountain.  JF and Baptiste were both unwell and spent the day in bed.  Beccy, Antoine and I went out on the lower slopes to do some easy runs.  Beccy and Antoine often waited for me to catch them up and spent the time throwing snowballs at each other.

It snowed all morning and visibility at the top was not good so Ben and Brian came down to meet us and we all skied together for the first time this holiday.

After lunch, Beccy, Antoine and I walked to the photographer's shop to have a look at the photos she had taken of Ben and Beccy the day before.  We arrived 20 minutes before the shop opened and so had a walk around and looked in every shop, and the cinema, while we waited.  There were some lovely shots of the children and I bought two photos, one of each of them lying in the snow.

We skied just for an hour in the afternoon, on the same slope as in the morning.  My skiing remains about the same as ever; I can parallel turn and stay in control but hate going fast so the gentle green slopes are great for me.  Beccy is improving all the time, as is Ben.  Both can do full turns.

Antoine ate with us in the evening as JF and Baptiste did not want to eat.  During all the evening we were watching the French coverage of the winter Olympics, with the exception of Tuesday when we all watched Lyons v Real Madrid.  Baptiste is a fan of Lyons (he said he doesn't follow Marseilles even though they are his local team).

Brian and I were sleeping better by Wednesday as we found a spare mattress and he started sleeping on the floor while I had the sofa.  We had started on the sofa bed with our sleeping bags zipped together and kept each other awake.  I realised that I go to bed alone every night and Brian turns up only a few hours before I get up and when I am fast asleep.  I have got used to sleeping on my own and using a double sleeping bag, which got constantly in a tangle, didn't help at all.

Thursday was another 'no ski' day for me.  Beccy wasn't feeling too great so stayed in bed in the morning watching a DVD while I did some marking and had a bath.

Later in teh morning we drove into Barcelonnette, looked quicly around the shops and went to the supermarket.  The roads were clear and the car was warm.  There was very little sign of yesterday's snowfall anywhere except on the slopes.

Beccy went out with Ben and Brian in the afternoon and seemed to cope fine this time.  She is gaining in confidence and skill all the time.   I'm really disappointed that I haven't seen Ben ski much.  He always looks so natural and I love to watch him.

I cooked for seven of us in the evening, chicken with a pesto sauce, new potatoes, carrots, salad, bread and, for dessert creme brulee and creme cafe..  There pots were a definite favourite except with Beccy who had cake.

We were still watching the Olympics every night and baking in the heat of the studio.  We had turned down the radiator in the main room but, as we had never noticed it being on, it hadn't seemed to make a great deal of difference.  It was often quite unbearably hot unless you stripped down to a minimum and slept with no covers!

Friday was the last day for skiing.  Beccy and I went out on the same lower slope we skied on wednesday and Ben and Brian went up the mountain.  Unfortunately, after only an hour I was totally exhausted.  Beccy did a few runs on her own while I waited at the bottom, then we went for provisions (bread and chocolate) and back to the studio for a cup of tea.  After a rest we went back to the same slope and I took videos of her doing some small jumps and some impressive 360 degree turns.

After lunch we did the same, while Ben and Brian got some video footage of Ben's aardvark for a film he was making.

I ran out of things to read.  My most recent book "The Lost Daughter" by Diane Chamberlain was a present from Beccy for Mother's Day.  It was a totally gripping read and, in the end, I found it very difficult to put down.  I went through a long phase of not enjoying fiction but now can't understand why.  As long as it isn't just pure escapism and has some sort of message or moral, I can't understand what there was to dislike.  Maybe I just read a few of the wrong books.  this one covered the loss of both parents by a young child, foster care, parenting and the death penalty!  Even though the storyline should stretch the imagination to its limits, the characters were totally believable and you could identify strongly with CeeCee, the main character.  This was the last in a series of really good fiction books that I have read.

The total cost of the skiing holiday including ski hire and lift passes, food, drink and travel was around £1500 for four of us.  Not bad and it was a good break.  The drive back took almost as long as the drive there, although we kept to the autoroutes this time.  We made the ferry and got back to a warm fire that Mum had very kindly lit for us.

January

New Year's day swim

We went for a swim at Larkfield with Dan, Helen and Alexander. All seven of us spent most of our time in the teaching pool but Ben, Dan, Helen and I did some fitness swimming, Dan, Ben and Beccy did the space bowl and Brian, Ben, Beccy and I swam the rapids. Despite being very tired, Alexander seemed to wholly enjoy it.

New Year Scout Walk

We did the traditional scout walk from Borstal Cricket Club, round Nashenden Valley, along the river and back to the club for a beer and sausage rolls.

Snow

There was more snow, starting on Wednesday 6th Jan. It snowed during the day and was settling quickly on the ground by the evening. Ben and his friends had attempted to walk to the cinema but, after a car had nearly hit them when it slid on the snow, they decided to watch a DVD at Jenni's house instead. Brian got caught in the traffic trying to get up Bluebell Hill and it took him 3 hours, instead of the usual 15 minutes, to get home.

Schools and college were shut again on Thursday and Friday. On Thursday both children went out during the morning and I walked round to Claire's. I figured we might as well make the most of it and have coffee at least! Later, Ben modified an old skateboard, removing its wheels to make a snowboard. In the evening we all walked over to Friston rec where the children attempted to snowboard down the hill. We found some estate agent signs and road signs that had obviously been removed for their potential to make sledges. None of them was effective in sliding down the hill, none of us managed more than a couple of feet on one. Brian took a tumble off the skateboard and Beccy tried a jump. Unfortunately she just couldn't get any speed in the run up and the snowboard stopped short of the jump.

On our walk home, during which Ben and Beccy challenged each other to hit different objects with snowballs and threw large numbers before getting anywhere near (those snowballs are difficult to aim - although Ben and Brian both managed to hit me in the back three times), we spotted a snowman in the telephone box outside the corner shop. He was a large snowman with eyes, nose, large smile and a telephone handset stuck to the side of his head!

The scouts' monthly paper collection was cancelled, the first time we have ever know it to be called off since we started helping out nearly 20 years ago.

The snow finally disappeared on the 16th January.   One positive aspect to arise is that we have put off installing central heating (and have no heating devices except for wood burner in the lounge and a fan heater in one bathroom) ever since we moved into this house 15 years ago.  We have always said that we will install it when we get winters bad enough to need it.  Having had the coldest sustained period, with extensive snow, for 30 years and temperatures well into minus figures, we haven't suffered from the cold in the house so we still don't need it!  The kitchen becomes noticeably warmer even when we boil the kettle on the hob and if we are having a baking day it is like a furnace.  The heat from the woodburner is lovely to sit with in the evenings and travels even up to the second floor.  The chimney remains warm for over a day and I can use the fireplace during the day to get the bread dough to rise, it is just the right temperature.

Winter camp 8th to 10th Jan - Gillwell Park

This went ahead despite the snow and only Ben went this year. As the schools were closed, the explorers were able to go to camp early and they left at around 2.30pm. Ben said that the first night was very cold (around -6 degrees) but that the second night was better. All activities were running but it was too cold to do many of them. I picked Ben, Ben and Jenni up from the campsite on Sunday lunchtime, after a short visit to Dan and Helen. All said they enjoyed the weekend and that the cold hadn't spoiled anything. As usual we were given a tent to wash!

Breakfast Radio

I never usually think to turn on the radio (or the feed through the computer) in the mornings when I am getting ready in the kitchen but, as Chris Evans was taking over the Radio 2 breakfast show on Monday 11th, I thought I'd make the effort to listen in.  We have been listening each morning since then and will continue to do so.  Both children have said that it is nice to come downstairs to music and chat in the morning, especially as we don't alway end up in the kitchen at the same time.  Funny how little things make a difference, it's much more jolly!

Saturday 16th - sporting events in short supply.

All sporting events were off again today.  Ben's tennis match has  been postponed until tomorrow (not too long to wait) and Beccy's football training was cancelled meaning that they will play their cup semi-final tomorrow having not trained for four weeks!  Hopefully the other team haven't trained either.  Both had been due to run in the Kent Cross country trials although Beccy had been pulled from the team so that she could play for Kent.  In the end the cross country and Beccy's Kent match were both cancelled.  I haven't played netball for four weeks now and Ben will play his tennis match tomorrow with very little training done over the last few weeks.  Luckily, he did his Level 1 Coaching Assistant course two weeks ago and so he has played just a little.  I will be nice to get back to normal this week.

Garden activity

My resolution is to spend more time in the garden but for the first two weeks of January is was under too much snow.  Once the snow cleared I started to clear some vegetation.  Two foxes have been frequenting our garden and those surrounding ours.  They are quite tame.  This one had a good rest on the roof of our shed.





Beccy's first GCSEs

She got the results of her first two GCSE Physics modules.  One was brilliant - she got an A (she had said that this was her favourite topic in physics).  The other was a D giving her an overall grade of C.  She now knows that she needs to focus on the less interesting parts as well as the more interesting and, hopefully, she will get above D in the next lot.  We are pleased with the A and, also pleased that she has set herself targets for the next modules.

She entered a writing competition, submitting a poem about how football is a hugely important part of her childhood.  Also, she has applied to become an assistant coach and referee for girls' football.   I'm really pleased that she has the confidence to give it a try and that she wants to give something back to the game.  We just need to find a team that needs her!

Rowing

Ben won a silver medal in the individual 2000m indoor rowing event (North Kent) and a gold medal in the relay event.  He qualified for the Kent championships and has his sights on the nationals after that.  Well done Ben!

Other events

We found a flat that we liked and decided to buy it as an investment which we, hopefully, will be able to use ourselves at some point as well.  It is a compact one bedroom flat in a conservation area with a modern kitchen and bathroom and allocated parking.  Hopefully, it should be relatively easy to rent out as there are at least five or six major employers within walking distance, including mine!  Can't wait to get in and make it nice, ready for letting.

I was contacted by a lady in Australia in connection with my family tree, which I share on the internet.  She thinks her friend might be my dad's cousin.  She had a very sad story of emigration, death in Japanese POW camps and foster care.  It looks quite positive that she is related to us, we just need to find the right documents to prove it.  I am going to keep in contact with her to, hopefully, give her some information about her extended family.