A Few Ramblings…
Forty-six year old Christian happily negotiating the world with a wife and three daughters
Holly’s Sports Day – 13th July 2011
Sports Day is a somewhat grand title although the children at Holly’s Nursery clearly seemed to enjoy themselves during the proceedings.
I had instructions that I had to attend and thus found myself on a Wednesday morning sitting in the front row of chairs reserved for parents and grandparents awaiting the arrival of a large number of small children.
There were four ‘events’ in the Sports Day. These were The Balance, The Hoop, The Sprint and The Zigzag. All of the children were split into groups of around 6 and took on one event at a time.
Holly psyching herself up for the events ahead
Holly’s first event was The Sprint. This involved running for around 8 metres, circling a cone and running back to the start.
Holly heading back on The Sprint
The second event on Holly’s schedule was The Balance. The Balance involved nimble manual dexterity and required the conveying of a tennis racquet topped with a flat object resembling a pancake. Again, this was taken along the same 8 metre route and back.
Setting off on The Balance
Holly’s third event was The Hoop. In many ways, The Hoop was similar to The Sprint, the only difference being that at the halfway point each contender had to lift a large hoop over themselves before running back to the start.
Holly oblivious to the excitement behind
Engaged in The Hoop
The final event, unsurprisingly, was The Zigzag. This demanding finale involved running again but this time with the extra hazard of navigating around cones on both the outward and return legs.
The Zigzag underway
As far as I could tell there were no overall winners in the programme which lasted around 10 minutes in total. Following the completion, every child was presented with a certificate.
Holly being presented with her certificate
Studying her certificate
Showing off her certificate, albeit upside-down!
It was an entertaining, if a little short, glimpse of the sporting prowess of those involved and Holly seemed to enjoy herself as much as the proud onlookers admiring their respective children did.
Emily enjoying watching the Sports Day
A day at Wellington Country Park – 9th July 2011
We spent most of the day over at Wellington Country Park – Rebekah’s choice of location to celebrate her upcoming 7th birthday, next weekend.
Holly and Rebekah at Wellington Country Park
Wellington is an area of parkland and woodland encompassing some 350 acres of which 35 are taken up by a large lake. It is ideal for younger children with various areas of play equipment, crazy golf, an animal farm and various nature trails.
As is usual in a house with three small children there was no lie-in and we were up and breakfasted by 8.30am and out of the house just after 8.45am.
Unlike the last time that we went on the M4, this time it behaved itself and we arrived at Wellington at about 9.20am being only the second car in the car-park.
One advantage of getting there early meant that the girls had the slides to themselves and they spent some time just playing on there before we were able to cajole them around to other play areas.
The girls on one of the slides
Emily looking thrilled with Wellington!
We spent some time walking around the lake before reaching the farm area. ‘Farm’ is perhaps an over-generous title for what seemed to be various pens housing animals as diverse as alpacas and hens. The girls particularly enjoyed stroking some of the long-suffering and patient donkeys there.
Sarah and Emily
The three girls
Two cygnets
One of the alpacas
Nice hair!
A large shed on the ‘farm’ contained a ‘petting’ area, where children are encouraged to handle and stroke smaller animals including rabbits and guinea-pigs. While we were there they were all safely secured in their cages and it seems that they’re only available for ‘petting’ at certain times of the day.
Emily enjoying a swing
Emily
Following a short visit to the largest of the play areas, I was dispatched to the car with Holly to collect our picnic lunch and a picnic rug. In the event, the latter proved surplus to requirements as we commandeered a picnic table on the main lawn.
Enjoying a picnic lunch
Our lunch was briefly interrupted by a small flock of ducks who made a beeline for our table and ‘hoovered’ up any morsels which either fell or were ‘encouraged’ to fall from the table!
Beware hungry ducks!
After lunch, with the picnic items safely returned to the car, we repaired to the sandpit, which the girls have enjoyed playing in since their early years.
Rebekah enjoying a tractor ride
With the clouds becoming ever more threatening and Emily ever more tired, we left Rebekah and Holly playing in the sandpit and water area while we took shelter, appropriately in a shelter on top of a nearby hill!
Rain!
The girls played on, seemingly oblivious of the occasionally heavy showers which almost made them wetter than their shenanigans with the water pump!
Eventually the rain eased off and we managed to prise them away with talk of other play areas which we had yet to visit.
Rebekah on a giant tyre
Emily enjoyed a swing in the toddler play area and the others seemed to forget about their years and also have fun with the younger children’s toys there too.
Holly and Rebekah enjoying a swing
Emily determined not to put her feet in the sand!
Afterwards we enjoyed a ’25 minute’ nature trail through some of the extensive woodland at Wellington. Although we heard various birds, sightings were few and far between. In contrast, we saw numerous different butterflies and a minute frog!
Signs for the Yellow Nature Trail
Beech leaves in the dappled sunshine
A very tiny frog!
A butterfly awaiting identification
With the afternoon rapidly drawing on we made our way back to the main entrance building which also contains a cafe and the ubiquitous gift shop. Once ice-creams had been devoured and trinkets purchased we made our way back to the car and thence to home.
After a thorough de-sanding in the bath we made our way out to Toby Carvery in Maidenhead, again Rebekah’s choice of eatery, where we enjoyed large platters of roast food and the usual giant Yorkshire puddings!
Emily perfecting her cheeky expression!
Rebekah with her ice-cream
Holly having some trouble!
Finally, we made a short visit over to Mum’s to water the vegetable garden following a couple of days of warm sunshine. We also harvested the first fruits of our labours and brought home six sticks of rhubarb!
Rebekah and Holly with the freshly cut rhubarb
All in all it was a fun day. It was good to spend time with the family and the girls all enjoyed their day over at Wellington Country Park.
Next weekend we have the twin high-points of Rebekah’s seventh and Emily’s first birthdays to look forward to. With a holiday in Shropshire at the end of the month too, July is already shaping up to be a busy month.
A busy Saturday – 2nd July 2011
Our Saturday began ‘early doors’ as usual with Holly and Emily waking first.
In the morning we had to go over to Booker in High Wycombe to buy supplies for the upcoming BBQ at Parkside Christian Fellowship tomorrow.
Grandma
It was my first visit to a Booker since I used to take Grandma over when she was in charge of buying the food for Climping Camp, some ten years ago when she was well over 80! Back then I was just a trolley boy and driver responding to verbal instructions to ‘Get one of those’ and ‘I think we’ll have a couple of those!’ It was always exciting to be buying huge quantities of chocolates and see the amount that she was spending mount up well into three figures!
This time, although I was once again in charge of the trolley, it seemed strange to be there without Grandma and just being back in a Booker again brought back a lot of happy memories of time spent with her. I still miss her.
Some of the sweets in Booker, High Wycombe
Although they’re ideal when buying large quantities of food, we found Booker were more expensive than Sainsbury’s and ended up having to go there as well in order to pick up various drinks and rolls that we were unable to get hold of in Booker.
Eventually we were able to deliver the food to Parkside and spend a short time at the Coffee in the Park there, which was also on this morning, before heading home for lunch.
During the afternoon we had a brief trip around the corner to St Luke’s Church where their summer fair was in full swing in the vicarage garden. We were only there for a short time, but it was good to see Andrew Burdett again, striding around with microphone in hand, providing a constant stream of commentary in his own inimitable style.
Andrew Burdett at the helm of the St Luke's Church fair
Later, having seen the Ladies Final at Wimbledon, we were out again shopping and buying sausage and chips for dinner.
Finally, a fleeting visit to water the vegetable plot where things seem to be going from strength to strength. The beans are approaching the top of the canes, while the tomatoes and courgettes are all in flower and the rhubarb continues to run riot.
At the end of a busy day, like many others, I listened to the David Haye v Wladimir Klitschko boxing fight making my own observations.
Next Saturday we’re likely to be out for the day as Rebekah’s and Emily’s birthdays draw closer.
David Haye v Wladimir Klitschko – 2nd July 2011
In a much-anticipated heavyweight unification fight Ukraine’s Wladimir Klitschko took on Britain’s David Haye in Hamburg. Here are my interpretations thanks to the excellent commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live:
A Few Ramblings... 