Forever Blowing Bubbles

Just Don't Burn Your Tail!

Superworm Is Super Strong!

I Lick Spoon!? I Lick Bowl?!

First cupcakes since the Bake Off!  Maybe the week of endless practice scarred me more than I realise!  That was over two years ago now!

To be honest I always find cupcakes a bit pointless when you could just bake a proper cake instead.  But I fancied them so Alfie and I got busy with the electric mixer!

Bin Man Day

Friday.  Alfie's favourite day of the week.  The bin men come to 'empty bins' and he spends the entire day playing with his bin lorries and emptying 'wubbish' over his bed.  I barely see him except to receive a report on which houses have put their bins away.

Alfie's Self Inflicted Solitary

Overtired child runs into a changing room, slides the bolt across, and then complains he can't get out.

You should have seen the faces of the staff!!

After many minutes of ' I can't do it, you try!' he did actually manage to let himself out too!

Its Hard Work Being Good

Today Alfie got this 'certificate' at school.  In return he slept the way home, stayed asleep for the hour we were home, and continued napping our entire journey to collect Tash, including the journey back home!

In other news its transfer deadline day.  Tash was out so I had talkSPORT on in the kitchen and 5live on the TV.  Basically I was preying Villa would sign some miracle player, against our transfer policy, that might save us from  relegation.  Instead we are now turning to a French League 2 player to attempt to boss our midfield.  We need a miracle!

Poorly Boy + Snowfall. End of World Imminent

Today in a nutshell.  Boy was ill.  Boy was so ill he fell asleep.  So me and Essie had lunch in the kitchen.  It snowed.  Tash came home early.  I took Harry for a walk in the snow.

A Christening, A Cruise, and Some Chaos

Had one of those special little moments with Alfie this morning.  We fixed his 'scoot' bike together and he loved helping wield an 8mm spanner, grease the cable and pump up the tyres.  All this means he'll leave his little blue 'bike' to Esme and now ride the repaired yellow 'big boys' scoot.   We went for a quick ride and boy did he adjust to the narrow tyres and faster speeds quickly!  Just a shame I didn't have a picture taking device with me. 

Meanwhile,  Esme was torturing Harry, no change there!  Seriously though, they are so sweet together.

The afternoon was spent attending our friends little girl, Felicity Rose Booth, Christening in Stotfold.  It was a lovely afternoon yet for some reason I seem to have failed at picture taking again. 

Apart from that it was highlighted that I currently look somewhat like Rolf Harris.  What amazing friends I must have!!

Autosport 2013

Today was spent at the Birmingham NEC at the Autosport International event.  Its a great event anyway, but its nice to drag myself along to punt the Gathering name about and build a few relationships.

Tashas parents had kindly agreed to come along and keep an eye on Alfie for a while whilst David and I disappeared to have the few conversations we needed to.  Esme was with me too, but she spent the vast majority of the day on my back being an absolute angel.

With work a focus I didn't see a huge amount of the show and so photos are a touch limited.

Here's the ones with Alfie;

 

And a couple others of cars that really caught my eye.

 

Beware of The Trains

Two sleep deprived whiny children + a sun shiny day = a long walk for the dog! 

And it appears the powers that be are now building a footbridge over the railway line.  Oh how I want to rant about health and safety!!

This was actually yesterday, it appears my post didn't post last night!

Hanging By a Thread

The weather has been great recently,  and it makes it a real joy to be out with Harry.  Alfie was on top form today too, and his imagination is bursting out of his little person.  Today he was walking his own little imaginary dog.

In the field is this tree.  There's something about it I love, its just proper tree shaped.  And I use it as my measure of the seasons.  During these winter months I look at it daily willing the buds of spring to start appearing.

We recently gave Alfie a bunk bed, and today as I went to tuck him in I found Woody hanging by his drawstring on the curtain rail above.  There was something truly 'little boyish' about it that I found simply wonderful.

Ink And Animals

Life seems to have been super busy recently and I've fallen way behind with the blog.  Well the catchup starts here ... I hope!

Nearly a month ago (23rd Sept) Tash took a day off work so we could have a family day out down to the south coast.  My friend Nicky now lives in Australia and I hadn't seen her since the days when I worked in the city.  She has a young boy, Riley, who is just a little older than Alfie and we had often spoken about how lovely it would be to see the two of them play together.  They were in the UK for three weeks and ridiculously busy but we managed to squeeze in an afternoon shortly before their boarding call was announced.

This also presented an opportunity for me to visit Skelly in the morning and get some ink on my leg!  With the day planned out we set off ridiculously early and comfortably reached Portsmouth for 10:30am.

This piece was started over 10 years ago, but I wanted to give it a freshen up and so we squeezed in a few hours before lunch.  That gave us time to do the outline and a large chunk of the biomech shading.  I hadn't seen Skelly for nearly 10 years either so it was great to catch up and check out his new shop.  Next sitting will see the biomech shading finished, the leopard gecko touched up, and then start to think about introducing the weeping angel around the other side.

Here's the before and after pics. I am very excited for my next sitting and to see the leg all finished off!

 

With my leg all wrapped up we made our way out to a farm just outside of Pompey and met up with Nicky and Riley.   This is Riley, such an awesome little dude!

Animal feed was purchased and the kids were let loose.  And what fun they had!

And whilst the boys enjoyed being boys Esme enjoyed some quality sling time with Tash.

Some went high and some went low.

Whilst others went left and a few went right.

A few years spent around the Aussie bush has led Nicky to forget all about British farms.  The goats caused her enormous surprise!

 
 And she made for a very awkward customer at the kids 'shop'.

 Eventually chickens, goats, pigs and alpacas get tiring though and it was time for refreshments.

 

But its as we were about to leave that the real fun was found.  Cos what more do kids need than a pair of wellies (or not in Riley's case) and some muddy puddles.

And if the pictures leave you in any doubt here's the video to back it all up!

It was a great day, and just a shame Riley and Alfie can't play together more often.  But maybe days like this wouldn't be so magical if they could.

And to round off a great day we rolled round to Hayling Island and enjoyed fish and chips with a view out to sea.

All my photos of the day can be found here.

Whats Small and Fast and Painted All Over?

Alfie had his first day at pre-school this week.  No dramas, and as expected with that one he ran off to play and make new friends as soon as he set foot inside the building.  I could probably have snuck out and he wouldn't have cared but that's not the way I do things with Alfie.  After about 10 minutes I managed to get him back, explained Esme was tired and I was taking her home, but that we would be back later.  I didn't even get a kiss goodbye!

According to the staff, and indicated to me by the fact his hair returned somewhat multicoloured, he had an absolute ball.  "He's quite a character isn't he!?" were the words offered to me as I collected him after 6 hours of 'school'.  And did he want to come home?  "No, NO WAY!" was bellowed towards me as a little pair of legs made like a blur in the opposite direction.

I'm not sure if they found him tiring but he sure found them tiring!  I managed to get him out of the car still sleeping and let him lay on the sofa.  I wondered what Essie would do at the sight of her brother in the land of nod next to her.  She choose to play with all his toys right under his nose!

And then, which had me in absolute stitches, she investigated why her brother wasn't giving her attention for playing with said toys!

I didn't really have time to miss him - there's too much to do and six hours goes SO fast - but bloody hell the house was quiet!

And If You Can't Go For A Run?

Last Saturday (8th) we got a surprise family night away down south.  Tash had booked a hotel in Cobham some months ago but it was expected to be used for pre-race prep for a half marathon she had enrolled for on the Sunday.  As life would have it though she developed an injury and the physio said her hip wasn't good enough for her to run on.  Shame that, especially with it being the Speed Trials down on Brighton Seafront that Saturday!

Thankfully the hotel (a Hilton no less!) accepted dogs and so we all loaded into the Mighty Benz and set sail for Brighton early on Saturday morning.  And yes, the dog is the wrong side of the dog guard.

We reached Brighton, found a NCP car park, and voiced numerous expletives at the price for four hours parking.  £18.  Yes, EIGHTEEN pounds!  Still, we figured four hours would be enough and we were 'on holiday' after all.

Brighton was awash with awesome cars and bikes and there was a great atmosphere about the place.  I was especially excited to see a Ducati Demosedici RR.

 

It would appear this guy has more confidence in his front end than Valentino too!

As we had Harry with us we couldn't go down the pit lane and so opted to walk along the road above to watch the action.  It was a great viewpoint with the piers as a lovely backdrop.

Lunch break was approaching and so we agreed to watch the racing till lunch and then go in search of food.  Alfie was strapped to Tash's back and he was loving it!

 

 

There were all manner of cars and bikes being tested over the quarter mile and it was great to see such a variety on display.

 

With the mornings racing done we took a stroll back down the seafront towards a cool little Hot Dog place we'd seen on the way up.  A drink and a meaty sausage in the sunshine, what could be better!?

Fed and watered Alfie and I toddled down to the waters edge to throw stones (at other children).

Once he had successfully caused a good proportion of bathers to suffer blood loss we all made our way back to the car and then onto the hotel.

Tash and the kids had a swim in the pool, we all grabbed some food and then the entertainment that was bedtime began.  Two adults, two kids and a dog fitting into one double and one single bed.

I'm guessing no-ones gonna be surprised that it ended up a bit like this.

On Sunday we went to the Brooklands museum as it was literally 2 miles from the hotel.  We got there early, we had been up since 5am.

I've wanted to go to Brooklands for years.  Its one of those places that was pivotal in the the development of motorsport during its early years, and Malcolm Campbell had his famous "Q Shed" within Brooklands' premises.

Brooklands is also home to John Cobb's awesome Napier Railton.

Alfie and I even managed to get up on the famous banked track where those mighty leviathons would have once raced.

As well as automotive there is loads of aero stuff at Brooklands.  A large section is devoted to Concorde, and their collection includes one of the original test planes, the simulator used to train pilots, and even sections of the fatigue test airframe!

We opted to board a post-war RAF bomber training plane instead though.  I absolutely loved it, and the volunteer on board was so clued up on what he was talking about as he guided us through the craft.

 

Everywhere you look at Brooklands it seems that theres some treasure hidden under a tarp.

 

Or left nestled under some listing tree or other.

We found ourself round by the Bus museum which was also fantastic.  A bus chassis with no body on it looks bloody enormous!  Alfie thought the buses were especially great!

There was even one from closer to home!

With the Bus museum visited all that was left was for us to negotiate the souvenir shop.  Alfie spent many many minutes trying to decide over a plane, car or bus.  He chose plane.

And with that we renegotiated the London Orbital and were home in time for dinner.  Quite simply an amazing weekend.

All my photos from the weekend can be found here.