Matt, the main blogger round these parts is patriarch and assistant manager to a rather special family. Other members are: Eirene, patient and beautiful wife and mother to their three, soon to be 4 mini them. Introducing the DragonDroplets: Felix (born 1998), Jaygo (2001) and Sophie (2006).. [#4 details TBC]. Augmented with several pets, including a Labradinger dog (half English Springer, half Chocolate Lab), a Persian cat and a black cat. Ohh.. and some fish. And a guinea pig. Anything else? No I think that just about covers it.
Tonight’s annual school disco at Grove Road School Harrogate, was the “Best Disco Ever” according the kid who wrote lovely note I found on the floor. If I was still an actual real kid I’d probably have thought the same. I’ts a bit of an institution, a real community event. We’ve been going every year for probably 10 years (we’ve… Read more →
At just under 2 months, Annie Mo is now smiling properly. These are not windy smiles but genuine happy smiles. I captured this the other day and thought I’d share. I’m so glad I captured one of her first smiles on video – I love the way her whole face breaks into a beaming smile. You may spot the scrawls on… Read more →
Resumed progress on project finish kitchen. A project that started last October in a very intense fashion for a month – we swapped rooms around making our old dining room our new kitchen, which involved removing a skip full of chimney and re plumbing the boiler, rescuing our Belfast sink and digging new waste water channels and all sorts. We… Read more →
For over 30 years, a true community event called Bilton Gala has taken place on May Day Bank Holiday Monday, in the heart of one of the oldest and biggest suburbs of Harrogate called (you guessed it) Bilton. If this year’s Bilton Gala was a newspaper, it would be a bank holiday special edition of The Sun, with a headline… Read more →
A couple of weeks ago, I found an old camera : A Kodak Instamatic – with a now defunct 126 film cassette, still inside. I decided to risk wasting a few quid to see if there was anything on it by sending it off to be processed at a specialist lab. This morning, it arrived back from the lab and I… Read more →
Our little owl slept through for 9 hours last night. The night before she slept around 6 hours, then had a quick feed and slept some more – the night before that (even though it was a very late night for her due to being at a gig) a good long sleep also. Dare we recognize a pattern? It may be too… Read more →
Yesterday was funny. I “wrote” my daily blog (thus ensuring continuity of my DD365 project) using a method I’d has in mind as a back up reserve idea – see, it dawned on me that where I was going, the internet may not be an option. A hands free speech to text tool – powered by Google – enabled me… Read more →
We’re just in from seeing Gang Show at The Royal Hall. The cast included our very own Sophie who joined scores of others from the Cubs, Beavers, Scouts, Rainbows, Brownie and Guide fraternities of Harrogate. The tradition of the Gang Show has been going since 1932 and the Harrogate show has achieved ‘red necker’ status, which means it meets the… Read more →
Big ol’ BBQ for for 12 kids and their parental support crew. It rained a bit. For a while, but the sun came out, the people turned up and the food was eaten. It’s turned into a tradition – having a bbq for Sophie’s birthday (her actual birthday is today). I was going to write a blog about the amazing… Read more →
Forgive my proud dad head for a moment – but for a respected university to publicly say that the efforts of your 14 year old son is “highly commendable” is kind of a big deal. Felix’s team earned this praise by coming second in a national competition called the University of Leeds STEM challenge 2013 this week. (S.T.E.M. stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, in case… Read more →
Eirene’s Hyundai Atoz + failed her MOT last week. The cost of the repair outweighed the cost of the car, rendering it beyond economic repair. Eirene got to get a new car. Out of all the cars she could have had, she chose a slightly better, newer version of the old gold one. Off we trotted to Halifax on a rainy… Read more →
listen to ‘Family Tea Time’ on Audioboo. Today for my blog of the day, I thought I’d try out something a bit different – an audio blog. I’ve just found that audioboo (the site I’ve used to serve the audio) clips recordings at 5 minutes for the free version (which is more that the 2MB that wordpress clips) and probably… Read more →
We nominated 2 Godparents for Annie Mo today. Eirene is in charge of the formal theological side of our younglings, but the selection proposed was wholeheartedly agreed to by me. (R&D). A lovely couple who head up a lovely family. We’ve just had them and theirs round for a Sunday roast which (even though I say so my self) was… Read more →
Lunchtime, first day back at work after a long stretch of time off the grid. In summary, it’s been a morning of work email reading. It took us ages to get home yesterday – we dawdled quite a lot on the way home from Holyhead. We randomly stopped for sundown at Llanfairfechan. This is a town I’ve never been to… Read more →
Following on from my last blog – we’re now in Dublin. We had to drive through the city centre at rush hour, but because of the beautiful sunset which accompanied us, everything was AOK. We’re now trenched at ‘Irish Grandad’s’ and I’ve got a tin of Smethwicks on the go and we’re watching Allo Allo. Nice. I’ve brought over a… Read more →
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