2009

Rest well Chicken

Sunday 8th February 2009Thursday 2nd August 2012Baggie

This is a very difficult piece to write, but I feel that I must. On Thursday 5th February 2009 riding her bike to work, a friend and colleague Eilidh Cairns was involved in an accident and passed away a short time later.

Eilidh was full of life, and lived her short life to the full. She was very comfortable with who she was and made no excuse for that and we all loved her for it.

Her passing has hit all that knew her very hard, and that is right and proper and no words that you can say can take that hurt and grief away and nor should it. Denial, Anger, Depression are all part of the process before Acceptance can help you to heal.

Some people entrust in religion at such times to help them, and others do not have such a crutch. My belief is that when you are in a relationship with someone, whether that is friend, relative or lover that you exchange a piece of your hearts and entrust the other with its care. Between those pieces a thread joins you. The stronger the friendship; the deeper the love, the larger the piece and the thicker and brighter the thread. When that person is taken from you, the thread is broken and you feel the pain of that part of your heart that you have given; however what you must remember is that you still have part of their heart and you are honour-bound to look after it and do what is right by it.

So when you have partied too hard and dragged yourself into work; when you have woken early because it has snowed and a smile creeps across your face, and everyday in everything you do, doff your cap, tip a wink and take Eilidh Cairns with you.

Sleep well Chicken

Update 1:

A memorial bike ride, commemorating Eilidh and to draw attention to cycling safety in London took place on Saturday 7th March. Hundreds of her friends, family and members of cycling forums traced her route to Notting Hill. There are some photos here, it made the local ITV news here and a very touching video tribute can be found here.

Sleep well Chicken.

Update 2:

It has been over three months since Eilidh’s accident and we are no closer to knowing exactly what happened that morning. To try and jog people’s memories Eilidh’s friends and family handed out leaflets appealing for witnesses and have produced a short video to be broadcast. This twofold: to ask if you saw anything on the morning of Thursday 5th February 2009, however insignificant you think it may be, to contact the police to help piece together the jigsaw of what happened and secondly to raise awareness of the safety of cyclists and prevent accidents like this from happening.

So please if you saw anything on the morning of Thursday 5th February 2009, the week of the heavy snow, please watch this video and contact the witness line on 020 7388 6806.

Update 3:

Eilidh’s memory has been honoured with a ghostbike, the first city approved ghost cycle in London. Ghostbikes are small and sombre memorials for cyclists who are killed or hit on a street. A bike frame is painted white and locked to a street sign near the crash site, accompanied by a small plaque. They serve as reminders of the tragedy that took place on an otherwise ordinary street.

Update 4:

Eilidh’s mum, Heather, has been working with her local M.E.P. to try and get a E.U. declaration signed to get H.G.V.’s fitted with sensors and cameras to remove their blind spot. They need your assistance so please pop by to www.eilidhcairns.com and see how you are able to help.

Update 5:

It has been over three years since Eilidh’s death but not only is cyclists’ safety still an issue (only yesterday a cyclist was knocked down and killed by an official Olympics bus) but the driver involved in Eilidh’s accident has still been affecting other’s lives. Yesterday however he was sentenced over the death of Ms Nora Gutmann whom he ran down in June 2011 on a light controlled pedestrian crossing and falsifying the data from his tachograph of the lorry his was driving. This is not the forum for a detailed write up of the details of the sentence but if you are interested please click here.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Tuesday 3rd February 2009Baggie

Okay, we need to mention the weather. Yesterday Britain suffered a significant snow fall, the worst (or best depending on your point of view) in London for 18 years. It is amazing how poor Britain (and especially the South East) is at handling a little inclement weather. The whole infrastructure of London ground to a halt. Only a few hardy (or should that be foolhardy) individuals made it in to work.

I am not sure how I feel about this. Should we reward people for making it into work? Should we punish people that didn’t? Should the country invest in equipment to ensure that there is little disruption to the country? I’m sure that we all have own views and it is probably somewhere between the extremes. Although I think it is frustrating that you get no thanks for coming into work; perhaps that is because I am one of the foolhardy individuals that feel a sense of loyalty to make it into work.

However, the heart-warming side of the snow, was watching fathers building snowmen with their children and spontaneous snowball fights in the streets, and although I was at work, it didn’t stop us. A 12:45 snowball fight was duly arranged by work e-mail and it is frightening how much exercise is involved in a snowball fight and how unfit we all were. However the snow was perfect snowball snow, light and fluffy with enough moisture to stick together easily. So after 30 minutes of running round like idiots we decided to build a snowman. Again the snow helped and it was not long before we had a 7 foot high snowman (see photos below).

I am a big fan of snow, probably due to the childhood memories it brings of snowball fights, building snowmen and having days off school. My only disappointment was that Éowyn was too young to appreciate the winter bonus. Perhaps next year…

Whoopie! It is snowing!

Early morning snow

Hithermoor Stream

Alex and Snowman

Sarah and Snowman

The Finished Snowman

Where's Mum and Dad?

Saturday 31st January 2009Baggie

As Middlesbrough‘s favourite son, Chris Kamara, would say, “Unbelievable, Jeff!” as the first month of 2009 draws to a close. Time seems to rush by so quickly and so it has been with this week. Why does a week’s worth of annual leave speed by compared to a working week? As Einstein would explain: that’s relativity!

What is unbelievable too, is that it seems that Éowyn is logging on and reading this blog. If you recall, I said: “After weeks of milestones, this week has been a little on the quiet side.” Well, this week she has moved forward again. She appears to be at stage two in preparation for crawling. Her T.J. Hooker rolls, have more momentum and now she tucks her legs under her body. Fortunately, for Mum and Dad, she still doesn’t have the arm strength to achieve the classic crawl stance, but it will not be long I fear. She has also begun to become very interested in toys and playing with them, as you can see from the photos below and on the Flickr page. I think she has inherited her dad’s view that if there is a button and you don’t know what it does, the best way to find out is to press it. Don’t knock it, I’m making a career out of it.

However Éowyn‘s biggest leap forward of the week is probably her increasing chatting. In truth, it is just a steady stream of random vowels and consonants but like a Rorschach inkblot test your ears convince you that she has said something coherent or relevant to your conversation. It is quite funny just to listen to her mumbling away, and it is quite amusing that she has no control over the volume of her voice; one minute it is a whisper and the next she is shouting at the top of her voice.

There was another step forward this week too: myself and Lucinda managed to go out on a date without Éowyn. We had gone up to visit Nanny Fran and asked her if she would look after Éowyn while we went out. I don’t think that it took mom a lot of convincing, in fact I think that it took us more convincing that she would be alright. New parent syndrome! We were only out a couple of hours and we spent the first hour or so, thinking how odd it was that she wasn’t with us. Nanny Fran though put our minds at rest with a couple of text messages, which meant that we could relax and watch Slumdog Millionaire, a brilliant, but in places a disturbing film. Without spoiling it for those that haven’t seen it, one of the more amusing scenes was went they were at the Taj Mahal, and the romantic in us commented on the synchronicity of this considering we were engaged at the Taj Mahal, and this was our first date since Éowyn‘s birth.

Nanny Fran, hadn’t seen Éowyn for a month so she noticed big changes, while Éowyn too was more aware of changed surroundings. I notice big differences on days when I have been working, so for those of you that haven’t seen her for a while she must come on leaps and bounds when you see her. She has been coming on leaps and bounds in the weight catergory too. We have been a little worried over the last few visits as she has not been putting on the expected weight gain, but this week she has put on 6oz and so now tips the scales at 13lb 11oz (6.209kgs). Her increased activity is slowing her weight gain but at least she is now heading in the right direction.

Please enjoy the photos (and the new ones on Flickr)

Love and peace

Baggie!