Éowyn’s Fifth Birthday

This was meant to have been posted before we went on holiday, but life got in the way and so this post is very belated.  Apologies, but it will mean that you will possibly have 3 (if life doesn’t get in the way again) updates in the next week or so.

The second and third weeks of October were emotional, pivotal, exciting and to top it all, the week that our oldest child celebrated her fifth birthday.  Yes, five years ago we became parents when Éowyn came into our lives.  I probably write this every year and will do for years to come, but it does not seem like five minutes ago that I first held her in my arms.  So, need I explain the first sentence a little more?

Emotional – obviously with the passing of my Nan at the beginning of the week.

Exciting – My 40th birthday present and the track day in the Ariel Atom.

I have missed one haven’t I?

Pivotal – The most pleasant of the big news stories of the last couple of weeks is that we have exchanged on our new home.  The remortgage on our current home is through and so the monies can be transferred and the 10% deposit paid and the contracts can be exchanged.  We complete on the 1st November and the 5 months of an emotional rollercoster is easing into the station.  Yes, there will be the small matter of making the new place a home, no to mention the packing, moving and unpacking that we are yet to face but positive moves are afoot and we can let ourselves believe that it is actually going to happen!  But the gory details of the move will be a subject for another update what have we missed since the last update about the Bagnall household?

As you may recall from the write up entitled Amélie’s Third Birthday Éowyn’s N.C.T. group 5th birthday party was held at Alice Holt but unfortunately due to work commitments I was unable to go.  Therefore with an rare Sunday off we decided to head to Alice Holt for a family day out.  To make it a little bit more fun we told my university friends Charlie and Mel hoping that their boys and our girls would have someone new to play with.  When we woke that Sunday morning the heavens had opened and it was heavily raining.  Undaunted we still headed to Alice Holt and so, too, did Charlie and Mel.  Thus the two families trudged through the rain and the mud, with wellies and waterproofs, you have to be prepared.  We headed to Charlie and Mel’s for coffee and cake before heading back home with two very tired girls.  It was good to see Charlie and Mel and hopefully we will have better weather next time we meet up.

Éowyn’s actual birthday was a little subdued.  Being a weekday she was at school.  Unfortunately we may have set a bit of a precedent with taking cakes and sweets (Éowyn’s insistence) for her classmates.  Although I was at work, I managed to get out a little early and headed to Nanny and Granddad’s for a birthday tea with Uncle Michael, Auntie Cristina and Lauren and Maddie in addition to the Bagnalls and Nanny and Granddad.  As ever she was spoilt with presents and thoroughly enjoyed her birthday cake that Nanny Fran had sent down with me earlier in the week.

Nanny Fran had planned to surprise Éowyn and come down on her birthday and stop the night.  Unfortunately with Nan’s (Great Grandma’s) passing on the Monday before Éowyn’s birthday, Nanny Fran was unable to come down as she had a lot of organising to do and Nan’s affairs to put in order.  As Éowyn didn’t know that Nanny Fran was coming down, she was not disappointed but nevertheless Nanny Fran was and so will have to make amends in a couple of weeks.

Éowyn has grown up considerably over the last couple of months and this is obviously due to school.  With half-term approaching her love of education is not diminishing.  It probably helps that she is one of the oldest children in the year and she is also gregarious and quite clever.  She has received a number of stickers for good work and two certificates for being a ‘superstar‘ the first with explaining what a repeating pattern is and the second for reading.  Yes, our little girl can now read (one of the first in the class to progress to reading – very proud parents).  She also received a certificate for perfect attendance.

This information is not just second hand, we have received it first hand from Éowyn’s teacher when we had our first ‘proper’ parents’ evening.  Miss Finbow spoke very highly of Éowyn, she said that not only is Éowyn academically bright but that she brightens the room with her presence.  She will organise games with the other children and has learned to share and think about the other children, something she has demonstrated on a number of occasions.  Miss Finbow said that there was nothing we needed to be worried about but just to continue the things we do with Éowyn to help develop her reading.  We told Miss Finbow that we would be moving shortly and so we are concerned that it may affect Éowyn and she said that she would keep a close eye on Éowyn and report if she thinks that it is having any adverse effects on our eldest.  She did say a nice thing in reply to our news though, almost pleading with us not to take Éowyn out of the school as she would miss her.

It is a shame that Amélie isn’t quite as well behaved.  She has been a little naughty (although still cute with her naughtiness) of late.  It is probably due to the upheaval in her life at the moment.  She is no longer the baby of the family, Ezra has taken that accolade.  She is going to school but only twice a week while Éowyn goes everyday.  Also Éowyn is getting a lot of praise with her school work, she has a birthday and then three weeks later Éowyn has a birthday.

This culminated in Amélie having a poo on the bathroom floor.  Not sure why she didn’t go to the toilet, or indeed the potty that was in her room but when we asked her why she had done it, she denied that it was her.  Not only did she deny that it was her but blamed an imaginary friend, not her imaginary friend but one of Éowyn’s!

In Amélie’s defence, she has been very well behaved at school (nursery) and is enjoying going which is a great turnaround considering at the beginning of September she was nearly apoplectic with the notion of going.  Now, she positively runs up the path eager to spend the day at TinyTots.

Before I leave you for the day a quick update on Ezra.  His crawling has gone from Ninja rolling to crawling backwards to zooming around the house getting under your feet.  He has also started to pull himself up on the furniture; not quite to his feet but to his knees, somehow I doubt it will not be long before he will progress to standing – then the trouble will begin.

Not the greatest selection of photos below, for which I apologise but rest assured there will be plenty uploaded to Flickr in the next week or so.

Peace and Love

Baggie

Daddy’s 40th birthday present

You are all probably waiting for an update regarding Éowyn’s birthday; patience my dear readers that will be early next week. This is another one-off special regarding my 40th birthday present.  As you may recall for my 40th birthday my family bought me a super car experience and to help me make up my mind I even invited you all to join in the fun with a poll for you to vote for your favourite.  The early leader was the Aston Martin (indeed if I were to be given one of the cars and asked which one I would like then I would choose the Aston Martin) however a late charge saw the Ariel Atom win by a nose (the final vote was actually cast on Thursday night – that’s how close it was).  The Ariel Atom was my particular favourite as it is so far removed from a car that it made sense for such a special occasion.

For those of you that do not know what an Ariel Atom is, it is probably described best as the go-kart that go-karts threaten other cars with when they are being bullied.  It is a road-legal, two-seater high performance sports car that is little more than an engine, chassis, wheels and a seat.  It is the world’s third fastest accelerating road car after the Bugatti Veyron and the Ultima GTR, going from 0-60mph in about 2.8 seconds (new ones are apparently even quicker!).  So you can see why I chose it.

The 6th Gear Experience was held at Longcross Test track which is situated between Virgina Water and Chobham, just alongside the M3 and less than a 20 minute drive (in our S-Max) from home.  The first thing that struck me was how well organised the venue was, with stewards to direct you to the car park and a trucks for catering and to entice you to buy photos of the day (I did buy one, as you can see below).  After registration you head to the demo car to be driven around the track (at a sedate pace) to give you a feel of the course and to explain the hazards.  The main ones being the lack of any run-off (it is a test track not a racing track with all the associated safety features), the damp course, fallen leaves and conkers!  After the demo lap you wait with nervous excitement for your time slot.

Although I was there for my Ariel Atom experience it was quite a quiet day and there was spare capacity to book other laps or indeed a passenger experience with a racing driver in a Radical race car (everyone was saying what an experience that was!).  Lucinda was tempted but Amélie and Ezra were getting restless and so it wasn’t to be – this time!

As the Ariel Atom has no roof (or windows or sides), one had to don a crash helmet, which is plugged into a wired radio so that the instructor who sits in the passenger seat can talk to you.  A quick tour of the controls (there are not a lot), a quick pose for a photo and off you go.  The ride was exhilarating, I have never experienced such acceleration.  The instructor keep an eye on the mirrors, so you only have to concentrate on the road ahead and apart from a couple of missed gear changes and a slight fish tail (that I got quickly under control and got a ‘well done‘ from the instructor) I was quite pleased with my laps.  I even managed to overtake a Ferrari 360 and a Lamborghini Gallardo. In fairness to them they were probably on their first lap and I was on my second but as we rapidly approached I prepared to break and the instructor just said ‘You are quicker than them, overtake‘.  So I did; with ease.  That alone was justification for the choice of car.

At the end of the experience the instructor marks your driving (I was quite pleased with my 86% and comments: ‘Positive driving, took instruction well.‘) and you get a certificate.  You are then encouraged to have a look at the photos taken of you round the track.  It seemed a shame not to buy at least one, so I did.

I would never describe myself as a petrolhead but I could get used to days like that.  If my lottery numbers ever do come up I would still buy the Aston Martin but you may just find me spending a fair few days at the race track hurtling around in an Atom.

Peace and Love

Baggie

Baggie in an Ariel Atom
Baggie in an Ariel Atom

 

P.S. For those of you that are interested the results of the poll are below.  The final (and winning) vote (for the Ariel Atom) was cast on 17th October, so congratulations to that person – no prize available.

Which supercar should I drive?

  • Ariel Atom (42%, 22 Votes)
  • Aston Martin V8 Vantage (40%, 21 Votes)
  • Audi R8 (9%, 5 Votes)
  • Ferrari 360 (4%, 2 Votes)
  • Lamborghini Gallardo (4%, 2 Votes)
  • Porsche 997 Turbo (2%, 1 Votes)

Total Voters: 53

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Night, night Nan

At 17:40 on Monday 14th October 2013, after a long illness my nan, Doris Beatrice McGinn (née Wyton) finally earned her rest.  She had woke up in the morning asking for her Dad (who had died in 1945) but had seemed in her usual health.  However, just before midday my mom received a call to say that my nan’s breathing had become laboured and they suggested that we come to see her.

So Mom called around and we all dropped what we were doing and heading to Nan’s nursing home in West Bromwich.  For me that included a detour to Woking to pick up my sister Mary before heading up the M40; for my Uncle Michael a journey from deepest darkest Wales.  When we got there Nan seemed to acknowledge us briefly, but that was all the strength she had left and she passed away a few hours later.  Her passing was very sedate.

Although death always comes as a shock, Nan has not been well for many years and we have been prepared for her passing for a while.  She is now at peace and we have our memories of a stoic lady.  For me those memories are of weekends at her home and holidays in Blackpool; Saturday mornings with Nan knitting while shouting at the underhand antics of Skull Murphy and Kendo Nagasaki while cheering on Big Daddy and the best Bread Pudding in Christendom.

Nan may not have been in the best of health the last few years but it always cheered her up when her Great Grandchildren came to visit, although she insisted that she was called Nan rather than Great Grandma as it made her sound too old!

Sleep well Nan you have certainly earned it.