2014

Mommy’s Birthday

Baggie

I find it very interesting that if I don’t update this website for a couple of weeks it becomes very easy to fall out of the habit and I have to struggle to sit before the keyboard and type.  However, once I have got back in the habit then a wave of verbosity washes over me and you are treated to write-up after write-up,  May has become a very fruitful month on Baggie and Lucy dot com.  It helps that we are doing some interesting things and secondly, that I have evenings and weekends off now that the football seasons have drawn to a close.  Before you say it, I know that there is still the matter of the Football League play off finals but I can live with that kind of schedule!

So what warrants another write-up before the end of May?  Nice weather and Lucinda’s 41st birthday.

Lucinda always likes to go somewhere for her birthday.  For many years she would go somewhere exotic, taking advantage of Air Canada or shorter flights into Europe.  However, now we are with children that becomes more difficult, it takes such an effort to organise three little ones and squeeze all their paraphernalia into carry-on luggage.  In addition, Lucinda’s birthday is mid-May.  My job, as many of you know, very much revolves around the Premier League season and unfortunately this tends to end around the same time.    This can make going away for a weekend a little difficult, indeed last year the last day of the season was the day after Lucinda’s 40th birthday, although we still managed to take a day trip to the coast.  This year was a little different, with the summer break to be dominated by the Men’s Football (Soccer, for some people) World Cup the Premier League season ended a week earlier than usual meaning that Lucinda’s birthday weekend fell on my first weekend off.

Ruling out an exotic weekend left us with a weekend away in the UK.  For once the signs for the weather seemed to be good, indeed the weekend saw temperatures top 25°C, so we headed to the south coast to a stretch of coastline we know well.  We have made the round trip in a day many times before (most recently in the first week of the Easter holidays) but we wanted to stay overnight and make a weekend of it this time.  Fortunately the nextdoor neighbour of Lucinda’s brother owns a chalet in New Milton, just East of Mudeford and Hengistbury Head that we have visited a number of times before; a chalet that was vacant for the weekend.  So we booked the night, picked up the keys and headed down on Saturday morning.

New Milton is on the border of Hampshire and Dorset and the chalet in a holiday park at the top of a cliff overlooking the Solent.  The chalet had a prime spot with and uninterrupted view of the sea and only a short walk to the clubhouse, playground and swimming pool.  A little small and a little tired, but more than adequate for our family of five and because the weather was so nice we were not indoors for any length of time.

We arrived at lunchtime and so after unpacking the car and taking lunch we headed to the beach.  It was a steep climb down to the beach (and thus an equally gruelling climb back afterwards) but we soon found a small deserted sandy place (the beach was mainly stones with small sandy areas close to the sea) and made camp.  The girls thoroughly enjoyed splashing in the sea (although it was a little cold) and building sandcastles. Ezra wasn’t too keen on the dipping his toes in the sea, was a bit of a shock, I think; give him a few more years.

An ice cream each before heading back up to the chalet and swimming costumes on for the pool.  Amélie didn’t want to go swimming so Lucinda and Éowyn went while Amélie and I headed to the playground while Ezra slept his beach adventure off.  Amélie had collected rather a large stone on the beach and had carried it all the way back up to the adventure playground.  It was her ‘rock baby’ and I had hoped that she would have given up carrying it on the climb back (she did try to offload it to the mother of another family halfway up).  She still had it at the adventure playground and indeed took it back to the chalet and tucked it into bed when we returned.

For our evening meal we headed into Christchurch for pizza.  Neither Lucinda or I had been to Christchurch and it was swiftly added to our list of places to return.  We have been to its namesake on the South Island of New Zealand (prior to the 2011 earthquake that destroyed much of the area) as part of our honeymoon but for some reason we have never been to the original.  The girls enjoy their pizzas and even Ezra demolished doughballs, pizza slices and chocolate fudge cake before we took a short stroll around the town and the return journey back to the chalet.  After putting the girls to bed we sat up a short time watching the sea and drinking champagne.

Sunday was Lucinda’s actual birthday and we were joined by her parents and niece Lauren.  The girls, as usual, were very excited to see their grandparents and cousin.  We had spent the morning breakfasting on freshly cooked croissants from the park store and just slowing easing into the day, something we seldom do.

As it was approaching lunchtime (do you have the same feeling that the majority of this write-up is about food?) we headed to the local pub for Sunday Lunch before heading to the beach.  It was a glorious day, hotter than the previous day and there was barely any free space on the beach.  I was paranoid about keeping the kids topped up with suncream because being fair skinned I know how easy it is to burn and indeed the only person to catch the sun was yours truly: the top of my feet between my sandal straps.  The girls made more sandcastles and splashed in the sea.  Éowyn collected seaweed (which we brought home to put on the veg patch) but thankfully Amélie didn’t collect any more rock babies!

After a quick stop back at the chalet and the obligatory cup of tea we headed to the swimming pool.  Éowyn has a real confidence in the water (when she is wearing her armbands) which she got from our trip to Centreparcs last winter; Amélie, however, not so.  I managed to convince her to get into the water but she clung to me like a monkey-limpet (you know that there is such an animal as I coined the phrase last year in the aforementioned Centreparcs write-up!).  Her vice-like tetrapodal embrace had not got any less intense.  So with Mommy, Granddad and Lauren in the pool keeping an eye on Éowyn and Nanny relaxing by the pool keeping an eye on Ezra, it allowed a rare opportunity for me to spend some time with Amélie in a pool.

I wouldn’t say it was a complete success but we definitely made some serious strides forward.  She went from clinging to me for dear life, to floating horizontally with me supporting her belly while she focussed on kicking her legs and doggy paddling.  I never managed to completely let go but it was an enormous leap forward for her.  Even Éowyn pulling her underwater (because Amélie was winning in a mock swimming race) didn’t completely put her off, especially as I made Éowyn have a time out at the side of the pool while we all carried on having fun.  Éowyn doesn’t like losing – like her Daddy!

We returned to the chalet after swimming for another cup of tea and Lucinda’s birthday cake.  Then quickly tidy up the chalet and pack the car up (it is amazing how much we had actually brought with us for effectively one night) before heading back home.  Although it was a bit of a hectic two days it was well worth making the effort to get out of the big smoke and head down to the coast.  The most important aspect was that Lucinda thoroughly enjoyed herself and we managed to do all the things that she had wanted to do for her little birthday sojourn and it was novel that we had glorious sunshine for the two days.  That doesn’t happen very often if you are a Bagnall!

Now it has to be said that you have been spoilt with four write-ups in a little over a week, don’t get expecting another by Tuesday!  However, now that I am back in the habit and my weekends are free from work there may be a little more regularity to the updates over the summer, and plenty of photos.

Peace and Love

Baggie

 

The Family Bagnall
That’ll learn ya!
Lucinda and her kids
Cheeky-boy!
I can see you
Mr McGee, don’t make me angry
Peep-Po!
Model!
Sweetie
A bit of sun on this leg!
Having fun
Just relaxing
It’s hard work
Only ones on the beach!
Incoming!
Mommy and Ezra
A kiss from Mommy
Mommy and Amélie
How do you drive this thing?
Sitting down nicely
Mommy and Amélie selfie
Mommy and Amélie
Sororal Love
My big sister
Granddad’s glasses
A piggy back from Granddad
Lucinda and Dad

Superstar and new shoes!

Baggie

So you hadn’t had an update for weeks and then, in the manner of buses, three come along in a short time.  See, I am trying to make up for my poor showing in 2014 as well as regale the happenings of the Bagnall clan.  I hope that this meets with your approval.

If you cast your mind back to before the solar panels write up to the first of this trilogy of write ups you will recall that it was Easter holidays.  You also may recall that at the beginning of last term I made a promise with Éowyn.  She would receive an item of her choosing from the Disney store (an Elsa dress that we are still waiting for stock in her size to return to the Disney store) if she managed to achieve superstar status five times during the term.  She made that target before half term and so as a Dad of my word she will receive an Elsa dress, assuming that Disney ever manage to restock.

I was not foolish enough to make the same deal for the last term and I am glad that I didn’t!  Éowyn returned to school on a Tuesday.  In the four days of that first week she achieved superstar status every day and topped it all with the weekly award that she received in morning assembly before the entire school.  It was confirmed with a note in the school newsletter and a certificate.  I could not allow that achievement to go unrewarded and so there is yet another trip to the local Disney store planned to choose another prize.  Actually it will be the same trip, she will just pick up two prizes.  Not sure how long this encouragement can go on, either Éowyn will get bored and the incentive will no longer work, or I will be bankrupt.  Buy Disney shares!

Éowyn’s superstar statuses this week were based on reading and writing.  She moved up a level with her reading and is now where the majority of reception class children should be at the end of their first school year and her writing is coming along in leaps and bounds.  She is encouraged to write and not to worry about the spelling at the moment, it is all about getting the ideas down.  An approach many adults still have judging by their Facebook statuses.  Éowyn’s class have recently been learning about ‘People who help us’.  This has included firefighters, nurses, police officers and vets.  Then they have to write about the people who had come into see them.  So for the police officer she wrote a report about a thief that had been apprehended, so far so normal, but that was part one, he then absconded from gaol and was eventually recaptured.  She is finally using the imagination she uses everyday to make up games in her writing.

For the subject of her nurse story she related she relied more on memory than imagination.  A couple of weeks ago she decided that she would try a lift Amélie.  Amélie wriggled and Éowyn lost her balance and fell backwards.  Amélie landed on Éowyn’s head and there were tears.  After the usual cuddles and checks to see if they were OK, Éowyn complained that her ear hurt.  There was nothing obvious so we slightly dismissed it.  However as the evening drew on the pain was getting more intense and she began to cry with the pain.  Thinking that she may have done so serious damage I took her to the walk-in clinic in Ashford.  After a short wait the on-duty nurse looked into her ear with anotoscope and said that she could see some swelling but nothing to be concerned about.  She asked if Éowyn had a cold, which she had, and said that the impact had probably bruised the one side of her ear while the cold was putting pressure on the other side.  She suggested that we Calpol her up and wait for the swelling to go down and to return if it wasn’t becoming less painful.  Éowyn received a sticker for being brave and returned home fine.  The Calpol did its job and the incident gave Éowyn inspiration for her nurse’s story.

Éowyn is not the only one who has received a sticker for being brave at the nurses.  Both Amélie and Ezra have had stickers in the last week or so.  Both were due booster jabs so as Lucinda and I were both off we decided to get them both done at the same time.  I would hold Amélie and Lucinda would hold Ezra.  As with Éowyn two years before we forewarned Amélie that the injections would feel like a scratch and may hurt a little but if she was a brave girl she could choose something from the Disney store (I did tell you to buy shares!).  As an added incentive Ezra would be in the same room and she would have to be brave for him.  I know what you are thinking cruel parents!

Amélie was incredibly brave, she didn’t cry, only winced when the first one went in and whimpered a little on the second one.  In complete contrast to Éowyn who screamed the place down when she had hers.  After receiving her stickers (one for each arm) we said that it was Ezra’s turn.  Amélie then said that she didn’t want to see Ezra have his so I took her back to the waiting room, while Lucinda held Ezra.  Again Ezra was brave (he must have seen how brave his sister was).  He didn’t make a sound on the first, whimpered a little on the second but the third was a bit of a shock and then he cried but not for long.  So the girls are now inoculation free until secondary school while Ezra will have his last set in about two years time.

So what else has been keeping me from this website?

There have been a lot of housey things.  With the recent fine weather we have been able to get into the garden and use my new toy (a self propelled petrol lawnmower).  We have also begun our new hobby (if you can call it that) growing our own vegetables.  Three rows of potatoes are growing nicely, as is a double row of green beans (because I don’t get enough of them at work!).  Unfortunately my strawberry plants have been dug up and taken by culprits unknown (although my suspicion lies squarely with the local squirrel population).  We have a row of herbs starting to grow and our pumpkin plants are nearly ready to make the move outside.  We also have some bunny tail grass and sunflowers for decoration and half a dozen tomato plants.  Not exactly the self-sufficient lifestyle à la Tom and Barbara but it is a start with relatively low maintenance crops that even we should be able to get something.  It is also nice for the girls to see where food comes from and give them more reason to eat the produce when we come to harvest.  Fingers crossed that they will taste nice too.

The other addition to the garden is the wendy house from the last place.  It is actually about 11 years old bought by Nanny and Granddad for Lauren (and Maddie).  They have outgrown it so we inherited it and not only has it lasted pretty well for the decade or so it has been built three times (by Granddad) so it is doing well.  Just needs a lick of paint and it is good to go, not that has stopped them so far.  Even Ezra has been inside.

Ezra has also had an eventful time he has increased his vocabulary by one word: ‘that’.  This word is used ubiquitously in conjunction with the pointed index finger.  If he sees something that he wants, anything that he wants, even if he knows he is not allowed to have it, the finger straightens, he looks you in the eye and ‘that’.  It is the only word he needs.  We have tried to get him to say ‘ta’ when he is given something.  Not interested.  ‘That!’  He has also learned to wave goodbye, whether you are going or not.  Probably linked to not giving him ‘that’.

We have also bought him his first pair of shoes.  He was spending so much time on his feet holding against things, that we thought that if we bought him some shoes it might encourage him to walk.  When standing he also tends to tiptoe.  Primarily so that it gives him a little more reach to get hold of ‘that’, but it is also one of the stages that little go through before they start to walk.  So we also hoping that with the shoes he would not be able to tiptoe so easily and encourage him to use the whole of his foot.  We are still waiting.

Amélie also had new shoes (a trip to Clarks cost us a fortune!).  Her feet had grown very quickly up over two sizes, how she had managed to squeeze her feet into those shoes for so long we will never know.  It will be Éowyn’s  turn next with new school shoes a must over the summer.

So another season draws to a close, West Bromwich Albion survived (just) and now the hard work of the Summer begins.  Usually the off-season is quite quiet for me, last season that was not the case and neither will it be this season.  The  Summer will see the transfer of Premier League Productions under the bosom of Stockley Park and all the testing and installation to go with that.  There is also a World Cup (of men’s football), Wimbledon and The Open Golf Championship.  I have got to try and squeeze in some vacation among all that.  Hopefully I will have enough time to keep you abreast of our little family unit.

Hopefully you have enjoyed this trilogy of updates and I promise not to leave it so long next time.  Don’t forget to have a look at our Flickr page (link on the right hand side) there are a few hundred new photos.

Peace and Love

Baggie

Three in a row
The boy!
Centripetal force
Sibling love
Coming in close
A kiss for my sister
A little bit of blue
Easter decorations
A finishing touch
With my Nanny
A dress made out of Play-Doh
Story time
The tower of Babel err Lego
Extreme close up
I am an Alien!
Not again big sister!
I’m taking them off

 

The Power of the Sun

Baggie

The subject of this update was due to be the title of the previous update (and the one previous to that), indeed I was hoping to have written this way back in March but as with many things in the Bagnall household, plans do not follow the path that you had mapped out.  Nevertheless we are here and this is it.  It is also part of the reason why the updates have been a little sporadic of late although in order to make amends to you dear readers, this is write up number two of three that will happen this week.  Let’s hope that not only do things get better from now on, they stay that way for the rest of the year!

When we saw our new home we fell in love with it as it gave us nearly all what we wanted and more importantly a home that we wouldn’t quickly outgrow.  When we moved in Lucinda was on maternity leave and thus we only had my income to live on.  Although it is tough we are fortunate, or perhaps savvy enough to ensure that we are not reliant on Lucinda’s salary (although it is a nice bonus and allows for all the niceties like holidays), and with the events of the last few months that has been very wise nonetheless a bigger house means bigger bills.  Again we were prepared for this but at the same time there is no harm is seeing what you can do to limit the impact of them on your wallet.  Therefore we are currently looking at a variety of ways to reduce these bills.

Last week saw the first of our initiatives (I wonder how many we will get done this year.  You will have to keep popping to by to see whether any of the others come to fruition) an installation of Solar Panels or more strictly Photovoltaic cells.  Solar energy is the third biggest renewal energy source (after hydro and wind power) and is the most accessible for a home installation.  The price of solar systems have fallen such that they are economically viable (even in the UK) and so with energy prices only set to increase and our domestic consumption of electricity (both as a country and as the Bagnall household) also set to increase it seemed a good time to jump in.

We have opted to buy our system outright (via a loan from RBS – RBS’s hand has been forced by the government to provide such loans as we, the tax payers of the UK, own 80% of RBS).  This means that it will probably take around 5 years for the system to pay for itself, but as of Friday every penny of every quantum of energy that we produce is ours.  This means we are not tied into any third party, and the space above our roof remains ours, thus in theory the panels can only really be considered an asset to the house (unless for some reason you don’t like the look of them) as they contribute to reducing our energy bills in three (possibly four) ways:

  • As our system was installed by an accredited installer we are eligible for the UK’s FiT (Feed-in Tariff) of 14.9p/kWh payable on the electricity we generate.
  • Since the electricity we generate is fed into our consumer board we then use this electricity before drawing electricity from the grid, saving us money per unit of electricity consumed.  If our generation of electricity is above our consumption of electricity we are paid an extra 5p/kWh.
  • Any surplus electricity generated is used to power an immersion heater in our hot water cylinder, thus reducing the amount of energy required to heat our hot water and thus reducing our gas bill in the process.
  • The fourth possible way is more of a tenuous reason to install photovoltaic cells.  In a 2011 study using thermal imaging it was shown that photovoltaic panels, provided there is an open gap in which air can circulate between them and the roof, provide a passive cooling effect on buildings during the day and also keep accumulated heat in at night.  Not really a reason to install photovoltaic cells (better off nipping to Screwfix (other DIY stores are available) and buying some loft insulation) but a nice side effect.

From a green point of view, the energy required to build a photovoltaic cell is repaid by the energy generated by the cell in about 2.5 years, in the UK (as little as a year in more tropical climes).  Although I don’t subscribe entirely to the notion of Anthropogenic Climate Change the fact that we are poisoning our environment is not in doubt and if we can make changes in one’s own home to reduce the burden that modern life is placing on mother Earth then surely that is only a positive.  If by doing so, we can actually save ourselves some money then it is win-win.

Now this isn’t really the forum for a detailed analysis of the saga that was our install, suffice to say that installs are usually much smoother than the one we experienced.  A combination of factors all colluded to cause us delay after delay after delay.  Could these factors have been forecast:  perhaps not.  Could they have been handled by the install company better:  most certainly.  It is extremely frustrating to be on the wrong side of poor customer service, even if that poor customer service is delivered by nice people trying to be nice.  In some ways it was worse than being on the wrong side of poor customer service by a company that didn’t even have a pretense of trying to solve the issues.

I genuinely think that the install company were purely going through a busy period with no mechanism in place to look after a customer for whom things are not going as planned.  It was almost as if the original plan wasn’t working they didn’t have an alternative and no one was going to take responsibility for our case.

I was driven by frustration so much that after many an email exchange I ended up speaking to the CEO and telling him my thoughts.  Compensation has been agreed and we shall say no more on the matter and thus it is only fair that the install company will remain nameless.

The big question however is whether the savings are truly worth it; you may have to pop back in 2020 for a full report, although we are seeing an income already.  Would I recommend solar panels, in my limited experience, if you can afford it:  Yes.

A small selection of photos of some of the people for whom the idea that renewable energy sources are a rare thing will be hard to comprehend when they reach 40.

Peace and Love

Baggie

 

The wind’ll change
I can do as well…
Innocent look