Holidays

Our first night off

Friday 31st July 2009Sunday 1st January 2017Baggie

This week has marked a big stage in both Éowyn’s development and our own as parents. For Christmas my mom, Nanny Fran, bought us a two part present a ‘Couples Experience’ voucher, and while we were taking advantage of that, she would look after Éowyn. You could say that mom bought a day with her grandchild but she knows that she doesn’t have to do that.

We decided to use the voucher to book a spa day at the Marriott Hotel and Country Club at the Forest of Arden for our wedding anniversary and then on the back of that a night at the hotel. This meant that Éowyn would spent over 24 hours with Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz but without Mommy and Daddy. To make this as easy as possible we travelled up to West Bromwich on Sunday. It had been a while since Éowyn had seen her Nanny Fran but had soon made herself at home and was more interested in her nan and auntie as new playnates than her mom and dad. We had arrived in West Bromwich a little earlier than we thought and had more than enough time to take Éowyn’s Great Great Uncle Albert out for Sunday lunch. I think that she amazed him with how much she enjoys her food and how vocal she can be.

Sunday evening, Liz’s friend and Mom’s surrogate grandchildren paid Éowyn a visit. It was really interesting to see Éowyn interacting with older children. She loved it as you can see from the photos below and I’m sure that Amelia and Finn enjoyed it too.

So Monday morning came and as usual we woke with Éowyn and after her first morning feed we took her downstairs. It was quite strange knowing that we were going to leave her for a day and have no way of telling her. So after breakfast Nanny Fran took her upstairs to get washed and dressed and we left for our day (and night) away. No kisses or waves goodbye as we drove away. We were in two minds as whether this was best but listened to Nanny Fran’s advice and hoped that all would be well.

The hotel is a couple of miles from Meriden a village that lays claim to be the centre of England and after a day of relaxation and massages we decided to walk into the village for a gourmet pub meal at the Bull’s Head as we were assured that it was only a 20 minute walk. Nearly an hour later we found ourselves in the village at the centre of England. At just over 3 miles we would have needed to have walked at 9 miles an hour to have made it into Meriden in 20 minutes. That is the equivalent of running a marathon in under 3 hours! Not part of a relaxing day, especially up hill and down dale.

It was strange not to have Éowyn with us, and Lucinda obviously felt that more than I on the Monday and I had to prevent her from phoning mom and texting constantly. However, Tuesday morning the roles were reversed and it was me that was anxious to get back.

Our return was a mixed blessing: Éowyn had not missed us as much as we thought she would. Obviously this is good, as it means that we can leave her with others and have some freedom and time to ourselves but at the same time a little disappointing that she didn’t miss us. It is, I suppose, only our egos that assume that only we can possibly know what our child needs and it is good, nay crucial, for her development to realise that there are others that can look after her. Not to mention good for us as parents to have time for us and our relationship.

Éowyn had a fabulous time at Nanny Fran’s as she was the centre of attention. They went to the Sea Life centre in Birmingham (about as far from the sea as you can get in the UK!) as well as meeting Nanny Fran’s friends and visiting her Great-Grandma.

The journey back home was eventful too. Lucinda had bought a rocking horse off ebay (for the grand total of £5.50) from a family in a village near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. Conveniently this is not too far from our way home, so we decided to pick it up on the way back. The transaction was smooth but as we left with the horse the call of the bladder and Éowyn’s feed, time beckoned and there was no welcoming hostelry on the horizon. Sitting on a bench rocking a baby in a pushchair an elderly lady was the only person around to ask where the nearest pub or restaurant was. ‘There isn’t one near”, she said and Lucinda returned to the car. Before she had managed to climb back into the car to head home the lady called her back. “I can’t see you without a cup of tea or the baby without her feed,” she insisted. “Come back to my place.” The lady was most insistent and it seemed as if it would offend not to take her up on her offer, so we did.

Her husband did not bat an eyelid that his wife had invited two strangers with a baby back to their house for a cup of tea and the chance to use the loo. We sat with them for 90 minutes or so, drinking tea from china cups being forcefed kitkats while Éowyn nursed. They were a lovely couple, so friendly and welcoming. They were both approaching 90, yet scarcely looked over 70. It was so uplifting to meet such kind people when there is such a barrage of depressing news in the media. Marge and Len we tip our hats to you and only hope that we are enjoying life as much as you guys do now when the calendar reads 2060.

Today, saw another journey, this time south, for a rocking horse. Yes Lucinda’s winning streak on ebay listed rocking horses extended to two (well Éowyn does mean ‘lover of horses’). This one however was in Southampton and was actually a donkey. In all fairness this second horse (donkey) will last her much longer and is much nicer (although don’t tell the frst one that!) As we were down in deepest darkest Hampshire we decided that it would be nice to visit Lucinda’s friend Pam in Andover. It was good catching up with Pam as we have not seen her for a while and to see her youngest daughter Zara who is growing up so fast.

Éowyn took another step in her development too, although not one under her control. Finally she has teeth. After what seems like an age her top two front teeth have cut through the gum and are growing well. However, it is a little strange to see her with teeth after nine months with none. Our little girl is growing up so fast!

Enjoy the new photos (and I have uploaded more of our wedding photos onto the Flickr pages too)

Peace and Love

Baggie!

Beep!

Playing with Amelia and Finn

Can I have some please?

With Auntie Liz at the Sea Life Centre

Centre of England

I’m tired Auntie Liz

My first painting

With Nanny on my horse

Visiting Great-Grandma

My First Holiday

Thursday 28th May 2009Sunday 1st January 2017Baggie

As you can probably guess from the title of this entry, Éowyn (and her parents) have just returned from a week’s holiday in Devon as a break for Lucinda’s birthday. This was Éowyn’s first holiday (we are counting the trip to Colchester as a mini-break) and so an important stage in anyone’s life and the furthest she has ever been from her place of birth. To ease her (and us) into the idea of family holidays we hired a three bedroom cottage from one of the guys from work. It is in the South Hams village of Noss Mayo overlooking the Newton creek and Yealm estuary along with it’s twin from across the creek Newton Ferrers.

The Devon and Cornish peninsula always appear (to an outsider like me) to have peculiar microclimates and towns only separated by a few miles can experience very different weather. This is in no small part to the geography of the area, high moorlands, V-shaped valleys and numerous coves and inlets, providing shelter or acting as a funnel depending on the direction of the winds. And so it was the case with our trip. The forecast wasn’t good according to the national weather reports and we feared the worse. The week did start a little wet but soon gave way to warmer, drier weather.

Noss Mayo and Newton Ferrers sit either side of a V-shaped valley and as such walking anywhere was hard work and kept you fit. There is a voss that links Noss Mayo to Newton Ferrers which is accessible at low tide else it is a longer walk to Bridgend to cross the creek . Due to the timing of the low tides we only managed to cross the voss once, and then only just. The tide came in quiet quickly and by the time we had crossed to the other side the voss was completely under water.

We took it relatively easy on our holiday and didn’t really do too much driving once we were there. We spent a day in Padstow to meet up with a friend of Lucinda’s from university. Ruth was down on holiday with her boyfriend Rob and their dog Rooney. It was the first time that they had met since leaving university, although they have kept in touch regularly via snail mail. They have vowed to keep in touch via letters instead of e-mail/ text message/ instant messaging/ social networking sites and a plethora of alternative ways of communication that permeate modern living.

One of my good friends Andy popped down for a day or so and took the headland walk out of Noss Mayo. We took it very gently and took most of the afternoon, especially pushing Éowyn in her pushchair. The views were spectacular and would highly recommend it for anyone spending sometime in the area. The walk ends at the Ship Inn which is the perfect place to end such an adventure. The staff were very friendly and the food fantastic, if a little pricey but you could not grumble about the size of the portions!

The only other major excursion we did was to visit Delamore House in nearby Cornwood. It had an exhibition of sculpture and paintings. Not usually my kind of thing but some of the sculptures and you can see on the Flickr pages were excellent, especially the work by Oxfordshire artist Daren Greenhow, anyone that can make a Veló-ciraptor out of old bicycle parts (get it? Veló – ciraptor. Oh, forget it) gets my vote.

Éowyn seemed to really enjoy herself during the whole holiday and, apart from the first night, slept through the night. This is probably due to the fact that she had both her parents undivided attention for a week. She also took another big step on her development is so much that we stopped her dream feed. Now she is regularly taking solids the need for that extra feed disappears but we were still nervous to stop it. However, there has been no adverse reaction and the fact that she hasn’t woke is proof that she no longer needs it. She is now an adept at crawling, and has been readying herself for the next stage: walking. She regularly pulls herself up to her knees but as yet has not found the strength to stand. Yesterday that changed and for the first time she pulled herself to a standing position using the pouffe. Her latest entertainment though is to crawl into the kitchen and watch the washing machine. If it isn’t on she gets quite annoyed and bangs her hands on the floor. I suppose it is better than being a telly addict…

They told me this was a telly!

Can’t work this straw thing

Mid-crawl

Mommy and Éowyn at the harbour

Noss Mayo boats

Noss Mayo at night

Cheeky smile

Veló-ciraptor

Mommy and Éowyn

Unfortunately upon our return we have had some bad news. Éowyn’s Great Great Auntie Iris has passed away. She had a bleed on the brain caused by a cerebral aneurysm and although initially it did not seem life threatening she contracted an infection and her condition worsened. She passed away on the morning of Sunday 24th May 2009 at the age of 88, one week short of her 64th Wedding Anniversary. Our thoughts are with her husband, my Great Uncle Albert. Rest well Auntie Iris.

At the Zoo

Monday 11th May 2009Sunday 1st January 2017Baggie

As you may recall my birthday present from the family was to be a keeper for the day at Colchester Zoo. That day was Friday. As Colchester is quite a distance from home then part two of the birthday surprise was a couple of nights at the nearby Five Lakes Golf, Country Club and Spa. Therefore we headed to Maldon after morning rush hour on Thursday to take full advantage of the facilities. This was also Éowyn’s first mini-break away. She has stopped at Nanny Fran’s but not since her new awareness has developed and never in a hotel without all of her familiar things.

So after unpacking and settling in we headed to the spa facilities to take Éowyn swimming for the first time. She has grown to like the bath especially since she has discovered splashing but we were unsure how she would take to a swimming pool. This was probably the best introduction since the swimming pool was all but empty so there were no waves from the other people and more importantly there was little noise. Swimming pools can be extremely noisy places especially when they are busy, and we were conscious that this could be a problem when we first took her swimming and we hoped that this would not put her off. Another benefit was that we could take our camera in to capture her first swim, something that public swimming pools will certainly not let you do. As you can see from the pictures below she thoroughly enjoyed it.

She did not enjoy sleeping in a strange cot in a strange room however and awoke in the middle of the night screaming. It took us a while to calm her down, hopefully we didn’t disturb any of the other guests.

Friday was ‘Zoo-Keeper for the day‘ day! We arrived early at Colchester Zoo in the middle of an icy downpour. The day had started brightly but soon deteriorated into a real winter shower. This meant that the zoo was quieter than usual as a day at the zoo is usually a fair-weather day out.

As you can see from the Colchester Zoo website there are three different schemes for the ‘Keeper for the day‘ experience; Lucinda had booked scheme B – the Carnivores, she knows me so well. There were two of us on the scheme, myself and a lady called Jane. We were to report at the Customer Services desk at 11:00am sharp ready for our first task with zoo-keeper Carrie.

We headed straight to the meerkats where we were to feed them live mealworms. We were warned not to pet them (as with most animals at the zoo, they are not pets) as they will bite and have needle sharp teeth, as well as long claws on their forefeet. Meerkats have a varied diet but the mealworms encourages them to forage, since the mealworms when scattered on the ground attempt to burrow into the soil (and who can blame them). However, meerkats have an acute sense of smell and can smell invertebrates up to a metre below the surface. What did surprise me, what that they were smaller than I expected, only about the size of my foot. They were very inquisitive but when they realised that we were out of mealworms they headed back to the warmth of their ‘caves’.

Another tub of mealworms (poor mealworms) in hand we headed to the squirrel monkey cage. Very cute but highly mischievous we were not allowed in the enclosure with them but fed them through the bars of their cage.

The next stop was to an animal that most people have never heard of. The Binturong is a relation of the civet that lives in the forest of Asia. It is also known as the bearcat although it is neither. It is has a thick long prehensile tail with which it can support its own body weight and big strong claws that it uses for climbing trees. As we walked into the cage it came up to greet us, somewhat like a dog and you had to resist the urge to bend down to stroke him. It is amazing how friendly an animal can get when you have a big bowl of its favourite food, it this case fruit, animals pellets and sprats. He definitely had his favourite food: bananas, followed closely by grapes and turned his nose up against anything else until they had all gone. A very cute animal that I recommend that you all go and visit when you next visit a zoo.

We then headed from the small mammals to the carnivores and from Carrie to Vickie. The first carnivore on the list was the Fossa. A very agile relative of the civet that is found only on the island of Madagascar, it is especially adept at hunting lemurs. As with the next few animals on the list we were unable to enter the enclosure for our own safety but the presence of the keeper (with food) brought her to the front of the cage so that we got a good view of her.

Again, the next beast on the list was too dangerous for us to enter their enclosure. The Amur Leopard Dende, is one of the 35 or so Amur Leopards in the world. Probably the rarest big cat in the world, their numbers are threatened due to poaching (both of the cats themselves for Chinese medicine and their skins, protection of livestock in the leopard’s territory and of their prey), deforestation, and genetic inbreeding due to such low population numbers. Vickie however has built a relationship with the leopard such that they are training him to present himself for medical examinations, so that they can listen to his heart (very difficult because he gets so excited when his is interacting with Vickie that his purring deafens the vet) and take blood samples, all without resorting to anethatising him. Dende is so happy to see Vickie that when she approached his enclosure he ran to greet her at the glass, pawing it as a large and over-affectionate moggy. It was great to be so close to such a beautiful cat.

Next on the list was to clean the lions’ bedding. Ensuring that both lions were in the open the shutter was released so that we could safely enter their indoor enclosure. We changed their straw bedding and washed down the area so that their bedroom was fit for a king.

Our final stop before lunch was to feed the margays. Small spotted cats from South America they spend most of their time in trees and so to provide enrichment we hung portions of rabbit from trees in their enclosure hidden in toilet rolls, so that they had to work to get their food and sprayed perfume in the branches of the trees. We entered their enclosures while they were there but they were far too wary to approach us. As soon as we left though the male was straight after the food, while the female found an irresistable urge to rub herself against the perfume. Apparently they like the perfume and rub their own scent into it.

An hour for lunch and we were picked up by Sarah the keeper of the African savanna mammals. The first task was to feed the Red River Hogs, so called because they are red, live by rivers and are hogs. Although omnivores, we fed them their fruit and vegetable course. They displayed a preference for apples, and would not touch the others until they were sure that all the apples had been thrown. Due to their unpredictable nature we were not allowed to enter their enclosure but we could lean over the fence and pet them, always bearing in mind that their jaws are strong enough to crush coconuts and they are quick enough to catch rabbits.

We then walked round to the main enclosure and Sarah told us about their giraffes, rhinos, kudus, zebras and ostriches. Again their unpredictable nature means that we were unable to enter the enclosure. However we were taken to their bedding quarters where we made a bed for the kudus, then we were handed a bunch of leaves and taken to feed the giraffes. It is amazing how big a giraffe is. I think we all accept that giraffes are the tallest animals in the world, but it is not until you are standing next to one that you realise just how big they are. See the photos below.

The last but not least encounter for the day was with the aardvark. Famous for being the first noun in the English language, the aardvark (Earth Pig in Afrikaans) is a medium sized burrowing mammal. Colchester Zoo has the enviable honour of being the only zoo in the UK that has successfully bred aardvarks and their fourth baby aardvark, Draco, was born in January. Aardvarks are relatively peaceful and so we were allowed to enter their enclosure and were encouraged to stroke them. The adults seemed nonplussed as nocturnal animals they barely roused from their slumber. Draco though, as any child was fascinated by the visitors and came over for a sniff and stroke. Sarah even demonstrated how ticklish he is. As she tickled his sides he rolled on his back for you to stroke his belly. What a fantastic way to end a fabulous day.

So if you have ever entertained the idea of being a zoo keeper I thoroughly recommend the Colchester experience, it is without doubt one of the best presents that I have ever had and would jump at the chance to do it again.

Please enjoy the photos below and more on the flickr pages too.

Peace and love

Baggie!