Welcome to 2016

Baggie

I began this first post of the New Year while the house was still in its clinquant finery, unfortunately for you dear readers life has got in the way and I now post it a couple of weeks into January.  However as usual this post is where I sit like the personification of Janus with one eye on the future and one on the year just gone.

I do not think that I can go any further without mentioning the defining family event of the year.  It is always difficult when someone we love passes away; when that person is a much loved husband, father, grandfather, uncle, friend then even more so.  John passed away on Monday 19th October from pleomorphic cell sarcoma, a form of bone cancer.  He had been diagnosed in April after months of investigations into the pain in his shoulder and a loss of control of his arm, and was told it was terminal in September.  So, although not unexpected the relative swiftness of his passing was a shock to us all; a shock that we are all still coming to terms with and no doubt will do for many years to come.

It goes without saying that Granddad’s death has left an enormous hole in our lives and it has also made us think of our own mortality.  It was a testament to the man to see so many people at his funeral; he had touched so many people’s lives and all wanted to pay respect to him.  He was an extremely practical man and although it is right and fitting that we are grieving he would not want us moping around.

This was the first time that the children had to deal with grief.  Indeed it was the first time that Lucinda had to really face bereavement, especially of someone so close.  Thus, it was me that told the girls (Ezra is too young) about their Granddad.  I explained that Granddad had died and asked them if they understood and whether they wanted to ask any questions and I answered them as truthfully as I could.  I assured them that it was fine to cry and to be upset and we sat in a huddle and hugged each other while crying.  I let them see me cry to illustrate that I, too, was upset that Granddad had died and thus there was no shame in crying.

The questions that the girls asked, illustrates the difference between them.  The scientific questions from Éowyn, (‘How do you catch cancer?’, ‘What happens to your body?’ etc.) to the practical from Amélie (‘Who is going to cook me pancakes? ‘Who is going to fix my toys when I break them?’). I answered them as honestly as I could, without going into any dark details, then came the question ‘Is Granddad in heaven?’ ‘Can we go and visit him?’

Now, I may not believe in Heaven, but then again neither do I believe in Father Christmas. Like Father Christmas I am not going to crush the girls’ belief with my adult logic (flawed or otherwise), it is more important for them to believe in the magic. In the same way that the belief in the magic of Christmas is embodied in the personification of Father Christmas then Heaven is a belief in the enduring love of those we have lost.

Please feel free to click here to read my tribute to Granddad, and here if you want to read my ramblings on life and death.  I have also set up a tribute page to John that you can reach by clicking here, you will see that we have raised over £500 for the Sam Beare hospice that looked after John so well.

It is difficult to follow the memory of Granddad’s passing but 2015 has many good memories too and it has been very important year in the life of our second born.  September saw Amélie start full time education.  This is an important step in everybody’s life and so it was for Amélie.  Indeed she has now completed a full term at school and is still enjoying herself.  She gets on well with her teacher, Miss Snow, and as seemingly made some friends.  This was something, that Amélie had put great importance on when she first went to school, and became upset when the other children didn’t seem interested in becoming her friend.  We spoke to miss Snow about this and she said that it was no slight on Amélie moreover it was the fact that Amélie was emotionally more mature that the average reception pupil and so although Amélie was putting great store on building a special relationship, none of the other children were ready for such a commitment.  Notwithstanding the lack of a best friend Amélie is progressing very well and hopefully she can continue this through 2016.

Éowyn continued her journey through the education system moving from Year 1 to Year 2.  She has settled in well to changing school at such a delicate age and has made a number of very good friends, however she has still not forgot her best friend Aaliyah from her previous school.  She has enjoy her extra-curricula activities especially drama.  Indeed Sense Theatre the third party company that taught the after school drama club filmed their summer performance and then arranged a premiere showing where the actors were treated as V.I.P.s.  It was a difficult watch (imagine a school play 2 hours long) but Éowyn thoroughly enjoyed it and we purchased a DVD recording for prosperity, if ever you are suffering from insomnia.

Meanwhile our third born has become a cheeky young man.  He has two older sisters and therefore he has to stick up for himself and that he does rather well; he will not be taken for a fool.  His speech is coming along very well and he will have to look forward to joining his sisters in going to school (or pre-school in his case) in the coming year.  One of Ezra’s biggest steps this last year was his first taste of foreign travel.  Indeed a big step for all of our children.  The Bagnall family holiday (one of two – the other was no less exotic: The Lake District) in 2015 was to visit Sarigerme in Turkey.  This was Ezra’s first flight (which he loved) and the first time that the Baguettes had visited another continent, for although Turkey straddles both Europe and Asia and we were most certainly in Asia.  We feel fortunate that we decided to go to Turkey last year, as although we all loved Turkey and felt safe in the region, with the current sociopolitical situation in Turkey I am not sure that I would want to be taking my family there this summer.

The Baguettes are not the only members of the Bagnall family that have had seen big changes.  2015 saw Lucinda give up her career at the airport, retrain and become a full time Ofsted registered child minder.  It can not be understated how much of a big decision this was and how well Lucinda has adjusted to the change.  You may recall that Lucinda used to work for Air Canada, as ground staff at Heathrow Airport.  However, as is the want in our modern world Air Canada found it too expensive to employ staff at Heathrow but with flights still terminating and originating from such a busy hub they turned to a handling agency to provide this service.  Lucinda took redundancy and took a job with the handling agency.  She worked for ASIG for a year but realised that the job she has done for the previous sixteen years no longer existed and the job was interfering with being there for her children.  Hence the retraining and the child minding.  Child minding is not the easiest of jobs as you are working with children constantly without any adult interaction, but she has got good feedback from the parents of the children thatch looks after which is some comfort that she is doing things right.

This is the last time I will mention it but last year (my twentieth at IMG) was a very good year for winning things.  There has been the Emmy, NBC won the Emmy for Outstanding Technical Team Studio at the 36th Sports Emmy award and were gracious not only to recognise the fact that my department assist them in their technological endeavours but to include me and a number of other IMG staff members on the official list of winners.  I was very touched by this kind gesture and NBC had no obligation to include us in their win nevertheless it means that I am an Emmy winner and entitled to say so in perpetuity (although I promise not to mention it on this website again!); a signed Rugby World Cup ball (thanks England for being the first host team to be eliminated at the group stage heavily deflating any value that it has) but the first, and arguably the best, was the trip to Vienna.

For those of you that can’t quite remember the details: IMG provided facilities to the BBC to produce the 60th Eurovision Song Contest for transmission on BBC 1.  The 2015 contest was hosted in Vienna due to the previous year’s win by the Bearded Lady: Conchita Wurst.  Apparently this hasn’t happened before but it is in the spirit of the competition the Austrian Ambassador hosted a send-off party for the UK entry at the Austrian Embassy.  Invitations were strictly ‘invite only’ and along with the BBC personnel, four of us from IMG were invited to attend.  As we entered the Embassy we were given a raffle ticket.  Never say no to a free raffle ticket:  the top prize being two return flights to Vienna on Austrian Airways and two nights in Das Triest Hotel (and a 1 metre inflatable Austrian Airways jet).  This is what I won.

We decided that we would like to visit Vienna as the winter drew in and the Christmas markets begun, unfortunately weekends in December were filled booked and so we headed to Central Europe mid November.  It came at a good time, a month after Granddad’s passing and allowed us to relax as a couple without trying to make the weekend something more because it has cost us money.  Nevertheless we did managed to take a lot in int he 48 hours or so that we were there including the early Christmas markets.  We thoroughly enjoyed Vienna and would recommend a visit there, and indeed would love to go back.

2015 also saw the Bagnall family grow by two more members.  Chez Bagnall welcomed its first pets in the shape of two guinea pigs:  Toffee and Frazzle.  As this only happened at the end of December we will see how 2016 progresses how the novelty of pet ownership continues with the Baguettes.  Early indicators are favourable but let us revisit this in June.

2015 also saw an additional to the structure of the house itself in the shape of a fireplace and a multi-fuel stove.  The house is big and old and lacks the insulation of modern homes and therefore can sometimes feel quite cold.  Rather than turn the central heating on to heat the entire house when during the day we are all spending time in the lounge the stove should come into its own.  That is the theory anyway and if we are being completely honest the look and feel of a real fire is much more that just the heat it gives off, plus you get to burnt things!

So what will 2016 bring our family.  Hopefully it will be a little more boring.  The last few years have been manic with huge emotional earthquakes.  I think the family could do with just a year that just plods along nothing too stressful or life changing.  That is off course if we survive yet another end of the world prophecy (if you want to read my thoughts on the 2012 prophecy read this).  Apparently we survived the authors own 2015 prophecy and so it is now being pushed to 2016.  I think I am safe to say that you will still be able to read this post in 2017 (if you choose to do so).

So as we leap into 2016 with precious few longterm plans (we have a couple of holidays booked) we hold our heads up high and face the future as a family and I leave you with this thought:

“May Light always surround you;
Hope kindle and rebound you.
May your Hurts turn to Healing;
Your Heart embrace Feeling.
May Wounds become Wisdom;
Every Kindness a Prism.
May Laughter infect you;
Your Passion resurrect you.
May Goodness inspire
your Deepest Desires.
Through all that you Reach For,
May your arms Never Tire.”
― D. Simone

Peace and Love

Baggie

 

And another year over
That’s what I think of posing with my sisters
Looking to the future

That was the Christmas that was

Baggie

Trust that you all had a fantastic Christmas and Santa brought you all the presents that you deserve.  He was very generous with the Bagnall household this year and despite rumours to the contrary the Baguettes must have been on the ‘nice’ list.  As tradition dictates this will be the last update of 2015; the next update will be early in the new year when I will reflect on the year but here I will update you on the events of the Bagnall household over the yuletide.

Both girls broke up from school the Friday before Christmas, which means that they will be off school for just over a fortnight.  Fortunately my new shift pattern meant that although I was working the weekend before Christmas (the tail-end of a seven-day stint) I was off for the three days leading up to Christmas and could spend some time with them (and Ezra) at the start of their holiday.

Monday saw our fireplace, or more accurately our multi-fuel stove, finally installed and although it is the warmest December on record, in the South-East of the UK at least, wood needed to be burnt.  It has taken me a few goes to begin to perfect the technique to obtain a really hot fire, and I still think that there is a lot to learn.  My early mistake was that I was a little too eager to get the logs on the fire, as soon as the kindling was aflame I was piling the wood in.  Thus the stove was never reaching the optimum temperature before being asked to work.  There is still a lot to learn though, something that I am looking forward to.

Tuesday was the first day off as a family and I took this opportunity to take Éowyn to the local cinema to see Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, while Lucinda stayed at home with Amélie and Ezra.  I was seven when Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back was released so I thought it was high time to introduce my eldest to the Star Wars universe.  Éowyn hasn’t seen any of the other films (something that will be rectified over the next few weeks) unlike her friend Blake who, along with his father, accompanied us to the first showing of the day.

Unfortunately, we could not get 4 tickets in a row, so we had 3 in one row and 1 just in front, therefore Martin sat with the children, while I saw on my lonesome.  Even in my excitement of watching a Star Wars film at the cinema, I was conscious of my little girl in the row behind and kept turning round and making sure she was fine.  About half way through the film she tapped me on the shoulder because she wanted to go the toilet, so we headed out of the auditorium.  I took the opportunity to ask her what she thought of the film.  She said that she was enjoying it but was a little scared in places.  This as such didn’t worry me too much as I think that is the beauty of film, that it takes you on an emotional journey, however the next sentence broke my heart.  She said that she had noticed that when Blake was scared he had his daddy’s hand to hold but when she was scared she had nobody’s hand to hold.

Therefore when we returned to the auditorium I told her to sit on my knee to watch the remainder of the film.  As we sat there watching the conclusion of the film my hand was holding her side and chest and I could feel her heart beating at ten to the dozen with the excitement of the final scenes.  Father and daughter bonding over a film.

This isn’t really a forum for my report on the film but suffice to say that I enjoyed it but was disappointed.  That sounds oxymoronic but Star Wars (Episode IV: A New Hope – as it was retrospectively christened) took Hollywood in a new direction and kicked off the summer blockbuster (in tracks laid by Jaws a couple of years before).  It was a nod to 1930’s serials such as Flash Gordon, it took inspiration from Akira Kurosawa (especially The Hidden Fortress), mixed in 1950’s Westerns and a dash of World War II movies and captured a generation of children’s imaginations.

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens on the other hand is trying to be Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, it is not trying to be anything new; it has no story of its own.  That is slightly unfair as it is part of the continuing Star Wars story however, for me, it is a scene by scene remake and brings nothing new to either the Star Wars universe or Hollywood in general.  It was Disney playing safe trying not to damage the franchise with its first film especially since it has paid $4 billion for the rights.  It will do well at the Box Office; it is an enjoyable romp and to be honest I think it is a good film and I will see it again, and I am looking forward to the ‘Director’s Cut’, but is it a great film?  Will it be anyone’s favourite film?  Does it do anything that no other film does?  Unfortunately not.  That is why despite my childhood enthusiasm for the film and for all it stands for it is a disappointment.

We left the cinema with Éowyn asking lots of questions (some I could answer, some I couldn’t – the films haven’t been written yet!) and a promise that we will sit down and watch the remaining canon.  We had a list of things to pick up while in Staines town centre, so after grabbing something quick to eat we battled the Christmas shoppers and headed home.

In November we had offered to cook Christmas dinner for both of our families.  That is Lucinda’s Mom, brothers and their families and my Mom and my sisters.  With Granddad’s passing in October it only seemed right and fitting that we spent Christmas together as a family.  It wasn’t right, however to burden Nanny with the entertainment (even if we, as the next generation cooked the actual meal) so the logical place was our house.  Our lounge/dining room is big enough, with a rearrangement of the furniture to comfortably seat 17, even if the kitchen isn’t quite equipped to cook for that many.  However as we stood on Tuesday afternoon, 72 hours before that meal the house was not in any fit state to welcome Christmas visitors.

The lounge had been emptied to allow the workmen to work on the fireplace and so all the furniture was piled to one side of the dining room.  There was also a layer of dust coating many of the surfaces in the house.  So after returning from the cinema we set about rearranging the furniture and getting ready for the family.

Christmas Eve saw the arrival of Nanny Fran, Auntie Liz, Auntie Mary and Toffee and Frazzle.  The house was ready for Christmas and the fire was on.  Toffee and Frazzle were introduced to their new home (although the girls did not know that we were going to keep them at this point) and we settled down for the evening.  We were all sitting around chatting and watching Christmas telly that we completely forgot to go out into the garden to look for Santa’s International Space Sleigh.

Christmas morning we were expecting to be woken at oh, my gosh it’s early, O’clock.  However that was not to be.  Éowyn and Amélie didn’t wake until 0730 while Ezra was still asleep at 0800! How lucky were we?  Indeed we were downstairs when Ezra woke up and I asked him whether Santa had been and left anything in his room.  His little face dropped and he shook his head.  ‘Are you sure?‘  I inquired (I did have some insider information), ‘Shall we have a look?‘  His face lit up when he saw he big sack of presents and we took it downstairs to join the girls in the big opening.

Nanny Fran, Auntie Liz and Auntie Mary must have also been good girls as Santa had left them a little stocking of presents too.  They certainly were good girls helping us prepare the table and more importantly preparing the mountains of veg for Christmas dinner.

Amazingly, Christmas dinner for 17 went fairly smoothly.  We were planning to sit down and eat at 1500 and we started serving at 1503!  There was a mountain of food left over (that kept us going for days afterwards) and we needed a little bit of a tactical break before tackling the desserts.  Auntie Zoe provided the desserts (with help from Uncle Steven) but as Christmas Day is also her birthday we had a surprise for her.  Instead of bringing in the Christmas Pud alight, we turned the lights out to bring in a birthday cake replete with 4 lit candles.  Apparently, it was only about the third birthday cake she has ever had.

I was back at work on Boxing Day (it is one of the busiest football days!) and Nanny Fran, Auntie Liz and Auntie Mary headed up to West Bromwich, leaving Lucinda and the Baguettes in the house with ridiculous amounts of cardboard and piles of toys.

There was a gap in the fixtures on the following day so it was time to introduce the Baguettes to one of the big responsibilities of pet ownership – cleaning out the cage.  Not sure how long this enthusiasm will last but they all helped cleaning the cage and their house while I disposed of the waste products.  It was a good excuse for another cuddle with the guinea pigs before putting them back into their clean cage for them to mess up and throw their food all over the floor.  I have been teaching the Baguettes that when you approach the guinea pig cage to talk to them softly and walk slowly to the cage so that they know you are coming at it is not a big surprise.  That way they will be less scared (guinea pigs are always scared) and hopefully they will not run and hide as you get there.  We have a long way to go until his guinea pig etiquette is fully established and a long way to go until the guinea pigs are fully trusting, especially of the smaller members of the household, but while the enthusiasm is still there, then we will encourage their interest and hopefully Toffee and Frazzle will begin to trust us more and not be quite as nervous around the kids.

I have a couple of days off around the New Year before football kicks off again on the second of January.  So by the time the girls go back to school I will not have spent too much time with the baguettes, which is a shame but will have had Christmas and New Year off and Lucinda has had the entire time off which would have been an impossibility if she was still at the airport!

I will leave you now but not before I wish you all a very Happy New Year and see you all in 2016!

Peace and Love

Baggie

PS For those of you that enjoy geeky stats click here for a summary of baggieandlucy.com for 2015.

Wait ’til i finish my chocolate
Cool Dude
Like my hat?
Hello!
Sisters!
Cuddle for my baby
Mommy and Daddy
Éowyn and Ezra
Amélie
Angel Éowyn
Angel Amélie
The Bagnall Family
Present opening time!
Prince Eric
Any more in here?
My favourite present!
Christmas table
Does anyone want anymore?
Rockin’ Reindeers
The fire aglow
Too much!

The Bagnalls’ first pets

Baggie

Lucinda and I have decided that three children makes our family complete.  I think if we had met when we were 21 rather than 31 and we had a bigger house we may not have stopped at three, however we didn’t and as we had both come from 3 children families it seemed a natural number to stop.  Therefore, if we are to expand the family then the obvious way is to introduce pets to Chez Bagnall.

As children my sisters and I had a plethora of pets: goldfish, mice, gerbils, hamsters, Siberian hamsters, guinea pigs, rabbits and dogs so I am not stranger to sharing your house with our forms of life.  Lucinda, however, never had such pets, the Cathrall household did have dogs but no small mammals.

I am a big advocate of children having pets.  Having a pet teaches you many things.  It teaches you respect for other life forms; it teaches you empathy; it teaches you responsibility and it teaches you how to grieve.  These are all important life skills for our little ones to acquire.  Microbiologists will probably tell you that pets are good for your immune system.  Obviously there are those that are allergic to certain animals but for others the inevitable bacteria that will be passed from animal to child helps with the build up of the bodies defences and there is some evidence to suggest that children that grow up around pets have less risk for developing certain allergies.

A pet also helps bond a family together.  If you ask a child, or indeed their parents whether a pet is a part of the family, most people would be almost offended that you had the audacity to ask such a question. “Of course they are!”  It can be the focus of family activities.  Whether that is taking a dog for a walk; encouraging a cat to chase a felt mouse or simply watching a fish swim in its tank.  There is nothing as relaxing as just sitting down stroking the fur of a pet.  It has been proven that stroking a pet lowers blood pressure and slows the heartbeat reducing stress.  Something that can not be understated in our hectic modern lives.  Sometimes it is important to sit down and do nothing – and not feel guilty about it.  If this sitting down and doing nothing can be done as a family, so much the better – children can feel stressed too!

Despite their name guinea pigs are not pigs nor are they from Guinea.  Guinea pigs, cavies or more accurately domestic guinea pigs are short-tailed, rough-haired South American rodents (family Caviidae, genus Cavia).  They were first domesticated around 5000 B.C. from a closely related species of cavy but do not exist naturally in the wild.

Guinea pigs thrive in groups, indeed in Switzerland it is illegal to keep guinea pigs on their own.  Guinea pigs have been kept as pets in Western Europe since European traders brought them back from South America in the 16th century due to their easy going nature and hardiness.  Biological experimentation has been carried out on guinea pigs since at least the 17th century which is where our modern idiom ‘guinea pig’ originates, even though their use in medical experiments has largely been replaced with smaller rodents such as mice and rats since the 20th century.

A guinea pig was one of the first pets that I had as a child, so I have a soft spot for these friendly rodents.  Notwithstanding my affection for guinea pigs there are a number of reasons why I think that they make a great first pet:

  • Guinea pigs are easy to care for. They only require hay, fresh water, fresh vegetables and a small amount of  guinea pig food, plus a vitamin C supplement each day – unlike other rodents guinea pigs can not produce their own vitamin C and thus require it from their food.   They need a secure cage lined with paper and a little sawdust.  A quick tidy daily and a thorough clean once a week and that is it.  If you want to keep them friendly, a daily cuddle is required and you have a happy and contented pet.
  • Guinea pigs are great pets for children. Not as big as rabbits and far more relaxed  than smaller rodents like hamsters and gerbils, however it is still important to supervise younger children and those who aren’t as familiar with animals.
  • Guinea pigs are hardy. When you adhere to the first point guinea pigs will generally stay healthy.  Diseases can be kept at bay with regular trips to the vets.
  • Guinea pigs live long lives. While most small rodents (such as mice, hamsters and gerbils only live for about two or three years, guinea pigs can live for five to seven years, this means that more of a bond can be formed without the extended commitment that comes with a dog or a cat.
  • Guinea pigs have personality. From my experience guinea pigs have different personalities, more so that the smaller rodents. They can be shy; while others can be bold and dominant and just because two guinea pigs look the same doesn’t mean will be the same.
  • Guinea pigs like people. People who haven’t kept guinea pigs often don’t believe this, but they really do recognise and respond to their owners. Many squeal with delight when they see their owners or try to climb up the sides of their cage to greet them.
  • Guinea pigs talk!  Guinea pigs are extremely vocal animals.  They squeak, squawk (indeed my second generation of guinea pigs were called squeak and squawk), and sometime purr like a cat.  They will also make a rumbling sound or chatter their teeth, especially when they are angry or aggressive.

Given their low-maintenance care, overall hardy nature, strong ability to bond with their owners and generally long lifespans, guinea pigs make fantastic first pets for families who want an animal that is loving and rewarding but would find a cat or a dog too much of a burden.

Auntie Liz bought two guinea pigs as class pets for her nursery group and as such had the responsibility for looking after them at weekends.  It soon became apparent that one of the guinea pigs was with pups.  (Male guinea pigs are called boars, female guinea pigs are called sows but that is where their porcine naming convention stops; baby guinea pigs are called pups).  The school didn’t want the responsibility (or cost) of extra mouths to feed so there was a decision to be made about the pups.  This was when Lucinda and I thought it was about time the Baguettes had a pet.

Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz had been down relatively regularly over the last few months and as this has been mainly at weekends, the guinea pigs have been regular visitors too.  The Baguettes loved them and regularly asked to hold them, even if it was for only a couple of minutes before they got too nervous.  It was also a good time for Lucinda to get used to holding them.  Lucinda had never had small rodents as pets as a child and so was also unfamiliar with handling them.  Since guinea pigs are relatively docile and not at all skittish she, and the children, quickly grew in confidence.  Therefore when the pups arrived it was a no brainer that we would take them on.  However, with the fireplace install on-going and thus a lot of dust in the air, not to mention the loud noises associated with building work, we decided to leave it until Christmas for their true adoption.

The pups had already been named by the children, for when they were born we asked them to think of names.  The list was relatively long and had some more unusual names on their (Eric, unfortunately did not make the final list) but eventually the names Toffee and Frazzle were chosen and thus they were christened.

The Baguettes had no idea that there were going to keep the guinea pigs, even though for about a month before we finally took them in we were trying to get the Baguettes used to the idea of having them as pets.  They were very excited when Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz bought them down for Christmas; we expected them to be just as excited when Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz left leaving Toffee and Frazzle behind, however Amélie got herself all upset.  When Lucinda asked why she was upset she said that Nanny Fran should take them back.  Lucinda said that she thought that Amélie would like the guinea pigs as pets and she replied that she would but Nanny Fran would be too upset if she left them here.  Amélie is a sensitive little soul sometimes.  Nevertheless she managed to convince Amélie that although Nanny Fran would miss them, that Toffee and Frazzle would like to stay at our house and Amélie should help look after them.  This satisfied Amélie and thus it was the beginning of pet ownership in chez Bagnall.

Here are photos of the latest additions to the Bagnall household.  We will see how long they keep the attention of the Baguettes.

Peace and Love

Baggie

Toffee
Toffee and Frazzle
Frazzle