Welcome to 2015

Thursday 1st January 2015Thursday 1st January 2015Baggie

It is traditional for my first post of the year to look Janus-like at the year that has just been and one the one yet to come. Who am I to stand in the way of tradition?

2013 was an extremely hectic year with much of what life can throw at you and so we were hoping for a more sedate 2014. With 3 children life is never going to be sedate, neither however, was it hectic. In 2013 life through many things at us including: births, deaths, marriages, holidays, big birthdays, and house moves and although my company relocated (and came under new management) there were no new jobs in the Bagnall household. It seemed that life was not finished with the Bagnall household and does not conform to the convention of numerical years and almost before the Christmas decorations had found their way back into the loft and certainly before Lucinda had returned to work from maternity leave the news broke that she would have to find a new job.

2014 saw the opening of the new Terminal 2 at Heathrow Airport and Air Canada, the company where Lucinda had worked for the past 16 years, was one of the Airlines that was due to make it their new home. Air Canada though, took this opportunity to look at their accounts and decided to outsource ground control to the handling agency ASIG. Lucinda therefore had two choices: transfer to ASIG or redundancy. Since Lucinda had such long service it made sense to take redundancy and then apply to ASIG, hopefully be offered a similar position and try to negotiate favourable terms as an individual.

Thus the stress of returning to work after maternity leave was coupled with the uncertainty of redundancy and job applications. Nevertheless, Lucinda took it in her stride, took the favourable redundancy package, applied for a position at ASIG and managed to retain her job share hours which ties in, as nicely as it can, with my hours.

My hours have just been ridiculous this year with the conclusion of the move from Chiswick to Uxbridge (doesn’t sound too exotic, does it?) and especially moving Premier League Productions and at the same time taking on another major client in the guise of European Qualifiers. It is nice to know that we are busy (better than being the opposite) but it would be nice to spend some time with the family. However 2015 is bring a new structure and hopefully this will free me from the coal face and move me to the management side of my role and thus free me from the shackles of weekend fixtures.

These upheavals in work life have obviously been coupled with the usual stresses of being the parents of three young children and the small matter of moving into a new home. We had only owned our new home for two months before 2014 was upon us and with Christmas 2013 around the corner all we had time to do was unpack. Therefore this year was the first chance we had to do anything major with the house.

The house felt homely when we moved in and rooms were allocated almost on our first viewing and a year on they haven’t changed. Our furniture, however felt dwarfed in the bigger living space and although we didn’t want to clutter the space with furniture for the sake of it we have acquired a few new pieces including the extending table that was used to full effect for Christmas dinner.

We haven’t made too many changes to the house so far, indeed we have only really made three major changes:

The installation of photovoltaic panels
Painting of the exterior
New French doors

The installation of the photovoltaic panels was never a definite plan but something I have always been interested in, especially when I realised how much bigger the fuel bills were for a larger, older house. When we investigated the various methods to acquire them and how much it would cost to buy an array and we decided that there was no better time than the present. We are earning about £800 a year from them, if this year is at all typical, and our dual fuel bill had dropped by £60/month. At that rate they will have paid for themselves in less than 6 years (not including any energy price increases) and they are guaranteed for 20 years. Could be a good little earner; I’ll keep you informed.

The first thing that we noticed about the house when we came for our initial viewing was the colour. The house is pebbledashed (something I am not too keen on) and was of the original mortar colour. Not very exciting, it was a good job that the rest of the house was so good. We decided as we stood in the driveway in those first minutes that if we purchase the house that we would like to paint it.

After moving in, it seemed that painting the house was an unnecessary extravagance and we should just live with the colour. Then the wettest winter in many a year hit (and parts of Staines Upon Thames became Staines up-in-Thames) and the one thing that we noticed (apart from the fact that we were not flooded apparently, we discover we sit on a 1,000 year flood plain) was that there were an awful amount of pebbles on the driveway. The mortar was absorbing the rain and crumbling. This then pushed us back to the idea of painting the house. It would serve two purposes, the first brighten the exterior of the house but secondly and more importantly it would bond the mortar and pebbles and add an extra layer of protection against the elements.

It was about this time that Lucinda was made redundant as Air Canada outsourced ground operations at Heathrow Airport to the handling agency ASIG. With a nice little bonus in the bank it seemed to be the right thing to do to invest some of it into looking after the house. So the house is now a Country Cream colour and certainly looks a lot brighter as you drive down the road.

The third improvement has been the replacement of the old sliding patio doors to some modern French doors. Again it was one of the features of the house that we disliked when we first looked round. We initially wanted bi-fold doors but apparently our opening wasn’t big enough so we comprised on French doors. They give us the bigger opening that we wanted, bringing the outdoors in, as the architects are fond of saying, (although not what we particularly want at the moment) but also additional security compared to the sliding style patio doors and additional insulation from the modern double glazing.

Not a bad haul for the first year in our new home. There are still plenty of things to be done, the most pressing in the heating system. Last year we had a power flush to try to make the system more efficient and allow the radiators to actually output the heat that they are rated for. The fact that last Winter was so mild (damp and windy but mild) it had sort of fallen to the back of our minds. However this winter has already had cold days, and even colder nights and with a lack of heating downstairs, this has become a level one priority.

From a non-expert point of view it seems that there is so much gunk in the system that the hot water can not circulate around the lower half of the system. Therefore we have hot water and a relatively warm upstairs but no heat downstairs. This is coupled with single skin walls and a lack of underfloor insulation meaning that it can be unbearably cold downstairs. Therefore, we have employed oil-filled radiators and fan heaters to attempt to make sitting downstairs bearable, which is denting the savings we would be accruing from the photovoltaic cells installation.

We have a heating engineer coming round in the week to see what he can do. It might involve new radiators and pipework. Hopefully not a new boiler but if it is needed, then it is needed. To help retain the heat in the house we will also be looking at underfloor insulation in the coming year but that is going to be a big job and probably involve new carpets (or floor covering of some sort). That however, can wait until the spring and be in place for next winter.

This past year has also seen our first attempt at cultivation. Not in a self-sufficiency kind of way but just to see if we enjoy it and to help teach the children where our food comes from. We were relatively successful with runner beans (there are still some in the freezer), potatoes, tomatoes and raspberries. Not so successful with strawberries (squirrels dug the plants up before they had a chance to grow) and pumpkins (only one survived until Halloween). The main thing was that we enjoyed doing it and managed to eat our produce so let’s see if we can do better next year.

The first event of last year that I would like to mention was the fact that in moving home we were further from Éowyn’s school but only a short walk to another. Therefore, we made the decision to move sc

hools. This was confirmed by the local education authority at michaelmas half term. There have been tears and she is not enjoying it as much as she was at her old school, but we are confident that it will not take her much longer to settle it, especially with everyone returning after the Christmas break.

Amélie, on the other hand, is positively enjoying her new pre-school and looks forward to going to her ‘new school’. The fact that both schools are a short walk from home and they can ride their scooters their, we think is a huge positive too. There are also around 4 or 5 other families in the street with children of the same age so we feel more part of a community than we ever did at the previous school. If only Éowyn’s best friend and favourite teacher were at this school then there would not be a problem, but life is not like that.

2014 has been another interesting year in the Bagnall household and I am sure that 2015 will just as interesting. Plans that we have will come to fruition and I am sure that this will be coupled with unforeseen obstacles that life will throw at us that will need to be overcome. No doubt some things will go smoothly and others will be more bumpy; some things will fall into place without too much planning while others will fail despite being planned to the nth degree, and on that note I would like to leave you with this thought from Neil Gaiman:

“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something.

So that’s my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, Do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever.”

Peace and Love

Baggie

PS. 2013 saw disappointment surrounding Comet ISON which strayed too close to the sun, denying us a promised ‘Comet of the Century’ experience. January brings us, not a ‘Comet of a Century’ but with luck and the benefit of a dark sky you maybe lucky enough to see Comet Lovejoy that should become visible to those of us in the Northern Hemisphere from the 9th January reaching perihelion on Friday 30th January 2015. Keep those eyes peeled.

PPS. Geeky web stats for 2014 can be found here.

That was Christmas 2014

Tuesday 30th December 2014Wednesday 31st December 2014Baggie

I trust that you all had a very Merry Christmas and Father Christmas left you all that you wanted. As 2014 draws to a close this will be the last update of the year but expect the next on the first day of the new year which will reflect on the year as a whole. Here I will just concern myself with events in the Bagnall household that have happening in the last few weeks.

Both girls broke up from School the Friday before Christmas, which will give them just over 2 weeks off school. Fortunately the football fixtures (which are usually heavy over the Christmas period) have, due to Christmas falling on a Thursday, meant that the 40 Premier League games that were scheduled over that same period have been spread over only 7 days. This has meant that although I have had to work Boxing Day, and will be working New Year’s Day (in addition to the other 5) I have managed to spend some time with the family.

Lucinda’s shifts have also been a little kind and apart from New Year;s Day and Sunday 28th December I have been off to look after the kids. So we have only had to trouble Nanny and Granddad twice over the Christmas holidays. Not ideal but both of us work in industries that require shift work and have worked in such industries all our working lives, we are kind of used to it.

Needless to say in the days leading up to Christmas the girls were getting more and more excited. We tempered that excitement by involving them in getting the house prepared for Christmas, making room for potential new presents and getting the spare room sorted for the visit of Nanny Fran, Auntie Liz and Auntie Mary.

Yes, this year we decided that we would host Christmas. With Nanny Fran living in West Bromwich and with my work meaning that I always work Boxing Day (the day after Christmas day for non-UK readers – a full round of football fixtures), we never spend Christmas day with my family. As we now have the room to accommodate a dozen or so diners relatively comfortably we took advantage of our new home (and new extending dining table) to invite the family round for Christmas dinner. With Nanny Fran and Aunties Liz and Mary living so far away it made sense that they stopped for a couple of days to take full advantage. Therefore, Nanny Fran and the Aunties came Christmas Eve, returning home Boxing day.

Before, any of that could happen though, the house had to be tidied within an inch of its life to make room not only for three extra guests but also the presents that they would undoubtedly bring with them. That was how the beginning of the week was spent, trying to calm the excitement with tidying.

The girls’ imaginations were probably running overtime though and this is probably what lead to Amélie creeping into our room at 0300 scared because there was a monster in her room. Daddy is volunteered by Mommy to go monster hunting. So I lead Amélie back into her room. I asked her what it looks like and she replies that it looks like a disc with two faces. So we enter the room and I ask her if she can still see it. She says that it is by the window. I walk over there and say quite confidently state that there is no monster. ‘You are not looking properly,‘ she says. So I wave my hands about explaining that if I can do this then there can not be a monster there. Amélie starts to get agitated, ‘You are NOT looking properly!‘ she says. Trying to calm her down I ask her where it is. ‘Right behind you!’ Pregnant pause: ‘Grinning!‘

Now I may be a 6 foot 3 bloke in what I believe to be a monster-free home but I am not ashamed to say that the earnestness in which Amélie say those four words made my hackles raise and adrenalin start pumping through my veins. So I looked around to see what could be causing the shadow that her imagination was turning into a grinning two-faced disc monster. I couldn’t see anything but being as positive as I could be under the circumstances that it was either the moon peaking through the crack in the curtains or the night light (or a combination of the two) was the cause of the denizen of the night, I moved some of the untidied things about, including the main suspect, an errant sock. Amélie confirmed that she could no longer see the monster but was scared that it would come back. So I told her to take her teddy to be as we all know that the reason that children take teddies to bed is that monsters are scared of teddies. Amélie accepted this and was soon snoring. I crept back into our room, keeping an eye out for a two-faced disc monster on the way.

So with the house tidied and only a few threats to phone Santa Claus it was Christmas Eve before we knew it and the first of our visitors arrived. Nanny Fran, Auntie Liz and Auntie Mary arrived before another special visitor. The UK were blessed with the coincidence that the International Space Station’s orbit brought it over during the week or so before Christmas. Alerted to this fact via social media, we decided, along with many parents across the land, to tell the children that it was Santa’s sleigh heading towards the children of Thailand. So at 17:23 we stood in our garden in the freezing cold looking for a bright light to streak across the sky. We were blessed with clear skies and a good viewing angle and sure enough we watched it arc across the sky. Amélie was even convinced that she could see Rudolph’s bright red nose, and Santa waving.

We thank the crew of the International Space Station for impersonating Santa Claus so well, and from now on it will be known as Santa’s International Space Sleigh.

So, after Santa’s appearance it was relatively easy to get the kids into bed ready for his appearance in chez Bagnall.

The girls must have been very good as Santa had left them a well packed stocking each, and Amélie had been left a purple pram for her baby. Santa didn’t factor Amélie waking at 0230 for a wee, noticing the pram and wheeling it in to Mommy and Daddy’s room to show them. We managed to convince her to go back to sleep before Santa had noticed that she was awake and that it would still be there in the morning. Fortunately she did what she was told.

Nanny Fran, Auntie Liz and Auntie Mary must have been good girls too, as there was a little stocking left for each of them too.

Christmas morning was taken up by opening presents, and there was a lot of them. Opening presents and bacon sandwiches. Then it was time for the main event of Christmas, Christmas Dinner. I was the nominated chef of the day cooking for the families Bagnall and Cathrall. I had a little help in the form of the turkey was cooked by Nanny and Granddad, because I wouldn’t have had enough cooker space (it was tight as it was). Nevertheless everything was cooked, nothing got burnt and everyone ate to their hearts (or stomach’s content). In fact I could have probably served another half a dozen people easily. Indeed we are still making our way through the leftovers.

When we suggested that we would cook Christmas dinner we had but one condition: everyone wore a Christmas jumper. I am pleased to report that everyone did and it certainly added to the Christmasiness, unfortunately there was one element missing: snow. It was cold but no snow. Amélie was certainly disappointed and kept asking when it was going to snow. It saved Daddy asking the same question. But despite the lack of snow as Christmases go it was pretty darn good, even without the mantelpiece, roaring log fire, egg-nog and pipe (don’t ask). Not sure if we can do it all again next year, but ask me again in October.

There may not have been any snow in Staines Upon Thames on Christmas day but Nanny Fran was blessed with some on her return to West Bromwich, indeed it was a veritable blizzard during the Boxing day game between West Bromwich Albion and Manchester City. We are still waiting for our first fall here. Indeed, it has not snowed since we moved in. A blessing considering the lack of heating on the ground floor (update in future episodes).

All it leaves me to say, is that I trust that you all had a great Christmas and indeed a great 2014 and thank you for reading. I would also like to thank you all for your generosity all three baguettes were very blessed with the gifts they received, now we just have to find space for them all and I look forward to seeing you all in 2015.

Peace and love

Baggie