Funny

A week in The Lake District

Sunday 2nd August 2015Sunday 2nd August 2015Baggie

The start of the summer holiday that marks the boundary between the end of one academic year and the start of the next saw the Bagnall family decide to take a week break before the football season starts and daddy gets busy at work. We decided to go somewhere new to the family and so headed north rather than south, which is our usual wont for our UK based holidays. A caravan park in Flookburgh, Cumbria was the destination. Situated on the Cartmel peninsular on the Northern shore of Morecambe bay Lakeland Caravan Park lies just outside of the largest National Park in England and Wales: The Lake District and thus made it an ideal base to explore the area.

It is quite a journey from Staines Upon Thames to South Cumbria, and the direct route via the M6 motorway takes us passed Nanny Fran’s. Fortuitously the girls’ schools both broke up early on the Friday and our caravan wasn’t booked until Saturday afternoon therefore it seemed like a non-brainer to get ahead of the traffic and spend the night in West Bromwich. The Baguettes could therefore spend some time with Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz and we could cut the journey into a more manageable chunk.

After taking advantage of Nanny Fran’s hospitality we headed north on the M6. A couple of stops for convenience breaks and a bite to eat and we arrived in good time to pick up the keys to the caravan. The caravan was not quite as luxurious as our previous caravan hires, however it did have 3 bedrooms so that Ezra could have a bedroom of his own. The trouble with the third bedroom was the space that it inevitably takes from the footprint of the living space. However this was no excuse for the size of the television that they had decided to supply in the lounge area, I have seen laptop screens that are bigger!

The caravan site was pleasant with a 350 metre long lake however there was no easy path to the sea. This is in no small part to the £4 million pounds that has been spend on sea defences to protect the caravan park from flooding. On balance I would rather have my path to the sea blocked than wake up floating across the caravan park.

We woke up on the first day, Sunday, and decided to take it easy. We stopped off at a local car boot sale before popping out to the ‘local’ supermarket for supplies. When I say local it was in Barrow-in-Furness and was a 30 minute car drive away! At least we decided to take the scenic route along the coast road to Barrow and enjoy the trip out. We also took a bit of time to explore the area and popped in to Haverthwaite train station to inquire about train times for a trip to Lakeside (not the big shopping complex in Essex) and a boat journey across Windermere. We were told that the first train in the morning was looking quite empty but you could only books tickets on the day of travel so best to come back 30 minutes before departure tomorrow morning.

We, therefore, had a plan for our first day trip. We were among the first to arrive at Haverthwaite station. We booked a return ticket on the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway and combined it with a return ticket to Bowness onboard a Windermere Steamer. Since we were a little early we could have a look around (and take photos of) some of the stock that they have. Interestingly there were two engines out on the track, one was called Princess and the other Victor and they were both made by W.G. Bagnall, so it seemed apt to visit and enjoy the ride. Éowyn had brought her camera along and enjoyed taking photos of the stock, including steam rollers (and diesel rollers), there are a number of her photos on our Flickr site and see what you think of her first efforts.

Ezra was quite excited about going on a choo-choo train and couldn’t wait to climb onboard, however was a little nervous sitting in the carriage before the journey began. Lucinda and I sat with Ezra while the girls sat at another table so that they could feel a little independence and Éowyn could take some photos through the window. However Amélie came running to us as the train went through a tunnel. The darkness and the fact that the steam swirled around the carriage windows freaked her out a little and she needed the comfort of her parents to tell her that everything was going to be fine.

The train pulled into Lakeside and we jumped off the train and onto the steamer Swan for our trip across Windermere. Windermere is the largest natural lake in England formed after the glacial retreat at the end of the last ice age. Technically it is not a lake but a mere. Indeed there is only one lake in the Lake District: Bassenthwaite Lake, now don’t say I never teach you anything.

We got off the Swan at Bowness-on-Windermere and straight into a heavy downpour. The Lake District isn’t a green and pleasant land without help from the plentiful rain that falls in this corner of the land. Except for the first couple of days in July (when the warmest July day was recorded) the weather in the UK hasn’t been very good, with some parts of the country receiving 2.5 times of the average rainfall and temperatures below normal throughout the land, indeed by the end of the month the record had been broken for the coldest July night!

Therefore it wasn’t a surprise that it was raining, however in fairness it was the only time that we got caught in the rain. Indeed some of the days were quite pleasant and although sun block wasn’t required neither were heavy coats. The weather at Bowness-on-Windermere however curtailed our exploration of the town and we decided to return after a couple of hours.

So after a trip that was more interesting for Mommy and Daddy than the children we decided on a different venue for our next trip. We headed west along the A590 toward Dalton-in-Furness and the South Lakes Safari Zoo. Not sure what to expect of a zoo away from major population centres, we were pleasantly surprised. For a little extra money you were given a bad of feed and allowed to join in with all the feeding times. We used the feed for the ducks and geese, the wallabies and the Emus (one of which gave Éowyn a little nip when she wasn’t quick enough with the food) and then were allowed to feed lemurs and giraffes at the organised feeding times but gave feeding the penguins a miss.

The zoo holds many of the Bagnalls’ favourite animals. Éowyn loves jaguars and they had two. Amélie likes Snow Leopards and they do have a breeding pair, however the female hasn’t ventured out with her progeny leaving the male to amuse the visitors. Unfortunately there were no Ooo-wees for little Ezra. What is a 000-wee I hear you ask, it is an elephant of course. It is the sound an elephant makes when you are 2 years old especially while you pretend to use your right arm as an elephant truck while you are making the sound. However they did have tortoises, which probably edge the ooo-wees ever so slightly.

We thoroughly enjoyed our day at the South Lake Safari Zoo, it is a magnificent zoo and would recommend it to anyone in the area. It is not that often that you can get so close to so many animals as you do there.

The next day we decided to return to Bowness-on-Windermere, this time by road, to further explore the area and primarily to visit a tribute to the Lake District’s most famous daughter. The World of Beatrix Potter Attraction is, as the name suggests, an attraction based around the books of Beatrix Potter. Sadly, and perhaps somewhat ashamedly, we have none read the works of Beatrix Potter, I think I read some them as a child but we haven’t read any to the children. Nevertheless there is still something about her work that naturally appeals to all children and our three were no exception.

Since we were the east side of Windermere we decided to go for a drive and headed as far as Grasmere, marking the furthest North the Baguettes have ever travelled, not that they were too impressed with that. To finish the day off we decided to go for cream tea at one of the country’s finest tea-houses: Gilliam’s tearoom in Ulverstone. Well, we were on holiday!

The following day we ventured further into the national park and came across Muncaster Castle. It was one of the attractions that we had considered but we weren’t specifically heading there. However, when we saw the castle from the road we decided that was going to be the destination for the day. There was so much to do at the castle that we didn’t have to time to do all of it. Muncastle Castle isn’t just a castle, it has a hawk and owl centre, with daily bird of prey shows, has a meadow vole maze and a children’s playground.

We enjoyed the bird of prey display. Éowyn and Amélie sat at the front to get a better view while Lucinda and I sat with Ezra somewhere near the back. Unfortunately Ezra was a little tired and so he wanted the display to be over quite quickly and quite loudly kept repeating “Good night owls, good-bye!” Éowyn and Amélie enjoyed the show though, with Éowyn taking photos throughout. Indeed it wasn’t until the hooded vultures were released and one decided to sit next to her that she decided that she wanted to sit with mommy and daddy.

In addition to the bird of prey display there was also the feeding of the herons. With Scarfell as the backdrop wild herons head for a snack by the castle’s cannons at 4pm each day and as Éowyn’s new class when she returns to school in September will be Herons we decided to stick around and watch them fly in.

The meadow vole maze was an attraction were you had to pretend that you were a meadow vole avoiding all their many predators. Every dead end ran into another predator in the shape of a floor to ceiling face of the predator with glowing eyes. This freaked out poor little Ezra who squeezed me tight saying, ‘Daddy, I’m scared!‘ The poor little mite.

With so much to explore in the grounds (and the baguettes got their money’s worth just on the playground!) we never got a chance to explore the castle itself. Lucinda and Éowyn had a quick look around, but we will have to go back to explore it properly. it is claimed to be one of the most haunted buildings in the UK and to take advantage of this claim they often run all night vigils, perhaps the Baguettes are a little young for that!

This update is a little belated due to a medical affliction that stuck me down at the end of the holiday. On the drive back from Muncaster Castle my eyes started to feel a little itchy and I put it down to the air conditioning in the car and thought not a lot about it. When we got back to the caravan I thought that perhaps I was succumbing to the conjunctivitis that was going through the family and that would be it. Friday morning however, I woke up and physically couldn’t open my eyes, they were glued together with discharge. I washed it out but still couldn’t open my eyes wide, they felt extremely painful and were constantly watering. Lucinda took the kids to their usual swimming lesson that they had had all week and on return saw how painful they were looking. As she said there was no white left of my eyes they were just red. I was now having problems opening my eyes and the refraction caused by the water in my eyes was causing me problems with light. So Lucinda drove off to the nearest pharmacy to see if she could get some drops for me.

The pharmacist wouldn’t sell Lucinda drops without seeing me, which is fair enough however this being the country they were going to close at 12:30 on Friday for a couple of hours for lunch. So Lucinda drove back to the caravan picked me up and we headed back to the pharmacy with only seconds to spare. The pharmacist took one look at me and her eyes started to water with sympathy. She quickly diagnosed acute bacterial conjunctivitis, indeed more accurately acute bacterial keratoconjunctivitis (conjunctivitis with keratitis – inflammation of the cornea) and said that it was probably the worst case she had seen and gave me some antibiotic eye-drops to be taken every 2 hours while awake and some cream to use at night. Not a pleasant experience and one that prevented me from not only driving back the next day (poor Lucinda had to drive the whole way back) but even returning to work on the following Monday. If you want to see a photo click here. Thankfully the drops and cream did their job and all is back to normal.

Apart from the above we thoroughly enjoyed our trip to the Lake District and will be returning. If you want to see photographic evidence of our holiday there are just shy of five hundred photos here.

Until the next time

Peace and love
Baggie

C&A pose

I can see the sea

I see no ships!

Rock climbing in the Lake District

And jump!

Whee!

Wave for the camera

The Baguettes

Picnic along the road

The Menu

The decisions

The aftermath

Now you see it…

And it’s gone!

Celebration dance

Mr Tod

Who’s at our window?

Tortoise!

Amélie

Like father, like daughter

Checking my balance

Ready for the journey to begin

And we are off

Where is the station going?

Heron in flight

How does this work?

The sea at Flookburgh

The Book Fall

Wednesday 15th July 2015Wednesday 15th July 2015Baggie

Coinciding with the quiet period at work, I am trying to make amends regarding the paucity of updates on this web site so far this year. I have always been acutely aware that the website will always play second fiddle (well fourth or fifth fiddle, or second oboe; whatever the orchestral hierarchical equivalent is) to family life and actually creating the memories in the first place. Nevertheless, I am also acutely aware that many of you enjoy reading about our family life which makes the effort of these updates a little easier.

The end of the academic year is looming into view, so as Éowyn leaves year 1 and Amélie says goodbye to pre-school there are all the end of year activities to enjoy. The most important of these was the Hollywood Première screening of the film that Éowyn’s after school drama club have been working on for the past term.

Magna Carta Arts Centre in Staines presented the first showing of ‘The Book Fall’ and myself and Éowyn had tickets for the showing; poor Mommy elected to stay behind and look after Amélie and Ezra. The Sense Theatre had sent out a letter encouraging parents and pupils alike to dress up to try to bring a sense of glamour to the proceedings. They had laid a red carpet and there was popcorn. Unfortunately not everyone took it in that spirit. I was only one of three dads that I could see in a suit and the only one wearing a tie. The majority of the children had dressed up though, which was nice to see.

The premise of the film is that a school teacher challenges her pupils to read as many books as they can over the summer holiday, a prize given to the pupil that reads the most books. There are two groups of pupils the swotty, nerdy types who are challenging each other as to how many books they will read, and the non-swotty types who think that reading is boring. To try to convince the non-swotty types that reading books is fun, the swotty pupils read to the non-scotty pupils and as they begin to read so those sections of the books are acted out by other children. The books that were filmed were children classics, modern books like Mr Stink to the real classic like The Hobbit, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, 5 Children and It, Oliver Twist and, the book that Éowyn was in, Naughty Amelia Jane by Enid Blyton.

I am not sure how many schools were involved in total but it was a nice idea. Each group of children could concentrate on a small section of the film which acted as a stand alone play within the overall narrative. Considering the time constraints, the lack of budget and the fact that it was probably the first time that the majority of the children, had ever acted yet alone acted in front of a video camera I think we have to praise Sense Theatre. Unfortunately with so many children the 2 hour running time only allowed most children a couple of lines and, if I am being honest, at times it was quite painful. Nevertheless the children were very excited to see themselves on the big screen and Éowyn’s eyes lit up when she saw herself.

Now I can understand that 2 hours is a lot of film to watch especially when you are only there to see perhaps 20 seconds, the 20 seconds that your child is on-screen, however it is the height of bad manners to whoop and holler while your child is on-screen and then disturb everyone as you leave immediately your child’s last lines have been uttered. This wasn’t just a select few, out of an audience of close to 250 less than 25 remained at the end. However, if any of you are desperate to see the complete film we purchased the DVD. I don’t think that I’ll be sitting through the entirety again, although if Éowyn ever becomes a famous actress it will be come part of the archive video footage.

With the end of the academic year looming into view there is one eye on the next. To prepare for the next step in their educational progress both girls had an opportunity to spend a morning in their new classes. For Éowyn, that is a new teacher at a new site but with the same classmates; for Amélie however it is full-time education, at a new school with a completely new set of classmates. Amélie’s teacher, Miss Snow, seems very friendly but her biggest challenge will be to make new friends. Fortunately our friend’s girl, Natalie, will not only be at the same school but in the same class. Therefore Amélie will have one friend in the class.

Unusually Amélie was upset the night before, so we sat down to talk to her thinking that the thought of going to the big school was disturbing her. It developed that it wasn’t the thought of going to big school per se that was upsetting her but the fact that she wanted to take a packed lunch. She takes a packed lunch to nursery but every child in full-time education up to the age of 7 is entitled to free school meals in the UK. Therefore, Amélie (and Éowyn) will both enjoy free school meals this coming school year.

We convinced her to try her school dinner and we would then think about it for when she goes to school in September. To her credit she happily went to school the next morning. When we picked her up that afternoon we asked her what she thought of her new school. She was full of praise saying it was the best day ever and that the best thing was the school dinner which was sausage and mash. One less thing to worry about!

Sometimes fate gives opportunities at exactly the right time. Last week was Natalie’s birthday and she had a party at Spelthorne gym. Since Natalie goes to the nursery at Amélie’s new school many of the pupils and Natalie’s friends will be in her class. Therefore, it was a good opportunity for Amélie to get to know some of her new classmates, as well as have fun at Spelthorne gym (and it is fun) and celebrate Natalie’s birthday. It was good to sit and observe Amélie and from watching our second daughter I don’t think that she will have any problems making friends.

The end of school party at Éowyn’s school was slightly unusual, for they had invited Festival Circus to put on a show (3 showings of the same show!) in a big top on the school playing field. I took the day off work and took the girls while Lucinda stayed behind looking after Ezra and her child-minding ward. The show was excellent , not completely polished but that was part of the charm. The girls were enthralled and both had different favourites: Éowyn the gymnastic displays on the ropes and Amélie the girl who could simultaneously hula 10 hula hoops.

Lucinda is now on the P.T.A. and as soon as her working day was over she headed over to the school (we had already returned to look after Ezra) to help sell refreshments and tidy up. The early indications are that it was roaring success and all had a good time. Hopefully this is the start of turning the school around at least in terms of uniting the P.T.A. and staff into a common goal.

It seems that this write up is all about the girls so it is only fair to regale a couple of stories of our son. He is on the whole very well-behaved but he does have a couple of cheeky habits. One is jumping on mommy and daddy’s bed, a game he calls 4,5,6. Not sure what happened to 1,2,3 but he stands at one end of the bed and shouts 4,5,6 before launching himself forward. Not something that we want to encourage but it is quite amusing.

He other little quirk that he has at the moment is the nicknames that he has given the girls. Éowyn he calls ‘A’ (pronounced as the capital – Ay), which is understandable as that is the first syllable of her name. Therefore if Éowyn is called ‘A’ what do you think Amélie’s nickname is? ‘Bay’. So it is ‘Goodnight Ay, goodnight Bay‘ before he totters off to bed.

I will bid you adieu and leave you with the photos, there are plenty of the circus on our Flickr pages if you are interested.

Peace and love

Baggie

Amélie and her best friend

Boing, boing!

Relaxing

A scary dragon

Help!

The kids at play

Amélie and mommy

This is fun

Looking cool with mommy

Ready for my film

Éowyn close up

Poser!

Ready for my big day

Posh frock for the première

The film begins

The boy and his friend

Half in shadow

Balloon head!

’tis i!

Grin for the camera

Wistful look into the distance

Lunapigs!

Sunday 5th July 2015Monday 6th July 2015Baggie

It doesn’t take long for a week off and a holiday in Turkey to fade in the memory as normality and the daily grind come back into view. The girls returned to school the next day, while I had an extra day off before heading back to the land of Sports Television. A land of Sports Television over a summer with none of the additional quadrennial events that tend to fill in the gaps between football seasons. Therefore, my working pattern over the summer resembles some form of normality with free weekends to spend with the family.

Not one to miss these opportunities Lucinda has booked up our weekends for the summer so that we can make the most of them. The first weekend off saw the family Bagnall head down the road to Windsor. To the Legoland Windsor resort, to be specific. Legoland is an ideal destination for the Baguettes since most of the rides and attractions are geared towards their age range. In addition it is about 9 miles from home, so takes next to no time (depending on traffic) to get there. It was with this in mind that we decided to use this year’s Tesco vouchers to buy an annual pass to Legoland. This allows us to ‘pop in’ whenever we like and not feel obliged to spend a whole day with tired children so that we don’t feel like we have not got our money’s worth.

We certainly got our money’s worth on our first visit though. We were there from just after the park opened until late afternoon. We were limited on rides though since the Baguettes are still of an age (or height) where they require an adult on the ride with them. When you have three children that poses some problems. However, Legoland have this sussed a little with ‘parent swap’. Effectively, either the parent stays on the ride and swaps children with the other parent, or alternatively the parents and the children swap to save double queueing. It works and with Ezra still a little too young to go on some of the rides it was very handy.

There were still a number of rides that we could go on as a family however and so we took full advantage of those even if the queues were a tad long at times but that is the problem of going places at weekends when the weather is nice.

June has been quite a pleasant month, weatherwise. The overall the temperatures have been below what one would expect for the summer month, but there has been little rain (in the South East of the UK at least). This is both beneficial and a hindrance to the Bagnall household. The sunshine is great, not just generally (who doesn’t like the sunshine) but also for our electricity generation. Having bright, sunny days when the days are longest is a definite bonus, despite the ever growing threat of the pigeons that have decided to nest under our panels.

I have always thought of pigeons as rather dumb birds, which is completely undeserved, they have passed many cognitive tests, but the ones nesting on our roof have demonstrated the exception that proves the rule. Obviously, they have demonstrated some form of intelligence by nesting under our photovoltaic cells, as it offers protection from the elements, and some warmth from the cells themselves. Nevertheless they have not yet worked out that laying ovoid eggs on a sloping roof is not necessarily a good idea and we have found many broken on the patio and driveway. More disgustingly that is not all that we have found splatted on our patio and driveway. So if anyone has a hawk that they would like to exercise over our house I would be very grateful.

The flip side of bright sunny days is the lack of rain, as our water butts can testify. I am happy for our lawn to change from green to brown however the vegetable patch is another matter. Our vegetables will not flourish without a daily watering and so we are having to resort to water from the tap. Even the thunderstorms of last night (110,000 lightning strikes in one night) haven’t replenished the water butts. What I wouldn’t give for a heavy downpour (sorry to all of you who are enjoying the weather) or a couple of days of rainy weather. I would have expected the heatwave (if you can call two hot days in row a heatwave, more a heatsplash) to have triggered more thunderstorms over chez Bagnall, apart from the night before’s mega-storm, as it is being labelled, nothing, just uncomfortable nights of sleep and the knowledge that the baguettes have seen the hottest UK day in their lives.

Since the football season has finished, Lucinda has been filling my weekends up. The first one saw us in Turkey, on holiday so that doesn’t really count. Then I was back at work for European Qualfiers! I thought that the football season had ended.

The following weekend saw Lucinda’s ex flat mate, Emma, celebrate her 40th birthday. She had reserved a room at a pub in Chiswick on the River Thames. This is where living next door to a baby-sitter and just a short walk from Staines train station comes in handy. A direct train from Staines to Kew Bridge and a five minute walk saw us at the pub. a good time was had by all and return by train although requires some time discipline is far cheaper than a taxi. I think Amélie must have missed us because at 0330 she crept into our bed, I think primarily to ensure that we hadn’t left for the weekend.

Then Lucinda took advantage of not only the fact that I was off at the weekend but also having holiday entitlement to use up and went away on Friday returning Sunday lunchtime. Not just Sunday but Father’s day but more of that later. I took the Friday off and took the girls to school, then it was a boys’ day for Ezra and dad. Nothing too exciting but it was nice to spend some time with him alone. Friday night is usually movie night but this had already been cancelled so after dinner, the Baguettes and I cuddled up on the sofa and watched Despicable Me 2.

I think the kids were aware of the lack of Mum, and although they weren’t particularly upset about it, it must have played on their minds. For at about 0200 I felt a little presence creep into bed. It was Ezra. Although Ezra has been sleeping in his bed, as opposed to his cot, for many months now he hasn’t really worked out that he could get out when he wanted to. The drive this night must have helped him realise and he found his way to Daddy. So while I was giving him a cuddle, before preparing myself to pick him up and put him back in his own bed, in wanders Amélie. So another child to comfort before finally getting back to sleep.

Before Lucinda had left on the Friday morning she has given Éowyn my Fathers’ day present and got her to write the card in preparation for not being there on the Sunday morning. Therefore as I put them to bed on the Saturday night, and remembering the night before I told them that as it was Fathers’ day that daddy would appreciate a lie in and no nighttime visitors. At 0700 É0wyn and Amélie come in with a card and presents and asked if it was too early. How can you refuse that?

With the approaching end of the academic year and the conclusion of after school clubs it means two things. The first is the perennial Sports Days. Éowyn’s school has adopted the new Sports Day standard where there are no individual races as such, it is all relay based races and you are competing for your house. Éowyn’s house won, so she was over the moon.

Amélie’s was probably even less competitive and every child received a medal – real plastic gold! Nevertheless Amélie was very proud of her medal, and rightly so.

Éowyn’s after school drama class is coming to an end and that means only one thing – shooting has begun. Last week Éowyn filmed the first of her scenes for the film that Sense Theatre are producing. There will be a quick turnaround in post production as the premiere is on Sunday 12th July and there are still scenes to shoot. Éowyn said it was a little daunting with the lights and the camera lens in view and it took her a little while to relax and deliver her lines. For anyone that has been in front of the lens I am sure that you can relate.

I can’t wait to see the finished film. Tickets have been bought for the premiere and the dvd has been pre-ordered. You never know it could be the start of a promising career.

Before I leave you, this month’s funny word comes from Amélie. Referring to her brother and sisters madly running around and came in complaining that they were acting like Lunar-pigs. I think she meant Lunatics but Lunar-pigs or should that be Lunapigs sounds so much better!

Peace and Love

Baggie