Heatwave

The Olympics are here!

Monday 6th August 2012Thursday 9th August 2012Baggie

So after 7 years of preparation the London Olympics are here, and aren’t we doing well? 16 Gold Medals and still counting! Unfortunately throughout the build up to tournament I was a little nonplussed by it all, I didn’t apply for tickets and to be honest was thinking more about the impact it was going to have on me at work and its impact on being able to get to work. Both fears have been somewhat allayed in this first week. The traffic is incredibly quiet (even for August – i.e. school holidays) and apart from some long shifts at work it hasn’t been too bad! And now I really wish I had some tickets, even just to the Olympic Park. The girls are a little young to appreciate it but at least they would be able to tell their children that they were there!

It is always good when there is a major sporting tournament on because part of my work responsibility is ensuring that the television signals from those tournaments are arriving back at base in an acceptable way. That means I get to watch an awful lot of sport on television. It is my job! And whereas most people have to chose which one of the many Olympic channels that the BBC are making available to the general public (on satellite and through their website) I can watch all of them at the same time. The beauty of a monitor stack! And what do I do when I go home? Switch the television on and watch some more!

The week leading up to the Opening Ceremony was the best week (weatherwise) of the year so far with temperatures peaking over 30°C. However it was not to last and by the time the Opening Ceremony began we were back to 20°C and the chance of a shower. We are used to it by now, aren’t we? And three days of summer is better than none at all! The sudden increase in temperature and return to norm was accompanied in the Bagnall household with all of us succumbing to a summer cold, this made the girls a little miserable and they both keep waking up in through the night. Thus a disturbed week of sleep followed by some long days at work left both Lucinda and me exhausted.

Lucinda was so exhausted that she missed the Opening Ceremony and opted for an early night instead (she was working at 0500 the next morning, in fairness). I watched it at work arriving home a little after 0200, so we were passing ships in the night. The talk before the Olympics was how London would compete with Beijing’s Opening Ceremony. For the first 20minutes or so I was worried, and perhaps a little embarrassed, it was all a little too twee. Then the Lord of the Rings motif began and with more than a nod to The Black Country (O.K. it was the Industrial Revolution) complete with Olympic rings of ‘Molten Metal’. The James Bond/Queen sketch was genius and Mr Bean dreaming of Chariots of Fire very amusing. Overall is was fantastic, at times bewildering but definitely an Opening Ceremony to be proud of.

However you do not read this website to find out what is happening in the Olympics (Team GB doing really well) you read this website to find out what is happening in the world of the Bagnalls (or at least to look at the photos!). So what have we been up to? Obviously August is probably the busiest month for both Lucinda’s job and mine so holiday is not an option so we have to take advantage on days off to do things. So when I managed to get 3 days off in a row we filled them with a couple of trips.

The first was to visit my sister Mary and her new flat. She is still in Woking but has moved out of a large shared house into a top floor flat with one of her friends, Louise. We decided to be nosy and this enclave of the Bagnall family visited en masse. Éowyn loves to see her Aunties, probably because she gets so much attention and this time was no different. Children do not have that same sense of personal space that adults have and Éowyn quickly explored Mary’s flat. Then it was time for a game of hide and seek. Mary got bored more quickly than Éowyn, then Louise decided to take over. We then didn’t see either again. Louise kept Éowyn thoroughly entertained (or was that the other way round?). Indeed on the way home Éowyn if we could visit Auntie Mary the next day. I asked if she enjoyed seeing her auntie. ‘Yes,‘ she replied, ‘but I want to play with Louise.‘ Someone has a new best friend.

Then we headed out on a bit more of a journey, to Cranbrook in Kent, to pay our annual visit to friends of our that we met on our N.C.T. course. Ed and Marisol moved to Cranbrook not long after they had their daughter Frieda and so we do not see them that often. Frieda and Éowyn were the only girls that were born in our class so since Frieda has moved Éowyn had to grow up playing with boys. Considering that Éowyn and Frieda hardly know each other, their initial cageyness soon gave way to sororal closeness and were playing in Frieda’s room hiding from Amélie, something I think Amélie will have to get used to. It was a long day trip but great to see Ed and Marisol and were very happy they could see us especially considering the fact that Marisol is due to give birth any day now. We wish them all the best.

The biggest news to affect the Bagnall family though is that Jo, our childminder for the last 3 years has given us notice. We can fully understand why, we only give her around 8 days a month and that means that she can not take on other children who would give her more days work a month and in this economic clime then everyone needs to maximise their income but it is quite sad. Both Éowyn and Amélie love Jo and going to her house. Jo does so much with them and educates as well as entertains them so they are going to miss going as much as we are going to miss them going. It puts us in a difficult position for since we only need a few days a month it is almost impossible to find a childminder or nursery that will take children on a shift pattern (as opposed to fixed days) and that is why Jo was a godsend when our paths crossed (with thanks to Nanny Vera). Nevertheless we wish Jo well and thank her for three years of hard work looking after our brood.

The next few weeks are join to be very busy for me and so there may be a gap before the next update but before I leave you a quick update on one of the saddest stories that this website has bought you. In February 2009 a friend and work colleague Eilidh Cairns was knocked off her bike and killed by a lorry while on her way to work. The incident was put down to a tragic accident and the driver was free to continue driving. However the Cairns family have not been the only family who have been affected by his actions and this week saw him in court once again for causing death by dangerous driving. This, however is not the forum for this but if you are interested please click here for a more detailed write up.

Peace and love

Baggie

Extreme Close Up

Zonked!

Mr McGee, don’t make me angry

Off on an adventure!

Quick, follow me!

What’s in the field?

We can’t get through

Run!

And Run!

Wind’s blowing in from the West

Got you!

Daddy!

I don’t want to be in this photo!

Éowyn and Frieda

Éowyn and Mommy!

Amélie…

Say, yes!

Cheese!

In control

Picnic!

Like my hat?

Cousins!

Miss Wooden Tractor 2012

This is brilliant!

Has Spring, sprung?

Monday 27th February 2012Friday 11th May 2012Baggie

It seems that we go from one extreme to another with our weather. After a week of freezing temperatures and snow across the land, we now have unseasonably warm weather with the mercury touching 17°C (19°C in some places!) and the news that the south east of England is in drought conditions due to lack of rainfall. Not bad for February!

Éowyn’s behaviour has improved immensely. Obviously it has been half-term and so we have been able to spend time with her, without her feeling that she is being dumped from one place to another. Now she is back at school and we return to the old routine we need to be conscious of not letting the impetus and her behaviour slip. So far, she has been very well behaved and is receiving copious amounts of encouragement from Mommy and Daddy for this, which she is responding to in the manner we would like.

Last weekend (the end of the half term break) we travelled up the M40 to West Bromwich and Nanny Fran (and Auntie Liz of course). We arrived Saturday morning, dropped the girls off with auntie Liz and headed to Great Uncle Albert’s house to help get it ready for an estate agent viewing. As you may recall Uncle Albert passed away at the end of January and now there is the difficult task of sorting out his estate, which includes selling his house. Myself and Lucinda joined Nanny Fran, her cousin Ray and Uncle Albert’s friend Yvonne to try and sort the house out. His house had been broken into during the week but it was difficult for us to determine what had been taken as we did not (obviously) have an inventory. It is quite upsetting to think that some burglar had been in Uncle Albert and Auntie Iris’s house and gone through their things. We found it very difficult looking through someone’s personal effects but nevertheless fascinating at the same time, especially looking through the effects of someone who has lived for so long and through many interesting times. One of the most interesting things that we found was an old newspaper (The Birmingham Mail) that was lining one of his drawers. It was from Friday 28th March 1958 and there was an article bemoaning the fact that televising football matches was having a detrimental effect on attendances. Specifically, the F.A. Cup semi-final replay at Highbury (it doesn’t mention the teams but I believe it to be Manchester United (who won the game 5-3 but lost to Bolton Wanderers in the Final 2-0) v Fulham and was actually played on the 26th March 1958) where there were only 38,000 supporters in a ground that could hold 68,000. It is only a small article but it mentions the fact that the grounds are poorly constructed without a thought for the fans so a ‘lukewarm soccer supporter‘ will stay at home if he has a TV set and the clubs will miss his two shillings! The article concludes that ‘Big games belong to the nation and television is a link. It must not become the game’s ball and chain.‘ So the arguments between television rights and the fan that turns up every week to watch his (or her) team haven’t changed that much in 54 years!

Éowyn and Amélie were very well behaved for their Auntie Liz and were extremely excited to see their Nanny Fran when we returned from Great Barr. They both like to see their Nanny Fran (and Auntie Liz) and enjoy playing with the toys that Nanny Fran has at her house (some of which were mine!). Nanny Fran looked after Amélie over night so Lucinda and I got a little bit of a easier night, although someone should have told Éowyn!

We returned back to Middlesex Sunday afternoon (so it really was a flying visit) so that Éowyn could have an early night ready for her return to pre-school after the half term break. And so Monday morning Éowyn returned to the routine of schooling. I was off work and so Lucinda, Amélie and I headed to Kingston-Upon-Thames for some shopping. Amélie needed new shoes and I needed a new suit for a black tie event (but more of that later) as my old suit is far too big for me as I now weigh 4 stone (56 pounds for Americans or 25.5kgs for everyone else) less than I did the last time I had to wear that suit. One successful shopping trip later we returned home with everything we had gone for and the cherry on the cake was the fact that Éowyn received glowing praise from her pre-school teachers.

As I mentioned in the last write up, Éowyn has stopped wearing nappies to bed. This has been on the whole a great success however, whether it was worries about going to pre-school or just because she was going to bed very tired but she had accidents two nights running. We have been lulled into a false sense of security and believed that she would just go from the safety of nappies to not wearing nappies in a heartbeat. Obviously it is never that easy and she has done remarkably well but now we need to help her. So, when Lucinda and I go to bed which is usually a couple or three hours after Éowyn we have taken to waking her and leading her to the potty and trying to get her to have a wee so hopefully she will then last through the night or just get into the habit of getting out of bed when she recognises the need.

Wednesday, Lucinda was working so before I headed to Chiswick and work I did the usual double drop off of Amélie to Jo’s and Éowyn to pre-school. I also had to make sure that I had my new suit, dress shirt and dickie bow. For IMG mediahouse were sponsoring a table at the RTS Television Journalism Awards which was held at the Hilton in Park Lane. It was my first award ceremony and although thoroughly exciting it was also very humbling to be there. We work in television but it puts our work into sharp perspective when you hear the stories of the embedded and uncover journalists that risk their lives daily to bring the truth to our television schedules. Indeed the evening was somewhat overshadowed by the death of Marie Colvin an American journalist working for the Sunday Times in Syria. Indeed the list of the those journalists that had lost their lives in the line of duty this past year was sobering as were the stories that the won many of the journalists their awards. Sports television doesn’t seem half as important any more.

I returned home at 0100 but unfortunately didn’t manage to get the 5 hours of sleep I was hoping for. Lucinda had called me in the afternoon to say that Amélie had been sick at Jo’s and so to prevent the spread of any possible virus that she may have she would have to be dropped at Nanny and Granddad’s, although Éowyn would still need to be dropped off at Jo’s. Amélie’s sickness continued through the night and the next morning, and indeed throughout Friday. Unfortunately because we have begun to test her milk protein intolerance we are unsure whether the sickness was due to a reaction to milk protein or whether it was indeed a virus. So once she has fought this sickness we will have to go back a step on testing her milk protein intolerance and see if it happens again, that will prove whether it was the milk protein intolerance or just a virus. However, the poor girl has been suffering, which is never good to see and it has affected her sleeping which therefore means that neither Lucinda or I got much sleep either. But she has come out of the other side of it now and just needs to regain her strength.

Therefore, if you will excuse me I will take advantage of a day off and try and put some sleep back into the sleep bank but before I go I am afraid that I have some more bad news. The sister of one of my Mom’s friends and my eldest sister’s god mother passed away on 20th February. Auntie Anne (as we called her) ran a B&B in St Ives, Cornwall for many years a place that we spent a number of holidays when we were children. She leaves her sister, Teresa and our thoughts are with her.

Peace and love

Baggie

You taking photos again?

On Mommy’s lap

Aaarrrrgggghhhhhh!

Smile for Nanny Fran

Smile for Éowyn

Give it here, I’ll show you how to do it

Emotional phonecall

Emotional phonecall (part II)

This is an emotional phonecall

I’m walking!

Hello!

I’ll have this

International dog-wrestling!

You have the better of me

I yield!

Just chilling on the floor

The best way to watch telly

Oh Daddy!

Christmas is over (or is it?)

Thursday 29th December 2011Friday 11th May 2012Baggie

So Christmas is over (unless you are a part of the Eastern Christian orthodoxy that celebrate Christmas on the Epiphany – which is probably more accurate for that is when the little baby Jesus received his presents), turkey has been eaten, festive drinks have been quaffed and the presents have all been opened. I trust that you have all had a good time and that Santa has brought you all that you wished for. Well if he hasn’t it was because you have been naughty so you only have yourself to blame! Unfortunately it wasn’t quite a ‘White Christmas’, on the contrary, it was the third warmest UK Christmas on record with the mercury reading over 14°C. A veritable heatwave but you can’t have everything.

It has been a busy couple of weeks in the Bagnall household since the last update so forgive the length of this installment. It has also been fun for Éowyn for the first time has understood the basic ideas of Christmas (i.e. that Santa rides around the world on a sleigh giving good children presents) and so the magic of Christmas has been re-ignited for Lucinda and myself. Now correct me if I am wrong but I was under the impression that most children believe that Santa has a list of children under two headings: naughty and nice, and that in a Big-Brother style surveillance operation that he is spying on them and that only the children on the latter list will receive presents. Therefore one would hope that in the build up to Christmas those said children would be doing their utmost to stay on the latter list or indeed hope that Santa has a short term memory problem and move from the former to the latter in time for the big day. Éowyn has to be different. For months she has been very well behaved, unfortunately in the last couple of weeks her behaviour has made a turn for the worst (although not to the extent of the bad days of the terrible twos when she would spent large percentages of the time on the thinking step).

The last day of Éowyn’s school term was the obligatory Carol Concert (our first as parents – although there were very little ‘carols’ per se, more Christmas songs). I took the day off work and we were joined at the school by Nanny and Granddad. Éowyn was dressed as a sheep (the head came off half way during the concert) and delighted us by singing her heart out to every song. We were obviously very proud parents and filmed it for prosperity. When she returns in January we will be taking full advantage of the free nursery hours given by the UK government (currently 15 hours per week) and upping her days from 2 to 3. She also left school with a traditional gift – a heavy cold. Indeed in the spirit of giving she has passed it on to all of us, including her little sister – more of which later.

Christmas week started with Amélie at Jo’s and Lucinda, myself and Éowyn heading on a mystery tour. We had not told Éowyn that we had pre-booked for her to see Father Christmas at Peppa Pig World (Paulton’s Park). As she was a she a little heavy with cold she slept for the entire journey down the M3 and only woke as we entered Paulton’s Park. The Paulton’s Park Christmas world is excellent with a trip through a sleeping child’s imagination through to the North Pole to visit Santa. The path is lined with animatronic creatures (from yetis to white tigers to sleeping polar bears to dwarfs and reindeer and a whole host of woodland creatures along the way). Considering that Peppa Pig World was fully open and the cost was the same as just going to Paulton’s Park it was excellent value. However it was bitingly cold when we first got there and as the warm air gradually crept in, it brought rain. Conscious of her cold we placated her with a few of the rides before curtailing the trip short and heading back home to the warmth of the moor.

With all of my Christmas present shopping complete the week leading up to Christmas was not as hectic as it usually is, a novelty for me. It was as well as it was quite a busy week at work (with a full Premier League schedule in the mid-week before Christmas) as well as squeezing in a funeral of a friend of mine, Mike Royle, who lost his battle with cancer the week before Christmas and a couple of days before his 50th birthday. My thoughts are with his family.

It has become (or is becoming) a tradition that on Christmas Eve we host Lucinda’s parents and brother Mike and family and it was so this Christmas. With Lucinda at work all day I was charged with the honour of preparing the house and food while looking after the girls. Fortunately, Éowyn was coming out of the worst of the cold which was good, however she had passed it on to Amélie and myself. Not having the chance to feel sorry for myself I dosed myself up and just got on with it. We were fortunate that it wasn’t ‘man flu’ otherwise we would have been in trouble. So the first of the great feasts of the yuletide began and the six months of dieting were forgotten. A good evening was had by all and Éowyn was so worn out that she went to bed after everyone left and was soon asleep. Amélie however was coughing heavily and didn’t finally fall asleep until 2300.

Christmas morning started with the girls giving Lucinda and me the best Christmas present ever: a lie-in (until 0830)! Very well received and thank you girls. So at 0830 Éowyn popped her head around our bedroom doro and said, ‘Mommy, Daddy, Santa has been and he has left me lots of presents. Am I allowed to open them?‘ That will probably be the last time she asks however we were not cruel but said that we would take the sack of presents downstairs to open them in the lounge. She was very pleased with her Cicciobello doll but her Woody (from Toy Story) was the number one favourite toy on Christmas day and would later come to Nanny and Granddad’s for Christmas lunch.

Éowyn was very good with her presents, clothes were given short shrift but the toys were looked at and filed for future playtime. After she had opened all of her presents we allowed her to help Amélie open her presents. As all siblings throughout history Éowyn found Amélie’s presents far more interesting that her own but that did not last long when we threatened to give Amélie Woody if Éowyn didn’t let Amélie have her presents back.

As I mentioned above, Christmas lunch was around Lucinda’s parents (a short walk to the end of the road) where a feast for 18 had been prepared. It also gave Éowyn the opportunity to play with her cousins who re as good as gold with a sometimes stroppy but always bossy three year old. After lunch was mass present opening with five cousins (Amélie was feeling poorly and spent the best part of the day cuddling either Mommy or Daddy). It was manic and I spend most of the time trying to keep an eye on what present she was opening so that we could thank the correct person later. Needless to say both we spoilt so a big thank you to everyone who bought them presents.

We left shortly after the present opening to take the girls back home. Éowyn was ready for bed after such an exciting day but Amélie was beginning to worry us. Her face looked sallow and she was feeling very sorry for herself and just wanted to be cuddled, which is not like her. She had not taken that much food over the previous days and her cough was sounding as bad as ever. We decided that if she was not better in the morning we would take her to the walk-in clinic at the local hospital. The next day (Boxing day in the UK) is traditionally Sales day and Lucinda had decided that she wanted to go to two of the bigger sales available in Staines, Next and Debenhams. So with this in mind we retired early.

Lucinda was not prepared for the sales the next morning, and will need to sharpen her elbows if she is going to go next year. The sale at Next started at 0600 so she arrived in Staines at 0545 (I told you she was getting up early) to be greeted with a queue that stretched half way down the high street. It took her over 2 hours before she even got into the shop but made good of the time she was there and came back with many of the things that she had gone there for. She then made it a double whammy and wandered into Debenhams to find the last of the sale items she had wanted (indeed it was the last one left in the store). So it was after 1100 when she finally arrived home laden with shopping bags.

Meanwhile I was becoming more concerned with Amélie and struggling with the cold myself. Amélie however was very lethargic and not her self at all. She was taking very little liquids and refusing most solids and I was worried that she was becoming dehydrated. When Lucinda walked in, she could see my concern and with the eyes of someone that has been away for a couple of hours agreed that we should take her to the walk-in clinic. I stayed at home with Éowyn and Lucinda took Amélie off. The waiting room at the clinic was almost as bad as the sales. Every seat was occupied and it was mainly babies so they couldn’t jump the queue by playing the baby card. When the doctor examined her he was concerned too. He said that she was borderline dehydrated and realising that Lucinda was very concerned attempted to get Amélie admitted to the local hospital (St. Peter’s where she was born). However when he ‘phoned the registrar at St. Peter’s and described the symptoms they said that she was not bad enough to be admitted (I am assuming that they must have limited staff over the Christmas break and possibly many admissions, so unless it was life threatening they would not admit any more). The doctor was very good though and wrote a fast track letter for us with the proviso that unless there was an improvement – not even a worsening but a definite improvement – in the next 24 hours we were to go directly to St. Peter’s armed with his letter. Well Amélie must have understood, for as she arrived home she began to eat and drink her milk (neocate). She was not going to be admitted to hospital.

A quick day in the office on the 27th was followed by a visit from Nanny Fran and Aunties Liz and Mary. More presents were exchanged, although Auntie Liz forgot her’s and so Éowyn’s and Amélie’s (and Lucinda’s and my) Christmas will be extended another couple of weeks. Do we mind – I don’t think so!

So, the year draws to an end and we are trying to work out where all the extra toys are going to fit in our modest house. Amélie, thankfully seems to be on the mend; Éowyn is beside herself with all the new things to play with, and Lucinda and myself are just knackered. We are proud that we were are getting better at this Christmas thing and were far more organised this year than last (which in turn was far more organised than the year before that, and so on and so forth) but are still a long way from making an excel spreadsheet and ticking all the boxes (does anyone ever manage that?).

Work and family beckon but before I leave you, I trust that you all had good Christmasses and may the Bagnall family be the first to wish you all the best for 2012.

Peace and Love

Baggie