Obituary

Stand Up!

Baggie

It has been quite a busy and emotional week and a bit since the last update.  The week started quite brightly with fine weather as befits the start of June.  Éowyn took full advantage of this in her new paddling pool.  Each morning we took her into the garden to have a splash, which is a very easy way to give her (and us) a wash!  She thoroughly enjoys being in the water and it is something that we want to encourage.

Our friends Neil, Emma and Kerry met us in Chertsey for a walk along the Thames on Thursday.  As with all good walks a meal at a pub was in order and we incorporated this tradition with Thames Court being the goal for the half-way stage of the stroll. We were also introduced to the hobby of geocaching by the guys.  It adds an added interest to a walk and it is quite nice to be part of a secret club where muggles walk by geocaches unaware of the hidden treasures lurking in the undergrowth.

The weekend started with an invite to the evening-do of the wedding of friends of ours Stuart and Sharon Hellyer.  This was Éowyn’s first wedding and she did very well considering she was in a new place, with new people and long past her bedtime.  However by 10pm she was getting really grumpy and we had to say goodbye while the night was still young.  We wish Stuart and Sharon all the best for their future lives together.

Monday we took full advantage of the fine weather and headed to Windsor to meet up with Lee and Caroline and their daughter Georgia.  Caroline and Lucinda meet up quite regularly so the girls know each other, as well as 7 ½ month olds can.  They don’t really play with each other (as yet) and Éowyn took full advantage of her advanced manoeuvrability and went in for Georgia’s dummy while she unsuspectedly sat in the sun.  I suppose she has a long memory from the time that Georgia punched her in the face while they lay on our lounge floor.

Nan and Granddad took us to the Harvester in Windsor Tuesday evening where Éowyn was on her best behaviour once again, until she swallowed a large chunk of the bun that she was chewing and began to choke.  Fortunately the first aid training kicked in and a swift slap to the back dislodged the offending lump but unfortunately brought up a quantity of vomit too.  Not the nicest thing to happen in the middle of dinner.  Éowyn was nonplussed by it all and was none the worse for her incident.  This was the second time in a week that she had bitten a large chunk of food (the first was a baby ricecake last Thursday) and choked, fortunately I have been on hand both times and have not panicked but it is quite upsetting and Lucinda finds it especially so.  We are being extremely careful now with the kind of foodstuffs that she is being given.

As you may recall from the last entry Éowyn’s Great-Great Auntie Iris passed away and Thursday was her funeral.  So although it was nice to see the family and Éowyn got to see her Nanny Fran, it was a shame that it was under such circumstances.  We were a little concerned taking Éowyn to the funeral service as she is a little young to persuade her to behave but we had needn’t fretted.  She slept through the service at the crematorium, which was a little embarrassing since she takes after her dad and snores.  So when the minister asked all to take a minute to reflect on Auntie Iris and pray silently, all that could be heard was the dulcet tones of Éowyn‘s snoring.  I think that Auntie Iris would have found it amusing as a number of people suppressed their sniggering.

She was a good tonic for the people there and a nice distraction.  During the memorial service she was as good as gold, except for continually tapping her Auntie Liz on the back causing her to turn around.  Then at the wake, she crawled around the hall, trying to escape from her daddy and hoping for people to drop crumbs off their plates.  She also begun to say the two words that we have longed to hear: ‘Momomomomomom’ and ‘Dadadadadadadadadadad’.  Well not quite the words but definitely the sounds.  She also got to meet some of the relatives that she hadn’t as yet had the opportunity to meet, including her first cousin once removed Mark and her first cousin twice removed, my first cousin once removed Ray and his wife Pat (that is if I have followed this table correctly).  She also received a couple of presents a nursery rhyme book from her Great Uncle Michael and Great Auntie Yvonne and a hand-knitted doll from her first cousin twice removed Pat.  She is a very lucky little girl to have such generous relatives.  Thank you!

We stayed the night at Nanny Fran’s so that they could have an extended play time, which I am not sure who enjoyed the most.  We also visited her Great-Grandma and for the first time took her to place some flowers on my dad’s grave, her Granddad Vic, for what would have been his 63rd birthday; not that it means anything to her at the moment but more for Lucinda and me.

To complete the triumvirate our next door neighbours, Cliff and Vicky had a baby boy in the early hours of Thursday morning.  Congratulations to them and welcome to the world little one.

In this hectic week of births, deaths and marriages Éowyn has also begun to pull herself up on furniture.  The first time was just before the last update on the 27th May and then nothing for a couple of days, but now she is constantly pulling herself upon and standing for quite a while.  She has taken a tentative step or two but it has, so far, always thrown her off balance but nappies are great shock absorbers for little bottoms.  I don’t think it will be too long before she is walking.  We are not ready!  Keep an eye on this space.

Peace and Love

Baggie!

In my paddling pool
Splash!
Naughty children
Georgia
I’ll have that!
Too much fun!
With my nanny!
On granddad’s lap!
Do I look intelligent?
I can hear the sea!
Can I have one?
Cheeky!

My First Holiday

Baggie

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

They told me this was a telly!
Can’t work this straw thing
Mid-crawl
Mommy and Éowyn at the harbour
Noss Mayo boats
Noss Mayo at night
Cheeky smile
Veló-ciraptor
Mommy and Éowyn

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

Great-Great Auntie Iris
Great-Great Auntie Iris

Rest well Chicken

Baggie

This is a very difficult piece to write, but I feel that I must.  On Thursday 5th February 2009 riding her bike to work, a friend and colleague Eilidh Cairns was involved in an accident and passed away a short time later.

Eilidh was full of life, and lived her short life to the full.  She was very comfortable with who she was and made no excuse for that and we all loved her for it.

Her passing has hit all that knew her very hard, and that is right and proper and no words that you can say can take that hurt and grief away and nor should it.  Denial, Anger, Depression are all part of the process before Acceptance can help you to heal.

Some people entrust in religion at such times to help them, and others do not have such a crutch.  My belief is that when you are in a relationship with someone, whether that is friend, relative or lover that you exchange a piece of your hearts and entrust the other with its care.  Between those pieces a thread joins you.  The stronger the friendship; the deeper the love, the larger the piece and the thicker and brighter the thread. When that person is taken from you, the thread is broken and you feel the pain of that part of your heart that you have given; however what you must remember is that you still have part of their heart and you are honour-bound to look after it and do what is right by it.

So when you have partied too hard and dragged yourself into work; when you have woken early because it has snowed and a smile creeps across your face, and everyday in everything you do, doff your cap, tip a wink and take Eilidh Cairns with you.

Sleep well Chicken

Eilidh Jake Cairns
Eilidh Jake Cairns

Update 1:

A memorial bike ride, commemorating Eilidh and to draw attention to cycling safety in London took place on Saturday 7th March.  Hundreds of her friends, family and members of cycling forums traced her route to Notting Hill.  There are some photos here, it made the local ITV news here and a very touching video tribute can be found here.

Sleep well Chicken.

Update 2:

It has been over three months since Eilidh’s accident and we are no closer to knowing exactly what happened that morning.  To try and jog people’s memories Eilidh’s friends and family handed out leaflets appealing for witnesses and have produced a short video to be broadcast.  This twofold: to ask if you saw anything on the morning of Thursday 5th February 2009, however insignificant you think it may be, to contact the police to help piece together the jigsaw of what happened and secondly to raise awareness of the safety of cyclists and prevent accidents like this from happening.

So please if you saw anything on the morning of Thursday 5th February 2009, the week of the heavy snow, please watch this video and contact the witness line on 020 7388 6806.

Update 3:

Eilidh’s memory has been honoured with a  ghostbike, the first city approved ghost cycle in London.  Ghostbikes are small and sombre memorials for cyclists who are killed or hit on a street. A bike frame is painted white and locked to a street sign near the crash site, accompanied by a small plaque. They serve as reminders of the tragedy that took place on an otherwise ordinary street.

Update 4:

Eilidh’s mum, Heather, has been working with her local M.E.P. to try and get a E.U. declaration signed to get H.G.V.’s fitted with sensors and cameras to remove their blind spot.  They need your assistance so please pop by to www.eilidhcairns.com and see how you are able to help.

Update 5:

It has been over three years since Eilidh’s death but not only is cyclists’ safety still an issue (only yesterday a cyclist was knocked down and killed by an official Olympics bus) but the driver involved in Eilidh’s accident has still been affecting other’s lives.  Yesterday however he was sentenced over the death of Ms Nora Gutmann whom he ran down in June 2011 on a light controlled pedestrian crossing and falsifying the data from his tachograph of the lorry his was driving.  This is not the forum for a detailed write up of the details of the sentence but if you are interested please click here.