West Bromwich

Bipedal Motion and the Return to School

Thursday 25th September 2014Saturday 11th October 2014Baggie

Once again the update has been delayed and the gap between write-ups has widened further than I would prefer. As per the last few months the shadow of IMG casts long over Team Bagnall and so I have been unable to put fingers to keyboard and regale to you the tales of our corner of the world. I will attempt to remember the past month and so you will have to forgive any memory lapses or curtness of writing over the next thousand words or so.

As you can perhaps guess from the title it has been a momentous month, even if I have not been there to share it with the family that often.

But first let me take to back to the last Thursday in August. Friends of ours Kerry and Dave were due to be wed the following day (Friday 29th August 2014) and so we needed to find babysitters for our brood. Unfortunately both Lucinda and I were due to work Saturday and Sunday so we were looking for at least three days of babysitting in a row, a tall order for anyone. Up stepped Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz which was very nice of them and the girls were very excited, however it did mean that we had to drive to West Bromwich to drop them off. The girls are always excited to see Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz but there was an added edge to this visit but more of that later.

Unusually (ahem), I was at work on the Thursday so Lucinda packed them in the trusty S-Max and drove the 120 miles to West Bromwich. With Kerry and Dave’s wedding the next day she stayed in West Bromwich just long enough to rest and have some lunch before saying goodbye and heading back home. She was slightly concerned about leaving Ezra as we had not left him that long before and she was concerned how he would react. She need not of worried as he simply waved her off. Not only was he not bothered but to rub salt in the wounds of the separation, he decided that being 120 miles away from Mum and Dad was the perfect opportunity to take he first steps! Yes, the little blighter decided that genicular locomotion was no longer in vogue and decided to totter to his feet and begin the usual plantigrade locomotion favoured by humans. So, disappointingly, both Lucinda and I missed this huge developmental stage.

Lucinda arrived home Thursday evening and when I got home from work we both commented on how empty the house felt, even though all of the kids would have been asleep there was still a sense of emptiness.

The next day was the Wedding; the venue Random Hall. Random Hall is 16th Century cottage (somewhat extended) set in the Sussex countryside a short trip outside of Horsham. As this is within shooting distance of Staines Upon Thames (about an hour away) we decided that we would drive there and back and not look to stay. This meant that one of us needed to be the nominated driver and as Kerry is ostensibly Lucinda’s friend and many of Lucinda’s (and Kerry’s, obviously) work colleagues would be in attendance. For those of you that think that the internet is an evil place and no good can come from it, Kerry and Dave met on the same dating website as Lucinda and I, so good things do happen in cyberspace.

Random Hall was an excellent, one stop venue and a fantastic day was had by all. Kerry looked beautiful and Dave passed muster! The only slight downer was the fact that we were both semi-conscious that we would be working the next day, it would have been nice to have been able to take advantage of a sans-child weekend and really let our hair down. No such luck.

A weekend of work followed and before we knew it Monday morning arrived and we were heading back to West Bromwich to relieve Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz and collect the Baguettes! We left early because Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz had a big day the next day and was the cause of the excitement from Éowyn and Amélie. Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz were leaving early the next morning to catch a flight to New York. Yes, Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz had booked themselves a short trip to the Big Apple. Now why would Éowyn and Amélie be excited that Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz were going to America? The power of the internet unfortunately.

The girls have discovered, on Youtube, an American lady who plays with dolls and films herself doing so. She is either in the employ of the toy manufacturers or is just slightly crazy and has lots of spare cash, or some combination of all three. She always has the latest dolls and makes little stories with them, much to the delight of the girls. I have to stop them watching her and actually encourage them to put the iPad down and actually go and play with the dolls themselves. Whoever she is, it works. The girls are always interested in the new dolls that she has bought and we had always managed to put them off wanting it by telling them that they were only available in America (which in fairness, they quite often are). Therefore imagine their delight when Nanny Fran announced she was going to America! Éowyn began writing a list for her and Amélie so that Nanny Fran could load up with presents. The upside of this was that we had warned them before going to Nanny Fran’s that if they misbehaved that Nanny Fran wouldn’t buy them anything. To be honest they didn’t need that (they wouldn’t dare misbehave for Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz) but it was a good warning nevertheless.

The weekend also threw up another of Éowyn’s misheard lyrics, this time Ghost by Ella Henderson. The actual lyrics are: ‘I keep going to the river to pray‘; Éowyn instead sang: ‘I keep going to the river to play‘. Coming from a non-religious household, I can understand where she was coming from and a more enjoyable way to spend time by a river in my humble opinion.

The second part of this update is the fact that September marks the advent of the academic year. Éowyn has begun year 1 while Amélie still has a year before she starts full time education. Both girls have had a little shock going back to school. Éowyn, because there is much more focus on work this year and she no longer has free-time in which she is allowed free reign to discover her talents; Amélie because a lot of her friends have left Mini-Tots to embark on their education journey, leaving Amélie as the oldest at Mini-Tots.

Although this has been a bit of a shock for the girls, it will no doubt all be forgotten in a few weeks. Amélie is making lots of new friends and Éowyn is thriving on the work focus and it is good for her. She is racing through reading books at the moment and has already progressed through one level and the next level is in her sights. There has been an improvement in her writing and she has already earned one ‘Magic Moment’ (the reward system employed by her new teacher Mrs Harris). It is safe to say they are settling in.

Éowyn’s imagination is developing and will stand her in good stead if she pursues her latest career choice: author. She enjoys writing and will quite often write books for us. Yes, books, not stories. She will fold sheets of paper and loosely bind them into a book before crafting her story. Her stories are quite good and have a defined beginning, middle and end. She carries this imagination into her play and some of her character names are quite impressive. My particular favourite is Sharon Von Poopenwrench. Have no idea where she got that from!

Ezra, too, is a cheeky little fellow at times. I was playing with him and pretending to be a sleep replete with comic snoring noises. As Ezra crept nearer and I suddenly ‘woke up’ and surprised him. He thought it was the funniest thing that had ever happened and was positively chortling. So I did it again. Again, he thought it was a riot and encouraged me to do it again. After about the tenth time it was becoming a little tiresome, for me at least. Ezra had other ideas. When he realised I was not going to do it again he put his head down and started the fake snoring. So I put my head down and did it a few more times. The next time I refused to do it, Ezra once again put his head down but still I refused to do it. So he grabbed my head and pushed it down, he was a tenacious little monkey.

So with Amélie’s birthday a few short days away and Éowyn’s just under three weeks later I will leave you with the knowledge that I have to update you sooner otherwise two of the biggest events of the year will have been missed.

Peace and Love

Baggie

Cheeky boy

The finished house

I can walk!

What are you looking at?

What?

Is it still there?

Just out for a walk

Tight turn

Out for a stroll

Richard and Lucinda

Gis a kiss!

The Happy Couple

Anna?

Amélie’s first day

New hairstyle

Looking Northern

Ey up

Looking for a space

Pony treking

Saddle up

Living up to my name

Scooby Doo, Where Are You?

Painted ladies

Those pesky kids

Whoa!

Push me!

Whee!

Push me sister!

Push!

Asleep!

A week in Wales: part one – getting there

Wednesday 11th June 2014Baggie

After four updates in a little over a week we are back to the self-imposed fortnight hiatus. However, the two week gap has not be idle and there has been a lot happening to the Bagnall clan, not necessarily in the Bagnall home though so this, once again, will be the first of a trilogy of updates that I will delight you with this week.

I have worked for my company for nigh on 19 years and as such I sit on the top tier of holiday entitlement (28 days plus the usual public holidays). My holiday entitlement runs with the calendar year so we are nearly halfway through and as yet I have not taken any days from the this year’s quota. This is not down to idleness just not had the opportunity and with the biggest technical move in IMG’s history reaching its conclusion in the next few months I probably will not have another opportunity until the autumn. Hence the Whitsun half-term break seemed like a logical time to use some of that entitlement. This was not a happy coincidence that just happened, this was something that we had identified at the beginning of the year and booked accordingly.

The main decision had been where to go. With three kids everything starts becoming very expensive. You can’t guarantee the weather in the UK at the end of May (or at any point in the year) and we felt that Ezra was a little too young to take on an aeroplane, mainly because of the paraphernalia that you have to take added to the fact that Éowyn and Amélie are a little too young to take responsibility for their own things so you end up carrying a truckload of gear while shepherding kids while trying to negotiate airport security before you even manage to get to the resort!

Lucinda was interested in taking a ferry to Brittany and staying in France for a week, which is definitely a possibility for the near future but in the end we decided to stay in the UK but head to foreign climes: Tenby (or Dinbych-y-pysgod – the little town of the fishes in Welsh) in Pembrokeshire in South West Wales and the Kiln Park Caravan site. Taking advantage of the two inset days that Éowyn’s school had tagged to the end of the half-term break we booked the caravan Monday to Monday as it was cheaper than going weekend to weekend.

I am unsure if this is a phenomenon in other countries but in the UK the holiday companies completely rip off families. Knowing that it is increasingly difficult to take children out of school during term time (in principal I agree although I completely disagree with the local education authority imposing fines on parents that do!) the holiday companies increase the price of holidays as much as three fold. It is outrageous that if we had taken Éowyn out of school the week before or indeed the week after the half-term break we would have saved over £700! Although you can see the supply and demand argument from the holiday companies point of view and the argument for the local education department to try and ensure that children have a fair chance at education but as fair as I can see it is profiteering on both sides. A week’s missed education at the age of five is not going to adversely affect a child, I missed nearly three months of education at the age of nine due to open heart surgery has that had a detrimental affect on my cerebral ability? This is going to become more of an issue for us as a family as the kids get older as my job means that my busy times are Christmas, Easter and July-September, all the major school holiday times. Watch this space to find out what happens.

However, before we headed into the principality we had a weekend off and so we decided to fire up the barbecue for the first time and invite a couple of our new neighbours around. Emma and Martin and Clair and David may be new neighbours but they are not new friends we met them nearly six years ago on our NCT course and thus both have children the same age as Éowyn. Emma and Martin live a couple of doors down from us and that is how we knew our new home was up for sale. Unfortunately the British summer wasn’t exactly barbecue friendly (heavy rain) but that is where a few strategically placed umbrellas held in the scaffolding that still adorns our home kept the worst of it off me while I cooked the meat. Despite the weather fun and food was had by all and it was a rather successful first barbecue.

Not really giving ourselves much time for relaxation the next morning both girls had been invited to separate birthday parties, so Lucinda took Amélie and I took Éowyn. We had managed to complete the packing so Lucinda’s car was full to the rafters (do cars have rafters?) ready for the afternoon drive to Nanny Fran’s.

Yes, after driving the girls to their parties we reconvened back at Chez Bagnall and headed up the M40 to West Bromwich. We hadn’t seen Nanny Fran for a while and so we thought we would pop up and see Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz and drive to Tenby from there. Although West Bromwich is a lot closer to Wales than Staines Upon Thames, it is only about 30 miles closer to Tenby however it did mean that we could head into Wales on the M50 and miss the toll on the Severn bridge (not really worth the extra diesel on its own though!).

The girls we as excited as ever to see Nanny Fran and while there we charged Nanny Fran with a challenge. You may recall that for various achievements both girls had been promised items from the Disney store and both had chosen Frozen related items. Frozen is the by far one of the biggest Disney films in recent history. For some reason it has captured children’s imaginations and the song ‘Let it go’ has become the bane of most parents life’s with constant non-stop renditions from their little ones and countless you-tube covers invading social media. However the success of the film seems to have caught Disney on the hop and dolls and costumes are incredibly difficult to get hold of, with some people paying up to £1000 off auction sites for the correct outfit. Éowyn bares a passing resemblance to Elsa and Amélie to Anna and with those characters being sisters in the movie then those are the two that the girls have identified with respectively. So with the demand so high we have been unable to source an Elsa dress and doll for Éowyn and an Anna dress and doll for Amélie, so we charged Nanny Fran with the one week challenge while we were on holiday.

We left Nanny Fran’s on Monday morning and headed to Tenby in glorious sunshine. The long term weather forecast had not been promising and so we thought that this was just another example of the Bagnall luck with the only beautiful day being our travel day.

The DVDs in the S-Max earn their money with the girls kept quiet with two films during the journey. The countryside was beautiful (except for the proliferation of mobile speed camera traps) however there was the odd countryside smell (if you know what I mean?). Indeed as we crossed the border into Monmouthshire and thus Wales, I asked Éowyn was she thought of the Welsh Countryside. ‘It smells like horse poo!‘ Although truthful was not exactly the ideal start for Anglo-Welsh relations.

We arrived mid-afternoon and the weather was still glorious and so, with half an eye on the long range weather forecast, after checking in and dropping the bags off at the caravan (5 Caldey View – although there was no view – unless you count the back end of another caravan – and you certainly couldn’t see Caldey Island!) we decided to take full advantage and follow the signs for the short (although longer than we expected) walk to the beach. Pembrokeshire is famous for some of the most beautiful sandy beaches, indeed the best beach in Europe, according to a recent tourist organisation, is the harbour beach in Tenby. So we were blessed that it was a short walk to the 2.5 miles of golden sand; sand, perfect for sandcastles. However, the sun was going down and we had three tired and hungry children so we headed into the leisure complex to investigate the pool and the food outlets.

The caravan park was blessed with a nice pool and with Éowyn’s (and to a lesser extent, Amélie’s) growing confidence in the water we decided that we would have to take advantage this week especially when we saw a notice for beginners lessons for the over fours. After a brief conversation we signed Éowyn up (Amélie still too young) for a 0900 lesson each morning.

A warm meal in the Mash and Barrel and a quick trip to the onsite supermarket for essentials (like toilet paper!) and it was back to the caravan for our first holiday sleep and the start of the holiday proper.

Tune into ‘A week in Wales: part two’ to read about the holiday but feel free to peruse the photos below as a taster of what is to come.

Peace and Love

Baggie

Hippy Child

Bounce!

Rainbow Pirate

Barbecue food?

The Bagnall Kids

Amélie and Ezra

To the beach

Tenby

Look up!

Narberth

Motorbikin’

Don’t make me angry

I’m going to tickle you

Shall I tickle you?

No, I will kiss you

Ezra

Éowyn

Mommy and Amélie

Push

Wheee

Moody breeches

Enjoying the beach

Sleeping Bubba

Sunset on Kiln Park

Half term at Nanny Fran’s

Wednesday 26th February 2014Wednesday 26th February 2014Baggie

As promised, the second update in a week – how I am spoiling you. So what is it that warrants a second write up. Nothing dramatic merely half-term coinciding with a non Premier League weekend meaning that I could wrangle five days off work and spend some time with my family.

Éowyn’s half term started a day early with an inset day, unfortunately we were still experiencing one of the countless Atlantic lows that have brought so much rain to this fair isle over winter. Thus the Bagnall family needed to find an indoor activity. Fortunately (well let’s think about this, not fortunately just good marketing by the film distributors) there are two child friendly movies released during half-term that appealed to Éowyn: The Lego Movie and Tinkerbell and the Pirate Fairy. Daddy wanted to see the Lego Movie however since Amélie is also a big fan of the Tinkerbell movies we decided that this was an opportune time to take Amélie to see her first film at the cinema. You may recall that Éowyn’s first trip to the cinema was to see the Muppet Movie at roughly the same age. This time it was Lucinda’s turn to be the first to take one of our children to the cinema. So Friday morning saw the Bagnall girls go en masse to the cinema in Staines to watch Tinkerbell and the Pirate Fairy, while the Bagnall boys stayed at home and talked about football (not really – Ezra slept).

Éowyn thoroughly enjoyed her cinema trip and avidly sat through the whole film. Amélie was also very good considering it was her first time and only asked to leave when there was a scary part of the film. However, Amélie doesn’t like loud noises and a cinema can be a particular noisy environment, Lucinda, being the experienced mother that she is, was prepared and took Amélie’s ear-muffs. It was not long before Amélie complained that the cinema was too loud and so on went the ear-muffs and they did not come off for the entire film. It may have looked a little strange but at least it muffled the sound enough for Amélie to enjoy the film and that’s all that matters!

Friday night saw 80mph winds and fallen trees (and a third fence panel) but Saturday saw a distinct change in the weather. With greatest threat of flood warnings peaking on the Friday and our street seemingly avoiding the worst of it (large puddles appearing out of the drains but no streams or torrents of flood waters threatening our threshold – see photo below) we felt safe to leave the confines of Staines Upon Thames. In mid-January the Badger Clan had decided that a trip to the Natural History Museum in London was called for and this first Saturday in the half-term break seemed to be the best date for all concerned. Unfortunately with threat of inclement weather most of the clan had pulled out. Undaunted the Bagnall sub-clan and Lucinda’s brother Michael, his girlfriend Cristina and eldest of the latest generation, Lauren caught the train from Staines Upon Thames to the Big Smoke.

I was not prepared for the popularity of the Natural History Museum (not sure why being a Saturday and half-term) but we joined the queue and were quickly inside. The Natural History Museum is an impressive building without the exhibits but it was all a little too much for Amélie who was a little freaked out, especially since we said that we were going to see the dinosaurs. Nevertheless the strong arms of Daddy carrying her into the main hall was enough to allay her fears and raise her excitement levels at the wonders within.

Unfortunately we were only in the museum for 20 minutes or so (enough time to see the Diplodocus and the whale hall) before there was an evacuation and we were all ushered outside. It was a big disappointment as we hadn’t seen the dinosaurs or managed to fully take in the big wonders that are the whales. (Éowyn has a half-term project entitled ‘Under the Sea’ so we were going to use the trip to highlight some of the wonders of the sea and indeed the vast size of creatures such as the Blue Whale).

With thousands of displaced people milling about in the street waiting to go back into the museum we decided that we would wander a little way down the street and visit the Science Museum instead. Although fascinating for me, I think the girls are a little too young to appreciate the wonders inside. A skeleton of a dinosaur fills all ages with awe-inspired wonder but there needs to be a little more of an understanding to appreciate the beauty of Stevenson’s Rocket or rotative engines built by James Watt. Also, to best take advantage of the Science Museum it is worth visiting their website and planning your visit, booking timeslots to see the various exhibitions. I think that is perhaps a visit left for when they are little older. I can’t wait.

So after the culture side of our trip to London, we headed into Piccadilly on, what Éowyn described as the best part of the day, the top deck of a double decker bus for a late lunch. A quick walk around Covent Garden (including a visit to the Disney story – although nothing grabbed Éowyn’s fancy as reward for the 5 superstar certificates) before heading over Hungerford Bridge (well strictly the Eastern Golden Jubilee Footbridge) to Waterloo railway station and home. The girls were both very well behaved and considering the amount of walking that they did, did not complain for the entire day. This was probably because it was such an exciting day out and there was plenty to keep them occupied.

Both were so worn out that they slept past 0800 the next morning. This is in complete contrariety to the norm. School days usually involves dragging them (metaphorically) out of bed at 0730 to give them time to breakfast and get dressed before leaving with enough time to walk to school (rather than a sprint from a parking space half a mile away). Holidays and weekends usually involves them waking up at 0600 and waking Mommy and Daddy up when we could actually catch up on our beauty sleep (not that we need it :-)) So an opportunity to have a lie in while our children slept was a welcome, if somewhat unique occurrence.

A relaxing Sunday was followed by another adventure on Monday. Calling on the services of Lauren once again, we headed to Epsom and the delights of Hobbledown Farm. Hobbledown is a rebranded (or built out of the ashes of – depending on the rumours) Horton Park Farm based on a mystical and magical fantasy tale by A. J. Kecojevic (to be honest I had not heard of it until I started writing this update). In 50 acres of farmland it combines a farm/ petting zoo with an outdoor adventure playground and an extremely large indoor play barn. It is themed around the Hobblers, fey-like gnomic people who are based on traditional English nature spirits and their arch-enemies the Skibblers, ugly, hook-nosed goblin-like entities that have arrived in Hobbledwon intent on causing mischief.

Although it was half-term the inclement weather had put pay to baying throngs and there were no queues (although they were still operating a 90 minute time limit in the indoor play-barn). The girls enjoyed the animals and the adventure playground (there was an aerial adventure course aimed at older children that Lauren completed, which culminated in a zip-wire back to the start – our girls are a little too young (or short) for but it will not be that long before Éowyn (10 more centimetres) will be harnessed up and clambering over our heads) and an afternoon in the indoor play-barn allowed Ezra time to stretch his legs and play in the soft-play area.

The adventures continued on Tuesday. It has been months since we paid a visit to West Bromwich and Nanny Fran’s and so it was time to rectify that. Unfortunately I was returning to work on Wednesday so we decided that Lucinda and the kids would have a extended visit and return on Thursday while I would return home on the evening. Therefore we had to take both cars up the M40. Éowyn saw this as an opportunity to spend some time alone with her daddy and asked if she could travel in Daddy’s car. So Éowyn and I set off five or ten minutes before Lucinda, Amélie and Ezra.

Fifteen minutes into the journey, I’d just made it onto the M40, my mobile rang, it was Lucinda. For some reason my handsfree didn’t work, fortunately there was service station and so concerned I turned off the motorway so that I could call her back. An ‘Engine Malfunction’ error message had flashed up on Lucinda’s dashboard and so worried headed off the motorway and headed to her parents. Unfortunately cars are controlled by computers and so it is impossible to lift the bonnet (hood – for Americans) and see if there is anything obvious. So there was nothing to do except call out our breakdown service and let them hook a computer up to interrogate the car and determine the problem. In the meantime Éowyn and I continued to Nanny Fran’s.

Not long after we arrived at Nanny Fran’s Lucinda called to say that the breakdown mechanic had been and the car behaved itself. No warning light. Nothing! The mechanic said that it is one of those things and it should be fine, just a hiccup and effectively turning it off and turning it back on had cured it. Computers! Thus Lucinda packed Amélie and Ezra in the car and headed up, so in the meantime Éowyn had Nanny Fran (and then Auntie Liz) all to herself. Éowyn enjoyed the attention but poor Auntie Liz as soon as she walked in through the door from work Éowyn assaulted her begging for her nails to be painted! Evening came and I headed back south via a friend’s in Tipton while Lucinda and the kids stayed with Nanny Fran.

I think fun was had by all (as I was at work). There was a visit to Sandwell Park Farm and something that Éowyn has been craving to do for a while a combination of two ideas in her head. As many of you know my father died when I was 14, therefore Lucinda never met my dad and my children have never met their Granddad Vic. My dad is buried in West Bromwich and, to my shame, I do not visit his grave as often as I should, and only took Éowyn as a baby to ‘introduce’ her to her granddad. Éowyn has reached that age when she is starting to ask questions and one of those questions has been about my dad, so I have been honest and open with her, as we are about all her questions.

Secondly, Éowyn has recently acquired a fascination with graveyards. Not sure why but every time we pass a church she will ask if it has a graveyard and whether we could go and visit. I have actually taken her around a couple (I quite like graveyards) but is right for a 5 year old to have such a fascination? Éowyn added these two ideas together and asked if she could visit Granddad Vic’s grave. I said I would take her the next time we went to West Bromwich but unfortunately haven’t, as yet, had enough time to take her, so I suggested that she asked Nanny Fran. So Thursday morning Nanny Fran and Éowyn headed up the road to buy some flowers to take to Granddad Vic. This made Éowyn’s trip and I think that she now has some sense of reality of Granddad Vic.

Thursday afternoon Lucinda and the kids returned home and relaxed a little over the remainder of the holiday. Éowyn visited her new best friend on Friday then spent the weekend at home. As I mentioned above Éowyn had a half-term project entitled ‘Under the Sea’ so Éowyn asked if she could make an underwater scene. So Daddy used his computer skills and printed off some pictures of sea creatures and Mommy helped Éowyn paint a cardboard box and decorate it with the images. You can see the results below.

Anyhow I have kept you long enough so will leave you to enjoy the photos.

Peace and Love

Baggie