Archive for the ‘Family’ Category

Back to Fleming Park

Sunday, May 1st, 2011

923On Saturday we were back to Fleming Park for more orienteering – this time one of SOC’s Summer Series events. I took Emma and Duncan round the yellow where the major challenge was navigating past the playground and sandpit without coming to a complete halt! It’s also only just occurred to me that Emma walked round – in last year’s series we never made it all the way without the aid of a pushchair. With the inclusion of the old municipal golf course it is an interesting enough area but not particularly big. My 4.1km light green course criss-crossed the map several times and it still only took me just over 18 minutes to get round. Sadly we left the event amidst much crying as there wasn’t time to revisit the playground as Emma was due at a party in the afternoon.

Royal watching

Saturday, April 30th, 2011

920I can’t claim that Royal Wedding fever was rife in the Currie household. Emma was mildly excited due to the whole ‘princess’ side of things but probably wouldn’t have noticed  if we’d just gone out for the day. As it was, we settled down in front of the TV just as the groom departed for the Abbey and watched until they were in the church. The photo is a bit misleading as Duncan wasn’t really glued to the screen. He was probably only standing there to try and get other people’s attention. Emma seemed to enjoy wathing all of the different hats going in to the church.
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Maze-O

Friday, April 29th, 2011

914Thursday night is usually Christine’s running night but this week we though tag along – partly so that Emma could see them doing their silly walks for the warm up, but mainly so that the rest of us could go to the orienteering club’s Maze-O event, also at Fleming Park. Quite what the general public made of the 15 or so people dashing about in a 5 metre square sea of red and white tape I do not know. It worked quite well for us though. Duncan got to hold the Emit brick. Emma and I then navigated around the maze shouting to Duncan when we reached a control. He would then just plough straight under all the tapes, punch the control and wander off again!

Easter Weekend

Tuesday, April 26th, 2011

908We spent the first half of the Easter weekend at my parents. I’ll admit it’s a couple of months since we’ve last been but in that time Duncan has become a liability. Actually, it was probably the change in the weather that meant we spent more time outside. The problem? The two ponds and a bird bath come fountain. Duncan ending up in one of the ponds was only a minor concern. More of a problem was the fact that he seemed to think everything else should be in the water – sticks, stones, soil, you name it. In the end, my parents managed to distract him with a series of washing up bowls, a watering can, some drain pipe and, eventually, a model water wheel (a relic from the schools’ trips to Carisbrook Castle on the Isle of Wight)!
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Forest of Half

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011

We were at Christine’s parents for a running themed weekend. On Saturday we watched her Mum complete a fell race at Llanthony Priory. Emma and Duncan thoroughly enjoyed playing around the ruins with some of the other children and then splashing in a small stream crossed by the course. On Sunday, her Dad and I ran in the Forest of Dean Trails Half Marathon. I had originally embarked on a training schedule for this race (a first for me) but was probably too ambitious and soon succumbed to a knee injury.

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Southern Champion

Monday, March 14th, 2011

902I had a weekend full of orienteering. On Saturday we went to help at the JOK Chasing Sprint at Shotover near Oxford. I had first shift, helping on the prologue start and then collecting a few controls (only one before a competitor came chasing after me to punch it but then he had started 20 minutes after the last start time). I then took the kids to play in a sandy/muddy stream whilst Christine helped with the chase start which they loved. In fact, they were having so much fun that they seemed oblivious to the race unfolding around them although it did give me a chance to take a few photos.

On Sunday, I left the rest of the family to go to Manor Farm Country Park whilst I got a lift to the Southern Champs, taking place on the Hambleden Estate near Henley-on-Thames. It made a pleasant change having time to prepare before the start of the race although I still had to go back for the Emit brick I left behind. I enjoyed my run as Hambleden is a delightfully runnable area (if you discount the hills) and I had no pain from my dodgy knee. I only messed up two controls: two minutes at number 10 (see RouteGadget for the near miss) and half a minute at the penultimate control. On the long (~3km) leg, after taking time to examine the map on the previous leg, I ended up going pretty straight. It will be interesting to see whether anyone ran faster taking the long flatt(er) route going south and then coming in from the east.

I was 1st out of 5 when I finished but results were delayed and we headed off before the prize giving. Still no results when I went to bed so it was a pleasant surprise to have an email in the morning from a club-mate indicating that they had picked up my M35L trophy. So, growing older has its benefits. The only fly in the ointment? Richard Barrett took nearly 5 minutes less on the same course as an M40. Looks like I still have some work to do over the next 5 years!

Febrile seizure

Thursday, March 10th, 2011

Duncan’s nursery phoned on Monday morning to say that he was running a temperature. I agreed that they could give him Calpol and phoned again later, by which time his temperature had subsided, he’d slept, and had eaten his lunch. The next call I had was from Christine who had gone to pick up Duncan at the end of the day and discovered an ambulance car parked outside. Duncan had experienced a short seizure (1-2 minutes) and they we’re going to transfer him (along with Christine and Emma) by ambulance to Winchester Hospital. I pedalled over to the nursery, picked up the car and followed them in. They had given him more Calpol and followed this up with Ibuprofen in A&E which brough his temperature back down again from 39 degrees. After several hours of the usual NHS procrastination he was finally transferred to the children’s ward where Christine spent the night with him. Emma and I returned the following morning to bring them home (after a good play with the toys on the ward). The verdict? A febrile seizure. As the NHS site states “frightening but harmless”. He may be susceptible and we need to watch his temperature more closely in future but, either way, he will grow out of it by five. What surprised me most is that, although between three and five percent of children suffer one of these seizures, this was a first for the nusery. In many ways though, we’re glad it happened there rather than at home as they undoubtedly dealt with the situation much more calmly than we would have done.

London sightseeing

Saturday, March 5th, 2011

893I’ve had a few days of work this past week, mostly spent around home, however on Wednesday we decided to take the children up to London for the first time. We bought a family railcard for the trip. Although this meant paying for one of the two children when both would be normally be free, the saving on our adult tickets meant that we almost broke even on this one trip and we should hopefully get more use out of the card than that. We arrived at Waterloo around half-ten and decided to do a bit of sightseeing en-route to a primary destination: the Natural History Museum. We went past the London Eye, the Houses of Parliament and through St James Park to Buckingham Palace. Although we arrived just in time for the Changing of the Guard, sadly they only perform every other day during the winter and this was an off day. We were, however, overtaken by some Horse Guards and then, as we reach Hyde Park, were passed by two Royal carriages. It was then on past the Serpentine, the Albert Memorial and the Royal Hall to arrive at our destination just in time to check out the restaurant. Christine and I both enjoyed our lunch. Unfortunately we enjoyed most of the children’s lunches as well!

Emma was keen to see the dinosaurs after a previous encounter at the Pitt Rivers in Oxford. We then went on to look at the mammals (including the life size blue whale) and the creepy crawlies. Duncan also seemed to love the museum although that may just have been the chance to run freely from one brightly lit case to the next. There was bright sunshine when we emerged but we dived down in to the underground (all part of the experience) back to Westminster and then walked back to Waterloo, just about beating the commuter rush back home.

There are a few photos on Flickr. I would have taken more but the auto-focus on my kit lens seems to have packed in. Thankfully it’s still under warranty.