Archive for the ‘Family’ Category
Sunday, April 5th, 2009
733We decided to avoid the potential holiday crowds in the New Forest today and went over to Hillier Gardens to make the most of the sunshine. I’m not sure when we last went but there have been a few changes in the intervening months: the wicker man in the children’s garden has been replaced by a giant spider, there are some pigs rooting around in the area adjacent to Ampfield Woods and, most excitingly for Emma, there is a new tree house replete with slide, scramble net and climbing wall – a definite hit. Sadly the early flowering rhododendrums and the magnolias were already past their best. I’ve put a few photos up on Flickr.
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Sunday, March 29th, 2009
730Christine and I are pleased to announce that we’re expecting another child. We had the initial scan last week and with the blood test results also coming through clear we’re now spreading the word. Due date is 1 October although Christine’s adamant that’s a week early. When asked whether she’d like a little brother or sister, Emma is very consistent in her answer: ‘No’!
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Sunday, March 22nd, 2009
736Looking for something to do today we decided to pedal over to Lakeside Country Park in Eastleigh. There’s a pleasant enough cycle path most of the way from our house and we could take a look at that endangered species, the Eastleigh golfer (the course at Fleming Park is due to close at the end of the month). What we hadn’t bargained on was the Spring Gala for the miniature railway with 10+ locomotives in full steam. Christine seemed to think it was my duty to take Emma for a ride. Emma wasn’t entirely impressed by all of the smoke and noise and wanted to get off the train before we had even started. She survived the 1.25 mile round trip including the tunnel although I’m not sure she (nor I) will be in a rush to have another go!
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Saturday, March 21st, 2009
724From Ludlow we move to the Peak District for a short break. The location was mainly chosen so that we could make a day trip to visit Christine’s cousin Cath’s new baby. We’d made a last minute booking at a cottage in Tideswell. The cottage was homely enough but could do with a bit of touching up here and there. It did have an excellent collection of children’s books which kept Emma happy for the week. She might have enjoyed the videos as well but I could only get the DVD player to work!
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Posted in Family, Travel | Comments Off on Week in the Peaks
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009
718Last weekend saw the British Orienteering Champs come to the New Forest. Things didn’t get off to a good start for us – Emma started to develop spots on Friday which by Saturday morning looked very like chicken pox. In the end Emma did come to Hampton Ridge (where there were at least two other children in a similar predicament!) but Christine had missed her run by this point. I may as well have missed mine. I was off as first starter on M21L but certainly wasn’t the first to find number one on my course! You can read the gory details in my comments on RouteGadget (Course 8). Mercifully our shift helping didn’t prove too onerous (although we have been jointly responsible for creating all of the information material for the event).
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Monday, January 26th, 2009
709A visiting friend and a dry forecast was all the excuse we needed to head over to Marwell Zoo on Saturday. It’s the first time we’ve taken Emma and she’s certainly of an age where she can take it all in now. There’s a good range of animals from giraffes to ants and everything inbetween and having arrived before eleven we were there until closing time. It’s perhaps debateable whether Emma enjoyed the playgrounds more than the animals though! Still, entry is free (for her) until she reaches three. I had the camera out but I’m not particularly impressed with any of the photos I took. The slightly less mediocre ones are over on Flickr.
Posted in Family, Friends, Photography | Comments Off on We’ve been to the zoo zoo zoo
Thursday, January 1st, 2009
704Happy New Year! We’re over with Christine’s family at the moment and today took the opportunity of some more local orienteering by attending NGOC’s score event at Parkend. When Christine, her Dad and I set off from home I still wasn’t quite sure whether I was going to run as my cough/cold is still lingering but, as we drove through the frost covered forest, I decided that it was simply too cold not to (the car thermometer was showing -2°C)!
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Monday, December 29th, 2008
We spent Christmas at my parents’ this year and had a relaxing few days. The excitement of Christmas was slow to grow on Emma and she had to be enticed in to opening presents. She started to warm to it a bit after that. Thankfully our Fisher Price heliport and lift and load depot off eBay went down well (they just don’t make them like that any more) and The Tickle Book and The Bedtime Bear are now regulars on the reading list. Yesterday we headed back down to Southampton via the Southern Navigators’ event at Long Valley.
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