Archives: holiday

Back to the routines of home. Esme is a little more out of sorts than usual – Louise suspects she’s missing the attention of the others as they go off to pay with their friends. When I cam home yesterday afternoon Jude was over at Joe’s (not Jo’s) & Eve was off swimming with Amber & Jack was playing with Ethan & Aiden. Esme had been having a snooze & was a bit groggy & clingy. She remained that way most of the time until bed (distraction being the only thing that kept her happy). Lilly came over to play for a bit, but then Jude back & demanded a game of catch, so Esme wanted to join in, dropping Lily. Tears from Esme until she gets her shoes on & comes out to play & Lily has to go back over to her house.
So… In Oxford… what did we do on our first day there? As usual my memory is all fuzz. We walked into town via the canal & it was lovely. The kids were a little bored fro tie to time, but on the whole they enjoyed it as it was a good walk with plenty to look at. We headed into the Centre & tried navigate to a couple of museums with just a tourist leaflet map. That worked OK in the end & we reached the History of Science Museum – or was it just billed as The Science Museum. It’s at that very decorous part of Oxford with the round building & big wall decorated with busts of greek philosophers (in a pleasantly grotesque exaggerated style). Jut off the side of there. It’s a great place proper museum stuff with display cases full of fascinating stuff, but the kids don’t have the time of attention span for this kind of thing. They whizzed through & were bored. When I say, “The kids” I’m not including Jack – he would have quite happily stayed a lot longer & studies a lot more, but the inertia of the younger ones only allowed for skimming. Jack was not included in “The kids” quite a lot of the time. It’s funny how that is developing.

Then to the Natural History Museum (after a few false starts caused by parents being pulled in so many directions by the young & demanding. The natural History Museum in Oxford is great. There was a lot there & there was enough to keep the younger ones happy – Even Jude & Esme after Jude had managed to indulge in the calming influence of a little retail therapy…. Jude needs to satiate the ‘shop thing’ before he can relax & enjoy his surrounding – such is his need to ‘acquire’.

We spent a good long while there & as it’s not too big we could let Jack go off & explore as he wanted – and he did . In the end, when the others had finally exhausted all that we could initially provide (they were getting hungry & irritable) one of us had to go back inside to locate Jack & bring him out. I failed then Louise succeeded.

Then off down a side street to St Giles & into town but unable to get past a strategically placed kiosk with ice cream for sale.

From that day on Esme wanted ice cream every day . There came a point during the day when she would start whingeing for ice cream & carry on until properly distracted (difficult when she’s been placed in the pushchair) or satiated.

One of the tasks on the holiday for us was to not spend too much money as, (to be quite frank) we don’t have a lot of it. This meant some limitations & it meant some occasional frustration for the kids when they could not exceed the agreed budget. Jack was very moderate in his spending as he recognised he could accumulate some money & get something ‘larger’.

Annnnd back to work

….meh…

As is the way of things – we were getting more into the swing of things, but it was time to come home. I don’t get long holidays; not had one for a few years now, but it was good to give the kids a break from the norm, I just with that period of adjustment & excitement that causes then to be that bit harder to manage was a little shorter. Esme has definitely come out of this the wildest, but her spell also works on whomever is nearest to her. She has an infectious joy & mania that she passes onto Jude, Eve & even Jack… maybe me as well.

It’s been a good break. Not looking forward to work today – not just because it’s work, but because there are the problems on the sale (a little cloud that would occasionally follow me around when I let myself think about it (though balloon that goes dark, rains & follows you about – 6 panel comics idea if ever there was one) but there looks to have been some system problems from the weekend that were only cleared up yesterday (oh, joy – a grumpy phone to deal with all day.

So – what happened on our holiday to Oxford. Well, we didn’t take coats – not for ourselves – the kids had coats… So the rather heavy rain that greeted us leaving the station was a bit of a bad stay. We called Dr Susie (who so kindly let us stay at the house) & she said that she could pick some of us up., so we set out to a meeting point to do the ‘pick up’. Louise had the brolly I initially, but passed it to me as I took Jack & Esme (in buggy with raincover) up the ‘canal walk’ way & Louise took Jude & Eve on a theoretically easy jaunt to the pick up point. My passed on instruction on where to meet must have confused matters as Louise then went the wrong way, & it took a couple of calls & consultations on the soggy map printout to get her to the right point. All OK in the end – Louise arrived at the house before me – I came off the canal path a bit early – but it all worked out in the end. Dr Susie had even gone to the trouble of supplying us with a pasta meal & raspberries from her garden – treats!

She has a big house & we had the top (2nd) floor (floors?) with 3 rooms & another attic room. Jude & Esme had the largest room, Eve had her own room (as did Louise & I for the most part – nocturnal visits from Esme) & Jack had the attic room which was up a steep narrow staircase (no door) from Jude & Esme’s room. Plenty of space for our sizey family. Would be nice to have a house on this sort of scale as it could actually divvy up into a room for all (daydreaming beyond my means again).

How to describe the house? It’s seizable enough, but it’s stuffed to the gills. I think that she puts up students some of the year round – but I’m not quite sure… The rooms are still her kids rooms in some cases (Eve was in Polly’s old room & we were in one of her sons old rooms). It may be that she’s running more ‘open house’ for her friends & family’s friends & friends of friends. Her children are all grown up & she has a lot of … (for want of a better word) clutter. Lots of photos & cards hanging up & pictures/paintings & Asian puppets & …well… it creates a friendly atmosphere.

Big Empty train (strike day – limited service). Hey – my brain is the same!
It would rather be sleeping, but that could not be the case even without work to attend, as Eve was awake before I left this morning.

I shall attempt to recount a little of the holidays again. If Boxing Day was Thursday (I think it was) then Neil & Jess arrived in the afternoon. This pleased Jack no end, as he really likes them. They all had a good time. Eve tuckered out again & so did Jude (later), but Jack kept going. He would have kept on & on. He was starting to tire, even with his buoyant mood & excitement he was getting clumsy, so rather than he be upset by upsetting someone, we upset him; by taking him to bed. He howled & protested for a while, but calmed down with the reading of a new book; Ivor (the Engine) & The Foxes – which has a mounting sense of excitement as Mrs Fox gets chased.

The next day we went to this open farm. The really good thing that the kids enjoy is the barn which has one of those inside play areas – all slides & climbing & …well- adventuring for the young ‘uns.
They stayed there a good while & bounced on the trampolines & Eve had a go on the tractors (push along & pedal). Was not so mild that day tho – so the adults (Louise & I, me mum & Neil & Jess) did a lot of standing/sitting around being cold. Jack befriended some other boys in one of the climbing frames & then went off to play on the slides. The boys all then started shouting, “Jack! ….Jack! JACK!” etc. Like he gets an instant cult… weird.

Saturday was pottering around & packing. Not so interesting for the kids, but Jack & Eve did get a little walk on the beach with Neil & Jess.

Traveled back that night & home. Only Eve worried us on the journey. After we left the motorway & were ‘on the final straight’ metaphorically, she stirred & was upset. She cried & was almost to the ‘distressed enough to be sick’ point. She did one of those magnificent pre puke belches she does – forced out by a cough… but she managed to keep it together.

Jack awoke the next morning & announced to Louise, “That was the best holiday I’ve ever had” (as already mentioned).
They’ve settled down quite well. Jack still has a slightly frantic edge, but nothing compared to pre Xmas.

We have Caroline from London visiting now – so I was up far too late last night. My body has not yet adjusted to the early morning wake up that I have to do to get to work – so I was already a bit of a wreck by the time I was coming home. Actually – I’ve been clumsy as well – which is more than tired… Aha! I can happily blame this cold, then.

This being New Years Eve, it looks a lot like I will be up late again tonight. Bonus point is that I do not have to go to work tomorrow – yeay!

After an all too quick holiday I’m back on this train to work. As suspected, I had no time to sit down & type – but that is not a bad thing, as far as I’m concerned. I had a pleasant time – thoroughly pleasant.
Jack said as he woke on the 1st day back at home, “That was the best holiday I ever had”.

I think the madness of anticipation had calmed down in Jack once we got there & he settled more to his usual self. He was really good & loving. The journey down (my dad drove us) nearly went to plan. If we had not hit a traffic jam for 2 hours on the M5 down from Manchester to Birmingham it was likely that the kids would have stayed asleep better. As it was, they all awoke at some stage here. Eve managed to get back to sleep. Jude was asleep & awake, much as his sleeping pattern had been the past few days, & Jack just stayed awake. We got in late & Jack was buzzing with the fact that we were there at Grandma & Grandma’s house. All this meant that he was frighteningly late to bed. Louise said that I was reading to him past 12:00 (or was it 01:00). He was keen as mustard to get to the beach on the 1st day, but we didn’t make it. I can’t really recall why, but probably because Louise & I were still in a state of chaos. We managed to get out to the shops to get some supplies & essentials, but that was about it.

Christmas Eve, Jack was keen to be off to bed early. It was the ‘early to bed so the morning comes earlier’ thing. Again – not sure if the evening bedtime went more to usual time or not… I suspect that it did, as I seem to recall reading to him.

Up on Christmas day not too early – which was nice. When I was young, I could hardly sleep for the excitement of it all, but ours did well. Presents a plenty – & the kids were jolly happy. Jude did not get much, but then – he’s not really at an age to appreciate much of what’s going on. Christmas day mum & dad had the restaurant open. I’m sure we’ve done this scenario before, but when it was starting to get late – past 5? & the kids were starting to flag, it seemed a bit odd to have not seen much of them. We had been down to the beach during the day & they had a massive walk (in their terms) down to the lighthouse. The weather was unseasonably mild; it was pleasantly sunny. We were asked for buckets & spades, but we didn’t bring them, as we didn’t think that it would be this nice. Still, Jack & Eve had fun & they prodded the sand, jumped about splashed, climbed in the sand dunes. They were starting to get worn out by the final stretch home, but the promise of ice creams from the garage shop (next door to the parental abode) got them there. All that took rather a long time. The kids, Eve especially, were flagging badly by evening & it was starting to look like bed time was on the cards. Eve had some boiled egg for tea. She was starting to look like she was going to just drop asleep there & then, when…. Mum & Dad returned! Much bustle. A Christmas dinner suddenly appears & we are all around to table. After dinner is our traditional ‘presents from the family’ time. Eve said that she would only open 2 & then go to bed. She then proceeded, with Jack, to joyfully rip open the multitude of presents. Much excitement (all over again!). So many toys! Can’t recall when bedtime came, but it was very late again. They were happy.

Boxing day – Mum & dad nipped off for Golf in the morning.

Hmmm… Could well be my last bit of ‘regular diary’ this year. Holidays start tomorrow & we’re off down to Somerset to spend Xmas with my mum & dad. Are we ready? Are we hell as like! At least, I think we’ve got all those present things now.

Jude hasn’t really got anything much in the way of presents, but he’s not 1 yet (actually… it’s not that long until he is!) so I’m sure he’ll get by on wrapping paper & such like. Must remember to pack a few of the things he likes to play with. I can predict that Louise & I will be spending a considerable amount of time going up & down the stairs with him. The stairs at maw & paws are nice, straight, wide, not too deep & ‘a good run’ up. I wonder about ornaments & alike, as he’s well into climbing up the furniture…. We will see.

Heh – took yesterday off work. Jack does not go back to school until today & Louise thought that it would be a very pleasant idea & so it was; a very nice day. We went off to Huddersfield & pottered about shopping. Quite good booty – like some Halloween themed attire for Eve & Jack who are off to Hamish’s Halloween themed party on Thursday. Glow in the dark ink on the decals. They enjoyed those at bedtime – both going off into their bedroom with the lights of & the door closed – Jack with a ghosty & Eve with a half dozen of so bats eyes all aglow; excitement!
Jack & Eve played very well together all throughout the day, really. It was a pleasure to behold. Not fractious, but cooperative.

Well -I was supposed to be on the earlier train, but it was cancelled. My mild panic after a dawdle in town was pointless. Hey ho.
Home a little later than intended. I hope it doesn’t piss off Louise as she’s hoping that we take advantage of her mum’s presence & go take books back to the library, get shopping etc.
Oh – & it’s a bank holiday – so I get to have a long weekend! Yeay!
The new arrangement of Louise & I sleeping upstairs (attic area) seems to be OK. It does have it’s drawbacks. Jack shouted out “Paul! Paul! Paul! Paul!… PAUL!” last night & I had to stagger across the room, down the stairs & into his room to see what the matter was; “Can I pop upstairs for just a minute?”
“No.”
It only used to be a stagger down the hall to his room. There’s a lot more to negotiate in a semi-comatose state.
Is Eve better on with the potty at the moment after recent ‘lapses’? Uh – well – take each day as it comes. She gets distracted & tired & she can be just plain lazy about it as well. She can remember though & makes a mad dash for the potty.
I can remember my parents getting mad at me as I was always leaving things to the last minute as a kid. Mad dashes used to annoy them.

Not feeling grand this morning… Ah well.

Holiday:
Friday was also sunny. Jack & I spent a good long while building a large sandcastle with a moat. Eve nearly helped. I got rather burnt, as was evident the next day at the comics convention in Bristol. Jack & I set off with dad early in the morning (he was off to the Fruit & Veg market to stock up). The veg market was quite fun for Jack as well – it’s a vast area of wholesale sellers. We had breakfast in a little porta-cabin as the main cafe seems to have closed down – shame. We then were dropped off by The Watershed in Bristol where I assumed the convention was to take place (as per last year). Should have checked really – ah well. Anyway, as it was rather early Jack & I wandered round a bit in town waiting for the start time. Picked up a couple of records I’ve been looking for, for a while in a decent independent record shop – that sort of thing. Then off to the convention itself, when the true location was found. I did not enjoy the convention, but I will be lazy & not repeat myself, merely repeat a mail I sent round the Bugpowder mailing group:

sigh

I’m very glad that nick had a good time. I’m home now from my hols that incorporated a most pleasant break at my parents, but have to admit my day in Bristol was the Nadir of the holiday. My Yahoo mailbox is full, & Nick’s mail on the subject is all that I have – I do not want to bother with looking at the web for the group replies direct. I want to mutter on for now.
I apologies for not hanging around for the small press talk. I should have, there were only 20 more minutes, but if you are somewhere you don’t want to be, then 20 minutes is irrelevant.
The whole set up reminded me of an old TUC building comic mart. It was not a convention. It was a crowded, hot sweaty room of people selling comics of which I felt distant to. The fact that there was a good small press presence there couldn’t get over the fact that my whole mind set was disengaged by all the crap. Is this my problem
well..
after scant consideration i deny that this is a problem that I should get over.
This convention seemed to pride itself on the fact that it was family friendly, but it was not even vaguely friendly. It was oppressive & my son was keen to leave as soon as he arrived. I concede he may have picked up on my unease, but he is smart enough to make up his own mind. There were small oasis for him – like R2D2 – which was about his height.
Again I declare this was no convention.
For those of you staying in hotels, you had that part of the day to be social, but where was the social area at the event? There was no space!
If it were not for the fact that they had decided at the train station that day to check everyone coming & going on the platform had a train ticket, then there would have been very fine bar there we could have gone to. I’m not saying that a license for alcohol is needed at the event, but areas nearby where socialising would be possible would be good. Somewhere separate from the general mass would be good. A pleasant accessible nearby pub a bonus.
What I’d really like to see a move away from though is the grid of tables stacked with boxes of comics as the focus of any ‘convention’.
You go to record fairs & mart for that stuff. It does nothing to change the public’s view that comics are shite for that to be so central It’s just a lack of imagination.
I came home with a total of 3 comics, & only one of those I could call a ‘small press’ thing. This is very bad as there were many many comics that I have not seen before, & it’s in my nature to want them all – to explore all – naturally I can’t afford such things, but I feel ZUM! taking a wider & wider orbit in the small press world. At the moment there’s little I can do really. I cannot spend the time I want to write reviews organise & even gather the comics. I lament & hope for the future, with a wistful wish that I could have someone help me with it… but pragmatically, I will just have to continue to lament. I have never liked ‘ignorance is bliss’ though. On personal level it gnaws at my soul.
OOP
drifted off topic into the area I might have briefly bemoaned at the talk so – anyway – can we have it a little more ‘people’ orientated next time?
I wish I could go to caption – but I can’t afford – It’s not practical.
hey ho
wishing for a better world
paul

<sigh>
I wonder if I should comment further on this? Jack’s response to the
whole event was to get away. He was taken with the idea of going to start with & he liked the venue of last year’s event. They’ve been doing redevelopment work down at The Watershed & there are some interesting features like fountains & a big silver globe. The comics convention site was by the train station. As we arrived there were a couple of storm troopers, Bobba Fett (or was it Jango Fett? – I don’t really know, but he did have a considerable beer gut & bad trainers) & Darth Vader. They had fake guns & Jack did not like that. We have no toy guns in the house, but other kids around have them. In those circumstances he knows that they are toys, I guess… I don’t think he expected adults to play with such guns. A brief reassurance got him past. He was pleased on getting in to have a gnasher badge, which seemed to be the “I’ve paid to get in” badge. He did not really like the crowds of people much. He liked the Metaphrog people as John gave him some leaflets for his bag & spoke to him & was a pleasant fellow. We met Darryl, which was a very nice surprise. He gets him confused with my brother a bit, but then he gets my brother confused with Darryl. Dark hair angular face is about as far as the similarity goes. He was keen to be out of the crowded heat of the ‘main hall’. I lost sight of him once, which panicked me. We spent a while outside, but eventually went back in again. There were a couple of rows of Playstations, cubes & Xboxes set up for people to play on like an arcade area & Jack leapt up to them to have a play. He had little idea what he was doing & I had only marginally more (too many buttons). After a while swishing a light sable around, piloting an uncrashable space plane & making spiderman jump around at random we finished with that. Jack was then keen to leave again, & I was in wholehearted agreement. I was due to be on the small press talk though. It was only half an hour away. I checked the room in which the talk was to take place & ‘Little Room’ was a very good description. Realising that it would be even more hot & sweaty & probably akin to torture I went to the bloke who I think organised it, made my apologies & then scarpered.
Anyway – getting home was not a great success either. I left in the hope of catching a specific train & asked which train & time it might be when buying a ticket. I did not think to double-check, & if I had thought about it properly I would have. I was pointed at a train that was later than the one that I should have caught… so I did not have any time to correct the mistake when I realised the error – so Jack & I had to wait a good while longer for the next train. I suspect it was over an hour, but I don’t care to recall.

Weird – it’s 2 weeks since our 1st day of holiday in Somerset already. I say weird, but I’m always playing catchup – so I can’t really be surprised, now, can I?

Mum took us to Weston-Super-Mare that day & I bought a new modem for my parent’s computer. I was to regret this, but how was I to know? Jack was really, really wanting to go to the beach, but the weather was undecided; showery and also windy. I think we resisted Jack’s will that day & avoided the beach.
Later, I tried to install the modem & it wouldn’t have it. Didn’t want to sit on the comm port, basically. The computer did have a 28K modem, but that was doing the same – so that modem was probably OK. Still – that was a bit of a -um- nuisance. I spent a good long while at night when the kids were asleep fixing the darn thing – or rather failing to fix it. Fortunately my parents have 2 computers – both inherited from people upgrading, so that gave me more options. One was failing to boot up in the end, but I managed to get the name of the corrupted file off the faulty one & grab a replacement off the one that was working. I found the reason while the applications kept performing ‘illegal operations’ on that one as well – the date kept straying to 2097. Suspect battery problems. Old computers get cranky as part cease to work as they should.
Still – at least we got to the position where both computers were working properly, & my parents can get on the Internet; I’m quite pleased about that.

The Wednesday we succumbed to the pleas to go to the beach. It was a brief visit – Louise had to retreat with Jude as he does not like the wind, & it was very windy. Jack bought his scooter along & found that it did not work on the sand; too soft – the wheels sunk. Still he could go along the sea wall at a pace – the sea wall at Burnham has large steps up to the curved wall that deflects the waves – presumably to ‘disrupt’ a storm wave as it comes in. Perfect for scooting along – but Jack was not so keen as the sand was more fun. He wanted to run off & have a laff & gad about, but we had to cut short & retire home as Eve needed changing.
Friday was a better day in general. We spent a good long time on the beach then. The wind had abated, the sun was out – the tourists were out. Weird – Burnham gets a high Brum quota to its holidaymakers. It’s more prevalent than the south west accent during the ‘on season’.

We got to my parents at about 1 or 2 in the morning (I forget). We’ve never been to this house before as they moved last year. When we went in, dad said that our bedroom was to the back. It’s one of these houses that keep going back, & so it gave a good impression of space going to the back bedroom. We got the kids into bed OK. Jack was on the top bunk of a bunk bed. He was up the latest, so he was hardly disturbed by being transported in. Eve woke up & was quite pleased to be put into bed. She had been laying sideways on the back seat & thus pushing into Jack & kicking at Louise. She lay there for quite a while, probably wondering what the heck was gong on, & seemingly quite pleased to have the top bunk above her for some reason.

Up early the next day as usual. Jack claimed he got up in the night to go to the toilet – which is most likely true. He did well; in that case, as he would not have been aware he was in a “bunker bed” (as he called it) or where on earth the toilet might be in a strange new house. He did know that he would be at grandma & grandpa’s tho – so he could not have been unduly worried. Heck he would have let us know if he was worried.

UM… I will continue in less detailed mode about the holiday. Two reasons really; it would take too long, & my brain gets blury about such things anyway.