Archives: burnham-on-sea

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!

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’.

Tipsy
Glass of beer.

This is not really like a diary is it? I hardly keep a daily routine. It’s a journal, I guess. Yeh, I try to think of it more like that…
Itchy ears from sunburn.

Been fun these days.

The comic convention in Bristol was a bit of a let down. Saw some familiar faces, (and was good to see them) but it was more like a glorified comics mart rather than a convention. For a convention that last year prided itself on being family friendly – this was a big hot hall full of traders selling comics.
There were a bunch of small pressers there, but the lack of any real social areas was the missing ingredient that made the whole thing fail.
Shame really.

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Been on holiday since Monday, but not really had a chance to do much typing. I’m supposed to be relaxing, but as usual, where’s the time for that? Still, I am enjoying myself.
I’m typing at the moment as I’ve got up too early. Jack & I are off to Bristol this morning with my dad. He’s off to the Veg market in Bristol & we’ve decided to hitch a ride with him. He sets off early, but I’m up too early; I kinda set the alarm a bit too soon. Hey ho. Off to Bristol as we’re off to the Comics convention there, today. This is one of the reasons we decided to actually take a holiday at this time; so that I could go. I’m going to be talking on the small press comics panel discussion – but I doubt that means I’ll be getting in gratis.
Have quite a sun burnt neck & arms today. We spent some time down at the beach yesterday as it was the 1st day of unadulterated sunshine (it’s been showery). Jack & I made quite a magnificent sand castle. Well, a big pile of sand with moat around it. It also had a bridge, as there was a flat bit of stone/concrete that I could place over the moat. Jack was decorating it with stones when he lost interest. There were some other boys playing in the water nearby & that was more fun. We then peeled off to get some ice cream & said boys started the demolition. Sandcastles are transient, so I don’t worry. I was tempted to have a rave at the older boy (7 years?) as he was the one who started it, but I could not be sure who the parents were. Turned out to be the ones who were sleeping nearby, so perhaps I should have & it would have lasted longer. Still – It was a large edifice & there was still evidence of it sometime later. Some other kids were playing with it then & looked to be trying to reinstate the moat.