(no subject)
The weekend was great, we got down to Aylesbury about 8ish, after a fairly dire service station lasagne, checked in to the hotel and went and found a flat southern beer. I then did some accidental Ex bashing by posting on Facebook we were in Aylesbury, where Keir lives, at a wedding of one our old friends he wasn't invited too, ooops!
After a decent nights sleep we set off round some breweries. The 2nd one was selling of the brew floor and the woman there was determined we should try everything on tap! First beer at 10:30 in the morning, not bad! We managed to get out of there vaguely sober, hit one last brewery and went to look at the CPRR. It wasn't supposed to be open as it only runs on Sundays, but they were having a special open day, and after the break van ride Simon insisted on going on the DMU, leaving me 15 minutes to get changed when we got back to the hotel! I did just manage it, by sorting out my jewellery in the car, and we got to the wedding just before 15:00. After a rather odd advertisement for the railway centre at Quainton, and incorporating the political comment "According to the current law of this country marriage represents the union of 1 man and 1 woman", it was a fairly standard wedding ceremony that we could barely hear and couldn't see from our seats. Always good! The afternoon was good. There was a sort train doing a very short run, lots of games and a sweet buffet. Alex would have quite enjoyed it. It was lovely to catch up with Sam and Jo, and Scott and Holly, though we only managed a brief word with Juliet and Helen didn't show. We left at 10:00, and had another fairly good nights sleep.
On Sunday morning we got up, had a banana, then drove for 1.5 hours to the GCRN. I did suggest to Simon we visit one of the numerous EH properties in the area, but we ended up at another railway! At least we got a bacon, egg and sausage sandwich for brunch. It was small and limited, and didn't take long to get round, then we set off for home. We had to empty the car of beer before we headed on to pick up Alex! When we left York I was trying to get hold of Mum as she was supposed to be out with Alex, but couldn't get her to answer her phone - mainly because she had left it at home! We caught up with them as they walked back from the show ground after the Country Fair. Alex was pleased to see me, asked for a cuddle, held my hand on the walk back to Mums, then went off with his Granny again! He'd had a great weekend with Becky and her 3 kids around. I spent the remainder of Sunday afternoon with Mum, and Simon went to collect the cats. Alex was really playing me up over dinner, but Becky was quick to assure me he was good as gold when I wasn't there!
On Monday morning we went to Monday Monkeys with Cath and Amelia, and Alex had a fun time. We then came back and had a quiet afternoon as we were both exhausted. On Tuesday we were dragging round the Range, looking for toy insects. Alex was really good again, walking round, pulling the basket and not trying to take all the toys home. I did buy him some pastry cutters! Karen had found insects, so we managed to set up a bug theme at Earwigs, though we didn't do the mini beast hunt as we only had 2 older children. The kids enjoyed hunting plastic insects in trays of rice on the light box and using the viewers and magnifying glasses.
Today Alex has been to Ladybirds and I've achieved very little when he wasn't here. Some housework, some potting on, not much else. I have been re-doing the Earwigs accounts as Liz has been screwing them up. Luckily I have my own records, so I just ripped out her entries and started again. How complex is one item per line??
After lunch we've been to another NELLI meeting, and without Amelia to distract him Alex has been great, playing happily with his farm set and watching Youtube tractors on my kindle. I heard the vast majority of the meeting! We then went off and collected the half pig I ordered 3 weeks back. 1/2 a pig is a lot bigger then 1/2 a lamb, but I managed to get it all in the freezer and its Gloucester Old Spot, yummy rare breeds! It also came with free sausages, but no bacon.
I've still been working through Simon's tapes in my spare time, now I am struggling with where iTunes stores music, but I think I've cracked it and I'm exporting MP3s. Most of my run time for 2 weeks has gone in to this little project.
After a decent nights sleep we set off round some breweries. The 2nd one was selling of the brew floor and the woman there was determined we should try everything on tap! First beer at 10:30 in the morning, not bad! We managed to get out of there vaguely sober, hit one last brewery and went to look at the CPRR. It wasn't supposed to be open as it only runs on Sundays, but they were having a special open day, and after the break van ride Simon insisted on going on the DMU, leaving me 15 minutes to get changed when we got back to the hotel! I did just manage it, by sorting out my jewellery in the car, and we got to the wedding just before 15:00. After a rather odd advertisement for the railway centre at Quainton, and incorporating the political comment "According to the current law of this country marriage represents the union of 1 man and 1 woman", it was a fairly standard wedding ceremony that we could barely hear and couldn't see from our seats. Always good! The afternoon was good. There was a sort train doing a very short run, lots of games and a sweet buffet. Alex would have quite enjoyed it. It was lovely to catch up with Sam and Jo, and Scott and Holly, though we only managed a brief word with Juliet and Helen didn't show. We left at 10:00, and had another fairly good nights sleep.
On Sunday morning we got up, had a banana, then drove for 1.5 hours to the GCRN. I did suggest to Simon we visit one of the numerous EH properties in the area, but we ended up at another railway! At least we got a bacon, egg and sausage sandwich for brunch. It was small and limited, and didn't take long to get round, then we set off for home. We had to empty the car of beer before we headed on to pick up Alex! When we left York I was trying to get hold of Mum as she was supposed to be out with Alex, but couldn't get her to answer her phone - mainly because she had left it at home! We caught up with them as they walked back from the show ground after the Country Fair. Alex was pleased to see me, asked for a cuddle, held my hand on the walk back to Mums, then went off with his Granny again! He'd had a great weekend with Becky and her 3 kids around. I spent the remainder of Sunday afternoon with Mum, and Simon went to collect the cats. Alex was really playing me up over dinner, but Becky was quick to assure me he was good as gold when I wasn't there!
On Monday morning we went to Monday Monkeys with Cath and Amelia, and Alex had a fun time. We then came back and had a quiet afternoon as we were both exhausted. On Tuesday we were dragging round the Range, looking for toy insects. Alex was really good again, walking round, pulling the basket and not trying to take all the toys home. I did buy him some pastry cutters! Karen had found insects, so we managed to set up a bug theme at Earwigs, though we didn't do the mini beast hunt as we only had 2 older children. The kids enjoyed hunting plastic insects in trays of rice on the light box and using the viewers and magnifying glasses.
Today Alex has been to Ladybirds and I've achieved very little when he wasn't here. Some housework, some potting on, not much else. I have been re-doing the Earwigs accounts as Liz has been screwing them up. Luckily I have my own records, so I just ripped out her entries and started again. How complex is one item per line??
After lunch we've been to another NELLI meeting, and without Amelia to distract him Alex has been great, playing happily with his farm set and watching Youtube tractors on my kindle. I heard the vast majority of the meeting! We then went off and collected the half pig I ordered 3 weeks back. 1/2 a pig is a lot bigger then 1/2 a lamb, but I managed to get it all in the freezer and its Gloucester Old Spot, yummy rare breeds! It also came with free sausages, but no bacon.
I've still been working through Simon's tapes in my spare time, now I am struggling with where iTunes stores music, but I think I've cracked it and I'm exporting MP3s. Most of my run time for 2 weeks has gone in to this little project.