The World’s Already Far Too Full Of Cuts And Burns And Bumps…
1. I think I’ve fallen off the radar. No tweets for over a month. I’ve probably not even updated Facebook once a month since the end of last year. My Flickr account has seen only one update in the past couple of years (the Half Marathon). My Instagram is looking rather dusty. And as for this poor neglected blog…
2. (I realise how vain it is to do one of those “hey, did you miss me” updates - which can be a bit embarrassing when it turns out that nobody noticed - don’t worry - this isn’t meant to read as “needy”).
3. As a Scot living in England, the subject of Scottish independence is something that a few people (south of the border) have expected me to be able to explain, but is something that I find it hard to sum up with simple views. The one hope that I have is that such a huge decision isn’t influenced by something relatively minor and relatively short term - people may not like the Bedroom Tax or Alex Salmond or George Osbourne (etc), but these are going to be consigned the history books in the next few years -annoyingly the level of debate that I’m seeing seems to indicate that a number of people are basing their decisions on relatively short term things, rather than any “bigger picture” (or Biggar Picture, if you know the South Lanarkshire town with the nice chip shop).
4. I never talk about things like that online though - most of my updates in recent times have been toddler related pictures/anecdotes, mentions of running/cycling or, erm, I don’t know. There seems no point in getting involved in big political arguments because I don’t have the time and because everyone else seems to have made all of the salient points already - the internet is a great way of making you realise that you’ve never had an original thought (checking Twitter makes you appreciate that some wag somewhere will have beaten you to every punchline).
5. Talking of cycling (I know…), we spent Sunday watching the Tour de France on Jenkin Road, Wincobank - the steepest section of the race - amazing to watch these athletes cycle up it faster than I could cycle down it.
6. I’d like to think that the Tour de France will be J’s first memory - mine was sitting on a potty at age two/three, but I’m hoping that he remembers something more interesting!
7. I spent Father’s Day doing something I’ve always wanted to do - building a Lego kit with him (60006 - a police quad bike, plus a “bad guy” trying to steal jewels on a Getaway Wheelbarrow - I know how daft this sounds - http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/60006_Police_ATV) - that’d be a nice first memory for him.
8. I think that this is the first toy he’s ever had with a “bad guy” - there’s not been many “baddies” in his world yet - I’m struggling to think of examples other than the “bag thief” in Tabby McTat (Julia Donaldson book). All of the fires in Fireman Sam or missing mail in Postman Pat or spilt “Tustard” in Tellytubbies seem to happen by accident or carelessness rather than malice - will I have to explain to him that there are “bad” people out there in the world?
9. I’ve not been abroad since 2009, my passport expired a couple of years ago and I didn’t think it worth renewing it, since I’ve no plans to go anywhere far flung any time soon. I’d not even left England for two years until a recent last-minute “family” trip (which, having lived for eighteen years in Scotland, is strange).
10. I suppose that modern terms that lack of foreign travel means I’m not living the high life. And, I’m not, I suppose. We have no car, no satellite television, no ipad/tablet, I’ve only spent two nights in a hotel since J was born three and a half years ago…
11. … but we are off to a hotel next week - a few days in Wiltshire - like those proper holidays that other people go on. I’d love to make grand plans for it, but I have a worrying feeling that we’ll end up going to get dragged to the nearby Peppa Pig World. Hey ho…
12. We had a dramatic three months in the second half of 2013 after we moved house, when J went from being a nappy-wearing breast-fed baby in a cot to a (relatively) toilet trained toddler who slept in a proper bed and has moved on to Semi Skimmed. In comparison, the last six months have been quite tame…
13. …until a few weeks ago when he graduated to “proper” Lego (having started on Quattro, moved onto to Duplo) - this feels like the start of the “boy” years, rather than the “baby” period.
14. I say “boy”, though I’d like to think I’d have treated him the same way regardless of sex. He sleeps in a bedroom with massive pink flowers as wallpaper (it was a teenage girl’s room this time last year - we moved in and saw no reason to change the wallpaper). BUT (and this is the scary bit), despite his painfully politically correct parents, he’s started to categorise blue/pink things to boys/girls. He doesn’t get it from us (I wore a pink shirt to work every Friday for a couple of years a few years ago - it was the unofficial department dress code) - I suppose its a Nursery/ peer pressure thing, but it’s sad that the group of “babies” he grew up with are now being split into “boys” and “girls”. When I watch him at drop-off/collection at Nursery (or at the Dad’s Playgroup in Crookes on a Saturday), the two sexes segregate, though I don’t want him to treat people differently. Frustrating.
(must do this again some time...)
2. (I realise how vain it is to do one of those “hey, did you miss me” updates - which can be a bit embarrassing when it turns out that nobody noticed - don’t worry - this isn’t meant to read as “needy”).
3. As a Scot living in England, the subject of Scottish independence is something that a few people (south of the border) have expected me to be able to explain, but is something that I find it hard to sum up with simple views. The one hope that I have is that such a huge decision isn’t influenced by something relatively minor and relatively short term - people may not like the Bedroom Tax or Alex Salmond or George Osbourne (etc), but these are going to be consigned the history books in the next few years -annoyingly the level of debate that I’m seeing seems to indicate that a number of people are basing their decisions on relatively short term things, rather than any “bigger picture” (or Biggar Picture, if you know the South Lanarkshire town with the nice chip shop).
4. I never talk about things like that online though - most of my updates in recent times have been toddler related pictures/anecdotes, mentions of running/cycling or, erm, I don’t know. There seems no point in getting involved in big political arguments because I don’t have the time and because everyone else seems to have made all of the salient points already - the internet is a great way of making you realise that you’ve never had an original thought (checking Twitter makes you appreciate that some wag somewhere will have beaten you to every punchline).
5. Talking of cycling (I know…), we spent Sunday watching the Tour de France on Jenkin Road, Wincobank - the steepest section of the race - amazing to watch these athletes cycle up it faster than I could cycle down it.
6. I’d like to think that the Tour de France will be J’s first memory - mine was sitting on a potty at age two/three, but I’m hoping that he remembers something more interesting!
7. I spent Father’s Day doing something I’ve always wanted to do - building a Lego kit with him (60006 - a police quad bike, plus a “bad guy” trying to steal jewels on a Getaway Wheelbarrow - I know how daft this sounds - http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/60006_Police_ATV) - that’d be a nice first memory for him.
8. I think that this is the first toy he’s ever had with a “bad guy” - there’s not been many “baddies” in his world yet - I’m struggling to think of examples other than the “bag thief” in Tabby McTat (Julia Donaldson book). All of the fires in Fireman Sam or missing mail in Postman Pat or spilt “Tustard” in Tellytubbies seem to happen by accident or carelessness rather than malice - will I have to explain to him that there are “bad” people out there in the world?
9. I’ve not been abroad since 2009, my passport expired a couple of years ago and I didn’t think it worth renewing it, since I’ve no plans to go anywhere far flung any time soon. I’d not even left England for two years until a recent last-minute “family” trip (which, having lived for eighteen years in Scotland, is strange).
10. I suppose that modern terms that lack of foreign travel means I’m not living the high life. And, I’m not, I suppose. We have no car, no satellite television, no ipad/tablet, I’ve only spent two nights in a hotel since J was born three and a half years ago…
11. … but we are off to a hotel next week - a few days in Wiltshire - like those proper holidays that other people go on. I’d love to make grand plans for it, but I have a worrying feeling that we’ll end up going to get dragged to the nearby Peppa Pig World. Hey ho…
12. We had a dramatic three months in the second half of 2013 after we moved house, when J went from being a nappy-wearing breast-fed baby in a cot to a (relatively) toilet trained toddler who slept in a proper bed and has moved on to Semi Skimmed. In comparison, the last six months have been quite tame…
13. …until a few weeks ago when he graduated to “proper” Lego (having started on Quattro, moved onto to Duplo) - this feels like the start of the “boy” years, rather than the “baby” period.
14. I say “boy”, though I’d like to think I’d have treated him the same way regardless of sex. He sleeps in a bedroom with massive pink flowers as wallpaper (it was a teenage girl’s room this time last year - we moved in and saw no reason to change the wallpaper). BUT (and this is the scary bit), despite his painfully politically correct parents, he’s started to categorise blue/pink things to boys/girls. He doesn’t get it from us (I wore a pink shirt to work every Friday for a couple of years a few years ago - it was the unofficial department dress code) - I suppose its a Nursery/ peer pressure thing, but it’s sad that the group of “babies” he grew up with are now being split into “boys” and “girls”. When I watch him at drop-off/collection at Nursery (or at the Dad’s Playgroup in Crookes on a Saturday), the two sexes segregate, though I don’t want him to treat people differently. Frustrating.
(must do this again some time...)