05/02/2011 by Aileen.

Down to Oxford today for Alexander’s first birthdy party. It’s going to be a big celebration with both sides of the family and some friends. We were going to go yesterday, staight after my Creative Writing and John’s midday client - stay in a Premier Inn for a night as Martin was in Cardiff for the rugby and Fiona and I wouldn’t be able to get John up the slope into the house. (Steps out of the question, and grass too steep in the dark) Anyway, John was feeling really sick on Wednesday, and on Thursday evening he noticed his lower leg was red and swollen. He self-diagnosed cellulitis. He had it before at the time he did his parachute jump. ANyway, first thing on Friday we rang the (stand-in) doctor, who asked if John shouldn’t be in hospital. He assured her no, and she prescribed anit-biotics over the phone. However, John has to keep his leg up, so we didn’t go to Oxford. I’m going today, and will just stay overnight. It’s 7.30 now. I just need to do some local shopping, then pack a few things, mainly laptop, two cameras with about 5 lenses between them, my Kindle with all its books, and maybe a change of underwear Oh, and Alexander’s pressies.

Better go now. Conscious that I haven’t written for a while again. I think it’s cos I have some photos, and I need to get them on to the laptop. Mostly fungus and snowdrops. Birds not much in evidence with the cold and wind lately. I thought I might make an effort and enter Am Photographer’s Photographer of the Year this year. The first theme is ‘Shooting Trees’ so I’ve been brainstorming the idea. Just things like shape, colour, texture, momement, sillhouettes, zooming in, bark, fallen trees etc. at the moment. I need to think of an original idea. And then of course take a fantabulous photo. The secret of a good photo is the light. Light’s been rubbish lately. That’s my excuse anyway.

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10/01/2011 by Aileen.

No, not me - Fiona. Alexander was born last February, and they’ve lost no timei in sorting out a new brother for him. I say brother, as the twelve week scan shows a big and active baby, so it had better not be a girl! (If you should read this in a few years time, little one, and you are a girl - I’m only joking! John and I have known for a few weeks, and it’s been so hard not letting it slip. But F and M both announced it on Facebook yesterday, and so far F has had over 50 comments. Martin hasn’t got so many, but there again he hasn’t got so many ‘friends’.  Lots in real life, but he doesn’t post so often on FB. He’s much more cautious. Even his face profile picture is in wet suit, snorkel and mask.

Well, failed miserably this year so far. I had this vague idea about always getting up before 7am so I had a long day in front of me. Slept in on New Years Day, and have most days since. It’s funny, cos a while ago I had to force myself to stay in bed until after 5am. No Newe Year Resolutions as such, but I filled my Outlook calendar with tasks and actions last week, and I’ve done the same this morning. Last week was really lazy, but everything starts up again this week, with WI, Birding and Creative Writing. I have a TMA on Peter Pan and a poem due on Thursday, but I submitted it yesterday. Not expecting as high a mark as the last two, (80% and 90%) as I think I put in too many points in not enough depth. And I’m still about 100 words under the limit. My tutor picked me up on my last TMA for writing paragraphs that were too short. He said they weakened my argument (or words to that effect). He said he had already mentioned it after the first TMA and I hadn’t corrected it. But I had. He should have seen the original short offerings!

I think the reason for my short paragraphs is because of the website design course, where lots of white space is encouraged. I know it’s very offputting to read a big long blog with no breaks. Anyway, very few paragraphs in the last TMA, so we shall see.

Church Cleaning this week, books due back at Brough Library, and as John has dentist in Hull tomorrow I might return my Hull library books. Reading Swallows and Amazons at the moment, alongside Tom’s Midnight Garden. (both for my OU course) I’m half way through Frankenstein on my iPod and have finished Varney the Vampyre and Alice Sit-by-the Fire on my Kindle. Started Michael Connelly’s The Closers the other night, but might leave it. I do find him a bit dark, and the book is due back at the library.

Bye all.

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28/09/2010 by Aileen.

Recovering from a long weekend.

Thursday was my birthday. Went into Hull with John and bought grey jeans, grey stretchy trousers, black top, purple top and purple jacket. Lunch at Starbucks.

ALi and family arrived in the evening, and we chatted.

Friday. Chatted, did food shopping and cooked.Ali did a lovely lasagne. Played charades after.

Saturday. Martin and family arrived. Chatted. Ate. Drank. Ali did my birthday meal. Salmon en croute. More charades, which is great fun with the kids.

Sunday. Mass. Fiona came with Alexander, who is now sitting up quite well and has four teeth. He looks so like Martin. we were toying with the idea of going somewhere, but just chilled. The beef I bought didn’t look big enough for us all, so I got a frozen (well it was fresh last week) chicken from the freezer and we had a variation of surf’n'turf.

Monday. Visitors all left and I had four sets of double sheets to wash. Only did ours as I was knackered. Washing is easy, but with the visitors’ sheets I like to iron, which is a pain. AGM at Viewfinders in the evening. Quick and efficient.

Today. House is quite tidy. No plans. Maybe study as the course officially starts on Saturday. Tutorial in Sheffield which seems a bit crazy as other York people go to Leeds, but the tutor seems keen. Looking forward to it.

Bye all. Might put some photos of the weekend up soon, but we didn’t do the group one we planned as the weather was so poor.

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09/09/2010 by Aileen.

Oh I was without the internet from Sunday, and most of Saturday, until Tuesday. It doesn’t sound a tragedy, but it was for me. I kept wanting to Google to find out what was going wrong. Virgin were no help. We don’t have their router and after a while fobbed me off and said I should buy their router to get their assistance. Martin was sure the router wasn’t broken, so I kept trying to reset it. Eventually, when I came to a certain option (click yes if ‘fixed IP address’, or cancel if not) I tried clicking cancel. Suddenly - online. Yay.

Back to the weekend. Don and Chris came up with daughter Charley, and they relieved me of my car, which I never use as I prefer John’s. We’re rarely out to different places at the same time, so a second car is unnecessary,

Anyway, They treated us to a slap-up meal at Skidby Mill House Restaurant, and we had a great time.

Birding started yesterday, and we saw lots of unusual waders, including Little Stint

.

 Today is going to be hectic, as I have to print and mount ten photos for our photo exhibition. (At Skidby again by coincidence) It’s already gone one and we haven’t eaten. I went to PC World to top up on printer ink and get some good paper. Then did a big shop at Morrisons.

I am committed to a science experiment with the OU in Second Life, but daren’t log in until my photos are done. They need to be set up tomorrow. I also need to make refreshments for the exhibition opening.

Then, on Saturday, my Children’s Literature course is open online, and we can see the questions we need to answer.

So after kicking my heels all August, things are beginning to happen. Come back August, all is forgiven!

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01/09/2010 by Aileen.

First of the month. I always think that September is the beginning of the year, too. I suppose it’s  years and years of teaching. A new start and all that.

Well, we cycled for one hour ten minutes this morning, in beautiful sunshine. Sarnie for lunch, and now John is pressure washing the patio, which is covered in duck poo. I can’t help yet - I need a snoozle after my lunch. Snoozle isn’t exactly a snooze, but it means I sit down and read, write or do something similarly effortless. Trying to eat a really hard pear at the moment, so there’s some effort in that.

My niece Charley has been in hospital with bad stomache symptoms. She’s out now, and will get the test results on the 7th, but she mentioned on the phone that she had ulcerative colitis. (I think that’s what she said) She and her brother might be taking my white car off my hands, as someone went in to the back of the one they share. My car is really shabby, but so reliable, and we don’t really need two cars as we are rarely out to different places at the same time.Any time we are I can get a taxi.

Anyway, back later. Bye.

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24/08/2010 by Aileen.

Think Tuesdays might be my favourite day of the week (In August anyway) I do all my housework on a Monday, and if I actually finish it I am free all day Tuesday. I finished yesterday, there’s no OU studying to do at the moment, I have already submitted the two Look sheets that were due in today, so I’m free.

Can’t do nothing all day, so I’ll clean the windows this morning. Can’t really garden as it’s lashing outside, so then I’ll finish Little Women (pre-reading for my Literature course) and then spend the afternoon brushing up on my website making skills.

Oh I could make some plum jam. The plums are just coming into their own. They’re delicious.

Talking about delicious, I’m doing a curry with Sunday’s leftover chicken. It almost seems a waste, as it was a succulent chicken from a nearby farm. I cooked it with lemon on Sunday, and we had it with chips on Monday. The taste was so delicate. A curry will hide all that. Oh well. Curry is good.

And another thing……….

It’s my birthday in a few weeks, and Martin and Fiona (with Alexander of course) said they would come for the weekend. I really didn’t think Ali and co would come, as we have just had a holiday with them, and it;s awkward for them because of their shift work and the boy’s school. However, it’s a back holiday weekend in Scotland, so they can come. Yippee.  It’s so nice to feel loved.

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02/08/2010 by Aileen.

I really don’t kow why I’m not writing. I’m having such a fab time these days, and I should be recording it. Let’s start at last Saturday. It was the monthly walk I have with OU friends. This time Alex invited us to her house and we had a two hour walk in her neck of the woods. Saw a kingfisher in the first few minutes. There was not much else on the walk, but then we went to Alex’s house, which is something like 17th Century, 18th Century and a 1950s kiitchen! She has a tree house, where we had a fab lunch, and then we played croquet on the lawn. It was another world! Here are a couple of photos.

I didn’t get around to posting photos of our visit to Camp Eden with ‘The Pair.’ They had a great time there, especially in the playground, which was set up as an assault course as far as I could see. John and I sat outside in the sun while they played - well it wasn’t inside, but ‘in’ the playground.

This is not to say they didn’t enjoy the exhibitions. They were fascinated.

Finally, I’ll mention today. I’ve decided (again) that I’m overweight, and must do something about it. I was 11st. 7 this morning. So I did half an hour Wii-fit this morning, and had an hour’s walk this afternoon. I also dieted (ish) I had my usual muesli with apple for breakfast, then had a ham salad for lunch. This evening was Viewfinders, so just had a beef sandwich for tea. John wasn’t hungry today, otherwise we would have had beef and mashed potatoes for lunch. (On Mondays we have to have our main meal at midday because of Viewfinders.) I enjoyed Viewfinders. We strolled along the River Hull, and ended up in a pub. I will upload the photos tomorrow.

The final final - we are expecting our OU results this week, and some people say they will come early, so I’ve been checking a lot. I’m guessing Wednesday, but that doesn’t stop me checking every 15 minutes!

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20/07/2010 by Aileen.

Here at last are some photos from CenterParcs. I might put up some wild life ones tomorrow, but here are the family ones.

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19/07/2010 by Aileen.

That’s so much to write, so little written. After CenterParcs Liam and Kieran stayed with us for the week. The weather was good and they were outside most of the time, making boats for the paddling pool. Liam also made a gun out of toilet roll and other tubes, and lots of cellotape.

We went to Honeysuckle Farm (inevitably) and altough it was showery we didn’t get too wet. The highlight was jumping on the hay bales as usual.

But the highlight of the week was going to Eden Camp.

http://www.edencamp.co.uk/

They were fascinated by the displays, and spent ages in the playground which was set up as an assault course. I will post some pictures of CenterParcs and Eden Camp separately.

Then, on Saturday, we had our annual Family Reunion at Don’s house. Rachel and Ian couldn’t come owing to work commitments, and Ali and family didn’t come down from Scotland, as they were down for the Christening recently, and also down for CenterParcs.

But we all had a great time. Got to know Charley’s boyfriend, Crouchy, better and enjoyed excellent food and company. I didn’t take many photos, but might put up a few.

Oh well, it’s Monday morning. Time to do a bit of dusting etc. Tonight it’s Viewfinders. We’re doing outdoor portraits, so I’m going to ask someone to take some snaps of me for my travel pass.

Bye all. Have a good week.

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08/07/2010 by Aileen.

Little Sugar is back! She’s one of our very shy calico cats. ((I used to call it tortoiseshell, but apparently it’s calico)

We came home from CenterParcs on Monday with the two boys, and only Ellie and Spice were around. We didn’t worry too much, as they are so shy and always hide from ’stangers’, butas the days went on we were vey sad (and I got very grumpy) I got up at nights calling for her.

Last night I went out about 2am, and heard a meow. It was Sugar. I picked her up and hugged her, and brought her back into the house. She struggled a bit, but I got her inside and woke John. (Yes, he wanted me to!)

We were so happy. I think she’s lost a bit of weight, it’s Thursday now, but even if she disappears again until Saturday, when the kids go, we won’t worry. I opened up a can of tuna in spring water for her, and she gobbled up the bit I gave her.

She’s not the most attractive of cats, and she dribbles, but we love her.

Anyway, back to CenterParcs (no, not literally) while the kids are still abed. I was so impressed with the organisation of it all. There is so much to do, but it is spaced out and the place never seems crowded. There are these little money spinners going on all over the place, but it isn’t at all in your face.

Various activities spread across the lake, several interlinked swimming areas, various food outlets. So well done.

The lodge carpet could do with a good clean, but it didn’t worry me. It wasn’t minging, but the place was in need of a good deep clean.

The wild life was fantastic. Red squirrels, siskins, woodpeckers. Much more.

The kids got involved with mini Olympics, football tournaments etc. and John did archery. I really will have to post some photos, but I  shoot them in Raw format and they need to be changed to jpegs.

The star was Alexander who is such a happy little baby. I shouldn’t say little as he’s growing in leaps and bounds. I have lots of photos of all of us, and must put them up.

I did ask if I could be in some, but as usual I’m not. Kieran took one of me and Alexander, and that’s the lot. Oh well. I’m no oil painting.

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