Skip to main content

Somerset!

After 5 fun packed days in Somerset a sense of quiet descended over the house.  We got back last night, put the girls to bed and then smiled to ourselves this morning as 7am passed, 8am... 8.30... Izzy finally came down looking a bit bleary-eyed at 8.53am, followed by Abi at 9.10 - a minor miracle for her!  They have had a ball over the past few days, playing in the river, helping Fifi and Grumps, spending lots of time with Ben and Laurie and (most importantly for Abi) catching up with the pigs!
 
We planned to do a number of touristy things while we were there which we achieved - we visited Dunster castle where the kids got to bang the dinner gong and hear all about Victorian kitchens, we went to Dunster Show where we spent a fortune on the funfair and Glenn taught the kids a thing or two about archery (popping the balloon in the end!), we had lunch at the seaside (well, looking out over the Bristol Channel - almost the seaside).  We also spent lots of time catching up with family and eating mountains of cake - very nice.  The weather was as kind as you might expect for a summer holiday in the UK - what more can we ask for?!?
 
We got home to a house that is progressing slowly - you can no longer see our steels which is a definite plus, but we have scaffolding again as we get ready to install solar panels.  This next week is another lull in the eye of the main storm - as of Monday our kitchen gets taken out and we embark on 4 weeks of camp style cooking in the playroom using a microwave, camping hob and loads of initiative - can't wait...
 
The summer holidays have suddenly started to fly by with only 2.5 weeks now until they are back to school.  Izzy is very keen to get back and into Year 2 with all the social opportunities that will offer.  Abi is worried she hasn't done enough over the holidays and will find it difficult. I'm worried we won't get all the school uniform in time having looked at the website today to find that the vast majority of the new Juniors sports kit Abi needs is out of stock - arghh. Glenn is siding with Izzy and looking forward to a bit of peace and quiet in the hose again! 
 
I've been enjoying having some time away from work and the chance to both reflect a bit on my first couple of months and make the most of some lazy time.  It's also the chance to finalise details on kitchen etc - it's certainly having an impact on our bank account if not on the house as yet!
 
The girls have been inspired by all the recent athletics and gymnastics on TV.  This meant Ben, Laurie and Abi trying to hold Izzy above their heads in a team gym display, as well as everyone practising headstands in the garden.  I can declare that Amanda has the edge over everyone in this event so far!  Amanda and I took the four of them onto the Quantocks on their bikes which they loved.  They clearly didn't get the point about riding around puddles which meant that by the time we got back to the van (no major mishaps other than Izzy having her normal off) they were covered in Somerset red mud - another set of clothes destined for the bin then.  Glenn and I followed this up by taking just Abi out on her own - Izzy opted for the comfort of Amanda's house for the day.  We had a lovely ride and Glenn spent some time talking Abi through how to ride some of the trickier parts of the path.  Sadly it's clear she has more skill than I do in this respect already, although whether that's because she hasn't fallen off yet I don't know.  Laurie on the other hand ended the weekend by riding into a tree and bumping his face - guess he could do with some lessons too!    
 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ypres

Walking around the lake in Ypres while waiting for the rugby to finish! A wet Monday evening after a lovely long weekend away in Ypres - just the two of us and just what I needed after what has been a relatively stressful few months of decision making. The decision is now made however and on Monday I resigned my job in order to join a new company in January. This will be the same role, but a company that hopefully offers more long term stability than my current one. It's been hard going through the initial round of telling people.Despite only being there for 7 months I've made some good friends and very quickly become established and everybody who I've told has been happy for me but very sad that I'm going - it hasn't made it easy. I do feel like I've been through the mill a bit this year - what with leaving EY, ramping up to a big new role, finding out it probably didn't have the longevity I was looking for and then going through the process of finding ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Welcome Albert James!

So this week has been full of new things - Jess and Chris have welcomed Albert James Wilkinson Rayner to the family, a tad early but all doing well apparently (and so cute!!), I started my new job, Abi has her new shed and Dad got sorted on a phone that wasn't invented before the kids were born!! I always knew this week was going to be full on and it certainly has been. The first thing I had to do was try and sort out my diary which had been filled from dawn to dusk by my predecessor with meetings. I decided to set out as I mean to go on and immediately took out those that started before 9am. While I can get into  the office for 8am , it's a pain and requires me to be on the 6:30am train which is just a bit much every day (stating the obvious). I then made it clear that we don't need to be joined at the hip for the next 4 weeks which is a sensitive process - even though he is retiring it's hard to let go and he is understandably keen that the team are looked after. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Diary management!

This part of the summer is definitely typified by me trying to remember who is supposed to be where and when. Abi likes to be off doing something with someone while Izzy is happier to know she's close to home and so for the last week they've gone their separate ways. Abi has been down in Somerset making the most of Ben and Laurie being about. From what I can tell she's having a lovely time. Apart from the covert phone call one evening to tell me she was 'starving'  (Mum was cooking for the hordes and so it had been delayed), I've barely heard from her. The few calls I have had have very quickly ended in "can I go now" like I'm making her speak to me! Today she switches from Mum and Dads to a night or two with Kerrie - not sure who is more excited! Izzy didn't want to be away for that long so she opted not to go. She's very conscious that Abi and Laurie are joined at the hip when together and Ben has his own things he wants to do so she ...
Post a Comment
Read more