In At The Deep End

or vice versa

Wednesday was a day with nothing planned apart from Gymnastics and Cubs. We could have been doing Drama, which I know the boys would have loved, but I decided at the beginning of a new term of it that it was too far to travel really and that free time is more valuable to us just now. Besides which, this term we’d have had to miss as many as we made, which is silly. Still, I know a few people were away this week so we could probably have gatecrashed and I did consider it, but we were all too tired to bother really, and then a courier arrived with this which is supposed to be the children’s Christmas present but looked so good we started it straight away It’s good, but not quite as great as I’d hoped from all I’ve heard about it, tbh. I suspect there could be a lot of play value in it as the children get the hang of it - and more if we find someone else who also has a set and put them together some time
We had to pop out to pick up a parcel and some bits for lunch so did that while I had the energy, but by lunchtime I was feeling decidedly ropy, so when A slept I dozed in front of Wimbledon, while J, K and L flitted about and amused themselves We got to Gymnastics on time, although I’m not quite sure how as J was still hunting for his Cubs uniform 5 minutes after we would normally have left the house. The boys looked to be having a good time, while L and A pottered and munched (A works her way through vast quantities of fruit each time the boys are at the gym ) and L played on Cooking Mama 2 and chatted to the older girls waiting for their gymnastics session. Then we dashed back home to eat a superfast tea, but not quite fast enough (stir fry, with rice pudding which we left for later as we ran out of time) and set off at about the time we should have been arriving at Cubs. It was only a Rounders session, though, so not a problem, and K, L, A and I stayed to watch and play in the (school) playground rather than trying to get home and back again in the time left. J hit the ball a couple of times, I was relieved to see and seemed to be enjoying himself even though it was the first time he has ever played a proper game of rounders (we’ve tried at home, but it’s tricky with so few people and such a large proportion of them tiny!), but I spent the time getting progressively more bunged up and sneezy
Came home and ate rice pudding (yum!) then managed to get children to bed eventually, swallowed anti-histamines in an attempt to convince myself I only had hayfever and got myself to bed too.

On Thursday I would happily have stayed in bed, and I think the children would have been fine with that too, but we had to get to Tots because the father of one our toddlers worked on the Phoenix lander mission and was coming in specially to give us a talk I took Lemsip and antihistamines to cover all bases and get us there The A14 was slow and then the car cut out in a scary (and horribly familiar) way, but fortunately recovered itself and got us there safely.
Once we got there the children were happy and apparently the talk was good (and they did some cool craft too) but I had to stay in the hall in case any other families arrived so missed it and gradually felt worse and worse as the morning wore on and the drugs wore off Drove home in a bit of a blur and realised halfway that I probably wasn’t safe to drive, but no option really…
Got home and took A straight to bed, where we both slept. J was a star and kept the others occupied for me, then helped me get tea (pasta and jar - very easy option ) and they all got themselves ready for bed, then we snuggled in the big bed together until they were each sleepy enough to go to their own bed. Bob got back about 11, I think.

On Friday we had planned to go for a walk and a picnic with Emma and her boys, but just as I was thinking I should phone and cancel she phoned me to say one of the boys was ill so they needed to cancel anyway. So we had another lazy day - we tidied the children’s room so that we could hoover it and then they used the big empty space thus created to build Megafort structures While I dozed In the afternoon J tried out a new PC game while K and L played and A and I dozed And sneezed. And blew my nose.
We had expected to see Big Alice (with the invalid tent) but put her off because I really didn’t feel like seeing anyone (hope she wasn’t offended) so when Bob got home I ran myself a nice hot bath in an attempt to unbung my ears and nose a little (didn’t work, but the children were thrilled to have a nice deep bath to play in after I got out) while he cooked tea for children, then we had takeaway curry (another attempt, which worked a little) once the older three were in bed. A was still very much around, though, so we had to pay the baby tithe

On Saturday I had hoped to get to slingmeet but decided against it, in hopes that a quiet morning would mean enough energy for a party in the evening. Bob took J and K to their first astronomy club meeting, which they loved, and L, A and I pottered - and built a Mega Castle Then when Bob got back I went back to bed - sensing a theme here? It worked though, and I had enough energy to enjoy the party when it came around It was a big joint affair, beginning at 4 with children’s stuff, then morphing via food into a more grown-up party, with very cool live music I got to cuddle several babes of various sizes, including slinging a couple and demoing wrapping (then lending a wrap ) while the children also had a good time and Bob enjoyed newborn cuddles - one of his favourite things I faded out a bit in the middle, but rallied and then my second big fade coincided with Bob’s realisation of how late it was so we made our departures - thanks Gina and Dave - we had lots of fun

Today Bob took A, K and J to church, while L and I stayed at home (which meant L got computer time and I got to doze again) but then J decided he was so tired he couldn’t make it all the way home on foot, so I had to throw clothes on and go and pick them up in the car. Quick lunch, then the children watched Flubber while Bob pottered and I alternated pottering and reading - yay! I must be feeling better to have enough energy to read!

Hopefully tomorrow I might be able to make it through a whole day without dozing…

I managed to delete an incomplete first draft of this, and I now have only a bit of time before we go out to Darmstadt to eat and to watch Germany vs. Turkey in a bar somewhere.

Last year we did 1584. The troubles with Spain were just rumbling, and the main thing was the change between Julian and Gregorian calendars. This year was 1588, so Armada fever. I was on the gate again, and we were telling the children to watch out for any Spaniards or Catholics. Some of my colleagues used err… colourful but probably authentic language that I didn’t think entirely appropriate to use in front of school children - racism and sectarianism are fine, but I draw the line at swearing ;-).

There was occasional rain, but nowhere as bad as last year - there wasn’t the deep mud on the camp site or the track to it like last year. One of the other people doing the gate also does Sealed Knot or some other kind of military re-enacting, and he said if he ever wrote his autobiography it would be called Damp Wool and Wood Smoke. I managed to forget the poles that hold up the curtains in the tent the Haricots had lent us, and also all the poles for the small castle tent that the boys were going to have inside the main tent. So we all slept in the one bedroom, which was probably just as well as the nights got quite cold.

The very first time I did Kentwell (pre-children) it was also 1588 and there was a pike drill, that I found scary and I had no idea what was going on. This time there was someone who’d been doing Kentwell for ages who was determined to have a proper pike muster at the weekends, so we had daily drill. I now know some of the orders, and also the value of wearing gloves (no splinters) and what happens if you drop the blunt end of an 18′ pike on your foot (it hurts).

I also learned a possible origin of the phrase run the gauntlet. Some people didn’t show up for pike drill one day, and the next day the rest of us were told to line up in two lines facing each other with a glove each, and the people who’d missed drill had to run up through the lines while we hit them with the gloves (in the spirit of camaraderie, of course).

There were a couple of teenagers on the gate too who’d been doing Kentwell since they were tiny, and they had their own swords. They sparred a bit with each other, but their blades were so notched through parrying that they were more like saws. One managed to get the other on his thumb and take several layers of skin off. He’ll remember to wear gloves next time.

As well as scaring children and bad-mouthing our various enemies, and giving a health and safety talk in Tudor-ese, some of the children came to us to look at armour and weapons. The most popular thing with the teachers was when they chose their most vexatious child and we put a helmet on them. “I know you beat your childer soundly each day, but when you do, do you use such as this?” Holds up warhammer. Teacher looks on enviously but says “no”. “Would you care to?” Scarce believing their luck, the teacher takes the warhammer and hits the child on the head. Some gave a gentle tap, but some were surprisingly enthusiastic.

I think my favourite bit was the military intelligencers’ tent. They had painted a huge map of the South coast and North France on silk (see Flickr photos), and made little clay ships. The whole thing was a bit like the control room charts used in WW2 with little planes being pushed around with small rakes. They managed to get across the fact that, given the prevailing wind in the Channel was from the SW to the NE, the British fleet would actually want to hang around off NW France and allow the Spanish into the Channel. If they started off between the Spanish and England (as you would with land armies) then they’d be trying to sail into the wind towards the Spanish and probably come to a sticky end. You have to appear to leave the coast undefended in order to defend it properly.

It was nice to meet new people, and to deepen friendships with people we’d met last year. J would disappear after he’d been let out of the school room with a small posse of boys. Unfortunately he picked up some eye-popping language that he used in front of us without any idea of how strong it was, which suggests that it was normal speech inside the posse. He soon learned its significance (not its meaning), and in general to be careful in what he picked up from other Kentwellies.

We got home on Sunday, fed everyone, put them in the bath to get rid of a week’s worth of dirt, then pack for Germany. I’m now in the delights of asparagus (Spargel, in German apparently) country near Frankfurt.

Monday was a day of mooching. Bob left shortly after 8, later than usual but still before most of us were up (except L) and then we took our time to eat breakfast, watch tv, play in the garden, put on washing, read books, play on computer etc etc. I don’t think any of us actually got properly dressed A day of recovery, I guess. We did read Medecin d’un jour, which had arrived while we were away, so I guess that counts for something Oh and J dictated his account of what he got up to at KH; he’s hoping First News might publish it, but we’ve not heard anything yet
Today was swimming, so we dedicated the morning to lounging around and looking for swimmers. Nina and the Neurons came in somewhere too. L had a go at lessons today, so all 3 of them were in together, and I went in to help once there was someone able to take A for me. I think I arrived just in time for the teacher’s sanity He was giving them all numbers and as I got there he asked “OK, so who’s a number 1?” and almost all of them raised a hand. Sighing, he tried again, “Who’s number 2?” and again most of the hands went up - at which point he gave up and just let me deal with fielding the excess ones when he said go There were a lot of little ones today…
We stayed in the toddler pool for a fair while afterwards, then went to DB with Gina and co, where I failed to remember what I needed to buy, but got some bits for lunch anyway, then we went to the park and watched the children play for ages Suddenly realised how late it was, went back to DB, where I again failed to remember anything I needed and then came home, via the Coop to pick up eggs as J had decided he wanted to cook tea and it was going to be omelettes As well as eggs I found some meringues and strawberries on special offer, so in the end J cooked omelettes (in the microwave so he could do them pretty much unaided ) while I stir-fried veg to go with them, then we had strawberries and cream with meringues - A the fruit bat pinched half of my strawberries but at least was making “more please” noises rather than just screeching for more! Very nice
After tea I had to feed A, so the others took themselves off upstairs, ostensibly to get ready for bed, but in fact to prepare a surprise for me. A fell asleep and I managed to put her on the bed, so was able fully to appreciate their handiwork. The entire bathroom wall above the sink is now covered in decorations and patterns, done in soap crayons (thanks Alice!) and the utterly disarming message that I am the best Mummy in the whole world. How could I be cross, especially when J put his arms around me and said “It’s true, Mummy!”? They want it to stay there, but I’m worried the colour will set if left too long, so have promised to take photos before cleaning it off. I think it can stay until tomorrow though - I could use the boost
And so to bed…

Not sure where I was up to, but Monday seems a good place to pick up
We made pottage with roots and worts, lentil pottage and a mess of eggs for workers and cheesy farts for us (not enough crumb to make them for everybody) - started to get a few people coming to ask if they could eat with us even though not assigned, as they’d heard it was good - flattering but cheeky! We tended to say no as cooking for 50 over an open fire is already a challenge, but said they were welcome to come by and see if any left over
Started grain soaking for frumenty, to be made on Tuesday with wheat grain, milk, eggs, butter, honey and dried fruit - although in the event we forgot the dried fruit and used very ripe nectarines instead It was nice - interesting to see varied responses from school children (if they bring spoons then they can try food) as it was definitely not sweet enough for most modern palates if they expected a pudding. Pottage gets similarly mixed reactions - a surprising number really like it, but a few cannot stand it at all. When schools had no spoons then we tried to find something else they could try: dried apple rings, lemon balm or mint posset, leaves of herbs from the garden, even slices of carrot - tones of wonderment: “It tastes just like normal carrot!” Nothing like a full multi-sensory experience
We had a couple of patches of rain, which the tent stood up to very happily, and it was very cold at night most of the time, so we were glad to huddle together and drape cloaks over our sleeping bags. Getting children out of cosy sleeping compartment in the mornings grew progressively harder, however…
Wednesday and Friday were free-flow days, so early start as visitors arrive from 9:15 and can then go where they like but also late finish as they can go back and revisit as much as they want. Some nice groups, but also a couple of very large groups of teenagers who lumped around a bit and whose accompanying adults wanted to stay together - a shame as the beauty of free flow days is that small groups can move around more and so learn more and do things which interest them; large clumps of teens tend to just congeal!
It was nice to have a few children who were clearly special needs/learning disabled and equally clearly getting lots out of their day. History must be a very difficult concept in isolation, whereas experiencing it, hearing, seeing, tasting and touching brings it to life. Confusing for a few, but still fun, I think. I remember way back when I used to do KH we had a group of blind children and adults come round and it was brilliant thinking of ways they could experience everything
Saturday was a changeover day, with new participants arriving but old ones still around. This should have meant we were overstaffed in the cotte (having been understaffed all week) but actually left us with extra mouths to feed and no more people, as the new arrivals decided to let us get on with it. It was nice in a way and we managed to produce good pottage and the most delicious fromenty ever - and fed 60 + with half a serving of pottage left over - and also to make gingered bread in the afternoon but it was hard work!
The evening was to be summer solstice celebrations, so each station spent much of the morning preparing a green man - cotte had two as the children picked up on the idea of a green man to be burned on the fire and made a lovely one - very green but totally missing the point So we ended up with an adult one too, who very clearly made the point but also another point as his creator was in the middle of a divorce and took great delight in ripping strategic bits off the man to throw into the flames separately
The fire itself was rather graphic and the children thought it hilarious that there were so many willies everywhere! We had the story of the King of Oak and the Man of Holly and their battle, while the wheel of the seasons turned ever onwards, then all the green men were thrown on the fire and the musicians struck up for lots of dancing round the fire and in complicated circles and threads behind and then through the lines of dancers - lots of great pictures here to give you an idea. We took the children off to bed at about 10 but the revelry continued long into the night.
Since we knew by now that Biob would be leaving for Germany first thing on Monday morning we decided that it would be more sensible to pack up on Saturday night/Sunday morning and then leave as soon as we could on Sunday. In the event, I ended up on station in the morning as we were still short-handed, while the boys had a day off from the schoolroom and Bob went back to the campsite to pack up the tent. High winds overnight meant it was all nice and dry (and we were very cosy inside - I’m very impressed with the design) but sadly overenthusiastic help from other campers means we now have a tear in the canvas which I have not yet seen so have no idea how patchable it will be (sorry Helen) I’ve no idea how it happened but I’m cross because I loved the tent and want to use it again! It will be returned to us on Friday, I think (Alice took the tent in her car on the way back, leaving K to travel with us) so I’ll look at it then and see what I can do.
Meanwhile K and L did a bit of spoonmaking (still rather a lot of sanding to be done) and I took J to the butts to have a go at archery. He needs to grow a few more muscles but is now very keen to find an archery club, get his own bow etc etc
We then did some sneaky quick changes in random places and snuck out while everyone was watching the muster Got home in time for tea and baths, then bed for children and packing for Bob…

Kentwell photos now on Flickr. I’ll write my view of things later, if I get a chance.

Hello,
My name is J and I am 8 years old. I have just been to Kentwell Hall in Long Melford in Suffolk, where I re-enacted being a Tudor. It was a lot of fun. Each day I had to wake up really early and walk from the campsite to the house to have breakfast. After that my brother and I went to the schoolroom, where we put on a big black hat and a cassock. Then we got out our paperbook and penicils (like a pencil but a different shape and with no paint on it) and started doing the work for the day. We did things like heraldry, all about shields, divinity, learning about saints and learning prayers, and some really fun stuff like how to kill your enemies! Each day we had a long break when we ate our pottage and bread for lunch and played outside, then we started work again in the afternoon. We finished work at 2 and had the rest of the time free to play or look around. I had a blade (knife) as part of my costume, but it was only for eating and woodworking. My brother is only 6, so he doesn’t have a blade yet.
Kentwell Hall is a place where people live as Tudors for some of the time and schools come and visit to see what we are doing. It’s open to the public at weekends and a few other days and there’s loads to see. School parties can go the house or the grounds; personally I think the grounds are more fun because there’s more to see that way. My dad was at the gate, where he frightened everybody by saying what they would do to spies or spaniards (this year is 1588 so the Tudors were really worried about the Spaniards) and made sure everyone knew where to go and what to do. In the afternoons he had to do pike drill, but because the pikes weren’t in good condition he got lots of splinters! My mum and my sisters were at the cotte, which is a Tudor house where people cook pottage and other things like that. My baby sister looked very cute in her Tudor clothes.
If you want to see Tudors at Kentwell for yourself this year you will have to hurry as it’s only on for another couple of weeks (until 6th July), but there are mini events too, at bank holidays. It’s really good, there’s lots to see and do, you can buy things from pedlars too and at the end of the day you go back through the Time Tunnel, which is just a dark wooden tunnel, to the 21st century again.
What did I like best? The Military Pavilion, where they trained people to use swords and things. Or the Butts, where I got to fire arrows.
What did I miss most? Playing on the computer.
I have some photos too. I will get my mum to attach them to this email.
J

Mad rush of preparation, as ever, added to in some ways and made better in others by having Big Alice here on Friday night so that she could travel with us on Saturday, definitely added to by my uncle and aunt coming round for a visit and to deliver my mother’s bureau, which fits nicely in the front room, and totally added to by J having a music theory exam on the Saturday morning! Many thanks to Gina and Dave for having him over for a sleepover, which meant we did not need to take him to the exam, and then adding to their helpfulness by collecting him and giving him lunch and taking him with them to their next engagement so that we did not need to collect him until en route to Kentwell
Big Alice took K in her car, so we could fold down the whole of the boot and thereby fit in all our stuff without having to use a roof box. It was also much easier this year since we were only packing for Kentwell and not trying to squeeze in everything we would need for a week at Kessingland afterwards.
Anyhoo…
We arrived on Saturday afternoon, in that usual very light drizzle which always seems to come out of a totally cloudless sky as soon as you park and begin to unload a tent Ignoring it we checked in and pitched the tent anyway, feeling slightly smug when the large frame tent (thanks HH ) took less time to put up than all the dome and tunnel tents around us. The children helped a bit, flitting between Alice and us as they tried to decide whose jobs looked more fun, and we all had “helpers’ chocolate” then unloaded sleeping bags etc and set up ready for the evening. By the time we had walked to the house we were a little late for tea (mostly because we had been expecting it to be late on the first day but it wasn’t) and unfortunately got there just as the veggie option ran out, so the children got spinach and mushroom lasagne while the adults got leftover spinach and mushroom filling with cheese grated on top - either way not a great option for the three of us ho don’t eat mushrooms, although good news for K, Bob and Alice, who do Usual exchanges of news, meetings and greetings, then time to wash up (the practically-patented 5 bowl washing up system not yet in place, so all a bit random) and head back to the tent for what was meant to be an early night but didn’t turn out that way.
Sunday morning seemed to start too early, but we managed to get everyone into kit and down to the undercroft in time for porridge, toast and beans, then washed up (5 bowl system - yay!) and over to the Cott to report in and drop stuff off, then back to the house to deliver the boys to the schoolroom and sign bits of paper saying they remained our responsibility whatever happened. Somewhere along the line I put Bob’s lenses in for him (one week a year is not enough to get used to doing it, it seems) and we had a quick check to make sure all signs of 21st century life were removed or covered.
Weekends are public days, when visitors come onto the manor from around 11 and stay until about 5:30, which makes for quite a long day as they could appear at any time so you must always be in role. In the cotte we had pottage to cook, but no list of which stations we should be feeding or how many people to expect. In the end we estimated 2 score and 10 and cooked enough (pottage, pease pudding and a dish of worts) for a few more just in case, then rang the pottage bell and walked about asking all those we thought might be assigned to the cotte if they knew where they should be eating. We must have served about 60 as well as ourselves (a dozen or so, including children) and we had run out by the time the potters arrived, saying that they had been assigned to the cotte for the first time in 20 years and did we have anything left. Then a few more randoms arrived, whom we also had to turn away A front sward sottler arrived to ask if we knew what was going on, as the potters had gone back to them for pottage with the result that they had now also run out, and we worked out that between us we had fed about 40 more people than expected! At least they had a copy of the list, so we were able to see who should have been eating at the cotte, which made things easier for the rest of the week. It was almost a relief, though, when there turned out not to be enough supper that night and the catering manager complained that he had fed 60 more people than he had expected - at least we had been counting correctly and the fault was not really ours!
By the time we had had supper each evening (served from 6:30; families with children under 8 able to queue-jump, thank goodness) and then washed up and walked back to the campsite there was no such thing as an early night, even before any evening entertainments were added in, so the first Monday was already a struggle in terms of getting children up and about in time On weekdays breakfast is served from 7:30 - 8:30 and the first school party enters between 9:15 and 9:30, so everything is a bit more of a rush. They follow a set route, however, so the actual day on station/in role is shorter because you have a rough idea of when each group will get to you and you know that once they have gone past they are unlikely to return. Since bookings are down this year and lots of groups needed to be back at school in time for coaches to turn into school buses there were quite a few days when the last party came in not long after lunch and left by 4:30, which meant a very early finish for those early on in the route; the cotte was about a third of the way round the manor route so would be clear of visitors by 2:30, although still on view from a distance. It was a good time to fetch vegetables, wash up, walk about a little and also get a head start on onion chopping for the next day.
I’m hoping J will write his own account of what they did in the schoolroom; I have heard snippets of things like “We learned how to slit a Spaniard open and pull his guts out!” and I know they did heraldry, learned a few prayers and some Latin phrases and ate wine gums but judging by the little books they have each bought home there must have been much more besides
Evening ents were better than I remember from last year, but still not as varied and organised as I remember from my old KH days, many summers since. We had Tudor games, a campfire singsong for the children (and brewhouse/bakehouse version for the adults) and of course the great Summer Solstice celebrations, including making and then burning a variety of station-specific green men, most with unfeasibly large phalluses (and try explaining that to small children!) and some impromptu dancing. Sadly the ceilidh we had been promised did not happen so I’m feeling rather hard done by - must find a ceilidh soon!
Washing machine now working its socks off, so I should go and hang out some washing while the weather is still good for drying…

No chance of catching up with all the weeks I’ve missed - I can’t remember what we did, although I should have kept records because I’m sure some of it was important, fun or useful!
Last Friday should have been a choir workshop, for which we had cancelled Friday Club, but unfortunately the teacher was ill Since the room was booked anyway and we had planned to have lunch afterwards and do goodbyes for Susan and K, Gina suggested that we lead a singing session anyway, so she did piano and boomwhackers (not at the same time!) and I did singing and it was fun, if not exactly the workshop we had hoped for. The children made rice shakers too (ingeniously out of toilet roll tubes stapled shut at one end, then half filled, rotated through 90 degrees and stapled at the other end) and we used Gina’s wrap and mine for them to sit on so that we could do rounds with it being obvious where the split was I need to sing more, I think; my voice is shamefully rusty
Afterwards we stayed and played for much of the afternoon

Saturday had lots of things we could have done and somehow we ended up not doing anything much. I went to Body Combat, we didn’t go to Strawberry Fair, we gave the Cirque Surreal a miss, the waste treatment centre open day appealed but not enough to tempt us out… I got a bit of sewing done and we pottered generally, ready for a busy day on Sunday (as blogged by Bob).

Monday was another pottering kind of day, which should have been a chance to get the house straight but actually just meant lots of washing (making the most of a good drying day) and then an afternoon in the garden, where the children made water squirters with their yoghurt tubes and generally had fun - pics and videos on flickr We also read some Asterix in French; we’re working our way through La Rose et le Glaive. I’ve been buying lots of French resources recently - I think Latin is going to take a break for a bit (it hasn’t happened for a while anyway for one reason or another) and then start again in September and in the meantime I’m going to work on getting the French going a bit more, hopefully setting up two distinct groups even if they end up working together some of the time. There are a couple of older boys who are interested and may be at Tots fortnightly so I think we’ll try a gentle pre-GCSE class with them and the Js on those weeks and see how it goes.

Tuesday was swimming, with a new teacher. She was there last week and K liked her, but J didn’t go in as he was still poorly/recovering so this was the first “normal” week with her. She got in the water with them, which I much prefer. K really likes her; she pushes them more than the last teacher (already) and he’s happy with this, but predictably J complained about her. He tried to get away with half-heartedly doing things, as he used to, and she called him on it - he was not impressed! I think it will do him good Aware that it was Susan and K’s last session for a while we all went in, although A was a bit hungry and grumpy (she fell asleep in the car on the way and had to be woken to go in) so didn’t get as much out of it as I’d hoped. We were early as we’d tried to go to coffee morning at church on the way, only to find it wasn’t on this week so had eaten lunch in the church car park (instead of the nice cheese scones we’d been anticipating) which meant we didn’t have any lunch for after swimming. So we went shopping instead. Headed off a couple of tantrums (bad idea to go shopping when hungry) and got nice things for then and also for next week, including “waking-up biscuits” for those early mornings when the only way to get your children out of sleeping bags and into costume is to dangle a chocolate biscuit in front of them

Wednesday was, erm, today
We went to B-a-R for our termly catch-up visit and we picked K up on the way and took him with us so Susan could get a few things done and he and K could spend a bit of time together before their long break. It was good We parked in the newly revamped car park and got the lift to the newly revamped shopping centre and it was all bright and shiny and disorientating! And expensive! Worth it for the shorter walk with so many children in tow though
We got back with just enough time for them to go and play in the garden without feeling cheated before gymnastics - and this time K knew his mum wasn’t going to be there at the beginning so he went in happily A was clingy but L played Cooking Mama on the DS and I managed to get a second napron made (still have tapes to sew on, but it’s all edged and hemmed ) for L without stabbing A with the needle more than once, so I guess that’s good too. Rushed back to find Bob not cooking tea because he was sure there was no Cubs due to trip on Sat. I hope he’s right, because J missed last week through illness and will be missing next week for Kentwell and they get shirty if you miss three in a row…

The last few days, in random order. Yesterday K was showing me how wobbly his tooth was (utterly gross seeing it bent over to that angle) and then it came out, with a minimum of blood. He was so chuffed that he hadn’t swallowed it (unlike the first one). He sang a happy losing a tooth song while bouncing on the tiny trampoline.

Earlier in the day, Katy had the children out in the back garden in a little paddling pool. Frozen tubes of fromage frais turned into water squirters and much fun was had by all. The camera somehow stayed dry, and so there are photos and video (gasp) on Flickr. Video was easy-peasy on Flickr - excellent.

We now have a modest crop of strawberries from the plants that Mum and Dad brought. Nowhere near the bounty of The Beans or the Off The Path crowd to be sure, but immensely good nonetheless. J and K want us to grow lots of things, and maybe get an allotment. Given the state of the garden, having extra land to worry about sounds like a hassle rather than a good thing.

On Saturday we all tried sushi for the first time. Katy thought it would be slimy or otherwise yuck, and I thought it was always fishy, but there were some packs reduced to 30p in the local Co-op so we tried it and we all think it’s fab.

Yesterday we had another power cut. We’ve had loads since we moved in, and I’ve complained to EDF and got a sorry letter back. Normally it’s just our phase, so our neighbours are unaffected which is weird. This time it was the whole town, plus the two neighbouring towns and made the local news. Fortunately it was over in time for a not-too-late tea.

Sunday was interesting with people being at the right place at the right time. J went to Duxford with cubs (for free), so needed to be at the school the cubs meet at for 9.30. We then were aiming to go to the church we used to go to, but we were running behind and so slipped the children straight into Sunday School and then stayed on for coffee. It was the golden wedding anniversary of a very nice couple in the church, so there was cake and general nice feeling. We met up with Big Alice, went via another friend’s house to pick them up (we should have given them a lift, but our car was so full of stuff that Alice very kindly helped out) and finally onto another friend’s house to be Tudor to local home educating families.

Katy, K, L, A, Big Alice and I all changed and Katy talked about some food she’d made. This was pottage (vegetable stew), posh bread and not-so-posh bread, soft cheese and chive balls, soft cheese balls rolled in chopped apricot, and frumenty. This last one has also cropped up on the excellent Supersizers Go… on TV, and M, who is married to a Kurd said “Oh that’s 23904rwo;ijfa0w3ur” (I’m afraid I couldn’t catch and so have forgotten what she said, but I guess it was Kutia).

We’d brought all our spare bits of clothing, and so there was lots of trying things on, the adults chilled out in the garden, the children watched excellent juggling from one of the dads or disappeared playing, steam tractors pootled past every so often (in a pleasantly slow and noisy way). We had a fantastic authentic soundtrack of Dave, Gina and friends playing Tudor tunes on hurdy-gurdy and recorder, although as Dave was busy mending their house and Gina was busy with S it was on a CD rather than live.

Part-way through I had to disappear off to pick J up, as we wouldn’t be home in time for him to be delivered. I chickened out and half changed back to modern clothes (I also didn’t want to be the embarrassing dad in front of cub friends). We all had so much fun that it was much later than planned when we finally left; the kids had a late tea and then off to bed. J stayed up till gone 10 reading, the irritating thing, and so was crabby yesterday.

K seems to be developing a skill for dropping glass containers on the kitchen floor, which in case you’ve not seen it, is hard tiles. The containers have so far always still contained things - a full bottle of olive oil the first time, and a jar of stuff from the fridge today. With A crawling about it’s even more tedious than usual.

At work, it’s one step forward and two steps back where it comes to doors. There’s a door between my area and the nearest kitchen. For some reason, from one side you need to press a button to get through, and from the other you need an electronic key. This is even though we have a security card about 20 metres away, and there’s another locked door (locked with a different electronic key) between the first door and the outside world / security guard. Today we finally had the lock taken off, so I have less hassle when I want a cup of tea.

The two steps back are the new locks on other doors. If you keep one of these doors open too long (about 10 seconds!) a loud alarm starts. It’s got to the point where we all give it a Paddington hard stare when it goes off as it’s so frequent and loud enough to derail your train of thought. A colleague of mine uses crutches or a wheelchair, so we’re hoping to use disabled access as a fairly strong reason to get the 10 seconds increased to something sensible like 5 minutes.

I caught some of a TV programme where one of the Dimblebees was going on the Trans-Siberian railway. I hadn’t realised that Lake Baikal was so big - bigger than all the US great lakes combined, over 20% of the world’s fresh water.

One fewer excuse to be rubbish at pool (video - see the responses too).

GeekDad on home education / schooling.