In At The Deep End

This was the weekend of the messy party part 1, but with bonus excitement and fun beforehand. The fun was a trip to the school fair of the primary school round the corner, where some friends of J and K go. We only caught the last half an hour, and I had limited cash on me. But we came fourth in the challenge to build a tall self-supporting structure out of marshmallows and (uncooked) spaghetti. It’s surprisingly hard because most structures were too wobbly. J finally settled on the idea of lots of triangle-based pyramids with stuff on top. And the very nice man running the inflatable assault course and slide thing let them have an extra go round each, so the last of money spent on that paid for more fun than I was expecting.

There was a bit of getting the house straight, then more this morning. While I was washing up I heard a very loud bang from in front of the house and a Renault Clio drove past on the pavement and then stopped. I went out and the people living in the houses opposite were all out of their houses, no other cars around, and it turned out that the car had come off the road, banged into the first house, scraped across it and the next two houses and then stopped. On the way it cracked a front door step, knocked out a section of plastic drain pipe and cut two plastic gas pipes. The driver has a few scratches, very much in shock, but otherwise OK. Gas and emergency services were phoned - the gas people said we shouldn’t attempt to block up the pipes, even though they were making ominous gas-rushing-out noises.

The driver got taken in by one family, we got passers-by to cross onto the other side and made sure no-one was smoking. The police arrived and we started turning cars away. The fire brigade arrived and coned off the road, milled around for a bit, then finally put some temporary bunging stuff on the pipes. The gas people arrived in a van, which even though it had orange lights on the top couldn’t compete with any of the fire engines or police cars, although was probably better than the fire incident commander’s car. The gas bloke had a bent coat hanger looking thing to sniff out gas, and went into the houses and apparently checked the drains (because gas is heavier than air it could sink down through drains and grates and risk a later explosion). Altogether there were 3 fire engines, 4 police cars and a police van and 3 gas vans at one point or another.

Fortunately that was all sorted in less than an hour, because we were all asked to leave our houses, and we could get back in and finish off getting ready. Guests arrived in shifts, and the first shift managed to turn the stuff-out-in-paddling-pools phase into a full-on messy fight before the second shift arrived! There was the normal sand pit with fresh sand, a paddling pool of green cornflour and water, a paddling pool of cornflakes, a paddling pool of whipped up soap and water, a paddling pool of pink cooked spaghetti, and a paddling pool of silly string and shaving foam.

We did jam doughnuts hanging on strings, eaten hands-free and blindfolded, and then those who wanted cleared off to the field at the back of our house for the promised water fight. The arms race was definitely won by the other J’s water surface-to-air missile launcher, which had a fantastic capacity but needed pumping up fairly often.

Nice food and chatting, quieter playing indoors, and occasional changing into clean and dry clothes, warming up and so on for the combatants. The garden looks like a disaster zone, but much fun was had. We might be cleared up in time for the next go! Photos on Flickr soon.

So….. 27/28th September looks better for some people; 4th/5th October for others (possibly more?). We don’t mind, but we’d like to see as many people as possible and have as much fun as possible, so we’re going to do it twice! We have floor/bed/tent space available, as ever, and no set plans for either weekend (or, indeed, the Fridays before and Mondays after afaik) so you’re welcome to come early and/or stay late - but please bear in mind that that may involve helping out with getting ready or clearing away If you want to come to both and stay for the week in between, I’m sure that could also be arranged - and our children would be overjoyed!
Messy activities welcome - and we have a distinct lack of paddling pools, baby baths, cement mixing trays and other suitable containers so those would also be welcome. We do, however, have a football table
Food, drink and similar contributions also welcome

but we’re not looking hopeful for being organised enough to send emails out so best to keep checking for details. Rooms/beds/floor/tentspace available if needed - just shout. Contributions of food and (fun) mess welcome Bring your own watersquirters and lots of spare clothing and towels!

The building in our back garden that used to be a double garage was converted by the previous owners into a workshop (which is what we call it now). They swapped the big door for a wall, and put planks across the top of the inspection pit dug into the floor, and other things too. When we moved in, my father-in-law said that the house’s loft wasn’t strong enough to store things in, so we piled all the boxes into the workshop. Since then we’ve not unpacked many but added a chest freezer. It’s scary how much stuff is still out there given how full the house is without it… (We unpacked the essentials, and have largely managed without whatever is hiding in the slightly randomly labelled boxes in the workshop.)

A couple of weeks ago I wanted to get to something in the workshop and moved a box out of the way. It had been standing on the wood over the inspection pit, and I noticed there was a white patch on the wood. The inside of the box was icky, and I threw out most of the things in it. Then I noticed other white patches, and something like foam or cotton wool between some of the joists. I resisted the temptation to investigate as I knew I couldn’t make things better and might accidentally spread things and make it worse.

I got a damp and rot specialist in, and he lifted up the planks. The walls of the inspection pit were lined with dry rot - he said it was the worst he’d seen in 20 years. I’m trying to get someone else in to give a second opinion, but whatever it is looks bad. Assuming he’s right, in case it has spread under the floor around the pit at least a metre of floor in each direction around the pit has to be ripped up i.e. a metre of good floor once they’ve stopped finding rot - could be the whole floor. Then lots of spraying with nasty chemicals, and filling in the pit - as this is so deep it would have to be done in stages and compacted down between each one. If you are thinking that this sounds expensive and time-consuming, you’re right.

You may also be thinking that the workshop is rather full for all this ripping up and spraying, and if so you’d be right again. So I’ve been trying to unpack 4 boxes per night and avoid just dumping the contents into the house. For instance, all the various finds of pens and pencils etc. from random boxes have been put where Katy had already got some art and craft things, so I can now predict we will not need to buy another pen or pencil in the next year or two. I’ve also found money, the missing stuffer bit of the grater attachment to the mixer, and many, many other things. Fortunately lots can go in the bin or recycling, but the bins are so full now that I’ll need to go to the tip soon.

We had a look at the survey from when we bought the house, as we had the full one done. It’s long, with a big glossary i.e. quite a few ignored pages. It has a summary that highlights the work to get done, like the roof needs replacing (in a few years, according to my father-in-law), damp is starting to cause subsidence (which we’ve had fixed by having some soak-aways put in), and so on. There are about 13 things, which includes redecorating - but doesn’t include rot in the workshop. Rather buried in another section is a mention of something growing in the workshop, but this apparently wasn’t as serious as redecorating. Hmmm… It’s our responsibility, but moving house is stressful at the best of times so the layout of the survey was far from ideal.

The only silver lining I can see to the cloud is that it is forcing us to get unpacked, which I can see wouldn’t have happened otherwise. While Katy and the children were away I managed to make a reasonable sized dent in the box mountain, but there’s still a long way to go. The builder can’t even do the investigation (ripping up) work for about a month so I should get it done in time.

uses standard password

(for Gina!)

from here

12 oz pack of firm, silken tofu (ambient tetrapak)
3 cups soy milk (and a dash of vanilla essence if you have any)
4 tabs olive oil
3 cups plain flour
2 tabs baking powder
dash of salt

Put the tofu, soy milk, and oil in a blender, and process until smooth. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a mixing bowl. Pour the soy milk blend into the flour mixture, and use a whisk to blend smoothly. It should be rather foamy.

Grease a muffin tin, or use a silicon one Fill muffin cups about 3/4 full of batter. Pop into the preheated oven for 15 minutes. DO NOT PEEK!
When done, let cool in pan for a few minutes - this is best done with the pan upside down so that they fall out when they cool!

Recipe for the biscuit dough we took to the Beans

75g/3oz icing sugar
150g/5oz softened butter or marg
1 lemon (we had to omit as we had no lemons)
200g/7oz plain flour
2 tabs milk (we used water and it was fine)
food colouring

Cream butter and sugar, then stir in grated lemon rind (if you have any). Divide mixture into two bowls and add half the flour to each bowl, along with 1 tab milk. Colour each bowl differently, or leave one plain, and squeeze it all together to make dough. Wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate for half an hour. When firm, roll out one ball of dough to about 1/2cm thick. Roll the other out to about the same size and shape and brush with a little water. Lift the first and place it on top of the second, then carefully roll them up together to make a sausage shape. Wrap and chill again to make it easier to cut. Slice the sausage into discs, put on baking trays and bake at 180/350/GM4 for about 12-15 mins.
Or do as we did: make up the dough with no colour, give each child two balls of dough and a choice of food colour pastes and let them go wild with the colour combinations!

We’ve just finished a Grand Tour of the North (which included London). First was the SOTP summer party, which was very nice. We met the welly boots tribe, one of whom is also the mystery commenter on the SOTP’s blog, which is good and reduces the number of things I have to hold in my brain (like learning that Bruce Wayne and Batman are the same person).

There were two walks - one in the wet and one in the dry - to take in the glorious countryside and water engineering. J occasionally left DS corner, for instance to play Ticket to Ride, which K and I enjoyed too. Lots of lovely food and nice company, and of course books.

We were out-tented by everyone, as we took two small, cheap, basic tents (including a cheapy Tesco children’s one). The interesting weather on the second night - to recreate the effect, sit inside a small tent while someone hits it repeatedly with a cricket bat and then sprays a garden hose on it - couldn’t defeat them, so they were The Little Tents That Could. I hope that those whose tents suffered have all now got things sorted out.

Thanks very much to J, J, J, M, C, R and M (I didn’t see S) for being such excellent hosts.

Then over the Penines to my parents. In all my time living there, I hadn’t gone to the viewing bit of Manchester airport, so when we took the children there it was new to me too. A real Concorde - from the outside as beautiful as it is I wasn’t going to pay that much to go on - a 3rd size willow Concorde (see Flickr) and Dad’s binoculars meant that this was a nice hour or so. We also went to a garden centre that had a miniature railway and loads of railway signs and other bits and pieces (more photos), which was also good fun.

Katy had to disappear home to run the toddler group, and took J and A with her in the car. Mum and Dad and I took K and L into Salford on the tram, and for once got to sit just behind the driver. The first stop was lunch down by the quays, where a cormorant was fishing. At the time K and I tried to remember the nonsense verse about cormorants but couldn’t. I’ve looked it up, and here it is (it’s by Christopher Isherwood):

The common cormorant (or shag)
Lays eggs inside a paper bag,
You follow the idea, no doubt?
It’s to keep the lightning out.

But what these unobservant birds
Have never thought of, is that herds
Of wandering bears might come with buns
And steal the bags to hold the crumbs.

The architecture of the new buildings is interesting and varied, and a lot better than it could have been. We went into The Lowry, saw some amazing huge inflatable alien plants hanging from the ceiling and then I took the children into the galleries while Mum and Dad had a cup of tea.

It was meant to be a quick look but it turned into a proper visit, because they were enjoying themselves so much. Most art galleries I’ve been into have Art pinned to the walls, made by famous worthy people, many of whom are dead and/or lived somewhere else. The Lowry has a thing set up permanently to get visitors to draw, and another room (complete with member of staff, aprons, drying clips and racks and a huge mirror with Are You Clean? on it) for painting. Drawing and painting aren’t particularly amazing, but having them as part of an art gallery I think is great. It gives the children a much better connection to the exhibits, and it’s fun.

The other reason for going to Salford was to visit Old Trafford i.e. Man. U’s ground. Mum and Dad had taken my nephews to Anfield, and suggested to K that we could see Old Trafford. To see the pitch you had to go on a tour which was £15 a head :eek:, so we made do with the shop - at least that was free. The size of a small supermarket, and the thing that put the lid on it for me was a baby’s dummy with the Man. U. logo on it: you can’t even turn over, but we can make money out of you. Mum bought them some Top Trumps, so I’m learning about the current and past squad.

On the way back to the tram we passed the other Old Trafford i.e. the cricket ground, which had a War of the Roses poster up showing all the Lancashire vs. Yorkshire matches.

A much cheaper trip out was going up Tegg’s Nose. Fortunately the sun was out, so we could see hills in Wales, Jodrell Bank, as well as all the lovely layers in the sedimentary rock in the quarry at the top.

As well as that, there was helping with planting and picking vegetables, playing Mousetrap, watching TV, playing Braintastic and lie-ins for me (yippee!) and a bit of computer technical support.

We caught a Megabus from Manchester to London, which was cheap and great apart from the light in the loo switching off randomly. While we travelled down, Katy took J and A to the British Library where they saw the Ramayana and some old printing presses. The rendezvous was for about fourteen hundred hours at Coram’s Fields, which was fab as ever, particularly as one of A’s sets of godparents was there with 8/10 of their children. Tired but happy children were then packed onto the train and off to bed.

Kentwell was fab - and blogged so well by Michelle that I shan’t really bother except to say that we saw Rebecca, J and R and that was lovely Oh, and the car petered out on the A11 sliproad, which was less lovely, but it started again after a few minutes, so could have been worse.

On Saturday the Rainedrops departed, much to the distress of our lot - we must get organised and meet up over the summer There were about 5 things we could have done that day, but I don’t think we did any of them in the end; none of us deal well with too much choice

Monday was CHEF sport, which L decided she would like to try, since J would not be doing it. Unfortunately the traffic was bad, so L and K missed a fair chunk of their session, but enjoyed it anyway, while J played with J who was also off sport, thanks to surgery. We ended up staying rather longer than expected, but decided not to go to the park as well since J was rather tired and the weather didn’t look promising. It’s not the same without Susan and K anyway. We were waiting for a call from a friend to say that lots of Suma stuff had arrived and we should go and pick it up, so didn’t really want to go home and then have to turn around and come back. Gina came to the rescue with an offer of playing at their house, which turned into lunch - just as the other friend phoned and asked if we’d like lunch there, so we could have had two lunches that day Picked up lots of Suma stuff, then talked briefly about dog-sitting and whether we might be able to do it for them as kennels wanted £17.50 a day, plus £25, plus this plus that - and our children have been desperate for a dog since before we moved so we thought this might be a good opportunity to see how it would suit us
Stayed there longer than planned too, so ended up having to squeeze Bob in with the soya milk and huge bags of flour, sugar and oats (sorry if any of your cartons are squished Gina!) as we dashed to the dentist, where we were all congratulated on nice teeth, Bob had a quick clean and A refused to open her mouth at all. Ah well!
Tuesday was swimming, which J could not do, but neither could J (there are too many Js!) so they sat together while the rest of us went in. Yet again there was no teacher *sigh* so I ended up handing A over to someone else in the toddler pool and going in with the children who should have been having a lesson. We started off doing the usual across the pool type stuff, then got out some woggles and used those to practise kicking alone and then in pairs, but fairly soon we all decided it was best for most of them to just have fun with the floats while I helped one or two at a time to do lengths. Fun, but not ideal - although at least they got to stay there for longer, since the improver class was very small and also had no teacher so they just joined in
After swimming we drove to a car park and collected a large dog with a new collar tag (the children watched it being engraved with or phone number), some worming tablets (giving those to a dog is soo much easier than thrusting them down our cats’ throats ), a large bed, lots of blankets and towels and a huge sack of food. We had a quick demo of how to use the halti and then K jumped in the boot with our (temporary) new golden retriever, Joy. As soon as we got home we had to run in, leaving K in the car with Joy, and stuff the cats into their travel basket so that Bob could take them to the vet for poorly-timed boosters. Not ideal for them to meet Joy from inside a plastic box, but otherwise we feared they would hide and we would not be able to find them an hour later when it was time to go Then we took Joy for her first walk in the field at the back of the house, with the children taking it in turns to hold the lead once we’d established that she was not going to pull them over. K even very nobly picked up her poo, when I pointed out that if they wanted to have their own dog they would have to do that. I was impressed!

On Wednesday we were carless, while the garage tried to work out why the car has been cutting out again. Once again, it seems to be the computer sensor bit getting itself in a muddle for no real reason - apparently a common fault with Zafiras - so not a lot they can do about it. They reset the computer error thingie (highly technical, I know) just in case it was still showing the old message from last year when we had the same problem and said to go back when it did it again. So we had the car back in time to go and pick Bob up from his late meeting. We could have made it to the Gymnastics competition too, but J couldn’t have taken part and K wasn’t sure he wanted to, so they both decided they would rather go pond-dipping with the Cubs instead. Since J was only allowed to go with an adult to accompany him, thanks to cast, Akela said K could go too So we picked Bob up, shovelled down a quick tea and they scooted off to the pond while L, A and I pootled.

Thursday was Tots and Nots, where we did lots of fun Aztec related things, including making masks, cooking and eating tortillas and a chocolate tasting Rebecca, J and R came along too and we finished really late, but having had a great time - and still only done about half the things Gina and I had talked about for Aztecs, so with activities ready for next week