Double Fantasy League

The Schools Fantasy League competition starts a couple of months into the football season, so everyone can enter once term starts. Rachel's school has run its own for the last few years so she's got a team again and is joined this year by Thomas's own entry. This means that Thomas's usual level of interest in who plays for which Premier league team, scores and results (considerable) has ratchetted up to a level bordering on obsession. Thomas is, of course, currently seven points ahead of his mother and sits 4th in the overall school table. Rachel is languishing in 12th. It is, however, a marathon not a sprint (or a Snickers).

Here's Thomas's team as it currently stands. He's already shown the level of ruthlessness required to succeed in football management by dispensing with the services of two underperforming defenders (Patrice Evra and Kolo Toure if you're interested).



















Rachel's team looks like this, obviously once Darren Bent (still got to have one ex Town player in there) and Drogba find their shooting boots she'll be zooming up the league.



Further updates as the season progresses, assuming I'm not driven mad by answering constant questions on the fitness, form and price of Premier League players.

Day tripper

Thomas recently went on a trip to the British Museum with his class at school because they'd been learning about Ancient Greece. This is what he wrote about it and some of the pictures he took.

"Yesterday we went to the British Museum at 9.00 am the coach arrived. The first building we saw was Canary Wharf. Then we saw the O2 building, a statue if Winston Churchill, Gherkin, London Eye, HMS Belfast, Embankment, River Thames, Downing Street, Pudding Lane, Changing of the guards, St. Pauls Cathedral, Monument, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Westminster Abbey and Big Ben. Then at last about 10 minutes later we arrived at the museum. The first thing we saw was a statue of tutankhamun's head. We saw some very strange statues. We saw loads of bones some of them were very disgusting.

For lunch I had a packet of mini cheddars, a frube, peanut butter sandwich, berry biscuits, an apple, skips, a fruit shoot and that is it. I bought a wooden sword and chocolate bar, at the children's shop. Then we went home."

Paint it pink

For some time Martha had been getting a bit too tall for her little bed that was halfway between a cot size and a normal single bed. But with her having such a small room how a single bed fit in her room as well as all the other no doubt vital 'stuff' a five year old girl accumulates?
After much consideration a raised 'mid height' bed was decided upon. Trouble was, the room itself needed with a lick of paint as well as it hadn't quite been finished when the extension was done.

Funnily enough most of the possible colour combinations Martha chose were variations on a theme of pink. Here she is trying out the colours with some tester pots.



A bright pink and a sort of pinky violet were the choices - the bright pink on one wall and the violet on the three others. Thankfully it all got done before the bed arrived and the small amount extra it cost to have the lot assembled proved worth every penny. Here she is in the new bed complete with new duvet cover, pillow case etc.



We also got a new roller blind for the window, trouble is that it lets in much more light and so she's waking up a bit earlier than before.




She seems pretty happy with it and thanks to the various pockets and shelves attached to the bed she's got everything she needs to hand when she does wake up at the crack of dawn.


One final thing, you can now access this blog using the slightly more catchy web address www.bockingkellys.co.uk

Back to the (sea) front

After leaving it to fend for itself during one of the coldest and wettest winters for ages we thought we'd better go and see how the beach hut looked. Thankfully all was well, although the decking is showing the signs of the hard winter.

Martha and Thomas seemed happy to be back, even though they had to run up and down, just to stay warm.



It didn't take very long for your tea to get cold!



As it was high tide and quite windy some of the waves were crashing over the sea wall quite impressively.



As we parked on the promenade I could do with washing the seawater off the car! Hopefully as the weather improves we'll be out there some more, last summer seems like a long time ago.

First day at school - part 2

Martha started school on 3rd September, like Thomas she's attending Bocking Church Street Primary School. After a long summer without seeing her friends from nursery she was happy to have the chance to meet up with some of them who were starting school at the same time.

Here she is in uniform



Obviously she'll have Thomas to show her the ropes if needed.



Here she is, complete with coat ready to go.



She's settled in well so far. It's been half days up to now with her first full day after two weeks.

Bye Bye Bobby

The first home game of the season against Leicester was the first occasion many Ipswich fans had to properly pay their respects to Sir Bobby Robson. He was the man who made it possible that wherever you go in the footballing world, if you say you're an Ipswich fan the person you're talking to will smile in recognition of a team that punched well above its weight for many years.
His death from cancer was hardly a surprise but the outpouring of emotion from fans of Ipswich and other clubs still took me by surprise.
Thomas & I went to the Leicester game, partly because he'd got a new kit for his birthday and partly because I thought that as Town supporters we just had to. I dug out an old scarf I had that roughly dated from the Robson years and we put it among the hundreds of scarves, shirts, banners, photos and other items that were arranged round his statue and attached to the railings all along Portman Road.



Everyone inside the ground enthusiastically joined in the minute's applause before the kick off and Bobby Robson's name was repeatedly sung throughout the game.



Sadly the team on the pitch couldn't rise to the occasion, Thomas' second 0-0 out of three visits to Portman Road was a bit of a let down. We'll be going as a family to the Newcastle game in September. Hopefully both teams will produce something a bit more fitting to his memory then.

Canvassing opinion

Having had a tent as a 40th birthday gift we thought that it was high time we gave it an outing. So in the last week of June we packed up the car with what seemed like a vast amount of stuff and headed to Carlton Park in Saxmundham.
Thankfully it's a pretty easy tent to pitch which left us just enough time on the Friday evening to head to nearby Aldeburgh for some fish and chips



Saxmundham is very handy for the coast so we went to Thorpeness, where we spent a pleasant 30 minutes rowing round the boating lake, although having a set of oars of different lengths didn't help. We also went back to Aldeburgh for a bit of shopping. The campsite itself has an excellent playground where the zip line proved very popular.



Everyone slept pretty well, the campsite's showers were good and Thomas and Martha made some new friends. We'll give it a go later in the summer at Waxham and who knows maybe further afield for a proper holiday at some point.

Yat's the way (I like it)

Over the Easter weekend we were at the Warrens in Chepstow and on the Saturday went out for lunch with Rachel's Auntie Anne and, since it was such a lovely day, ended up at Symonds Yat. The views over the river Wye are quite spectacular





Sometimes it's just best to hang on to the children when you're at the top of a very tall cliff!

Give peas a chance

Nanny & Grandad came to visit on the weekend of 14th / 15th March which gave them a chance to be enchanted by Fudge and Humbug, watch Thomas at rugby training (not a player of the week performance unfortuntely!), get an early Mothers Day present and get the first vegetable seeds of 2009 in the ground. Thomas and Martha planted some peas with Grandad so they've got something to lovingly tend as spring turns into summer.





Is it the done thing to cut the lower branches off a silver birch to provide the required 'pea sticks'? We also need to decide what to put in the regular veg patch. After two years of less than spectacular butternut squash harvests I'm thinking of giving sweetcorn another go and probably some beetroot and maybe some nice brocolli. Anything that can broadly speaking fend for itself would probably be best.

Pet sounds (and vision)

Our last post mentioned that Martha received an empty guinea pig hutch for Christmas. Since then she's been very patiently waiting for us to get something to put in it. Last Saturday we finally got two female guinea pigs who we've today decided to call Humbug and Fudge.

Here they are


They're in their hutch out in the shed, which must be a bit cold at the moment but we've been bringing them in every day so they can get used to us.





They seem to like to be held and stroked. Humbug is definitely more inquisitive at the moment while Fudge just seems content to take it all in. Humbug is a Merino breed and Fudge a Texel. You have to brush their fur now and again as well as cut it if it gets too long!

Out on the ice

Christmas was spent in Braintree and Lydney. Martha was happy enough with her empty hutch and at the prospect of getting guinea pigs at some point in the future (more news on that soon).



We had a lovely dinner topped off with home made Christmas pudding - we've still got 2 left!



While in Lydney we went ice skating (on synthetic ice unfortunately) at Beechenhurst Lodge in the Forest





There's also a great play area at Beechenhurst with lots of fun things made out of wood. Here's Thomas, Martha, Amelia and Grace perched on a wooden horse.

Happy Christmas

Courtesy of Elfyourself.com here's a little seasonal animated video.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Merry Christmas and a happy new year

What chance have you got against a tie and a crest?

Thomas joined the under 7s at Braintree Rugby Club in September, he played his second game of the season on 30th November away at Sudbury RFC. You can read the match report, written by yours truly despite what the byline says, here. Thomas played for Braintree Black team.

Here's a pre-match picture



During the game, Braintree's defence covering a Sudbury attack



Another one of the team acknowledging the opposition at the end of the match

Hymn (and her) of the big wheel

On the Tuesday of half term we went to London for the day, mainly to go on one of the London Eye's Secret Spell flights where children have to cast a spell to help Wizard Belvedere protect London from evil spirits - check out the video to see them in action.

Before all that we went to St Pauls cathedral - a bishop was being consecrated so we couldn't go in



We walked most of the way across the Millennium Bridge before getting a bus down the Strand to Trafalgar Square



After lunch we headed to Buckingham Palace via Green Park, the Queen was in according to the flag.



The flight on the Eye was great and the member of staff who dressed up as a witch really got the children into it.



We returned on the 18:12 train to Braintree tired but happy!

Ruby sunday

The weekend of October 4th saw us in Lydney for a three fold celebration - the centenary of Lydney United Reform Church where we were married, Rachel's mum & dad's fortieth wedding anniversary and Martha's fourth birthday. We went to a lovely celebratory afternoon at the church on Saturday and Martha had a properly chocolately birthday cake back at nanny and grandad's while dressed in her new favourite clothes - the Disney princess outfit.



We had a really good Sunday lunch at the Ugly Duckling restaurant in Lydney the following day.

Summertime news

In roughly chronological order and in the absence of individual posts about them, here's a roundup of what went on over the 'summer'.

Thomas's birthday party was at Walton on the Naze, rides on the pier, games on the beach, all the usual.





We also helped Jamie and Claire celebrate their wedding at Hedingham Castle





We spent the weekend with Great Britain went gold medal bonkers in Beijing atWaxham Sands.

Rachel, Martha and Thomas rescued a starfish which had been washed up on the beach.





Obviously it rained . . .



There was one sunny day when we went for a sail





That's about it, autumnal updates to follow.