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.

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!

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.

Village fayre preservation society

Perhaps dubbing ourselves the village fayre preservation society is a bit strong but we did contribute a bottle to the school tombola and Rachel did the 5 mile 'Fun Run' in under 50 minutes so we chipped in.

Bad weather had blighted the previous two Bocking Village Fayres but this year was different, the sun shone continuously. The Fun Run started at noon so we went a bit earlier than usual and while Rachel made her way round the fields of the Fennes Estate, Thomas and Martha with Nanny, Grandad and Daddy in tow visited Thomas' school, and the other attractions. Here's Martha on the roundabout



Both Thomas and Martha took advantage of the face painting on offer, Martha opting for fairly simple butterfly while Thomas made sure Nanny got her money's worth by opting for a time consuming Spiderman design. Here he is being worked on, the phenomenally loud samba band are just out of shot



The finished article



Martha took about half the time, but she was happy with the results



What better way to round things off than with a pint?

Simply the (personal) best

I know it was a while ago now but back in September Rachel ran her first 10K (see here). On 7th October she did her second - the Southend 10K along Southend sea front. It being flatter, less windy and Rachel having the benefit of having done one already she improved her time to under an hour - 58 mins and 12seconds.
It was quite a family affair, with Lynda, John, David, Nicky, Paul and Stella all taking part as well and a similar number of people on support / childminding duties.

Here's another shaky handheld digital camera video clip of Rachel arriving at the finish.

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin lanterns and dressing up in seasonal costumes, what's not to like?

Running up that hill

Or, more precisely, running up those hills. Rachel did her first 10K run on Sunday 23rd September with Vicki in the lovely grounds of Bowood House in aid of Cancer Research. You can make an after the event donation at the link on the right.





Rachel completed the distance in a little over 63 minutes, hopefully the flatter course at Southend in a couple of weeks will be covered slightly quicker.

Here's a short clip of her arriving at the finish (with Martha providing vocal encouragement), just click on the play button.




Thanks to everyone who sponsored Rachel, you can still add some more at this link.

(Theme) Park Life

A milestone in Thomas and Martha's development over the holidays with their first visit to an actual theme park. In the company of Jamie, Claire, Lily and Isabelle we chose the relatively sedate surroundings of Legoland where disappointingly many things are not made of Lego. This is a swizz.

We went on lots of fun rides, queued for what seemed like an age for some of them (although they thoughtfully provide Lego bricks for the children to play with while waiting) and saw a fun puppet show. We seemed to have walked miles by the time we left at 7pm (closing time) and a good time was had by all.







One tip, it costs a fair bit when paying cash for a family of four so paying with all those loyalty points the supermarkets give you is a good idea.

I raced for life

The Braintree Race for Life in aid of Cancer Research UK took place on 17th June at Notley Country Park. Loads of participants including Rachel, Lynda and Stella. Obviously children, male members of the family and dog went along to offer moral support.

Everyone finished in under 30 minutes, which was pretty good.

Next step for Rachel is a new set of running shoes and twice the distance in Wiltshire on 23rd September (sponsor her at the link on the right).

Rachel raised just over £100, so thanks to everyone who sponsored her.


Before the start



Waiting around


Lynda, Stella, Jackie and Rachel afterwards


Sally, Rachel & Debbie, the Rickstones contingent