I volunteered

Yesterday we had meet the teacher the teachers from both classes went through some of the things that the kids would be learning...

...it was supposed to be held in Evies classroom but was in the small hall instead (so no sneaking a look at any of Evies work) :(.

They will be doing fairytales (with a fairytale day when the kids can come in dressed as fairytale characters) and learn how to do things like make candles :)

I have already offered to be a parent helper...

They also said that an estate agent would come and visit and the kids make castles (for a princess) and the estate agent judges which the best one is (whether that is the same day or not I dont know) :)

And they learn about farms and have a farmers market at the end of term (and we get to buy things that they have made) :)

They also said about mastery (I heard about it on my perfect country - this episode) and about teaching the kids about different sounds and the different ways they are spelt.

And about the end of year phonics test and that they spend all year learning the words.

And there is also a walk around the local area next Wednesday (not tomorrow), and they asked for parent helpers who have had a dbs check so I said that I would like to do it :)

e-book of thanks

I love listening to podcasts (in the evenings after Evie has gone to bed) and finding new ones to listen to.

I recently found FBI Retired and the author (a former FBI agent) has written her first novel.

At the end of the podcast she always says that if you enjoy the podcast, then by way of saying thanks you should buy her book.

And at least its more original than the usual "send us a monthly donation" that you tend to get from US podcasts.

So I checked it out on Amazon and the kindle edition is only £2.40...

...so I bought it :)

So I shall start reading it tomorrow (as I need to pop into town) or Friday in the hairdressers on my phone.

buying the weather

Quite a few weeks ago on the Film Review podcast Simon Mayo was saying about  a podcast that he listened to.

So I added it to my memory bank and looked to download the episodes the next day.

The podcast is a show on a community radio station in a city in the desert where every conspiracy theory is true :)

A segment in the show is the weather and a song is played.

The song I heard last night was Evelyn by Kim Tillman & Silent Films (I actually found it cheaper on I Tunes).

I really liked the song and not just because of the name (but it did help to clinch the deal) :)

stumbling e-mail

Just recently Evie has started stumbling over her words...

...she is definitely not stuttering but she is definitely stumbling over what she is saying!

I was going to ask at pre-school about it yesterday but found this article first, so we are just going to see how she gets on.

When I took Evie to the cinema to see the Peppa Pig Movie I sent an e-mail after to the Film Review show, and last night I finally got to the podcast for the week that I e-mailed in and they got to the Peppa Pig Movie in the top ten and Edith says that she has an e-mail from Amber & Evie ;o)  The Peppa Pig bit starts just after 19 minutes in ;o).

I came downstairs and told James (as I was lying in bed listening to it) and he said that he will listen to the podcast and will cut out the segment for Evie to listen to when she is older ;o).  I think that we should keep the whole show for her so that she can hear what else was on etc.

Me & Evie have a dentist appointment this morning too,

it was complete with a guitar playing vicar

This weeks Project Flickr is graveyards, so I had 2 nearby options, either go into town and do the graveyard in Chelmsford Cathedral or All Saints Church (hee hee it even has Sunday services that you can download!  BTW I will not be downloading them ;o)) which is very nearby.

As I didnt fancy going into town we (or rather I) walked and Evie sat in the buggy ;o)

When we got there there was a banner outside advertising their Summer Special, so I had a walk around the graveyard deciding what would make a good photo when an old lady came out and asked if I was "lost" so I told her no and that I as just having a look around.

She then told me about the "summer special" and how it was on at the moment if we wanted to go in, I thought to myself why not, Evie will enjoy herself...

...there was a horseshoe of tables and we went to the first one which was "treasure box "decorating ;o)

a treasure box with stick on jewels

there was also "coloured sand" to make patterns on paper (we didnt get time to do that).

We also didnt get time to do a bag for Evie either, but we did do a fan ;o)

It then ended with singing songs...

...my god is big (which I didnt know) and hes got the whole world in his hands which I only knew the chorus to.

And then there were prayers.

It reminded me back to when I was 17 and me and my friend Emma got talked into by another friend going to the Pentecostal Church Youth group and we both said that if they start praying we are getting out of there...

...of course they did start praying but we couldnt really sneak out ;o) and our friend said after that it wasnt normally "that bad" still, we didnt go back again ;o)

three foot festival tickets

I am typing my post whilst waiting for 7 am and for the tickets to go on sale ;o)

As Evie had such a fantastic time last year I want to make sure that we go again this year ;o)

As my operation is the week before I am hoping to get tickets for the Thursday, and James' Mum & Dad are going to come with me and so can do any of the lifting required ;o)

Off to download some podcasts now as it is still 6.38 am

Its 6.40 am now so have just taken a photo of my blog for project flickr as this weeks subject is work/chores

Its still only 6.52

Its 7 am and I am now waiting in a virtual waiting room!

7.09 am just went to the toilet and I am still in the waiting room!

I ended up trying again (as was still in the waiting room) and managed to get to the tickets booking screen but then wasnt able to get any further than the credit card payments screen...

...I ended up trying a further three times and then tried via Internet Explorer (as I was and am using chrome) and it worked.

We now have booked our tickets ;o)

I almost forgot...

I almost forgot it was pancake day today...

...I was downloading a podcast for Evie, and I saw the mention of the word pancake (I love how my brain can pick up that word when I wasnt even "looking" for it ;o)).

I have some ready made pancake batter in the fridge, so will make us some tonight ;o)

Hopefully Evie will enjoy it more this year ;o)  Again Im going to make it when James gets home from work so that it will be cool enough for her to eat after her dinner ;o)

Happy pancake day everyone ;o)

recharging

The other day James found his old personal cd player, and suggested that Evie could listen to cd's with it.

So yesterday I looked in hmv to see what childrens cd's they sold, I saw this one (interestingly enough the actual cd was only £5.99 but the music download is £12.99!).

It then reminded me of all the podcasts that I have been dowloading for Evie, so I dug out my old player and have charged it up and will play it on my docking station this morning while she is having her breakfast ;o)

Evie & Mummy singing

Evie now sings baa baa black sheep with me (well parts of it anyway ;o)) ;o)

Heres a link to the video motion picture.

I finally had a chance to listen to the Mark Kermode Film review podcast and my e-mail didnt get read out :o(

quarter to three

That was the time that Evie woke up yesterday morning!

I was already awake so Im guessing that my "Mummy senses" were in full swing ;o)

We tried to stroke Evies back to get her to drop off again but she wasnt having any of it, so James took her downstairs and ended up playing with her and reading books with her ;o)

He ended up bringing her back up at 5.30 am and she was lying on our bed and I could see that she was falling asleep so I put her back in her cot and she fell asleep ;o)  Me & James tried to get back to sleep too.

We ended up waking her up just before 7 am so that we could go out and then she fell asleep at 10 am and slept through to 12.30 pm.

 I was getting well tired by 2 pm and had a two hour nap and left James to look after Evie again ;o)

James ended up having his nap at 5 pm and he was then up at 2 am (so he tells me).

Evie fell asleep properly at 8pm and luckily slept through until 7 am ;o)

I still have the Mark Kermode podcast to listen to to see if my e-mail was read out so will do that tomorrow before Evie waked up ;o)

e-mailing the bbc

Last night I was listening to Mark Kermodes Film Review podcast and as part of the podcast extra (they do a segment before and after the show) Simon read out an e-mail from an Australian bloke living in LA asking if anyone was as behind as he was (he was listening to 6 months worth).

It reminded me that after Evie was born that I was way to tired to listen to anything and then dug out my player (around this time last year) and when it came time to reload my player I had 86 to listen to!

I will try and listen online to the podcast next week and will let you know if it does get read out ;o)

she doesnt like jumpers

Ever since the Christmas things have come out (in August for those of you not in blighty) I have been on the lookout for clothes for Evie (might as well take advantage of the fact that she wont refuse to wear something because it looks lame to the full ;o).

All of the shops that have got Christmas clothes in have really nice looking jumpers but Evie doesnt like jumpers so I have been on the lookout for long sleeved t-shits and dresses.

I have managed to get her a few bits so far but am still on prowl for other bits ;o)

I am still working my way through seven months of podcasts and have just started listening to bump club it is interesting and would have been good to listen to when I was pregnant.

Evie has also been saying sets of words...

She can now say "no more" for when she has had enough to eat - I make sure that I take away her food when she says it so that she knows to say it only when she has had enough!  Not sure if its sinking in yet with her though!

She can also say "scuse me" for excuse me and I get her to say it when she has sneezed ;o)

And she also says "oh dea" for oh dear when she has dropped something ;o)

We get a lot of "oh dea"'s ;o)

first Christmas bits and downloads for Evie

Last night I finally listened to the last of my 95 Steve Wright podcasts ;o)...

...so I was then able to start listening on my fancy schmancy new player ;o)

So this morning I set about putting songs and podcasts on my old player for Evie - I think that I will put them on tonight for her when she is having her bath ;o)  I did think about putting them on when she is having her breakfast but they would be a bit of a distraction!

Yesterday I was using the facilities in Mothercare and decided to look at their clothes whilst we were in there ;o)

I found this dress which she can wear for her birthday and Christmas and her this Christmas top ;o)

I even mentioned to the shop assistant that last year I managed to dress Evie in a Christmas outfit every day throughout December ;o)

spending points

On Friday I mentioned that I may be able to get a new music player.

James had decided to let his Mum try the shuffle player (he did manage to get it charging again) as she will be going into hospital soon for some surgery (she is expected to be staying in for a week).

I was talking to James about it and he said that I should treat myself (as I hardly ever treat myself), so as Evie was refusing to go to have her nap yesterday afternoon I decided to take Evie out in her buggy and walk down to Argos so that I could get my new player and I got a case for it too ;o).  And I managed to spend my Nectar points so didnt cost a penny ;o)

And I will call it my Christmas present ;o)

Evie eventually had her nap as we were looking around in Next I was very disappointed with their Christmas clothes as they were just jumpers and Evie makes a real fuss if I try to put a jumper on her! ;o)

I will give the player that I am using at the moment to Evie (as the buttons can be locked) once I have finished listening to the 95 Steve Wright podcasts ;o)

I am currently loading the new player with the unlistened to bits ;o)

downloaded downloads

Last night I started listening to the last of the downloads that I would be unsure about...

I knew that the Confessions podcasts would be good and they didnt disappoint ;o)

I was laughing so much listening to one of them that I thought that I might wake Evie up ;o)

Last night listened to all three of the other ones...

Letter from America will be deleted as it wasnt my thing - but at least I gave it a try ;o)

Excess Baggage I will definitely be listening to the remaining 84 episodes ;o)

And I am halfway through Kitchen Cabinet I am still unsure about whether to listen to the remaining 16 episodes...

downloading more downloads

Since my last post I have been looking through the BBC podcast catalogue...

I have seen one definite and a few maybes ;o)

The definite (only because I heard this spot on his breakfast show in the 90's) is Simon Mayos Confessions ;o)

The maybes are Kitchen Cabinet I think that Jay Rayner is funny as well as sarcastic so hopefully this will be good ;o)

Another one is Excess Baggage (which appears to have finished now) hopefully Sandi Toksvig wont ruin it...

and finally Letter From America which is something to do with US Presidents through the eyes of a British Journalist Alistair Cooke

Anyway I have loaded all of the Confessions ones that I could get my hands on and one of each of the maybes ;o)

Downloading downloads

Way back when I was at work I would regularly download podcasts to listen to...

...James was and still is sending me links to them.

Recently I started listening to my mp3 player again (I have got into a routine now of listening to something after I have put Evie down after her last feed) and on Monday night I had finished listening to everything I wanted to listen to, so on Tuesday morning I started downloading the next lot of stuff (we are talking over a years worth).

The Mark Kermode podcasts worked ok ;o)

Next came Chris Evans it was saying that the link was broken (I thought to myself ok they must delete the really old ones) I was working through the list and thought surely the ones from the last couple of months should still be available but no!

The only ones that I was able to download were the ones from the last 7 days how ludicrous is that?

And it was the same for Steve Wright too :o(

At least the Spy Museum ones they have their back catalogue on the website so that you can download them all.

From now on I m going to make sure that I download them as and when they are available.

coming home

We went down to dinner armed with our pre paid gratuity vouchers, what got me was that in the blurb with the vouchers it said that you can add some cash too if you have found that the service was excellent - surely the point of pre paying was that you didnt have to add more money to their tips! Ok we did buy our waiters a little present each too of a watch set - they were reduced from $80 down to $20 - and I wrapped them up in napkins from the all you can eat cafe (for that touch of added class ;o)).

We had to have our suitcases packed and left outside our stateroom by midnight at the latest (so the luggage could be sorted and ready for you to collect after leaving the ship), so after having our meal we packed up our suitcases.

The combination of change in transatlantic travel allowances (we were allowed two checked in bags each but now were only allowed one each), and all of the clothes that we had to pack for the cruise meant that we both had trouble shutting our cases. Royal Caribbeans version of casual is not the same as ours!

We didnt even have room to put our booze in the suitcases!

When we came back from having our final holiday cocktails we found a note under our door saying that they would be coming into our stateroom at 8.30 am to carry out maintenance on our balcony. We decided to make sure that we would have our hand luggage packed and take it with us when we went down to breakfast.

The next morning we got up had a shower each and packed up our hand luggage, mine was ok as all it had in it was money and essential stuff like that, James' on the other had weighed an absolute ton...

...in the library on the ship they had a book exchange shelf, and every day he would go down there and would see what he could cadge, he had a collection of around 10 (he says there were 10 but I think it was more than that) books by our last day (all paper backs) and he saw what he could fit in his ruck sack (he managed to fit them all in there).

We went up to breakfast (I always want to say down to breakfast but the buffet place was on deck 11) with our bags...

...I had decided the night before that I wanted to recreate Elvis' fools gold sandwich, we saw some of the tables had napkins already on them with the cutlery inside, we went to sit down on one table and this lady came running over with an overflowing plate of food because we were about to take her table! She should have placed her jacket on her chair (as per the international rule of "savesees") to show that that table had been taken.

Anyhow I went around the different stations collecting the different components for my sandwich...

toast check; individual tub of peanut butter check; pile of bacon check; banana - I couldnt find any bananas! What was I going to do? I told James that I couldnt find any bananas (I even had another look around the whole place just in case they had magically appeared but no) he couldnt find any either and even asked one of the waiters where the bananas were - and he said that they had ran out - HOW CAN THEY RUN OUT OF BANANAS?

I wasnt going to let a small technicality going to ruin my unhealthy breakfast so I substituted the banana for canned peaches - I think The King would have approved - which is more than I can say for my Mum - she would have been horrified ;o). The sandwich itself worked but my tummy really hurt afterwards!

I even got a couple of goodbye hugs, one from our stateroom attendant and one from a waitress who called me her favourite English lady (I felt really bad that I didnt have any spare vouchers to tip her - ok not bad enough to part with any hard cash but you know what I mean).

After breakfast we made our way down to the waiting place for disembarking the ship (as I said we were one of the first groups to leave the ship), so we go in there and the place is packed - we find a couple of seats at the back and sit down. A few minutes later we hear some mumbling but cant make out what the guy is saying, so I walk down the front and then he calls out our number, so I run back to where James is to let him know that we can go and we make our way off of the ship (we use the stairs as all of the old dears are waiting for the elevators), we get off of the ship, find our suitcases as per our colour coded area and then go through immigration, I get through ok and James gets the usual looking at him and then his passport several times (he lost 10 stone/140 pounds), before they decide that it is him.

We find our coach get on there and are raring to go...

...only there is only one other couple on the coach - surely the other people will be arriving imminently...

...after half an hour James was getting impatient and asked the coach driver how long we were going to wait - and he says it could take another 2 hours for our fellow passengers to get off of the ship. At this point we were thinking "this cant be right surely they would have us all leaving the ship at the same time"...

...another half an hour went by and James asked to see the itinerary (by this time it was 10.45 am) and it said that we would arrive at the hotel by 11am, James then said to to the driver "look it says here that we arrive at the hotel at 11am" and he says "its just a guide we have to wait for the other passengers" that was like a red rag to a bull.

James then went off of the coach to ask a Royal Caribbean Rep why we are having to wait for the others passengers and why they are saying that we will be back at the hotel at 11am when we are nowhere near likely to get there by that time.

He went to talk to the rep, but a security guard grabbed him by the arm and asked him why he wanted to talk to the rep, he explained the situation and was told that she wont be able to help him.

So he was walking back and another rep came upto him to ask if he needed any help, and when he explained about "waiting on the coach etc" her whole expression changed and she walked off.

James then came back to the coach defeated...

...we were talking to the people who had fast tracked their getting off of the ship (they took their own luggage off of the ship thus eliminating having to wait for their luggage having to be offloaded in batches), and they said that this was the worst part of the cruise. I couldnt believe my ears - they were saying that this is what normally happens!

I suppose once you get past a certain age (retirement is my current guess) that you have so much free time that you really dont care about having to wait for other people for god knows how many hours. We are not at that age yet, and I dont think that we ever will!

Anyhow an hour later our fellow passengers start to emerge (at about 12.30 pm - an hour and a half after we were supposed to be back at the hotel) and get onto the coach and they were happily cooing about how well organised the disembarking the ship was, I on the other hand was seething!

We eventually get to the hotel, I rush off of the coach (whilst James collects our luggage) am second in line, I get served and I give them my name and saying that I am with the Royal Caribbean party and ask if there is anything waiting for me, I get told no! meanwhile my fellow passengers are handing over their vouchers (I told you they would appear again), and getting keycards to a dayroom! I then barge to the front of the queue and ask the other person on reception what "the other people are getting" and she says their dayrooms so I say "what about me I dont have a voucher" and she says "have you already got a room?" and already majorly p1ssed off I say "so how am I supposed to already have a room then?" she then swipes some cards and hands them over to me. I go to ask if they are for an individual room or a communal one and she cuts me off saying "the elevators are at the back".

I was extremely angry at this point and wanted to hand back the cards because I didnt want to stay there a minute longer - I said to her "I want to hand back the cards because I dont need the dayroom" and she just said "leave them there I cant help you at the moment because I am helping these people" In her defence there was a line of about 15 people behind me at that point, I had a good mind to take the keycards with me and to leave them at the airport!, but I didnt I just left them on the side.

I get out and find James just staring at the coach driver, so I ask him what he is doing and he says "I am thinking all of the things that I am going to do to him if I see him again"! I said to him that it wasnt his fault...

I then tell him that I dont want to hang about anymore and for us just to go straight to the airport (I was THAT angry), so we get on the shuttle bus expecting to have to catch the airtrain back to the terminal, LOL the shuttle driver could obviously tell how angry we were by taking us straight to the terminal.

We find the BA check in desk, and it says that it wont open until 3pm it was about 1.15pm at that point, so James went off to forage for the foodcourts (I think he could tell that I was in no mood to go looking), he found where they were and got my self a burrito, it was ok but difficult to eat with plastic cutlery. After eating my lunch I had a look in the only other shop before check in and treated myself to an NYPD t-shirt (oohh NYPD do podcasts - I will see about getting these next time I reload ;o)).

At about 2.30 we make our way back to the check in area James gets himself a coffee from Dunkin Donuts, I know that there was a Starbucks around from when we arrived, so I went off in search of it for my final pumpkin spice latte.

At about 2.50 a hard faced check in lady appears and calls us over because we were first in line, we hand over our passports and tell her that we would like an aisle seat and the one next to it (she eventually understands what we want after thinking that we wanted to aisle seats), she then asks us to put our suitcases on the scale, I put my one on and the scale starts flashing! Oh no my suitcase is 23.4kg/51lbs the limit is 23kg/50lbs I am barely a pound overweight, she just says that the weight limit is 23kg (I am sure if we had been rude then she would have charged us for excess baggage - I know that I would have), James put his suitcase on and it was 22kg - so his was just in weight.

So we go through passport control, we have to get our hand luggage scanned James takes out the tube of toothpaste and puts it in the little bag (for them to put through the scanner separately), James puts his bag through and we are aware that they are putting and then reversing and putting his bag through again...

...they then take his bag over to a side table and put on a pair of latex gloves to go through his ruck sack, meanwhile James had another carrier bag contains a toy rubber baseball bat and a ball in a blister pack, they go to grab that and I say "its just a childs toy" and they take that and my ruck sack over to the same side table and James says to them that we are together. They are then delving (with latex gloved hands) through James' ruck sack bypass the books and remove the cardboard box containing the bottle of crystal head vodka, they then say to him you cant take that onto the plane, and they are then delving into my bag and remove the bottle of rum, that we bought duty free on the ship. It never even crossed my teeny tiny little mind that sealed bottles of booze would fall into this category. The nice lady who scanned our bags asked if there was anyway that we could check the bottles of drink in another bag as excess luggage, we said no and that the price of the excess luggage would be too prohibitive. Someone was going to have a good night...

We were sitting in departures and the nice lady who scanned our bags came back with they toy baseball bat and ball and said that we could take that on board after all.

We get on our flight on time and because of a good tailwind, we would have arrived back at Heathrow just before 6am, but because of local regulations we had to circle overhead for 10 minutes.

We landed ok, went to immigration and because James still has a bog standard passport he joined the line to go through and actually speak to an immigration person, just before we got to that point I saw a sign for e-passports, because I have one of these I asked the lady (who was there if you needed any help) if I could go through the e-passport thing and she looked at my passport and said yes. So I walked up there asked the bloke (on hand to help) if I should take of my glasses and he said yes...

...so its my turn I stand on the little yellow footprints, place my passport in the scanner take off my glasses and in an instant it came (luckily it was in big enough writing that I could see without my glasses on) to remove my passport and the gates opened, and I was through...

I waved at James who was still waiting to go through and I made my way to the luggage carousel to wait for our luggage. About 5 minutes later James turned up and said that he watched me go through the iris scanner and my face came up instantly - there was one guy there who the scanner couldnt recognise! I guess mine came up so quickly because it is a fairly recent photo - who knows what it will be like in a few years!

Our luggage turned up and we went to the hotel carpark, find the exit put our card in teh machine and it says "ticket has expired" so I go back to the hotel reception explain what happened and got another card...

...we got home and I flopped into bed while James was good and did his unpacking, I finally faced doing mine a few days later...

he was taking the p1ss

My train pulled in this morning with the lights off, this is no big deal because it starts from Chelmsford...

The train gets to Ingatestone and the lights still werent on, I glanced around and saw a few people with their newspapers on their laps where they werent able to read them. I was ok because I was listening to Mark Kermodes film reviews on my MP3 player ;o).

The train gets to Shenfield and the lights are still off and more people are getting on the dark train, even the platform guard looked on in dismay.

The train then pulls into Stratford (the last station before Liverpool Street), and the driver finally switches on the lights. There was a massive cheer of "finally".

I got off the train and saw some people sitting there working on their laptops, was it really worth switching it on for those few minutes, or were they working on them in the dark?