Alder's Tone

I promised that our next flight would be with BMI Baby after their flight crew waved at the little guy from the cockpit (promise made in this post). But, alas, it won't happen. We have booked flights to go and see the Leathams so we're handing the cash over to Stelios' orange squad instead.

Not flying BMI Baby. Boooo........

Seeing the Leathams. Yeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaa.................

Leaving the house at 4am for the flight. Great idea. We've got a few weeks to get used to the idea. And make sure every alarm in the house is set to go off.

Posted by Alder at 30 August 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Babs Windsor's best Carry On moment was probably the pinging bra in Carry On Camping. We had our own Carry On start to the week. No pinging bras (unfortunately), but a couple of nights camping.

"Welcome to Hell" the sign read as we entered the campsite. Or it may well have done. That's wholly unfair, the site was great, and not far from the beach either. Well within comfortable walking distance (for 30-something year old legs, not too sure for 3 year old legs), and good facilities on site. The hell was restricted to within our own four walls. Four? Hmm, more like a dome of four panels, a tunnel of three, a footprint of six sides, so what sort of shape does that make?

Night 1: Over 2 hours past normal bedtime, despite the fresh air and running around. Oh, and cold. Bloody cold. If only we had the duvet as well as the sleeping bags.

Night 2: Better for us, giving in to how to use a sleeping bag properly worked a treat. Being woken every half hour for snoring did not work a treat, however. MOTS played a particular card, I played the "I'm driving tomorrow" card. I won.

Day 3: Packing up in the pouring rain. Hmm, brill.

But all in all we had a good time. An expensive one-off or an investment in the tent? "Investment" was the reply from MOTS, so she's happy with it. "Fun in the tent" from boy wonder, so he's happy too. He was happy anyway on the swings at the site, the beach, the water features at Alnwick Garden, the outdoor cooked tea and breakfast (BTW those were the best bacon rolls I've had in a long time - Wiltshire Cure bacon fried in Extra Virgin olive oil [it's all we had in to decant into an empty Gordon's Gin miniature bottle to take with us], delish).

It was weird seeing the lad homesick - he asked a couple of times to come home and see his moggies, despite the lounge now officially having been beamed into Toys R Us since his birthday, the things he missed most were the cats. Secretly I think they missed him too, and since we got back the skinny one has been sleeping on the new bed when she gets the chance. The sign of things to come I think, she's my cat just now (or rather I'm her pink blob), but we think I'll lose her to the little guy.

Posted by Alder at 30 August 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)

I had hoped for a little bit of help building the new bed, and I got some. Not as much as I hoped for, mainly because I was busy dismantling the double bed and building the new one as soon as visitors left and both MOTS and birthday boy went back to bed.

But it was nice to have some help in tightening screws up, making sure I had done my job right. And it was fantastic seeing the birthday boy taking to the new bed like a duck to water. Straight off went the socks, heading straight for the ladder, and up and bouncing on the top. We got the ultimate rubber-stamp - he went off to get Puppy to show him the new bed. Closely followed by the blankets, Elephant, and more animals. The bed's ready, the bedroom isn't. The boy certainly is.

Posted by Alder at 22 August 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Happy third birthday, son!

Three already? If Victor was here I'm sure he'd being saying "I don't belieeeeeeeeve it........"

Posted by Alder at 22 August 2009 | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's here! The big bed c'est arrive. In 47,235 boxes, with 47,236 parts we're going to have fun putting this one together. And I guess there will be some more "French" spoken as we do so.

But will it look like this when it's finished?The intention is that we try and do it together. That alone may be a challenge, but I'm willing to try. Not least because if he gets involved in building his own bed he might just remember doing it, be willing to help his old man out doing other things, look after it, look forward to getting to sleep in it, any of or all of the above. Grandma & Grandad will be the last to have a night's board in the "guest room" this week, after that it's slumming in the "junk room".

The rebuilding plans have taken a new twist. MOTS wanted to call in at Sliderobes for a brochure (they didn't send one out when she filled in the request online, we assume due to lack of phone number and email address given - ie no contact for the hard sell), which we did when passing at the weekend. Ballpark figures? Midrange doors, with interiors? For a 1.5m length and a 2m length, £2,250 - £2,500 respectively. Yes, respectively - that's EACH. I nearly choked when I heard it. Someone is having a giraffe, and it wasn't me.

"Shall I arrange for a designer to come out?". Shall you fuck.

The little guy's new bedroom has the smaller wardrobe space just now, when the walls are removed it will give us approx 142cm of space - not enough for 150cm of IKEA kit as it would block the door from opening fully, and too much waste of space for 100cm of units. So when MOTS picked up a B&Q brochure that gives us an option of 135cm of units, and slightly taller into the bargain, we're back on for ripping out the built in stuff and going modular. Just need a joiner now to do the stud work and a plasterer to make good the scars left behind. Then get the units, which I guess will come in somewhere nearly a zero off the end of Sliderobbers. Then carpets, then redecorate, then new curtains as they won't go any more... Why are we doing this?

We're doing this for better use of space, that's the whole reason for juggling around in the first place, and for the boys of the house to build something big together. Our first joint DIY project. I'm really looking forward to it. So much so I might well be turfing Grandad out of bed on Saturday morning so I can get dismantling!

Posted by Alder at 17 August 2009 | Permalink | Comments (4)