What's new?

Tapping away on my new toy - that's new. iPad arrived on Friday and so far so good. In the last forty eight hours I have used it for:

Reading the paper (guardian.co.uk and independent.co.uk)

Reading the following books: Winnie the Pooh, Treasure Island and Alice in Wonderland. The latter via the "app" - which effectively renders the classic as an e-pop-up. Boo and I had great fun reading the first couple of chapters and engaging the original illustrations (I wonder what the original illustrator and Lewis Carroll would make of it)

Facebooking and emailing (of course)

Perusing Marvel Comics

Playing Harbourmaster and Trivial Pursuit

Watching Alan Partridge Christmas Special.

All that in a neatly little slimline and portable device. Of course being able to do all those things and the novelty factor threatens my concentration span as I start up one app and then decide to move onto another.

I have yet to use tithes for work related matters but i have some slides to work on for a couple of presentations so I will see how they go. Now, off to the app store to see what I can find. Perhaps via Facebook....

Photos

interesting statistic: the first elite runner over the finish line made it round the entire course in 50 minutes. I had completed the first run and was collecting my bike by 50mins!

Duathlon success

Well done Suzanne for completing the Chelsea & Westminster Health Charity London Duathlon

9k Run1 00:49:07,
20k Bike 01:20:08,
5k Run2 00:31:37,
Total 02:45:20.

On the whole pleased with this result. Training plan comprised running to the office two to three times a week. This is around ten miles a week. No training schedule and somehow moving house and never quite working out an ideal bike training plan meant that I was dependent on the conclusion that if I could cycle over the downs for a day with two ish stone of toddler I could complete 20k of cycling.

Lessons learned for next time:

do more cycle training
service bike properly. Liberally spraying the chain with muc off lube does not equate to a bike service. At least I didn't get a blow out in the rear tyre. At least I assume that's why I heard an almighty pop and some guy swearing
don't be afraid of the downhill stretch. It's your friend not your enemy
do more cycle training

Secrets of my success this time round:

carb load: pasta n veggy mince the night before, porridge for breakfast, 1-2 bananas pre race
energy drink for the cycle ride
use different running techniques for the climbs n descents
power walk part of the last run
know that there's people waiting at the finish to cheer me over the line!
Yoga as part of pre race warm up. Stretches muscles, focusses mind and steadies breathing
smile for the cameras

So any suggestions for my next race gratefully received...

Ways to communicate

There are so many ways to communicate with the world at large. But who has any more to say? Empty vessels sound the loudest...

Five months for the first post

and five days until the next? Not quite. Interesting reading back on last year's highlights. Easy option for another post is to list this years' pluses and minuses:

Minuses:

spending a month at risk of redundancy while firm went through collective consultation process.
Missing out on dream house that we'd been eyeing up for the past six months

Plusses

No longer being at risk of redundancy and still employed
Mr S going back to work having had a lovely time off with the girls
Selling our house and finding THE house of our dreams

Fingers crossed on last one anyway!

New phone

So now I have a new phone and can browse and post on the move, will this increase my post rate? We will see. I'm not one for broadcasting every last detail about my life to the world at large. How do you reconcile a right to privacy with the right/ ability/ need to publicise every waking move with the world at large?

First post of 2009?

So how long will that take me?

One Last Post

So Highlights of the second half of 2008:

• Returning to work after a year on maternity leave
• Ipple turning one, growing teeth (5 so far) and walking
• Guitar Hero World Tour on the Wii
• A certain other half taking voluntary redundancy
• Trip to Disneyland and San Diego

No Icecream please

Today was the Ben and Jerry's icecream fest. On a hot and humid day at Clapham Common, an unlimited supply of icecream was just what we needed.

Babies asleep when we arrived so we queued up for the coffee flavour, mint flavour and cheesecakey flavour. Figured that while they were asleep we may as well queue up for another flavour while we ate 3 scoops between the 2 of us. Three cones of Cherry Garcia later and we were on our way to meet our friends.

After some expert steering of the Phil and Ted's we'd arrived at their spot by the tree, marked our territory with a picnic blanket and sat down to finish our icecream before it finished us. Daddy and IB went off for a wonder (and a sneaky icecream) while Mummy and PL enjoyed some frozen yoghurt (chocolate flavour). PL particularly enjoyed the bottom of the cone containing slightly melted icecream. Not only was it tasty, it made a good mess when shaken.

After giving the babies something other than icecream to eat, it was time to wander again. Various sights taken in included the merchandise stall, childrens' play area and more ice cream - phish food. Clearly we had to have a go at the magnetic fishing as well!

Oh and there was music there too! We left during the Charlatans as the idea of battling to Clapham Junction with the world and his wife really didn't appeal.

Now, what's for dinner?

Guess who's going to do the holiday packing

Having mastered the art of t-shirt folding in 2 seconds, A has voluteered to do the packing...

Geometry with a Pizza

When marking out the snowflakes, we needed a way of measuring the angles.

While A was folding a sheet of paper into elaborate folds, I noticed the slice of Pizza play-food. Hmmm, I thought, everyone knows a circular pizza slices perfectly into sixths. 360 divided by 6 - 60 degrees. Aha! Just what we need to measure out 60 degree snowflake arms.

The paper protractor did come in handy for the other measurements...

Culmination of two weeks' parental leave

So today is officially the last day of A's parental leave. It's been a nice leisurely two weeks - rather like a 14 day weekend.

We managed a second trip to Legoland. Probably more successful than the first as we arrived shortly after opening times and managed to persuade IB to go on more rides. Taking a picnic probably helped as it meant we didn't spend an hour queueing for and then eating lunch. Highlights for IB included the tub of fluff she had after lunch (aka candyfloss). The remains are in the porch - half a tub is quite enough for such tiny teeth. Other highlights included driving the cars again, driving the boats again - overtaking everyone and the duplo waterplay area. We went prepared with a swimming cossie for IB. She joined in with all the other small people sitting on the fountains and leaping up when they went off!

Today has seen a rare moment of domesticity for us. Painting. We've been talking for over a year about buying magnetic paint and painting the girls' walls. The aim being to create an interesting feature on the walls that we then use to display drawings and scrawlings.

Having ummed and aahed about designs, A suggested snowflakes. We found some designs online for inspiration and went up to IB's room to plan out the design. Having used IB as a height guide, we settled on one large snowflake and three smaller ones. The magnetic paint dries to a dark grey colour so the next decision was what colour to paint over the magnetic paint. We settled on a colour and headed out to B&Q to purchase said colour. Lunch and two B&Q trips later (first store didn't stock, but second did) we returned to start painting.

Keeping up the blog

So last post was a little while ago - three weeks or so. Since then we have been making the most of the wanderer's return with a daytrip to Brighton and the Sealife Centre.

Two week's paternity leave has seen a mix of the usual activities plus a daytrip to Legoland and today - IB's show - after what seems like weeks of extra rehearsals, the performances are finally here. I'm making the most of peace and quiet while she wiggles her pompoms and generally looks cute (she's the youngest in her number, although some of the learner fairies in the teddy bears' picnic ballet are even younger).

I will try and post a more thorough update after the show... Honest.... I'll try....

Homeward bound

So as Mr S is due to land tomorrow morning, this maybe the last entry for a while. Maybe we'll keep it up as a weekly venture??

This morning we had a playbarn day - we walked for a change. Well, I did the walking, IB and PL were happy in the pushchair. Once there, IB found some other children to play with in the soft play which meant that I could get on with some more on my article for the local NCT magazine. Of course, we had to join IB in the soft play for a while, seeing as it was so quiet. PL did alarmingly well clambering up the ramps and up a slide - mummy had to be behind her to make sure she didn't roll backwards (and to catch her when she did).

We ventured outside for a while but the IB wanted to go back in the soft play. Another family were there so IB and the little boy did impressions of star wars characters while Mummy and the lady compared notes on life with two babies!

We walked home and skyped Mr S, who subsequently phoned to say that he was flying back today! Have kept it as a surprise for IB. IB and I then made a jelly fish. As an impromptu collage it actually looks quite good! We then made another bindeez item (an icecream) although the beads go a bit icky and sticky when sprayed.

We read "Snail and the Whale" at bedtime - an old favourite of mine which we hadn't read for a while.

Guess what letters were picked for this story...

Once upon a time there was a magic mouse. He had a friend called Zebra. One day Zebra came round to Mouse's Magic Manor without his stripes - he had lost them! Mouse said "don't worry Zebra, let's have a Cake while we decide what to do". In the meantime, the Queen found the stripes and flew over on her Kite to give them back to Zebra. The stripes were sewn back onto Zebra with a Needle so he didn't lose them again.

Spazzy Mog Blog

The mogs' antics sometimes deserve a blog of their own! I am still laughing about yesterday's antics!

I emptied their sachets of cat food into a bowl. On bending their furry little mog heads to eat the food, they found that they had turned into siamese mogs! They were stuck together by the magnets on their collars!!!

Monday?

This morning I woke up back in my own bed having fallen asleep on the floor by my door - Mummy came to check on me and found me in my room cuddling BB and a 'poota (aka calculator). She scooped me into bed which is where I stayed till morning.

After breakfast we played with my alphabet snap cards. Mummy made up a new game where we took five cards and took it in turns to make up part of a story carrying on from the last person's cards - If mummy can remember it she will post it here.

We then got dressed and went into the village. Mummy suggested I took the BB pushchair and I pushed it all the way to the health centre where we got PL weighed (nearly 8kg or 17lb in other words).

It was too early for lunch so we went to the park. Mummy saw a couple of ladies we know from playgroup (including someone who went to school with Sophie) so we had a chat with them and then Mummy and PL played chase with me.

Lunch was at our usual place - jacket potato with beans. Which meant I had lots of beans for tumbletots! Mummy joined me for the first "circuit" and then I did the rest all by myself!

I sat in the pushchair on the way home but had enough beans to stop at the playground!

I watched Shrek while Mummy read Englebury and PL crawled and nibbled and clambered and had cuddles.

Dinner was followed by some colouring in - Mummy is very pleased because we finally finished off the "Fuzzy Felt colourettes" so we have one for each room. While Mummy was getting PL ready for bed we made up stories about the animals in the pictures. Most of them ended with the crocodile eating the animals but in one story, the elephant rescued the crocodile from the Volcano.

Sunday

This morning was a Sainsbury's morning - I tried to persuade Mummy that I needed another toy but she said no because she had bought me a bindeez art kit yesterday - I was quite happy to accept this point.

Once we had done the shopping we had a sneaky Starbucks - mochatochahappafrappamappachino for Mummy, Smoothie and lolly for me and strawberries for us to share - although not as nice as the ones from the garden.

We decided to go to Robin and Jane's barbeque although we had lunch and made a card first. While were were making the card, PL had a lovely time standing by the side of the toy chest (holding on) and getting things out to nibble. When we were getting ready to go out, I was sitting on the stairs and she started to climb them. Lucky Mummy was there to catch her when she got wobbly (only made it up 3 steps).

I enjoyed playing on Thomas' bike (one of these balancing ones with no pedals), croquet and quoits. We also saw Ray and Sara (who are expecting a baby in September), James and his girlfriend and met some other boys and girls.

I had dinner in reverse - strawberries and icecream (2 portions) followed by sausages, couscous salad and cucumber. On the way out, I asked Jane if I could have one of the balloons on the gate - I kept letting go of it on the way home but luckily it didn't fly out the car! It's now tied to the bedladder.

Saturday

This morning was a gymnastics morning so Mummy and I enjoyed a cup of tea in the cafe while IB did her gym-thing. Mummy actually got to start a new book (Engleby). We went to watch IB for a bit but she was at the far end of the gym.

Next stop was the town centre to buy a birthday present for Emily. I was asleep by this point but Mummy and IB bought Emily's present - a paint your own t-set picked by IB - Mummy suspects Emily might have grown out of t-sets (even tho it has age 8 and up on it) but IB thought it was a good idea. We also bought Daddy a Taters of the Lost Ark Indiana Jones!

After lunch we drove down to Oliver's birthday party. Me and IB spent most of the time in the toy cars - with Mummy pushing me! We made it into the soft play for a while and Grandad Dave showed off his new video camera. We had some party food - well IB had lots, I had a nibble of some cucumber and a jaffa cake! Oliver had to be dragged away from filling his toy dumper truck with bark chippings for the birthday cake! After a couple of games of pass the parcel, it was time to go home.

Roll around Friday

So here comes another Friday! We walked to Nursery School and then Mummy headed home to hang out washing and pick up the car to drive to Sophie's. S was selling off her clothing stock and she also had a little something as a thankyou to Mummy for getting her the stall at the family fun day. P-L saw baby Samuel there as his Mummy (Fiona) popped in but PL was mostly interested in nibbling any paper she could find.

They came to collect me at 12. I had been very busy at nursery - I made a Bob the Builder collage!

We had my favourite lunch - veggy sausages, potatoes and carrots. Mummy did the washing up and then we headed out to dancing - a little early as Mummy thought it would be nice to walk - it was although Mummy ran the last bit as it was beginning to rain. Before the dancing lesson I ran around like a loon and PL had a little crawl and then had a little standing time. One of the other girls arrived so we were being laughing loons together!

After my dancing lesson we had a picnic while we waited for our second lesson - a rehearsal with the grown up girls. Danny, Jo and danced very nicely wiggling our pompoms!

It was then time to walk home in the rain - PL and I were OK as we were under the rain cover but Mummy didn't even have a coat! She was spurred on by the prospect of chinese takeaway with next door