Tag: family

What bean did in his summer vacation

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What bean did in his summer vacation

I’m a very bad blogger :(

My mom came for a 10-day visit a couple of weeks ago and I’m just coming ’round to blogging about it now. Her flight came in on time and Katy picked her up from Heathrow. We spent the first day around the house, but the next few days were quite busy indeed.

We went to see visit Audley End (finally, after 3 years of living in Saffron Walden) but bean was feeling under the weather so we only saw the garden, stable yard and part of the service yard. We ditched the house tour because Bean was running a bit of a fever. Turns out he had tonsilitis, but you could’ve fooled us by his still-high energy levels… The horses there were huuuuge, but very friendly.

We went to Lakeside, where my mom spoiled Bean rotten with new coats and a scarf and hat from Next. He also got a big green tractor like pop has (bonus for him that it makes noise!). We also stopped at Ikea, where Bean had meatballs and my mom treated us to a few goodies of our own.

We went on a mad framing rampage. We’ve had stuff that has been needing framing lying around for years. We got some frames from Ikea and we also took most of the stuff to be custom-framed at a local shop in Shire Hill. Hopefully those will come back soon. We had about a dozen pieces to be mounted and framed and I’m really looking forward to seeing the results.

We took my mom and Bean to Wimpole Hall, where we were so enthused by the farm that we bought a membership to the National Trust on the spot because we figured we’d be going there so often in the future (it’ll probably be a rotation between the farm and Scottsdales). Katy and Bean have been there again since, and Bean’s already gotten to chase some piglets and turn on a milking machine. It’s a really nice place to spend an autumn day and we got a really perfect day for it.

The gardens were beautiful (not something you’ll hear me say often) and I know that Mel will be proud that Bean scrumped his first apple (even if it was with the consent of one of the gardeners).

Mel, Pam and Stu came over for a day and we all went for lunch at Scottsdales.

Katy and I had a chance to have some alone time because my mom threw us out of the house twice. The first day, we went into Cambridge to shop a bit for things for Bean, Gaby and Antoine. We spent waaay too much money on children’s books and we had a really nice lunch at a french Bistro called Cote, on Bridge Street: herb chicken, steak frite, moules, calamari and wine :)

We’d planned on going to the Spanish mafia’s pub quiz that night, but I inadvertently poisoned Katy with some raw onions during the day and she didn’t feel up to going. I did get dispensation to go on my own though, and my contributions (Zara Philips and Chutzpah) were well received, even if we didn’t win. I got accosted by the rather elderly and inebriated sister of the pub landlord, a fellow expat, who spent a rather long amount of time telling me that life was great and the world was small. David won’t let me forget that moment. Bastard.

The second day, we went shopping for Bean’s bicycle. We’d been saying for months before my mom came that Nana would be buying Bean a bike, so we got him a little scooter and a proper bike with training wheels. He’s already gotten the scooter and will get his bike for his birthday. We also discovered that I can safely eat at Subway :)

My mom said that she ate very well, which makes me happy. I’d made gumbo one night, fajitas on another and we also discovered an italian take-away restaurant in Saffron Walden that can cater to my allergies! Shocking, I know!! My mom also had fish&chips, and had a few bites for my dad (who was, btw, seriously missing my mom)

All in all, I hope that my mom had a good trip. I know I enjoyed seeing Audley End and Wimpole. I think they’d be nice alternatives to our sunday plans.

Pictures online: http://www.flubu.com/various_pics/mom_trip_sep_2011

Current Mood:Happy emoticon Happy

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Status updates

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Status updates

Things have been happening that I haven’t had time to write about – real life butting in and all. I’ve been told that I haven’t been writing enough, so hopefully this will keep my reader(s) happy :)

Things on the home front have their ups and downs. My mom was here for the whole of last week. That was wonderful. We had been talking on the phone the week before and I told her how much we had been expecting their trip in February (which has since been pushed back to April) and that we were having a bit of a rough time with Mr Ben Ben and how much we wished she could be here. Her answer was “I’ll see what I can do”. The next day she phones up and tells us she’s coming the following monday :) I love my mom.

Her trip went very well. We made our first foray into Cambridge with Ben and that went rather well. We even managed to sit down and have some tea in Starbucks and he was brilliantly behaved. We also had our first visit from the Home Start volunteer that’s been assigned to us. She’s going to come for a few hours one day every week to give Katy a chance to have some down time. My mom was very impressed with the amount of services that are available to us (i.e. housecalls from our local doctor, weekly visits from our Health Visitor to track Ben’s progress – until he’s about 5! – and the Home Start volunteer services). Sue, our volunteer, is going to accompany Katy to a Mum & Baby group in Ickleton next Monday and apparently there’s a good one in Great Chesterford as well. We’re also going to attend a new mum get-together that is being organized in the village by one of the local ladies-who-organize. Apparently, there’s been a baby boom in the village and lots of new people have moved in, so this will give us all a chance to get introduced.

We’re hoping that all of this is going to make things a bit easier for Katy cause she’s been having a few rough days recently. It really doesn’t help that Ben’s developed colic that hits like clockwork at 6am (and a few times during the day as well, but the morning one is rather impressive in the amount of noise it generates). Katy calls BenBen a Jeckyll & Hyde baby. When he doesn’t have gas, he’s brilliant and smiles and coos and has very advanced motor skills for his age. When colic hits though, all hell breaks loose. We know that things should start clearing up in about a month, but it doesn’t make things easier at the moment.

What else is going on with us… Lemme have a think. We’re seriously thinking about buying a house in Saffron Walden. We’re fed up of our current house. It’s drafty. It’s getting a bit cramped. The boiler is so noisy that it’s become a running gag between us. There’s no one thing that makes it a deal-breaker, but the sum of little annoyances is finally starting to tip the balance. We don’t want to spend another winter there. We have our eye on a house that needs a lot of TLC – as in, new windows, new kitchen, new bathroom, new carpets, complete paint job and that’s all the things we can see from the estate agent details. We’re going to go see it this weekend. It’s listed at £170,000 but there’s no way in hell it’s worth that. We’d consider offering £150,000 if only because we think it’d need about £20,000 worth of work. But it would be ours, and we’d feel no remorse in ripping out the guts and making it look like we want it. We’ll see though. It needs a lot of work. We need to decide if it needs too much work. Watch this space.

Current Mood:Productive emoticon Productive & Tired emoticon Tired

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