Recently in Family Category

Nicola enjoys cooking with Nanny Kathy. She asked if she could have her own show called "Cooking with Nanny" so I got to hold the camera while Nicola and Nanny cooked lamb and vegetables. To put it online for everyone to see (hello Auntie Sharon and Uncle Todd in Australia!) I converted it to DivX format and uploaded it to their video website "stage6". I did look at uploading it to YouTube but they have a 10 minute limit.

Yesterday Nicola and James' school had a teacher training day, so the four of us drove to Chatham to visit the newly opened Dickens World. My summary: One visit is enough.

The boat ride had audio that couldn't be heard (I'm assuming there was some meaning to it), and involved getting very wet. So wet that as we got out two members of staff were drying seats for the next person. The saving grace was they were handing out cheap plastic poncho's, although they ran out after us so people later that day would have been using our wet ones. My impression would be the ride was designed by committee, the splash not big enough for thrill seekers, the other 10 minutes of floating not good enough to be of any interest (for entertainment or education).

Faggins Den is a children's play area, I can imagine it was packed when the place was full but while we were there it was comfortably quiet. Unfortunately only half a dozen chairs for waiting adults (with what I would guess is a capacity of 50 chilldren) but good fun for the children for a half hour at least.

The haunted house was a projection system of Dickens 'ghosts', the characters in many of his stories. It did have some interesting commentary on how the characters had come about though. As our group moved from one screen to the next, we missed the cue to move on and missed half of one presentation.

The Olde Curiosity Shoppe, was the gift shop on the way out. The normal array of theme park souvenirs, more modern shop floor area with plenty of room to expand and not very much of curiosity value.

Dotheboys school was probably more fun if there was a member of staff on hand to control the room. We wandered in, played a game of snakes and ladders on the touch screen desks with the children (they had to answer questions about Dickens novels to go up the ladders or to prevent themselves going down the snakes). Nicola got bored after 5 minutes and went to look at the touch screen on the 'teachers lectern', little did we know that one controlled all the others and she stopped all the other players in mid game and restarted their screens - Sorry everyone!

The Britannia Theatre was probably the most informative bit. It's a 3D glasses cinema screen and it gave a 10 minute run down of Dickens life and works. I didn't know he'd travelled so far - travelling for months and years at a time across Europe and America. At bit different to travelling now, in the 1840's the only way to travel to America was by steam ship - not a quick way of travel. Someone compared it to the 3D screens at Eurodisney and the like which have water, steam and vibrations. This is nothing compared to them, only the screen and no physical effects. I liked it, although I'd have liked it for it's content without the 3D glasses which gave me a little eye strain (Yes, I know, I sound like an old man).

So, one trip with the children is enough for me. I'm glad I went but I (pun alert) won't saying Please may I have some more (pun ends). Perhaps I had (another pun) too Great Expectations (how predictable was that pun!). The general decor, lighting, theme parkesque leaning buildings were all well done. There's a large central plaza which I guess handles space for hour long queues, the odd fictitious shop front and creative themed sign - all well done. As for value for money, it cost us as a family of four £40. That's OK I think, compared to Thorpe Park (£88) it's a shorter day so pretty comparable.

The children have asked to go back to the Canterbury Tales. It's an attraction in a converted church in Canterbury. We haven't been there for a few years so it will probably make an interesting contrast. Canterbury Tales is only £26 for a family, although that cost would have to be countered by running the gauntlet of shops with Rhonda. I guess the "Marks and Spencer" experience would double that ticket price....

I jest. Seriously, I'm still reading Dickens "A Tale of Two Cities". I first started it at the school library in "H" Block as a young teenager. Now, half a time later I have it on my PDA and am a good way into it. I find it a hard style to read (harder still on a PDA screen) but the story itself is .... satisfying. Not sure I can describe my feelings fully. Sometimes heart breaking, sometimes fascinating (the description of leaving Dover by horse drawn carriage), hard work to read but satisfying.

So is it worth visiting Dickens World? Yes, but if you're travelling a long way plan to visit the Chatham Historic Dockyard too.

Great! I had an offer from a personal fitness trainer to help me get over my broken foot and fitter than I ever was before! Unfortunately Todd (www.thefitnesselement.com.au) is on the wrong side of the planet from me. For those that don't read all of this blog on their visit (which is all of you) I ought to explain that Todd is my brother in law. Aussie born and bred, it's no surprise when he and my sister married they decided to live on the Sunshine coast rather than "rainy but mild Boughton under Blean". Todd is a fitness trainer and has told me just 5 minutes a day in the sun will help my body process vitamin D. Vitamin D helps the body carry calcium around the body which in turn will help my foot heal and prevent osteoo..... something or other. Yeah, I'll leave the technical bits to the expert and stick with elevating my foot in front of the double glazing.

Unfortunately he's only a personal fitness trainer. While my sister views him like a god (and I have to admit his body is far better toned than mine), the weather systems don't view him as a god so he can't help the rays of sunshine get through the UK's overcast cloudy days.

I have a feeling there will be a training plan in my email box as soon as this plaster cast comes off.... I wonder if will include any running? ;-)

I know what you're all thinking, nothing has changed here lately. I've been working on things in the background but today marks the first of a whole bundle of waiting posts. This post includes my site's first ever competition as well as it's first ever video, created using the magic of my PDA's video camera, Quicktime Pro, Macromedia Flash Video Encoder,Macromedia Dreamweaver, One not very willing actor (James) and a 3M Snap Band....

I wanted the video to be here, but it needed some special code which won't work through the movabletype software I use here (It's a security thing, that's good!). Follow this link to see the video

I know what you're going to say, "don't give up your day job, and you won't need to worry about being available for the Oscar ceremony...". I know that too, but it's been fun making it work and I've learnt some things too.

Competition Bit
I bet most of you jumped straight here wondering what you can win? Well, I'm giving away a 3M Snap Band as modelled by James in the video. They are reflective bands that will wrap around things, like James arm, a leg or a bike handle bar and so on. You can roll them flat and they will hold that position. As well as the video, you can find out all about them at www.3MBeSeen.co.uk. Now the weathers getting darker it makes sense for the children to have something reflective on them. As James is showing, they happen to be fun as well as safe. Better still, they only cost £3.00.

Wining will be easy. During the next week a new post will appear on this site called "Enter Now to win!". If you are the first person to comment, you win.

Remember that comments don't appear immediately, I have to moderate them all to stop all the spam from appearing. If you are having trouble posting a comment, send me an email instead. I'll use the timestamp on the email to log your time of entry (that is, my server timestamp, so don't try changing your computer clock!).
A couple of simple rules. 1) I decide who wins, my decision is final. 2) I get to change the rules whenever I feel like it. 3) I'll be posting the band to you if you live in the UK. If you don't live in the UK then there's no need to enter. 4) You can enter on behalf of someone else if you like (eg If you are in Australia but you want your prize posted to someone in the UK, that's fine). 5)

Now, if you're interested in how this all came about, read on....

I write this post in EuroDisney's Seqoia Lodge, Laptop on lap, beer on table. Ahh, Bliss!

It's been a good holiday so far and I've begun writing this on the first night of our stay in EuroDisney. WiFi is slowly covering the world, so I have been able to write this from the bar on my laptop. €10 for 2 hours is not unreasonable I think, though the man in the shop said "C'est trop cher!" (It's very expensive, though I probably spelt the French words wrong) when I asked how much it cost. The best news - no frightening emails in my in box, no server security alerts, no RAID hard disks failed. It looks like the computers at work are behaving themselves.

I already knew there was nothing major to worry about at work (I had to call in after a week to check my phone was working as no one had called with any questions) so it looks like the business plan is being accomplished ("Aim 1. The business should be able to run day to day without me being there"). Yes, I'm still a key person as the computer set up still isn't perfect, but perfection (think Homer Simpson is to Donuts as Steve is to £5,000+ Uber Server) would cost lots of money and still need someone to handle our suppliers data and manipulate it into our system. For the moment, it is far better for me to run the computer system than outsource/employ someone else to do it.

So, observations on France;
We started in the south of France at a place called Vias Plage, booked with Homair Vacance at a campsite called "Les Flots Bleu". The cost was great, my old French A level was sufficient to handle the fact the site manager spoke only French. Wwe were the only English people there (at least with Homair). Fortunately, there were still the camp site's staff who spoke good English. We had looked at other companies, but Homair were by far the cheapest and I think it is because they handle mainly more local French customers. The site itself had a nice swimming pool and a small private beech but lacked any water sports provision. I had thought that we would be able to walk further along the beech to find windsurfer hire and so on, but the campsite was bordered by a river on one side and a rocky shore to the other. Still, we had fun.

We visited Montpellier and had a wonder round the old town. Also Cap D'Agde. I always remember Cap D'Agde from a wallet some Welsh friends of our bought as a present when I was growing up. They used to go there every year. I didn't realize it was such a new 'resort', built up mainly since 1970 and a mixture of large sandy beaches, mid rise (up to 4 storey) hotels, a large port and an area of private holiday homes. Just 25,000 live there in winter, 200,000 in summer! (amazing the useless facts that stick in my mind). Rhonda took the opportunity to go diving at Cap D'Agde too (just realised, I don't think I told the world that my wife Recently passed her PADI open water divers qualification). If we ever go back I think I'd like to hire a boat for day or too, but alas we ran out of time and had to drive North to EuroDisney.

The first part of the holiday can also be summarised by two observations:
1) The French society have a serious smoking problem. Even teenagers were frequently smoking. It made me realise just how far Britain has come in it's anti smoking campaigns. Even at school I never saw as many teenagers smoking as I did around the camp sites and bars of France.
2) My French isn't so bad, but it's not so good. I can ask for many things automatically, ask for a table at a restaurant, order a WiFi Card even, but if the response is not quite the words I am expecting I am quickly lost. I don't think my accent is that good either (being that a 7 year old girl corrected my pronunciation of "Anglais" from 'onglay' to 'onglaze').

Coming to EuroDisney also changed that 2nd experience. They almost all speak very good English, so although they seem to appreciate my trying to speak in French as soon as their computer shows my name and nationality the immediately revert to a very clear English, allowing my french to get completely mixed up into a type of Franglais in replies of "Oui, yes" and so on.

We almost got caught out on the way down by a lack of petrol stations. For most of the journey there were petrol stations every 50Km or so and as the Modeo says how many Km worth of fuel you have it was easy to know when to stop. Except for one section in the mountains where there were no petrol stations for 120Km or so. When we finally reached the next petrol station the dashboard told us just how close we had been.

The holiday was a lot of fun.

When sister Sharon got married, we made a holiday out of it. When I returened I created a quick web site to hold all the photos. I think I should do it when we next go on holiday as I quite enjoyed re-reading the comments I made against all the photos. As I was moving all of my sites onto a new server, I had a little tidy up at the same time. The Australia photos have moved onto this site.

Enjoy!

PS - The photo was taken by Rhonda when we took a helicopter ride over Sydney. Sharon got married by the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

For those who didn't know, Sharon came home from Australia with baby niece Lily. Being an Aussie chick, this was Lily's first long distance international flight and apparently she was a perfect baby throughout. Todd (Sharons husband) stayed in Aus this time, Earning money and sending photos like "this". Guess he may not be just at work after all.

Anyway, It's been great seeing Lily and Sharon. Whilst mum and dad have been to Australia to see Lily, Rhonda and me haven't been able to. As you can tell from this photo Sharon has already got her figure back (she's the brown stick like thing near the back of the car). Despite the cold, Lily was happy right up until the time she met me.. Oh well, it got better from this point on. Lily is a very well behaved baby but she had been on a plane for the previous 20+ hours.

So, what do you do on your first visit to the UK when you are just a few months old. Well, the official story is things like go swimming with Granddad Graham. The real story is to find out about the great british pub culture, as Nanny takes Mummy to all the good local pubs to meet all of mummies friends in the UK. Lilly even went to the Red Lion at Hernhill, the pub where Mummy Sharon and Daddy Todd met a few years ago (Todds Aussie friend was working in Canterbury at the time).

Sharon and Lilly returned to Australia last weekend, so now it's time for us all to do some work and catch up. Been a good few weeks though.

Nan died this afternoon.

:-(

The best photo from the Boughton 10K?

I think so, but I am a little biased. This is Nicola (if you hadn't guessed). One of the perks of doing the administration was that I got to allocate the numbers.

Mum and Dad left for Australia this morning. That's partly why I'm in so early on a Sunday. The other part is that Dave is driving them to the airport and he had some tilers starting in the shop early. All part of Dave's big re-organisation of the upstairs showroom.

Anyway, in typical Root fashion they left at about 8.15am. They were meant to leave around 7am (at least, that's the time Mum said they were leaving last night). Almost everything was done before they left, though I've picked up a few jobs to do for mum that she didn't get time to do.

It doesn't seem that long ago Mum was last back from Australia. This time they're off to see our friend Karen get married. Karen is just a few months older than me and is the daughter of Mum and Dad's friends Dave and Lydia. The met Dave and Lydia in Australia when they lived out there (around 1975). They've all managed to keep in touch despite the passing of time and the way life changes (Dave's work takes him all over the world. He takes really good photos of the places he goes to. Many get uploaded to his own website, and I've seen them featured on other sites like this one.

Hopefully, it won't be too long before I get to go to Australia and see Sharon, Todd and Lily.

Sharon Bowden (my sister) gave birth to her first child on the 6th of July in Australia. She has been named Lily. The only upseting thing (from my point of view) is that it will be a long time before I get to see them (Todd, Sharon & Lily) in the flesh. I've got a lot of saving to do in order to fly out to Australia and I'm quite sure all their earnings will be spent on things other than plane tickets.

The good news is both Mummy and Baby are healthy and in the modern world we can keep in touch over the internet.

Daddy Todd & Lily



Mummy Sharon & Lily

Thanks to brother Dave, I seem to have caught the running bug. Now, whether I get up to Dave's level remains to be seen (probably not likely now he's an accomplished marathron runner!), but with the warmer weather I've quite enjoyed running up and down Boughton Hill. Keeping the running kit in the car has meant I've been able to stop at one new place this week - I ran across the top of the North Downs (those are a range of hills that run across Kent for distant readers) over Folkstone the other evening. My longest running record so far! 17 minutes may not sound like much to many of you, but it's and improvement on my 12 minute maximum the previous week.

Mum and Dad have a lot of friends.

How do I know? This year they're spending Christmas in Thailand with some friends. Fortunately they weren't by the coast when the Earthquake and tidal waves struck so they're fine.

For the last week the shop has had calls from many many people (some even managed to find my home phone number) all calling to find out if everything was OK with my parents. It's nice to know so many people care for them.

So the last posting date for Christmas was today. Once again, I've missed it. Merry Christmas to all my friends and relatives reading this and wondering where your card is.

Of course, normally I don't write any cards (and this year has been no exception) because Rhonda sorts that out every year. This year she's been delayed by me not sorting out the list. Normally that involves me copying Mums address list, then adding our friends but this year Mums list on the computer appears to be missing almost everyone.

I really would like to be more organised when it comes to friends addresses and contact details. Written on bits of paper here and there, never to hand when I need it (or Rhonda needs it). The solution? I think I'm going to find an online address book. If any of you know of any please let me know.

I had a look at a couple of the ones I've known of. Most seem to suffer with not holding the data the way I want. For example, our friends Darren and Rebecca live at the same address but each have their own mobile number (not uncommon that), but I don't really want to enter their address twice because that will make next years Christmas card list complicated. I think the best solution is for me to write a system myself.

Cons:
• It will take me some time
• I'm probably doing what another website is already doing for free

Pros:
• The practice will be good
• can use it from anywhere, got full control of the layout
• already have a login system that I wrote for another site that I can re-use

The Pros seem to be winning. I guess it will all depend on how boring the TV is over Christmas, and how complicated I make the database scheema (scheema = plan of how the database works).

Of course, I'm also back to thinking of whether we should really be sending cards at all. I'm not bothered whether I recieve a card, I'm happy to get nothing or may be even a hello by email for the people I haven't seen for most of the year. Maybe I should go and send some "Merry Christmas" emails instead, now, where did I put that list of email addresses....

Uncle Dave's been teaching Nicola to snowboard - aren't uncles great :)

He's taken a video of her on his new phone. Follow the video link and hopefully you'll be able to see it too.