August 2008 Archives

And, after seeing Gomez on Thursday night, Jilly and I were very excited to discover that there was a free musical event at Myrtle Park in Bingley today. Jilly spent the afternoon with Kate and Sam yesterday, when she found out that Echo and the Bunnymen were headlining the free event today and, as an added extra bonus, Alabama 3 were second on the list...two bands that neither of us have ever seen, and have wanted to.

Alabama 3 were absolutely fantastic (and more than a little 'crackers'), and the crowd seemed to love every minute of their set. I don't know Alabama 3's music at all well, but that's how I know how good their show was!

Unfortunately, by the time the Bunnymen came on, Evie and Dominic were getting a little tired as they had been dancing around all afternoon, but they both seemed to enjoy the music. Ian McCulloch seemed a little 'worse for wear' (perhaps, he too, was tired at the end of a long afternoon of dancing?) but the set was very good. Sadly, for me, I only recognised about a third of the tracks they played.

Very generously, Gomez organised a joint celebration of 10th anniversaries for Jilly and I this year. In the same month that we have celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary, Gomez are celebrating the tenth anniversary of the release of their Mercury Music Prize winning debut album, 'Bring It On'.

Jim and, especially, Jo Harris have been fans of the band (and one particular member of it, eh Jo?) since the release of the album, and Jobley asked Jilly and I if we were interested in tickets.

Playing at 'The Plug', a new venue in Sheffield, the band played the whole of the album from start to finish, and then added a few new tracks and some old favourites. The set was excellent, though my knowledge of 'Bring It On' lyrics wasn't good enough to promote the usual 'post-gig-singing-at-the-top-of-my-voice' related sore throat (my lack of 'pre-gig lyrics homework' let me done there); and the venue (to which none of us had ever been) was really good too.

Jilly was very excited today as it was Kieran's first half-day at college. Kieran only had to go in for the morning to enrol and, just as he has done everything else associated with the beginning of his college career, he was very laid back about it...or so it seemed until he got home.

Obviously interested in Kieran's first impressions of his new college, Jilly and I asked him about his first morning. Typically, all Kieran wanted to tell us about were the, "many sexy ladies", who appear to outnumber the lads by about 3-to-1.

It's a hard life!

Jilly and I celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary today. I'm sure it must be a 'most used' expression, "...it doesn't seem like 10 years..."; but it really doesn't seem like 10 years ago that Jilly and I tied the knot. Where does the time go? (This isn't doing anything to resolve my current 'mid-life' thing, I can tell you!)

Some time ago, Jilly organised with Jean for us to take Evelyn over to Thorne for the evening, so that we could spend the night away ourselves. A slight change of plan meant that we would just go out for dinner, instead, but we took Evelyn to her Nanna and Poppy never-the-less. Uncharacteristically, Evelyn became really upset it when it was time for Jilly and I to leave her. As we pulled away from Nanna and Poppy's, Evelyn was still sobbing her little heart out but calmed down almost immediately that they returned inside.

As it was a favourite restaurant of ours before we got married (and still is, in fact), Jilly and I ate at the Memsahib where, as expected, the food was excellent. They had both joked about drinking to excess on our night out (as we may have done before getting married!), but the combination of town being extremely quiet (even at 10:00p.m. on a Friday night), and our advancing years (don't tell Jilly I said that!), meant that we were both ready for home after visiting a couple of pubs.

We got home just before 11:00, when I went into the kitchen to put the kettle on. By the time I'd returned to the living room, Jilly and fallen asleep! And a Happy Anniversary to you too, Jilly! As the days of carrying Jilly up to bed are long past now, I woke Jilly from her deep sleep, and we went to bed (looking forward to a lovely lie in in the morning!). It's true...we know how to live!

As I was in no condition to post this entry on the Friday night, I posted it on Saturday morning instead.

Kieran's GCSE results were published today and I don't know who is most relieved (no...really I don't!) Kieran has seemed quite relaxed about the results day, until recently, but Jilly has just become more and more anxious.

Kieran collected his results from school and passed an astonishing 11 GCSEs (one more than the number of GCEs his mum and I passed together!)

And here are Kieran's results:
'A' Physics
'B' English Language
'B' English Literature
'B' Biology
'B' Chemistry
'B' History
'B' Design and Technology
'B' Religious Studies
'B' Media Studies
'C' Mathematics
'C' German

Jilly has only just stopped 'blubbing' with pride. We're both extremely proud of him (as I know his dad is) and we're all especially proud of the fact that Kieran has now confirmed his place at Greenhead College to study Mathematics with Mechanics, Psychology, Physical Education and Physics...oh yes!

Of course, Jilly was very quick to point out that, since failing to pass a tonne of GCEs at school, Jilly has since qualified as a registered nurse (with an HND), went on to complete her BSc (Hons) in Adult Nursing and then passed a certificate in Oncology and a diploma in Diabetes!

As we had a quiet weekend planned, Jilly and I found ourselves doing one or two things around the house. I was helping Evelyn look for something in her bedrrom, when she asked me if I could remove the 'fence' from her bed because she was, "...a big girl now!". Of course, she was talking about the wooden safety gate bolted to the side of her bed to stop her from falling out of bed.

I took the gate off Evie's bed as Jilly told Evelyn the story of how I fell out of bed during the month that we put Evelyn's bed in her room...highly amusing.

Jilly also thought that, as she is four now, we could also remove the safety gate from Evelyn's door. We only hope that Evelyn's behaviour doesn't demand that we replace it!

The Beijing 2008 Olympics began on Saturday, and Evelyn is loving them. She's loving them so much, in fact, that she has sacrificed watching her 'pre-bedtime story' DVD for watching the 7.00pm Olympic highlights. After dinner and a cup to tea, Evelyn takes no convincing that it is time to get ready for bed. In (Olympic?) record time, she is upstairs, fettled and changed into her pyjamas in time to settle down to the programme. Obviously, the competition has only just begun, but Evelyn's current favourite Olympic events are Swimming (of course), Diving, Canoeing (I think it's the water connection!) and the Show jumping. And Evelyn's sporting commentary skills are developing nicely too; though she does tend to be a little harsh in some of her observations. While watching the show jumping a couple of days ago, Evelyn watched as one of the horses knocked down one of three fences.

"Mummy, that horse is a little shit-bag!", Evelyn exclaimed. "It knocked one of the fences down"

Of course, we were a little shocked, at the time, because, as Jilly commented later, Evelyn's language has really improved of late!

And Evelyn isn't the only one enjoying the Olympics. Kieran has shown a particular interest in at least two of the females events, so far...namely Beach Volleyball (no surprises there then!), and the women’s' weightlifting. Last night we were all enjoying some of the female weightlifting, when a commentator referred to one of the competitors.

“She’s managed the clean and jerk, but now appears to be having trouble with her snatch!”

At which point, Kieran (and Jilly) exploded in uncontrollable laughter. Evelyn and I just looked at one another in utter bewilderment and despair!

As part of another fundraising event for ARC - Arthritis Research Campaign, Debbie organised an excellent presentation by a lovely couple who train and keep birds of prey. The event was due to take part in Deb and Kev's back garden but, due to an unexpected heavy downpour, the venue was moved the Gawsworth Methodist church, just down the road.

We met Roger, Helen and the children at the Brookside Miniature Railway and Garden Centre in Poynton where we had an excellent miniature train ride in the rather inclement weather (but the children seemed to love it!). After the train ride, and close inspection of the garden centre's goldfish collection, we made our way to the church and presentation.

The church venue was packed (a testimony to Debbie's hard work in roping people into attended the presentation) with people all paying a fiver to Debbie's charity to see the birds. The couple giving the presentation introduced a variety of very impressive birds and wandered amongst the audience encouraging people to stroke the birds.

"I'm alright for stroking, thankyou!" Jilly was quick to yelp!

Jilly and I haved been married for almost (exactly) ten years now, and only now have I discovered that Jilly has an un-natural fear of tweetie-pie.

["I'm not afraid of them; I'm not scared of them; I just don't like them!" Jilly has just pointed out as I've read this back to her! Whatever!]

Some time ago, Julie and Ged told us of an open air production of Agatha Christie's The Hollow being performed at Gawsworth Hall, near Macclesfield. Being a long-time fan of Agatha Christie, Jilly was eager to go, so we organised tickets along with Julie, Ged, Debbie and Kev.

As we would be away for the evening, the Wassocks very generously offered to look after Evelyn for us (Of course, I insisted that Evelyn was on her absolute best misbehaviour.

We met up at Debbie and Kevin's (they live, quite literally, down the road from Gawsworth Hall), and had a lovely dinner there, before driving to Gawsworth.

While there was a real threat of rain all afternoon, the weather stayed fine, and the preformance was really good. Unlike Jilly, I had no idea how the story ended, or 'whodunnit', so I was gripped right to the very end. The preformance was really enjoyable (though one or two of the cast were a little luvvie.

Typically, Evelyn completely ignored my instructions regarding her behaviour...and behaved impecably while at Jim and Helen's

Having returned from our lovely holiday in Cornwall I've been a bit slovenly in adding any further Gingatopian updates. As I began Gingatopia with the aim of recording Evelyn's development, it seems only natural that most of this update should relate to her.

As Evelyn made reference to the smell I left in the bathroom, one morning during our holiday, it's with the greatest irony that I tell this story. Jilly and Evelyn were having one of their Thursdays together last week and Evelyn went to the bathroom to conduct her morning ablutions. After a short while, Evelyn came from the bathroom, telling Jilly,

"Wow, that smells! I'd better get away from that!"

Evelyn stopped at the top of the stairs and bent over (like they do in 'that new nursery') ready for Jilly to wipe her bum...lovely.

Peculiarly, Evelyn has begun tickling other members of the family under the armpits and, simultaneously, 'warning' us with,

"Arrrmpits...twiddle twiddle!", in a 'sing-song' voice.

I don't think any of us are quite sure why she's started doing it, but Evelyn takes great delight in the tickling, and even more delight in singing '...twiddle twiddle' as she does it. She's a beautiful strange little girl; oh yes!

Anyone reading this now may be aware of the current trend amongst teenagers (particularly lads) of wearing their jeans/combats so low that their underwear is CLEARLY visible. I never followed trends, myself, as a teenager, but this one is entirely beyond me (I think I've always been FIFTY-YEARS-OLD). Anyway, Jilly, Evelyn and Kieran caught the bus into town during the week, last week. As Kieran was getting off the bus, before Jilly and Evelyn, Evie called after him...

"And pull yer pants up!"

So, is Evelyn four...or FIFTY-FOUR? Brilliant!

As Hebe's school was closed due to teachers' industrial action soon after back from holiday, Jilly offered to look after Hebe for the day. Predictably enough, given the number of times we went swimming while on holiday, Jilly took Evelyn and Hebe to the swimming baths where Evelyn successfully swam "five or six" lengths underwater! When she first learned to swim, it was underwater, but as she has grown up she seems to have preferred to stay above the surface. Interestingly, Evie seems to be reverting back to swimming underwater; loving it; and being better at it than swimming on the surface. It's almost as though she IS becoming a little mermaid afterall. Excellent!