Thames Kids Club

We had another meeting Monday evening in regards to the new H.E. group Thames Kids. Robynne showed all her designs for the publicity and they went down well as did the logo that I designed, we also agreed on the colours for the logo which is below.



Also that evening we sorted the money for the first month's hall fee's and I'm sure they have gone off to the relevant person now. The hall people wanted to see any advertising/publicity that we would be doing so copies of the poster, leaflet and bookmark were sent to them via email, the other day. I think were just waiting for the OK with that then we can advertise properly.

Everything seems to be going well with regards the group, have spoken to a few people so I know we will have some people there the first week. So fingers crossed for a good launch party.

OK also this week, Robynne received her interview for college, which is next week so hopefully she'll get onto the course that she wants to do. Were also hoping it's not going to stop her coming to the H.E. group as she is really looking forward to that. She has alot of ideas for the group that she wants to help with.

We have also decided that we are going to save up to move, as well as another of our friends has found out it's nigh on impossible getting a transfer with the Council, it's a shame but well the final straw has been broken. We live in a tower block and in the summer the drains are pretty awful and the smell flows up from below and comes out from all the plug holes, the toilet and the waste pipe on the balcony. This year has seemed worse than ever, add in that some charming people in the flats above have been throwing things out of windows - to smash windows open below - it has been happening before, but now the items have been becoming increasingly worse. I'm sure no-one wants me to say exactly what has been thrown I shall leave that to your imaginations. Needless it's not pleasant and I really don't want to have to put up with it anymore. So it's time to move on, even Robynne who has been totally resistant to moving has agreed that enough is enough, plus I'm sure she's hoping that we can get a dog again at some point.

Wicked

So today was spent more or less on the train, overland and underground as I went up to London to pick up tickets for Wicked. Which a group of us H.E. families are going to see on the 10th Sept for the matinee show. The seats aren't as great as I would have liked, but I'm sure we'll all have a great time. Now all I need to do is send off the tickets to P and G for them and their families as well I doubt we'll be seeing them before we go, but well you never know. Just need to arrange with S about her tickets and then all sorted.

Robynne and myself popped round to R & J's again last night for another planning meeting with regards to the new group that were setting up along with R. All this initial thing is going to drive me nuts lol and I'm bound to forget one day, just hope I don't get strung up for it. Anyway, the new group, we more or less have everything sorted now.... like name, venue - incidentally a lovely Quaker Meeting House - the main things that seem to be left to do now is to confirm booking etc, get the bank account sorted as until that's done we can't apply for a grant. Tho' once the grant application is all filled in and sent off we'll now in 8 weeks whether or not we were successful. We've also got the advertising worked out and a provisional date for the launch party, plus we've also been thinking ahead to activities and people we could have come in to entertain and educate the children and ourselves lol. The aim I think is as were going to run weekly to have something extra ie, speakers at least once a month.
All we need now is for people to come along and fingers crossed and anything else they will. Oh nearly forgot we've picked the name Thames Kids Club, so hopefully that's not taken elsewhere I did do a google search and nothing came up so. Anyway I guess that's about it for now, as not only do I need to rest my back after the various train rides today. Robynne wants to get on the computer and well as she's reworking my rough sketch into a poster I better let her get on.

Freetime

I know I know I've been really lax lately with my posting, see that always happens when I set myself goals lol. I really want to blog at least once a week, but, well basicly I forget then I think ooh must blog about such and such and then I get distracted.... which isn't that hard for me to do.

So since I last blogged we have had lovely weather, we've also had some lousy weather. We also had one of our chinchilla's die too. We had a lovely family time at HESFES our darling nephew greatly enjoyed himself, tho' he may have been a little annoyed at Robynne occasionally for daring to go off with her friends without him, but on the whole a great time was had by all. Now my sister is considering Home Ed for S when he gets to Senior School age. Right now he's at a lovely small village school, that caters for him extremely well, sadly when he gets to 11yr he'll end up at a very large school and the worry is that he may get lost in the crowd so to speak. We never know he may love it and thrive there. We are all just thankful that through H.E. there is another option if it is necessary, tho' he's only 8yr nearly 9yr so a few years yet to prepare.

Oh while we were at HESFES, we had to come back to Leigh for the folk festival, as Robynne was performing with the Leigh Mummers shall just hunt for a pic, it's not of the best quality so please bear with me....



.... obviously Robynne is the one wearing the very fetching cap, about to hit the poor guy on the chair around the head - it was part of the script - sadly we have no idea why the picture is so blue, it wasn't when taken. Strangely most of the pics that we had taken that week with my parents camera have all gone blueish when my sister sent them through to us.

We had a day out at Colchester Zoo while at HESFES too, which was great it rained a little, which frankly with the way the rest of the week had been if it hadn't rained a little while at the Zoo we would never have made it round. A couple of Robynne's friends came with us to the Zoo and we got a very interesting pic of a Daisybird not sure if I'm allowed to show that so will check later with Robynne before posting it. Anyway a couple of pics from HESFES and the zoo coming up next..



... myself being glomped by my lovely nephew...



...... Robynne and co .....



..... now somewhere among my old pics, I have a very similar photo to this of Robynne at the same age as her cousin - in the front - on the same tortoise statue with some school friends, taken on a school trip obviously about 8yrs ago. I remember taking the picture, but can't for the life of me find it anywhere...



..... that lab coat was bought just before we went to HESFES and I think she wore it everyday, actually she did wear it everyday...



...... oh and a red panda pic just because .....

I do have a few other animal pics and some of Robynne and friends on my cam somewhere, but right now not sure where I have put it away too lol and well frankly right now I don't fancy hunting for it.

Oh and well now I shall confess to why I haven't kept up with blogging lol, it's silly really but, well I am a Sim addict there I said it I am a Sim Addict ... yes it's sad I know but, well what can you do. You see after we had to rebuild our comps into one all our sim data was lost and we had to borrow Sims 2 to get it all reloaded back onto our machine, - we do have a copy of Sims 2, but to keep a long story short the first disc doesn't load so we can't use it - and all the expansion packs we have and well we bought the new one Freetime and well frankly it had to be played and played and well played. So there you have it if it takes me a while to reply to emails etc, or Robynne is away from msn for days at a time it doesn't necessarily mean we offline again lol, we could just be playing the Sims.



..... where else would you get a heavily pregnant lady doing ballet exercises....

A Eureka Moment

Well, internet is fixed finally, our two computers have been taken apart and rebuilt into one computer. So we now have a working computer, with a few minor bugs to sort out as some items were not quite compatible, but a few downloads and we should be all sorted, thanks to a friend of Andy's. So we have a happy child again lol, almost once we have the usb ports fixed and all that's needed to sort them is a card which Andy is gonna pop out to get sometime today.

We had a great time at our first local Home Ed camp the other week, I will admit I felt like a fish out of water to start with and compost toilets aren't as hard to get used as one would think - the hard part was the walk up to them lol - were looking forward now to the next one in September. Especially now we know how things work.

The whole family is looking forward to HESFES, even if there not into all that goes on there, it will be great to have a family holiday, we haven't done that in years.
While were there were taking it in turns with W to come back and check on all our animals between us we have 17 Chinchilla's, 2 rabbits, 2 rats and 4 cats. There's also the 3 dogs, but they come along to HESFES and we may be taking Sox, it just depends on how she copes with outside, she's getting on ok with her harness and lead but you never know, the only reason for taking her is she has the tendency to not eat while we are away.

Also while at HESFES we will be coming back here as Robynne is performing with The Leigh Mummers at The Leigh Folk Festival on the 29th June. There going to be at the Strand Wharf.

Well I better get on loads of things to be catching up with now were back in with the technology.

Coming to you via Wii

Well just a quick update today. After last week we had hoped things would be getting better round here, but, no the Gods have other plans for us it seems. Over the weekend our Internet went out again taking with it our old computer - well the Internet went out the old comp stopped working, so I drew the logical conclusion that the Internet was too blame - So now we are waiting for them to be fixed and so in the meantime, were having to use the Wii for email checking etc. thank the Gods for the Wii and wireless Internet. Unfortunately we can't do everything with the Wii - so no uploading off pics for the time being - poor Robynne is suffering withdrawal as she can no longer be on msn all day with her friends. It's a little sad ah, but actually it's been good as we have sat down and worked out what she wants to do next and how were going to go about it. She's going to be doing a mixture of Sonlight and OU courses until she's ready to go off to uni at 18. That's the plan for now anyway it may change later we'll see how it goes.

Our new chins Smokey and Rocky arrived Tues - pics in previous post - and are making themselves at home, it's caused a cage rethink, to happen, but when we get all the new cages we shall be converting their lovely 5' high cage into a play cage. Which will make things a little easier, well on Sox at least no more being chased by chins round the hallway, tho' personally she must like it or why else would she sneak in to join there play.

It was a great H.E. meet at the library again Weds, all about weather so lots of weather measuring equipment made by the children. Robynne was nabbed by the littlies and proceeded to read stories and play with them. She came over at one point with a huge grin and complained they had got her, then went back to them, methinks she doth protest to much as she was clearly having a great time.
While clearing up us mums worked out what to do for the next few meets, so that's May sorted. I have a few idea's in my head for later on, shall mention them to L next time. Robynne wants to do Blood typing, so will have to see how we go about that and what we'll need.

Well that's enough for now, as it takes quite a bit longer than usual doing this on the Wii and I'm not that adept at using it. Robynne would probably have taken less time, but, thats teens for you.

Well What a Week

As weeks go this past week has been a bit of a disaster, what with chin food deliveries that didn't happen, waiting for Robynne's new glasses. There was also internet going down, modem going wrong oh and yeah my handbag was stolen at our weekly H.E. meeting in our local library. On the plus side we are getting another couple of chinchilla's, Robynne has her glasses, the chin food finally arrived oh and I got my bag back and the perpetrator is now spending 3 months at Her Majesty's pleasure.

So where to start the beginning seems a good place Robynne went to specsavers three days running only to find her glasses hadn't arrived each time. The lenses finally arrived Weds morning so she was able to pick up her new glasses Weds afternoon.





I realised also that in my last post I mentioned she was getting two pairs of glasses, obviously my head was worse than I thought as I totally misunderstood. She only got the one pair with reaction lenses. Not two pairs one with reaction lenses and one pair plain, but we would of needed to pay another £40 and well she didn't really need two pairs.

Next we had the problems with our chinchilla food delivery, I made a mistake when it was first ordered, as they got the money, but not what was ordered so that delayed things that end. Then we had the delivery drivers who couldn't find us, which was really annoying we had to have someone stay in three days straight only to have no sign off delivery. Finally on Friday the 20kg sack of food arrived, hopefully it will be less drama next time round. Speaking of chinchilla's we are rehoming two more chinchilla's with us, so our little herd is now swelling too 12. I haven't seen them as yet, but Andy and Robynne went round to where were getting them from and spent two hours there and brought me back a couple of pics of them both. Till I see them better I'm not quite sure what colour they are, but, they look to be a female standard grey and a male beige or silver. Named Smokey and Rocky.

Smokey

Rocky

Smokey and Rocky

As usual they are really cute, Smokey is about a year old and Rocky is about 15/16months old. Smokey is the female and Rocky the male. Really looking forward to them coming over. We moved the other chins around yesterday as well. Harry has gone back in with Sally and Charlie, they all seem really happy to be back together again, tho' this is only temporary till our new cages arrive. We also moved Pumpkin in with Squeak and they are getting on brilliantly too. So now we have a small rat cage that is off down to the rubbish bins, I did think to keep it for maybe a sick chin's cage, but well Pumpkin as pretty much killed it lol. Besides with the new cage bank that were making we will have a couple of spare cages anyway for well new babies and separations if needed.

Then Tuesday evening the internet went down and what with power outages and modem problems, that didn't get sorted till late Thursday. Fingers crossed there'll be no more problems with the this well apart from random power outages. Which thankfully don't seem to happen that often.

I think that's about it for our stinky week oh well apart from the theft of my handbag on Weds afternoon, that was a fairly harrowing event. I was more worried about the loss of some. picture of Robynne than the money really. I mean it's a pain in the backside, but losing those would have been awful. Thankfully due to the quick thinking and brilliant observation of a couple of people in our group. The police were quickly called and the guy was chased down by the police. I got my back bag with everything in but my £50, but, I may still get that back eventually. as for the guy who took it well...



......... he's not going anywhere for a while.

Mmmm I really am hoping for a better time this coming week, you never know.

You would have Thought...

.... that a simple trip to Specsavers would be a nice simple thing to do. Pop in have eyes tested, order new glasses, then home for a cup of tea. Well that was before you add in my cold and stupid rules and regulations.

See I was feeling fairly crap anyway, what with the pounding in my head, lack of sleep - cute and fluffy don't cut it when you feel bad and they are keeping you awake - and feeling just generally urgh from this cold which now appears to be going to my head.

We get down to the Specsavers, and sit down so they can do all the form filling on the computer. Firstly Robynne's 16yr so supposedly she still goes in the student section, only we Home Educate and there's no slot for that. So we have no school to put her down as oh dear you have to pay for the eye test, I'm like what why, then remembering my lovely NHS Exemption card in my purse no we don't I said she's covered by this. Ummm actually she's not cause her names isn't on it. But, you can still use, just if they won't accept you get a £500 fine, mmm let's see pay £20 for test or use card and possibly get a fine. Ok we payed.

Now I suppose really I should be spending the afternoon getting intouch with the relevant people to complain, but, I just don't have the energy today. I'll get to it tomorrow honestly, just as soon as my head clears.

I guess the worse part was, that I only had a little money on me so we could pay extra if she need on her glasses. Tho' on the plus side for Robynne, she gets two new pairs of glasses - yes I fell into the £75 trap - one with reaction lenses, so get got what she wanted prescription sunglasses. Which she will have to wait till next week for us to get, but that's no biggie really. Mind you she has picked some really nice glasses, tho' on the way home she was a little worried that she would have no clothes to match with them.

I was fuming in the end tho' and Robynne said she felt guilty for costing so much money. So then I felt bad too lol and well as I said to Robynne it's not your fault how the rules are made. There's a smug person somewhere thinking they are real clever, but you know what someday I'll find them and rip them a new one...... or not.

ChinFest 2008

Ok as requested by Lisa today is ChinFest here on Othena so if your not into cute and furry look away now, as this post is heavy with the cute and fluffy ones.

There all growing well, tho' obviously not as rapidly as Pumpkin did last year - can't believe she's almost 8 months old now - what with there being three of them, I guess it's a little harder for them all to get in there now.

Well here comes the picture, run and hide now if you need too.



This was taken a few hours after they were all born, so their still a little damp looking, it didn't take long for them to become all fluffy.










These are one's of Tweak and Ninja, they are having a little exploration around the cage, under the watchful eye of Daddy Joe.

Tweak

The following where taken yesterday...

Drexl

Ninja

Tweak

Have you had enough yet or shall I save some for another day lol, ..... no ok then just a few more, then I'll stop honest.


This one's Daddy looking out and down at the babies being weighed on the table below. You can just catch Mummy in the background.


And now for some very odd shots not sure which ones are in any of these but the highly striped individual is Robynne..... (told you it was a bright top Carol)













































.... and now for some seriously cute pictures that well I just couldn't resist....






Well hope that's enough for you Lisa, I feel I may have to post more of them later lol, but, well I'll try to be a little more restrained.

Surprise

Ok it wasn't really a surprise we new it was going to happen sooner or later, but, well it was still a bit of a surprise.

What am I babbling about well, I shall tell you. In the early hours of yesterday morning our chinchilla's were all making a lovely racket, which kept us awake lovely animals. Anyway we left them alone then in the morning - at a normal time - I heard the unmistakeable squeaking of a new baby. Went out to check on them and saw, what I thought was twins, but, when Chicca moved a little more we saw three little heads. So we know have three more gorgeous chins swelling our herd to 10. The new babies are two male Lt Ebony's and a female Beige. So the boys look like there dad Joe and the girl is just like her mum and big sister Pumpkin - who was born Oct last year.

Here's pic's of the three of them held by Andy, just after we weighed them this afternoon.

Drexl

Ninja

Tweak

Yes I know the names are interesting but, they do fit them very well. Drexl is the biggest of the three today he weighed in at 50g, with Ninja following behind at 48g and Tweak brings up the rear at 46g. We shall be weighing them every day just so we can be sure there all getting fed ok. Especially Tweak as her brothers do seem to push her out of the way, but she fights back. We may have to take them to one side a couple of times a day to give her a chance to get in there. But for now we'll just wait and see.

Oh and if anyone's interested in seeing Robynne, when performed with The Leigh Mummers. Click the link and then click video's it'll take you to the right page and it's Jack and the Princess.

Positive Thinking Finally

Yes, finally I have gotten my finger out of a place it shouldn't be lol and got down to getting things sorted out. Today after much procrastinating I have finally gotten my Etsy shop up and running admittedly there's only one item up for sale and there's no pic, but once the camera's batteries are charged I'll get the other items photographed and uploaded to the shop too. I think things may finally be looking up on that side of things. Mind you if I hadn't had that conversation with Shirley the other day it may have taken a lot longer. Sometimes I forget that talking to other people can help lol, I really do need to stop brooding on stuff on my own and just have a little more faith in the world. Also thinking more positively works too. Robynne's going to work on some designs for me, she has done some I know but, they don't always get passed to me when I ask lol, wonder if it has to do with the selective hearing thing that she suffers from.

So on the H.E front things seem to be slowing down a little round here, she's still not sure what she wants to do next, tho' we are looking into the possibility of an art course that can be done by correspondence as she still doesn't really want to go to college. Plus there's also the problem that I suffered with when I was at school, she can only draw when she's in the right frame of mind. Not that she doesn't still draw practically all the time. It's just that if she needs to draw something specific that's when the mood has to be right. Her doodles don't count.. her words not mine lol. Tho' personally I think her doodles are sometimes some of her best work.

Were off to the Palace Theatre Monday afternoon, with the local H.E group, for a backstage tour. It could be a great afternoon. Speaking of the Palace Theatre, they had auditions there last Sat for a 9 - 19 yr olds for a production of Bugsy Malone which I think there putting on in the Summer. Robynne found out about it when we were down at the Cliffs last Fri to see Danny the Champion of the World - again with local H.E group - it was very good, anyway Robynne was all excited about the Bugsy audition lol, she comes over to me and I had to burst her bubble, you see she couldn't go to the audition as that was when she was of to Colchester with the Leigh Mummers to perform at The Leaping Hare Conference, which incidentally went really well and she thoroughly enjoyed herself and can't wait for the next time. Tho' no idea when that will be.

Well I'm gonna sign off now, the internet went out for a couple hours again today and that held me up from doing some things like blog posts lol, and well Robynne's been home from Deep Readers a few hours now and she wants to be on the comp... ooh I really need to get my finger out and get the other comp fixed. Apart from the lack of memory on this comp it's a real pain having to share again lol.

Fun and Games with Wii

A couple of weeks before Robynne's birthday last year we bought a Wii, we had been wanting one for a while and thought it would be great fun at Robynne's party as it turned out we never used it at her party. Need less to say it has been used many times scince then.

It has become not only a source of great fun and much amusement, it seems to be quite educational, which I suppose those of us in the H.E. circle know that this can be said of many every day household tasks and activities. Though I was quite surprised at this event tho' I shouldn't have been really. Anyway as I was saying it has been used alot, at first it was mainly Andy, then when we looked after K monthly while his mum took Robynne, T and J to H.E.Y - Home Ed youth group for over 12's - they really enjoyed Wii Sports, tho' as we have gotten more games this has changed lol.

Then it got to the stage where Robynne would play more often, then we got My Sims and I too started to play, mind you Andy still plays more as even tho' My Sims was a game that Robynne and myself wanted he completed it first. Super Mario Galaxy is another one that we have all enjoyed again Andy has almost completed this one too.

Our latest acquisition is causing the biggest stir tho' Robynne loves this one and has been asking for it ever scince the oh so charming advert, I'm sure you will know the one I mean when I say tht the game is Guitar Hero III, I just love the image of Slash wearing someone as a skin lol. It's not really helping Robynne learn her guitar lol, but it is helping her timing and rhythm. Even Andy has benefited even tho' he plays the guitar in the most unconventional way across his lap, for myself I like the game but every so often I have to pass to Robynne to get past certain levels. All in all the Wii has been a good buy lol, tho' now we need to get another guitar as playing dual player with the Wiimote is flaming awkward, it really messes me up when I go back to playing with the guitar. You can probably guess this, but, I think Robynne is going to complete this game first.

Best Laid Plans

Well so much for those, see I had planned to be more regular with blog posting, but, well somehow something always came up. Then when I finally get some time to blog, my darn internet kept cutting out, it seems to be sorted now, but, you never can tell.

So anyway looks like I'll be doing another catch up post. Nothing that interesting has been going on her really, Robynne's been enjoying our local Home Ed meets, one of the dad's has been doing art classes which she has found quite helpful with her art. She had a free trial with Photoshop Elements 6. She enjoyed that and was quite sad when it ended, unfortunately it's a little expensive. But, she did a search around the net and found a lovely program very similar to it called Paint Tool SAI from what I have seen it's very good.

Also she's been having great fun, with the Leigh Mummers, she comes back from rehearse ls tired, but happy. It's good to see her having fun and doing what she enjoys.

Myself I have recently bought six DVD's from eBay starring the lovely Gary Oldman and I'm enjoying them sooo much lol. My collection is slowly growing and what a lovely collection it is too. Also my parents bought a trailer tent from eBay too, ready for us all to go to HESFES. Which were all looking forward too, well maybe not the cat lol, tho' she is slowly getting used to her harness and lead. We have a provisional booking for the Chinchilla's at a Chin Hotel, hopefully that will be ok as I have no idea what where going to do with them other wise.

Well I guess I better get on things to do and all that.

Absence of Sound

So yesterday Robynne and Andy, went to the Science Museum with the Chelmsford H.E. group. Leaving me to enjoy the quiet that is an empty flat.
I got quite a bit done, considering I'm still feeling a little run down. I tidied up this blog a little, sorted out my other blogs. Decided on a format for the business blog, which once we get the other computer fixed or retrieve all the data of it which ever happens first, I'll get right on with that.
I also started on cleaning the bathroom - tis one of the jobs I hate, but, someone has to do it - bought some DVD's from eBay starring the lovely Gary Oldman, my collection is growing slowly, one day I will have them all. I'm sure I did other stuff, oh yeah downloaded and printed off Robynne's script, she's joined the Leigh Mummers and has her first performance with them at the Leaping Hare Pagan Convention in March at Colchester. She's very excited, but, she's being very cool about it lol.
Then I had a good look through the English GCSE folder, I can see there's a few items that Robynne will enjoy doing and quite a few that she won't lol. But, then again she's only going to do the ones she's interested in.

All in all it was quite a productive day and Robynne and Andy both came back after having enjoyed themselves thoroughly. - I can never be sure with the two of them who's learnt more, but, frankly I don't think it matters - Sadly there return heralded the end of my lovely quiet day. You see our cat is in season at the moment and she had been hiding in Andys room all day but, as soon as he walked in the door out she came and started up her very loud crying. It's the only time that she likes Andy lol, the rest of the time she avoids him and his large feet. Silly really he's only ever tread on her paws once, he did more damage to himself trying to avoid stepping on her. - namely a tv aerial spike in his foot, he wasn't a happy bunny.

We were off to Priory Park this afternoon, to meet up with members of our local H.E group, but a phone call received five minutes ago mean were needed elsewhere. So must dash and grab a bus.

Busyness, H.E, Holidays and Pets

Time's been a flying by again and if I don't stop to get my words down now, I'll probably forget everything which is what usually happens. I finally worked out what direction to go in with regards to the business, and was starting to get everything implemented, when lo and behold the computer with all the relevant info on decided that enough was enough. So we now have the problem off how to retrieve everything and I mean everything and hopefully get it fixed. It wouldn't of been so bad if it had been our old geriatric comp that had given up, but, no it's the good one the one that we hadn't backed up anything on because well it's new - well newish - and well frankly I didn't think about it. Am seriously kicking myself now and vow to always back up if and when it's back up and running.

Next on the agenda as it were is our Home Ed group, which really seems to be going well at the moment. We seem to have a permanent home in the Library lots of trips are organized, for the next few months or so. I'm even thinking of repeating the trip that I organized a few years ago to go Paint balling.
At the moment Robynne is enjoying going to the library each week, but, I know that can change at anytime so I shall just have to keep an eye on her moods lol. Park meets are starting up again next week and those go down well with us, well especially Andy lol.
We picked up the coursework for GCSE English from my sister at the weekend, and after looking through the large folder. Robynne has decided to work through it even tho' she has no intention of doing the exam. Myself I'm going to put it all on the comp and make PDF's of the different modules which can then be taken out with us - easier than lugging that big folder and helpful to share with others in the group.
We had our reminder flyer come through for HESFES last week too and so we showed it to mum and dad at the weekend. As after visiting us at the site last year, they liked the look of the place. The up shot of that is that now, not only are mum and dad coming our sister is coming too and taking Simon out of school for the week. Oh and the parents are paying so even bigger bonus.

Going on holiday then brings us to our animals, last year Andy stayed behind and looked after not only our pets, but Willow's small animals too. But, this year Andy is coming with us, so plans have to be put in place for the animals. So Robynne is going to attempt to teach Sox to walk on/tolerate the lead, as the plan is to take her with us. We tried once before, but the harness we had then wasn't a good fit. The new one we bought yesterday is much nicer and it also helps that this week she's in season and will let Robynne do anything to her.
That only leaves the chins to cater for. We have been doing some rethinking with regards to their cages at the moment and were going to be investing in six new cages to make a bank in our hallway where our bookshelves are at the moment. So that's going to be fun, especially as some who shall remain nameless really don't want to come out of there cages lol, tho once out he has a lovely time. So back to what to do for holidays, we either needed to find someone to come in everyday and check them or have some one else take them in for the week. We have found a chin hotel in Kent, which charges £2.00 - £2.50 depending on the food per chin per week. Which isn't bad all we need to do is find out how far away they are and whether they have space that week, for our 7 darling little fluff balls.

So was there anything else that I needed to update on, mmmmm can't think of anything ... oh yeah chin food, it's been a bit of a nightmare lately getting there food, we went to two big pet stores yesterday. One up near our parents in Suffolk, and the big one here in Southend and neither of them sold Charnwoods pellets, which is what our little ones all eat. The helpful girl at Southend said oh these pellets are the same you can just give them these. Which we could see weren't the same by the shape. So now we need to work out how to get the food, Andy does a trek up to Leigh every couple of weeks for a few bags, but we really need to find a way to get a sack which would by my reckoning last 2 months at a time and be far more economical. Mind you it'll be better once we have all the food bowls attached to the cages so they can't take them out of there holders and fling the bowls around the cages. Which is quite funny I'm sure, but it wastes the food and I'm hoping this behaviour isn't a symptom of something else.
Oh Robynne picked them all out new toys for there cages yesterday, a cargo net thing for the boys which is made of string stuff, they'll have fun ripping that up lol. A couple of large willow twig nest balls, for the girls, Chicca and Joe which they too will eventually chew up. Then lastly something new which we hadn't seen before but is designed for chins, but we'll see how it goes a swing ledge for little pumpkin's cage with her being the smallest and the only one on her own at the moment - we are going to get her a mate later on - she has the smallest cage which doesn't have too much room for extra toys. Were getting a new cage next month for the boys so she'll move up into what will be our cage for nursing/sick chins and her cage will be for temporary stays.

Oh me Oh my.... or Avoidance issues

..... I know it's been ages since I last blogged, but well it's not because I'm ignoring anyone or anything... it's just that every time I log onto the computer I am reminded of about half a dozen other things that I should be doing on here that I have been avoiding doing. So to make avoiding them easier I have been avoiding the computer. But hey as everyone knows we can only avoiding stuff for so long before it bites us in the butt...

We went to HESFES and Robynne had a thoroughly enjoyable time.... and I well lets see I had a nice time when it didn't rain and I wasn't wondering where she was half the night - not that I needed to worry really, as she was only just a couple of yards away in her boyfriends tent most of the time, - yes I know please don't point out about them being teens and alone.... that's something else and has been discussed at great length by Robynne and myself much to Robynne's annoyance. But it's more for me than her really as I know she has no intention of you know whats etc, but I need to feel like I'm getting my point across.

She was recently told that she was old enough to have a 2yr old, to which she promptly replied "yes, but I'm not stupid enough too"

Which made me smile, but inside I was a cheering lol.

So back to HESFES, as I said it was a good week for Robynne, a whole week hanging out with her friends who she only gets to see once a month and a chance to get to know others better. Myself I fell on the Sat and bruised my knee and twisted my hip a little so I was a little more wary of wandering to far form the tent on the wet and muddy days. But despite all that I still had a good time, read all the books we took with us. Got to grips with cooking and shopping again, which I don't do at home as that's Andy's area lol. It made me realize again just how much he does and how sometimes we don't appreciate him as much as we should. I'm glad we got the bigger tent, but if Andy comes with us next year which were hoping he can, shall need a larger tent lol.

But we will definitely be going again next year, would of liked to go to part two, but we have decided to go and see We Will Rock You again for Robynne's 16th - can't quite get over that yet - so all camps etc. are off as this is a little more important to us money wise. We went for her 14th birthday and we all thoroughly enjoyed the show. We said we would go again, there was a coach trip advertised locally that was actually on her birthday, so we were all set to book with them only to find that they had cancelled as not enough interest. So as we had gotten all geared up for it. We'll be off up to London in a couple of weeks to get tickets.

There was other stuff I was gonna blog about but I'll leave that for now as can't quite remember what it all was lol.

But before I go must just do this tag from Shirley

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? No such luck I was named from a Beatles song.
2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? don't know try to avoid that at all costs.
3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? sometimes, but then again I tend to do more typing than writing
4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE LUNCH MEAT? used to be corned beef, but am veggie now so none.
5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS? for the time being just the one.....
6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? maybe but I'm very picky lol....
7.DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT? me use sarcasm never...... ok too much lol
8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? yes.
9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? not again no, there's too much of me nowadays.
10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE CEREAL? oooh cornflakes or shreddies....
11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? no I get someone else too lol.
12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? sometimes to strong it's not always good for me.
13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE ICE CREAM? Strawberry cheesecake
14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? smiles
15. RED OR PINK? urgh ok Red
16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVOURITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? sadly my attitude sometimes leaves alot to be desired.
17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? not sure can answer this one...
18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? well if I send it to them lol
19. WHAT COLOUR PANTS/TROUSERS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? none lol, skirt and bare feet.
20. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE? cherry yoghurt.
21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? original cast of We Will Rock You
22. IF YOU WHERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOUR WOULD YOU BE? purple
23. FAVOURITE SMELLS? washed hair, clean babies.....
24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? friends son.
25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? yes she's one of the few friends I have.
26. FAVOURITE SPORTS TO WATCH? don't usually watch sport.
27. HAIR COLOUR? brown, purple, lilac, mauve, lavender and a little pink lol
28. EYE COLOUR? blue
29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? nope, wear glasses tho'
30. FAVOURITE FOOD? yoghurt
31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? oh ok happy endings....
32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? The Simpsons
33. WHAT COLOUR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? purple
34. SUMMER OR WINTER? winter
35. HUGS OR KISSES? hugs
37. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? to what me hugging them...?
38. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? ..... lol ok
39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? none at the moment
40. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? a faded tippex drawing of a flower.
41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON T.V. LAST NIGHT? Casualty
42. FAVOURITE SOUND? silence lol
43. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Stones all the way
44. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME? Portugal
45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? for stating the obvious yes.
46. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Southend
47. WHAT SUPERPOWER WOULD YOU LIKE? none, I'd feel compelled to help people.

Warriors, Rain and Observation

Well we went to our Litha Ritual Sat night down at Chalkwell Beach it was a little chilly, and it rained a bit on the way down to the station. But, thankfully the rain held off while we went through a lovely ritual, which started of with someone singing the runes, to help cleanse the area after the invasion of the ummm how do I put this politely.... aw forget it drunk chavs at the Beltane ritual. It was a little hard to hear what with the wind blowing, but still very moving. So after we were sat around watching the lovely dark clouds o see which direction there were going. Well after about an hour the sky's opened and those of us with children rushed around and gathered them all up and made our way quickly home. Thinking we were the sensible ones lol, only to find out yesterday at the Pagan Lions meeting that the rain stopped about 10 mins later and the others all had a great time. Well if I hadn't of had Robynne with me and I weren't going to camp Fri - so didn't want to get ill - I'm sure I would have braved the weather and stayed then again ...... maybe not.

So Warrior's, well that's what the talk was last night at the moot, they even brought some weapons and armour with them. Which was really great the "children" namely, Willow's youngest, my Robynne and my little brother Andrew really enjoyed getting to play with the weapons etc. Robynne tried on the chainmail shirt and then left it on till the end of the moot. I do have a couple of pics of her wearing everything, but there with her camera, which for some reason isn't that great for pics. I know Willow got a couple of her so shall get copies form her and post them up later. But for now, you'll have to use your imagination with these pics lol.







...... and finally observation, well ok a quiz about observation, but it is interesting ..... sort off lol.

Your Observation Skills Get A B-

Your senses are pretty sharp (okay, most of the time) And it takes something big to distract you!

How Observant Are You?

Anyway I guess this will be my last post until after HESFES, if your going I look forward to maybe meeting some of you there.

I think my brain is in holiday mode....

... or else I'm just feeling lazy lol.

Anyway have just finished up guitar club for two weeks as what with HESFES next week and family visiting the next we just wont have the energy. We should be going swimming tomorrow, but shall wait and see how we feel. Robynne is off at the Science Museum with Andy today with some of the teens from the area. It gives me a break and her and Andy time to have fun together, what with him not being able to come to HESFES this year. Were supposed to be going with the 11+ to the cinema on Wednesday, have no idea yet if were going to go as not only is it getting busier right now with packing etc for HESFES, but the parents are visiting as they pick up our elderly Aunt for a short holiday. Then poor old dad is back again on Thurs ready to takes us to HESFES, then back down again on Monday to bring Auntie home and then he's back down again to pick us up from HESFES. Ok for those in the back who may have gotten confused then lol, my parents live in Leiston, Suffolk, my Aunt lives in Leigh and were in Southend. So my poor father is driving down here and back Wed with Mum to pick up Mum's sister - Auntie - then he's coming back Thurs staying over taking myself and Robynne to HESFES, not sure what day he's going back to his possibly Fri or Sat, then he drives back Mon to bring Auntie home to Leigh, then back to his home and then down again Friday to pick us up - tho' may see if he wants to stay here with Andy for the week and have a break from Mum lol - then Sat we go off to the parents till Sunday as our nephew is being enrolled as a Junior Soldier - for those of you wondering that means he will become a junior member of The Salvation Army - So all in all my Dad is going to be doing a lot of driving this week. Were pretty lucky he offered, we had originally asked him to do just the dropping off at HESFES, but the old darling got time off work to come pick us up again, I bet he wishes he'ed managed to teach me to drive all those years ago lol. But I'm sorry to say all the other drivers are far safer with me not on the road, I was a complete disaster behind the wheel of a car..... We may not see them as often as we used to but, it's nice to know that they're there if we need them still.


A few pics to share lol...



Robynne's lovely Green hair - and yes that is a skull on the desk.....




Joe being chased by the lovely Chicca...



.. and Chicca having a cuddle.

.....

Well what have we been up to lately, we went to Tropical Wings on Monday with Shirley and the gang. It was a lovely place to visit we shall be going there again.

Robynne's blue hair dye arrived yesterday, so yesterday we lightened her hair ready to put in the blue this afternoon, once she gets back from Oakland's Park, where she is with some of her H.E friends from the Chelmsford end.

Also yesterday our new tent arrived, ready for HESFES - she had tried to deliver it on Tuesday, but we were swimming with Willow and assorted children -, just a couple more things needed and we'll be all ready. Were both getting really excited now, and counting off the days and outings we have till it's time to go.

Tomorrow were off to pick up two more Chinchilla's, these will be our breeding pair shall post some pics of them in a few days when they are a little more settled in, oh there names are Joe and Chicca and were getting them from the lovely Kelly.

Oh and I have lengthened my dreads, and they look very cool even if I do say so myself....

... also have been knitting head/hairbands, long wristbands and shall be doing some hats too, these will all go into our handcrafted shop. Which I have now sorted the shopping area out - when tested all links went to where they should do so yay -, just need to add some products now lol.

Well of course

Your Hair Should Be Blue

Wild, brilliant, and out of control. You're a risk taker with an eye to the future.

What's Your Funky Inner Hair Color?

Thanks for this one Shirley tho' it's Robynne going for the blue do this time lol.

3rd or 4th time lucky.... I forget..

Yes for some reason unfathomable to me i have written this post or some semblance of this post 3 or 4 times now on different days only for the post to disappear from the ether as it were. So bear with me as can't remember half of what I was going to write and shall probably miss things out.

So my last post was over a week ago now and lots has happened scince then, I've made some money from the site, have half pulled my hair out over getting my handcrafted shop up - for some reason the page won't work the way it should and can't get it to link to the pay page - so it's seems back to the drawing board with that. We had a mad dash to get tHE Sound finished on time this month, so in a bid to get ahead have started next months early lol, bet I still panic before the time again. It'll be worse too as it's due out while were at HESFES. Which is something else we have been getting all ready for, more excitment the closer it gets, tho' still haven't gotten the tent yet, everything else is sorted lol.

What else has been happening, oh yeah my friend Willow and her children came round and she braided my hair so that it will eventually go into dreads. My new do looks very cool, and feels great - well I think it's cool you don't have too.

I'm getting Robynne to extend the length a bit with more wool over the next few days so that will be good.

Then it was time for our monthly H.E. Meet which was great fun and the theme was Japan, darn I forgot to get a pic of the children wearing their lovely Samuri Helmets, but here's a pic of Robynne wearing hers lol....


She doesn't usually look that dozey lol, but she has a bit of a cold at the moment and well I did kind of surprise her by plonking said hat on her head and snapping the picture.

We also had Robynne and Dee doing face painting, here's Robynne I think she was painting Dee at the time....



Later that evening Robynne and myself along with our friend Willow, went down to Prittlewell Priory museum for a Telling by the Essex Storytellers of 'A Green Mist Rising' - The Story of the Witches of Manningtree 1645. It was a very interesting night, with a few tales that we had already heard at recent Pagan meetings and well one of the tales namely 'A Green Mist Rising' had a far better ending to our mind when told by the Gippeswyk Storytellers.

Ok I think am all caught up now, except to say that I really should of been at the park this afternoon for a meet up with local Home Edders, but sorry guys if your reading this, I got a little sidetracked, what with needing to go buy a new toilet seat and Robynne not feeling so well today, better luck next time I'm sure.

Now I think had better run back to the sewing machine lol or maybe try again with that elusive Handcrafted shop page, but first another cup of tea before the silence is broken by my lovely brother coming home form his first day of work - in about 3yrs - he'll either be on a total high or a little tired, he was feeling so nervous last night. Fingers crossed it all goes well for him.