a sunny day out

hi there

well, perhaps at last considering how time seems to grow in distance with all things internet updates, a pretty hefty update here!

yesterday our area had it's second, presumably now annual, community day. i am pretty sure i posted pictures from it in September of last year if you are concerned enough to go and re-read - have a look at the menu thingie on the side, i am not doing a link, sorry!

this year it seemed to double in size and about triple in amount of people attending, which is a very good thing indeed. there were a number of presentations from essential services and similar organizations, all designed to be as much fun as they were educational for the kids. we were even blessed with the presence of someone from (i think) the Mayor's office - an MEC or MMC or something he called himself. we could all have done without his arrival disrupting one of the shows that the kids were doing for everyone, but no matter - of course politicians are always more important than children, or anyone else.  yeah.

on with some pictures, then, and one of two things that James was really excited about was that he could show off his most excellent official England cricket shirt.

i was happy to find that one for him, and am delighted to see he takes a lot of pride in wearing it. i have noticed that when he has it on it doesn't get quite as bashed around and damaged as all his other clothes! you may note that there's some dried grass all over his pants in the above, but the shirt has remained spotless!

William was most eager to have a go on the cycling and driving course once again. last year William really took a shine to it, in particular when he worked out that if he crashed (in particular into James) a police officer would come running over to investigate. yes, William, that just remains incredible fun when you are all grown up and it happens on the highways.

this year, though, William took a shine to having a go at doing it mostly properly, hardly crashing at all. in fact rather than ramming in to anyone that got in his way he just made a car horn "beep" sound until they moved.

William trying to do the course properly translated as for the most part me pushing him around the course, since he has not quite mastered the art of the pedals yet. this did allow for some wonderful opportunites for pictures of me with the boys.

and where are such pictures? in the mind, for better or worse, of my (considerably) better half. she thought that she'd taken some really good pictures, but alas wrestled a bit with the ways of our newish camera. what my (considerably) better half considered to be the sound of a picture taking was in fact only the sound of it saying that it was really quite happy with the focus elements and that she should continue. this was a continuation that she was unaware of, and thus did not continue.

whoops. oh well, i am reasonably certain that you all have a good (perhaps far too good) idea of what i look like, and no i am probably not getting any better in a looks sense. no real loss, then, in having no further pictures of your humble narrator, and there are plenty of good ones of the boys unblemished by my presence!

as my wrestles with the newish camera tend to see me emerge as the victor, i had no such troubles, and was thus able to get some great pics of my (considerably) better half, much like the one below.

lovely. my, that is one foxy, musky, stoaty hat.

a quick look at the larger area of the driving course that the boys took quite a shine too, then. well, a larger area, but a smaller picture - blogger does not particularly care for expanding landscape style pictures to a further width than this; at least not unless you want to have to scroll and muck around for the images.

we watched a few of the presentations, with the dog training and tricks in particular keeping both boys interested. i suspect the message of the lady dog trainer, one of how you should always sterlize your dog or else they will be responsible for about ten million puppies or something, kind of went over the heads of the young audience a bit. no matter, it was ace when they rolled around, jumped through hoops and that.

onwards to more playing, then, and a regular favourite of a climbing frame or if you will jungle gym. William is nothing short of reckless on these, loving to reach a great a height as possible on them and tending, if left unguarded, to get down in the rather fast manner of jumping. so yes we do keep a very keen eye and a quick set of hands at the ready as and when he tackles one of these!

yes, they are portable lavatories in the background. sorry about that. actually, no, not sorry - where is it that you expect people to go and do bodily functions? these things exist, and so whilst not particularly celebrated here, their presence in a picture shouldn't cause too much offence.

moving onwards, you may be delighted to learn, and i trust that what's coming across in these pictures is what a magnificent day it was. sunny, warm (borderline hot) and generally pleasant on the weather front. all this and it is only in theory the first moments of Spring here. i believe a long hot Summer is coming our way, and isn't going to pass us by.

and since i've just quoted the one band that Paul Weller was in that doesn't get anywhere near enough attention or praise, i am wondering just what it is that Mr Mick Talbot is doing. the last i head he had hooked back up with that Kevin fellow in Dexy's. good luck to him, i say. and you should check out some of The Style Council too, by the way. any singles or greatest hits would do, but you could do a lot worse than pick up the Our Favourite Shop album.

back on the point, or if you will the whole point of no return to throw out a rather obscure reference to The Council of Style, the presence of a roundabout really thrilled both the boys and a number of other children there. i tried to push them around on it a bit, but James really took a shine to doing that.

William also took quite a shine to sticking his feet of of it as it went around, taking a spinning tumble more than once. oh sure, there were some tears and regret when he tumbled in such a way that a combination of dried grass and sand hit his eyes, but that didn't stop him from simply having another go at it.

that chap i mentioned earlier, the Mayor or the Mayor's office MEC or MMC (that latter one having other connotations for some of us, but no matter), joined in with the children on the roundabout. happily he did it without much of an entourage and certainly no photographers, suggesting that he's a decent enough bloke and that the somewhat dick-like nature of his arrival was more related to the hosts than the guess himself.

i didn't get a picture of me doing so, but i did indeed push the chap around on the roundabout with the kids for a bit. he is probably, then, the most senior politician i have assisted on a roundabout to date.

if my Aunt Susan had her way, she or i would be doing something reasonably similar to one William Hague, although i suspect any negative side of that should rather be directed at Theresa May, for she seems to be, if we are to remain in the business of honesty here, the particular arsepiece that has put certain highly arsepiece things in place causing us one or two headaches at present. headaches go away, though, and sometimes it really is in the best interest of the headache to go away all by itself, for it will not like what comes along to remove it.

erm, moving back to the point once again, and what's a sunny, fun day without some bouncy castle action? well, probably just as much fun, to be honest, but a bouncy castle tends to enhance things a great deal. they are super amazing things!

the boys, every now and then, used the bouncy castles pretty much as they were intended to be. for the most part, however, they rather saw them more as "challenging climbing frames" rather than something one is supposed to simply jump on. William in particular is rather fond of climbing up the "bouncy slide" parts rather than just riding down them!

but, when the mood takes them to just bounce on a bouncy castle, you can every now and then get a picture of the two of them almost looking towards the camera. i use the word almost with the broadest possible definition, of course. well, see for yourself!

and finally, the other thing that James was really excited about. that would be football.

with their being no Premier League this weekend, what with England having to bravely tackle the powerhose of Moldova in order to qualify for an embarassing group stage exit at the World Cup next year, James was missing football a bit.

hang on a minute, wasn't Moldova where some Prince came from that married one of them in Dynasty or the spin-off The Colbys? i think they called it "Moldovia" or something, which is perhaps what it is anyway. if i remember it right, there was a class wedding that took place, with a sort of massacre-like scenario with someone angry with the Prince. i think further and Game Of Thrones appears to have ripped the idea off of that episode, although the ripped off idea featured a rather stronger emphasis on the massacre elements.

erm, anyway, James remembered from last year that there was a sand-like "beach football" pitch at the park where the event was held, and was very much looking forward to playing on it. indeed it was there, and yes James had a right good go on it.

in fact i think we ended up staying some 45 minutes longer than we had intended just to let James play away for a bit. no problem, it was a lovely day and both he and William were having too much fun to wish to rush off anyhow!

blimey, this post is rather large, is it not?

overall, what a wonderful day out, and what a brilliant, mostly well organized community event. as to if we shall be at the third annual one, presumably in September 2014, i would suspect the answer is most likely not, if you read the comments around May correctly. no doubt we shall find something of equal if not greater interest at that time, though!

more of the kind of thing you would expect to find here on my blog in the not too distant future, i sort of promise!

many thanks for reading!



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!