August

Legoland

I took Beccy and Antoine to Legoland. Beccy, especially was very interested in Miniland (lego models of world landmarks). She decided that she wants to work there as a summer job when she is old enough so that she can be involved in making lego models like that. The two children went prepared for lots of water wearing their swimwear under their clothes and taking towels and a change of clothes.

They did just about every water ride there and went on the rapids a number of times in order to get the best photograph. Beccy also went on all the roller coasters. She has never been brave enough to do this before but she tried it and she loved it. She and Antoine rode the Dragon and the Jungle Coaster a number of times.

Explorers Summer Camp

Ben went to camp with the Explorers at Frylands Wood in Croydon from 31st July to 8th August. He had the best of times and really didn't want to come home. His group get on together so well that the whole experience was great for him. They built bivouacs and camped out in the woods, did the usual activities (swimming, orienteering, wide games, etc) and had a day out in London visiting Camden Town, Regents Park and seeing the show Wicked in the West End.

He came back determined to spend more time with friends and by Sunday had arranged a trip to London and, later in the week, to Thorpe Park with schoolfriends. In between he would be playing in the Gravesham Tennis Tournament.

Returning Antoine to France

I flew with Beccy and Antoine to Marseille on Ryanair. The flights with Ryanair were so much cheaper than British Airways, where they could have flown on their own, that it was cheaper for me to fly with them and then back the next day with Ryanair, on which they were not allowed to fly on their own. We called in to see Helen and Alexander on the way to the airport and Beccy and Antoine played with all his toys and then the Playstation. We arrived at the airport with just enough time to check the children's bags, go through security where they thought I had an aerosol can in my bag and made us wait while it was searched and re-scanned to prove that there wasn't, then go straight to the gate to board the plane.

Jean-Francois picked us up from the airport and drove us back to their house where I stayed over, in Marion's room. The following day, Jean-Francois and Marion took Beccy, Antoine and me to Les Baux de Provence, a village and chateaux built into a mountainside in the Alpilles. We had lunch, which we had to eat quite quickly as the Mistral was blowing fairly strongly and our salad flying off the plate.

We watched a demonstration of trebuchet firing, found the stocks, and explored the remains of the chateau while listening to the audio-guides we were given as part of the entrance fee. I bought a big bag of Herbes de Provence to bring home.

During conversations with Marion and Jean-Francois I found out quite a lot about the competitiveness of the university system in France and the taxation and social security payment system. I don't know why there are so many complaints in this country about these issues. Maybe English people can't understand the link between social security payments, taxation and public services (or maybe we all just want everything for nothing). As wage levels are always going to be dictated to a certain extent by the amount of NI and tax we pay, I can't see any reason at all to need to reduce taxation or indeed keep it at a low level. Perhaps we need the popular press to explain this to the general population!

After a dinner at the house with Anne, who had been at work during the day (she's an optician), Jean-Francois drove me back to the airport for my flight home. As I had booked in online and had no baggage to check it took 10 minutes from arriving at the airport to arriving at the gate for departure.

The garden

We have done a little work on the garden this year, widening the flower border and re-arranging the vegetable plots. At the moment we have a good crop of courgettes, potatoes, carrots and garlic. The raspberries, strawberries, blueberries and blackcurrants fruited less than last year as we had planted new raspberry canes, had moved the strawberries and blueberries, and had cut the blackcurrant bush right back. Nevertheless we had a reasonable crop from all.

We can now look forward to picking the apples (of which there are many), grapes and tomatoes (if they ripen). We have planted some broccoli and what we think is sweetcorn (it appeared in a pot) and wait to see what they do.

At the front, we have cut down the cordyline, which had grown to over 10 feet, and the camphor tree in order to allow us to get to the front of the house to do some much needed maintenance. When the maintenance is done we will widen the flower bed in front of the house and completely replant it.

Beccy's trip to France

We picked Beccy up from Gatwick on Monday 10th August. She was very keen to tell us all about her trip and all the things she had done. She had a great time. The Olivari family took her to Aqualand, a nearby zoo (she thinks it was Marseille Zoo), to a treetops adventure park and to the Alps for a couple of days.

On the day we picked Beccy up I had an operation (laparoscopy) to find out what was causing the pain in my abdomen. The doctors thought it was adhesions as a result of an operation I had around 19 years ago. It was a large adhesion which they couldn't treat then but at least I know that the cause is not anything sinister and it can be dealt with. As I was not very mobile (or with it after the anaesthetic) we went for a meal at a pub near Gatwick airport after meeting Beccy from the plane. The pub, The Olde Six Bells, served very good food and was reasonably priced - a good choice.

Ben's tennis - 14th August 2009 and 24th August 2009

Ben had some fairly difficult first matches in the Gravesham tournament and suffered from not having played for a little while. He was entered in the consolation draws for the Boys Under 16 singles, Under 18 singles and Mixed Doubles. He won the Under 16 singles and, with Megan, won the Mixed Doubles.

His final win also gave him enough wins and a sufficient win ratio to move from 9.2 to 9.1 so it was a great week for him.

Prior to the tournament we did some practice and took some video so that Ben could see what he might improve. Unfortunately he had to rely on my feeding the ball, which wasn't always useful but gave him practice in chasing wild balls!

At the Kent County Closed tournament, Ben lost his first round match against a boy who was a number of ratings higher than him. In the consolation draw he played really well and won all his matches up to the quarter finals where he lost to a boy of similar ability having had 4 set points in the first set. His playing continues to improve but his ability to fight for those final points needs some work.

UK Schools Biathlon - 16th August 2009

Beccy has been training at the swimming pool and at the running track in preparation for this event. She competed well. She ran the 1000m in 3 mins 45 seconds (better than in the qualifier) and swam in 42.7 seconds (also better).

We had a great day accompanied by Dan, Helen, Alexander, Mum, Sue, Joe, Marion and Alan. In between Beccy's run and swim we had a picnic and my birthday cake on the grass just outside the stadium. It was a very long day, we left at 8am and arrived home at 8pm having stopped for some fast food on the way home.

Beccy's points total in the biathlon was enough to gain 16th place and she was awarded a trophy for gaining the highest number of points of any Medway or Bromley athlete.

Camping with Claire

Ben, Beccy and I went away camping with Claire, Nathan, Alli, Nadia and her friend Steph (and the dog, Cosby). Having booked the campsite in Pevensey, near Eastbourne, we decided that we wanted a day on a sandy beach and so started by going to Camber. We set up our stuff in the dunes, out of the wind and all went in the sea, sunbathed or played games. Late afternoon we packed up and drove to Pevensey (about an hour). Having booked into the campsite and found our pitch, we discovered that we had a tent with no pegs (the second time we have done this so far this year)! It was late and most local shops, even the large ones, closed at 8pm so I drove quickly to the nearest Halfords, who up until very recently (apparently) were selling tents and pegs but had nothing now. I then tried B&Q, who also didn't sell tent pegs but had a selection of hardware. After a bit of deliberation I decided on 4 inch nails with large heads and some bent metal pins.

Back at the campsite we found that the heads of the nails were just slightly bigger than the holes in the tent and the nails were long enough to get a hold. Luckily it wasn't windy at all and our tent secured with 4 inch nails did us proud for the two nights we were there. We got the tent set up, inflated the airbeds and loaded everything into the tent. Claire discovered that she hadn't packed Nadia's bedding and the older two girls had to share one sleeping bag.

It was late and we needed to eat so we went to Pevensey Bay, just down the road, bought fish and chips and sat on the pebble beach while we ate them and it got dark. On returning to the campsite we found that our gas light had no gas and so by the light of as many candles as we could fit on the table, we all got ready for bed. Everyone was in bed by just after 10pm! Cosby was so tired after a whole day on the beach that he slept soundly all night. Claire got up very early to take him out for a wee but otherwise we didn't hear a thing from him. He slept just as well the second night.

On Tuesday (the second day) Claire made me a belated birthday cake out of an upturned bowl decorated with chocolate hoops. They all sang 'Happy Birthday' and I opened my card and presents. Nathan cooked bacon and eggs for breakfast and we all got ready for the day out. Ben had a tennis tournament and so I drove him to Tunbridge Wells for his morning match, then took him for lunch and drove back to Pevensey, leaving him there for his afternoon match. Everyone else had walked to the beach, bought lunch in a bakery and were sitting in the same spot when I got there. Beccy and Alli were swimming in the sea and everyone else was sunbathing. We walked from there along the beach and back towards the supermarket where we would get our dinner for the evening. After a while, Beccy and I walked back to the beach to get the car and then I ferried people and the dog and shopping from the supermarket back to the campsite. Poor Cosby seemed to be suffering a bit from walking on pebbles all day, his feet looked sore and he was quite exhausted.

Brian watched Ben's afternoon match and brought him back to the campsite. He stayed for dinner, which was quickly cooked, and then took the two boys back to the beach to do some fishing. They didn't catch anything and returned around 10.15pm so that Brian could get the car off the campsite before they closed the gates. It was lovely to see him and both the children really appreciated him being there. They obviously missed him, even for just one day!

Wednesday morning was our last and we needed to pack everything up. Nathan cooked another breakfast and we packed everything away so leisurely that we only just finished by the 12 noon deadline for vacating the campsite. The boys wanted to go fishing again and so Claire drove them back to the beach and picked them up around an hour and a half later. All packed, we left the campsite and spent the day on the beach nearer to Eastbourne where there were rides and places to eat. We left around 4pm and, after getting lost in Tunbridge Wells, arrived home around 6.30pm (Brian did the same journey in 1 hour the night before).

GCSE Results day - 27th August 2009

Ben went to a pre-results party the night before and walked to school with Rob (who stayed over) when school opened. He got a good set of results - A grades in Maths, Biology, Physics, PE, History and Latin, B grades in English, Art and Statistics and a C grade in Music. He was a little disappointed as he had been predicted higher but he got into sixth form easily and got As in all his chosen A level subjects. We are really proud of him.

Opening of new college

I went into work to open up a classroom and set up some small demonstrations of work. The new building was opened to the public and many, many young people turned up (mostly to see the bands that were playing rather than the educational facilities). I had a small number of people interested in looking around but not too many.

Joe's birthday at Camber

We had a barbecue on the beach at Camber for Joe's birthday. It was quite windy and we hid ourselves in the dunes to shelter from it. The children went in the sea but didn't swim as the red flags were flying. We had burgers, sausages and cakes and after we had eaten we had a game of rounders. Dan had Alexander in the rucksack carrier and wanted to let him join in.

When Dan hit the ball and started running he realised that he could get all the way round. He ran as fast as he could with Alexander bouncing around on his back. As he passed fourth base we all cheered and Alexander burst into tears - he had scored his first rounder!

Explorers' barbecue

Family of the explorers were invited to a barbecue at the scout hut. We all went and sat and talked with the other parents. The leaders cooked the food and the explorers (with a little encouragement) packed away. They used the time together to plan a day at the beach.

Stansted Windmill Fete and Dan's birthday

Bank holiday Monday 31st August, we visited Dan, Helen and Alexander, had a lovely lunch (Dan's homemade bread, salad, meats and cheeses) then walked along to the windmill to have a look around the fete held to raise funds for its restoration. We had a go at bowling balls through holes for points, dipped Alexander in the lucky dip to get a little notebook and some tattoos for Beccy, bought some plants for the garden and a book for me to read on the bus on the way to and from work.

Helen had made a gorgeous chocolate and guiness birthday cake and Dan opened his presents a day early while we were there. Dan seemed pleased with the splitting maul and slegehammer we got him for chopping firewood. Helen's mum, Joy, her brother, Simon, and two of her sisters, Fiona and Julia, were visiting as well. Beccy and the triplets played together with Alexander. Brian had Alexander on his lap at one point and dressed him up in plastic bangles, on his wrists, ankles and ears. While he was being bejewelled, Alexander took advantage of the fact that Brian was distracted and pinched some of his chocolate cake!

While we were at Dan's, Ben went to Westgate with his Explorer friends for a day at the beach. It was a long day, ending in a night swim, and he got home around 11pm having had a really good time.

July

Family

Dan, Helen and Alexander came over on the 6th. We all took Alexander swimming. He wasn't phased at all by the waves in the wave pool, which splashed in his face. He just giggled his way through it. He also wasn't phased by the six large people who followed him around everywhere in the water, threw balls to him, balanced him on floats, floated him around and popped up from under the water to surprise him.

At home, Ben showed him how to play the piano and then Helen balanced him on the piano stool to let him try on his own. As soon as he realised that hitting the keys with his hands resulted in a noise, he banged away. Then Ben sat him again on his lap and played a tune. Alexander then seemed to realise that he only needed to use his fingers and he played much more genteely after that. We will make sure that he gets many opportunities to play the piano and maybe he will decide later that he wants to have a go at playing.

Football

Beccy played in an under 13s tournament and her team reached the final only to lose 1-0. It was a baking hot day, I got sunburnt and I'm sure that Beccy got a bit of heatstroke as she complained of a nasty headache all afternoon.

She had her second trial for the Kent team and...she was selected. We now need to wait to find out what happens next.

At her school presentation evening she was awarded Girls Football Player of the Year. At the presentation we watched Alli perform a fantastic dance and saw her given an award for Outstanding Achievement in recognition of her achievements in dance at local, regional, national and international levels.

Tennis

Ben has been increasing the number of sessions he works as an assistant coach and seems to be enjoying it. He has booked up his tournaments for the summer and has spent a lot of time working at the club (almost every day since the start of the summer holidays).

Sundridge Park Tournament - Ben won his first round games in both the Under 16s and 18s and progressed to the next round where he knew he would be playing boys with a much higher rating. He played well in the games he won.

Athletics

Ben competed in the 3000m, the 1500m and the 4x400m relay at school sports day (he did the 3000m a couple of days before, probably wouldn't have managed it otherwise as, again, it was an incredibly hot day). He also did some work helping out at a local primary school sports day. A group of AS level PE students were asked to run the day and he seemed to enjoy it.

Beccy competed in the school sports day winning the 1500m, the long jump (4m) and being part of the winning 4x100m relay team.

Trips and events

Ben went to Gilwell 24, a 24 hour scouting event which starts at 8am on Saturday and finishes at 8am on Sunday. He went with Explorers and they took part in various activities throughout the 24 hours. Unfortunately, it started raining heavily at 5pm on Saturday and didn't stop until the event ended, meaning that many activities were not possible. As a result, he didn't enjoy it as much as last year. He arrived home absolutely exhausted and was fast asleep on the sofa when we got home at 2.30pm.

Brian, Beccy, her friend Shannon and I went to a festival/private party called Tonefest 2, in a field in Dorset. We had to miss Friday night as Beccy had her Kent football trial and so we travelled on Saturday morning. We were invited by Fiona and Colin and camped with them and some of their friends at the festival site. After we had put up our tents we grabbed a burger and headed into the acoustic tent. They had a large number of sofas in the large marquee where the acoustic sets were being played. We first listened to Jake Morley who did a very good set, then we moved to the main stage where we watched Bird Jaguar, a rock band. During the day we also saw Randall Stevens, The Rebs, Lou Brown, The Colour of Sound and Ortopilot. The final act of the festival was 'The Great Pretender' a Queen tribute act. Although it seemed a shame that the headline act should be a tribute band when there had been so much good, original music during the day, they got the crowd going and were quite enjoyable to watch. The girls positioned themselves just in front of the stage and danced all the way through. The night ended with a silent disco (you hire headphones and all dance to the same music but heard through the headphones - surprisingly effective). The girls wanted a go so we paid the deposit (returned at the end) for the headphones and they lasted about 20 minutes before they were bored and ready to go to bed. Overall, it was a really good day despite the rain.

The rain started before we arrived. We put the tents up in the rain, got soaked again and again and wore wellies the whole time. The girls managed to leave the front of their tent open and the rain got in, then they left a pillow against the side of the tent and it got soaked. Our tent developed a heavy drip onto the end of our airbed, which we moved so that it dripped onto the floor instead. A puddle formed. In the night the rain became very heavy and, when it stopped, a very strong wind followed. Some tents, including Fiona and Colin's, collapsed resulting in even more things getting wet.

When we woke up, our tents were still up and it wasn't raining any more. Just so we didn't get too comfortable, the toilets, which were quite nice for this type of event, were all blocked, none would flush and there was no water. Once we had organised ourselves to wash and clean at the tent, things were fine. Colin cooked us all a fried breakfast and we all packed up to go home.

After returning from the festival and drying ourselves out, Beccy and Shannon went camping with the school (at Treejumpers) on Tuesday, returning Thursday. It was an adventure camp and they did orienteering, caving, high ropes and many other activities. Luckily, it rained mostly at night and so they didn't get too wet. The caves they explored (man-made) were full of smelly mud and Beccy's clothes came home very wet, muddy and smelly!

Then, after returning from school camp on Thursday, Beccy went camping again, this time with the scouts in Ashdown Forest, on Friday night. A friend's party meant that I had to take her late and she didn't arrive until 11.30pm. She returned Sunday quite exhausted and we finally got to pack everything away.

Bikeathon

Ben and Brian both entered the London Bikeathon and decided to cycle the 52 mile challenge route around London. They started at Thames Barrier Park and cycled across London through Richmond Park and back to the start point. They completed the course in around 5 hours, having stopped for a total of 55 minutes for food and toilet breaks. They raised just over £525 between them for Leukemia Research and returned keen to do another long distance ride (Ben has his sights on London to Paris).

Medway Mile

Beccy, Antoine and I ran the Medway Mile, a free event where you run one mile around Rochester. There was an elite race then a fun run (the one we did). Once we had run from the castle and past the cathedral we ran into the high street where people were eating in restaurants and drinking in the pubs while watching a large mob of people, all wearing t-shirts of blue, black, red or green, just running down the street. It felt like the bull run without the danger. Beccy was around the 5th female to finish and I managed it in under 10 minutes which was good for me.

Antoine's visit

I picked Antoine up from Gatwick. where he flew in from Marseille, on the 23rd for his fourth stay with us. Beccy and Antoine have the same sense of humour and like to do similar things. They got on really well during the 10 days he spent with us. On his first Saturday we were invited next door for a barbecue with a number of other people with small children. Beccy and Antoine played with Austin and Rory and their friends and cousins. They sited themselves in our garden and, using the fence as a net, set up a game of volleyball bringing selected small children to join their team for a while. On the Wednesday, Katy invited them to go to Mote Park with her, the children and her sister's family. Beccy and Antoine played with the younger children all day and Katy was really pleased with them.

June

Ben's GCSEs

Ben is taking his final GCSE exams. By the 4th June he has finished PE, Music, Art, Biology, Maths and English. He has final exams in Latin, Physics, Statistics and History over the next two weeks. His verdict at the moment is that he thinks he may have hit the grades he was expecting in most subjects but there were one or two exams that were harder than he had expected. We have to wait for the results in August to see.

Coincidentally, Beccy started her GCSE courses in English, Maths and Science this week, just as Ben is finishing his!

Alexander (6 months old this month)

Helen and I took Alexander swimming in Saffron Walden. He seemed to love the water. We were in the pool for 50 minutes and he laid on his back and kicked his legs and turned on his front and kicked his legs again. He was happy all the time he was in the water and happy to be under the shower when we got out. I think he drank some water but, hopefully, this won't have done him any harm. He spotted a colourful ball and got very excited when Helen pushed it towards him. He managed to get his hands on it and to propel it back to her. We started by trying to get him to play with a white ball but it seemed to be the colours on the other ball that he was more interested. I can't wait to take him again.

Beccy and I had our first experience of babysitting Alexander on the 14th. We fed him, changed him, played with him and he was great. Dan and Helen had a trip to the cinema. The following week they came to visit us and we got some good pictures in the garden.

Beccy's Kent School trial

Beccy had a trial for the Kent Schools football team. We're not sure how she did but need to ring a premium line number on Monday to find out. At 60p a minute, let's hope the message isn't too long!

22/6/09 - we rang and she got through. The next trial, unfortunately, is on an evening when we had arranged to go to a music festival and means that we will arrive too late to put the tent up. We will either need to go separately so that one of us can put up the tent or all travel the next morning and miss the bands on Friday night - nothing ever goes quite to plan!

Walks

We have been walking quite regularly on the Hoo pensinsular. There are a good number of birds to be seen, although we are rubbish at identifying them. We think we saw a cuckoo in flight and we saw a large bird of prey that we couldn't identify. These walks are quite noisy, especially in the evening when the birds make a huge amount of noise between them.

Ben's tennis

Ben has had a few men's doubles matches with a few wins. He has also now clocked up two singles wins in tournaments and club matches with one counting loss.

We went to Ben's school to see the display of GCSE artwork. Ben had one painting on exhibit (most boys just had one) so we didn't see much but he will be able to bring it home later in the year.

Other events

Beccy took part in a samba workshop with her school. They went to a primary school and taught the younger children how to play this style of music. She had a trip to the London Dungeon and Madame Tussauds and has a day at the University of Kent taking part in French language workshops. She won the 1500m in the Medway District Sports competition for the second year running with a personal best time of 5 minutes 35 seconds. Her team came 2nd in the 100m relay

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We had a good lightning show on the 27th June. Beccy decided it was a good idea to shelter under the parasol. She soon found out that it wasn't at all waterproof and rushed inside to get a waterproof cape so that she could lie on the table and watch the storm.

May

I have been trying out my little PocketPC, which I won at the Hi5 awards. This is my first test video for the webcam which I want my students to use to record their progress diaries. Once I have figured out the best format and way to go about it, I will let it loose on the students.

The first weekend in May was a bank holiday and we spent it mostly watching the children play sport. On the Saturday afternoon we went to Sarah's to celebrate Amelie's first birthday with a family barbecue. We got some great pictures of Amelie and Alexander together - the first time they have met. Sarah is very near to giving birth to her second baby and clearly wants the birth over so that she can start figuring out how she will manage with a newborn and a one-year old. At least the new baby wasn't born on Amelie's birthday!

Ben had two good tennis wins on May Day. Hope it continues this way.

On the 9th we went to Dan and Helen's to celebrate Helen's birthday. I fed Alexander for the first time (mashed apple and pear - not sure if he liked it or not). Dan and Helen had made bread, pizzas and cake. I'm sure their oven must never be off!

Thursday 14th - Ben's study leave started for his GCSEs. The boys weren't told when their study leave would start until they were leaving on their last day so no end of school celebrations, these will have to wait until later. At the start of his study leave, Ben had already completed 3 of his GCSE courses: Art, Music and PE. This was his final art piece on the theme of change. The circles are, in fact, hemispheres made of paper mache. With the creative and sport courses finished he now has to concentrate on the academic stuff. In the first week of study leave he has maths, Latin and biology exams.

16th - Beccy had her football presentation event. There were matches for the players, a presentation (Beccy got parents' player of the year) and a penalty shoot out for both girls and parents. Brian's penalty was saved and mine missed the goal! Beccy's was saved as well so none of us did very well at all.

17th - Race for Life - I ran it with Helen, Mum, Nat and Izzy. Beccy had a cup final match and so had to miss it, Jodie decided that she didn't want to run. I managed to run most of it and did it in 37 minutes. It rained heavily while we were running and we were soaked by the end of it. We went home to change and then met up at the pub for lunch. Ben, meanwhile, played his first match for the men's doubles team. He played with Alex and they won both their matches.

19th - Beccy had her first capsize incident at sailing and came home with a bag of wet clothes. The water was apparently very cold but it was 'fun'.

Brian made a bird feeding station which has attracted sparrows, blue tits, starlings, collared doves and wood pigeons so far. Unfortunately, the wood pigeons were dominating the fat ball feeder owing to the lovely standing area provided by the hangers. We needed to change the design to deter the pigeons. Our current method of clapping loudly or running down the garden to scare them wasn't particularly effective. A move of the fat feeder onto a hanging arm meant that it was quite difficult for the pigeons to get to it.

They were replaced by flocks of starlings that bullied other birds off. In between we saw sparrow with fledglings and at least one blue tit. The greenfinches took at least 10 days to find it but a group of 4 landed on the woodshed one morning, hopped in a neat line towards the front and then over to the feeder, only to be bullied off by a large group of starlings with at least 5 fat fledglings. Hopefully, the greenfinches will try again later.

Saturday 23rd May - Beccy, her friend, Abby, and Brian went to Wembley to see Gillingham play in the League division 2 playoff final. Gillingham won 1-0, scoring in the final minutes of the game. Beccy said the atmosphere in the stadium, in the streets around Wembley and on the train home, was brilliant.

Sunday 24th May - Brian, Ben and Dan went to see the new Star Trek movie, which they enjoyed. Helen and Alexander stayed at the house with me and Beccy and we prepared the food for a barbecue in the evening with Mum, Marion and Alan as well.

Our second barbecue of the year was a bit more 'home-made' than the last one which was a bit of a rush. Dan and Helen brough two loaves of home made bread and a cake. I made burgers, marinades, risotto and fresh fruit salad.

Brian was keen for Alexander to model the Gills hat he had bought for Beccy. Alexander's dad may not be the number one fan of the Medway Towns but his grandparents still think they are a great place to live.

25th - Beccy competed in a Kent League athletics meeting. She ran the 800m and came sixth with an impressive sprint finish and a time of 2.45.

Ben started his Parklangley tennis tournament run. He played his under 16 singles match but was, unfortunately, up against the 4th seed. In the under 18 singles he lost his first match 4-2, 4-1 despite looking like he could win a number of times. He just needed to be able to win those important points like when he was 40-15 up to go 3-3 in the first set but managed to let it slip.

Ben won his first match of the Under 16s consolation draw and in the quarter final he played the best I've seen him play, giving his opponent a very good game. Unfortunately, he lost in the end 6-7, 3-6 but he can be proud of the way he played.

Beccy was so supportive, watching Ben's matches and amusing herself while we were waiting around, that I treated her to a new outfit.

April

Ben's tennis is blossoming at the moment. He has been coaching the juniors at the tennis club (he earned quite a bit of money in the first two days of the Easter holiday). Michel said that Ben is one of his best assistant coaches, very enthusiastic and committed. Added to this, Ben won his first tennis match for ages on the 5th . It was a club match against Bromley and he and Dylan both won their singles matches convincingly and then won the doubles. All matches were won in straight sets, a really good start to the season.

Beccy's athletic season has started with an open meeting on the 4th April at Deangate. She competed in the 400m and recorded a time of 71.42 seconds.

The Easter holiday has gone by very quickly. We have done very little of note but had a few outings over the Easter weekend. On Friday we visited Dan and Helen and went for a walk in Hatfield Forest. Alexander entertained us with his babbling and laughing. It rained while we were out walking and his coping mechanism, being in the sling with no waterproof protection, was to go to sleep!

On Saturday we visited Richard and Emma and met their twins, Naomi and Ava for the first time. There is a vast difference between coping with one baby and coping with twins. The girls were really happy and contented and obviously used to their routine. We walked around Leybourne Lakes and then went back to Richard and Emma's for a spaghetti bolognese. We had a really relaxed evening and didn't leave until nearly midnight - hope we didn't deprive them of much needed sleep!

On Easter Sunday I set up a small scale easter egg hunt for Ben and Beccy which, despite their advancing ages, they seemed to really enjoy. I couldn't believe how hard it was for them to find all the eggs, even though every one of them was visible without moving anything. The egg hunt was followed by scout paper collection, then Dan, Helen and Alexander arrived with home made hot cross buns (with chocolate ones for me). We had all been invited to Marion and Alan's to see Brian's sister Alison, on a visit from Hong Kong, and his Nan who was 95 this week. A large number of his family were there.

From there we went to Sue and Colin's wood, near Rye, for a barbecue. The wood is quite remote from anywhere, has a variety of wildlife including wild boar, and consequently no facilities. There were spiders in the toilet tent and there was a lot of fuss about getting rid of them so that the children were not too scared to go to the toilet! Brian made a barbecue area with a couple of paving slabs, blocks and wire racks and we had a feast all spread out on a picnic blanket in the middle of the wood. Sue had even brought a burner so that she could make everyone a cup of tea. We had to pack up eventually as it started to get dark and, with no habitation around, it gets very dark there. (Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures but this is a good opportunity to do something with a picture from the last barbecue in the wood, for my birthday and Joe's birthday).

On Easter Monday we walked with Sue and with Nathan around Cliffe Pools hoping to see a lot of birdlife. It was probably the wrong time of year as we didn't see very much, although it may have been because the children were making a lot of noise.

We watched the film 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas' all together on the 'on-demand' TV. What a sad film! Beccy and I had been reading the book but neither of us had finished it. It might be difficult to read it now that we know how it ends. Very good film, gave us a lot to talk about.

Beccy received two invitations for the Gifted and Talented presentation evening at her school. She was nominated for ICT and Technology and also for Performing Arts. Beccy didn't win in either category on the evening but it was an entertaining event, some good speakers, musicians and dancers. She was given a special mug with some sweets in on her way out so she was quite happy!

Other notable events this month:

Beccy camped at Buckmore Park with the scouts, taking a short break on Sunday morning to play a football match. She came home quite exhausted.

Both children marched in the St George's Day parade followed by sitting through the service in the cathedral. We managed to remember the money for the collection this year and I bought them both a bar of Fairtrade chocolate as a reward - they're never too old!

Brian and I went to a party at Matt and Sarah's. We haven't seen them for a few years and had the usual surprise at how George and Harvey had grown. Promised to keep in touch more often and hope we will. Life is always far too busy and I'm not sure of the merits of this but I'm quite happy the way it is for now - might suffer from exhaustion at some point though!

Ben completed his GCSE Art course with his final two day exam. Hopefully he will get an A overall for this one. His revision is becoming more and more important and he attends revision sessions in various subjects voluntarily.

Beccy is now sailing one session a week after school. She has done two sessions and seems to be enjoying it so far. She is training at the athletics club more frequently and will be competing at various meetings throughout the summer. She won player of the match and scored two goals at a match against London Girls and her team won a local tournament.

March

This month was very busy for me at the start, work-wise. I had two meetings in Coventry on the 2nd and the 4th. Each day I got the 6am train from Rochester and arrived home at 8.45pm on the Monday and a more respectable 6.30pm on the Wednesday. These were exam meetings and everything went OK. The train journeys allow me time to chill and to read. I finished "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Kaled Hosseini (who wrote "The Kite Runner"). This was one of the most beautiful books I have read for a long time, being a great insight into life for women in Kabul throughout the reign of the shah, the Soviet occupation, the Mujahideen and then the Taliban, and a gripping story of the lives of two women.

On the Tuesday (3rd) I went to the Hi5 Awards ceremony and dinner at Westminster College in London, with Carol. Carol and I had been nominated for a joint award for innovation in eLearning. It was an 'oscar' style ceremony with the golden envelopes and the winners names in each category read out. I was astonished to hear our names and very pleased to receive a silver star paperweight engraved with my name and the award, and a notebook computer for us to use with our students.

The dinner was cooked by students at Westminster College, minimalist portions but quite tasty, especially the dessert - Apricot nut crumble with custard.

Our nomination was for our use of new technologies for teaching and assessment. I have been podcasting some of my lessons so that students can download these to their MP3 players, using blogs, wikis, glossaries and movie making with students to make the work that they produce more interesting.

It was a good evening but a shame that we weren't allowed to take partners. I would have liked Brian to have been there.

On the 10th March we all went to a quiz night at the scout hut, run by the explorers. Helen came down for the afternoon and Dan came straight after work. Mum and Sue came along to the quiz and our family table, with Beccy and her friend Reece, was full. We had eight people (nine if you count Alexander, although he didn't answer any questions). The evening was really enjoyable and it was nice to spend some time with Alexander.

He now smiles back at you when you smile at him. He spends long periods looking around and is becoming more and more aware. Helen talks to him all the time and he responds well. He had a big smile for his dad when he arrived.

13th March - Comic Relief. I did a 'Race Event' with my students and raised £20. Brian took a collection jar to the pub to get his card circle to donate. Ben made the collection jar and Brian started it off with £5. He managed to get them to donate another £5.50 but he said that it was really hard. It is great that he tried.

On the 14th March Brian and I went to the annual dinner for those who help on the scout committee and in fundraising. The meal, at the Robin Hood pub, was really nice. Afterwards we called into the Bridgewood Hotel to the 65th birthday party of one of Brian's clients. It seemed to involve a lot of singing into microphones and not really our sort of thing. We stayed for a while but then made a swift exit.

March 17th - Ben went up to Battersea Park with the school to compete in the National Indoor Rowing Championships in the relay team. His team came ninth and Ben said that it was the hardest thing physically that he had ever had to do. He was pleased that, although he didn't qualify in time to compete, his time in the practice at school would have placed him 50th in the country.

March 18th - Ben's GCSE ensemble recital. His group played 'Viva La Vida'. Let down a bit by the singing but generally good and they got their recording done. There were some lovely group pieces. Unfortunately, the Ben's piano wasn't loud enough throughout the recording and he had to record again. They are going to record an instrumental next time.

Beccy went to see The Lion King with the gifted and talented group at school. She said it was brilliant and now wants us to go as a family. I'm sure I couldn't get any interest in this when I wanted us to go last year and we went to see Spamalot instead. I think I would like to Priscilla Queen of the Desert now - just need to work on convincing everyone else!

On March 20th we travelled down to Devon. It was Brian's cousin Marc's wedding and we had managed to find a home exchange with a family who live just north of London and who have a holiday cottage in Down St Mary near Crediton. We drove to Devon after school and arrived at the pre-wedding fireworks and barbecue just as it started.

Afterwards we drove to the cottage, which was a lovely old cottage, nice and warm with a nice kitchen and everything we needed. We went straight to bed without seeing our surroundings and so, when we opened the curtains in the morning and found we were looking out over the churchyard and gravestones, we were a bit surprised. Once we got used to the idea, it was a nice outlook and very peaceful.

We went for a walk to a neighbouring village, getting very muddy on a farm on the way there. The farmer helped us find a path through the mud. At Zeal Monarchadum we found an indoor market in the village hall. We bought some plants, sweets, cards and cakes (from the farmer's wife). From there we walked to a place called Waie Inn, a purpose built tourist place. It had a skittle alley, snooker tables, pool tables and a dartboard. We played skittles and darts and had lunch before walking briskly back to the cottage as we were running out of time to get ready for the wedding.

We changed and drove to the wedding venue, Stoodleigh Court (a large house with extensive gardens). The wedding lasted the rest of the day and we finally arrived back at the cottage at around 12.30am.

We had forgotten to bring a map and had to rely on Brian's phone for satellite navigation - very stressful as you don't know any landmarks and can't tell whether you are getting any closer - won't forget the map again!

On Sunday we drove over to see Marion and Alan at the cottages they were staying in and then headed home, firstly using the sat nav and then using our intuition and sense of direction to allow us to travel a bit faster. We planned to stop for lunch in Warminster but there wasn't anything there. After an attempt to find a pub or cafe to eat at, we ended up at Burger King at a service station on the A303, not pleasant but we were hungry.

Monday 23rd - I travelled to Westminster for a conference and managed to skip out at lunchtime for a while to meet Dan for lunch. Dan treated me to a panini at a little cafe near where he works in Euston.

Thursday 26th - Beccy's GCSE options evening. We found out that she is doing really well at school in all subjects and is in the accelerated learning group for English, maths and science which means that she will take a total of 6 GCSEs in these subjects and will start taking them early. I just hope that this doesn't mean that grades below A or B are acceptable if the exam is taken a year early, she doesn't want to be disadvantaged. She also has to take a level 2 Diploma (the new government flagship qualification) and has chosen to take Creative and Media which will allow her to extend her music and some aspects of art. Overall she was only allowed to choose 2 GCSE options and, thankfully, chose French as well as PE. I think she has ended up with a good variety even though it didn't seem as if she had much of a choice.

Saturday 28th - Went to Dan and Helen's for dinner. Dan cooked us a lovely dinner and Helen made a lovely pudding. Alexander entertained us with his babbling. He makes a good variety of noises and, at one point, we thought he was saying 'thank you'! He is interested in looking at books while being read to and seems to be incredibly aware and alert.

Sunday 29th - Ben helped out at the tennis club with the young players. He seems to be enjoying it and seems to work well with the younger children. On Saturday he took a session on his own and got paid!

Tuesday 31st - Medway Youth Biathlon. Ben and Beccy both took part. The field for Ben's competition was larger and tougher and he came ninth. He set a personal best in the swimming and the running and his lack of tiredness when crossing the finishing line after swimming and running suggested that he could have done it even faster. Beccy won her event and qualified for the national biathlon, apparently to be held at Crystal Palace.

February

After one month of keeping a diary I have managed to miss February completely and it is now March. We have had a very busy month and its 28 days rushed by like lightning.

At the start of the month we had snow for a couple of days. It was great snow that we could make snowballs and excellent snowman straight away, rather than having to wait for it to start melting. We had two days off school and it was a brilliant rest. Needless to say, Brian went to work - nothing could keep him away!

6th February was Ben's 16th birthday. He had an expensive bike for Christmas and so didn't get much for his birthday. We got him some reflective clothing and Beccy got him a steering wheel controller for the Xbox. We had a family get together in the evening with burgers and sausages in buns and a fruit and cream birthday cake.

Ben is making good use of his bike. He cycles to tennis on Saturday mornings (9 miles) where he does two hours of coaching younger players followed by a one hour squad, paid for in lieu of coaching payment. He then cycles the 9 miles home and often then plays a full hockey match in the afternoon! He plays for the men's 5th team who are doing well at the moment.

He will also often cycle to explorers and to hockey matches as long as they are at home. Due to his high level of fitness he has been selected at school to compete in the district biathlon, where he has to swim four lengths of the pool and then run a mile. He has been practising tumble turns and front crawl in order to get his speed up.

7th February was Sue's birthday and we went bowling and then back to Sue's for a chinese take away. It was a shame that Dan, Helen and Alexander were unable to get to Sue's as they were going to a christening in Oxford and couldn't do both, otherwise the whole family would have been there (Sarah, Ian and Amelie were at Sue's but couldn't make it for Ben's birthday).

9th February - parents' consultation evening at Ben's school. It is always nice to get so much praise from all his teachers. He seems to be doing really well and is enjoying school. He has been accepted for the sixth form as long as he gets the grades and all his teachers had very high expectations, so he should be reasonably confident at least. He has chosen PE, Biology, History and Physics for his A levels. A good all round choice. We're so proud of him.

10th February - visited Helen and Alexander. He is growing fast and I want to make sure that I miss as little as possible. Managed not to take any photos (no camera) but have this photo on my wall at work. He is still gorgeous and smiling a lot now.

We all visited again on 20th Feb during half term week. Brian seemed to have the knack of calming Alexander by keeping him upright and looking out of the window. He was better than any of the rest of us at keeping him content.

We managed to get this excellent picture of Helen and Alexander with a big smile from both.

Our plan after visiting Helen was to go to Ikea for a picture frame, then to go to Bluewater on the way home if we had time. After Ikea we tried to start the car and got nothing at all. Luckily (as there were enough of us) we managed to bump start it and drove towards home. Unfortunately, we were low on fuel and got stuck in a traffic jam at the Dartford bridge so had to pull into a petrol station to get fuel and then bump start again. Brian fiddled with the battery and alternator when we got home and it has worked ever since, although he said he didn't actually do anything other than wiggle the wires and test the connections!

Half term

As we had decided not to ski this year (too expensive when we weren't sure if Brian's business would be a success or not) , we had two days in London as our mini holiday. On Wednesday we travelled up to Victoria on the train, went swimming at the Queen Mother sports centre in Westminster, had lunch at KFC and then spent the rest of the day at the Science Museum. We were kicked out at 6pm when they wanted to close and we had a really good afternoon. Ben and Beccy are still really interested in the exhibits, even thought they have seen a number of them before, and the Launchpad exhibition (for which we had to queue for over 20 minutes) was probably more interesting as they both had much more background knowledge of physics than they had before and were able to answer questions about what was happening in each experiment. Ben and Brian had fun making handprints on different surfaces for detection by a heat sensitive camera. They managed to make two prints that seemed to be hanging in the air, confusing to anyone who didn't know what they had done. After the museum we got the train back to Rochester and went to Blue Rays restaurant in the High Street for a lovely Chinese meal.

On Thursday we cycled to Rochester station and got the train to Victoria. We had to wait for a train with less people on it so that we had space for the bikes but this only meant waiting for the slow train (15 minutes). At Victoria we got a map of the London cycle routes from the travel information centre. it was completely useless and seemed to have missed all the routes we had intended to cycle. So we headed out onto the roads and across Lambeth Bridge. From these we were able to cycle along the Thames Path towards Waterloo and the South Bank. We had tickets for the IMAX cinema so we locked the bikes in the cycle racks outside and went in to watch 'Fly Me to the Moon', an animated 3D film about three bugs that stowed away in Apollo 11. There was a message from Buzz Aldrin at the end of the film assuring us that no 'contaminants' had gone to the moon, in case we were at all worried (didn't mention the human contaminants but perhaps they don't count!) After the film we cycled along to the Millenium Bridge and then back along the Thames on the other side. At Westminster we had to cycle the one way system with the traffic. Both children coped really well and we were soon back at the station. From Victoria, Brian and Ben raced home. The race was clearly too much for Brian, who was rather pale and sick looking afterwards. Beccy and I cycled leisurely and called into the shop for some supplies for dinner on the way home. It was a good day.

Our final family outing for half term was to the Odeon at the dockyard to see Slumdog Millionaire. Beccy stood on tiptoes to help her look old enough for a 15 film. We all enjoyed the film and it raised a number of really good questions from the children about slums and the exploitation of the poor. Of course, Ben has seen this first hand from his trip to South Africa in 2007, from which he learnt a great deal, but it was reasonably new to Beccy.

Ben and his poker nights

As his birthday treat, Ben wanted to invite a number of friends round to play poker for money (they are all 16 now after all). In the end there were 7 of them. They played until around 2 or 3 in the morning and Nathan and Rob both won most of the money (we have taken both these boys on holiday and showed them how to play poker - hope we haven't taught them bad habits - and wonder how the luck missed Ben!) All stayed the night and got very little sleep but still four of them managed to get to hockey practice at 10 the next morning!

As they had all enjoyed the night, Ben was asked to organise another one and he had six friends round a couple of weeks later for the same again. This time we moved Beccy into our room so that the noise didn't keep her up all night. Apparently neither of our neighbours heard anything so maybe they weren't making as much noise as I had thought. It was a good idea to make them all sleep downstairs though!

Other things that have been happening in February are Applied A level marking, this went without any major problems, and some research into my family history. I started to get into tracing my immediate family and started with Mum's side (easier than Dad's as they are all in England and Wales). I managed to trace them back to all 16 of my great-great-great grandparents on Mum's side and, at the same time, found some interesting things about what life might have been like, including the number of people who went into service in local houses, and both great grandfathers who fought in the First World War. Both received the British, Victory and Star medals for bravery. Ernest Seymour was killed in action in July 1916 but Ronald Cole managed to survive the war. I also found Sarah Hadaway (my great-great grandmother) who was born in Kent, married a local farmer, and was widowed at 23 with two children under the age of two. within four years of becoming a widow she remarried in Yorkshire. How did she get to Yorkshire in the 1870s with two small children? I also found Margaret Paget (another great-great grandmother) who, after being widowed, supported the family by becoming a coal merchant, how hard must that have been? I want to do some more investigation and try to find out more about life at this time, also to find all the family on Dad's side at least as far back.

Other notable events

Beccy captained the school girls football team in the district schools football tournament. They won a couple of matches but suffered from having had no practice as most of them had not wanted to play. She seemed to enjoy it. Luckily it was on a Tuesday and I was able to watch the last two games they played.

Beccy has started to train at the athletics club once a week and will be encouraged to enter a number of races, both cross country in the winter and track in the summer. She is a good runner and, hopefully she will enjoy it.

Both children continue to play their respective instruments, Ben the piano and Beccy the drums, although increasingly they seem to be swapping over with each taking a greater interest in the other's instrument.

Brian's business is holding its own so far. They have been able to pay the wages for the last two months and there seems to be enough work at the moment. So far, so good.

Dan has been offered a new post with Transport for London which he has accepted. This is a promotion and hopefully will be an enjoyable one. He is now a councillor on the parish council as well as the UK expert in his engineering field on the European standards committee and the British standards committee. As far as I know, he has finished contributing to a book edited by someone at Sheffield University and we are looking forward to seeing it when it is published (although, I suspect, few of us will understand it technically). Three children to be immensely proud of, not to mention a daughter in law, who seems to be a totally natural mother, and a beautiful grandson. Couldn't ask for more!