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!

January

We saw the new year in with Claire, Nathan, Alli and Mum. The first day of the year was quiet and uneventful.

Saturday 3rd January 2009

Alexander made his very first visit to Grandma and Grandad's house at the age of 12 days and had hugs from us all. Nan Tid (94) visited and held him for a while.

Sunday 4th January 2009

Scouts New Year Walk. Brian, Ben and Beccy walked from Borstal Cricket Club around Nashenden Valley, past Starkey Castle and back along the river to the club. I joined them on the river bank and walked the last bit with them having been out rowing before then.

Friday 9th January 2009 to Sunday 11th January 2009

Ben and Beccy both went to Scout Winter Camp at Gilwell Park in temperatures of down to minus 7 and sleeping in tents! Both enjoyed it despite the cold and joined in the activities such as climbing, crafts, trampolining and shooting games. After dropping the children off on Friday, I went to Dan and Helen's for a nice dinner and a cuddle with Alexander.

Monday 12th January 2009

Went to Maidstone Film society showing of Ruby Blue with a question and answer session with its director, Jan Dunn. Film was worth a watch.

Wednesday 14th January 2009

Beccy went with her school to the David Beckham Academy where she learned about sport physiotherapy, team building and football skills. The day ended with a big tournament, Beccy's team, France, came third. Some team members were: Lauren (coach), Tom Welch, Ricky Bainbridge, Louise Kemp, Will, Scott and another Lauren.

Saturday 17th January 2009

I felt nervous even though I had support there to cheer me on all the way. Even one of my teachers from school came to watch and cheer me on! I woke up at around 8:30am. I was excited but nervous at the same time. You know how it is when you feel horrible and nervous but so very excited at the same time. I got out of bed, and straight away got changed. I went downstairs to have a nice healthy breakfast, knowing how important it was to stay healthy and energised. We got into the car to go and pick up my Granma. Everyone came to watch; Mum, Dad, Granma. Ben couldn’t come because he had tennis. We were on our way up to Mote Park and I was sitting in the back, singing along to my ipod. We eventually got there. Straight away I went searching for my friend, Jess, who was also competing. Eventually I found her. After the year 7 boy’s race, it was our turn. We walked up to start line, I was really nervous, and then we started. I ran straight to the front of the pack. But by the time I got to the bottom of the first hill I was in the middle of all the runners. Halfway round the track I managed to do something to my shoulder. It was extremely painful. I managed to do a sprint finish at the end and I went so fast my mum couldn’t even take a picture. (She couldn’t of taken one anyway because she had the camera upside down!)
Overall I came 59th out of 114 runners, which I consider quite good. Better than that I came 2nd out of the Medway runners! My friend Jess came 73rd, which is also good for a sprinter! When I finished my shoulder was so painful and I couldn’t move it. We went home and I rested it until we had to go out again to watch Ben’s tennis match.

Posted by Beccy Stroud.

Saturday 24th January 2009

Brian and Karen went to Shirley's 50th birthday party in New Eltham. Many of Brian's shooting friends there.

Saturday 31st January 2009

Brian and Karen went to the rowing club annual dinner, the first in the new clubhouse. we had a lovely meal - salmon gravlax, beef bourgignon, cheesecake and coffee - all served hot and professionally from a kitchen with only a portable burner and electric urn. Loads of wine, good company, nice evening.

Notable events:

Ben is now helping at Gravesham tennis club as assistant to the coach and will start his coaching training soon.

Beccy has made arrangements to join Medway and Maidstone Athletics Club with a view to training in middle distance running.

Ben has been identified as gifted and talented for English and PE. Beccy has been identified as gifted and talented for Music.

Brian's business is going fine except for some competition from a new company selling and servicing Apple computers in Maidstone.

Karen has been nominated for an award for innovation in teaching (e-learning) at work.

We have so far survived three months of winter with no central heating. The log burner gets lit most, but not all, days and has so far kept the house at a reasonably comfortable temperature. The lounge gets quite warm (up to 25 deg) and the bedrooms stay between 13 and 15 deg at all times. So far, so good.