Sunday 28 June 2015

Airkix Take 3 - the week of the birthdays begins!

Yes - here we are again - at the start of the the mad birthday week.

Today Ben had his treat - back to the old favourite - skydiving at Airkix 
{ see 2012  2014 for Airkix Takes 1 and 2}

If you look back - you can see just how much he has grown in the past 3 years -
and to be honest he found it hard to control his flight this year - 
it must be those long, long legs!

But it was still a huge hit!




We popped next door to the Trafford Centre
were Ben was yet again entranced by Hamleys
{ he got a little flying saucer remote control toy }
and he was rather impressed by this larger than life lego Darth Vader!


Saturday 27 June 2015

Stratford and Leicester on a Saturday {Othello at the RSC}

An early morning start - picking up Megs from Jamies -
then a quick drive down to Stratford-upon-Avon.

Book shopping and a chippy lunch,
then sitting in the sun in Bancroft Gardens.








Ben saw a man selling bubble wands - 
unusually for him he took an interest and asked if he could buy one.
He went over and bought it himself  #lifeskills
and then had a fine time blowing giant bubbles.



As is now usual Ben spent a the rest of the afternoon in the cafe
whilst we watched Othello.





 A great, magical moment at the start, 
followed by brutality, 
some interesting comments on racism and class
and a really quite dangerous performance from Hugh Quarshie.

Sadly, however, the second half all fell rather flat,
so - half a great production.




Afterwards we drove up to Leicester, 
and had tea with Russell, Joyce and Lizzie
{great veggie lasagne Lizzie - student cooking skills put to good use! }
We hadn't seen them since Gill's funeral - good to catch up.






It was a long drive home and it was late when got back - 
these sort of days are good - but I think we need some quiet weekends too!


Tuesday 23 June 2015

Let It Go - A night with Idina Menzel

Almost exactly 6 months ago - Christmas Day 2014 -
Megs got her tickets to see Idina Menzel in concert.

It was worth the wait!


She opened with Defying Gravity -
she joked and got audience members up to sing -
she belted numbers as only she can -
she sang For Good as an acoustic - no backing - no mics -
she finished with Let it Go -
and got the whole audience to sing-a-long
and then encored Tomorrow

Great night!

Sunday 21 June 2015

Father's Day 2015

We'd promised Al's dad that we'd spend the afternoon with him -
so I only got to see my dad at Church.

BUT - he did have a cool card with a "Best Dad" badge -
PLUS - Jon and I bought him 2 new train books -
AND - I found this great photo from 1987 -
taken on Tanera Mor, one of the Summer Isles in the far north


{ growing up my dad took us on the best adventures }

Love you Dad!


 Meanwhile Al's dad had hurt his foot -
so Al had to dash off after church and spent the afternoon with him at the walk in centre

still - at least he had his lovely Star Wars socks as a present - "I am your Father!" }


Things did pick up after that -
we served high tea at Al's dad's house -

the teens and pre-teens were mostly enthralled by their tech....


but did smile nicely for some photos



At the end of the day -

we all love you Al - such a good dad to Megs and Ben :)






Saturday 13 June 2015

Two items of note


1. We found a  hedgehog when we went to pick Ben up from Scouts


2. He's still growing...

Sunday 7 June 2015

His last Chester Parade....



... with the 14th Methodist Scouts - next year he will be in Explorers.

After years of either heatwaves or torrential downpours -
at last - beautiful weather for a march -
or perhaps, looking at the photographs,
beautiful weather for an amble!



Nostalgia time - Ben's first Chester Parade in 2008!