Has anyone seen a mouse?

Duet

To the zoo

We visited http://www.hamertonzoopark.com/ today, it was a good idea of Ellen's and I'm glad we went but.... not the greatest Zoo we've visited, at least not for kids. The website homepage features a cheetah in full sprint, the reality was mainly small nocturnal primates, birds and reptiles and a handful of cheetahs, tigers and donkeys. My favorite were the Vultures and Maribou Storks, the Maribou Storks were the most magnificently ugly birds I've ever seen. Apparently they hang around rubbish dumps and slaughter houses in Africa and considering they were almost as tall as me and were eyeing up Leon as a possible snack, I wouldn't like to meet them without the fence between us. Amazing to look at. Leon was more interested in pretending to be stuck in pretend mud, I think he liked the ring tailed Lima's when I pointed out they were like his cuddly pal Leroy we got at Amersfoort Zoo.
It was a reasonably fun day, I doubt we'll go back there, I wouldn't recommend it really. I like zoos with petting areas, visible keepers and a bit more imagination in presenting the animals. After all, their main target audience, kids, need to be drawn in. It was nice spending the day together with Ellen and Dan, as always. They are about to go and enjoy their 70th Birthday present to each other, so we won't see them for a short while. We went back to their's late afternoon and I sussed out a Hotwheels racing track Ellen had found in Oxfam for Leon and managed to put it together so it folded up properly. Me and Tobe had more fun racing as it was intended but Leon spent ages in his pretend world sending out repair vehicles and rescuing cars, it's really fun to watch him play.
Reuben is ever more getting about crawling now, he can pull himself up to kneeling and occasionally standing. I got some pictures of him standing by the pond, similar to some pictures we did of Leon at the same age.

Reuben in the same out fit, same age as Leon

Beep!

Reuben's getting up!

Leon at 10 months

Bat for Lashes

Tob and I went to see Bat for Lashes at the Junction in Cambridge this evening, thanks to a ticket that Sue couldn't use so she sold it to me and I bought another one for Tob. Tob hadn't heard of Bat for Lashes and at first did consider letting me go on my own but he said he enjoyed it in the end. For me, as someone who used to work in a venue similar in size to the Junction and would go to gigs about twice a week for most of the 90's mainly in Utrecht but also regularly in Amsterdam and Eindhoven, I had all sorts of expectations and observations having not been to a gig of this size since....ohhh....let me think...Lamb at the Kentish Town Forum in....2002, I think. Since then, smoking has stopped and camera phones have come in. The cloakroom was 2 quid per item so that was another £4 and tob spent over a fiver on a coke and a pint of piss/lager. Considering the audience just get to stand around, somebody must be doing pretty well out of venues like the Junction. The biggest difference was the lack of smoke, in fact the only smell I could smell was that smell you can smell when you walk past a Lush shop in a shopping centre.

The support act were really good. If Stereolab and the Cocteau Twins had...triplets they would be the two lovely looking girls and floppy haired bloke on guitar. Very nice. Then half hour wait and on came Natasha Kahn and her band, Bat for Lashes. The drummer was really really good, very Budgie like and...a little young lady about 19 in a little black dress. There was a girl on guitar and bass who also did backing vocals and a bit of percussion and keyboards, very accomplished musician, I'd say her bass playing was the weakest point but other than that a very good musician. There was a bloke on Keyboards, lucky bloke, some would say. It was nice to see a really quality band with one bloke rather than the usual ratio with one woman.

Natasha was sweet, dignified and much older than her years both in the way she's written some amazing tunes and in the way she carries herself. About 4 songs in someone shouted 'Stephen!' to which the reply 'Just coming' rippled through the audience, myself included. Natasha said there had been so many 'Stephens' and she was thinking of introducing a penalty. I think I will email Adam and Joe and report this 'Stephen' event to them.

Since having children and coming to the conclusion so often that I can hear something new and interesting then spend ages going through it naming the influences I can hear - no bad thing - It all goes back to someone, all the greats were influenced by other greats that came before them. I have invented a system (preview earlier in the post) where I work out the family tree. For example I worked out that Bat for Lashes, or rather Natasha Kahn in my head this is, was a result of a passionate affair between Kate Bush and Mick Kahn while they were working on Sensual World (Mick plays bass on some of the tracks you will hear). They have Natasha as a love child and make Budgie, Tori Amos and Sinead O'Connor god parents. Mick invites his mates Robert Smith and Robin Guthrie round for beer while he's looking after the little Natasha as she plays on her ELC dulcimer, they listen to records like Hawkwind, Pink Floyd and Kraftwerk. Then the little Natasha grows up to be the fabulous, beautiful accomplished musician she is now, Mercury Price nominee at the age of 17 bla bla bla.

The first time I adopted this method of describing bands was when Muse appeared on the scene back in 2001. I thought if Queen, Radiohead and Bethoven had a love child.... and it went on from there.

Christine and the boys on the bike

Easter Sunday

Woke up grumpy, I wanted to have woken up earlier but by 9am realised it would be a stretch to get showered, dressed nicely, get the boys dressed, make a picnic and load the car up for a day out by 10.30. I was right, we left about 11.10 having driven out of the drive way twice, first because I'd forgotten to change Leon before we left then second, I'd forgotten Reuben's muslin cloth. Then I left the keys inside and when Tob left me in the car with my head in my hands, informed me when he returned with my keys that I'd left the front door wide open. Not a great start. The boys fell asleep nicely as planned and I put the ipod on, first selecting Art Brut (imagine Sonic Youth and Carter had a love child in about 1990 and made Mark E Smith and Jarvis Cocker God parents). Then picked Arcade Fire, then Carter USM. Tob pointed out that I kept picking angry music. I realised this wasn't helping and finally settled on some early Cure which did the trick. The journey through Norfolk was nice, we didn't see any sun really all day but it didn't rain so nuff said about the weather. Bressingham Gardens and Steam Railway Centre was our destination for the day; an Easter gift from Ellen and Dan and a very impressive place it was too. First point we stopped was a picnic bench right in front of a beautiful Victorian Steam Merrygoround. The steam organ played a medley of Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang songs and I felt so happy and moved it was as much as I could do not to start blubbering as I thought about how much I'd loved riding the horses on merrygorounds just like this one as a child and now I was riding a horse with my 2 year old son who was completely in love with the ride as I had been. He must have gone on half a dozen times after our first ride. I love the music from Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I think if the music had been from The Wizard of Oz I'd have probably collapsed blubbering with joy and nostalgia. Lucky for us all it wasn't. We spent the day going on steam trains, walking through locomotive sheds, admiring trains and walking around the grounds. The place was buzzing without being too busy so it was a perfect day really. To top it all off I spotted an Ivor the Engine section in the gift shop and bought Leon some Jones the Steam socks, an Ivor story book (the dragon story) and when I showed Toby the Ivor mugs saying how much I'd love one but couldn't really justify buying one, he bought it me as an Easter present. So all in all a good day out. On the way home, Reuben shouted and blew raspberries with a twinkle in his eye (he's such a happy chappy) and Leon winged about more chocolate milkshake, in fairness, he was hungry judging by how quickly he ate his tea when we got home.

Half way through Easter

Good Friday, the last thing I expected was that I'd be gayly pushing Reuben and Leon on the swings at 9.30am while the sun shined. Me with the boys on the bike with trailer and Tob had cycled down to the swimming pool, only to find it didn't open until 10am, it was sunny and mild and half an hour in the play park went by in a flash. We all had a lovely swim, highlights included Leon jumping in and landing in the water without being caught, coming up to the surface and swimming to the side numerous times with then without armbands (with tummy band vest). We cycled back home, Reuben crashed for a couple of hours sleep, Leon and I crashed on the sofa and slept through finding Nemo and Tob played Wow. Then Tob cut the grass and I did some gardening well into when it finally started raining. Considering heavy rain was forecast all day, the sun only went in about 2pm and the rain didn't start until about 4pm.

Leon must have caught a tummy bug at some point because we had histrionic nappy changing sore bum complaining just before bedtime, then a long and drawn out not wanting to go to bed and finally when he got into bed, he was sick all over the bed, himself, miffy, then me and the bedroom floor. Having changed us all and the bed, I went back up to check on him only to find him being sick all over the clean duvet. I managed to confine it to the duvet so I only had to replace the duvet. He ended up sleeping under a double duvet from the spare room while the rest duvets and all have all since gone through a 60 wash and gone in the drier - this is one of the handfull of times I get to use the drier we have stashed in the garage. I said if I never used the drier, we'd get rid of it but it definitely has its uses. Leon was back today in his bed with clean everything fresh out of the drier. I'm still working my way through the back log of washing.

Last night saw the return of Red Dwarf. A brand new series, I watched with interest but other than the fact I will probably watch this new series, I'm not really impressed. It's like Mr Kiplings cakes, they are really not that nice but you just can't help eating them if they are put in front of you.

Today, I wanted to get into town early like we'd done yesterday but it didn't work out the same. Reuben showed signs of needing a bottle and a bed about 9am, earlier than usual, so I obliged him and woke him up to go into town about 11am. He was happy to be woken and the boys were both happy to go into town in the back of the car. Again, the forecast yesterday was rain all day which is why we drove but it stayed dry. The traffic jam into Waitrose carpark went quickly while we sang old macdonald to the boys and Leon made up the animals. We had tractors (of course) then cows, tigers, caterpillars, monkeys, bunnys and crocodiles I recall.

Leon is really good in town now, without pushchair, he'll hold our hands and cooperate pretty much most of the time. He's very helpful in Waitrose and will fetch and carry with instructions. In the library, Reuben demonstrated his readiness to start cruising and I am beginning to suspect he might skip crawling and go straight to walking. He has started commando crawling (belly etc) but he pulls himself up on everything he can. So cruising will be the answer I suspect.

On our return home, this time after lunch, first Leon went to bed, then Toby, then Reuben leaving me to watch Finding Nemo, do a bit more gardening and chill out. Suddenly it was 4pm and I'd promised Sue I'd pop round with Dylans birthday present and pick up details to pick up our Bat for Lashes concert ticket for Monday in Cambridge I'm buying off her because she can't go. I could hear Reuben had woken up so I went into each bedroom one by one, first Leon's to open the curtains and say rise and shine! we are going out! then our room, where Toby lay tucked up, then Reuben's, opening all three sets of curtains. Within minutes we were on our way to Sue's where we spent the rest of the afternoon chatting with Sue and Jame's and Sue's mum while Leon played out in the garden with Dylan and Edward and Reuben made his way round their living room floor finding things he wasn't supposed to eat like newspapers, Dylan's books he got for his birthday etc.

The boys are both in bed, Doctor Who is waiting on Sky+, Tob is cooking a stir fry and the chocolate nests I made for tomorrow's outing to Bressingham are cooling in the fridge.

must buy creme eggs

http://tinyurl.com/cdn8wu

Count down to Easter, I've even cut down on the amount of chocolate I consume so I will enjoy my egg all the more.

I have an interview the end of the month for a part time post at the tourist information office in Ely. Fingers crossed. I absorb facts, especially historical so I'd be in the right place. As much as anything else I will become a font of knowledge on all the things to do with kids round here which will be no bad thing.

Last Sunday we were on our way to Anglesea Abbey for a walk when we stopped by in the centre of Ely, where to our delight, we found a collection of vintage cars and tractors on the Market place. Leon had a fantastic time riding tractors. I love the smell of engines, I have no idea why but even going in the shed in our garden, I take a moment to savor the smell of the lawn mower. I hate the smell of petrol at petrol stations but engines and bikes I love. At Anglesea Abbey we had a sunny afternoon and I managed to pick up half a dozen knocked down hellebores and half a dozen other herbs and flowers, mainly for the front garden. The front garden is my project for this year, I figure we see more of the front garden all year round so lets make it as pretty as possble. The back garden is pretty much established and really just needs maintaining. Which reminds me, I should ask Toby to mow the lawn this weekend, Easter or not.