Birthday with Rod

And yes, I mean "Rod", not "Rhod". "Rod" as in "Rod Stewart", or at least a Rod Stewart impersonator! Oh yes, what a fabulous way to spend a birthday that happens to fall on a Saturday.

By pure good fortune, one of the local pub/ hotels called The Roebuck was hosting a Rod Stewart tribute evening this night, which included a 3-course dinner and the aforementioned entertainment for a bargain £24.95/ person. We decided to make it a Girls Night out in lieu of a more formal Christmas dinner, so in the end there were about 30 of us ladies who are mothers or somehow affiliated with Danehill School.

I did manage to take a few pictures, although they are not the greatest! Anyway, it was a really fun evening.

Bad Bully Blues

Today was the Kestrels' hosted school assembly with the theme of Anti-Bullying.
Kestrels is Rhiannon's class, years 5 and 6 together with Mrs G-J. Since I was working from home this day, I was able to go along and watch it. What a treat! They acted out scenes with bullies and the bullied, and then asked the audience mid-scene for ideas on how to use "the power of good" to change the situation. Kids from the younger years of the school volunteered their ideas, and then the scene actors would choose one of the ideas and then use it to finish the scene, acting impromptu! It was truly heartwarming to watch this, both in terms of the ideas coming from the younger kids and also the nimbleness of the actors to make things up on the spot.

But the best bit was the song that they performed at the end, called "Bad Bully Blues".
I didn't attempt to record this on my phone, but I wish I had a copy to share here. I hope to get a copy in weeks or months to come and then update or submit a new posting. What made it so special was that James (Zoey's dad) wrote the song especially for this event after discovering that there were no good anti-bullying songs out there on the internet for kids to learn and sing. So he wrote one and then the Kestrels class has been practicing it all week.

Here are the lyrics to Bad Bully Blues:

I know you stole my lunchbox 
And you filled it up with glue 
You said my hair looked stinky 
And you locked me in the loo 

You kicked me in the corridor 
Where no one else could see 
But the fact remains and will not change 
You just can't bully me 

Maybe you remember something 
Very very bad 
You never told a soul 
And even now it makes you sad 

Maybe someone picked on you 
And made you feel a wuss 
But the fact remains and will not change 
You just can't bully us 

I feel lonely 
I feel sad 
I feel like hurting 
And do-----ing 
Something bad 

One day did someone turn on you 
And make you feel small? 
You didn't want to face the world 
You curled up in a ball 

You think the pain will go away 
If you just pass it through 
But the fact remains and will not change 
We won't be hurt by you 

I feel lonely 
I feel sad 
I feel like hurting 
And do-----ing 
Something bad 

Courage 
Forgiveness 
Humility 
Respect 
Perseverance 
Honesty 
Friendship 
Love 

So why not talk to someone 
Share the pain that's in your heart? 
A teacher or a grown-up 
Knows that listening is an art 

There's not a single one of us 
Who's not felt pain that's tremendous 
I know this rhyme is awful 
But what matters is the simple fact

We need to help each other
And we won't be hurt by you 
Or anyone 
Or anything 
Ever 
Ever 
Ever 
Ever

Dans le noir?

As part of my birthday celebration this year, Rhodri and I went for dinner last night at this restaurant called Dans le noir? in London, where you are waited on by blind people, dine in total darkness eating surprise menus and are seated at family style tables. A colleague had told me about this place and I was so intrigued that I had to talk Rhodri into coming with me and making a date out of it!

Rhodri met me at work in Westminster and we went for happy hour with my colleagues Bala, Vicki and Gill - none of whom had ever met Rhods, so that was special in itself! We took the tube, walked and then hopped in a taxi in order to arrive by 7pm to the restaurant. We were greeted by a friendly host who sat us in a small table with comfy chairs after we put our bags, coats and phones into a locker. The welcome area is softly lit and serves as a staging place where people prepare to go into the dark, and where the menu is explained. Each person chooses either Vegetarian, Fish, Meat or Exotic surprise menus, and then chooses either 2 or 3 courses, or one of the more deluxe options that involve wine pairings etc.

So we both chose Exotic surprise menu with 2 courses (Rh - starter and main, L - main and dessert), and then when we were ready, our waiter was summoned and we headed to the entry passage. Gao was our waiter, and after meeting him we formed a train with right hand onto right shoulder of person in front (Gao-me-Rhodri). Gao told us that we would be joining a table that had a party of 3 ladies and a mixed party of 4 already seated, then led us to our chairs where we sat down. He then explained that we each had a knife and fork and napkin in front of us, as well as a tall glass for water. And then we were left to settle into the experience. 

It was so, so dark: absolutely pitch black with no hint of light anywhere. We didn't know how big the room was, where we were in the context on the room, or how many other people were there. We could hear other people talking, but without the visual cues to focus our ears, it was strangely disorienting and we couldn't tune into what anyone else was saying (which normally is easy to do, especially for Rhodri).  But at the same time it was very relaxing to allow one sense to switch off and not pay any attention to one's appearance or to maintaining tidy restaurant manners. It was really difficult to use the knife and fork, and Rhods just used his fingers the whole time. But the food was delicious and indeed exotic! 

When it was all over, we went back out into the welcome lounge and relaxed on a sofa to study the menu that showed pictures and included descriptions of what we just ate: Kangaroo with giant couscous, Zebra with green beans, Cobia (type of fish) with mushrooms and baby carrots. The starter that Rhodri had was some seafood tempura in a saffron sauce, and the dessert that I had was champagne-soaked quince with rhubarb mousse, vanilla meringue and blackberries on a bed of crumbs. All very interesting food sensations! We decided that it would be fun to reproduce this experience back at Chalfonts so that the kids could enjoy. Anyway, it was a great evening and a memorable birthday present.

Autumnal loveliness

Right now we have such beautiful autumn colors in the trees across the landscape. I love this time of year, and this part of the world does seem to have nice long autumn season with leaves turning very slowly.

Today I took Rhiannon to Sunday morning hockey, and also brought Bentley with us so that he and I could go for a little scamper. Bents doesn't do much running with me anymore, but today was just so gorgeous I figured we could just trot slowly and see what happened. We started running and came into this section of woodland that was just so pretty I had to run back to the car to get my camera.

In fact, the view from our bedroom is quite nice these days too...

Halloween 2016

We had a pretty straightforward Halloween tonight, but it was good.
For the past two years we have not gone trick or treating, so we pretty much had to this year. We mobilized at Sophie and Oscar's house and set out on foot from there to cover Danehill.

Here are Sophie, Blythe, Rhiannon, then Oscar, Joe, Sam and Tryfan... a fearsome lot! Kids here dress up really scary instead of random and funny as in the US. But whatever. We ended up splitting into two groups - boys and girls - and this was way better actually.

Rugby season

Today was the normal Sunday sports where Tryfan goes to rugby and Rhiannon goes to hockey, but hockey finished before rugby, so Rhi and I went to watch Tryfan play.

Tryfan gesturing "Seriously, Ref?!" (T is #11)

Tryfan about to tackle a guy

T on the ground after tackling someone

It was a gorgeous day, and although I didn't stay the whole time I did get to see him do some good rugby playing. Rhiannon stayed, though, and came home with the boys afterwards.

The Bentley Scare

This summer when we were up in Stehekin and Sioned was housesitting for us, we had a really nasty scare with Bentley. Actually, it was Sioned who had the really nasty scare with him since she was the one with him at the time. It was a Sunday afternoon (August 7th) and she had taken him out of a normal walk out in the forest across the road. The weather was warm - in the high 80s - but not crazy hot. Anyway, he collapsed in the middle of the forest and poor Sioned was in a remote section and couldn't carry him herself, so needed to try and find someone to help which turned out to be really difficult. To make a very long and tense story short, Bentley very nearly died that day. In the end, she was able to get a family to help her carry Bents back to the house where she put him in the car and drove to the emergency vet (who ended up being Bentley's normal vet). Our neighbor Charles kindly dropped what he was doing that afternoon and went with her in the car too. The vet was able to stabilise him and he slowly came back to life. It turns out that his larynx spazzed out and he couldn't breathe, but they never figured out what triggered it.

Since we were 8 hours time difference behind and in such a remote part of the world, it was actually really crazy that Sioned and I were able to communicate at all. It was quite a coincidence that led me to even check my email that morning, since I had vowed to not do any computer work while up in Stehekin. But as it turns out, I had to turn on my computer to try and pay a toll from a few days previous, and as I waited for this toll thingy to register, I downloaded my email and saw that there was an urgent email from my friend Emma, who is also Charles' sister-in-law, asking me to call Sioned.

Of course I couldn't call Sions because there are no phones in Stehekin, but since we both have iPhones, I realised that we could use the WiFi to text back and forth, and then when I got to a different WiFi area, I was actually able to call her using FaceTime Audio. Wow, technology!  Rhodri, meanwhile, was on a boys fishing trip all day so he was blissfully unaware of all this drama.

There was a 30 minute period in there between conversations with Sioned when the vet was going to remove the tube in his larynx and see if Bentley remained stable or went downhill again. If he had gone downhill, that was going to be goodbye. I made my peace with that scenario during that period, but I'm awfully glad that he remained stable and eventually improved. But poor Sioned was very deeply traumatised by the whole episode and spent the next several days by Bentley's side, not willing to leave him for longer than a few minutes.

We are incredibly grateful to Sioned for the care and love she gave to Bentley during this time.
Here she is reunited with him this week.

Auntie Sions in town

Auntie Sions came to visit for a few days, and it was so nice to have her here. I was mostly working this week, but I was able to sneak away for a bit every day and of course in the evenings we all got to hang out together.
Today we all went to play laser tag in Crawley, just the five of us. It was really fun!

Love these photos - thanks Auntie Sions

More from the Gower

Rhiannon took some photos of our camping trip as well, so I thought I'd share them here:

Car packed to the gills with Rhi and Aggie

Honor, Rhi, Sophie and Aggie with me mid-photo bomb

 
 We all worked together to set up the wood stove and it went pretty well

What it looked like inside the lavvo!

Girls in the Gower

We went on a Girls Camping trip the past 4 days with just me and Leigh and our daughters. We drove most of the day on Saturday to get to Slade in the Gower peninsula of Wales, and that didn't leave much daylight to get the tent set up and dinner cooked, but we managed somehow!

This is the campsite we stayed at: http://www.easternsladecampsite.freeservers.com/
and as you can see from the photo of our pitch, it was soooo gorgeous. There were a couple other parties camping in this field, but it was pretty small and primitive, and it is late October so not too many people choose to go camping this time of year!

Agnes, Rhiannon, Sophie, Honor, me and Leigh on Our Beach (aka Sands Bay)

 And here is our location over two maps...

On Sunday we met up with Nia, Gabi and Val for the afternoon, and we all went for a walk at Rhossili which was so beautiful and wonderful!

Aggie, Rhiannon, Val and Gabi

Getting down to Our Beach the fun way

We camped for 3 nights and had the woodburning stove installed for the last 2 of them. What a game changer! So nice to be cozy in the tent in the evening and also to build a fire in the morning while everyone is still mostly asleep in their bags, and to brew the tea and hot chocolate on the stove. We played Cluedo and Blackjack, read the paper, sang, chatted, and laughed a lot. It was a great weekend although it is also very nice to be back home tonight!

Tryfan turns 9

Today is Tryfan's 9th birthday.
The big present that we got him, and which he had asked for several times was a .... wait for it.... a ... an electric blanket! He said he really wanted one to go on his bed so that his bed would be all cozy when he got into it at night. We thought it was hilarious that he wanted this, but because he kept talking about it of course we had to get it for him. But then today when he actually unwrapped this prize gift, he said that he had been joking and he didn't actually want it! So that was sad and weird, but anyway he got other lovely gifts like the board game Parcheesi, a couple of books he had been wanting, and most of all the Liverpool Football Club away kit. Here he is sporting the new lime green and grey uniform.

Anyway, at a full 9 years of age, Tryfan is:
- a very good listener, often a stealthy listener who we don't realize is actually there listening because he is so quiet.
- very chatty, sometimes annoyingly so! He seems to have a comment or opinion about everything these days
- quite literal and enjoys playing with words
- really into sports, especially football (soccer) and rugby
- always leaving at least one of his items whenever he goes somewhere. He has misplaced 5 school jumpers already this year, and its only October!
- really into reading (still), though now he has started reading the Sports section of the newspapers every chance he gets
- a stickler for abiding by rules. He gets really upset when people do illegal things (esp during sports) and can get quite emotional at the unfairness of a referee's call, for example. But he is working on that...
- still very cuddly, and sleeps with at least 20 cuddly animal toys, including Kitty, Baby Kitty, Mama Kitty, and Blanks (his baby blanket)
- very sensitive and caring towards other people. When someone is hurt or down, he can comfort that person in a genuinely caring way, which is lovely to see.

We are so grateful to have Tryfan in our lives!

Sports in our lives

Rhiannon's netball team at East Grinstead Sports Centre

Now that this academic year is underway, we are in full swing of a new regime that involves plenty of after school activities for the kids and also us parents!

• Mondays are free with nothing arranged except yoga for me in the evening;
• Tuesdays are football and taekwondo for Tryfan and netball in the afternoon followed by more netball in the evening for Rhiannon and then Rhodri plays squash around the time Rhiannon's netball finishes;
• Wednesdays are multi-skills for both T & R in the afternoon with me playing squash in the evening;
• Thursdays are swimming for both T&R in the early evening; 
• Fridays are football in the afternoon for T & R and hosted/ coached by Rhodri. 
• Saturday mornings Tryfan has football in the afternoon Rhiannon has horse riding lessons, and finally Sunday mornings Tryfan has rugby and Rhiannon has hockey!

It sounds like a lot, and sometimes it feels like that too, but we are grateful to have several options for sports clubs around us and we all seem to enjoy having sports in our daily life.

Birthday party in the woods

Today we had Tryfan's birthday party, although his actual birthday isn't until Wednesday. Fortunately, the weather was on our side and it was a gorgeous autumnal afternoon. There were 18 kids in total and we split them into two teams (red and blue) and gave everyone a colored bandana to wear and keep.

We played a couple of rounds of Capture the Flag, then we took a break for hot dogs and other snacks, then we played the game where you eat donuts hanging from a string with no hands.

Food central with the roundhouse in the background. 

Finally we had a pinata and some cake, and then called it a day because the time was up! It was a fun party and everyone was stoked with their bandanas.

Visitors from Norway

This week we had Petter and his family come stay with us for a couple of nights. We hadn't seen them for several years (though we saw Petter in Feb when we went to Storlien) and it was really fun to have them here. Ole and Mia are the Petter and Berg's teenage kids, and they were so kind and playful with Rhiannon and Tryfan.

We all ate together here at Chalfonts on Tuesday night, then on Wednesday night we walked down to the Coach and Horses and had dinner there. Such a treat! 

Mia, Tryfan and Ole

Rhodri and Petter

I really enjoyed talking with Berg. Because her English vocabulary isn't as extensive as the rest of her family, we had some interesting conversations that involved using more thought and deliberation for the vocabulary in it. Sounds weird, but it was really nice to be thoughtful and think carefully about different ways of expressing ideas. Anyway, we had a lovely time together and we are grateful that they came to be with us!

Found treasure

Aunt Judy found this photo in her archives and sent it to me today.
This is from Heidi and John's wedding in 2012, when Tryfan was 4 years old.
Isn't it precious?

Something different

I invited some colleagues from work over to my house to celebrate the end of Q3. This was something new for me because I've historically kept my distance from people at work. But I'm trying to be a bit more social so I went out of my comfort zone and invited 6 people over, including my current manager Adnane and my former manager Lyndsey. Paul, Chris, Vicki and Bala also came over.

 It was for the most part, a gorgeous starry night. But we had a few episodes of massive clouds coming through and dumping heavy showers of rain on us! In these moments we fled into the lavvu (tipi), which I had set up for this purpose. We had a good campfire going and we roasted marshmallows and just chatted.

It was a fun night that was made extra fun because Tryfan and Rhiannon were there. I had planned to lock them away (or rather, bribe them to stay in their rooms), but actually my friends seemed to enjoy talking and joking with them so we all just stayed together. They resisted a little bit when i asked them to put themselves to bed at 9:45pm, but they did it all the same and I was so proud of them!

Visiting schools

Rhiannon has to name her preferences on secondary schools by the end of October, so now is the season to go around visiting them. In reality we are only visiting two schools: Chailey and UCTC. Both are good schools - "state schools" they are called here, meaning "public schools" in Ameri-speak.

Both schools had open evenings on consecutive nights, so we were a little gang of parents and prospective students that toured around Chailey on Tuesday night and then UCTC on Wednesday night.

Rhodri's birthday was Tuesday, and he was Not Stoked to be spending it at the Chailey open evening, but this was for one night only so we had to go. Anyway, we tried to make the best of it.

Heading back home

Sadly this weekend came to an end all too shortly and we had to drive home this afternoon after lunch. Nevertheless, it was a real treat to spend time up here in North Wales and for the kids to be able to hang out with their grandparents. 

Tryfan got some new goalie gloves which he is showing off in front of the flowers

 Our drive home was shorter and we were grateful for that.

Grade 3 scrambling course

We drove up to North Wales this weekend, leaving Friday morning because we needed to get up there by Friday afternoon. In reality, we ended up getting stuck in the worst traffic ever so the journey took nearly 10 hours rather than the 5.5 or 6 that it should take. Oh well. Since the motorway was at a standstill, we headed into Birmingham and took quite an educational route through the inner city! There are no sari shops in our part of Sussex - that's for sure. Anyway, we eventually made it to Nain and Taid's house and were treated to a lovely dinner.

Saturday morning Rhodri and I headed for the hills to meet our Instructor for the day - a man called Graham. It was a little messy getting going because we took two cars and had a really hard time finding a parking spot along Llanberis pass, and the day was wearing on. But we got going eventually and hiked up to the cliff that is in the top right of the photo below (the one with just Rhodri).

Today we learnt about Grade 3 scrambling. I didn't know this was an actual thing with a name, but its what Grandma Bucky would call going through a "tricky section" of a path in the mountains where all of a sudden you have to use your arms and your legs in order to get from A to B. These are the sections that can be pretty dodgy unless you have ropes and harnesses and all that. And all that is what we had on this day! In fact, the whole point was to learn how and when to use ropes and belays and protection. In other words, how to get from A to B through tricky sections and sometimes even scary little cliffy sections while protecting yourselves from getting hurt.

Rhodri and Graham

 Although the morning was pretty overcast, the weather improved as the day went on, so while we were on Crib Goch ridge near Snowdon, it was just stunning landscape around us.

Looking down at the cliffy section that we scrambled up

On the Crib Goch ridgeline looking across to the other ridge

Back down the mountain, done for the day

Once we got back down to the car, we drove over to Beddgelert to have dinner at the Saracen's Head and we met Nain, Taid, Rhiannon and Tryfan there. Perfect end to a great day!

Our famous Aunt Carol

This week in the Sunday Times magazine there was an article about Barbra Streisand and this photo caught my eye. Turns out this lovely lady next to Barbra IS actually my fabulous Aunt Carol!

First day of school

And the new school year starts today! Rhiannon is in Year 6 - her final year of primary school (!!!) - and Tryfan is in Year 4.

They were both really excited to see their friends again and get this year started.

Girl and Dog

Rhiannon took this photo of herself with Bentley using her new precious iPod touch, and she sent it to me while I was at work.
Every time I look at this photo, it makes me smile!

Getting ready for rugby season

Tryfan is getting ready for rugby season to start, and since they are going to be doing actual tackling rather than just tagging, he needs some kit. 

Here he is with his new mouthguard and scrum cap!

I love how sweet Tryfan looks in his rugby cap and uniform here - not at all a big fierce tackling rugby guy, just a really sweet 8 year old.