Grandad's Trip to Mt Field

Grandad has been hassling all week to go to Mt Field...kept getting out the map and pointing to where he wanted to go, so in spite of some rain this morning (which brought a prolonged bout of what sounded like swearing from Grandad) we set out up the Derwent Valley (he very definitely said hooray when we said we would go anyway). He sits in the front passenger seat and keeps an eye on speed (dont go too fast or slow), what gear you are in and what lane you are in...it is very annoying. Stopped at his friend Ian's place for morning tea and to pick a couple of cases of Ian and Sue's wine (they have a few acres of vines) and then off to Mt Field. Grandad managed to walk most of the 1.3km track to the falls and back but we weren't allowed to hang about afterwards and had to come straight home.

Sue flies home in the morning - looks like I will have to get up VERY EARLY to take her to the airport. I am off home on Tuesday. With luck I will catch up with Ben for one last climb at the gym tomorrow

Dads trip to Tas

My dad has finally come home from hospital after 4 months so I have headed home to help him settle in and help mum for 3 weeks. Dad is doing well, still cant communicate very well but we are seeing small improvements. He can walk all the way along Blackmans Bay beach front (800m - he made us measure it in the car) with a couple of rests and a hot chocolate along the way! The biggest problem is stopping him wandering about...I took him to the tip with me to dipose of a trailer load of rubbish that Kim and Rob had left for me to get rid of - I was driving slowly and carefully and he indicated that I should go faster and do 100 on the highway at which point the trailer came off the towball and we had to pull up (no emergency lane). I got out to fix the trailer and by the time I got round the back of the landcruiser dad was out of the car and heading round to supervise. When we got to the tip he was out of the car as soon as we stopped. Mum tried to leave him in the car while she nipped in to the butchers and she found him trying to get in the door of the butchers as she left. He is a bit of a trial at times!
This is the back end of a seal that hangs around the fish punts in Constitution Dock picking up scraps, something for J and little M who saw him when they were here in January. Both kids a bit miffed that I didnt bring them with me!
Caught up with Ben and Heather - Heather is crewing this Sydney 38 called Asylum and invited me out for an afternoon race this week - if I can get away I am invited out for Saturday morning as well. It was great to be out on the water again after a very long time! Big M is coming over to Tas in september so I will ask Heather if she can go out with them while she is here. I am very stiff and sore, forgot how physical sailing is!

Easter

Another easter...is this the third in England? We went up to Norfolk with Ben and Maggi and stayed in a 3 bed unit at Horningtoft about 10 miles from the coast. Horningtoft is a beatiful village...3 houses, church, not even a pub. Took the kids for walks around the fields in the evening to see badger holes, weasel/stoat tracks, partridges. Drove up friday, we got away by 9:30 and a pretty clear run of about 2 hours to the coast with a stop at Castle Acre Priory. Maggi and Ben left an hour later and spent twice as long getting there in traffic.
We went to Wells-next-the-Sea which has a nice beach, but as on our previous visit (when little M had her arm in plaster) the weather (fine and sunny inland) was grey and freezing cold. A stiff onshore wind and water as cold as snow melt. Kids had a great time as always, but soon went blue so we headed off to the little house at Horningtoft. Great yard for them to play in so they wore themselves out.
Day 2 we went to see Godwick mediaeval village site...just some bumps and humps in a paddock but one of the 5 best abandoned mediaeval villages in Norfolk according to the sign. Appeared in the Domesday book and largely depopulated in the 1300s by plague so a fairly good ground plan remaining of how it would have looked. After that off the Castle Acre again to the Castle (ditches and earth banks for a picture - it is quite impressive from the air) and the Priory again. The priory was suppressed by Henry VIII as usual, so only a ruin but a very beautiful one. One of the better examples of a mediaeval monastic toilet block...about a 100 holer by the size of it.
Day 3 we went to Blakeney to see the Common Harbour Seals...about a 3.5 mile walk along a 'beach' to where the seals haul out on the sand. J's feet gave out and he hobbled back to the car with M, Maggi Ben and little M made it all the way to the seals which were worth the walk. A hundred or more seals on the sand spit. Little M was still going strong by the time we got back to the car after 7 miles of beach walking!
Tired grown ups and tired children...stopped at Castle Rising on the way home on Monday and then the girls all took to their beds when got back to Cambridge after their hard weekend!
This week has been a quiet week at home for them...we built trebuchet's on Wednesday (promised J cause M's class did this at school), Thursday they played all day with friends in the area...rioting up and down between the different houses in a big group of 8 kids and the same today. We will miss this aspect of Newnham Croft when we move from here. Looks like we have found somewhere to live on Gough Way about 1km from here. The kids will get more exercise getting to and from school! Only a couple of weeks before head home to see how dad is getting on...

More weekends

On weekend of 3 March we went to Oxford to visit friends. Kids all went iceskating which they thought was a complete blast - and fortuitously there is 'iceskating' on at the school this Friday. They come and coat the school hall floor with some substance which simulates ice. Both looking forward to that a lot!! Consequently little M has appropriated J's in line skates, as they are far more impressively like iceskating. Poor J has to line up for a new pair when his parents can afford it (they were getting too small). Big M really wants to try it, but rest of family is ganging up on her saying she will regret falling over a LOT. oh well. J has been sick with tonsilitis again, so quiet day at home today, bit of in line skating for little M and some playing with friends. J has another friend, also J, who came round and they did 'experiments' with all the excess bottles of bits and pieces I am gradually clearing out of the cupboards in anticipation of our move at end of June (where to, who knows we have to wait until closer to the date to get available properties). We are looking forward to hopefully having somewhere the plumbing and electrics might work (could be a faint hope) but not to moving!

Paxton Pits

After our recent emergency globetrotting it is time to start doing local things again...that means cheap. So we headed off to Paxton Pits nature reserve on Sunday for a short walk in the mud and a spot of bird watching. This is, as the name suggests, an old gravel quarry which has been rehabilitated as lakes. The quarry is still active and you walk past some of the workings.


Masses of waterbirds - we saw black cormorants and herons nesting, lots of swans, coots, moorhens, tufted ducks, wigeon, pochard and even (this is apparently quite exciting) some smew. This sounds like something awful out of one of little M's My Little Pony videos but is in fact a rather handsome black and white duck.



They occasionally get otters in the lakes but J was disappointed this time around. The day was rather cold and the ground was muddy in places but a pleasant walk all the same. Little M insisted on joining the Friends of Paxton Pits

Raptor Foundation

A weekend of cleaning for the old folk, although little M was busy, birthday party and 'International Thinking Day' - a girl guides thing on Saturday. Went over to Ben and Maggie's on Saturday evening for dinner. R had a horrendous hangover on Sunday morning for which he got absolutely no sympathy from M, so we went out the the Raptor Foundation at St Ives. This is mostly a bird rescue centre but they have a number of birds just for display...an awful lot of eagle owls which look they could eat a small child! Volounteers were helping the kids make bird boxes (so of course we now have 2 bird boxes!) They have a very interactive flying display and we all got to hold an owl. Back to school on Monday...

Vienna

Little Ms birthday wish was to see Pandas (J went to see otters at Shepreth) so we have been to the Tiergarten in Vienna (the closest Pandas to Cambridge other than Berlin). She invite one friend from school - which worked cos we mentioned it to them as a pie in the sky idea and they thought it a great idea so their whole family came too. It was great to get to know them better. A good time was had by all, although little M was a bit difficult at times.
The Pandas did the right thing and ate bamboo, walked around a bit, wee'd and generally looked like pandas. They were pretty cool actually. Vienna zoo's other big attraction is that other famous not moving plant eating animal... the koala! Irreverant Australians were roundly ssshuusshed by the awe inspired Austrians gazing devotedly at snoozing koalas - they were worried we would wake them up - as if!! Tiergarten was pretty good. Deserted in the morning, lovely wander around, then suddenly PACKED in the afternoon. Turned out to be some childrens day or something (we understood very little), think they all went to church in the morning then off to zoo for the afternoon. It was quite a nice day, about 8 degrees - quite a contrast to the usual deep snow expected at this time of year. We were very lucky with the weather the whole trip.
On the 2nd day we went to town to see the cathedral and on to the museums via a walk through the streets and park. Really lots of beautiful buildings. Little M chose to go to a Medicin sans frontiers display on refugee camps at the special childrens activity centre in the Vienna museum quarter (I know, but what can you do!). The other kids werent having any of that so little and big M went off to learn about refugees. She was very interested and involved, I cant say I know quite what to make of that but other than refusing to engage in eye contact with her guide (being the only English speakers there we had one to one guide) she took it all in and was quite informed. They were very impressed that she actually knew how a pit toilet worked (sheltered european kids in general). And we learnt you could use sand or stones instead of toilet paper, but neither of us impresssed with those options! Kids were exhausted after all that so back to our flats. We had a great place to stay, 2 flats one over the other (best for thundering elephants to play in top flat) with good location near U-bahn and plenty of space. One tip is dont arrive in Vienna on a Sunday as NOTHING is open, you can only buy food to eat at the airport!! Problem if you are self-catering! Thankfully our guide book had told us this so we had some supplies.

Third day R took J to armory for a break from excess little girls. They had a great time away all day. The others went to see the famous clock where figures march across the face at noon - pretty impressive, the figures are HUGE and it takes 15 minutes to complete this show. Then we went to a park to find that most important of all features - a playground, on to a coffee shop catering for kids, tho in general a little younger than ours. And so to the end of the day again. The most important adult accomplishments were that we a) drank our full VERY LARGE bottle of gin and b) we only bought 1 small soft toy for the kids as part of the birthday outing as our Austrian souveniers + a few postcards. The $5 backpackers have nothing on us for cheap tourism! We came and went via Dusseldorf which was a bit of a drag but saved us leaving at 5am in the morning which we all appreciated. And that was Vienna.

Snow!

We have finally had our snow for the winter...90% of schools in Cambridgeshire closed for the day (thankfully not ours).

Where have we been??

We have been away for a while...R's dad had a stroke so we have been back to Tasmania for the last 3 weeks. R's sister rang at 2am on Sunday 7 Jan and after a short period of prevarication we managed to book flights and be on a plane out of Heathrow by midday. This now holds the record for our shortest preparation for an international flight! The trickiest bit turned to be getting to Heathrow - we drove down and left the car in the long term car park (Purple Parking - they were really good and we paid for them to wash the car while we were away). It was touch and go for a while though as there was very little petrol in the car and the nearest open service station was down near Stansted. Huge check in and security queues of course!

The only 4 seats we could get together were right down the back by the toilets, which we were a bit worried about, but it turned out to be really good as there are only the 4 centre seats with a little bit of standing room either side so the kids could get up and stretch their legs. Went via Hong Kong and M was upgraded to Business Class for the leg from Hong Kong to Melbourne. Looking at her wreck of a husband she ceded to him and the kids and she felt very very virtuous while Daddy slept off some of his anxiety in luxury. Now he sees the point - pity we cant afford it and academics have to travel economy as a matter of policy - almost enough to make you get a real job.


So kids had a sort of good time in Tasmania, they got to see their grandparents. Made many trips to the hospital and gladly informed all who asked that Grandad was getting better thankyou. Went to the beach in between times. J's Grandpa made him a sword (yes thats right, see the picture for full impact, made of huge piece of steel). Saving grace is its so heavy that it tires him out quickly. Its oiled and wrapped and stored at Grandpas!! Didnt really fancy bringing it back through security (cant imagine why). Little M had a birthday party with her cousins which was lovely. Big M went to Canberra for a few days at the end, which was hot. We all got suntanned a bit (look very European now) but not sunburnt as we managed last year thankfully. So now we are back, exhausted and poor, on with life. R is intending to go back to Tas to see his Dad in May if circumstances permit.

Happy New Year!

We made it through another whole year! And we even went out for New Year's eve this year. The local pub closed for a private party which had a kids room and bands and we all went along for some drinks and chat with local friends. It was nice to go out for NY as we havent done so for a while. Little M crashed at about 10, but J made it through to 1 am watching 007 with his dad!
Not much going on here as winter shut down sets in. We went to the pantomime on Sat which was a blast, very silly. The main cast have stayed the same over the past 3 years and they do a good line in slapstick comedy - buckets of water etc etc, the political satire is a little lame but my dad would love the puns = ie they are truly awful. Theatre season is great here - the Mikado is on soon from the local G&S society so we will probably try and see that one. Other than that highlights have been J being able to walk to Granchester again without completely collapsing from foot pain, another expensive visit to the dentist by big M. Apparently my teeth (which are just like everyone elses teeth) need extra care as perhaps the reason my siblings have few fillings and I have lots is due not to childhood eating and brushing habits (which were the same) but due to differences in mouth flora. Basically I got really sick of being told by dentists that its all my fault and clearly I didnt brush my teeth - when I am a stickler and R is hopeless and NEVER has a filling. So being the annoying academic that I am we managed to agree that averages are part of a distribution and that not everyone would end up with the same outcome from exactly the same care regime cos there are actually differences in people's saliva etc (so R now loves to tell people to watch out for my acid spit). Now I am much happier because we have worked out a few things that are good for me to do so that there will be no more decay work, only restoration work of the already mountainous set of fillings. (For those of you with unhealthy interest in dental care this means brushing with water as soon as I get up, brushing as soon as possible after meals, a special 'clinging' mouthwash for overnight). Oh another piece of invaluable advice for all chocoholics..... if you MUST eat 10 squares of chocolate eat them all at once, not one piece an hour as then the bacteria only get one go! Best excuse I have heard! And in case you are wondering the bill is $A210 for the check up and then $A1250 for the 3 fillings - feeling better about your healthcare costs now??

Xmas 2006

Christmas was not that cold, and definitely not white. J and M had chosen the most ENORMOUS chicken which we had late afternoon, highlight according to J is the orange drizzle cake with icecream AND custard all at once!! Note the great Christmas tree, which had the right shape! Big and little Ms had an epic adventure getting it in the car, it only just fit, and little M had a serious encounter with the mud we were parked in. Goodness knows how we will get it to the disposal point! But it looks great, and takes up most of the lounge room.

Kids maxed out on playmobil for gifts which has the advantage of many small packages. Went to some neighbours for Xmas eve, another neighbours for morning champagne and nibbles, then lunch with a friend at our place, little M did a spot of rollerskating and that was it. Very relaxing! Could have been warmer to be in Oz!!
Merry Christmas to you all.

And it was good!!

So as intimated below R after a certain amount of pressure succumbed to booking the birthday party of a lifetime for me. Happy camper, better than the last 2 years which have been respectively spent being violently ill (gift was R taking kids out for the day so I could be violently ill in peace) and at the School winter fete. Life doesnt get much more exciting than that!! So Marrakesh a great improvement. Sadly it was cold, but everything else was great. Kids had a fabulous time, we had a fabulous time, amazingly R bought not one but two carpets in a fit of something that I am still not sure I understand.


Spices were great, food was great, snake men were not great nor henna women (these are all serious hasslers in the market), little M drove the horse and cart, J swam in the unheated swimming pool (!!) the souks were amazing, a real labyrinth, not for the faint hearted and really only a bargain for those of us beleagured with pounds and english prices. But a great deal of good hearted fun. Bought some unbelievably beautiful pottery - photo soon. And scarves (of course) and spices, and some basic tunics and ..... it was FUN. So R has lots of credits for the next years (or to make up for the last 20 years on which he has forgotten). Highly recommended for a short break - we loved it.

40th Birthday

After a certain amount of pain and suffering (on R's part) we all headed off to Marrakech for big M's 40th. She didnt want to spend it in Cambridge or England and became alarmed (and somewhat violent) by my suggestion that we go to bath...so Marrakech it is. The sales people I booked the Riad (small hotel) through were very helpful and persuasive, so I booked a 4 room riad just for us. Just as well as it turned out later.
Renee came with us and Edda was going to come too, but her advanced stage of pregnancy intervened and she was forced to pull out...
Arrived in the dark and had an exciting taxi ride into the old city...our Riad is in the Medina, so we had to get out and walk a fair way (I had to carry little M who was getting tired, so I got tired too!). Kids had a deal of trouble choosing which of the rooms they were going to stay in, but dad and mum knew straight away which room they were having when they saw it! Some delicate negotiations went on between J and M but a compromise was made and all settled in.

Went out for a wander to the Djemaa el Fna (central square) where we bought jelaba's (see picture) for the kids and the stall holder tried to give them kittens...this plagued us for the whole trip as the kids kept wanting to go and see the kittens and Mum and Dad were forced to fight off the shop owner each time, desperate to sell us something else.

Bling!

Am in sunny (literally) Atlanta. Got upgraded to business class on the way over - YES - am seriously thinking may have to reconsider career choices, its so much more civilized to do long haul business class, you get there feeling almost human. A good thing when trying to negotiate complicated US security. Almost left the laptop behind when they x-rayed it as I LEFT the airport as well (not sure I understand that but thats what happened). Managed to avoid leaving it thankfully. So its the weekend of Thanksgiving sales. Thankfully Fri and Sat are the big days cos I think it might have been very busy. Today was calmer, not so many bargains, but these days I just think being in a country where the clothes are not made for people with average height of 5'2" is a great thing. And of course the US$ just keeps going down, great for the buying of clothes, bad for the $ I am being paid. Just better spend it all and be about even. Mind you spending it all could be hard. Atlanta is definitely SOUTH. I dont think I saw a single piece of clothing today which didnt have gold thread or sequins or glitzy material. We are in the land of the southern Belle people. (Not me, as you can imagine, almost as bad as total pink!). Did manage to buy a couple of things, but not nearly as satisfactory as previous US shopping excursions. I have only been to southern US once before and I forgot they are all absolutely enthralled with my accent. Even more so now that its got a pretty heavy Oxbridge overtone (sorry about that, its not intentional, but I saw a video of me the other day and I do sound like a right twat, hopefully it will wear off quickly when I get back to Oz, but I think I can probably do a very convincing job of correcting DD's enunciation now - family joke) Anyway, the most amazing thing about here is that there are still pretty limited clothes in my size range, there is a dichotomous distribution - the size 2 - 6 range (can you believe they have a size 2? there is even a 0 - these sizes look like something a starving 6 year old should wear, just ghastly) and then there is mega tent size. Now if you buy mega tent size it is almost invariably in black jersey and decorated with sparkly stuff. And if you buy stick size then it will be in satin or some other very impractical fabric. I did not see a single pair of trousers made in a sensible fabric, all either silk or polyester!! But if you wanted to buy a ball gown for your 7 year old (yes really), boy were you in the right place. Amazing. So very educational, if not all that wardrobe enhancing.
Off to work tomorrow.

On the boy!

J's dreams have all come true - the pirate ship from birthday loot has arrived. As you can see its very large, and true to form on modern packaging the box was enormous! Not the most flattering picture of the boy - clearly lining up for a big growth spurt again, as he does, turns into a little hamster then shoots up (as opposed to his parents who just turn into hamsters and forgot to shoot up afterwards). M bought herself a little rowboat from playmobil too - she thinks its fantastic, about ratio of real rowboat to real pirate galleon here so it looks really small and she looks very unmaterialistic compared with this!!! Well, perhaps he will be a hedge fund manager and keep us all in style (and his sister in salmon and blueberries!).

Birthday party at the zoo & Halloween

J decided to have a small birthday event with 2 friends (and 1 of their little brothers who happens to be a friend of little M's) at the local wildlife park. They all had a great day. Two highlights were the otters (J is doing a project for school on otters so he has copious photos of a very talkative otter) and tigers (his friend is doing one on tigers). It was a good fun day, and relatively relaxed for the parents as the kids just played on the equipment, did a tour of the zoo animals and ate sandwiches and cake. No real entertainment had to be laid on, so it was lovely for all. Little M has decided she would like a zoo party too - she wants particularly to see Pandas - problem is the closest ones are in Germany!!! Hmm, R looked it up and discovered we could go there for 5 pounds each way in February, but I then reminded him Berlin in February may not be very attractive! We are hoping elephants might be a good alternative!!

Halloween this week, quite big in our area. J went as Cap'n Jack Sparrow (of course) and M as a cat. They got HUGE amount of loot, and it cost their parents a HUGE amount in doling it out to trick and treaters (it seems like our street is the 'safe one' for little kids in Cambridge so there were literally hundreds of the 4-10 year old age group in the street).Not much going on this weekend, massive cleaning of house parents are exhausted.

Pisa and the beach

Bet you didnt know there was a beach at Pisa - neither did we until someone mentioned they had been there and it was great! First we went to Pisa itself, the leaning tower really is something to see, and just for extra credit they have some other wonderful buildings in the complex - the cathedral and bapistry. Beautiful marble buildings - we paid to go in the duomo (cathedral) which had magnificent decorations. Little M declared it the highlight of the whole trip - pretty impressive when competing with the beach for a 6 year old. She was very taken with the tower, really really really wanted to climb it, most dashed when parents wouldnt part with the cash or queue! She is now proud owner of piece of tourist paraphenalia showing the complex and has practiced her show and tell on us many times. Had to agree given I had let J buy a model of Eiffel Tower in Paris!! At least they are cheap - and treasured!
The on to the beach!! Great beach, especially if you ignore the hideous overdevelopment ON the beach, and I do mean ON it. Gold Coast has nothing on this. Strange experience because it was out of season (why we cuold afford it)- so no pool etc - and nobody there but its obviously super busy in season, be absolutely hideous - if you want to see it in its full glory try the following http://anteprima.grapho.it/default_intro2.asp, we were staying in the concrete tower!! Anyway room was all very civilized and we thoroughly checked out the local restaurants - now even more thoroughly sick of delicious pizza than before!! We have come back to have some non-Italian food.

J had a ball for his birthday at the beach, we reckon he spent about 6-7 hours on the beach, swimming, sandcastle building, more swimming and wave jumping. Bliss! He is in no doubt that the beach was the highlight of the trip and can we come again really soon. Happy boy. Parents slobbed around, tried to walk up beach but constantly thwarted by children who plunged into the sea as soon as we went anywhere near the beach. Lots of books read, so quite pleasant - tho I am reading 'Grapes of Wrath' and R drew the line at that, had to buy a new book he was so desperate. Back to extremely busy work, and on to the next trip - M goes to Atlanta at the end of November.

Junketing

J and R's birthdays have been celebrated in style...big M had a conference in Firenze so we spent R's birthday there and then headed down to the beach at Tirrenia near Pisa for J's birthday. An early start to get to Stansted, as usual then huge queues to check in and get through security. Got to the gate with plenty of time, then they changed the gate on us, so traipse off to the new gate. Then just before the boarding time they changed it again, so stampede down to the new gate. With no seat allocations everyone wants to be first on, so it is very hard for the priority boarding people (small people, elderly or disabled) to force throught the press to the gate to get on first. The airline staff kept ordering people away from the gate - quite funny to watch.
We decided to catch a train to Firenze from Pisa - there is a station in the airport so it is pretty easy - so bought tickets and rushed to the platform...our train was standing there already and the clock showed it was leaving immediately so we ran with luggage and kids and threw ourselves in to the first empty compartment. After a while it became apparent that the clocks were in fact showing the departure time rather than the current time and we had quite a wait! The hotel was only 200m from the station at the other end, very convenient and extremely luxurious. M was promoted to Professor by the hotel, but she didnt complain.
While M was conferencing on Friday I took the kids down to the river and the Ponte Vecchio. This is the oldest bridge in the city as all the others were blown up in WW2. It is covered in jewellers shops which little M thought was wonderful. We went to il Giardino di Boboli behind the Pallazo Pitti for the afternoon, lots of space and statues, then headed back to the hotel -not soon enough to avoid torrential downpours which continued for the next 2 days!
We went to dinner with all the conference people on Friday night which was not so successful...J fell asleep before the food arrived. Little M had quite a good time playing with wax off the candles and the wife of the organiser thought she was very sweet (as she said, she was 'waiting for grandchildren').
On Saturday we walked over to the Duomo (cathedral) and climbed the campanile - again in pouring rain and then hung about in the hotel room. Little M and R were both a bit second hand, both had bad head colds since the flight over.
Sunday we headed off for the train to Pisa, well worth the effort. Stuck the luggage in the left luggage at the station and walke over the river to see the leaning tower. Little M was really excited by it. We went and looked around in the duomo before collecting luggage and getting a taxi to Tirrenia on the beach.

Rodeo Stars

M took the kids to a puppet show at the junction Saturday morning - a german puppeteer living in England performing an aboriginal story. They saw the story of Tiddalick the frog that drank all the water in the world. Little M crashed her bike on the way over, it is too small for her, so we went to look at bikes for J - they had agreed that Little M would have his bike and he would get a bigger second hand bike. Decided instead to do up one of the wrecks in the garden so purchased new seat, hand grips, bell, brake pads, lights, tyres and inner tubes and spent pleasand hour or two fixing up the old bike. Sadly it is still cheaper to buy a new bike than fix an old one, but he now has a bike with 24inch wheels instead of 20inch wheels. They both look so grown up!

In the late afternoon we went to the Red Bull - they were celebrating 1 year under new management with hog roast, bouncy castle AND bucking bull ride. No pictures yet (havent worked out how to load them from the phone) but only 1pound a go so both kids had a turn. Little M very stylish in her miniskirt. We think she most enjoyed the way her hair swished over her face as the bull went round. J also enjoyed it enormously.

Sunday was big birthday party for Finn and Darragh so R took J to that and then took little M to the Clare Hall pool, then over to visit Naama, Alon and Michal until the party finished (Naama's big brother was their too). Alon and R had fun adjusting one of Alons old bikes for Orie.

A very Cambridge weekend!

Nine Wells Nature Reserve

This reserve used to be the water supply for Cambridge. There are springs here that were diverted to flush out a defensive ditch around the town then later used to supply water. Apparently these chalk springs are now quite rare due to water extraction for agriculture. They used to have some rare and unique invertebrates, but they all died in the last drought. Oh well! Special activity day to celebrate completion of new bike path to the Shelfords - story teller, kids singing, making stick animals, toasting marshmallows. We rode our bikes over, probably the longest ride little M has done so far.