Three years ago today NYCWD lost his son, Puppy Monster.
You’re in my thoughts man.
I wish I were talented.
In which I’m uncharacteristically sociable
Here’s another dispatch from our recent keycamp holiday.
Remember, if you fancy going as well you could always see if you could win a free trip courtesy of Keycamp themselves in our Grand Hadrian’s Walk Raffle.
——-
The sun came out today in full force, and so our holiday really kicked into high gear. We started off with Kerry taking Amy and Evan to the organised kids groups in the morning while I went for a five or six mile stroll along the beach (glorious). Then we spent a few hours in the swimming pools, followed by a few on the beach, and then finished off with a barbecue and a few beers with the people from the neighboring mobile homes whilst our children roamed the park like a bunch of extras from Lord of the Flies.
For the first couple of days the two other caravans in our little cul-de-sac were empty. But yesterday they filled up with a couple with a 7 and 3 year old girl and boy, and a chap with his 5 year old daughter.
Now people who know me will back me up when I say I’m generally a pretty misanthropic guy. It takes me quite a while to feel comfortable in other people’s presence, especially if I feel I’ve had no real say in how those other people’s company being thrust upon me. There is probably a reason why all my friends are either individuals I’ve known for over 15 years or people I’ve met through the protective membrane of the internet.
However becoming friendly with Ian, Wayne and Clair and their kids didn’t feel like a stretch at all. Of course it helps that I’m married to a woman who is able to strike up a chatty conversation with a dead badger. And it also helps that the kids were all drawn to each other like they had the gravitational pull of Neptune.
Sitting on the deck with our new friends laughing at our kids making “compost” and devising elaborate games I was reminded of my own childhood and some of the camping trips we took when I was growing up.
There really are no friends like “camp-site friends”. That bright intense comradeship you strike up, all the sweeter for their inevitable temporary nature. All of you in gloriously new and exciting surroundings, no one on home turf. All previous worries and responsibilities temporarily suspended due to the wondrous state of “holiday”. It’s a cliché’ to say it, but those really are the best days of your life.
And as every parent knows – when your kids are happy, you’re happy too. And on this holiday the kids have been delirious. Trips to beach AND the swimming pool every single day. Flat, well paved, and safe roads to ride their bikes up and down on whenever they like. New best friends with whom to run feral with. And probably most significantly, a couple of relaxed and happy parents who are too chilled out to barrage them with nagging.
Life is good.
Down Under Support in the Buff
Over the past few months you’ve heard me go on and on about Hadrian’s Walk and the Buff’s and T-shirts we have for sale.
I bet you’re pretty sick of it huh.
Well tough, you’ve got three weeks left of it I’m afraid.
If you haven’t donated yet, then why not just bite the bullet and do it now. And if you donate £13 or more over on our merchandise page you get a Buff out of it, posted to you free of charge no matter where you are in the world.
Buffs are great. And look, even idiots can use them:
The Joseph Salmon Trust is a charity set up by my friends Neil and Rachael after the death of their three year old son. The Trust provides financial support to families that have lost a child, often to help with funeral costs or enable the self employed to take a bit off time off work in order to grieve.
In just three weeks time myself and 60 other people, many of them bloggers, will be setting off to walk or cycle the 84 mile long Hadrians Wall footpath across the width of England.
Please consider supporting us by either buying a bit of merchandise, a raffle ticket, or just making a plain old donation.
We can’t make things any better for families that have lost a child, but we can stop things getting worse.
Ten days
As part of the latest stage of my lifetime goal of descending into complete atrophy, this week I officially reduce my hours at work from three days a week to two days a week.
You hear that? Two days! In fact I’ve already done my two days this week and I’m not working now until next weekend so I now have ten days off. Ten days without taking a single annual leave. Ten days!
There’s very little to say to that other than HURRAH!
Of course it’s not like I’m not going to work at home. I’m looking after Evan and have responsibility for all the domestic tasks etc. But still, TEN DAYS!
To be honest I need this. My job has become increasingly stressful. I obviously can’t go into it in too much detail, but it’s been a complete nightmare recently with increased workload and vastly overstretched resources. I’ve been close to tears on occasion with the pressure of it, and to work their full time would be inviting complete burnout.
There is still a little bit of a stigma with a man being the primary caregiver to his children, and I must admit I occasionally feel a twinge of shame or guilt that I’m not the breadwinner in my marriage. But we’ve always said that we don’t want our kids to spend more days in childcare than they do with their parents, and I think we’re making the right decisions for our family.
Kerry has been nothing but supportive in this decision, and I can’t thank her enough for it. I’m a very lucky man. This isn’t a permanent situation, I’ll look to go full time again once Evan is at school next year, but for now I’m even more of a stay-at-home dad than I was before. And that’s something I’m very happy about.
Now if you’ll excuse me I have to go play lego.
Beaches, goats, and pools
This is my second dispatch from our recent Keycamp holiday in France.
Remember, if you fancy going as well you could always see if you could win a free trip courtesy of Keycamp themselves in our grand Hadrian’s Walk Raffle
———–
This morning I got up before everyone else and headed off for a stroll along the beach. I spent a very enjoyable couple of hours wandering along the shore towards the lighthouse/signal station in Beg Meil.
It felt very civilised indeed. So much so I even went without my usual walking accompaniment of various foul mouthed podcasts, figuring it’s not often you get to have the sound of the sea in your right ear and the dawn chorus from the parallel nature reserve in your left.
Bloody marvelous.
When I got back to the resort Kerry and the kids were up and about and so we all went for an explore of the park. This is our first full day here at Camping de L’Atlantique. We spent the first night in France in Houlgate in Normandy, as a sort of staging post in order to avoid too horrendous a drive. That resort was very nice, but this is even better. Amy and Evan are particularly taken with the playground, which has a rather exciting ship and lighthouse for them to explore.
Personally I’m more impressed with the fact that tucked away in a corner of the park is a little pasture containing a couple of friendly goats. There’s nothing that makes a holiday complete like goading a goat into eating a chunk of your t-shirt in order to entertain the kids.
Playgrounds and goats are all very well, but the real star of Camping de L’Atlantique has to be the free waterpark at its centre.
We’ve already spent a good hour and a half in the various pools and waterslides, despite the fact it’s only 18?. To be honest we had to drag Amy and Evan out pretty much kicking and screaming. It’s supposed to be hotter later in the week however, and anyway the outside pool is heated to a tolerable temperature so even if it does stay cool we’ll still be swimming every day.
The other thing we did today was visit the supermarket for supplies. Kerry and I have a bit of a thing for supermarkets in foreign countries. You can walk around a thousand art galleries or historic buildings, but you’ll never find as good as a feel for the contemporary culture of a place as you will in the canned good aisles of the local equivalent to Tescos.
So the things we learnt about France from the nearby Eleclerc are: the French aren’t big cereal eaters, that their bakery’s are full of very nice French delicacies – but very little international fare (no bagles or pitta bread for example), all the milk seems to be revolting UHT stuff, and they don’t have any bags available at the checkout – but they do have some wooden boxes you can steal.
So according to my theory of supermarket anthropology, the French are quite inward looking, less open to outside cultural influence, don’t mind the fact that their milk tastes like rancid battery acid, and have a more positive attitude to the environment than the UK. I have no idea if that’s true or not of course, but that’s what I’m getting.
The forecast for tomorrow is rain unfortunately. Not that that will spoil our fun, but we’ll probably aim for a few indoor activities. We’re thinking of an aquarium in the morning then a indoor play place for the afternoon. There’s always the kids activities laid on by keycamp too, but we’re probably going to leave that to the end of the week. There’s a mask making workshop and a “Keycamp has talent” workshop that Amy particularly has her eye on.
Je ne comprends pas
Last week the Hughes family set sail to france courtesy of Keycamp, a company specialising in European self catering mobile home holidays. We had a good time. In fact we had a very good time. We’re even planning on booking again to go next year (yes, with our own money and everything, surely a first in the blogging world!)
We didn’t have internet access while we were there, but I did take my laptop with me and bashed out a few posts while I was out there. And so here’s one of them:
——
In my everyday life I’m pretty reliant on Kerry. I’m not saying I act like a big child, foisting all responsibility for anything that requires organisation or any form of social interaction onto her shoulders. It’s not like I’m incapable of functioning as an adult without her guidance or anything
Oh hang on… No, wait. Sorry, that’s exactly how it is. I do rely on her for virtually every aspect of my daily life. I’m like some sort of helpless hideously mutated four year old who has unfortunately learnt how to use the phone and keeps ringing up asking where his fisher-price car keys are.
And that’s how it is in England. You should see what it’s like in France.
The problem is communication you see. At the best of times I tend to hide behind Kerry if there is any talking to grown ups to be done. But in France I couldn’t do it even if I want to.
I wasn’t very good at French in school. And not only was I not very good at it, I didn’t see the point of it either. As far as I could (and to be honest, can still) make out, the only purpose of teaching it is to make people’s lives easier if they ever go to France on their holidays. Oh sure, they kept on spewing lines about how it may be of use in business or diplomatic relations; but they only stuff they actually teach you is how to ask directions to the beach and tell people how many sugars you take (urm, nerf sucre sil vous plate).
You see the problem with the French is that they insist on having a different word for everything. Pure stubbornness, that’s what I call it. Oh, sure, there’s a few things that they can’t be arsed coming up with new words for – Baguette and Cul-de-Sac for example. But on the whole it’s like they are speaking another language or something. They’ve even taught their kids to do it! Amazing!
Unlike me, Kerry was good at French at school. In fact the only problem she seems to be having with the language is that she keeps slipping in words from all the other ones she knows:
“Oh” she says, turning to me after I’ve just watched her yabber away incomprehensibly to a shopkeeper. “I think I just used the Spanish word for ‘cumquat’ along with the German past participle verb ending for the present tense! What must they think of me!”
“O eh la plage” I reply “Nerf sucre sil vous plate”.
Bah.
Now just in case I haven’t sounded enough like a xenophobic Neanderthal already, I’d just like to point out that one of the things I really like about this Keycamp holiday is that the on-site rep for the company is English. I know, I know. I’m ashamed to have even typed it – but it’s true. I like the fact that in an emergency I have someone to go to without stumbling though a phrase book.
I mean I’m still going to leave it to Kerry to interact with them of course, the world hasn’t gone completely mad. But at least I can listen in and make sure she’s not telling them what a pathetic arse her husband is, and that’s something that gives me a great deal of piece of mind.
————
And remember if you fancy going on a Keycamp holiday they have very kindly donated a European break to be raffled off in aid of The Joseph Salmon Trust. Buy your raffle tickets here: http://www.justgiving.com/hadriansraffle
Father’s Day Gifts from a bunch of good eggs
I’m a big fan of Father’s Day. It is, in my opinion, a far superior day than Mother’s Day. It has a more agreeable present buying structure for one thing, and the breakfast in bed arrangements are vastly superior too.
Our newest Hadrian’s Walk Gold Sponsor, the incredibly generous dotcomgiftshop.com has a pretty impressive range of Fathers Day gifts. I’ve been perusing their store and by far my favorite one (did you hear that Kerry? “by far my favorite one”) is this rather spiffy looking hammock
It even has tassels on it. What could be more pleasant on a summers day than laying sprawled out in the garden, idly playing with your tassels. Life just doesn’t get much better than that.
Ever since I can remember I’ve always wanted a hammock (you hear that Kerry?). It’s my firm belief that every man worth his salt should probably own one. That, and a shed in which to potter (the dotcomgiftshop do a nice line of dad’s gifts for that sort of thing too). Now I come to think of it, it’s a disgrace I don’t own one already. Pah, and I thought my family loved me!
Another thing that caught my attention is this handy dandy keyring:
Is it me or would this be really good for giving a quick encouraging jab to people who are taking too long at the cashpoint machine? Or maybe letting the tyres down on cars taking up more than one space in the supermarket. It might even be useful for getting corks out of bottles or something too. The possibilities are almost endless.
So if you’re looking for a gift for Father’s Day, or even a Birthday or a Wedding you could do a lot worse than visiting dotcomgiftshop.com.
——————————
And in other news Kerry, the kids, and I are heading off to France tomorrow night in order to test out that Keycamp Holiday that’s the first prize in the raffle. It’s a tough job but someone has to do it.
I’m going to be without internet communications for a while, so you lot will have to manage for a week or so without me. Be strong, I know you can do it.
Tara’s Gallery: Friendship
It seems I am unable to let Tara’s Gallery meme pass by without warping it for my own purposes.
These are my friends, my closest friends. From left to right, top to bottom – Craig, Oli, Dave, Lee, Gav, Rich, Rich, a much fatter me, and Mushy.
I’ve known most of them since the age of sixteen and, aside from my wife, they are the people in who’s company I feel most like myself. It would probably take several pints of beer for me to say it, but I love these guys.
This photo was taken at the end of the Dales Way footpath. We’d just walked 76 miles in order to raise money for a charity set up by the one person out of that friendship group not in this photo, Neil Salmon.
As you all know by now, Neil lost his beautiful son Joseph when he was just 3 years old. He set up a charity in his name, The Joseph Salmon Trust. the trust provides financial support to those who have lost a child. Maybe to help with the cost of a funeral, or to allow the self employed a little time off work in order to grieve.
As you also know by now I’m doing another walk. Except this time not just with these guys, but with a whole bunch of other friends. There are 60 of us in total, and our numbers include such blogging glitterati as Xbox4NappyRash, Jo Beauxfoix, Dad Who Writes, Idaho Dad, Insomniac Mummy, Singleparentdad, Ed, Ajan, Clair, Cathrine, JJ Daddy-O, and ImPerceptible.
We’ll be walking 84 miles across the width of England on the Hadrian’s Wall Footpath. People are coming from all over the world to support this tiny little charity. Now that’s friendship.
So how can you help too? Well if you’re in the UK you can buy a raffle ticket of course. We have arranged some amazing prizes so it’s well worth your cash:
- 1st prize – Three night Family Keycamp Break in Europe
- 2nd prize – Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS62 Digital Camera
- 3rd prize – HP Photosmart Premium fax all-in-one printer
- 4th prize – Fortnum and Mason Hamper
- Six runner-up prizes – SimpleHuman electronic sensor soap dispenser
Just go here, leave your donation, tick the box that allows the charity to see your email address, and then wait to be contacted asking for your postal address so we can send the tickets to you. Simple.
Go on. You know I’m not going to stop pestering you until you do.
Also, if you blog about the raffle we’ll give you two additional free tickets!
Failing that you could always buy one of our sparkling pieces of Hadrian’s Walk merchandise as exhibited by our glamorous models:
Evacuation
At around 1am last night Kerry and I were woken by what sounded like rain. After coming round a little bit we both realised it was more like crackly fireworks than rainfall, and there were a few pops and bangs mixed in.
Our first thought was that the firework factory on the other side of the valley was on fire, so we went to the window for a good gawp.
However it wasn’t the firework factory, it was the huge chemical plant around 150 meters from our house.
I got dressed and went outside for a look. It was a huge fire, with big leaping flames giving of a massive plume of black noxious looking smoke. While I was looking there was a huge explosion that shook the ground. I began to think it might be a good idea if we went for a impromptu visit to the in-laws.
Kerry works for the Environment Agency, and has heard a colleague mention that the plant (Grosvenor Chemicals) stored some pretty nasty stuff, and Eva and Amy have a history of lung problems so we thought that we’d rather be safe than sorry.
So we bundled everyone into the car and set off for Grandma and Grandads. I must admit, a big part of me wanted to stick around and take some photos, but sense won out.
We turned to Radio Leeds, but as usual there was no news on it. Which is inexcusable really as I had it on for an hour and all that they played was a repeat of a Saturday afternoon brass band program (complete with out of date traffic reports). As with the fire on Marsden Moor the only source of information was Twitter (hello @terrierandy7). This really is the future people. He even took a photo:
This morning however is a different story. Radio Leeds is full of reports about the fire. Apparently 25 fire engines attended with 150 firefighters in total. That’s a pretty impressive turnout. Flames reached 50-60 feet, there were a number of other explosions, and a major catastrophe was narrowly avoided as the firefighters were able to prevent tanks of highly toxic chemicals going up – which would have resulted in large chunks of Huddersfield having to be evacuated.
So while we would have been ok if we’d stayed, the decision to decamp was still a sensible one. Scary stuff.
Now Evan and I are back at home, Kerry’s at work, and Amy’s at school (a number of local schools are closed due to the smoke, but Amy’s is open as the wind is blowing in the opposite direction). We’re keeping the doors and windows shut, just in case, but the word from the authorities is that there is nothing to worry about.
In other news, if you haven’t entered our raffle to win a holiday in europe you really should do so. We’ve only sold £37 worth of tickets on our justgiving page so far, so the chances of winning are incredibly good. You can buy tickets here:
http://www.justgiving.com/hadriansraffle
The raffle is in aid of The Joseph Salmon Trust, a small Huddersfield charity that provides support to families who have lost a child.
