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Katya is having a quiet morning at NOC enjoying looking at the Arctic ice retreat in the ocean model (by some reason faster than observed, but that is a topic for another entry). 8.20am – A phone call from home. A very calm Daddy asks “Where are Tosha’s shorts?” The shorts were left at the sofa at 6.30am. Probably Snape ate them (or someone used them as a football and they will probably be retrieved by Grandpa from under the sofa on his next Christmas visit. By some reason he loves cleaning under the sofa. Perhaps he just enjoys a variety of toys he can find there). Katya suggests to Daddy to go a get another pair from the cabinet.  Helicopter descends over Whitchurch, landing at the primary school The kids of Whitchurch primary school were treated to a visit by a Aerospatiale AS355F1 Ecureuil II helicopter this afternoon. They watched it circle around Whitchurch before it landed in the school’s field. Everyone, including Tolii, gathered around it to learn how it works. Many kids asked lots of questions of the pilot and co-pilot. Afterwards, they had their class photos taken in front of it. Excitement built as the helicopter got ready to start its engines again. The kids moved back to the safety of the school’s playground and then did a countdown as the copter began to speed up its rotors. Finally, lift-off!
Here it is: The Reeves-Hall Gallery Our friends and family will be able to log into the new gallery like they did the old one – I hope you remember your passwords! If not, drop me an email and I’ll remind you. If you don’t log in, then you won’t see all the stuff just for friends & family. For now, it will appear as if the gallery is separate from this blog website – eventually I hope to get it integrated so it is just another “page” here. To get back to our blog, click the link at the bottom of the page which says “The Reeves-Hall Family”. *Back in February, I shut down our old photo gallery because its underlying software, Coppermine, kept having security issues and it was getting a bit dated (in terms of its ability to customise its look, and to administer the database which kept track of our photos). For four days of this year’s spring half-term week, Tolii was experiencing a “proper” outdoor camp run by the YMCA near Botley. Where “Proper outdoor” in this case means that the camp simply doesn’t have indoor facilities, except a small breakfast room; so whatever the weather is, the kids are outside! Every day, Tolii brought home a bag of muddy clothes, even when the weather was sunny all day (it did pour non-stop 7am-7pm on one of the days, though). Oh the tales he was telling us! » Continue reading Tolii’s Spring 2009 Half Term Holidays »  Birthday Grangela with Tolii, in front of her new flat Happy Birthday, Grangela! We’re getting together with granny tomorrow to celebrate, as we were off camping last night and today, as part of a 40th birthday party for our friend “Coops”. Long gone are the days of “back-pack camping”, when you go camping with whatever you could carry on your back – away from civilisation, miles from the nearest road, deep in the Siberian forests or the North-West Territories.  Beach camping in Dorset, July 2002 Things were simple those days: a tent, box of matches, two saucepans, spoon, knife, aluminum mug, sleeping bag and a tooth brush. A pile of spruce brunches were working as a decent mattress and a lake or a river as a bath tub. A can of sweetened evaporated milk was a luxury and a typical meal was rice with canned stewed meat. Or a “craft dinner” on the Canadian side of Atlantic. And all of the grand beauty of the nature of two largest countries of the world was at our steps.
Although, Andrew now admits he had never actually been wild backpack camping, and he was simply spinning “pre-engagement” tales.  What sheep? Let's camp here, June 2002. Nevertheless, we had some really cool “compromised” wild camping in England about seven years ago in our innocent child-free, unmarried life…  ...oh, those sheep. Why do they wake up so early? There is nothing like waking up in the depths of the Breakon Beacon National Park with sheep “Ba-a-a-a-ing” around our tent on the bank of nameless stream under the derelict bridge… Or swimming around wild rocks of Durdle-Door with camping equipment piled onto inflatable mattress to reach an inaccessible beach…  Morning Relief after camping with sheep, June 2002. Or frying steaks on the campfire made of driftwood and dried seaweeds…. Or waking up a couple of meters from the gentle waves… Or, ah-hem, looking for McDonalds toilets every morning…. (that was the compromise bit).  Coops Camping Well, this late May bank holiday weekend, we introduced our kids to camping. Not wild and not back- pack camping; and come to think of it probably not camping at all, although there were tents around. Coops had a 40th birthday, so he managed to convince a bunch of friends to celebrate this occasion in one of the river-side campsites in Gloustershire.  Civilized Campfire Cooking We packed two small tents, and a lot of other paraphernalia, which almost didn’t fit into Andrew’s car, and went to absorb a culture of modern camping. The kids were over the moon, and the parents survived one night.  There seems to be something wet missing... As usual, we managed to find a compromise which suited all four of us: paddling in the river Tames; Andrew’s birthday present this year was two inflatable dinghies with paddles, so this was a perfect chance to try them out!  Off for a paddle on the Thames As we discovered quite quickly, the dinghies were rather difficult to manoeuvre, however after about 20 minutes of going in circles we managed to get in control and make a fair distance! Occasionally, motor boats added some fun, and of course Tolii and Tosha were encouraging Mummy and Daddy to race with each other!  Speed Camera Catches the Racing Dinghies The next day, when Tosha decided he would better stay in the camp with his buddy Tristan, Tolii’s friend Autumn (who we all agree [except her] should have been called Spring!) got a chance to experience the thrill of boating in Tosha’s place. That was a double thrill because Tolii and Autumn had a splashing competition, with all the water somehow landing on us.  Sunset over the Thames in Lechlade, Gloucestershire. So, all in all, it was a brilliant weekend in spite of all our moaning about the lack of wilderness and romance of “proper” camping. The TED conference is coming back to Oxford this July. I doubt I’ll go – I’d rather spend the $4500 (about same in UK pounds) on a holiday with my family! And the talks will be podcast in the autumn anyway. I keep a few of the interesting TED talks in our ‘Mostly Interesting‘ page. However, they have posted a list of who will be talking there. One speaker caught my eye (the power of good branding?): oblong. You just want to find out what that company does. Oblong. Not square, not triangular. Oblong. Cool name. » Continue reading Back to the (Oblong) Future »  Tosha and Tolii use a sock to turn the water rocket into a misty sprinkler. Tosha loves to play with his new water rocket. He invites Tolii to join him.  Waterproof - from the top, not the bottom! The weather was coolish today, with a bit of rain. So, it was on with the waterproofs and into the fountain!  Tosha learns that waterproofs sometimes aren't Of course, it was a complete surprise to Tosha that he still managed to get wet.  Tolii's London Bridge Mosaic Tolii made an artistic tile mosaic of London Bridge. He says… The blue is the river Thames. The green bit is seaweed. The yellow are the towers that hold the bridge up. The red bits too. There are lifts and stairs that take people up to the top so they can walk across and then go down to the bottom. The boats go through the two grey bits on the middle-right, underneath the bridge. The single grey bit in the middle is where Tolii says the pumps are to lift the bridge up. For once, I may be ahead of the curve! A friend tipped me off (okay, see, it wasn’t me after all; thanks Steve!) to a cool new search system that gives you knowledge results rather than internet page results. You can throw math, medical, financial, geographical, you name it, questions at it. The output looks professional and deep. Its called WolframAlpha. Watch the 13 minute video HERE. And try it yourself HERE. It will probably be bought by Google. Or Microsoft. So, that link may change. It is still in ‘alpha’ (early stages) so you may encounter issues, like too many people using it, thus shutting it down temporarily. Just try it again after a few seconds.  Daddy's birthday boat My birthday this year had a water and space theme. My boys’ present to me was new swim trunks; and Katya gave me an inflatable row boat (for an upcoming camping trip). I took the afternoon off work and went out to see the new Star Trek movie with grandpa, which opened today. A thoroughly enjoyable birthday! Each weekday morning, I drive Tosha and Tolii up to the nursery. Tolii stays in the car while I walk (run) Tosha inside. I then drive across town, park the car and walk (cycle) along the path that leads to Whitchurch Primary School. I drop Tolii off at the door to his classroom before walking back to the car and driving into work. Today, upon returning to the car after dropping off Tosha, Tolii asked: “Daddy, why do some (car) doors slide?”. “Huh?”, I said. Then I noticed that the car beside our Toyota Verso was a Mazda 5 which has sliding back doors. So, I replied, something intelligent like, “Some just do”. Tolii asked, “Why didn’t we buy a car with sliding doors? I want a car with sliding doors.”  Tolii's wish To which I replied with something quite long and detailed which basically amounted to, “Because we thought this car a better buy at the time”.  Also a Ferrari... Tolii thought about that for a while then said, “Can we buy a car with sliding doors as our next car?” And, before I could reply, he added, “And a Ferrari after that one?” It took me five minutes to control my laughing before I could drive straight. But now, thinking about it some more, maybe he meant a different kind of Ferrari?  The (former) Royal Mail Sorting Office in Whitchurch, Hampshire, UK Sadly, today was the last day for the Whitchurch Delivery (aka Sorting) Office. I took some pictures; and made a video — read on to get to the video… A gallant campaign was fought about 5 years ago to save the post office (and the sorting office). That battle was won, but the war wasn’t over. Royal Mail sold off its Victorian Building soon after this and then rented it back. This bought them some time until the local upset had subsided.  Rowley Hutchins unloads the last delivery of mail (two lorries come from Swindon) This year, Royal Mail stated that the sorting office would “move” to Basingstoke as a cost-saving measure. The local politicians, national politicians, local community volunteers, forum participants, and just plain old locals tried in vain to get Royal Mail to change its mind.  Sorting the mail.  Not available in your local chemist. I received this in my email inbox today. If anyone knows the artist who made this, then let me know so I can give them proper credit. Better still, if some company ends up making this for real, then I’ll gladly link to them! Brings new meaning to ‘viral’ advertising. Many people think wearing a mask helps reduce the risk of catching the flu – » Continue reading Relief for Swine Flu? » Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Zzzzzzzzzzzzz B U M P ! Zzzzz spt bwgt huh? Waaa? W A A A A A A ! Startle! Swoosh, Dash Dash Dash. “What happened?”, pants I. “I fell out of bed!”, says Tolii. “Does it hurt anywhere?” “Yaaa, here.”, says Tolii as he points to his bum. Thank goodness Grandpa converted the bunkbed into two separate beds! And Tosha? He sat up, looked about, and went back to sleep. Tolii and I went for a wee. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz |
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