A vertigo virus? I had never heard of such a thing. Then again, I am quite sure that I haven’t heard of many things but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Maybe even some of the things I have heard of don’t exist.

Sure ‘nuf, the Internet says there are such things: Labyrinthitis and Meniere’s disease.

Maybe its all for the good: Tolii really wants to go on roller coasters now (he and Tosha both love playing Roller Coaster Tycoon; and still reminisce about their trip to Paultons Park, riding the coasters there). Maybe my vertigo virus will be counter-balanced by the coasters?

Richard Adams, author of 'Watership Down' reads to Tolii and Tosha in front of one of Aldo Galli's paintings

On Sunday, I helped out with the Whitchurch Arts presentation of Aldo Galli’s paintings of Watership Down.

Richard Adams came along to sign copies of his books.  Well over 60 people came to the show!

Aldo spent a lot of time showing people all the places he hiked and photographed in preparation for his wonderful paintings. He uses the Bob Ross style - see FanBrush for more details.

We all hope that he can convince a publisher to include pictures of his paintings in a forthcoming edition of Watership Down.

The Three Musketeers feed a goat

Tosha’s good friend from nursery, Daniel, celebrated his forth birthday today at Animal Dramatics, located near Aldermaston.

Boxed in for a tractor ride

There was lots of animals to feed - his favourite: the goats - and even Santa’s reindeer were there!  Many kids rode a pony about the place; but not Tosha.  He didn’t even want his face painted.  His mind must have been on all the food to come…

Scary guy!

Not even a sudden downpour dampened the festivities:  Most just retreated to the little party house to get a head start on the snacks (what Tosha really wanted!)…and to wonder at the hedgehog and tarantula spider!

Sweet Musketeers

Then it was outside again for a tractor ride.  Finally, back inside again for tea and more party fun (baby chicks!).

Snape looks on as Lyra shows us her new headpiece

Finally, our cats have sorted out for themselves how to help us tell them apart.

Lyra came home on Friday with a tear in her left ear.  Nothing too serious it seemed, but to be on the safe side Katya took her to the vet.  Lyra was kept in overnight so that she could have a stitch or two put in.

She had a big collar around her head when picked up from the vet on Saturday morning.  Thankfully, that can come off in just a few days.  Snape snarled his dissatisfaction of Lyra’s new headpiece and has retreated to a box under Baba’s bed ever since.

Way to go kiddo!

Colourful Acer Tree

Our Japanese Maple (Acer) tree is turning a lovely set of colours this autumn, just like so many trees in Hampshire, and likely all of the UK.

Tolii's Colourful Skipping

Tolii has been determined to earn his next badge at gymnastics ~ he missed out on one just because he couldn’t skip rope three times in a row.

Well, now he can skip 9 times (he claims 10).  His special treat for doing so was go get his very own colourful skipping rope (”Rainbow Skipper” from Argos).  Now he skips every chance he gets!

Green Funnel Waterslide at Basingstoke Aquadrome

We spent about two hours at the Basingstoke Aquadrome today ~ our longest time ever.

Tosha loved to alternate between the hot tub and cold beach areas; and Tolii couldn’t get enough of the waterslides.

Today was a milestone for Tolii; well, actually two milestones.

First, he went down the yellow waterslide by himself for the first time (and I went down it backwards for the first time!), and then later he went down the green waterslide, the Space Bowl, which ends in a very big funnel shape, that splashes you into a 3m deep pool.  He loved it so much that he did it three times!

After finding out it was a 3m deep pool, Tolii said, “Make it 2m or I won’t go in it again until I’m 7!”.

Father Christmas by Tolii

Tolii drew a fantastic picture of Father Christmas, complete with ears, arms and hands ~ sadly, he appears to have lost one finger on his left hand (bitten off while feeding a reindeer?).

Santa On Holiday by Tolii

He also ‘designed’ (telling mummy what to sketch) and coloured in a wonderful card titled “Santa On Holiday”.

The whole idea was from Tolii’s imagination ~ although a compromise had to be made…a whole waterpark could not fit onto the tiny dessert island, so a simple ‘water slide’ had to do.

Tolii and mummy tried to maximize the colours, hence the layers of colours in the sun, sea and tree.

We’re now a few months in, and I’m settling into the groove of maintaining another website!  As if this family blog didn’t keep me up to all hours of the night already, I now have a second one to keep me going ’til the sun comes up!

Queried I right back: “Why do some people call tomatoes ‘meaty‘?”

How quick the topic turned to other things…

Carved Pumpkins (Tristan's is on right)

We threw a small pumpkin party this evening ~ some of our good friends came by to enjoy the festivities, which included pumpkin pancakes and pumpkin soup.

Tosha’s friend Tristan came as Spiderman; his sister, Autumn, Tolii’s friend, came dressed as Harry Potter (and mum Carole was a very convincing Mrs. McGonagal); their father, Richard, “Coops” just tried to poison us all.  We survived only because he froze to death in the evening air.

Tolii’s friends Hanna and Rachel were scary witches; their younger brother, and Tosha’s friend, Josh, was a scary menace, too!  He produced the scariest screams we all had ever heard!  Our ears are still ringing!

Pumpkin Platter

A short while into the evening saw Autumn and Tolii on the swings trying to set a new world’s record.  The rest of us were just plain panicking that the swing set would topple over, or worse, they would go shooting off the swing and over the fence!  Luckily, neither happened.

We all headed out, holding onto a long rope, for a short walk around the block, and through the town centre.  We saw a few other scary people (well, more than usual in our town).

Scary Sisters

The embarrassing part of the evening came after Richard, a vegetarian, had consumed three mug fulls of the soup.  Katya was talking nearby to Kudrat who had asked for the recipe…well, pumpkins, some peppers, and some chicken stock.

Pumpkin for Potters

Splutter, cough, wheeze, “Chicken Stock!?” blurted Richard after chocking on his last mouthful of soup.

To Katya’s defence, most Russians have no clue what “vegetarian” means — there’s no word for it in their vocabulary!  And, thankfully, Richard let us know of the time he had some “vegetarian” sausages at a friend’s BBQ.  Seems Richard thought all sausages in his freezer that came in green packaging were vegetarian.  Whew.