Giant darts big success at school fair

Not that I saw much of the rest of the school fair. I spent the afternoon on the school field with my box of sweeties and a dish full of change and raised £14.75 for school funds.

Picture to follow when I work up the energy to re-inflate the inflatable darts board. But if you are looking for a simple stall to run then pop along to your largest Te*co and give them a whirl.

I recommend taking a friend or like me you will find yourself glued to your dartboard by the seemingly endless stream of kids who want to have a go. It has to be said that I wasn't particularly strict with the rules. But then 10p is a fair price for a lolly, and my kids get a new game for the garden - until the dog eats the darts!

Let the parties begin

It was 7am on a sunny July morning and Elinor had stirred into action (remarkably early considering the fact that she went to bed very late). Somehow a bag of cards and presents had been left on her bedroom door handle, nobody knows how they got there.....

Social Whirl

There is a strong danger that I may become totally overwhelmed with the volume of social engagements my children are attending over the next fortnight. I think I may need to give up sleeping in order to do some work.

This week we have 2 family birthdays, one family birthday party, two other birthday parties that the kids wouldn't miss for the world. Next week we have another family birthday. We've turned down another party; if any more party like post comes I'm not going to open it.

On the school side we have the Summer Fair, which requires prizes to be donated and my attendance is required to help on the stalls. The kids think they will get more spending money that way. ie if I am there I can part with all my cash so that they can go on everything. They also tried the 'if you are there do I get to go on everything for nothing' line.

Then there is the whole school trip to Holy Island requiring careful packing of small rucsacks to cope with all weathers, and a long bus trip, as parents aren't allowed. Normally I try to go on school trips as I know I can then take all of the other things the kids will want to have; but won't want to carry.

These are closely followed by Sports Day, Prize Day, end of term party day, end of term church service etc....there is probably something else.

The house is full of party bags, cakes, presents for various ages, shapes and sizes. My diary overfloweth.

I spoke too soon another invite has just arrived, hand delivered, a rather lovely invite, which again cannot be refused. Hand delivered at 8.34pm

As an aside I have a feeling that my hairdresser has read this blog, either that or she is telepathic (quite likely). I was on the back foot as I got the appointment time wrong and had to be telephoned to remind me to go the four doors up the road to get my hair cut. In advance of the appointment I'd been revving up to ask for a 'bit less drama on the colour front' and had hardly stepped inside when I was told that my hair would stay 'a more natural colour' this time. Spooky. Thanks Trysh ;-)

Stand back from the chocolates......

I’m having a fairly normal Monday morning. I’ve logged into the accounts software and checked that everything is pretty much keyed in. I emailed this week’s invoice proforma on Friday so got ahead of myself there.

I need to do a cashflow forecast and go into battle with the small print on a couple of CT600 forms and then read some stuff on Sarbox so why am I currently debating whether 15% and free postage is a better deal than £10 off orders over £30, and whether the trousers I’ve been looking at are any different to the ones I already have and if I really need them?

Meanwhile I have 50 minutes until my hairdressers appointment, I could do with attempting some exercise and at 2.30 I’m off on a school trip to watch my kids tour a football ground, and whilst I don’t like football I do like to go to these things to see what the kids get up to.

I still can’t find the missing email addresses. My daughter can’t remember how to spell the names of some of her classmates. This makes it rather difficult when it comes to sending them birthday party invitations. Especially as I’m always complaining about her terrible spelling (not that mine is great, and don’t even go there on the grammar).

And yes, for once, I spell checked this post!

Oh and I love my new screensaver – thanks Gillie.

Ninja is one year old this week

Here is the birthday boy, on the left with his special scoubie toy. Ninja thinks that playing with his toys is just about the best thing in the world. He carries his toys round with him and gets most upset if I won't play.

On the right we have Cinders, who is Ninja's mum. She may be tiny but she certainly rules the furry animal department in this house. The poor dog is often seen howling and running in the opposite direction as Cinders tends to hide behind the doors and pounce on him. Unlike Ninja she does go for the full claws approach.

A few questions

1. Do you ever swap handbags just because the one you have been using has got so heavy that you can't face carrying it about all day...but you can't take anything out of it because you might need it later on?

2. Do you put things in such cunningly clever places that you can't find them yourself?

3. Do you spend ages trying to remember your super clever hiding place and then find a wonderful workaround, only to see the missing item the next time that you go into the room?

4. Do you write lists of the things your kids have done that annoyed you to see if they look as irritating when you see them written down?

5. Do you carefully write down someone's contact email and then lose it?

That's 5 out of 5 for me anyway. Today has been a particularly good day for 2 and 5. My desk looks like a bomb dropped and I still can't find my important bits of paper, which incidentally were somewhere in my incredibly heavy handbag. I'm going to leave the room now and wait for them all to re-appear.

Playing with the settings again

Another technological first, I finally found the 'publish comments' button!
Must load some pics on the blog..getting very texty methinks.

I've decided that my children have turned into early stage teenagers for the summer. I must catch them telling lies about 10 times a day each at the moment. It is getting rather tiring in terms of bothering to tell when I know they are lying. If I don't tell them does that mean that they are getting away with it....so I guess they have worn me down a bit this week in that I am now fed up with telling them off or catching them out.

The garden is undergoing an overhaul. A large quantity of railway sleepers turned up this morning and Jason is now artfully arranging them into raised beds. The dog is then tunnelling round the edges for an extra rustic effect.

It's been a while...now that everyone else has gone to bed I figured it was time to catch up on the blog. The trouble with the lighter evenings is that nobody under the age of 10 seems to realise when it is getting late and as it takes me a good hour or two of peace to wind down for the day I'm rapidly becoming completely nocturnal. Which would be great if I didn't have to get up and organise breakfast in the morning.

Mostly it has been a busy time since half term. This week quite a few extra people joined the business. And very good they are too. The chronic organiser in me wanted to get the office set up for them but it turns out they are way ahead of me. This morning a full sized fridge had appeared in the new office, complete with its own set of Top Gear fridge magnets. I certainly didn't have it on my top 10 things to get for the office but now I think of it I am rather attracted to the idea of popping in for a cool drink when I happen to be passing. I may even store something in the fridge just in case.

To show how easily pleased I am with little technical breakthroughs. I got the online BACS software working on Tuesday and it is going to save me so much time. Why on earth I ever agreed to pay everyone weekly is beyond me, but at least I don't have to handwrite all the cheques every Thursday evening...hooray. I've even set up a payment template so I only have to put in the amounts. Now this one little thing makes me smile whenever I think about it - so how sad am I?

Fudgee the dog had the op on Tuesday. Not sure if it is working yet but he is certainly very wary of going on car journeys with me.

The kids birthday party season is almost upon us so I have had my party bag planner hat on. Parties are booked and the invites are going out soon. If the kids can try to keep their rooms tidy and not wind me up EVERY evening by not going to bed they might even get to go to the parties themselves.

Business is booming
Things are moving fast in software development land. From being an idea we now have 7 staff plus myself and Jason!! Not bad since we only started properly in February.

The development team are going to have to move into another office, 5 mins up the road, as we can't fit everyone in. I was considering introducing shift work and desk share policies but as it happens another office has unexpectedly become available.

Must post some pics.
Flippin eck

Jason is off to a posh business do tonight. Black tie, looked very smart.

Amazing how things just start to develop their own momentum.

It was hairdresser day again today. Every time a new surprise colourwise. It turns out that they don't write down the colour they put on your hair as they can 'usually' remember. Possibly not that accurately judging by some of my recent colour adventures. I'm currently getting used to a new shade from today's experiment in hair pigments.

This time I did work up the nerve to object to the initial colour so thankfully I don't look too flame haired. The amended version is a bit more subtle and the kids have given it a nod of approval. Two hair cuts ago they agreed unanimously that I looked a bit like a Bratz doll, something to do with the purple highlights I think.

Anyway I was explaining that maybe it would be an idea to write something down in the book for next time. They've had a go...and it could be one of two or three colours, so they'll try the first of the other options in June.

Don't get me wrong I don't dislike the hair cut or the hair colour but it is sometimes hard to cope with the surprise! I think I need to avoid bright lights for a few days until the colour fades a bit. Do I sound stressed!!!!

I'm considering taking in a picture of Chorlton (of the Wheelies) and seeing if they can make me look like my profile photo. Now that would be worth a picture.

Things are moving along, the business is partnering with another open source company. We now have 3 staff! So our nice new office now has no space for me:-(
Still it is an ideal excuse to work from home.

The dog has gone all adolescent on us. So he is being walked on his lead as public displays of inappropriate behaviour can be rather embarrassing. Not that the lead stops him. He is not being snappy just rather overfriendly.

I've just bought the new First News paper for kids. The checkout assistant in Tesco's seemed bemused that I was paying £1 for a newspaper with only 24 pages. But as Jason has pointed out it doesn't contain any adverts. I think the writing is of a very high standard, I kind of wish the rest of the papers were as clear on the issues.

I feel like the Easter holidays have finally finished. Somehow I'm not so sure that it makes sense to have all the Bank Holidays bunched together up so much.

What with being in Scotland and then an extra day's school holiday + last weekends rush of parties and visits and another Bank Holiday + family visits it seems like today is the first day I have had without huge commitments to be somewhere.

I've decided to scale down the kids activities. Which means not going to quite so many swimming lessons but spending the time going swimming as a family, walking the dog or going out on the bikes. That way I might not find myself getting quite so resentful about being the child chauffer.

I've added a few business related links to the blog. This is mainly so I can keep an eye on them, and with any luck glean some information on what everyone else is doing in the service oriented open source market. It does look like the world of IT development is about to head into a step change. We're kind of riding on the coat-tails trying to keep up.

Back from a lovely easter holiday in Sandyhills, Dumfries. Did lots of walking, first time since the kids arrived that we've managed to go a decent distance without having to pick at least one of them up and carry them. The five mile walk from Sandyhills to Rockcliffe along the coastal path was wonderful, we didn't bump into another person en route and the scenery was great. We only meant to walk along the beach but ended up going on a bit of a trek.

The kids are very keen on cycling so it looks like more two wheeled outings are in the offing. I'm not quite sure how I've managed to convince myself that a mountain bike is a better investment than getting the exhaust on my car fixed (which is what I really should have done today) maybe it is the urge to get out while the weather is nice. I spoke to a nice shop in Chingford...ebay again...and the new Dawes MTB will be with me by this afternoon (Tuesday). With any luck I've got the frame size right and either myself or Jason will be able to ride it once the saddle has been adjusted. My trusty Claude Butler tourer is still in the garage, needs a bit of dusting off but is stil functional for when the whole family need to get out there and pedal.

I never did get a response from the National Trust on my query about why kids can't ride bikes at Gibside. Still it looks like we'll be riding the real cycle routes from now on. I just hope George can work out getting on and off a bit better. At the moment he throws himself off the bike, and refuses to get on without a push-off. When he is on the bike he pedals like a maniac and zooms off into the distance, rather than turning round and coming back to find us he usually throws himself into the side of the path and waits until we all turn up.

As usual the animals are having a settling in period after a week at the kennels. Fudgee is breaking records for chewiness, tally so far - drill cable (not our drill! the next door neighbours), two seals from the new drainage pipe, one sheet of blue damp proof membrane, and a flexi lead. Quite impressive as we only got back on Friday. The house is littered with official doggy toys but why chew them when you can chew everything in sight.

I'm trying a new method of protecting the kitchen cupboards from late night/early morning chwing - cayenne pepper mixed into a paste with white vinegar. It seems to be doing the trick at the moment but has a bit of a nutty aroma. It does blend in with the wood colour of the kitchen cupboards and hides the existing chew marks quite well. It helps that I have an industrial sized tub of cayenne pepper that I got from Makro years ago, which funnily enough I have hardly touched.

Fudge has also managed to forget that the cage is for sleeping not peeing and has discovered how to pee like a grown up dog - three legs and no wobbling. I guess he has been observing the other dogs at the kennels and I'm now having to watch him as he tried to territory mark the cat litter tray on Saturday. I have offered to re-home him (just yesterday - and I was serious) but Jason seems to have become attached, even if he is a one dog trail of destruction.
He is fast asleep under my chair at the moment, all cute and cuddly.

National Trust clamps down on rogue cyclists!
This is the last time the kids will be able to ride their bikes at Gibside. I admit the look likely to cause problems with the natural environment but due to a new rule (possibly made up on the spot) children on bicycles are now banned from riding their bikes at Gibside.

No matter that it was quiet, they have reasonable bikes and they don't deliberately go out to drive into anyone, we have officially been told by a man driving a tractor (who is causing the damage here...run that one past me again), that our children cannot ride bikes, even on the paths, as cycles could damage the environment.

They didn't even pull the 'health and safety' argument. The main concern was that they might ride their bikes on the grass. This was one of the few safe, traffic free places we could take them while they get used to riding in a straight line. The local cycle paths tend to be full of manic mountain bikers who do about 40mph and refuse to stop for anyone.

Jason did try to point out that driving the NT landrover and tractor and various quad bikes would be more damaging...but who are we to argue against the rules. One day when I get myself a guide dog and a disabled buggy I will deliberately go wild!!!!!!! There are laws to protect me then. Hmmph

It has officially been a busy week. We've interviewed and hired two designers, both students on 4 month placements who will help us to generate a great brand image. We've also found an excellent market researcher at Durham University who is doing a PhD in virtual networking...how spooky is that. Fortune currently shines upon us as a business team.

On the domestic front the end of term has required easter eggs to be decorated, rolling eggs to be provided and some interesting easter hat creations. The holidays are soon to be upon us.

George now appears to be free of nits. He is under strict orders to keep his head away from everyone else at school. Still I'll keep on checking. Rather unhelpfully my mum has told the local hairdresser, which I could really have done without as I have an appointment this Saturday - I think I might cancel it as I can't be bothered with 2 hours in the salon knowing that my hairdresser thinks I have nits (I don't think I have them personally).

The cats are all being kept indoors. Jason has got to fit the new magnetic dog flap this weekend to keep them in. Only the dog is allowed the necessary magnetic collar. Ninja - brother of Flash - is very unsettled, he has changed personality since last Saturday and is now very timid. Jasper and Cinders are their usual selves but things are very quiet around the house without Flash letting us all know what he thinks.

Just had to load this picture, originally the light meant that you couldn't see Flash's face on this one. I opened the image and clicked on the auto lighten and there he is. Jason said the last time he saw him was this afternoon, we've had other children round to play and all the other cats had disappeared. Not Flash, he was sitting in the middle of the living room floor cleaning himself. You can see it in his eyes, no fear.

This is Flash on the window, watching me working. You can see his personality in this picture. All noseyness and whiskers. He was still a baby, only 10 months old, no road sense. I want to lock the others in the house now, just in case. I sometimes wish nobody had ever invented cars. Life would be much simpler and far fewer people and animals would get killed every year. Such a shame, my poor flashyboy.

I'm so sad, today my beautiful black and white cat Flash was killed on the road outside our house. I think we found him fairly soon after it happened and he must have died instantly as it was obvious the car had hit him on the side of the head. There were no other injuries. He'd been moved to the pavement.

I really loved this cat.

Currently frustrated as can't get to previous post to ad a 'v' into moving. I think it must be the keyboard...it can't be that I sit and type whilst looking the other way can it?

Finally finished sorting out the kids rooms. They are tidyish, well tidy enough. The new home office is full to the point of near explosion, mostly with stationery, but it does at least look tidy to the untrained eye.

George is has acquired some new friends at school, small insects that live on his hair. Which I could do without! So we are trying the Harvard Olive Oil Method of removal, which combined with a combing regime is meant to kill everything within 3 weeks. I hadn't realised how tiny they are. Apparently nits have evolved into smaller insects because they keep getting eradicated and only the smallest survive...wow..what a joy that is to know when you have to go looking for them.

So lesson for the day, nits are now smaller so cutting most of your hair off makes them harder to get rid of. And there was me about to shave his head.

Pics of George covered in olive oil and wrapped in clingfilm to follow.

Four days of moving (spelling fixed hooray) stuff and I still haven't tidied it all up!

We started re-arranging the house on Saturday. Figuring that as we now have a proper office we don't two office rooms in the house. Having spent the last 8 months promising the children completely separate bedrooms (their old ones were adjoining and they only ever slept in one room despite the fact that there were at least 4 beds up there), we finally got round to taking some action.

Saturday involved a lot of heavy lifting as all the office cupboards got moved downstairs. Sunday saw the beds being moved and Monday and Tuesday were mainly devoted to sorting things. My love of stationery and stuff has been revealed. Things that had been in boxes and drawers for years had to be opened and re-sorted. I could easily open a stationery shop with all the things I've accumulated - or I would do if I didn't like it all so much.

I think I still have at least two more days to go to sort out the kids' stuff. Then there is the garage....and then Ebay. I have amassed an incredible quantity of packaging materials in anticipation of selling off surplus stuff. So much that it is taking up half a shed on its own. I did spend half an hour sorting it, so it is now boxed according to type.

To prove how much this is all appreciated the kids had moved a sleeping bag into Elinor's new room tonight as George was going to sleep on the floor. They have only been apart for one night. I expect they'll get used to it soon.