Today I've mostly bin...

[eirian]

... travelling home after a wonderful 10 days with Grandma & Grandad! Thomas has had a fab time and even got so far as to dip his feet into the water at the beach. Mummy and Daddy had a restful time watching Grandad building train tracks (when he wasn't building sandcastles).
And Thomas would like to say thank you to Grandma and Grandad for his new Thomas the Tank Engine books (Grandma gave him Gordon and Edward, and I had a Percy book ready for him as well which he got when we got home for being such a good boy. He decided that it must have been from Grandad!)

[Bunnylump]

Aah, those were the days!! Glad you all had such a good time. (Especially, by the sounds of it, Grandpa!!)

[Bunnylump]

I am becoming conscious that it's usually me waffling on about boring trivia and drivel about what I'm up to and where I've been. Please, if anyone is starting to think "Oh for goodness sake, who CARES what you've been doing" PLEASE tell me!

Well, this was actually yesterday, but it was too late last night...

One of D's bands (The Classics) had a gig at Kingston Bridge Boat Club.
http://richmondbridgeboatclub.org/wp-co ... -03-51.jpg

This was one of those "sort of favours for a friend of the band, who might throw a couple of hundred quid in the direction of the band" sort of things. Well. GETTING THERE was um...interesting. Nobody warned us that there had been a rugby match at Twickenham, which meant our journey there was punctuated with being stopped again and again by the police, who were letting hordes of rugby fans cross the road. Then, finding somewhere to unload an entire drum kit ANYWHERE near the River Thames was very tricky. The road we had had suggested was closed, so although we managed (after about three trips round the one way system) to find a parking place which only meant carrying equipment up and down stairs about 300 yards ( ), the other band members ended up having to park on slipways (which are tidal and therefore rather alarming.)

Do you know what? When I was 18-20ish, this sort of thing was fine. Little did I know I'd STILL be doing it at 52...

Anyway, as the internet photo shows, the clubhouse turned out to be a TUNNEL, which the band had to set up in. They were crammed up against one wall, and people had to squeeze past them to get to the bar and the toilet. It was all a bit grim to start with...especially as all the boat club people had been out rowing all day long and by the time we got there were three sheets to the wind. They were also dressed in things like pith helmets and grass skirts. I felt a little out of place.

However, with the usual "well, if you can't beat them, join them" attitude, which needs to be employed in these occasions, I was eventually dancing enthusiastically with all the grass skirted, pith helmeted drunkards, all AROUND the band, who had to accept that people were so close that there was no OPTION but to smile benignly as drunken women decided to try to play their guitars or play D's cymbals. And then the icing on the cake came when one of the organisers made a rather alarming announcement along the lines of "And we'd like to thank the band, who have given their services for free. So we are handing a bucket round for donations." One of those "OMG, there's been a misunderstanding here" moments. However, it transpired that the original friend WAS still paying, and then we got all the takings from lots of rich Richmond types as well, which was a bit of a result.

It actually ended up being quite a fun night. But I'm still wondering how that all fits in with being 52...

[chazzie]

It actually ended up being quite a fun night. But I'm still wondering how that all fits in with being 52...

Glad you had a good evening - I enjoy hearing what you get up to - so do get updating us..... and as for fitting in with being 52 - I hope you're still having as much fun when you are 62/72/82.........

[eirian]

Bunny, we love hearing about what you've been up to, so whatever you do, don't stop!


.... collecting Thomas after his first full day at school. (had 2 half days last week, but today was his first full day). Doesn't he look smart!

[Bunnylump]

Aw, he looks like a proper little gentleman. And I love the face!!

[Wulfruna]

Such a sweet little innocent..... he really looks the part
Grandma and Grandad are very proud of him - and he'll have such a lot to tell Mummy and Daddy!

[giraffe]

Doesn't he look grown up.

[chazzie]

Oh lovely photos.....

[LAT]

I agree, lovely pics. And long trousers make them look so grown-up. My son wore shorts to school until he was about 11. It was his choice as they could wear either but I certainly didn't complain!!

[LAT]

... having afternoon tea at Fortnum and Mason
This was with some of the girls I first started school with to celebrate (?!) the fact that we will all become 60 in the next year. I didn't know everyone there as we had moved away when I was 10 and a couple of them had only been at the senior school but it was great fun to see them and we had a lovely tea. There were 8 of us altogether exchanging memories of teachers, absent friends and dreadful school dinners!

Now we are discussing what to do next time we meet.

[Bunnylump]

Sounds wonderful!

[clvrlad]

Chasing holiday company's down to change names on a flight

[Bunnylump]

Now THAT can be far more tricky than it really ought to be. We even had trouble when it was the holiday company's fault! Good luck.

[clvrlad]

My uncle works in nz for the airport so he might be able to help

[LAT]

............drinking tea and having a bit of a catch up with a rag doll and a cauliflower.

[MBH]

After poor Maisie had her quayside business park walk cut short on Saturday by a wasp sting she was unhappy and limping during the day but perked up on Sunday morning - so we took her for a nice long wander around the grounds at Gibside. This was to neatly avoid going anywhere near town where a number of thousand brave (but possibly slightly crazy) people thought that a 13.5 mile run is just the way to spend a day disrupting traffic

Just at the highest point of the walk, we were treated to a personal fly-past of the Red Arrows in Diamond-9 formation as they sped off from overflying the start of the Great North Run and on route to thier next engagement somewhere across the country.

A lovely wander round and a couple of coffee stops along the way - only a few drops from passing showers (including hiding in a bird-watching hide for the longest downpour of 10 minutes). Very nice.

[gill216]

... trying to reply to my missed calls and messages. All missed because of the weather.

I have visions of the wind blowing orange satellite all over the place today because my phone has gone again. Virgins satellite must be sheltered because I have internet and OH has phone. Both virgin! Not often I have anything good to say about Virgin.

[Wulfruna]

Getting ready to set off tomorrow for a trip to Vienna
Once again this is a working trip to a conference, where I shall probably need to help with bits of translation and also with minute-taking (it helps to understand German as well, although the working language is English). It involves around 60 women from 30 different European countries and is always a good mix of fun and serious work. What is nice is that I shall get to meet lots of good friends there and catch up with news - with a great party at the end (Saturday) when we share food (and drink ) from all the different countries. However, we will also get a site-seeing tour of Vienna (can't be bad!) and I'm then staying on afterwards for a couple of days with a friend to visit some more places of interest.
Should have some internet access at the Centre, but not sure how good.......

[Bunnylump]

Sounds like great fun, W. Hope you have a lovely time.