Julie's Boggle

In many ways, the summer break we’ve had this year feels like the most complete holiday I’ve had in a long while.  To be sure, there were some little stresses at the start — like the too-short night spent in a hotel in Dubai, en route to South Africa, which involved minimal sleep all round — but that feels like an insignificant complaint compared with the many ways other things went smoothly.

Confusingly, it was actually winter in South Africa, where we spent 4 of our 5 weeks away, but realistically there were minimal differences between the “summer” we were leaving behind, and Durban’s winter days if you discount the hours of daylight.

Overall, our time in South Africa (photos here) was a wonderful break from the daily grind of running a family during term-time.  Not only were we surrounded by lovely family and friends with whom there was lots to catch-up, we were very well looked after in terms of food and accommodation.  We had grandparents on hand to help with keeping the children entertained and there was lots and lots of time for relaxing over good meals in enjoyable company.

Tom completed a two-week placement at a local church while we were there and he found that to be an interesting and enriching experience which saw him getting involved with an area very close to where he grew up, yet which he knew nothing about.

Once we arrived back in Durham, feeling a little depleted from another set of sleep-deprived aeroplane flights, but otherwise refreshed, there was just one slightly-stressed day left to unpack and repack before we jumped in the car and drove the 500 km south to London.

This part of our holiday was not as easy as SA on the catering front, given that we were largely looking after ourselves in this regard(!) but thanks again to generous friends we had a lovely house to spread out in, replete with all the baby-gear we needed and lots of toys.

Time was tight for fitting in all the people we wanted to see, even with a number of them being away on holiday as well.  On top of that we had hoped to get in some good park visits but the weather defeated us there on a number of days.  Fortunately we had one day that was sunny enough for Jon to have a “big paddle” in the Ravenscourt Park paddling pool.   (The day before we’d got as far as taking his shoes off when the heavens opened!)  He loved it.  “It’s cold, but I don’t mind.”

All importantly, we got to see most of the babies that had arrived since we were last in London, and Jon got to spend time with many of his Shepherds Bush friends, re-establishing connections and refreshing young memories.

As August came to an end, we at last we made our way back to Durham, leaving one last week at home before school started.  A last few days to chill before school term (and another placement for Tom) began and fresh commitments started to fill our diaries once more.

Things feel like they’re changing very quickly in our lives at the moment.  Only about 3 weeks ago we were anticipating Tom’s parents coming over for a big chunk of the summer holidays, and Tom was trying to nail down his final 2 week summer placement to complete his summer allotment.

[Background: As part of the training program, the college mandates 8 weeks of placements over the summer break which runs from early June to the end of September(!).  There are 2 weeks right at the beginning where there are only two options to choose from, but after that, the students are encouraged to fill the remaining 4-week and 2-week sections with work at somewhere that either fills a gap in their experience or will be relevant to their future ministry.]

Tom’s first choice, which would have seen the whole family down in London for two weeks, fell through a little while back.  This was disappointing but we resolved to take a holiday in London for part of that time regardless, since we’d already pinned down our accommodation with some generous friends in Shepherds Bush.

Then, in almost back-to-back news, we heard that Tom’s second choice of placement had fallen through, and his parents needed to change their plans too!  That was extra disappointment because as well as the excitement of having a family visit, I’d been looking forward to having help with my two weeks of childcare while Tom went off to do his placement.

So while Tom pondered his options, and I mused over how easy the other spouses have it with parents who live in the same country, it suddenly occurred to me that with our original summer plans scuppered, Tom could be looking for placement opportunities in South Africa!

We had our first serious discussion about it last week Tuesday and Tom set to work on it the next day.  He had his invitation from a church in South Africa by the end of the day, collared the (busy) warden on Monday at breakfast to see if the college would approve, and by Tuesday’s supper we were in possession of 4 tickets to SA!

Looking at the itinerary, it’s going to be quite a different sort of trip to the ones we’ve been used to.  We’re flying out of Newcastle not Heathrow for starters, and instead of the usual 10pm-ish departure, arriving around 6am, we leave at lunch time and fly via Dubai landing at midnight.

If we’ve remembered to collect our hotel vouchers in Newcastle, we’re then granted two free hotel rooms to (hopefully) sleep in, and our next flight leaves around 10h00, landing in Durban about 17h30.  All in all a lot longer (26 hours vs 11 hours) but a lot more time flying during the day which relieves the stress of trying to sleep (and keep children quiet) on the plane!

It’s our second last night in Durban and Julie and I managed to beguile the grandparents into looking after Jonathan while we snuck out for a date night (with Jessica in tow on account of her requiring Julie’s milk apparatus).

We selected The Gazette in Florida Rd because we were after Italian and it looked cheap and cheerful.  “Cheap and Confused”, though, would probably be a better description.

Our initial greeting was by a casually-dressed chap who had been sitting at the back and who looked about in apparent mild panic before sauntering tentatively towards us.  He vaguely waved us in the direction of a table and then disappeared.  Shortly after he reappeared to take our drinks orders.  When we asked for the Chardonnay on the menu, he muttered something about not having Chardonnay and that he’d find out what other “sweet white wines” he did have to offer.  Cue several rounds of coming and going before we settled on the “dry” house white, which turned out to be a not-unpalatable fruity white with an interesting syrupy after-taste.

Having scanned the menu, we settled on a focaccia to share (covered in mozzarella and Roquefort according to the menu) and we both requested gnocchi for mains.  Julie’s was to have a tomato, bacon and cream sauce, while I plumped for the Roquefort sauce.

About this time we mysteriously graduated to a waitress who was dressed the part and seemed somewhat more table-savvy.  She proceeded to bring us a vast (about 40cm) focaccia dressed simply with garlic.  Not what the menu said, but happily a little closer to what we’d been wanting anyway, so hey-ho.  Along with the focaccia came a miscellany of condiments which included but was not limited to:

• A bottle of malt vinegar which had the vague incantation of “balsamic” mumbled in its direction.
• A bottle of what looked, tasted and smelled like sunflower seed oil.  (Extra-slapper olive oil perhaps?).
• A cup of mysterious green paste.  Not pesto by the smell, but we ventured no further.
• “Balsamic, garlic and olive oil” salad dressing which tasted strangely savoury.

By now the table was feeling distinctly cluttered, as though someone had emptied the pantry onto it while searching for something right at the back.  But it did liven up the focaccia to combine it with so many different flavours.

Next came two giant servings of gnocchi.  Julie’s was almost as promised, but was missing the cream she’d been looking forward to.  This was rectified within a few minutes, after some referring back to the menu in consternation.  Mine wasn’t too bad, although “Roquefort sauce” might have been a slightly optimistic description; better might have been “white sauce but the chef thinks very hard about Roquefort while stirring it”.

We decided to leg it after the gnocchi, feeling faint just at the thought of the Bar One cake and white chocolate cheesecake which were listed as dessert options.  Still, all in all, we left quite full, not poisoned and for the definitely cheap total of R148.00 (£13.05).

Having Tom’s parents staying with us for a couple of weeks seemed the perfect excuse for an early summer holiday this year.  And after our last family holiday (which also happened to be our first B&B with a baby), and to keep costs down, self-catering was an easy choice.

As far as location was concerned, I was keen to pick somewhere that didn’t require too much of a drive.  Which made me think of the Cotswolds, which we’ve heard lots about, never been to, and is conveniently situated a couple of hours drive away.

“The Cotswolds” turns out to be area defined by the Cotswold hills — a region that is widely regarded for its natural beauty and the many villages constructed from the golden Cotswold stones.

By the time we had finalised our mutual availability for a week away, the selection of suitable holiday accommodation was diminishing, but fortunately, one showed up that lined up with all the criteria and the booking was finalised.

Thus Angel Cottage, in the little village of Halford, became our home from home for 5 days in late June, and it turned out to be a fortuitous choice.

Unlike other self-catering accommodation we’ve been in, this cottage had no inventory to speak of.  Just a polite little note pointing out that the place is also used by the owners part of the year, so please be nice to the contents, or words to that effect.  What a pleasant change from boring lists of cutlery, crockery and linen – not to mention the fact that the kitchen was stocked with Every implement you could possibly think of (and quite a few more that we actually couldn’t identify).

On top of all that, the cottage itself came complete with the authentic look and feel of a country home (cottage garden, thick wooden beams), and all the necessary 20th century plumbing and conveniences to make it comfortable.

As far as exploring went, we weren’t overly ambitious – although a bit more advance reading might have spurred me on a bit more if I’d found time for it.

One of our more spontaneous excursions was a strawberry-picking trip; inspired by signs that we found on the side of the road, which led us on a merry chase through country lanes till we tracked down the farm in question.

Aside from learning a lot about different strawberry varieties, and judicious sampling as we went along (they tasted SO much better than the supermarket ones), we picked about 4 punnets of beautifully red and ripe strawberries between us, and enjoyed them over the next several days.

Our closest big town was Stratford-upon-Avon, which I found somewhat overdone in terms of Shakespeare references.  One of the big tourist attractions there (after the house Shakespeare was born in) is Anne Hathaway’s cottage, but on our trip to see it, we arrived after it had closed for the day.  Ah well. A late afternoon’s walk alongside the river Avon was a pleasing alternative.

As an opportunity to do something completely different, we spent a day with some friends of Tom’s parents (they go way back) who live in a village not too far from Halford.  They treated us to lunch, and fascinated young Jon with the tame ferrets that they keep in their back garden!

For the rest of the time, we explored our local village of Halford, itself quite attractive, as well as several other pretty little villages and towns in the vicinity.  (And an excellent farm stall.)

We also made a point of trying out quite a few of the pubs in the wider area (surprisingly few of which offered high chairs), and spent the long, lazy summer evenings (after Jon’s bedtime) in the airy comfort of the large conservatory at the back of the cottage, reading until the daylight faded around half-nine.

Overall, it was a lovely relaxing holiday, and I’d heartily recommend the cottage to anyone who had plans to stay in that area.  The complete photo album from the trip can be found here.

After 6½ months of crawling (during which time he reached proficiency level of “lightning fast”) and 3½ months of “cruising”, Jonathan finally took his first steps at 19½ months.  It wasn’t anything dramatic, just a stumbling dash from the security of the wall, to a chair three baby-steps away, but it did show that he could do it.

QED, as it were.

Having proved the point, Jon went on to keep his new skill under wraps.  Diligent observers might catch sight of a small body bobbing across a minor gap where crawling would be regarded as tiresome, but aside from these few occasions Jon wasn’t keen.  Sitting down unexpectedly didn’t suit him, and he got very cross with parents who tried to trick him into walking by sneaking away a supportive hand, or stepping out of the way when he lurched over.

Then came Australia and lots of contact with Jonathan’s walking, talking cousins.  That seemed to get Jon thinking that it was time to hone his latest skill.

From daring acts of standing up in the bath “Look Ma, no ha-” *Splash!* (over and over again) to long sessions of falling all over the floor trying to get up into standing position by himself, Jon put his mind to it and worked hard.

Soon he was covering longer and longer distances, actually letting go of an adult’s supporting finger to get ahead, and getting the hang of getting up unaided and standing for longer periods, skills that definitely came second to the actual walking.

In terms of baby-proofing our home, given that Jon could climb before he could walk, not much has changed.  However, what we have found is that the cross-pollination of toys has escalated severely!

In the old crawling days, Jon was rather limited in his ability to transport toys about the house.  We’d catch him doing a rather jerky crawl, dragging or pushing whatever he wanted to take with him; or shuffling awkwardly on his knees, a short-term solution which left hands free to carry things.

Neither of these two options come close to the elegant simplicity of walking and carrying, something that Jon can now appreciate fully.

So now we find toys Everywhere.  Puzzle pieces down the side of Tom’s computer, shaker-bells next to my side of the bed, books by the front door, blocks in the bathroom.  And in every room, a paper-bag/plastic container/toy piled high with a random collection of objects that have taken Jon’s fancy.

Our little author of chaos – now fully mobile…

Jonathan (20m) and his two Aussie cousins, Angus (3y) and Sammy (17m), enjoying a playground in Coff’s Habour, New South Wales.

As might have been apparent in my previous post, I embarked on our caravan holiday with a fair amount of trepidation. This turned out to be unfounded and everything went far better than expected.

So well in fact that we have already made plans to go again next year!

The caravan we hired was not a recent model, but it was still fairly well kitted out. At one end, it had two 2-seater couches that faced each other (in theory, the eating area). These were transformed into their alternative configuration: a narrow double bed, at the earliest opportunity, and left that way.

On the other end, was a long couch that could become a single bed. (There was some sort of arrangement that could have given us a bunk bed above that but we didn’t experiment.)

What we did experiment with, quite early on, was putting the couch into single bed formation and then stripping off the cushions/mattress, to see how Jon’s camp-cot would stand on it.

Ahem. It turned out that the bed was quite narrow, and only two of the camp-cot’s feet would be supported by it. We increased this tally to three by lying the caravan’s folding table on top of the bed. That just left the final foot… After some head-scratching and various attempts at re-arranging — including an abortive attempt at squeezing the cot into the caravan’s gangway (would definitely make getting to our bed a tricky prospect), we finally tried putting the bed’s cushions into a pile (they were quite firm) and rested the final foot on that. Voilà, baby bed done!

By the afternoon of the first day (Saturday), most people had arrived and our camping “village” (Blue 6) was abuzz with activity. All around us, tents and gazebos were going up, cars were being unpacked, supplies stowed away, and children racing around everywhere, simply thrilled to have all their playmates in this novel environment.

From the second day, with the exception of the Day Off in the middle, our days fell into a fairly standard routine.

We tended to wake up around 07h00 which was when Jonathan and various other baby “alarms” went off in surrounding tents. From then, we had until 09h00, when one of us put Jon down for his nap while the other went off to the excellent morning worship and bible study session. (There was a 07h15 session but those were not for us! :yawn: )

From 11h00 to 12h30, Jon went off his group, “Emeralds”, for babies between 1 and 2 years. (The toy collection there was excellent and Jon got along fabulously.) The main seminar sessions were run during this time, which was great as Tom and I could go together. About 8 seminars were run in parallel, making it quite hard to choose some days!

After the morning session, we invariably stopped by the coffee and freshly-made doughnut stall in the vending area. Mmmm. Warm, crisp, sugary doughnuts… (Why would anyone want Krispy Kreme when they could have these!)

Lunches tended to be laid-back affairs, usually involving fresh bread and other goodies from the on-site farm stall. In the afternoon, more seminars were run and in the evening there was worship and teaching. Tom and I took turns to attend these two sessions.

We all really enjoyed the free time in the camp. All the kids got on so well with the older ones being very good with the youngsters like Jon.

For suppers, we were divided up into groups so we only had to worry about cooking (for 7 adults and 6 kids!) on one of the nights. On the other nights, we just showed up. [We also learned that there are meals that work very well in a camping-type environment, and others that should be avoided!]

We did see the advantages of a tent in that it provided a great spot for cosy late night group chats, while rain was pattering down on the “roof” above us.

However, for all the space limitations, the caravan had a lot going for it. We enjoyed the hot water for washing up (once we learned how to switch it on ), and the fridge was a great asset that we were able to share with a number of tent-dwellers. And narrow as it was, the caravan’s double bed was very comfortable and snug under our king-size duvet. (Next year, I’ll know to take a proper pillow…)

So yes, caravan again next year. But a bigger one (to avoid the camp-cot shenanigans), and with some chairs and an awning to expand our living area. Maybe we’ll even have a built-in toilet to help with avoiding the 5-minute walk to the loos at 3am…

(All photos shown here can also be seen in this album.)

I think most people who know us well would accurately peg us as “not camping people”. It’s not that we don’t like cooking for ourselves, but we do like our amenities to be close at hand – en suite preferably.

So this makes our next holiday a particularly unusual one for us in that we (as in all three of us) are going to be spending a week in – well, okay, let’s say it: in a Caravan.

The caravan I should hasten to add, is the more luxurious of the options we had available for this trip. Option B was a tent.

But to more fully cover the circumstances of this holiday, I need to explain that this year we are going to a New Wine conference. And if you haven’t heard of that before, it’s a Christian conference, hugely popular, and held every year (in the UK at any rate) in a massive show-ground.

Its popularity has increased so much that in the UK they now hold three conferences a year and we, along with a substantial portion of our church, and I-don’t-know-how-many thousands of others, are going to the one for “London and South East”.

To be fair, we could have stayed at a B&B outside of the show-ground, but we felt that we would really lose out on a lot of socialising if we did that. The camp site gets laid out so that everyone from the same church camps in a “village” together, which is pretty cool because it’s basically like going camping with all your friends at once.

Not that we know what it’s like to go camping, but I reckon this has to be the easiest way of doing it if one must, because the caravan company brings the caravan to the camp-site for you, plugs it in etc. in advance, and then takes it away at the end. (We could have done this with a tent too, but felt that might be stepping a little too far outside our comfort zone. )

Apparently it can be rather muddy and grim if it rains all week, so here’s hoping for clear skies for the week after next!

Why this conference I hear you ask? Well, we’ve obviously been hearing stories from New Wine veterans for years now and, we decided last year, the time seemed about right to be brave and try it for ourselves.

And Jon? He’s part of the plan. The caravan we picked (4-berth) is apparently big enough to fit his travel cot. He’s also signed up for the babies group “Gems” which gives us 1.5 hours of crèche service a day — a bit of a breather for Tom and me to take in a seminar or two together.

All sorts of interesting questions are popping up. Like what’s the best food to take with us? How do people generally bath babies on a caravan trip? Will the kitchen equipment supplied be big enough to make a meal for 8 when we prepare our shared supper?

But all these are among the many things to ponder during this week’s packing brainstorm. Sounds like it’ll be fun.

As our first holiday in rented accommodation, I’d say our Isle of Wight trip (photo album here) was a fair success. The island itself was as scenic as I’d expected — even more so when it came to the the exquisite blue of the surrounding sea — and our hosts at the B&B were remarkably accommodating.

Jonathan’s “room” in the B&B, was a prettily decorated annex, separated from our room by a plastic folding door. There was a proper cot in there to which he took an instant dislike. This proved to be a nightly trial as our usually cooperative baby engaged in a battle of wills with us over falling asleep in said cot. Sigh.

Baby sleep aside, the B&B served us well although I think in future I would go with self-catering for the extra flexibility that would offer when travelling with an infant.

In this case, I’d brought along all Jonathan’s food in pre-frozen containers (agreed with the B&B in advance), not really considering the position this would put us in if a microwave were not freely available.

Fortunately, that week, the B&B owners had an empty self-catering flat, for which they gave us the key. (I hate to think what a bother we would have been to them knocking on their door twice a day to access their freezer and microwave otherwise.)

We fitted in a two enjoyable walks with Jon in his borrowed baby-backpack. He really enjoyed the wind in his face and was given to fits of bouncing about in a way that is quite destabilising to the parental carrier!

The first walk was along the beach at the bottom of the pretty, multi-coloured cliffs of Alum Bay. In the arcade on top of the cliffs, a thriving tourist industry has sprung up around making knick-knacks containing layers of different coloured sand. And signs have been posted at the bottom of the cliffs to discourage people from taking sand away with them (I suspect they fear the cliffs collapsing.) Naturally this fuels an even more robust activity down on the beach of “stealing” bagfuls of sand!

Our second walk was along Compton Bay (Hanover Point) where they have a fascinating and under-marketed beach with dinosaur footprints on it! (If I had known how little tourist info was offered on this intriguing place, I would have done my homework before we left!)

We did quite a lot of driving around (Smokey Joe did us proud ) , including a circuit of the island to get more of a feel for it. Our B&B was on the western side and we noted that this end appeared far more rural than over on the east where the towns and suburbs covered more area and felt a bit more built-up.

The island is about 42 km by 19 km (26 by 12 miles) and the various towns and hamlets are connected by a winding network of small country roads. Small as it is, it takes almost an hour to get from one side to the other.

As a consideration for a holiday destination with young children, the Isle rates quite highly for its proximity to London and its overall attractiveness and country-feel — you are surrounded by farm-land until you hit the coast.

The only real sting in the cost of getting there is the price-tag on the ferry ticket.

I’d also note for next time that the country roads are not brilliant for push-chairs as few, if any, have a verge and they are fairly narrow. For the less-intrepid visitors, this means you are obliged to drive to the start of your walk. But if you have toddlers, chances are you wouldn’t want to be doing country walks anyway but would rather stay further to the east, closer to the big, sandy beaches and all sorts of infant diversions.

I’m fairly sure that we will return when Jon is a little older, and I think young Jon will guarantee that our next visit will have a completely different feel to it!

Next week Monday, we are off on a little family holiday — our first time going away alone as a family, as opposed to going to stay with friends or relatives.

For this trip, we’re staying in a “baby-friendly” B&B on the Isle of Wight; very much unexplored territory for all of us. It’s not very far, just 2 -3 hours’ drive south, to the coast, and then a short ferry trip.

I’ve been looking up our B&B on an online map and took the following screenshot of its satellite image:

Aren’t Google Maps cool!

If you click on the image and have the bandwidth to zoom out, you’ll see that the B&B is in the middle of lots of green fields, quite close to the sea, on a bit of the island that pokes out on the west. It looks splendid and I’m very excited about our 5 day break.

(On our way back we’re spending the weekend with some lovely friends who relocated from London to Dorset a few years back. They haven’t met Jon yet, so that should be lots of fun too.)