Category: uk

When we got back from Vancouver Tracy had an email waiting in her inbox from the letting agency asking for us to call. She began to panic about what it could be but fortunately just before bed she decided that it was probably because our gas safety certificate was about to expire. Having decided that this was what it was about she could sleep well that night and not worry about the fact that our building insurance had expired 2 days earlier.

After waking in the morning, Tracy made the call. The facial expressions clearly indicated this wasn’t about the gas safety certificate. The look of almost tears suggested something quite different. It was serious enough that I decided I should get out of bed! Yes folks, it was that serious.

As it turns out, apparently the girl next door was learning to drive and it had gone a bit wrong. The good news was that no-one was hurt and the car only had a scratch on it. The bad news was …

So there we go. The structural engineer has been out and there are four weeks work and £25k to put it right. At least we feel like we’re getting some value for money from our letting agency fee now!

 

While it is very nice to have Nanny and Aunty A visiting us here in Bellevue, there was a certain level of concern about Russell not eating for 2 weeks. We soon realized that there was no need to panic – he would eat, and the restaurants and takeaways of Sandy would probably never have it so good! But oh no! How wrong were we? As it turns out Russell has turned into some sort of Gordon Ramsey masterchef! Each day we get a photographic treat of the food he has been preparing. And he’s not just cooking basic meals here, he’s show boating! Making cakes and all sorts!

Check this out. First up lots of chips as security just in case the rest didn’t go too well:

Then giant potatoes:

Clearly the confidence was flowing now as this next one is looking almost restaurant standard:

And now he’s just showing off:

So there we go. Who’d have thought Russell had been hiding all these culinary skills from us all for so long? We’re all very impressed and looking forward to coming round for tea!

UPDATE:

Here is the latest offering from the Moggerhanger Chef:

Tomatoes for eyes, bacon ears, fried egg nose and a beard full of chips! Nice!

And the next one …

The beer looks nice!

It began at 5:29 – their earliest rising yet on a Christmas morning. It didn’t however start with the sound of presents being ripped open but with the noise of two little boys chitter chattering. I was half asleep at this point but I could make out the odd reference to Bellevue, going to Disney last year, mince pies and talk of going on a train to see if they were good.

The talk then moved on to Barcelona, Liverpool kits and Fernando Torres. All the while, their Seattle Sounders Christmas stockings hung on the door handles. They were completely oblivious to them.

The next few minutes were spent discussing how hard it is too get to sleep on Christmas night and then moved onto the relative merits of Joe Hart, Pepe Reina and Petr Cech. At 5:59 there was still no mention of the stockings on the door handles.

At 6:02 Harry went to the toilet and Toby followed. Toby did give the stocking on the office door a sly glance but they both went back to bed and started wondering what the time was. By the sounds of it, they looked out the window, saw it was dark and Harry’s best guess was that it was about 4 or 5 in the morning.

They wanted to get up and Harry said, “why don’t we just get up?”. Before coming up with a reason as to why they shouldn’t, Harry mentioned that he loved whisky (they both had a little sample yesterday). I’m not sure of Toby’s response but I got the impression he wasn’t so keen.

Talk then moved back to what time it was and wondering where a clock was. Harry mentioned there was one in Mum and Dad’s room. At 6:08 I lay very still in bed as Harry crept into the room. He walked around to Tracy’s side and then went back into their bedroom where he informed Toby that it was 4 or 5 in the morning – he’d checked the clock.

At 6:09 Harry came back to our bedroom door and pulled the door close – I think he was covering his tracks! Having established it was 5 in the morning they then decided they needed to wait another 3 hours before present opening. This wasn’t good news and George the cat started miaowing – he clearly wasn’t happy either!

Five minutes later, at 6:14 they wished each other Merry Christmas. Two minutes later they moved onto the world of world of football management. Harry told Toby he would be signing him as a squad rotation player, and then announced he had to fly to Barcelona to watch then play tomorrow. At 6:17 they arrived in Barcelona and went boot shopping.

This could only hold their attention for a short while though because at 6:20 Harry announced he was bored, “what shall we do?”. Toby replied with “I just want to open my presents”. “You could go into Mum and Dad’s room and ask them if we can then”.

At 6:21 Toby came into the room …

httpv://youtu.be/SaoxfzC0td0

By 6:28 all stocking presents – 22 each – were open! It was the best Christmas ever!! As a bonus to all their presents Harry announced that Rudolph hadn’t woken them up farting like Uncle Jack said he would. Apparently Rudolph also does a poo on top of your house every Christmas Eve.

As the boys played with their presents we lay in bed watching Santa’s progress, and at 7 in the morning he reached Seattle, I wonder if he has left anything there?

7am he delivers to Seattle?

Along with the food, drink, dogs, large garden, Chinese, staying up late, pulling about 38 crackers, opening presents, eating as much chocolate as you like and seeing Nanny and Grandad there was also the fun of the new, giant bath. The giant bath was big enough to 1) get my Christmas belly in, and 2) act as a slide for two little boys…

httpv://youtu.be/aEowaxs4FcM

Never mind a relaxing December back in the UK. It’s been chaos for everyone who has had us to stay and real hard work for Tracy. It took a few weeks to organize and another few to execute but the social butterfly has flitted her way through appointment after appointment. I think we’ll probably need a nice vacation in January!

Wow! The alarm went off at 6:10am and it wasn’t a good feeling! I’m not sure when it last went off that early but it was a long time ago. After a quick shower and getting dressed, Jack gave me a lift to the station. As I opened the door to get out the car I nearly managed to knock a bloke off his scooter as he went past! I’m not sure if this was because I wasn’t really awake or just because I’m not prepared for scooters – I don’t think they have them in America!!

To ease the pain of going on the train I decided Expedia could treat me to a 1st class ticket so at least I would be able to sit down rather than be squashed like cattle. As I stood on the platform 2 (at a time that I am still normally in bed) I recognized all sorts of faces from when I was doing this journey 7 months earlier (maybe over 8 months ago as I did work from home rather a lot at the end!). I don’t know why I found this strange/surprising but I did.

Once the train arrived I started reaping the rewards of an extra pricey train ticket with a cup of tea, a bottle of water and a copy of the Independent:

More importantly than all those benefits I got wireless which is good as the data on my phone wasn’t working which I need to sort otherwise they’ll be no tweets for the month of December! And that, I’m sure you will agree, will never do!

 

It all felt a bit strange but in the end we had to go. At least there was a first – all grandparents in the same place at once. There was also Russell breaking a garden chair as he took the family picture!