Super Duper Saturday

Great Britain did quite well today. Gold medals were won by:

Mo Farrah- Men’s 10,000 Metres

Greg Rutherford- Men’s Long Jump

Jessica Ennis- Heptathlon

Laura Trott, Dani King & Joanna Rowsell- Women’s Team Pursuit Cycling

Katherine Copeland & Sophie Hosking- Women’s Lightweight Double Sculls Rowing

Andy Triggs Hodge, Pete Reed, Alex Gregory & Tom James- Men’s Coxless Fours Rowing

Caption not required, surely?

Now don't get me wrong- just because I'm only listing our gold winners doesn't mean I value our second and third placed competitors any less. Anyone deemed good enough to represent their country at the Olympics earns my respect. For a full list of Britain's gold, silver and bronze winners to date, visit the BBC news site here.

Team GB are now in third in the medal table with 14 gold, 7 silver and 8 bronze. Our old friends from Kazakhstan have 5 gold putting them in 8th.

While some of this was going on, Dad and SM (who are visiting for a few days) took LL and myself out in his new car to the National Trust house Basildon Park. This was used as the location of the 2005 film version of Pride and Prejudice which starred Keira Knightley dontchaknow. Here's a picture of the little fella (mostly) being sensible LOL.

 Stately home not included.

Winning Could Be Expensive

Our Royal Mail has announced they will issue an Olympic stamp for every gold team GB wins at the games. First day Covers will be sent out the first working day after a win. The first two were issued today, see the image of the stamps from their website, featuring Heather Stanning, Helen Glover and Bradley Wiggins.

Having (at the time of this post) won a further 3 golds today, this could get to be quite expensive but on the other hand I do want team GB to win as many as possible.

So well done today to the following:

Peter Wilson, Men's Shooting Trap
Tim Baillie & Etienne Stot, Men's Canoe Slalom C2
Chris Hoy, Philip Hindes & Jason Kenny, Men's Cycling Team Sprint

This nice little haul together with a good collection of silver and bronze awards puts Great Britain well and truly above Kazakhstan LOL. 

To The Tower

As mentioned yesterday we took a trip to the Tower of London to see the Crown Jewels and also the Olympic rings hanging from nearby Tower Bridge. For once (this summer) the sun shone and the sky was blue. It was as if someone "up there" had decided with the games starting soon, it was high time the UK had some good weather.

Here's a small selection of images from today.




The Tower.

LL and the Bridge.

Traitor's Gate.

















Even the weather vanes are a bit posh.

Pomme De Terre

Dug these up today. Can't wait to get cooking some of them.

I also had to spend considerable time sweeping up a mass of fallen leaves. It's just like Autumn come very early. What is wrong with this weather?


Tomorrow (Sunday) I'm up early-ish and taking LL up to the Tower of London to see the Crown Jewels. I'm under strict instructions not to go trying on any of the crowns LOL.

Day 63

The Olympic Torch relay has now made it's way into the capital. Before that it visited Redhill and then on to Guildford in Surrey, where I was fortunate enough to gain a really good vantage point (with LL) to see Lisa Roberts carry the torch.

After Guildford, the Olympic flame was carried by RAF helicopter to London. At precisely 12 minutes past 8 (or 20:12, geddit?), a Royal Marine abseiled down from the helicopter to the Tower of London with the flame contained in a Davy Lamp. The flame is tonight being stored with the Crown Jewels in perhaps the most secure location in the country. Tomorrow the torch will begin a week long tour of all of the London boroughs before the opening ceremony next Friday.

But back to Guildford, here's a short video I made. Hope it gives a flavour of the event.

Olympian

While I was working away this week, the Olympic torch relay came to the Thames Valley area. The torch was taken to Henley, Windsor (to be presented to the Queen), Ascot racecourse, Bracknell and finally overnighting at Reading.

LL got up early on Tuesday morning to go to the river bank at Henley to watch the proceedings, where he had to wait for 3 hours (poor boy) for a brief glimpse. His reward was a £2 LEGO Olympic Team GB mini-figure, he's easily pleased. Anyway here's his video (I've removed the sound so don't worry if you think your speakers have packed up!).

Later in the day, after school, he was taken into Reading to see the torch arrive there. Lucky boy.

You Know You're Getting Old...

It is true what they say- whoever "they" are- that as you get older, the police and school teachers definitely start to look younger and younger.

This time it was a trip to school for parent's evening and a review of LL's academic progress. He's going along very nicely, just so you know.   

Quiet Voice

You know there are times when I feel like a school teacher- forever having to ask LL to use his 'quiet voice' in that particular patient tone teachers employ. Other times all he wants to do is make things in clay*, "just like Daddy." Today was a bit of both with excess noise through the middle and peaceful, creative fun later. As for the morning, that was taken up with learning to swim butterfly stroke.

Although never referred to as "Nana" this apron was one of mum's favourites for the little guy and has proved very useful over the years. Still fits just.















*Real potter's stoneware clay, not plastercine or play-dough. Thankfully at present he's not too fussed about getting it fired.

Pageant

LL and I took a trip to Henley on Thames today with a view to walking along the tow path into town and take in the sights of all the street decorations. Instead we arrived (by chance) just in time to experience the river pageant. Not the official river Thames pageant with the royal family at the head of the procession but a somewhat more amateur affair. It was a whole a lot of fun anyway.

Here's a selection of images I captured from our vantage point on the bridge...

Oh and happy 700th blog post to me!

How Big?

Think we got a bit carried away while strawberry picking this weekend.

"You won't get that one in the car, son."

School Of Hard Knocks

LL came home with a letter from the School informing that he had a fall during PE. He'd been monitored for a period of time and no ill-effects had been noted. He did end up with two sticking plasters on one knee, plus myriad bruises on both legs and on one elbow. Some fall, poor boy.

He doesn't seem too concerned and said he was big and brave, not crying once. Bless.

Ceramics

I've just uploaded images of my three latest pots, here. You'll need to find your way to the end of the album, at around page 15 but please take a look and let me know what you think.















Also today LL called me with two pieces of news: he's done well in his swimming class, passed the current level and will move up a class after Easter; and also he's had another tooth fall out. I'm not sure which in his mind is more important but I suspect the Tooth Fairy might have something to do with it LOL.

Elsewhere, the Royals have been doing well recently. They're now firmly in third, only two points off second place.

26 Feb Middlesbrough 0 - 2 Reading
3 Mar Millwall 1 - 2 Reading
6 Mar Reading 1 - 0 Portsmouth

Fun In The Snow

Snowball fight anyone..?

A Bit Chilly

OK so it's finally getting officially cold here now. We've had something of a mild winter to date here in the south of England but this morning was quite a shock to the system: At around 8 this morning my weather station in the garden was proudly telling me it was -8 degrees Celsius (that's about 18 degrees F). Brrrrr!

And you know what? Around 4pm it started to gently snow and hasn't stopped since (it's a mere zero degrees at present). Here's a couple of images, taken this evening.

View into the street.

Garden seats and table, complete with carrots (no, really) growing in a container.














Tomorrow we get to go play in the snow with LL. I suspect however GFDU will be wearing even more layers of clothes. We've got to four already LOL.

Nice Card

You know how it is- just as you press the shutter, the subject pulls the card up and hides behind it!

...And Another Year Wiser

Eight today. Happy Birthday son.

Sick

You know how you often hear parents telling their children not to bolt down their food? That they should take their time, chew properly and swallow before cramming the next fork load in or else they will be sick..?

Tonight I'm afraid I was proved right. LL was quite violently sick and the whole lot seemed to come back. Not nice.

Earlier in the day we had to spent far too much time on his homework. They've each been given the task for next few weeks of producing a booklet on an aspect of ancient Egypt, such as the Pyramids, Pharaohs or Mummies. You get the idea. Personally I think it's a bit of a stretch for most 8 year old kids, LL included. If they had been asked to research one new fact each week and then report back, I feel it might have been more appropriate. What they've been given instead is far too onerous and I suspect in many cases the work handed in at half term will be that of many parents, not their children.

I'll let you know if I get a good mark from Teacher LOL. 



2 Jan Cardiff 3 - 1 Reading
14 Jan Watford 1 - 2 Reading


The Royals are currently 5th in the Championship on 42 points after 26 games.

Goodbye 2011

There's quite a lot I wanted to say today regarding this past year- my own personal highs and lows and in fact I've been formulating ideas of what to say for a couple of days. The truth is that I've left it all too late and only now have time for a brief entry. I guess I could blog something in the coming days but I suspect it will all seem so "last year" by then LOL.

To business, I took LL out today for a trip to Henley on Thames, which was lovely. Very few people out and about by the river and the weather was quite kind. We even came across this lovely black swan, who was very keen to make our acquaintance and eat the bread we were carrying. The other ducks, geese and mute swans didn't really get a look in!

You don't see many of these around here.












And later we found out that his new LEGO boat really did float (in the bath). Until that is we learnt a new word: capsize.

Elsewhere Reading FC have put on a good show over the Christmas period and have moved nicely into 5th in the Championship.

17 Dec Leeds 0 - 1 Reading
26 Dec Reading 3 - 0 Brighton and Hove Albion
31 Dec Reading 1 - Ipswich

The Royals travel to Cardiff on Monday 2 Jan.


All that remains is for me to wish everyone a happy New Year.

Nearly But Not Quite Christmas

LL came to visit today and spend some time with Dad and SM, who are staying for a few days. We all had lunch together and exchanged some gifts afterwards. This evening we had a go at tracking the progress of the Fat Man, here. Excellent fun. Maybe bookmark for next year..?

Don't you just feel all festive?












Only one more sleep to go...

Getting Round To Christmas

I know I've been a bit "Blog-lite" of late and haven't posted a great deal. There's no need to send out the search party- I'm still alive (and well), just very busy at work. Ah the joys of employment- long may that continue (at least until I win the Lottery).

Having made a start helping LL yesterday to decorate the tree where he lives, I thought it was about time I did similar here. I've spent today tidying up and then doing my best to make the place look festive, although I think I might have gone a tad overboard, with the lights throughout the house. Another story for another time perhaps.

You might recall last year the tree was treated to blue lighting, this time I have picked mostly reds. What do you think?

I have positioned the tree to the left of the chimney, for ease of pressie delivery LOL.
















No word yet about whether the office will be open over Christmas grrr. I hope it will be: I could do with working Wednesday to Friday that week and saving my leave for next year...



Elsewhere, the Royals have hauled themselves to 10th in the nPower Championship on 30 points from 21 games, after a mixed bag of results:

19 Nov Reading 1 - 2 Cardiff
26 Nov Ipswich 2 - 3 Reading
29 Nov Reading 3 - 2 Peterborough
3 Dec Blackpool 1 - 0 Reading
10 Dec Reading 3 - 0 West Ham