New Forest Part 3

Wednesday Bit of a lie in for everyone this morning, exhausation was definitely catching up with us all. Charlie had got into my bed in the middle of the night but as soon as he woke up he had to go back in to Fran of course, some devastatingly important mutual DS playing was urgently needed.

Breakfast done and dusted we hit the road, heading for the glorious Sandbanks so we could get the ferry to the even more glorious Brownsea Island. We parked in the beach car park, had a quick nosy at the gorgeous beach and asked a random lifeguard how to get to the ferry. It was really hot at this point and the walk up to the ferry was not much fun in the heat, but after 20 minutes we survived and passed lots of the millionaires mansions. I loved the glass and colours on this one



We watched the chain ferry for a few minutes whilst waiting for our ferry and chewed over the fact that had I known it the day before we could have used the chain ferry to get to Corfe Castle and saved about 40 minutes of driving - arrgh.

On the Brownsea Island ferry


Straight to the NT cafe for lunch (seeing a bit of a pattern here) and this rather friendly but tomato hating little chap joined us under our table much to the children's amusement


After that we wandered up to the start of the trails and debated on whether to explore the island or go to the Wetlands Nature Reserve, one vote for each option meant I had to make the decision so it was exploring the island. At the visitors centre there was a display on the history of the island, a short video and some colouring sheets which both children did. Then we were off on the childrens treasure trail.

We were treated to some fantastic views of Sandbanks, Poole harbour mouth and Shell Bay





The views on this side of the island were my favourite I think - it was very beautiful.

Discussion about which was the right way


The other side of the Island


Amazingly tame duckings that allowed both children to stroke them and ate out of their hands


Almost at the end of the trail


The "illegal" way back to the exit


It took about 3 hours to get around the trail rather than the 1.5 hours reported but it was just so lovely and although plenty of people there we were alone for most of the time which was very tranquil. Fantastic place for kids to run about and explore. Quick mooch around the shop and an ice cream whilst waiting for the ferry back to the mainland. I would love to go back to again and do the nature reserve as well next time - its a fantastic place.

Back on the ferry and a walk back down to the car and off into Bournemouth for the surprise visit to the Oceanarium We came here almost two years and I was glad to see it was as good as I remembered. My favourite part was definitely the turtles.







Into the shop afterwards and Charlie got a cuddly turtle, named Zoom by Fran and a book of some description about something ocean-ish and Fran chose a rather lovely necklace. As we came the children spotted a merry go round and we very enthuasiastic when I asked if they'd like to go on it! It was a first for Charlie and they both loved it.

New Forest Part 2

Tuesday - after breakfast we set off for Corfe Castle Took over an hour to get there due to distance and traffic. They had rather a fantastic visitors centre in the car park with some really good artefacts and activities. The walk from the car park through a wooded valley with stream and some ruins and up a mountain to the castle was really lovely, although crossing the road in between two blind bends was a bit scary!

Crossing the bridge to the gatehouse


Wonky remains


On the way down again


Waiting for lunch in the NT tea room


Lunch was rather pleasant and then we had a mooch around the NT gift shop. Fran and Charlie both bought a bow and arrow and Fran also bought a cuddly dog whose name varied from Disney to Rowan to Ella to other things throughout the week and two little birthstones. Charlie also bought some birthstones and then wanted to donate some money to the castle so the member of staff helped him by explaining that if he handed cash over it went to the NT but if he bought a cuddly dragon keyring that money went straight to the Castle so he went for that option and handed over £3.

Back down through the gorgeous valley - much better on the way down and some playing in the stream.



We found these amazing little mushrooms growing in some ruins of the mill by the stream


Back to the car where we were treated to the stream train going past.

On the way home I saw signs for a Toy Museum so decided to take one of my fantastic surprise detours.





We got back to the lodge and they both went out to play with their bows arrows.


View from lodge


Bows and arrows


We had dinner that night at the second restaurant at the complex and it was lasagne all round and very nice too but not quite up to The Bistro's standard according to the little ones! Back to the lodge for more bow and arrow play and baths and then DS and reading before bed.

New Forest - Part 1

Monday saw the children up and raring to go a little too early for my liking. A few last minute work/website emergencies dealt with and we set off around 11.30am.

Just under an hour later when I was already fit to do unspeakable things to the A34 (how I despise that road) we'd stopped at the services for lunch. Highlight of lunch was the absolute look of disgust on Fran's face when Charlie came into the ladies with us. Did try to explain that big bustling service station mens toilets aren't the safest places for little boys to go alone but she was still appalled - made me smile and chuckle anyway.

Having purchased Mika's cd in the shop we all sang our way down the remainder of the A34 (have I mentioned I hate that road) M3, M27 and then on into the New Forest itself. Fran and Charlie were both beyond themselves with excitement at immediately seeing lots of New Forest ponies and proceeded to count them. 49 seen by the time we arrived at Sandy Balls at 2.30pm.

We drove round to our lodge and parked the car and then had a little look around the complex before collecting our keys at 3.00. Back to the lodge where I cruelly made everyone unpack and put away all their belongings before we went anywhere, it's the law you know.

We decided to do one of the nature trails/walks in the complex and then decided to do the one to the river. We never actually made it that far but had a lovely hour or so romping through valleys, forests and climbing mountains.

Setting off on our walk



View from the top



Nature spotting



Resting half way back up the mountain




After we made it back up to the top it was time for dinner so we continued round the complex and settled on The Bistro for eating at.

Fran was very sweet and looked incredulous when she asked if she could have three courses and I said of course - bless!



They both had the same, garlic bread to start, fresh cod, sautee pots and green beans for main and then profiteroles with hot choc sauce for pudding.

Back to the lodge and they played outside for a bit before coming in for reading and DS playing before bed.

Baby worship

Hmm let the blogging slide again a bit haven't I.

Charlie and I spent the weekend before last finishing off sorting out the garage and taking all of Charlie's baby clothes and bits and pieces into storage. I was okay until I got to the newborn babygro, both those that he wore and those he didn't. I wobbled at that point but was ok again until I got to the moses basket and that was the last straw! Anyway it's all at the storage place which I was fine with until a certain person (you know who you are miss!) mentioned on the phone that the storage place could burn down and it would all be lost!

Last week passed in a rush of assembling the warehouse racking in the garage and removing 25 out of 31 boxes of stock from the sitting room and hall and getting it all put away in the garage-cum-stock-second-stock-room. We can finally see the carpet downstairs now!

The last 6 boxes are lingering because they need a bit more sorting and thinking about but with one exception they are thankfully a normal sized box and not humungeous sized ones so we can live with that for a bit.

We ate out a LOT last week, indian restaurant one night, chinese takeaway another, plus two other meals that I can't even remember. We were both so tired from all the physical shifting around and the usual work and order packing that neither of us could face cooking.

Charlie did a lot of Draw Write Now last week and this is onging this week - he's now got back into the routine of doing one a day and in fact did two today. He's also continuing with his EC each day and is over the moon that German is now available, he loves languages and seems to have quite a knack for the Spanish and French.

Finally got round to ordering his new bed last week too, we went for wooden bunk beds in the end after MUCH deliberation. He's very excited to be able to combine the benefits of a den on the bottom bunk with a spare bed for any one of his beloved puddle girls to sleep in!

In fact spending money seems to be a bit of feature of the last four days, first bunk beds, then holiday for September to the New Forest, then MOT, service and fixing the car due on Wednesday and finally the damn tumble dryer broke today and having already paid for the heating element to be replaced twice in the last years we decided to go for a new one which will arrive on Thursday.

We had a nice weekend, a bit more garage/stock room sorting out on Saturday and one last trip to the storage place to get rid of a few more bits. We then picked up some DVD's, pizza, popcorn and ice-cream and came home to watch Charlie's DVD choice - Night at the Museum. My favourite bit was the Easter Island rock thing with his " you give me gum gum, dum dum"

Sure we went somewhere on Sunday but actually can't remember where. I know Charlie got grounded though - actually more for his own protection that anything he did wrong. There are two brothers that live a few doors down, aged 2 and 5, really lovely little boys but parental supervision is a bit lacking when Daddy is in charge. I only know what happened because my parents saw and heard it but in a nutshell, Charlie and the two boys were on the little bit of public space by the boys house rather than playing on their bikes in the close. They'd got a bit of rope from the boys garage and it had got stuck in a sapling. Charlie had decided it was a good idea to climb this sapling to try and get it down. Luckily my mum heard his voice and sent my dad to get it down for them (he could only just reach with difficulty) and tell them not to play on that bit of land because of the really steep and deep ditch that has a sort of stream running through it. My dad was thinking particularly of the 3 year old.

Apparently the mum had gone shopping and left the dad in charge but he was inside watching football. Bev and I though Charlie was on his bike in the close as we've told him to come and tell us if he wants to go the public space bit.

Anyway its a bit lucky that my parents were home as anything could have happened to any of them messing around with a bit of rope. I'm actually more angry that something could have happened to one of the two younger boys and Charlie would have been blamed. He's not their brother and he shouldn't be expected to look after them. He would however *want* to, and if they got hurt or worse he's the kind of child who would punish himself for the rest of his life about it.

It might be irrational but it would be so easy for someone to enter the public space by the gate on the road side, come down to the part where they all were and grab one of them and be gone in their car before Charlie could have raised the alarm and that makes me mad too.

Pah - I'm really angry at their parents. Charlie was grounded because he didn't come and tell us he was going on that bit of space which he is supposed to but also partly if I'm honest, just to keep him away from them for a bit as I don't appreciate the parents expecting him to look after them. The mum was gone for a couple of hours according to my dad who then stayed out there so he could keep an eye on them and the dad didn't appear at all.

Anyway, quiet-ish week ahead really, doctors for pre-IVF blood tests for me tomorrow, some business stuff going on tomorrow too and that's about it.

Must start packing for my holiday - its only 3 weeks away!

Whoops

Two months without blogging is quite a long time. Not sure why I stopped really, a combination of no time, very little parent/child interaction actually taking place, yucky personal stuff, more hideous IF treatment not working and an overall feeling of why bother. Sometimes the blog ring feels like a very insular and excluding place, especially when you're in the no mans land of having been on the ring for almost 3 years and "talking" to the people on it for even longer than that through the list, yet circumstances have prevented you from attending all but one camp in that time. It's a bit like being back at school again in some ways. Ho hum, time to realise that the blog stands in its own right and not just on the ring I think.

But a post I read on someone's blog last night about why they blog about their children and everyday lives prompted me into realising that this is something that I need to do more often, Charlie is my only child and his life is rushing by, he'll be 10 in less than 6 months and I'd like to remember some of the rest of his childhood.

Can't really do a proper catch up as it would take too long but suffice to say life has been manic. I'm stuck in the really horrible position of Anara Toys being so busy that it needs me more full time, Reward Board getting very little attention at all but not being able to give up my legal freelance work as I support all 3 of us and neither of the other businesses is making enough yet to replace what I earn! Mortgage is huge - the same as many people earn in a month and that's without even considering the rest of the outgoings, utilities etc Arggghh. I really hate my life sometimes.

Charlie has been playing up terribly for the last month as he has had no attention/time spent with him at all. Anara had its busiest month ever last month and it has increased in turnover every single month without fail. I was talking to a very successful business woman with other night and when I told her the months turnover she was stunned into silence for a few seconds on the basis that it was pretty impressive for its 13 month of trading. That scared me rather. I feel like it is all tumbling out of control somewhat.

Charlie has finished Sonlight Core 1 (must order Core 2) which we happily passed onto the puddles when the come for a lovely visit. A highlight of last month for sure but inevitably poor Charlie was so upset when they went, this time he started crying 30 minutes before they even left. God I hate having an only child - the poor sod is so bloody lonely. Arrgghh.

We spent the weekend in Sussex last weekend, visiting my best friend from boarding school. She has a 6 month baby called Jacob, well Jakey really, and it was lovely to see them both and Charlie was in his element being mother hen - playing with him, cuddling him, pushing his pushchair, giving him his bottle - he loved it and cried when we left!

It's just Charlie and I this weekend, B has gone to London to visit friends and go clubbing. We've got an exciting weekend of taking more stuff to the storage place and tidying out the garage more ready for the racking when it arrives. There are currently 31 boxes of stock in the sitting room as the stock room and the shelves we already have in the garage are full. So the garage is about to become our second stock room with extra stock at the storage place too.

Determined to do something with him this weekend though, will absolutely have to make some time.

Is it really wrong to absolutely love the Badger kicking butt?? She's ripping these useless gobby estate agents to shreds. Love that woman!

Been a while

Things have been so,so,so busy here lately I have very little time for anything much! Have been expanding the business quite drastically by tripling the product lines - well over 300 now and still more to come. Business has also been very busy on Amazon which I've been particularly pleased with and the site has been getting much busier as well. We were a recommended company in Janey Lee Grace's new book published at the end of last month which was fantastic and has helped sales along nicely too. Lots of changes afoot there too with a re-design underway, a new logo, some serious SEO & PR work being done and all sorts of other things. All quite exciting really.

Managed to see a fair bit of Merry and girls at the beginning of the month/end of last month - most of which she blogged so I won't! Suffice to say it was all lovely gossip, play time and trampoline assembly time.

Charlie has suffered pretty badly from all the mad busyness to be honest and the last couple of weeks haven't helped much with several rushed visits up and down to London to the clinic. He has spent today with my parents, and will do the same tomorrow and Saturday so at least he is getting some full on attention there which he desperately needs atm. Its very hard not to feel really guilty but I know that in the end it will all be worth it and he does seem to understand that I need to work really hard on the business to enable us all to stay at home and continue with our current lifestyle. He also grasps that it won't be forever and that one day there will be hopefully be staff doing all the mad running about which will equal lots more time with us. I'm sure seeing me run 3 businesses is a good lesson in hard work anyway but the guilt is awful.

We had a lovely weekend away in Devon at the beginning of the month courtesy of my parents. They booked us all rooms to celebrate my dad's 60th at a rather lovely little hotel with its own private beach, indoor & outdoor pools, games room, tennis etc etc. Food was divine and Charlie had a wonderful time. He, my parents and brother climbed the rather large mountain just outside the hotel on the Saturday morning whilst B and I lounged around in the lounge, reading and having a drink whilst gazing over the ocean and watching their progress!

Ww went to Salcombe for lunch and it was lovely there - gorgeous beaches and we had a nice walk around. Charlie and Bev played table tennis, went swimming, played crazy golf and pool in the afternoon whilst I relaxed a bit and feverishly worked on some documents for the business on my lovely new Sony Vaio laptop. It was a really lovely weekend and very nice to just get some time to do nothing.

Charlie is very close to finishing his Sonlight Core now, apparently he has finished his Science core already. He's been doing really well on his EC too and his maths is starting to come along very nicely. Sometimes he even spontaneously ask maths type questions and fiddles around with numbers on the calculator so he's clearly trying to understand it all. His favourite thing on EC at the moment is the Spanish - he loves it which reminds me I must order some Usborne Spanish and French stuff from Joanne - keep forgetting.

This weekend we have a stand at the Herts County Show they're expecting 25,000 each day I think. We went over there to start setting up today and will finish off tomorrow before the show itself on Saturday and Sunday. Unfortunately my parents are going off on yet another holiday (they haven't been back from India for a month yet!) on Sunday so poor Charlie has to be dragged with us on Sunday - the busiest day. I think he'll enjoy it though as he loves chatting to customers.

Claire needs

Claire Needs a Visit to the Bunny Planet - ermmm maybe...

Claire needs some TOUGH LOVE! - errr no!

Claire needs your help to win election - moi? A politician? An american politician - perhaps not.

Claire Needs Prayers From All of You She is Very Sick no, not sick

Claire Needs Attention. It is hour 22 of flying (hour 34 of the journey at large), becaue there is no really good way to get from Nairobi quite like plane journeys actually, perfectly capable of amusing myself.

Claire needs Malcolm to survive, yet she must somehow keep the dangerously seductive Master at arm's length. - here's where I die laughing at the idea of me needing a man!!!

I am a Daffodil What Flower Are You?

32?!?!

How did that happen then??? Grumble.

So far I've celebrated my birthday by opening a presciption for clexane and steroids from my fertility consultant and rowing with the dumb ass receptionist at the GP's. What is it with GP receptionists? They all have such a power happy complex!

"Dr R has a pre-bookable appointment available on the 9th May"
"I need to start taking my medication on the 2nd May" etc etc

Anyway, I beat her down and I am now allowed to ring for an emergency appointment on Monday. Gee thanks.

All by myself...

The scene of devastation left after the puddle girls departed.....

More catch up!

Saturday was spent in town - shopping and at the Lights and Optics exhibition at the Banbury Museum. Excellent hands on activities that Charlie loved.





The Bubble Sheet was awesome but impossible to photograph with the compact rather than my dslr.



Sunday was the photographic club outing to Cotswold Wildlife Park so we went along to that. Cue loads of stares from bewildered adults at the sight of a 9 year old walking round with a Nikon D70 and 70-300 telephoto lens, accompanied by his mother with a Canon 300d and measely kit lens. I hasten to add the Nikon is one of my dads old cameras that he has given to Charlie.

Anyway I have loved this wildlife park since I was about 5 when we first came here. My parents bought us here loads when we were little and I especially loved the brass rubbing activity but I never seem to remember to take Charlie to do that!

I didn't have my telephoto lens with me so my shots aren't so impressive but I liked this weird little penguin threesome thing going on





Bonus points to anyone who can work out what the last photo above is of!

A lovely few hours anyway and Charlie really enjoyed the playground, another one of my favourite childhood haunts.

Monday and Tuesday were work days, files, files, stress etc.

Wednesday we were up early to go for a jolly at the Puddles. Enjoyable day as always and fun coming up with the names for the Beedibles. Merry did an impressive job of photographing them with a little bit of expert direction from me.

Thursday and Friday I took as days off and just did a bit of biz stuff, mainly accounts stuff, bit of marketing and thinking about a whole new direction.

Today has been lazyish. Been into town, bought yet more business books and the HSM soundtrack and had a lovely lunch at the museum cafe. Mostly organic stuff there and yummy. Charlie had avacado and garlic dip with warm pita bread, olives and salad and was in foodie heaven!

Education wise Charlie has really powered on this week with EC, Sonlight and SOTW. EC is so worth the subscription price for us and has really helped difuse the maths stress in a big way. He was ecstatic to finally get access to the Spainish section as well.

He's done lots of art this week too, mainly from the usborne easter activities book we bought last weekend. He's done a painting, a printing and made an egg box gifty thing for my parents as their easter present complete with fimo chicks as his own addition. He's also made them an easter card - will photograph it all later. He also completed the hama mickey mouse which I have yet to iron.

Hmmm lets see - Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are a blur of work, files, orders and stuff. My merchant accounts have finally come through and so I've been working on the Protx psp applications and intergration of those into both websites. The ever wonderful Sadie is doing all the codey/techy bits. My credit card terminal should arrive early next week - love those things. Had to get rid of the one I had with my last business because I need a mobile one now for when I do shows, fairs, playgroups etc.

I took today off and we were planning to go to London but Charlie still isn't 100% so instead we had lunch out and I've spent all day uploading all our music cd's to the computer and adding them to the 30gb video iPod which I got free with my new mobile and which finally arrived today.

We're going to put all our music on the ipod and get these really fantastic Bose speakers and dock for it and keep in the living room. We tested it out at the showroom in Bicester and the sound is pretty awesome. Will also get a smaller cheaper speaker/dock for upstairs so we can just move the ipod around if we fancy.

Charlie is going to getting B's ipod mini to put his own music selection on (he wants to download the High School Musical soundtrack among others) and will keep his ipod shuffle for his audio books. He thinks he's getting a set of Bose speakers too but err he's not! Not that he asked, he just looked wistfully in the shop and stated how good they'd look in his room and he might have enough in his savings account to buy them - err no! Bless

Huge catch up

Last week consisted mainly of a load of work for me - files, working on AT and RB, accounts, quotes etc and was pretty exhausting. Running 3 businesses is tiring and very time consuming.

On Tuesday the Puddles came and we had a lovely day. Charlie was very pleased to see the girls and they all played nicely together. He had to be reminded to include Maddy as well though on a couple of occassions when he and Fran were utterly enthralled in whatever they were doing. We showed the puddles the lakes and it was lovely to get out of the house for a bit and the children seemed to enjoy it. Josie loved playing pooh sticks.



The bigger four climbed trees and everyone fed the ducks and just generally ran about enjoying themselves.






Merry had bought Hama with her in a judicious swap for Groovy Girls dolls, so after they left Charlie set about with the fantastic new Disney Donald Duck kit

He really enjoyed this kit - its the first double board design he's attempted and I was quite impressed with his efforts.



He's going to do the Mickey Mouse kit next I believe.

The rest of the week wasn't that exciting - more work for me, Charlie has EC'd and Sonlighted his way through the week and drawn lots. He's also done some Watercolour paintings with the set he got for Christmas.

On Saturday we had to go back to Milton Keynes to Ikea to get a replacement part for the unit for Charlie's room. After this we went to Willen Lake. What a find this was! We had a lovely walk around one of the lakes, and went in the bird hide which Charlie loved.



There's a Budhist Temple there and a Peace Pagoda which is the first ever one built in Europe. The garden was beautiful.



Medicine wheel - The Milton Keynes Circle of Hearts Medicine Wheel was inspired by Native American traditions as a universal symbol of peace. It offers a 'sacred space' for contemplation and an outdoor shrine to honour the diverse traditions and cultures making up the city.





We finished off the afternoon with fun on the trim trail (above!) and a hot chocolate in the cafe whilst watching the wake boarders spinning in the air. Lovely afternoon. Definitely going to go back as there were other things we didn't get to see like the labryinth and railway.

Mother's day was a lazy day, even though he was quite poorly Charlie got up early and bought us breakfast in bed - croissants and pain au chocolat, with our card and presents. Forced him back into bed at lunchtime as he was starting to get tantrum-y because he wasn't well. He spent the afternoon in bed watching dvd's and reading, burning up and coughing bless him.

Charlie slept much better last night and whilst his temp was really high all night and first thing this morning, it seems to have gone now. He's downstairs doing his Mickey Mouse hama kit I believe.

We're hoping to get into London on Thursday, not sure what we're going to do but maybe Madam Tussards and the planetarium as we've done the Natural History and Science Museums to death on our many trips to the clinic!

No legal work for me today, so I'm going to actually have some time to spend with Charlie which is nice. First though B and I are putting up his new unit and reorganising his room.