Don’t Park the van in the mud! (by sarah)

Would anyone listern? No. So as a result the van is well and truelly stuck along the side of the drive.

It all started with the fact that we have been flooded so flood precuations are taking place in the normal parking area so we had parked in front of the greenhouse but then Barbara was having a tea party and her guestys needed to park so the van had to go otherwise the guests would have to park on the grass which obviously wasn't on so the van had to park on the grass. I said it wouold get stuck and was assured that parking along the gradient would mean it wouldn't get stuck.

We got stuck.

We where therefore late for cubs becuase even though we had left extra time for towing out etc... the towing rope snaped and after a bit of a hoohar we transfered our stuff to Barbaras car and headed off. All was then fine until my scouts arrived - we were supposed to go to the village pound to float new year lanterns but alas I had left the reflective jackets in the van along with torches etc... on top of that lots of the kids failed to turn up in outdoor clothing and I was already concerned about the fact it had rained so much - I was waiting for Al to finish cubs properlly in order to send him out on a recky of the area when one of the perants told me it was so bad down there that she wouldnt be happy for her kid to go - it was at this point I realised I'd left the jackets and that behind anyway.

I was very annoyed with myself but I think the lanterns still worked well inside in bowls of water - fortunatly I'd planned for incase we had bad weather.

Still the van is stuck and we are now hoping that the builders are going to help us get it unstuck - SIGH. Still it turns out we have a Roman Urinal 🙂 but more on that later!

Christmas Party! (by sarah)

The Saturday before Christmas saw me and Al setting out on a fouly foggy night with tendrils of fog rising up like a living creature to ensnear the unweary traverler - mid winter suddenly seemed a very stupid time to be out and about. We where heading to Somerset to visit some fellow geologists laddened with engagement gifts, birthday gifts and Christmas parafanalia not too mention a little something for the house warming 🙂 The fog seemed to be exhuding a foul greasy dirt that was ssticking to the windscreen - we thought that our wind screen wippers had suddenly perished - but no they where fine - was it the road grit/salt as one astrophysicist suggested (namely olly) or some dark influence from beyound - like oil wells being burnt or volcanic eruptions ect...

Still it was a fun party though for some reason I appear to have only taken about two pictures :/

The Random Bad Luck of the Snell-Pym’s (by sarah)

Sunday was the day of our departure from Highgate back to the rural sticks of Gloucestershire and what happens? Al becomes ill - he is headachy and cant think that straight and felt a bit feverish. A few paracetamol sorted most of it out so that about 5 hours late we could actually set out for our trip to Essex to pick up the Jeany who had been visiting mum and dad as this week mum starts her radiotherapy so Jean has spent most of christmas etc... with them.

Once Jean was picked up we headed out onto the road once more and all was going well until....

We discovered M25 south to M4 west interchange was closed - arg! Never fear we thought there'll be some sort of way to loop back on ourselves so that we could go via Reading instead of Oxford or there'll be diversion signs and we'll be fine.... hahahahahahaha. Well there where diversion signs and they took us to a round about where it was obvious that we had to go round and double back on ourselves - easy right? Well it would have been except that it was one of those major ones that has lanes that spiral outwards and you have to pick the correct lane for your destination - except there is no such lane for doubling back on yourself so that we where having to guess and suddenly we where one lane too far over and before we could correct it a barrier divided us off and we had no choice other than to follow the route - to Heathrow Airport :/

We thought there must be some round abouts where we can turn around surely? Right? There's always round abouts - this is England.... no round abouts - we thought we'd found one with lots of glittering lights on short polls around it but no this turned out not to be a round about and took us into a one way system which lead us to a carpart - with barriers that had a minimium charge of £2.30 for half an hour. No way to reverse, no where to turn around - nothing so we paid our £2.30 and left.

This then took a turn towards the strange (especially as the previous night we had watched a Stephen King film) we where directed into a tunnel that looked like was too small for cars and was father long and square in cross section with a green circle lane right down the middle of it and signs sayng the cyclists had priority. Once in this system we had no coice of where to go so we entered this tunnel in the van and too our relief exited without any creepy horror movie antiiques!

We then resumed our journy on wards towards Gloucestershire only now Al was starting to feel sick again - combine this with our windscreen washer deciding to die and random greasy dirt appearing on the windscreen and we where stopping more than we normally would 🙁

We got home about 3 ish and pretty much fell into bed. I awoke in time for us to get Jean to nursery and for me to go to Cheltenham to do the mirade of things that needed to be done today but... it never happened becuase it turned out that I had slept through Al being sick and he was doubled uo with stomache cramps and weak and pasty looking. Not good. After some thought over why he was sick and I wasnt seeing as I am the one who gets sick not him we worked out that he had typed out the contence of the left over non-alchoholic mulled wine I had made on saturday. He had drunk a mug of the stuff with the dregs of the spices and CLOVES that I had used - and becuase time was short he'd downed the stuff including the sluge that contianed all the CLOVES I had put a brew for about 15 people :/

Can anyone else see where this is going?

Yes - I have managed to poison my husband with CLOVES - he says its not my fualt but mew :'( It took until about 4 this afternoon before he could contemplate eating anything at all and he still hurts. Of course this has put us realy teally behind for the week and doesn't feel like a particually good start to the new year :/

Sunday after Christmas (by sarah)

The Sunday after Christmas we all went round my aunts again this time for a sort of kids christmas party - here are some pictures - warning it contains bobbles and wiggles and squiggle so cuteness over load for those who like kids and puke fest for those that hate them or find them annoying 🙂

Aunty Lizzy’s Birthday a.k.a. Boxing Day (by sarah)

Boxing Day happens to be my aunts birthday so we all went round there for a bit of a party boxing day - this was cool especially as two of my cousins had babies about 6 weeks either side of Jean. Add in my still school aged cousins and Rachel the new baby and it was full of a bit too much cuteness and definately far too many smelly potties!

There was also a nintendo wii which had alot of the sports accessories with it - much to my cousins Niels horror me and his girlfriend came a very close first and second in the bowling game where as he had about half our score!

Jean had a great time especially when she got a little fairy dress complete with gold angle wings - there where much cries of pretty dress - far too girly for my taste but she enjoyed herself!

Fred the cat was unfortunatly spotted first by Jean and then by Alaric - fortunatly he is a tolerant old thing.

At some point getting on towards the end of the everning a curly afro st gorges wig appeared which made its way with a fake beard and long witches noise left from halloween, onto a teddy bear. Then Jean found a tou pram and then said teddy was proclaimed - 'My Baby!' and thrust in said pram. Conor (or possibly Jordon) then stole the witches nose and well here are the pictures:

There was lots of food including some very tasty mediterian vegtables and stuffing balls that werent dry! Alaric also recieved more presants that he could happily sit and build 🙂

as everning set in properlly the babies begain to get very tired - mum and dad where actually stranded at my aunts place as once again their car broke down and my brother had to go and get them! This ment they stayed the night at my aunts with a Jean Jeany who slept quiet happily in a travel cot thats not her own.