We’ve made it through Ben’s first week without nappies. I’ve been surprised at how well he’s done; not too many accidents! I guess that when you’ve been used to dealing with poo disposal for over two years, this sort of thing doesn’t phase you too much, however.
In his usual highly independent manner, he’s already graduated to using the full sized toilet — without even a training seat to help him!
It’s started: “What’s that? What’s that? What’s that?!”
When I saw Google Maps for the first time, I was impressed. Possibly the most impressed I’ve ever been with a web-based service — the satellite imagery is truely amazing and worrying in equal measure.
My only disappointment at the time was that the satellite imagery didn’t cover the UK. Well, now (at least in part) it does. This means you can now do satellite site-seeing of London, for instance the London Eye. Or you could get subversive…
They have also added a “hybrid” mode that overlays road maps over the satellite images — really nice!
Why, when I take my headphones off, does my music player not automatically pause? No, really, why? It’s 2005!
By the way, the reason for my continued lack of posting is that I’m spending most of my time working on a new design for the Fantasy Film League. Hopefully that will be finished shortly and I’ll be able to waste more of your time here.
I’ve been on holiday for the last two weeks — back to work again tomorrow — which is my poor excuse for not writing much here lately. So, here’s a random roundup of things I’ve been meaning to blog on…
It’s been a nice fortnight. We’ve been taking day trips so that Jessica’s routine doesn’t get interrupted too much. On alternate days we went to Longleat, Brighton, Didcot Railway Centre, Marwell Zoological Park, Monkey Mates and Coral Reef.
The car sustained the requisit monkey inflicted damage at Longleat, but Ben got to drive the car with me through the park, which he loved. He’s at a stage where he’s remembering events now, so we can ask him about seeing the animals and he’ll say things like, “Monkey on car!”. Today he even said, “We do painting yesterday”, which was both surprising and correct.
We had the best weather of the week at Longleat and it’s a really good place to take a family, with a lot of varied attractions in a very small area. My highlight was going on a water safari boat and seeing the seals in the lake effortlessly keeping pace when the boat was going at full speed.
Two days later in Brighton, the weather had turned and we got very wet. However, the day was saved by a visit to the excellent Doctor Who exhibit that’s there. A large number of props from the most recent series of the programme were on display. Louise took a picture of a Darlek on her phone and just today I heard Ben saying “Darlek on phone!”.
The only misadventure we had was Louise breaking her toe while clambering round the padded play area at Monkey Mates. Please send her your sympathy and psychic healing thoughts… and any spare Grade A pain killers you have knocking about.
Jessica’s progress is in danger of going unnoticed, so I’ll say that she’s started weening over the last few weeks and can almost sit up unaided and almost roll on to her front. She’s also bright as a button and disarmingly cute (but I would say that).
It’s also been a surreal week, from the highs of Live 8 and the Olypics to the lows of the Thursday’s bombings. On Thursday we watched it all unfold in front of us live on the BBC news — I’m not sure if continuous news channels are a blessing or a curse given how slowly actual information is revealed in these circumstances.
The only upside to this whole situation is that there hasn’t been an immeadiate, widespread call for the introduction of identity cards, but that’s another rant.
So that this post doesn’t end on a down note, I should also confess that I’ve taught myself to read the Tengwar; prepare to be bored! That reminds me — must blog about the Lord of the Rings marathon!