Dan and Archie

Dan and Archie spend a bit of quality time together...

Aren't they lovely???

Happy New Year Archie!

We saw in the new year this year with baby Archie (party animal) and his mum and dad, Marina and Matt!

Archie was completely un-phased by staying up after midnight.

"Don't know what the big deal is" he said, "I do it all the time".

He was a very good boy and went to bed at 2am, and only woke at 7, and we all had some lovely quality time with him - as you can see from the pics!

I even perfected the art of holding a baby in one arm and a champagne flute in the other. See...I do have a maternal instinct after all!!!!

He was given a baby bouncer for Christmas by his Connor grandparents and so we had him boinging in the doorway for a while too. Marina also dressed him up as a gangsta bee with his new little babygro hoodie outfit, and we took loads of pics and laughed at him a lot! Poor wee thing!

 

The Christmas Tree is UP!

We've just spent a lovely afternoon with Grace & Harry who have for about the 5th year running, helped us put up our Christmas Tree. It's so late on in the Xmas season though, that I thought we'd never manage it. I've been feeling rather ill these last few days, particularly yesterday; very groggy, headachey and exhausted so I was quite glad that the guys were around to help us. 

The pictures are here on picasa.

We've got the whole thing off to a fine art - in and out of Tong garden Centre in a matter of about 20 minutes and the tree was put up in record time. Pizzas were consumed and the baubles went on. The whole event in about 3 hours!

Thanks again guys! Couldn't have done it without you!

...and run VT

Janey has been working on loads of different shows recently - Piers Morgan, Jools Holland and yesterday Alan Titchmarsh. Yes I know they're not all BBC but it would seem that the BBC department she works for, sell their services to whomever requires expert VT operators! So this is her Alan Titchmarsh credit I grabbed from the ITV Watch Again website...


Cool huh? You can watch the show here...ITV Player: The Alan Titchmarsh Show - Nov 10th and to get to the credits, scroll right to the end - about 45 minutes in - it then makes you watch a couple of adverts (well, who do you think this is, the BBC?) and then you get the last minute or so of the lovely John Sergeant's interview. Janey's name appears at the bottom of the 3rd page of credits!

Exciting!

Old Trafford & Oscar

A couple of weekends ago, Scotty rang Dan up to see if he was free on the Saturday afternoon. He was. Would he like to go and see ManU at Old Trafford? He Would. Would he like to use Scotty's friend's season tickets? Definitely!

I was also invited (there were 2 tickets) but I was going to see Tom Jones (more about that later)so Dan invited Irv to go with him.

This gave use the opportunity to go and visit little Oscar and say hello! He's a lovely round bouncing baby now. Not as chubby as he was (pity, because I like them round!) because he's starting to crawl, but he's nearly standing (if you support his arms) and he's going to be all over the place soon!!!

Here are another couple of pictures on our Picasa album - Album No 2

This is a gorgeous bouncing vid of him...(I can't turn it - sorry!)

Isn't he cute?

Ooooooh we've just met Archie!

Well we've just been round to see Marina, Matt and our newest little family member, Archie. He's soooooo small!

Marina's looking well and recovering from the labour. She's still in pain tho, poor thing. I think Matt is still shell shocked from the experience, but they're doing well and even managed to get some sleep last night!

This is my fave pic from the set we've just taken - Dan and Archie get acquainted; Dan age 40 years, Archie age 40 hours!

All the Details

Well we've known he's going to be called Archie for some time, but it is nice to see his picture!

Sounds like a bit of a traumatic labour for Marina (is there a non-traumatic type? I don't think so!) but her Mum, Michelle and hubby Matt were there to see her through.

Archie Connor: 7lbs born at 4:02 this morning - 12th September, on his due date! Marina likes to plan things properly!

So that's the 2nd li'l nephew born this year! This is the adorable Oscar, sporting a fetching little stripey number...no doubt looking forward to playing with his new cousin, Archie. Only 5 months apart so they'll be friends!

Uncle Dan Again !

Looks like my sister produced this little beauty about an hour ago. Dont have poundage details yet, but he loooks a right little cutey :)

Archie Connor

Oscaroonie

Little, or rather, 'getting bigger' Oscar, Dan's newest nephew popped in for a visit today; thanks Irv & Hannah! Dan and him had some 'quality time' together...In their matching blue stripey tops it was like 'Big Dan, Little Dan'. There was some gurgling and dribbling and when Oscar woke up, he did some of that too...

An interesting evening

Last night I went out with Marina & Vanora (Dan's sisters) and another couple of friends, Michelle and Suze. Lovely evening; nice dinner in Fellicinis in Leeds (definitely recommend the Chicken & Mushroom Penne, and the Haddock Risotto. Yum). We then went on for a swift glass of Champers in the champagne bar in the Electric Press near Millennium Square.

Unfortunately Harry, Vanora's son, wasn't well, and I wasn't planning on being out all night, so after an early start (dinner at 6) at about 8:15 we decided to head home.

We got into the car and headed off round the dreaded Leeds Loop. I hate it. For those of you who don't know, it's a one-way system round the city centre which manages to confuse me every time I get on it. It's like a massive spinning wheel which flings me off in random directions and I never know where I am. So, off we go round the loop. I missed the 1st opportunity to get to the motorway (even with Vanora's expert guidance) and ended up following it round a bit further. We get to the bottom of Lady Lane, at the lights just before the roundabout with Eastgate (Theatres in front of you) and the car....just.....stopped.

OMG the petrol light was on, but the needle was still on about a quarter, and according to the mileage, I still had over 30 miles in the tank.

There was no doubting though, the car had actually run out of petrol. Sh*t!

After a bit of initial panic, we noticed a side road WITH A PARKING SPACE about 50 yards away, and after waiting for a gap in the traffic (we were on the Leeds Loop remember) with a bit of serious pushing from Vanora managing to maintain her glamorous look in her 6 inch heels, and me sort of scootering along with one leg in and one out, we managed to park it in a proper space. Please note: this actually involved reversing a bit as well; no mean feat.

We then realised that we were just across the road from the police station. Great, we thought, we'll go and ask them for directions to the nearest petrol station. Unfortunately the enquiries office closed at 8pm, but we did spot a couple of 'cycle' officers returning to the station and so we accosted them for info.

They pointed out that Regent street was about the nearest. 10 minutes walk. Eeeek in our heels!
We tried at the taxi rank and were rejected by the taxi driver. Miserable man. So off we trekked. It wasn't so far, but did hurt our feet alot!

I got to the checkout with my little petrol canister, and started digging around for my purse. Where was my purse? Damn, in the panic at the car, I'd actually managed to leave it on the back seat. Thank God Vanora was there. She saved the day with a spare tenner in her purse. I'd been trying to persuade her to get home to poorly Harry in a taxi. OMG, imagine if she'd not been there?

When we got back to the car and had filled the tank from the petrol carrier, we were just about to get back in the car. "Are you ready?" Vanora looked at me over the roof of the car from the passenger side - and promptly disappeared! I raced round to the other side of the car, only to find her, one foot in the footwell, and the other down the very high kerb, collapsed on the pavement, laughing hysterically! The (now very painful) 6'' heels, dodgy parking near a high kerb and a dark street had combined to make her miss her footing when getting into the car. She couldn't move for laughing and I was laughing too much to help her get up!

I'm dreading it if they've caught us on CCTV they'd have put us on "Booze Britain - Leeds"

Janey ran the Marathon!

What a day - long and gruelling (and that was just for the spectators!)
It's an early start whatever you're doing that day - Jane was out of the house at 06:45 as her start (the Blue Start) was at the other side of town. We left about an hour later and got a train almost immediately. We got off at London Bridge tube and walked parallel to the river towards Tower Bridge, along Tooley St and we found the pub, already awake with people and stuff happening, by about 9am.
We got ourselves set up with banner and balloons and settled down to wait. We didn't have to wait long for the 1st excitement....Mark! It'd had been a LONG time since I'd seen him and it was so lovely to catch up. Mum and Dad said 'what a lovely young man that Mark is'!!! I'm inclined to agree. After that we didn't have too long to wait until the elite ladies and wheelchair competitors came whizzing past (and I DO mean whizzing) check out the photies of them (blurry)!
Then Emma arrived with her friend Gill, they were most impressed with our spot - it was a very good find!
Next exciting thing was the elite men - they went past even quicker - so quick that we missed Baldini - reigning Olympic Champion - who we'd been waiting for for at least 20 minutes so we could all shout 'Forza Italia' - so much for that idea!
After that we settled down to wait for our own runners

• Janie (superhero champion sister)
• Kev Lally (friend from school who Emma and I have known since we were 5)
• Ruth (Mark's other half & my good friend)
  
• Steve (Emma's other half)

Just on the 11 O'Clock mark, the heavens opened. We were all ferreting about in our bags looking for brollies, and packing away things so they'd not get wet, when Mum felt a tap on her shoulder - OOOOH she cried! I looked up - It was Kevin - winging past at about 11:10 - some kind of monster pace there. I saw the back of his head, and that was it - he zoomed off! We were SOOOOO impressed!
11:50 brought Ruthie! High as a kite and twice as excited! (Check out her pics) She only stopped to get another bit of food and with an 'I love you all' she zipped off - heading for a really stonking 4:30 pace. We were in awe!
Janie was the next to pitch up - around 12:20 the rain had stopped a little and so we got a bit of a view of her coming along the road - grinning like the Cheshire Cat!!! She hung out with us for a good few minutes - even popping to the loo in the pub (where the kind ladies let her jump the queue!!!) - before having an energy gel and zooming off herself - grinning and smiling along the way.
A few minutes after that, Steve stopped by for a brief peck on the cheek with Emma, but was obviously on a roll and couldn't stop for long. Off he went and the support team were on their own again.
After a fond farewell we went our separate ways with Mum, Dad, Daniel and I going for a bit of a wander along the Thames, before heading to Charing Cross for the end of the race.
We met up with Kev for an hour or so before he had to go and get on the bus home (which was lovely) and then, by about 3pm we were at the designated meeting place to await the championessa!
We were *just* about starting to get worried when she turned up at about 3:40, her dodgy knee having given her gyp for the last few miles.
We then headed back to Ealing for a celebratory TAPAS meal (close to home) and then went back to the flat and we all crashed - it was pretty knackering for the spectators as well!!!!
Too much excitement for one day!

Dad demos the use of a fridge

Going....














going....














.....gone!

Getting more like home

The renovations have been going on behind the scenes and one week on from the last set of pictures you can see that there have been some big movements forwards with everything. The kitchen, the dining room, the lounge, have all started looking like rooms again rather than a builders' yard! Isn't it looking lovely? The floor is amazing and the rooms still look massive! There are stil a few bits needed. A sideboard and a table (the thing in the picture is actually 2 tressles!!!) and there's a bit of redecorating to be done still, but it's really looking like home - although, not home, if you know what I mean!!!
It's GORGEOUS!

Mum and Dad's renovations!

Although we've been banned from the house due to the cold, I forced my way in today (Sunday) - well to be fair the central heating had been reattached on Friday! So I was finally allowed in. Better still, it was Uncle Ste's birthday so the plan was for a nice Birthday lunch!
I was SO amazed at the difference, it's hard to know where to start - the floor is superb - all one flooring makes the downstairs look HUGE.


Then there was the new door into the lounge - very spooky. Uncle Ste and I were thinking it was a bit like 'Through the Looking Glass' - there was a space there which definitely shouldn't be there - according to our minds anyway.









Finally there's the kitchen - wow! It's all very bright and sleek and the cooker is AMAZING - totally not like the kitchen, and then totally just right!!!
Some more pictures are ---> here