The Olympics was fantastic, and now it's all over

We've been feeling a bit flat for the last couple of days. After all the excitement leading up to the Olympics, and the frantic ticket hunting that preceded and accompanied it, now we're feeling a bit lost. We were lucky enough to spend another few days up in London over the weekend (with many thanks to both our fantastic babysitters and hotel loyalty points). I know I've bored everyone entirely over the last few weeks with my Olympic posts, so as a final post here are some of our highlights from the last events.

Synchronised swimming was the event that I was most keen to see when we first started to look for tickets. I did really enjoy it, although the session only lasted 45 minutes which went quickly. I did learn one fact which fascinated me, synchronised swimmers train for 45 hours a week (not just the synchronised bit, but including general fitness, pilates, yoga and so on). Of course, when I thought about it, I realised that this must be true for most, if not all, top athletes. I hadn't really appreciated the time commitment involved, it's difficult to imagine what it must be like to be so dedicated to something.

We are big pizza fans over here, and we discovered a wonderful new pizza place - Franco Manca in Westfield Shopping Centre. It brought back fond memories of our favourite ever pizza, eaten many years ago in Naples. Definitely recommended if you pass one!

For a couple of sessions, our seats to the athletics were at the very back of the press stand - one of those big blocks of empty seats which were visible on the television. They filled up for the big races, but once they were over they quickly emptied out, so we were able to move down for a better view. As we were sitting there we noticed an Olympic torch being passed around below us which had been brought along by one of the spectators who had been a torch bearer. Along with everyone else we cheekily asked if we could have our photo taken with it - I was unbelievably excited!



The Closing Ceremony was amazing, we were dancing and singing along. It wasn't really what I was expecting, I thought that it would include some sort of look back at the games, montages of highlights and so on, and I must admit that I didn't really expect it to be as good as it was. There was so much going on, and it was so bright and cheerful.

The next morning we felt very down as we made our way back home. We were cheered up slightly by the new information sign pointing to Rio de Janeiro at the now empty Stratford Station!

It's been a fantastic few weeks and I know that I'm so lucky to have been able to experience so much. I never expected to be so moved by it all.

Aquarium in a box

I was about to throw out an old washing machine tablet container the other day, when I remembered a fantastic craft from my blogging buddy Trouble Doubled's blog - a shoebox aquarium. We've also been playing fish tanks quite a lot lately (you don't know how to play fish tanks? Easy, you put all available children into the baby's cot and let them pretend to be fish while you carry on with your business safe in the knowledge that they aren't going anywhere) so I thought that Harry would enjoy this one.

Making the aquarium is very simple, just make some seaweed out of a pipe cleaner, add some small stones from the garden (Mia helped with this bit, she even licked some of the stones to make sure that they were nice and clean), some shredded green paper if you have some, then make and decorate some cardboard fish to sellotape from the underside of the lid.

Harry was more interested in playing with the fish tank rather than just looking at it when it was finished, luckily we have a few fish lying about that he could put inside. He also asked when we were going to put the water in, and actually this container would work quite well for that, so we may well try it at some point!

Our Mr Men Day - Mr Men games and activities

Over on Mini Bookworms it's Mr Men Month, and so to get into the Mr Men spirit I decided to come up with a few themed activities! One thing that I'm struggling with at the moment is finding things to do that entertain both children (Harry is 3 1/2 and Mia is 14 months) so I have divided them into "Baby Asleep" activities and "Baby Awake" activities.

• Baby Asleep

These are quiet activities that take place at the table and need my full concentration.

Colouring - To start with, I found some great printable colouring pages and games at the official Mr Men website. I'm also a huge fan of Google Images, which provides a vast array of Mr Men colouring pages to choose from.

Scissor practice - Several of the images that I found above were a copy of the back of the Mr Men books, a grid of lots of different Mr Men. I cut them into strips and gave them to Harry to snip up. He also had a go at cutting out the individual figures himself.

Gluing - I found a plain background in one of Harry's colouring books and we stuck the cut out Mr Men on to it.

Matching game - I found a great resource online with instructions to make your own Mr Men, unfortunately no longer available. One of the pages had some good quality images of ten Mr Men and Little Miss characters. I printed this page out twice, cut out the characters and we used them to play a matching game. If you printed them out in good quality colour and laminated them you would have a much more durable game.

Puppets - The Mr Men characters are really easy to recreate. We made some simple puppets using crafty bits from around the house. I tried to use a variety of textures and colours to add interest.

• Baby Awake

These are activities that are not easily messed up, don't involve small pieces, and hopefully also provide a bit of entertainment for a just-walking baby.

Mr Men active game - I borrowed this idea from Teaching Ideas (no longer available). It would probably work better with a group of children, but Harry loved running about pretending to be different Mr Men. Some good ones to start with - Mr Slow, Mr Rush, Mr Bounce, Mr Small, Mr Tall, Mr Strong, Mr Jelly....you can come up with actions for most of the Mr Men, then just call them out while your child races about!

Find the Mr Man - Harry loves hiding games, We took turns in hiding some of the pictures from the matching game above around the house and guiding each other to them using 'hot' and 'cold'.

Themed lunch - I often make Harry's lunch into a picture, so I had a fair go at replicating Mr Topsy-Turvy, his favourite character. If I'm honest, it was a bit rubbish (hence no picture!) but he liked it!

Reading the books - It wouldn't be much of a Mr Men day without actually reading the books! We built a tent in the living room with a room divider and sheets and snuggled up inside with the books.

Finally I leave you with a photograph of the only item of Mr Men merchandise that I could find. 

I love these magnets, they were mine when I was little! They are each about 5cm high, and admittedly not very good as magnets, but still rather cool! 

Olympic eventing continues - Track cycling, Trampolining, Swimming and Athletics

We've been spending the middle of this week in a funny sort of limbo - we've had another busy weekend at the Olympic Park with another to come, and now we're enjoying a quiet period in the middle before we head up again for the final weekend. On Saturday we managed to squeeze in three events - from Track Cycling in the Velodrome, to the North Greenwich Arena (aka the O2) for Trampolining, then back to the Olympic Park for the Swimming Finals at the Aquatic Centre. On Sunday we returned to the Olympic Stadium for the Athletics, including the 100m final.

If you're wondering how we've managed to get all these tickets, it's all down to my husband. We didn't receive any tickets in the first round, and only tickets for a few less popular events in the second round. In the month or so before the games started, my husband began stalking the ticket website and the other websites that pulled down information about the latest ticket sales. He bought lots and lots of tickets, most of which we sold back as they were replaced by tickets to better events. Yes, he did become a little addicted, and no, I don't know what he's going to do when it's all over. It is quite an investment, although the vast majority of our tickets are in the cheapest seats.

When we entered the Velodrome we could see why it had been particularly difficult to buy tickets, as it felt very small. This meant that although we were far back we still had a good view, and there was a real sense of the cyclists being spurred on by the noise of the crowd. We didn't see any finals, but it was still really exciting, especially when there were two cyclists racing.


I enjoyed the trampolining because the whole event was completed in a couple of hours, and there was no hanging around. We saw sixteen ladies each perform two routines, then the eight with the best scores went through to the final. The huge stadium was packed and we were very high up but we still had a good view, although I spent the whole time with bated breath though in case one of the ladies bounced off!

I didn't really like the Aquatics Centre as a venue. It has a huge overhanging ceiling in the middle, and we were in the second row from the back so we were very high above the pool. Because of the central ceiling we couldn't even see most of the spectators on the other side of the pool, and if we had been watching diving we wouldn't have been able to see the top board. We actually managed to swap our original seats for some at the same level on the other side, and we found out from the young man next to us that our new seats had been returned because they had belonged to his mother, and she couldn't stay in the seats because they gave her vertigo! I can see why, and it also felt very claustrophobic. The swimming was exciting, and we were lucky enough to be there for Michael Phelp's final gold medal and presentation.


After a long day, we returned the next day for the Athletics and the 100m final. We arrived a bit early so we were able to have a bit of a wander around the Olympic Park. The landscaping in the park is really beautiful, with lots of flowers and it's all generally really clean and tidy.


At all the events we've seen I've loved watching the preparations that you can't see on the television, for example the volunteers moving the starting blocks and lane numbers about, and keeping track of the athletes possessions in big plastic boxes. It's all incredibly well co-ordinated, and they all perform their manoeuvres in complete sync with each other. The build up to the 100m final was huge, with the excitement building in the crowd and the helicopters hovering overhead. Although I had teased Ram about paying all that money for less than 10 seconds, overall I'd say it was worth it. Our seats were at the very top of the press area, and as we left we paused at the bottom of the steps for a few minutes to look over and watch the athletes being interviewed just below us.


We experienced a brief moment of excitement as we joined the crowds outside the stadium and found ourselves caught in a crowd right next to Boris Johnson! I've no idea how he had ended up there away from the VIP area, he was ushered through the gate that we were being prevented from using, accompanied by much friendly ribbing!

We've been travelling in to the Olympic Park from Ebbsfleet which has been a really good move. There are big crowds leaving the park, but once you can get away from everyone travelling into central London there are very few people heading out Kent way, and because the trains go every few minutes they are nearly empty. The volunteers are also doing a really good job of keeping the crowds under control and moving, there's very little hanging around even at busy times.

How grown up are you?

I've been tagged by Trouble Doubled to see how grown up I am, in a meme originally started by OneDad3Girls. I must admit that I don't always feel very grown up at all, although it's probably about time to admit that I am. But the only way to find out for sure is for me to answer the following questions:

1 Having a mortgage - Yes

2 Mum and Dad no longer make your financial decisions - Yes (they do offer advice though!)

3 Paying into a pension - Yes, through work

4 Conducting a weekly food shop - Yes (although must admit that it's not usually me that does it...! I make the list though.)

5 Written a will - Yes

6 Having children - Yes

7 Budgeting every month - We don't have a fixed budget as such, but we do make sure that all expenses are covered.

8 Cooking a meal from scratch - Yes, not the most complicated one necessarily but I'm quite good at following a recipe if I can find something that the rest of the family will eat

9 Getting married - Yes

10 Getting life insurance - No

11 Recycling - Yes, I'm pretty good about recycling, made much easier because our collection just has one bin into which everything recyclable is thrown.

12 Having a savings account - Yes, but most of our spare money goes into the mortgage because interest rates are so rubbish at the moment

13 Knowing what terms like 'ISA' and 'tracker' mean - Yes

14 Watching the news - I rarely watch the actual news but I check the headlines several times a day on my phone

15 Owning a lawnmower - Yes we own one, I've never used it though!

16 Doing your own washing - Well there isn't anyone else to do it!

17 Taking a trip to the local tip - Yes, although I tend to send t'other half

18 Planting flowers - I planted flowers for the first time this year!

19 Being able to bleed a radiator - I know how to but I'm a bit scared to do it myself, the hissing makes me anxious and fearful of a hot water explosion

20 Having a joint bank account - Yes, we opened one when we got married and started receiving joint cheques. Actually that's not quite the whole truth, we converted my husband's one into a joint account and I kept my own single one!

21 Having a view on politics - Not really

22 Keeping track of interest rates - No

23 Finding a messy house annoying - Yes!

24 Being able to change a lightbulb - Yes, if I have to

25 Owning a vacuum cleaner - We have a lovely Dyson. Not sure how I'd manage without one!

26 Holding dinner parties - We've had friends round a few times for a meal, we tend to just get a pizza in though!

27 Listening to Radio 2 - No, I only listen to the radio in the car and because I can't concentrate enough to change channels while I'm driving I listen to what is already playing (although not if it's Talk Sport, then I just turn it off). It tends to be a local music station.

28 Enjoying gardening - I do garden, but I don't particularly enjoy it.

29 Spending weekend just 'pottering' - Something I would love to do!

30 Mum starts asking you for advice - Not really, I still tend to go to her!

31 Carrying spare shopping bags just in case - Yes

32 Like going round garden centres - No, I only go there to entertain the children by taking them to see the fish

33 Wearing coats on a night out - Yes, I'm always wearing my coat, hate being cold!

34 Going to bed before 11pm - Yes, almost every night

35 Making sure mum and dad are phoned at least once a week - Yes, I try!

36 Classing work as a career rather than a job - Probably when I started working I called it a career, now it's a job!

37 Repairing torn clothes rather than throwing them away - I can put a button on, but I'm not very good with sewing. I'd probably ask my Mum to do it though!

38 You iron - No!

39 You wash up immediately after eating - Yes, I wash up as I go along and my husband finishes off the last bits while I get the children in the bath

40 You enjoy cooking - No

41 You buy a Sunday paper - No, we rarely buy the paper (only if it has a voucher or free Lego)

42 Always going out in a sensible pair of shoes - Yes, I'm always in trainers

43 You like receiving gift vouchers - No, they make me anxious about spending them before the expire

44 Work keeps you awake at night - Not really, not now that I'm back at work

45 Filing post - Yes

46 You have a best crockery set - No, we only have one set of crockery (Ikea's finest!). When we got married we asked for money towards our Honeymoon rather than a gift register!

47 Able to change a car tyre - I have observed the process

48 Being sensible enough to remove make-up before bedtime - No, I hardly ever wear make-up anyway, so I tend to forget to take it off

49 Being able to follow a receipt - I think this one may have become a little wonky with repetition, if it means recipe then yes, I'm quite good at that

50 Owning 'best' towels as well as everyday towels - No, we barely have enough towels for ourselves, I do have some slightly nicer ones that I keep for guests

I make that about 32 so that's 64% grown up. I actually thought I was more grown up than that! I've got a few things lined up to tag people in (beware!) so I will leave it up to you, if you would like to take part then please do!

Needlework Days - July 2012

I have been working hard on my cross stitch this month to have something to share for Needlework Days at Feisty Tapas. Evenings of sport to distract the husband have helped. Now that I am working on the top half of my sampler I am taking a different approach. Previously I would take a strand of one colour and do all the bits that I could find in that colour before moving on to a new one. This was good because it meant that I didn't have any little bits of thread left over, but it wasn't very satisfying and also had the potential to lead to small areas being missed.

My new approach is to take a section at a time and complete if fully. So I present my latest finished segment:

That border may look simple, but looks are deceiving. If you look carefully you may see that although the overall impression is one of symmetry, there are in fact a couple of subtle differences. Whether these are intentional or mistakes in the pattern I'm not sure, but they appear on the offical photograph so I have followed the pattern. I will not say how many times I had to unpick my stitches while working on this border. Luckily, I will have the opportunity to do it all again, as a similar motif is repeated on the other side of the sampler.

UPDATE - I finished the sampler in March 2014! You can see a photograph of the finished sampler here - Moira Blackburn Three Things sampler completed.

An Olympic weekend - Beach Volleyball and Tennis

After our very exciting visit to see the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony last week, we were lucky enough to spend this weekend in London seeing some more events.

This time we travelled up by train from Angmering. On the way up we met one of the volunteers. One thing that has really stood out so far in our Olympic experience has been the dedication and enthusiasm of the volunteers - all the ones that we have met have been so friendly and helpful. This gentleman was one of a team of people driving athletes and other important people around London, and it was really interesting to talk to someone involved.

We had a fantastic hotel really near to Buckingham Palace. It was also free - one of the advantages of having a husband who travels for work and accumulates loyalty points. We were even upgraded to a suite! We went straight out into the pouring rain to catch the end of the Women's Road Cycling as they sped past. We were almost at the end of the route (the finishing line was ticketed) and the three ladies in the lead were very much ahead, it felt like a good couple of minutes before the next group came along.

We had an early dinner before heading to the Beach Volleyball. There were long queues to get in (and once inside even longer queues for refreshments, although we take our own so that didn't bother us!) which meant that we took our seats just as the play was beginning. The stadium was in a fantastic setting, with clear views of the tops of the London Eye and Big Ben. Some people were perhaps a little unimpressed by the understandable lack of tiny bikinis on a chilly evening, but the atmosphere was absolutely fantastic. I loved the loud bursts of music each time a point was scored, and there were many scantiliy clad ladies (and gentlemen) in attendance to entertain the crowd with dancing in between games. There was plenty of drinking going on, and a group of young men in our block were entertaining the crowd by passing around towers made of plastic beer cups and encouraging people to add more and more until it fell over, it all made for a very merry evening.

After a lovely lie-in the next morning we headed to Wimbledon for the tennis. We had Centre Court tickets with a reserved seat all day, and we didn't realise until we arrived that we could also go and watch games on any other court apart from Court 1. It was a very long day but packed with some excellent tennis, including Federer in the men's singles and the Williams sisters in the doubles. The atmosphere was quite a contrast to the night before, no moving around during play, and just whispering and polite clapping.

We took a free shuttle bus back to Wimbledon station, and walked straight onto a train. Although it was busy, I don't think it was really any busier than a normal rush hour would have been and we managed to find seats on the train for our journey back home. Now for a few days rest and a chance to reacquaint ourselves with the children before we are up there again next weekend!