Tarrant & Andrews Family Diary

Taizé Service

On Sunday evening there was a Taizé service in the Minster for the Week of Christian Unity, or something, and Meeting had been asked to find some “young people” to light a candle. Toby and Luke and Millie Holman were asked and we all went along.

All the chairs are out of the Minster at the moment , and they had arranged some in a big oval shape in the nave, around some icons and a horizontal wooden cross on the floor. There was some (lots of) Taizé chanting, a reading and then our lot lit the candle.

It was a really high candle, so Toby had a wick on the end of a stick. The first time he tried to light it, he couldn’t see the candle wick and his long wick went out. He came back to relight it, he and Luke barely containing their giggles, and fortunately managed to light it second time round. There was an audible sigh of relief from the congregation.

After that everyone light a little night light they had been given and placed it onto the cross in the middle of the nave, until it had candles right up and down it. Looked lovely.

The Minster was alarmingly cold!

John’s Slideshow

John has made a sideshow as well – here.

Some of the writing is hard to read – when it’s on the computer, it looks better because the photo background doesn’t appear until after you have read the text.

Truck-part 4

Hey everybody my truck is now back to its normal self again, after a few bumpy weeks she is in fully working condition! I was driving her last night around the park and she was going scarily fast! Well as I said last time I was going to go down to the Knavesmire and drive about. I also mentioned letting dad have a go. I should have realised from the beginning that that was a mistake!

O well got her fixed up and she is running smoothly. Going to buy a few parts for her over the next two weeks or so. This time to make sure the truck lasts longer than to get the truck going again!

I’m going to get a new air filter and a fuel filter. This will stop dirt and dust getting into the engine and also keep the engine cool while it is running. I am also going to get a centre skid plate and a fuel tank guard. This will strengthen the truck and help stop things breaking. Overall these four items will cost about £40!!! Oh well its all worth it.

Oh yeah and she still hasn’t had the space to hit top speed. I don’t think I will ever drive her at top speed because you need a really long, straight, flat road to get full power with no cars and you don’t get that in the UK! Oh well I’ll see how fast I can get her going off road though!!!

Chemo Six

Cindy went in today for her sixth chemo in this round. She is fine this evening, but will no doubt get exhaused over the next few days. The side effects of this sort of chemo aren’t too bad though, and because it seems to be having a positive effect Dr Bottomley has suggested that Cindy have a few (2-4) more doses, spaced 3 weeks apart as so far.

Cindy is doing pretty well. She is a lot less short of breath, can get upstairs without needing oxygen or having to pause and generally has more energy than in October/November. As usual, she is amazingly positive, vibrant and full of enthusiam.

Back to School …Soon

I went into school this morning to talk about starting back after the half term holiday. They’ve arranged a “phased return” to work, where I observe and work with small groups during the first week back, gradually do more teaching during the second week, teach 3 days in the third week, 4 days in the forth, and the whole week in the fifth week, which is the last week of term.

I was remarkably worked up just going into school, but of course it was fine, everyone was very nice. I went into my classroom to see my class, and they were pleased to see me, which made me feel great. There are a lot of nice children in the class and I should be able to get back into enjoying teaching, rather than struggling to get through it. I’ve arranged to go in a couple more times before the holiday, just as a helper or to pop in and that’ll also start making it seem more normal. I was surprised to discover how much I enjoyed seeing everyone!

The school have also found a behaviour management course, specifically for NQTs that I’m going to go on. It’s three or four days long scattered through the next term or so.

I’m actually starting to look forward to going back (some of the time!)

Craft & Engineering Afternoon

John has gone off to a birthday party – pizza and then ten pin bowling. We’re having mussels for tea, and he likes them so much he insisted I do him some for his lunch. He didn’t like them at all, he told me, they were absolutely disgusting. As shown by his licked clean plate.

Rose and Cindy have been making clothes for the rag doll that Rose has made. The rag doll is called Jane because it is similar to one that Jane, my sister, had, that Rose has seen at Mary’s. She has got her name embroidered onto her dungarees.

Toby and I have been busy mending his car that I broke last weekend. All gone together now thank goodness. He’s also mended the puncture on his bike that meant he had to walk his paper round a couple of times this week. He even borrowed my bike for one morning – not sure I’m keen on that!

He’s just about to check the car still works – slowly – in the back lane.

Rose’s Slideshow

Rose has made a powerpoint slide show story – have a look at it.

Mum and Dad for the weekend

Started our weekend over a cup of tea and cream doughnuts and danish pastries. Caught up on family news while cooking fish pie and peas, helping Toby to fill out his Youth club forms and aid in stapling Rose’s puppet theatre project. Enjoyed a lovely family meal and then sunk into the soft seats for the evening.

Mum came with me to Rose’s dance class and dad had a bit of quiet newspaper reading after we all enjoyed a variety of cooked breakfast goodies. Haven’t watched Rose for several weeks now and could really see that she had improved and they were all able to pick up a dance routine more quickly. Edward took John to his class and he returned home wanting some proper dance shoes.

After lunch Toby and Edward went off to the Knavesmire to drive Toby’s truck and the rest of us headed out for the Railway Museum. Mum and Dad have not been here for several years and Dad was especially interested to see the Japanese Bullet train. Certainly nice to sink into the Bullet’s comfy seats fort 5 minutes and catch our breath from train viewing.
Back home it was useful not having to cook as Mum had brought a beef stew and a couple of fruit pies.

Card playing after tea accompanied with a bottle of wine and chocs.

Edward and children off to Meeting for the Christmas social on Sunday while Mum, Dad and I went to the Castle Museum. Have not been here without children before and it was really nice to take time and be able to read the information. Did have to avoid a rather eccentric couple who were engaging evrybody in conversation as they moved around the museum. The woman even shared her bottom wiping experience with me as we looked at rolls of ancient loo paper……..is it somthing about my face?!!! Super cheese scones in the cafe and then a very quick whip round the second half as the parking time was running out and we could see a traffic warden in the car park from the cafe window.

Scrummy roast beef (Mum again) followed by meringues with raspberries from Jean’s allotment for supper. Mum and Dad then had to set off for the long five hour drive back. John is very pleased with his dance tape from Nanny and it is doubtful that the oversized fur coat will make it out of the house as John and Rose are having far too much fun with it. It seems to be doubling up as a bath robe at the moment.

Don Giovanni

We went to the opera last night with Keith and Judy. Before it started, we went for a meal at Fruits and Shoots, a vegetarian restaurant which is just round the corner from the Grand Theatre.

I really enjoyed the opera – the costumes seemed a bit of a hotch-potch, most in sort of 30s style, and one not at all. The singing and playing though were excellent – I particularly liked Leporello’s voice.

Not particularly knowing the opera, I couldn’t see how they were going to have a second half – as they caught Don Giovanni and were just about to have their revenge, when… he escaped! The second half was a bit bizarre, with an invitation to a meal issued to the statue of a dead man – who then turned up and took Don Giovanni down to hell.

The final bit of singing, which sounds very joyful when sung in Italian, turns out to mean “All sinners will go to hell.” Odd.

I suppose you don’t particularly go to opera for the coherence of the plot.

Knitting Bee

Enjoyed a lovely day at Carol Gilham’s knitting bee held to celebrate her birthday. Arrived in good time to enjoy morning coffee and delicious biscuits. Sock knitting seemed to be the order of the day especially as Carol is a bit of a sock guru and carries the pattern around in her head. Annabel and Vivienne were knitting with a sock kit that includes pre dyed wool that knits into a pattern resulting in something that makes you look a lot more skilful than you actually are……this will be the kit for me! Jo was being skillful, however, and was half way through an enormous pair of tradiditional Norweigan socks -this was desrvedly awarded Corol’s project of the day.

Ruth Cory was up to the armhole shaping on a garment she described as a flak jacket. Fabulous construction in hand spun wool. I was amused to hear how Ruth started hand spinning on salvaging a couple of fleeces from a farmyard that she couldn’t bear to see go to waste. Also chatted with her about ‘Vera Drake’ that we had both seen and agreed was absolutely fabulous both as a piece of cinema and as a comment on women and abortion.

We moved into the subject of the importannce of choice and understanding others points of view and somehow into the animal rights campaigners in particular the appalling treatment meted out to anybody who has contact with the guinea pig farm raising animals for medical experimentation.

Lunch was scrummy: homemade lentil soup with breads and cheeses from Caroline’s Good Food shop served in the kitchen where Claire was encouraging us all to eat plenty as there was plenty more on hand.

Brenda offered up spare circular needles and cable needles of which I claimed some so I will definitely have to expand my knitting skills. Brenda was reknitting a cuff on a much loved cardigan-how’s that for economy.(Chatted to my mum about this and she used to do the same with our school jumpers also extending the length as we all got bigger. I can also recall mum talking about turning a well worn coat, this was also touched upon in Vera Drake. Can’t imagine that charity shops would have access to much stock in the 50’s)

And I have been knitting a jumper in Rowan kidsilkhaze(shades 582 and 605) pattern design number 23 ‘Glint’ by Kim Hargreaves in Rowan knitting magazine number 30. Simple roundneck striped jumper with edging in Rowan Lurex Shimmer (shade 339). Thinking that after this I will go for something more challenging.

I left in time to pick up John and Rose after a quick cup of tea and fruit bread. Knitters were still arriving. So if you are reading this Carol thankyou for a really lovely day and I look forward to more bees.

Toby’s Car

Toby and I went out today to the Knavesmire to drive his new car which was finally in good working order – after new batteries, new glow start and a tune up in the local hobby shop. It went really well – fast, jumps, skid turns…

And then I had a go. Drove it into a wooden post and broke the suspension on the right front wheel!

Toby was devastated, obviously. I felt really guilty and annoyed with myself. We’ve spent the rest of the afternoon with the manual finding part numbers of the broken bits so I can order them all on Monday. They should arrive next weekend.

Arggh!

Kitchen Started

Cindy & I went to Ikea today, and spent a load of money on kitchen units. So things are finally underway. We’ve been saving to do the kitchen for ages – since I started working really, and thinking about it for even longer. Now the units and worktops are ordered, we’ve chosen oven, hob, extractor and someone is coming to look at the damp wall and floor next week. The floor and floor are the big unknown item really, we don’t know how bad it is, or how much of the floor will need digging up.

It’s exciting starting at last.

Short entry as I’m finding it difficult to type. I cut a finger on my left hand really badly the other day (knife was too blunt when chopping carrots!)

Knitting

Reading this article in today’s Guardian, has prompted me to add something about Cindy’s knitting.

It’s something she’s picked up again after finishing working. She has two of Rose’s friends, Mimi and Eleanor, round each Monday after school, when they do a little knitting and then watch Blue Peter. Rose, being the continually crafty person she is, really enjoys it and picks her knitting up from time to time during the week as well.

Cindy is just about to sew together a finished jumper that she’s been working on for a while – finishing it off has been postponed time and again! It’s a plain black woollen jumper knitted from lovely soft Rowan wool. She’s about to finish it because she’s found the next project she wants to do. This is another jumper with wide blue and grey stripes and a glittery blue border. This will be knitted in Rowan Kidsilk Haze – an amazingly fine, soft and slightly furry wool.

Next Friday she is off to a whole day knitting bee at Carol’s – knitter extraordinaire. I’m sure she’ll have a good day. A lovely invitation that particularly said not to bring any food!

I hope I’ll be able to put some photos of finished projects up soon!

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Last night we went to see The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at the West Yorkshire Playhouse with Lance and Mary.

It was brilliant, we all enjoyed it, and thought that it was even better than last year’s Christmas show. The staging was really good, with fantastic revolving staircases, the children disappearing into the wardrobe and reappearing through a line of huge white hanging coats representing a snowy Narnia and Father Christmas and the White Witch both having lovely sledges. Perhaps the “sweetest” bit was when spring started, little red crocuses popped up through the stage!

The acting was also really good – particularly Lucy. And Aslan had a fantastic lion costume.

Last Day of the Holiday

We decided to have a proper day out today, before school starts tomorrow. We all went over to Eureka in Halifax, on the train, with Jo, Tom, Anna and Adam.

The first time I went to Eureka was with Toby when he was about 3 or 4. About half the museum is the same, the rest has been changed. I think it was the first totally interactive science museum I had been to and it really impressed me. Now, after going to lots of others, particularly Magna, it seems much less exciting. The children still enjoyed it and got a lot out of it. I expect that this will be the last time Toby goes – I was quite surprised that he wanted to go today.

We got back home and had fish and chips for tea. John and Rose are in bed now, as is Cindy who is exhausted after her chemo yesterday.

Wheelchair Joke

We went to Bridlington today with Mary. I enjoyed getting out in the fresh air, it wasn’t quite as cold as it has been.

We took the wheelchair for when Cindy got tired of walking. Toby was in it for a while. To start with I pushed him wildly and spun him round. Then when we’d got tired of that, I pushed him sensibly for a while. When an elderly couple were just walking towards us, he got out of the wheelchair and I turned to Cindy in amazement and said, “I told you the sea air would do him good!” I don’t think the couple were convinced that anything miraculous had happened – particularly as we were laughing like drains.

In fact, Cindy laughed so hard she had to sit down in the wheelchair to recover!

Monster Truck Update!

Hey Toby here. Been fidilling with car over the last week or so and today it got its first sort of run. I’ve had a few short ones in the alley before, a minute or so, just to test the settings. This evening though I took out the front and drove around the street. I took it up and down and jumped it up and down the pavement, great fun! Grandpa, Dad and John watched. It still isn’t going its best but nearly there. Hopefully going to go down to the knavesmire tommorrow and give it a proper drive.

Todays, was only about five minutes, but it was dark and I didn’t want any cars to come and crunch it. I still haven’t let the car hit top speed yet, there isn’t enough room on our short road, I don’t think it has even hit 2nd! Hopefully knaversmire will go sucessfully and dad can have a go. Well maybe a short go! Hope you like the pics, just a few quick snaps of it in my kitchen. Update you soon and maybe a few pics of it on the knavesmire.

See ya
Toby

New Year’s Eve

We had Jane & Andy and Steve & Sam with Tom and Josh round on New Year’s Eve.

Cindy and I had spent the previous day and part of that day cooking curries. We had lamb and spinach, tandoori chicken, black eyed beans with mushrooms, aubergine and tomato, green lentil dal and home made samosas. All lovely!

All the children stayed up till midnight, even Rose. In fact the adults seemed tireder than the children. Toby, Tom and Josh would have stayed up for ages longer.