Tarrant & Andrews Family Diary

Dad’s birthday

Dad’s birthday yesterday. Got a nice selection of presents. A hand made pillow cover from Rose (made by Rose), a hand cooked meal from John, and I got him a bag for his bike! I think I get most marks for effort! G & G gave him some money because he keeps on thinking on getting a new bike and can’t decide if it’s worth it. Went out for a lovely meal at La Piazza. Good as Usual.

Today I’ve spent the day in Leeds with friends and bought some new clothes for the hols. Looking forward to Greece very much. Everyone’s out at the moment seeing John’s play that he has done with his theatre group. Got a busy week ahead, and I’m going away with friends next week to Great Yarmouth! Should be great. Anyway I’m off out now, so bye.

I’m a Member

Richard Ogden popped in on his way home from Monthly Meeting to say that I’ve been accepted as a member of Meeting.

After 16 or so years of attending it feels more like an acknowledgement of a relationship that already exists than anything else!  Now I’ll have to make sure I’m good at saying no to more committees!

All Busy – except Toby!

Toby had his first weekend lie in for ages as the paper shop has now shut, so he’s unemployed.  He’s hoping to get a job in the bike shop where he did his work experience soon, which would make his Saturday’s less leisured than today’s was.

I cycled with John over to Canon Lee for his dancing, and then went into town for coffee.  Rose had Lily over to play during the afternoon – they made burnt chocolate buns!  We had delicious mussels for tea.

John went to Tom’s for a birthday sleepover and I left Rose and Toby “home alone” while I went to the theatre with Sam to see How Many Miles to Basra?  It was very thought provoking – quite heavy and political.

Squash not Badminton – John to YTT

Yesterday I taught Luigi and Clara – for the first time this week as they’ve been in Italy. I had lunch with my dad and then went off to play badminton with Mark.

Unfortunately, there was a school using all the badminton courts, so we ended up playing squash and as I’m no good at squash he beat me. Pah!

John went to Youth Theatre Yorkshire at the Theatre Royal in the evening. Another new activity for a new year. It was his third session, and he really enjoyed it again. They’re doing things related to Sing Yer Hearts Out for the Lads so it was all football chants last night.

I was worn out so went to bed early.

Coffee with Andrea and Rose’s Yoga

I had coffee with Andrea this morning – two hours putting the world to rights.

Rose went for her third yoga session and really enjoyed it again. We’ve been looking for a children’s yoga class for a while and these have finally started up – and they’re dead local. She goes with Gemma and at the moment there are only the two of them in the class. They were doing handstands – definitely more than I can manage!

Well – long time no post

I’ve really got out of the habit of writing here – partly because it felt as though I was trying to say the same things in different ways all the time!

Anyway – I’ll start again and see how I go this time round.We had a good summer holiday, visiting Mandy and David, going to Wales with all the extended family and going to Florence with Helen and David.

John has started secondary school at Millthorpe, Rose is in year 6 at Scarcroft with a new male teacher (who was on my PGCE course) whom she really likes, and Toby is working hard in year 11.

I’m doing some tutoring of Clara and Luigi, who’s mother has taken them out of school.

Over the summer I managed to do some yoga most days, and am still trying to keep that going. Rob has stopped doing daytime classes which is a shame, so I’ve started going to an evening class – longer and more difficult, but good. I feel a lot better for doing a little each day.

I’ve been out a lot to the theatre – notably recently to The Man with Two Gaffers with Judy and Keith, To Kill a Mockingbird with Toby and A One Man Star Wars Trilogy with Mark. Also still having coffe or lunch with friends – many thanks to Mark, Cathy, Kath, Andrea and Michelle. Still playing badminton whenever possible with Mark and Simon.

Life is busy and generally fun!

Like Two Old Crocks

Played badminton with Simon at lunch time today. He’d cycled into a lamppost and had a very sore and stiff shoulder and, for some reason, I’d woken up with a stiff and aching back. So we shuffled about the court and neither of us played very well. Still fun though.

Toby was trying to coach me this morning – “What could you do to get better?” I don’t want to have to think about it, I just like playing (but if it meant I won more often…)

Visiting Will

Will is off work at the moment because of an operation to his knee. He damaged it playing football – I knew those rough games were a bad idea! I went to visit him today while the children were at school.

He gave me details of our half term holiday at one of the Center Parcs in Holland, which looks really fun. He also showed me all the family tree information that he’s been entering onto his computer. So far he’s put on the stuff that was researched by both of our grandfathers. This goes quite a long way back and also spreads out wide to include “interesting” people like Ben Nicholson and the Sackville-Wests. Then it’ll need updating with two generations worth of children. Then all the foreign relatives need their sections including. THEN he can get onto the interesting part of seeing if he can discover anything new. It seems to be much easier nowdays, with all the information on the web, than it was a couple of decades ago, when you had to visit places and look in old books. Not as atmospheric perhaps. He’s put what he’s done so far on a genealogy website.

What a Glorious Day

I’m sure it’s mainly the weather, but I’ve had a lovely day today. It was really warm and sunny and made me feel very cheerful.

I went to yoga at lunch time. There were only four of us there, and Rob looked around and said “As you’re all quite experienced,” (I was feeling good already) “we’ll have an energetic session.” And it was. It left me feeling very stretched and energised, ready for the rest of the day and weekend.

I was supposed to be playing squash with Mark in the afternoon, and after that yoga I’m sure I’d have beaten him, but he was being sick. So instead I played croquet with Lance and very civilised it was too. I got the children from school and chatted in the sun for a while before going to Lance and Mary’s. John had his first swimming lesson, so we had a good cycle across Hob Moor.

In the evening, I went to the theatre with Jackie. We went to see Foxes, a play about asylum seekers in Leeds.

Work, Play, Food

I think I’ve picked up some work this morning. Someone that Simon knows wants to withdraw her children from Tregelles and teach them at home. Except that she doesn’t actually want to teach them herself, so it looks like I’ll be teaching them three mornings a week from next academic year. Slightly odd situation, but it should be fairly straightforward work.

Then this afternoon, I went with Rose’s class to watch an adaption of Journey to the River Sea at the Theatre Royal. It was very imaginatively done, but the story was quite hard to follow (I don’t know it) and Rose said they missed out some of the best bits!

Rose and John went off swimming with Gemma this evening, and Toby and I had the lovely soup at a reasonable time. By the time they got back from swimming, Rose was too tired really to eat, so she’ll be starving in the morning.

Lunch Out

More washing!! Another three loads washed, sorted and away today. Just about back to normal after Turkey and the Lake District.

I went for a long run this morning and my legs are aching now. I haven’t been running for about a month, I’ve done a lot of yoga and played squash and badminton though.

I had a lovely lunch at the City Screen with Michelle today. She had been to the Star Inn, Harome with Mark and her boys for her birthday, so we compared notes on its deliciousness!! My meal there with Cindy last February is definitely about the best meal I’ve ever had. In fact the whole experience was wonderful. Michelle was equally impressed by the food, but didn’t stay the night. Quite fancy a trip back myself. Anyone fancy a £50 lunch?

Roast guinea fowl for tea, the butchers had a couple in, so I thought I’d try one. Nice – stronger chicken, and the butcher’s chickens are not good, so this was definitely a better alternative. I think tomorrow I’m going to do the pea and feta soup that I had with my mum.

Pea and lemon soup with feta black pepper

Frozen peas are fine to use – especially the sweet little petits pois – and are among the best vegetable sources of fibre and protein, and also contain vitamin C, iron and zinc. Serves 4.

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
1 red chilli, deseeded and roughly chopped
4 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
800g/1lb 10oz peas
1 small round lettuce, leaves separated and washed
1 litre/1¾ pints hot chicken or vegetable stock
grated rind and juice of 1 unwaxed lemon
75g/3oz feta cheese, crumbled into small pieces
a few fresh mint leaves
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

• Heat the oil in a large pan and cook the onion, chilli and garlic for five minutes until softened.
• Add the peas, lettuce leaves and hot stock and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for five minutes until the peas are tender.
• Take off the heat and, using a hand-held blender, roughly blitz until coarsely pureed. Stir in the lemon rind and juice and season with salt and plenty of black pepper.
• Ladle into bowls and scatter over the feta and mint leaves.

Blast from the Past

I bought a pair of Doctor Marten’s shoes (not boots) today. They are black with yellow stitching around the sole. Very 80s.

They’re not made in England anymore, but in Thailand. What a sign of globalisation.

Lunch with Kath

I had a lovely lunch today with Kath. The last of the Ikea gravadlax, salad and a glass of wine. Followed by a very nice chocolate cake that she had brought with her.

I also went to the supermarket and continued to try to get to the bottom of the washing basket!

Rose went to gymnastics for the first time this term, and Toby went off to squash practise. He said it felt like hard work today, partly because he hasn’t played over the holiday, and partly because he got put into a higher group. I told him that I always lose, and that it must be good for his game!

Morrissey

I just watched 4 music presents… Morrissey from earlier in the month. He’s aged really well and the new songs sound good. I bought the new album for Toby for his birthday, so must make sure I get to listen to it too.

Morrissey performed a Smiths song as well, Still Ill. The Smiths are possibly the one band that most represent my late teenage years to me. Their songs are instantly familiar and I still know a lot of the lyrics by heart. Oh those evenings spent discussing the most hilariously depressing lyrics!

And if a double-decker bus
Crashes into us
To die by your side
Is such a heavenly way to die
And if a ten-ton truck
Kills the both of us
To die by your side
Well, the pleasure – the privilege is mine

Wonderful.

Coffee, Cinema & Parents’ Evening

I had coffee this morning with Mark and Michelle – nice to see them at the same time!

After lunch I went to the cinema to see Brokeback Mountain – in the afternoon, all by myself.  Wonderfully decadent.  It always seems strange coming out of the cinema into daylight.  Great film, beautiful scenery, very touching love story.

It was Toby’s parents’ evening today.  What a star he is – his (in fact all three children’s) parents’ evenings are always very straightforward.  Lovely to have people telling me such nice things about Toby!

Oven Fixed

Fixed – well it wasn’t actually broken! As I suspected, a button had got pressed. If you hold down one of the buttons for ten seconds, and then press a different button, the oven gets put in “demo mode.” This means that it won’t turn on the heating elements or the fan whatever you turn the knob to. The lights come on, and the buttons adjust the temperature, but nothing happens. And it remembers it has been put into this mode even if you turn it off and on again at the wall!

So fortunately it wasn’t really broken, and I should have read the small print in the manual more carefully!

Happy Christmas

I’m afraid I’m not going to get around to posting christmas cards this year, so here’s wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Badminton

I carry on trying to play badminton regularly. I’ve had to miss a few games over the last month or so, as people have been off school so often, but I’ve played twice this week to try and make up for it.

I still play Simon most regularly, and he still generally beats me – in fact it was a whitewash this week – oh well I beat him last week for a change. Today I played against Mark, who hasn’t played much for ages, so I won fairly easily. However, I think once he loses his rustiness it’ll be a different matter as he’s got an amazing smash – which just frightens me – when it goes over the net .

John’s been at home today, just exhausted I think because of the school play and so on this week. Rose has been to school every day this week – the first time for ages. Toby, of course, is doing his paper round, school, youth club, squash… as usual.

Bright & Cold

I went for a run today along the river. It was a really crisp, bright day. Two minutes after leaving our house, you can be beside the river; and within about five minutes you can be running alongside trees and a hedge through a field with sheep in it. It was a bit muddy today, but not too slippery.

Also today, I’ve had coffee with Michelle at the Blakeshead, and then Ted popped in this afternoon on his way home after an early finish.

Day of Treats

On Friday, I had an excellent day. It started off with Rose going to school, definitely a good start, making four out of five days last week.

I went out with Ted and Dave, first to Bob Jackson Cycles in Leeds. Ted has been given an old frame that he wants cleaning up and respraying. They had a fantastic range of colours to choose from – he chose an unusual pepperminty blue colour – a rather more restful colour that peppermint toothpaste though. The bike shop had some lovely bikes in it, and managed to make Cycle Heaven look rather expensive (it’s not as convenient of course).

We went on to have a bit of a browse around the art/book/kitchen shops in Salts Mill. Also of course, to have some lunch. Lovely wild mushroom rissotto for me, tasty looking sausages for Dave and a pizza for Ted.

Got home in time to pick up Rose – John to Nathan’s. Rose had Sarah to tea (pizza) and then Toby went out to youth club.

Most unexpectedly Kath rang to say she suddenly had a free theatre ticket that evening, and would I like to go. Managed to get Beth to babysit at the last minute and went out to see Horror for Wimps.

Half Term

We’ve had a busy week, which is one reason I haven’t written about it, and the other is that we were away from computers for half of it.

From Saturday morning to Tuesday evening the four of us went to Hunstanton. We stayed in the youth hostel, ate a couple of meals in an excellent pub, lots more nice meals elsewhere, went on a boat trip to see seals, ten pin bowled, went swimming, walked along the beach, watched paragliders, went to the cinema, saw butterflies, birds and llamas at a wildlife centre and generally had a good time.

Once we had got home, Rose in particular had a busy time. She went to Young Embroiderers with Nok on two mornings, and to a wood working thing on another with Lily.

John and Toby went to the Apple Mac show in London with Lance on Friday – and came home with an iPod nano each, and one for Rose. What an extravagent grandfather they have. They arrived home at about 11:30pm, and couldn’t go to bed till they had got music onto one of them, and had a listen. Saturday was therefore spent putting music onto these amazing little things (and story books in Rose’s case). No one need fight over the car radio again – or even talk to each other in the car!

Friday evening Kath came round for a meal. She had been going to bring Louis too, but with the boys being off and Louis having a party, it was just her. Very good to sit and chat to her. Nice meal too.

We saw Jane and her friend Merrial on Saturday. They took Rose to have her hair cut at Glen & Julio’s – which was an experience apparently. Toby went to watch Huddersfield with Keith. We had supper at Lance and Mary’s.

Today we went to Meeting for the first time since Cindy’s funeral. I knew I would find it very difficult and I did. Lasted about 20 minutes and then sat in the library with Cathy.

In the afternoon we went swimming (took Lily too), then John and Rose went out to a Halloween Party at Lottie and Polly’s. I made a lovely lamb and spinach curry for tea.

Coffee and Harvest

I had coffee with Michelle this morning at the Blakehead Bookshop and Café – oh yeah and a huge plate of mushrooms on toast. Long chat. She had Dominic with her – what a charming child, smiley and cheerful.

Then in the afternoon it was John and Rose’s Harvest festival. Excellent as all Scarcroft things seem to be at the moment. Rose’s class sang several WWII songs – not really a harvest link, but… John’s class didn’t do a huge amount – 1 poem – but I expect that all their effort went into last Friday’s superb Good Work Assembly.

John has no gym this week or next, and Rose was taken by Jenny and picked up by Mark, so not a busy evening. Early to bed.

Walk in the Wolds

I went for a walk in the Yorkshire Wolds today with David Campbell. We left after dropping children at schools and drove to Kirby Underdale. It was about 8½ miles round trip from there to Thixendale and back. The weather was a bit grey and misty, but it didn’t actually rain! In Thixendale we looked at the building that used to be a youth hostel, that I stayed at with Will about 7 years ago. It’s now heavily renovated, looking much better and is used as a village hall.

This evening John and Rose have been out to Stomp, a very exciting percussion/dance show with all the Emericks. They came home at about 9:45 very excited and hyper. I have been out to the Scarcroft pub quiz for a bit – with Kjartan comparing the quiz. Shame I won’t find out the answers!

New Look

I’ve spent some time over the last couple of months setting up a “new look” for the website.

And here it is… I hope you like it. I’m sure there are a few wrinkles still left to be sorted out, if you see any let me know.

President John

John was elected onto the school council a couple of weeks ago – a boy and each girl get chosen by each class. Today they had their first meeting and John was selected to be President. It was a very close run thing, he only won by one vote. Tomorrow the world!

I had lunch today with Cathy. It was great to sit and chat with her.