Crunch time

Although this blog is not really about work, I can't not mention what has been happening, as there is some sense of deja vu from the early days of this blog - when I went and took voluntary redundancy.

Not long after I started on Aspire, it became aparent that The Customer had a problem with their budget. Quite a big one, actually. With the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review there is a requirement to reduce administration costs of the department by 5% a year. And that means they need to reduce spending on IT.

Well, after months of negotiations, an agreement was made for Aspire to commit to a reduction in costs in return for a 3-year extension of the contract. This was closely followed by news that Capgemini would reduce headcount on the account by 20%.

So a formal redundancy programme was announced. Under pressure from the unions, the company agreed to include a voluntary element in the programme....

I did think about it. But I couldn't quite bring myself to volunteer for a second time in less than two years!

But today was the day. Those who have been selected as beeing 'at-risk' of redundancy all got a phonecall today. I was glad I was in London for the day - it can't have been much fun in the offices.

And, in case you're wondering, I didn't get a phone call. So my second life in Shropshire continues.

Victoria Sponge

Big Miss has started showing an interest in cooking. Last week she helped me cook a Goa Lamb Vindaloo curry (from 50 Great Curries of India by Camellia Panjabi) for myself and the Missus. But this week it is my turn to help her. I was given my orders for ingredients on the weekly shopping list - strawberry jam and 500ml of double cream, and yesterday afternoon we made a Victoria Sponge. Now I do quite a lot of cooking (a lot of it just for myself at "The Barn"), but I have never made a cake before.

"But that's not caster sugar" I said as she was mixing the first layer. She was using ordinary granulated sugar. "We haven't got any, but Mum said it was just the same". Hmm. The mixture looked a bit thick to me. So we tried some fine soft brown sugar for the second half, while the first half was cooking (we only have 1 cake tin). Then I looked at the use-by date on the self-raising flour - December 2006! (The Missus doesn't cook many cakes either). Hmm.

Well it turned out OK-ish, but had to be cooked for a bit longer than the recipe said. Here it is...

Just then, there was a knock on the door - a couple of her mates had come calling. So they got invited to taste it.

It went down pretty well, although it did have a slightly unusual crunchy texture!

Cygnets String Orchestra

As well as Swimming Lessons (current menagerie 1 "newt", 1 "sealion" and 1 retired "dolphin"), we have had a new activity on Saturday mornings since September. Little Miss was offered the chance of violin lessons with the Suffolk County Music Service so we went along to try it out and signed up.

You get instruments provided, and the first session everybody got measured up. Here she is with her 1/4 size violin showing off her pizzicato.


The sessions are held at KEGS and there is quite a variety of activities on between 9 and 12 on a Saturday morning - several orchestras (string, wind, jazz), choir and lessons.

She has her lesson in a group of 4. This is brilliant - they learn from watching each other as well as from the teacher, and Mrs Pakenham keeps them (and the watching Mums and Dads!) on their toes. I was instructed to take this photo...

... to demonstrate the correct bow hold. Lessons use the excellent Fiddle Time Joggers book, which has a CD you can play along to. As we also have a 3/4 and full size violn at home Big Miss and I can join in the practice too.

Before her lesson, though, she gets to play in the Cygnets String Orchestra. A great name for it. It has been fantastic seeing and hearing a bunch of kids, many of whom had not touched a string instrument before and couldn't read music, become an orchestra. They do all sorts of fun things, like improvising and rhythm games as well as learning to play together properly. Sometimes they even get turns at conducting.

Cygnets starts at 9 (ish!) and finishes about 9:50, so people can visit 'Ed's Place' for a snack before the 10 o'clock activities. There's an open morning on Saturday 8th March if you want to see for yourself.

For more details and directions see here.

The Tea-Party Oak

A favourite place for a winter walk for us is the park at Ickworth House. Yesterday was a lovely frosty, but sunny, morning so we wrapped up warm and set out. Turning left out the car park we followed the road away from the house towards Ickworth Lodge. In the field off to the left is this oak tree surrounded by fencing.

It is called the "Tea-Party Oak". There is a plaque that tells the story...

700 years old. Wow. That means it was growing before the Black Death and the Little Ice Age.

We carried on round the walk down to the Rive Linnet and along it, iced over in places, to the Canal. Ahh, snowdrops, this Missus' favourite...

The lake itself was nearly completely frozen over. The ducks did look funny walking on the ice...

"Well cool", as Big Miss would (and did) say.

Chilli Tea?

Regular readers will know we have a bit of a cottage industry in growing chillis, though I'm not sure we'll grow any this year - our cupboards and freezer are still rather well stocked with jars and bags. Now I've had chilli chocolate before (that's a classic), and even chilli ice cream, but can you believe this? Look what the missus found for me as a Valentine's Day present!

I can report that it is pretty mild, really. But it does sort of creep up on you with a cumulative effect by the time you get to the bottom of the cup. Yum!

Gender-Bender Bicycle

Here is Little Miss on her bike last July. As you can see, it was getting a bit small for her even then, and she has now graduated onto Big Miss' next bike. But it is a good girlie bike with its lovely pink colour, Barbie bell and hooter and cheerleader tassles at each end of the handlebars.

I said is, but actually I should say was...

Little W has outgrown the little bike (at least that is purple, not pink) and has tried out Little Miss'. It's just the right size for him. But it was too girlie for him to be seen riding on by any of his mates. So we decided to respray it. After some discussion (black was a close second favourite), he decided on British Racing Green (on the basis that it would help him go faster). So off we went to Halfords and got some spray paint. I had to do the spraying with the garage door open to let the fumes out. Brrr it was cold!

After 4 coats and an overnight wait for the paint to dry, I was able to put the bike back together again. He looks like he likes it, doesn't he?

Of course it still has pink stabiliser wheels, but that's an incentive for him to learn to ride without them. And I put it back together properly, because it works...

Cheeky monkey that he is, though... "Dad, you must have screwed it back wrong", he complained when he ground to a halt riding up the hill into a headwind. Hmm. Maybe that British Racing Green paint is no good after all.

Banham Zoo

Leaving The Missus to get on with her teacher training programme assignment, we had a special half-term day out to Banham Zoo yesterday. Checking my photo archives it nearly 4 years since we had last been, when Big Miss was Little Miss's current age and Little W was still in his pushchair. The zoo is 40 years old this year and now has almost 1000 animals.

We arrived in time to see the otters and meerkats being fed and then the penguins - you could tell their food was coming when a bunch of seagulls came squawking! In between we saw the rather cute colobus monkeys. The youngest one was particularly playful.

But the highlight for me is the big cats. The tigers are especially impressive.

Little Miss had quite a close encounter (through the glass).

Something new since we were last there is the giraffes. The giraffe house is still being completed - there is an upstairs viewing area and elevated walkway that are not open yet, so we had to content ourselves with a knee-level rather than eye-level view.

Here is Rachel giving the feeding time talk with the cheetah twins. She had a little trouble throwing the meat over the fence, which as to be quite high to keep the cats in.

We had a great day out. You can see more of our photos here on Flickr.

Anglesey Abbey again

Yes it's that time of year again. Just over a year since our last visit to Anglesey Abbey, we went again on Sunday. The winter walk seems to get better and better every year. And the snowdrops are in excellent form...


I took loads of pictures as usual (see here on Flickr). We got there for it opening at 10:30am. If you are going at the weekend during the snowdrop season I recommend you do the same - they had run out of car parking by the time we left. It would make a good half-term holiday trip out too - the gardens are open every day but Monday - see here for details.

Long Time No Blog

It has been a while. And there are quite a few draft posts that somehow never got finished. But I feel the urge to start blogging again. Some more things we do around Bury St Edmunds, but also from my other life - the things we get up to when the kids visit "The Barn". Yes there's a lot to catch up on! And if you keep visiting you may find some new historical posts mysteriously appearing over the next couple of weeks.