Puss in Boots

Yesterday we had our (nearly) annual Christmas treat of going to the pantomime at the Theatre Royal. (I say nearly - we missed it last year because I forgot to book early). This year it is Puss in Boots...

We had a box in the Upper Circle...

It was great to see James Nickerson back as the dame (Nellie Gwyn)...

He was on top form. We thought that Princess Caroline (Abi Newberry) was quite funny too.

The baddies were Oliver Cromwell (Mark Stratton)and his henchman Hench (Dennis Herdman). Here they are clowning around with a plank.

Jack (Bradley Clarkson) and Puss (Helena Blackman) were the heroes and led the story well. There was some entertaining ad-libbing, for example when Jack asked the audience how to find the way. "Get a map"... "No there isn't a map in the woods"... "Get a SatNav"... "No your supposed to tell me to ask the cat".... "Ah. A CatNav!".

The real heroes, though, were the cats. No I won't spoil the plot by telling you how they defeated nasty Oliver Cromwell, but you won't be surprised to hear the story ended with a wedding and everyone living happily ever after.

As always, a really entertaining afternoon out; it got us well in the mood for Christmas. You can see more of my pictures here on Flickr; the show runs until Sunday 18th January.

Christmas Story

Thanks to my workmate Patsy for sending me this. It made us all laugh!


A Christmas Story for people having a bad day:

When four of Santa's elves got sick, the trainee elves did not produce toys as fast as the regular ones, and Santa began to feel the Pre-Christmas pressure.

Then Mrs Claus told Santa her Mother was coming to visit, which stressed Santa even more.

When he went to harness the reindeer, he found that three of them were about to give birth and two others had jumped the fence and were out, Heaven knows where.

Then when he began to load the sleigh, one of the floorboards cracked, the toy bag fell to the ground and all the toys were scattered.

Frustrated, Santa went in the house for a cup of apple cider and a shot of rum. When he went to the cupboard, he discovered the elves had drank all the cider and hidden the liquor. In his frustration, he accidentally dropped the cider jug, and it broke into hundreds of little glass pieces all over the kitchen floor. He went to get the broom and found the mice had eaten all the straw off the end of the broom.

Just then the doorbell rang, and irritated Santa marched to the door, yanked it open, and there stood a little angel with a great big Christmas tree.

The angel said very cheerfully, 'Merry Christmas, Santa. Isn't this a lovely day? I have a beautiful tree for you. Where would you like me to stick it?'

And so began the tradition of the little angel on top of the Christmas tree.

AAG Winter Social

I try not to write too much about my job here, but I had a really interesting day on Thursday last week. The Aspire Architects Group had a team-building away-day doing something completely different... We did a day of voluntary work at the Ironbridge Gorge Museums - a regular haunt for us when when the kids visit The Barn. We were at the Coalbrookdale site...

After an introductory talk, we set to work moving and repacking the museums' (Victorian) costume collection. While one team built new shelves and moved the boxes around, the rest of us learnt how to pack things to preserve them and were set to work. Here's my team with one of our first items - a ladies jacket...

We were a bit disappointed not to have any corsets to do, but we did get a pile of linen, a top hat and trilby alleged to have been owned by Captain Webb - a local man, famous for being the first person to swim the English Channel, some furs, tablecloths and a couple of banners for local Wesleyan Sunday Schools.

Well it was certainly a change from our usual line of work! And there was some satisfaction in being told we had done in one day what would otherwise have taken the staff about 18 months to complete. But then it was off with the gloves...

...to go and explore Enginuity...

... and then to enjoy a celebratory hog roast...

...at, and after which, copious amounts of beer were drunk. And I'm not going to say anything about the member of the team who managed to lock himslef out of his hotel room in the middle of the night wearing... no I really mustn't say.

You can see some more of my photos of the day here on Flickr.

Bury St Edmunds Christmas Fayre

It was a busy weekend, last weekend. On Sunday morning I took the kids to the Bury St Edmunds Christmas Fayre - better late than never. This year it spread from Angel Hill into the Abbey Gardens, and there were decorations dangling from the Abbey Gate.

We did the tour of the stalls, which were very busy, but the kids were really interested only in the fairground rides. The Ferris wheel...

provided a great view. So they had to have a ride on it, didn't they?

And then it was on to the gallopers...

Yee Ha, Ride 'em cowboy!

Bury County Music School Christmas Concert

Getting to touch down at 6:02 am on my return from my Indian trip on Saturday, meant I was able to get home in time to see Little Miss perform in the Bury County Music School Christmas concert at KEGS. Whereas last year she was performing in the Cygnets, this year she is in the Junior Strings. See if you can spot her in the crowd on the stage in the lower hall, waiting for their turn to perform...

The Junior Strings are led by the wonderfully enthusiastic and inspiring Kelly Jones. Here they are playing the Jazz Suite from String Time Joggers...

Well done them!

But Little W (and Big Miss) enjoyed the junior wind band best - we all got to clap and stamp in time to "We will rock you"...

It was so popular that they had to play it again! Great fun. Jet lag? What jet lag?

Indian Elephants

When I told the family I was going to India on business for a week, Big Miss put on her sweetest smile and asked in her most innocent tone of voice, "Dad, please can you bring me an elephant back from India?". We had a good laugh about how to get one on the plane.

Well I couldn't get her a real one, but found this lovely wooden carved elephant at Krishna Pearls and Jewellers.

Actually they come in pairs, so I had to get 2. And having got her some, I had to get one each for the other 2 kids, so now we've got a herd!



And what about the Missus? Well Hyderabad is famous for its pearls, so I just had to get some, didn't I?

Christmas has come early!

Trip to India

A bit of a gap in the blogging, but that's because I've been away on business... in India! Here's where I flew in last Sunday...

Fortunately this was just a stopover on my way to Hyderabad. Nevertheless the terrible events in Mumbai had an effect on our week and I flew home via Dubai.

I was staying at the Indian School of Business...

...which is in the FT Top 20 business schools in the world. Unfortuantely, during the week we saw nothing ither than the ISB Campus, the Capgemini offices...

... and the bit of road between them. The scale of construction in the area is incredible, with large gangs working 24x7x365 to cosntruct office campuses for major global IT firms.

By the way, here's a tip for converting time from India to UK (5 1/2 hours). Turn your watch upside down...

So 20 past 2 becomes 10 to 8.

At least we got out of the office into the grounds sometimes to enjoy the warm sunshine. It was like a lovely summer day in England. And in the evenigs we got to eat outside...

...where we were served with a large selection and variety of curries all week. Yum!

I was disappointed not to see more and fascinated by the little glimpses I had of India and Indian life. Must go back some day.

Autumn Walks Around Bury St Edmunds - Knettishall Heath

Here's somewhere we visited a few weeks ago one foggy Sunday morning - Knettishall Heath.

There is a choice of revierside, woodland or heathland walks. As we couldn't agree, I decided - heathland it was.

I do like how fog makes things look different...

It being autumn, we did our usual Mushroom hunting. Here's a prize specimen...

We also so loads of cobwebs, highlghted by the little droplets of water that had settled on them...

But it is the shapes in the fog I enjoyed most. Here's Kut Hill...

Woooooo. Spooky.

Autumn Walks Around Bury St Edmunds - West Stow

West Stow is another favourite spot for a walk for us. During half-term we did a walk on a lovely frosty morning. Here's the map of the Country Park...

You can follow the arrows, but it's pretty hard to get lost if you just stay to paths and gates...

As yo can see it was nice and frosty...

We walked all the way round the lake. There are plenty of waterfowl to look out for...

... after all, Lackford Lakes are just over the other side of the River Lark.

Of course we can't get away with just a walk. A visit to the playground afterwards is popular and a motivation for getting the walk done. Here is Little W achieving the feat that had so far eluded him...

... getting to the top of the slide. Well done!

Autumn Walks Around Bury St Edmunds - Thornham Walks

I find it hard to believe I've never mentioned this place on the blog before (except in passing), as it is somewhere we go at least 3 times a year. Thornham Estate is about 1/2 hour drive from Bury St Edmunds, but it's worth the trip. It's easy enough to find ' head down the A14 towards Ipswich, take the A140 towards Diss and turn left, following the brown signs, just after Stoke Ash. You can find it here on the map. There is a field study centre, tea-room and shop by the car-park, which costs £2 for the day.

There are several walks to choose from - we like the 2-mile loop. Lots of useful and interesting information is provided. Some of the trees have got labels telling you about them. So who knows what these ones are?

Lovers of Nowton Park will recognise these from the avenue of them there - they are Limes (aka Lindens).

Watch out also for the rock specimens and little signs with pictures of ancient beasts. They have put a few new panels up since we were last there explaining the history of the estate. Here is the one with the story of the walled garden...

Do go in and see it, especially in autumn. There are geraniums galore and grapes in the greenhouse and the apple trees are laden (or have dropped their fruit). Some interesting varieties of apple too. But the 4 corners of the orchard area have something different. At the greenhouse end there are huge quince trees, but at the other corners the trees bear this fruit...

They are Medlars. Quite unusual in this country, I think - I've never seen them anywhere else.

After visiting the bird-hide, the garden and the caged birds round the back, we did the 2-mile loop - it is shortened a bit in winter to protect some of the paths. Even so, you will need wellies. Just about now you get the full spectrum of autumn colours...

Little W and I discussed what our favourite coloured leaves are. These were the winners...

It all makes for an excellent Sunday morning outing. Then it was home to Dad's home made soup and freshly baked bread. Yum.

Felixstowe Beach - Walk to Cobbolds Point

The Missus came back from her trip Up North and announced she wanted to go to a beach. Again. We'd already been to Hunstanton this week. Well the quickest trip to a beach for us is to go straight down the A14 to Felixstowe. This time, instead of going to Landguard Point, we parked at the pier...

...and walked in the other direction - northwards. Very slowly. Yes they were all looking for shells and pebble to add to our collection.

I was struck by the way the beach was being eroded in places, despite the sea defences and despite the sea not being particularly rough.

At the north end you run out of beach at Cobbolds Point where there is this interesting "reef" defence...

Here's the view back along the promenade...

Spot the docks in the distance! A nice easy Sunday Morning walk; our pork was roasting nicely when we got home.

Halloween Fun

I had the kids to myself for Halloween. As we were all on holiday we were able to prepare. Firstly there was the pumpkin carving, orchestrated by Big Miss...

Then there was the costume making. Big Miss is a Superhero (not sure what that's got to do with Halloween, but never mind), Little Miss a bat and Little W a ghost. Oh, and as for me... to be revealed below!

So here are the pumpkins lit up outside the front door...

...to attract the unsuspecting trick-or-treaters to my lair. Little did they suspect what would greet them...

My preparations involved baking some wicked looking black bread...

It's just an ordinary white loaf recipe, but with a slug of black food-colouring added to the water before putting it into the bread maker. With that I was able to make my "Bat sandwiches" (and feed the kids bacon sandwiches for their tea).

There were also some salami and ham (when we ran out of bacon) and with passata to make the "Blood sandwiches". Having done our own brief trick-or-treating, we returned home, lit some more candles, turned out the lights and waited for our victims....

I had a little speech, with a funny accent…

“Gut Efening. My name is Count von Dracula. Velcome to my castle. Ve haff a special treat for our honoured guests tonight. Bat Sandviches. Or if you prefer ve haff blood sandviches.”

I would then beckon my bat or ghost assistant to offer the plate....

You should have seen the look on the faces of some of the younger ones! But as the evening wore on and we got older ones, some of whom were more brave and had a taste and in the end we ran out. (Of course we also had pots of sweets for those who didn’t like the look of the dark grey bread sandviches).

What fun!