A general update

For those of you who might be wondering where on earth we've been; for some reason actually been able to blog without full broadband access has been problematical - as has Facebook. We still don't have broadband although the wireless dongle is working well enough (if you let it "rest" every now and again) to tide us over until we move house and get to start again. So here's an update on where we are:-

1. THE HOUSE
Offer on this house accepted end of January; offer accepted on place we wanted to buy in Frome middle of February. We're still waiting to exchange. Had hoped we'd be able to do this next Friday but apparently our buyers aren't going to be able to comply with that because they're buying with government assistance through the Key Worker Scheme and the housing association who is assisting needs 10 working days to authorise exchange. They will only do that when the solicitor acting for them confirms that everything has been settled - and he hasn't exactly been speedy. This is no doubt causing alarm to our sellers who want to exchange next Friday so that they can go on holiday for two weeks, come back and complete and move around the 22nd. Seems that's not likely either. But not much we can do about it and at least it gives us more time to carry on de-cluttering! But it's annoying to be kept in this kind of limbo for even longer..... ah well.

Though I think we've chosen a removal company - though we haven't informed them yet. Going on valuable advice my instincts tell me that the small husband & wife team with 4 vans who can do ABSOLUTELY everything for us (dismantling furniture, packing, even disconnecting the cooker) at a price £200 less than the best next quote is the right thing. But there's a small part of me thinking, why are they coming in cheaper: they've only been in business for themselves for a year: they're not A1 professional in terms of presentation- though to be fair when they came to visit they were more smartly dressed than some of the bigger companies! - but I've asked a few questions and they seem to be coming across as it being very important to them to give us a good service: so they don't sound like cowboys. So maybe it's worth giving them a try - and saving us some money and hassle of having to dismantle our own bed and find someone to disconnect the cooker!

2. THE FAMILY
I think most of you know this by now anyway but we're at the point where it can be "official" and, in case anyone drops in on the blog who a) knows me and b) doesn't know, there will be an addition to the junior section of the Kershaw-Moore clan at the end of September. FINALLY!!!
And it IS real - we had our first scan on Tuesday and yep there's definitely a baby in there which moves and everything. I didn't realise how concerned I was about that actually; much more so than with Dan. Though I guess with Dan it never occurred to us at all that there could be any problems. We are, by force of experience, now wiser and I think - though both of us totally failed to mention it, or maybe even to notice it - that we were quite concerned that this one could be "not real" as well.

but hopefully everything is proceeding as it should. I certainly feel pregnant though I know I get off lightly compared to some people (I'm thinking of my lovely sis here who suffers sooo much it's not fair). I just get aches n pains and exhaustion and my god, never mind about eating for two; I'm going for six!! Though this is a very meat based pregnancy which is a bit different - ham, sausages, bacon I can't get enough of .... if only i could have Pate!!!

3. THE CAR
As if we didn't have enough to contend with - and trying to arrange house moves/conveyancing (though, no I'm not doing my own!) whilst pregnant is definitely hard work - at the beginning of March some complete nonce pulled out right in front of my little Mikki (the MX-5) and smashed into it. The insurance company hurridly wrote her off even though the damage to her was cosmetic only and only to her front driver's side wing. After much discussion when we considered the possiblity of taking her back and fixing her ourselves we came to the conclusion that a) I was going to need a bigger car soon anyway and b) money isn't exaclty flowing at the moment with the impending move and therefore we would let her go. Mind you the insurance company gave me £1400 for her which I was not expecting at all. And in her place I have a very nice Audi A3 5-door hatchback from 2006 which is a not totally dis-similiar style car to drive and I get things like 4 seats, a petrol warning light; boot space. All these things are new!! I would put some photos up but that will result in the dongle completely freezing up.

So that's us. generally speaking. And I've just realised that the sun is still shining when it was supposed to be raining. Maybe I should have hung the washing out? Ah well, Dan getting desperate for lunch (me too actually) so I should probably stop now.

Happy Easter! Well it's not far off you know.......

Teckernowlergy Update

Just wanted to let everyone know that the Kershaw-Moore clan have limited technology resources at present: no e-mail and some internet access when our 3 Mobile wireless dongle allows.

Apparently this is all due to the fact that the company who provides our broadband service doesn't actually provide broadband but buys it off Tiscali. They have fallen out with Tiscali and Tiscali have disconnected the supply (suddenly I'm thinking this sounds like Russia and gas!!). Anyway various rants to Tiscali, Off-Com and attempts to change our supplier have all failed so for now if you've been trying to contact us by e-mail please either us my work account (alex.kershaw-moore@mendip.gov.uk) or revert to phone/text.

Should I mention that the company who we have been buying broadband off, no-one has ever heard of?? But that we "had" to use that company??? Probably not ........

ps: hopefully I will be able to upload some Daniel birthday information shortly :-)

What a Week!

Okay this is how the past week in the KM Clan household has gone:-

last Saturday evening: boiler goes out just as I am putting Dan to bed. No idea how to restart or if there is actual problem (Rik does not get back from course until Sunday afternoon).

As a consequence of above, spend over an hour on Sunday morning trying to find "boiler-repair man". Contact various companies all of whom advertise 24/7 call-out service. No-one can get an engineer to me before Monday morning! Not even British Gas - who are more interested in trying to get me to sign up to their homecare service plan .....GRRRRR!!! I can't book an engineer for Monday morning because that's the only day I'm in work this week (so I need to be there) and I dont know what Rik's plans are - nor can I contact him as he's in an exam.

So we go Sunday and Monday without heating. Rik comes home and we book an engineer for Tuesday morning and boiler is fixed - fan had seized. Hurray!! £300. hurroo

Monday afternoon an ongoing crisis at work kicks off again: particularly difficult since I'm out Tuesday and Wednesday; and boss is about to go off sick with vomiting bug. Crisis made worse by the knowledge that it's been brought about by officers not doing things they should have in the first place - what's new there?!

Wednesday: I'm supposed to be taking a flexi day although have already agreed to attend a court hearing in Frome which shouldn't take too long. Plan to do some Crimble shopping.

Reality: Kept waiting at court for over 2 hours then told that actually we don't need to be in court at all. Including traveling that's 4 hours taken up. A further two hours spent fire-fighting by remote e-mail of this crisis and other problems. Not much of a flexi day; no shopping got to.

Wednesday evening: call from Rik to say that he's lost his rail season ticket. Had it when he got off the train this morning but now doesn't. He'll have to buy full price tickets until First Great Western decide to give him a replacement or a refund. [full season ticket - £3500] Rik himself is having to deal with his own work crisis which means he's late leaving work and called to emergency meetings on Thursday and Friday.

Thursday: I'm working again - have to go to West Somerset to staff a planning committee. Fine except that my period's started (by the by this was totally expected so not a problem in itself) and brought with it a not-so-nice headache. So I have 3 hours travelling and a 3.5hour meeting whilst really wanting to collapse in a corner. As a result of that headache, Dan misses Music with Mummy in the morning and is quite sad. Rik, meanwhile spends most of the day on conference calls (when he's not on Dan duty)

And we've saved the best for last. Friday
Rik's in Swindon at his emergency meetings. Because he's lost his travelcard, he's taken the car. On the way back he leaves the M4 at J18 to avoid fog and, whilst on the A46 someone crashes into the back of his Saab (details as to what happened still scarce). Saab is apparently pushed into a field and may well be a write-off. Rik, I hasten to add, apart from a couple of bruises, is fine - he's been checked out by paramedics and rapid response teams! Though traumatic in itself, recovery people say they can't move the car in the dark (too difficult) and then won't bring him home. The AA say it will cost £300 if he wants to be brought home because the car's not coming with him.

Eventually the recovery service take pity on him and drop him about 3 miles away in Warmley. I then plead with a local taxi company to bring him home which eventually happens just after 7pm (he was due home around 3!). £10

On the upside the insurance company have given us a very nice silver BMW 3 series Coupe to tide us over whilst the fate of our poor Saab is decided. If it is a write off, well that's enough £8-10k added to our "bill" for this week.

Oh and Dan has a cold - but bless him he's being very good about it really.

I know it's only life and things and generally we're all well off but for heaven's sake!
Well Rik and I are going out tonite with Mums n Dads from my Friday group - just hope THAT goes smoothly!!!! please .........

Christmas is a-coming

How's this for organised!! From the KM Clan!!!!

People have been asking what the Clan KM might like for Crimble. I've given a few ideas and here's some more in case you needed them:-

Mummy KM
Cranford on DVD
Sex in The City - the Movie
Bravissimo Vouchers (I working on having their entire range in my wardrobe!!)
Dawn French - Dear Fatty
Large hair straighteners (my little ones are great but sometimes quite time consuming)
Plants to brighten up my winter borders - or windowsill! - possibly portable ones!
A machine to convert my audio tapes into Mp3 files (Check with Rik first)

Daddy KM
Royal Lochnagar Whisky
Richard Hammond's autobiography

Young KM
Clothes (tops 2-3 yrs; trews 18-24 mths)
Jigsaws (he's got a few with just two pieces; needs something a bit more challenging)
A real guitar small enough for him to play
Toys he can construct - he's very into putting things together at the moment (nb he already has lego and isn't too fussed about that)
A big clock we can teach him the time on

As usual further advice can be sought. I would say for Mummy KM's gifts speak to Daddy KM but I understand that completely failed to work last year so maybe you should confab amongst yourselves until Young KM is old enough to take this on!!

A xx

Who's House is this?

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-19948423.rsp?pa_n=1&tr_t=buy&mam_disp=true

Not quite sure if this will work but try putting this address into your internet browser and see what comes up .......

Yes it's true - there's even a board in the front garden
EEEK how scary is that!

For those of you that wish to know, we're looking to move to Frome (which is pronounced as in "room") on the edge of the Mendips in Somerset; rail links (sort of) through to Reading and London and about 15 miles south of Bath. This will mean that I'm about 20 minutes from work in Shepton Mallet (ooh I wonder if I'm eligible for relocation expenses?!) and Rik is hopefully not too far away from Reading and any other contract work.

If you're interested in the types of houses we want to buy ..... well we like this one at the moment
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-21373835.rsp?pa_n=2&tr_t=buy&mam_disp=true

Scary, and a bit sad but also exciting!

watch this space.........

Mummy's ps

Having wrestled the laptop (a new one btw!) back from Danny and thanked him profusely for updating the blog, I just thought I'd add a couple of things:-

I won my public inquiry - whoo hooo!
Rik has acquired a bicycle and now intends to cycle to the train station; there's even a little seat for Dan soe he can be taken to nursery.
We're wondering where summer has gone (the heating has gone back on and we lit a fire last night!)..... but enjoyed the Olympics; swimming, rowing, gymnastics, equestrianism and tennis is now over so we'll probably stop! The running and jumping bits are always more boring.

And now that the floor is done and the back room is done, it's bite the bullet time and get some estate agents in to see what they say. Mind you, we need to finish putting everything back in the spare bedroom first!

Also trying to see if we can arrange a couple of days holiday in September ..... our hols in Suffolk seem an awful long time ago!

nothing really exciting going on as you can see so I'll stop and go and have some dinner.

Dan's Doins - August 2008

the final instalment: white boys can jump!

Well I can anyway. And Mummy assures me that by "jump" I do mean bend the knee, spring up, both feet leave the ground at the same time - sometimes I move forward too. It's great fun! I like doing it a lot.

Mummy wants me to say that the new kitchen floor is finally in - HURRAY!! - and the spare bedroom has gone from the general allsorts to an almond and biscuit colour. Unfortunately Mummy's camera battery is dead so no photos can be displayed yet ..... and this particular battery seems to be difficult to replace. Daddy does have a camera of his own but he hides it so it cannot be used unless he decides to use it.... oh dear

The kitchen floor is great for running on, driving on and pushing cars and trains along.

Dan's Doins - July 2008

In July Mummy n Daddy n me went to a lovely hotel in Warwickshire for cousin Pippa's wedding.
I wore my first suit (sorry the photos aren't very clear!)

And we thought Pippa and Damian looked great - Mummy's has this picture on her laptop ever since .....


Bella and I had a lovely time playing together and she looked great too

Dan's Doins - way way overdue!

Hiya Dan here. Have wrestled the computer from Mummy in order to update the blog; cos she NEVER DOES .... and we can't even claim lack of technology! So, this was June. Mummy and Daddy and I went to a lovely cottage in Suffolk where there were lots of interesting corners to explore, and a garden and some stairs
This is the cottage

. Here is Daddy and me flying a kite - the kite's the smudge in the sky!



We visited a castle where I showed Saffron the nursery bear how cannons worked...... and tried taking it for a walk.


If Mummy ever gets the hang of it, I shall suggest she puts some more photos on Facebook.

Dan's Doins Vol 12

[I think: ive lost count!]

Goodness me is it really May already and I've not been very good at this blogging thing have I? I thought the idea was to share your thoughts, musing a few times a week; not twice a year (mind you I'm not quite as behind as some people ....mentioning no names)

So what's been happening with us? Dan and I had lousy colds in March; Dan's nursery went bust at the beginning of April - but then started up again two weeks later; just to coincide with Dan getting chicken pox. Rik's company is getting quite rich - it's so nice to have money again! Rik is very happy with his latest toy - the "Fruitberry": it's a Blackberry but not made by Blackberry and has been named the "Fruitberry" because I kept calling it a Blackberry (which is wrong); Rik kept calling it a "PDA" (which is dull) and "thing like a Blackberry but isn't" is just ridiculous!!

so now we're thinking about summer and the future: no news yet but hopefully matters are now set up to have the house "ready" to put on the market with a view to moving in the New Year (housing market permitting). And we might even have some expanding family news by then ....
In the meantime the recent Bank holiday gave us the chance for a day trip. Here's my wee man pretending to be a statue at Montacute House near Yeovil. (please note the phone which is never too far from his ear! What a little entrepeneur we have created .....?)

Here's to 2008

Happy New Year to all my readers - well all four of you! Hopefully 2008 will bring some bigger and better things for the Kershaw-Moore clan but in the meantime let's remind ourselves of the fab festive season that's just gone ......

Announcing .....

The Kershaw-Moore's new sofa! (bear ensconsed - sp?) Old sofa taking up lots of space in front room. And there's a chair too!

This ship is sailing

professionally that is. Yes the time has come to make public what I think most of you already know......

I am leaving Merrett & Co - hurray!!!!

I have a new job with ...... Mendip District Council who are happy to let me work part-time and hopefully won't see me as some kind of administrative burden who should be bled for every penny that can be made out of me.

Dont get me wrong I am very grateful to Tracey for giving me the opportunity to qualify and to become a good local authority lawyer but to carry on working in that climate, feeling the way I did - not good.

I have a 12 week notice period so nothing will be happening that quickly - but here's to 2008 :-)

Its finally here

Yes after much debating, heartache and the rest, we have a full sized second bedroom. The builders have been in and look what they left us with
But then they came back and plastered it and gave us some new doors. This is the result ---->

(and Dan showing off his "partywear" for his first children's party yesterday!)

Anyone like to come and redecorate for us? ;-)
And of course we need a new carpet!!
And these are the new bedroom doors. There are new doors downstairs too but I don't seem to have photographed those yet!

Updating our news

You may have been wondering why Dan's Doins has been silent for so long. And that's even taking into consideration my terrible lack of interesting news to tell you - how do these bloggers do it?

Anyway, the reason for the latest silence is about to become very apparent. On 01 September 2007 the baby that never quite was decided it definitely didn't want to be and I ended up at my local maternity hospital at midnight that night with a reported complete miscarriage. Unfortunately Rik was away and uncontactable which was not great for either of us but thank God Sonia was staying with me. Sonia, I know I've said it before but really I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't been there. Thank you sooooo much.

So that was all great fun- and not much to recommend it to friends. Just when I was getting used to that I end up back at said hospital as it is discovered that the miscarriage was not complete and there is something still in there. That was two weeks ago. We have given it this time to see if it wanted to come out on its own. It has stubbornly refused to move. So this is where we are. I have been given tablets to try and make it move but if they don't work (and my medics seems to think probably not) I shall be back at hospital to have it surgically removed on Friday afternoon. What fun. At least then we can GET ON WITH OUR LIVES!!!!!!

Hopefully we'll be able to post better news about Baby no.2 before the end of the year but in the meantime here's a lovely shot of my two lads enjoying September sunshine

Dan's Doins Vol 11

Summer fun in the sun!!
Yey-hey finally some lovely sun to play in the garden....... like this. Here is me splashing in my
paddling pool under the gazebo (so as not to get too hot!)


or maybe just snooze ..... mummy says I used to do this all the time last year

Mummy seems to be feeling very tired and a bit icky a lot. Daddy says this is because I won't be getting everything my own way for much longer. I don't understand ......I don't get things my own way now!!!

bye bye
dan xx

Alex's ........?

[find me an appropriate word beginning with "A" I'll use it]

I've been thinking over the past few days about something that happened in Winchester Cathedral last month. Dan and I were wondering round (him climbing on everything he could) and got talking to one of the tour guides - this seems to happen a lot when you have a small child! As we were chatting an elderly American tourist came up with a camcorder and Dan started smiling and waving. We exchanged a few pleasantries and the tourist decided to take a picture of Dan. Dan stood to attention and smiled.

And then the tour guide stopped this and said that photographing and videoing children wasn't allowed. At the time I said nothing; feeling slightly nonplussed by this woman's comment and wondering if this was some kind of policy the Cathedral had. But the more I think about the more I think what right had she to decide that for me? Okay the guy didn't exactly ask if it was okay to take Dan's picture but it was all perfectly innocent and fairly obvious that I was relaxed about the whole thing. It's not illegal to take pictures of children - though I know in this paranoid, nanny world we live in it's getting banned more and more often. But that's not the point.

I got the impression that the tour guide was saying it was illegal rather than it was against Cathedral policy: which it just isn't and surely it's up to me whether I allow people to photograph my son??? Should I have said something? Rik said he would have (unfortunately he was in another part of the building at the time) and the more I think about it the more I think how ridiculous she sounded!

ah well, thank god for Mica :-) [big girls "we" are beautiful ...... apparently]

Dan's Doins Vol 10

Hello, yes it's us again. Well I did mention in my last post that you wouldn't be hearing from us for a while. I'm afraid May was a very dull month and the beginning of June was not much to write home about (particularly as we forgot to take our camera to St Ives! though the weekend itself was fab - many thanks Sonj & Tim) but then we went on holiday!! Yes we've just returned from a week on the Isle of Wight and three days in Wiltshire and Hampshire. And they were all delightful - despite the sometimes questionable weather.
So here we have (no particular order) Dan in the cottage at Freshwater, Dan at the Garlic Farm, IoW and Dan n me at Salisbury Cathedral ......
.
You will note on the picture of him at the cottage that he is sitting on the stairs - he is actually in the process of coming down these stairs; a trick he mastered using the split levels and shallow treads of the cottage.
No pictures of Winchester Cathedral unfortunately as heavy rain and several thunderstorms prevented standing around outside much! But I can confirm that the Cathedral is magnificent and Winchester a very nice city - yes we did manage to get to it. Also no pictures of Stonehenge which we did not make: Why? Well when we went past on the 21s June at midday it was still closed so unable to visit that day. We said, ah well we'll be coming back this way on the 30th so we'll do it then .... except it was raining. We're just gonna have to make a special visit!!

Despite the weather we did have a wonderful time and when the rain stopped the weather was fantastic - not particularly warm so no beaches and shorts but enough to enjoy views like these (taken from the Needles headland)

The shadows on the horizon are the seaside towns of Dorset!

And finally ....

I know what you're thinking; you're thinking we've never seen so many posts from the KM Clan in such a short space of time! Well enjoy it cos it probably means there won't be any for a while after this!

However, we had to share this - since we managed to capture it on film ......
All under his own steam!

And finally - finally - we hear on the grapevine that Gran'ma Rozzie has found her way back to the Blogs (though if she was on Aunty Sonia's, it's just a question of clicking on the links)
Anyway, this is for her.... The WTP ride-on has suddenly become transport of choice!

Byeee

The Fireplace

Evidence has been requested, questions have been asked ... so here it is - our new fireplace


Not quite what we were expecting and - if we had known we were getting that, I probably would have gone for something a bit more ornate - but hey. The wooden surround and mantelpiece is lovely though