Sold

Here is our house with it's sold sign up, something we were beginning to think would never happen, we put the house on the market in October 2007 and in November 2008 we eventually accepted an offer on our house, and now it's all going ahead.
Well i say it's all going ahead, i guess it could all fall through at this late stage but lots of money would be wasted if it does to whoever pulls out.


Here is a little calender i made for Daisy to help her understand this concept of moving house. All she's heard for three months is that we're going to move house at some point in the future, but three months is a very long time for a 5 year old.
She gets to tick off a new box every day.

Top marks for those that spotted that this photograph was actually taken on Saturday whilst it was still quite clean, she has drawn a bunch of banana's and written the number 4 on it since then.
The little stick people over the top of Mon, Tues, Wed & Thurs are her school friends and the two tallest are the teachers obviously.

Iris is a mummy called Rita

This link http://www.youtube.com/user/charliepw will take you to my You Tube channel that i didn't even realise i had.
This link here will take you straight to a video i just uploaded of Iris being a mummy called Rita.
It is very sweet, but then i'm biased being her mummy.

I have now stopped embedding video's into blogger because they seem to mess it up when i archive it.
I'll probably at some point go through all the old posts and remove the embed tags and just link to them on YouTube instead.

Does this sound like gobbledygook to you, yes it does to me as well so i'll stop now.

Stuff you find on Hackney Streets - a suitcase

How very careless to leave your suitcase full of old broken plastic toys out on the street.

Daisy wasn't too keen on getting in, she thought she'd get told off by someone so we had to do it quick.


It looks like a collection of old plastic toys, that we most certainly do not want.



Other "Stuff you find on Hackney streets" photographs.

I thought these were extinct.

There was such a lot of fuss and nonsense about these lovely old Routemaster buses being phased out because there were dangerous what with drunks falling off the back late at night.
They introduced these new bendy buses to replace all of the old RM routes a couple of years ago.
So imagine my surprise to see one down by the Royal Albert Hall, as we were making our way to the Science Museum on Friday, i have since read that they have re-introduced two heritage routes, this one which is Route 9 and another Route 15.
Daisy doesn't remember but we used to catch the no 38 and/or the no 73 whenever we went into town, but it was always a pain because there isn't any space for buggies on these buses.

A trip to the Science Museum

Today we took the girls to the Science Museum because they'd never been before and it will be our last chance for a while.
We caught the bus to the bottom of Hyde Park Corner and then we walked across Hyde Park towards Exhibition Road where there are three museums all in a little triange, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum.

Here is a photograph of the girls looking at 'The Serpentine' in Hyde Park.

And here is the view they were looking at.


When we eventually made it to the Science Museum it was rammed full of parents and children, although we did manage to see a funny lady give an amusing talk on space which we all enjoyed, Daisy was especially interested in how the rocket breaks up into three, and how the astronauts had to wee into a nappy but poo into a plastic bag!

The only photographs i took in the museum were these funny ones, didn't Eric Morcambe out of Morcambe and Wise do a similar thing where he lifted his arm and leg and it obviously looked like he wasn't touching the ground, or am i imagining that?

Our last trip to Ikea in Edmonton.

Daisy loves a trip to Ikea, cos Daisy thinks of it as a treat.
Ikea for Daisy consists of lunch which is usually meatballs and chips, then a 45 minute session in the creche, then a quick wonder around the store where sometimes she is allowed to choose a cuddly toy or a set of pens or some other random thing, then an ice cream as we are on our way out.
And it's a really cheap afternoon out for me cos the creche is free, the lunch is cheap, toys are cheap too and i get to wonder around and look at things we could buy for our new house when we visit the Ikea in Bristol.

Here is a photo of Daisy and Iris outside the Edmonton Ikea, Daisy is looking suitably sad.

This train was just outside the Ikea store, but Iris didn't want to go on with Daisy and Lex, she was a bit nervous of it, Daisy and Lex had a good time though.

A Valentines walk around 88 football pitches

We actually took these photographs on Valentine's Day, when we went for our very last walk across Hackney Marshes before we leave London (you might be hearing that phrase a lot in the next week)
Marc wanted to take some photographs for a synth thing he wants to do which involves linking lots of photographs together to make a kind of interactive collage. Ask him not me, there is a link over there on the left somewhere to his 'Bush of Goats'.
I just took some silly shots of us, wondering around the incredibly huge field which incidentally "holds the world record for the highest number (88) of full-sized football pitches in one place" taken from my favourite website Wikipedia

My last London photo shoot

I did my last London photo shoot today (Sunday) and it was this little girl who was 6 months old.
She was very sweet and very smiley and it was all quite easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Top Tips - Eliminating mice from your windmill.

Do you remember we had a problem with mice a while ago?
Well truth be told we still have a small problem with mice but it's not in the same scale as it was back in Dec 2007. I have no idea if this winter has been far colder and there simply aren't as many mice to go around, or perhaps we are far better at eliminating crumbs from our kitchen and catching the few that are still hanging around our house. (i'm sorry but i do not go in for the humane versions, and yes i did once own a pet rat called Splatty)

But anyway whether you live in a house or a windmill in old Amsterdam, apparently:

To Deter Mice
Mice have a great dislike to the smell of peppermint; a little oil of peppermint placed round their haunts will keep the pests away.
(taken from Schott's Food & Drink Miscellany by Ben Schott)

I'll keep that top tip on hand for the new place should we need it.

This pic is of little Mrs. Tittlemouse, a book which was written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter.

Mummy Iris

Iris was simply delighted when i got the blue buggy out of the shed, this meant the babies could come too when we collected Daisy from school.
Iris' baby is simply called 'baby' and Daisy's baby is called 'baby cho cho'.

Campbell & Betty's house.

We went for tea at Campbell and Betty's house.
Campbell has a brilliant collection of dressing up outfits, Daisy always likes to dress up when round their house.
Here she is dressed up as 'Underground Ernie' whilst Campbell is actually dressed up as Darth Vadar though he doesn't have the helmit on in this pic.

Here is a rather scary looking Darth Vadar.

The things they say - Prince Harry

Daisy was lying in bed with us this morning when on the radio we heard that Prince Harry is to have equality training because of his racist remarks against an army colleague that were recorded on video.
www.bbc.co.uk - Harry

On hearing the name Prince Harry, Daisy told us that Prince Harry was actually her teacher, Amy's dad.
I asked her how she knew this and she said Amy had told the whole class.

Now that is some imagination.

Top Tips - To Thicken a Moustache

I thought it might be novel to add a few top tips to the blog when i come across them, obviously the more bizarre the better, and if they can be children related then top trumps, but i'm guessing most will just be ordinary.

To Thicken a Moustache
Take 1oz of tincture of cantharides, 1oz of tincture of capsicum, and 1oz of rosewater.
Mix into a lotion, and rub well into the moustache mane et nocte.
(taken from Schott's Food & Drink Miscellany by Ben Schott)

What i want to know is who on earth would want to thicken their moustache?

Mane et nocte means Morning and Night.
Spanish fly, or Cantharides as it is sometimes called, is often given to farm animals to incite them to mate. Wikipedia
Capsicum is a chilli or a pepper. Wikipedia
Rosewater is made from rose petals and is used to flavour foods. Wikipedia

Photos of Daisy & Iris

There hasn't been many photographs of Daisy this month because she is now at school every day so not so many opportunities, to rectify this situation i took a couple yesterday morning.

Here she is posing very sweetly, she looks so grown up nowadays.

Here she is with a favourite(ish) teddy.


And here are a couple of Iris too, who wouldn't pose for me at all.

She just wanted to play with her Polly Pocket set.



For those that don't know about Polly Pocket and want to, then Wiki can tell you all about it.
The original dolls were tiny, less than one inch and hard bodied (my mum has got some of these original ones down in Devon via cousin Lucy). These Polly Pockets that Daisy and Iris have are the newer versions that are about three inches tall and have strange rubber fashion clothes which we are forever breaking by accident.

Daisy loves school

Daisy told me this afternoon, after i'd picked her up from school, that she loves school.

I think the things she loves most, ie: the things she has mentioned are :
* she got to take the register back to the school office yesterday with another girl.
* she got to hand out the fruit to all the other children (apples) at snack time.
* she choose jacket potato and tuna for her lunch today (she loves to have a choice)
* Amy, she seems to love Amy her teacher.
* PE, she has PE on a Friday and she already knows it's Friday tomorrow without me telling her.
* it's fish and chips for lunch on a Friday, you can see why Friday's are popular. (only chips once a week, and the fish is different every time, once it was Salmon fish fingers!)

She does say that she usually misses us after lunch though, and that she doesn't always play with anyone else out in the playground, ahhhhhh.


Unbelievably, she is already interested in letters, on the way home we talked about taking something into school for the display table, that starts with an A. Obviously her class are starting with the first letter of the alphabet as opposed to the last.
I listed a few A words and then she said i know i could take my Apron in, the one that Winnie gave me for my birthday, now this apron is very nice, so i wouldn't really want to take that in cos it might lost or even used by another child doing a bit of painting. I diverted her with a perhaps we could make a cardboard Angel to take in, and she agreed so that is what we did when we got home.
I will try to remember to photograph it before she takes it in, but i'll probably forget.

The Snow is going

London hasn't had any new snow, all the existing snow is melting and turning to sludge.
Yesterday it was quite icy on the pavements but good old Hackney council came round and threw shovel loads of sand on the pavements so it's not icy any more.

Today i went past the lovely snowmen i mentioned yesterday, and i can confirm that they are melting too.
Iris seems overjoyed to see them again, she is showing them her tissues.

Which one do you think was the smoker?

The things they say - grizzling

I just asked Iris to stop grizzling as she was coming up the stairs, it's kind of understandable cos her ears are all gammy and she might have an ear ache or a headache or any number of ailments that she can't explain, but still the words "stop grizzling" popped out of my mouth.

She said quick as anything "i'm not grizzing, i'm just crying"


Which makes me wonder what is the worst grizzling or crying?

Stuff you find on Hackney Streets - snowmen

It is times like this when i just love Hackney, and i know i'm really going to miss it.
It would be lovely to think that we might find similar spontaneous stuff happening on the streets of our little village in Somerset, but i'm not sure we will.
I guess we'll just have to be the spontaneous ones.

Anyway though, we were on our way to the chemist to pick up Iris' prescription for her gammy ears when we came across these wonderful snow men.
Not just one snow man but a whole group of them sitting down together.

The date on the board suggests they were done two days ago so i imagine they looked a lot better when they were fresh but they were still very good, these photos don't really do them justice seeing as they were taken on my phone, they were really sweet up close.






Other "Stuff you find on Hackney streets" photographs.

ICE in your mobile phone

This email seems to be doing the rounds at the moment and it seems to be true.
I think it is a good idea so i thought i'd post a quick blog about it so that i have now done my bit in advising others to do the same.
(Links below to more info)

Apparently hospitals and paramedics are requesting that people add an emergency number within their address book under the name of ICE which stands for In Case of Emergency, so that in the event that you are found on the streets unconscious, drunk or perhaps just mad, that the paramedics or the doctors and nurses know who to contact.

I have added ICE-1 Marc, and ICE-2 Mum & Dad as my In Case of Emergency numbers but i guess it's something that you update as things change in your life, ie when we move to Somerset i may add Auntie Emma cos she will be the nearest.


* A Wikipedia entry all about it.
* This link from Snopes.com says it should be used in conjunction with traditional methods, in case for instance you have somebody else's phone.
* This link from The Washington Post says it's a good idea but you must remember to update this number if people change their mobile number or move house etc...
* The Ice Sticker Campaign in the US.

Iris has an ear infection

Poor Iris has an ear infection and she now has antibiotics to take for the next few days until we have finished the course.
Also we mustn't get her ears wet, we have to put vaseline and cotton wool in her ears when she has a bath.
Poor bubs.

Home from France

We travelled to France to see Grandma Margaret and Grandad Roger on Saturday (we thought we best make the most of cheap flights whilst we were still in east London and next to Stansted and Ryan Air.)
We did hear about freak weather conditions coming to England before we flew, but seeing as we had already booked the flights and the weather men and ladies do often get it wrong,we decided to go anyway, so imagine our surprise when we saw all this video footage on the news of snow everywhere.
Then we heard that Stansted had been closed and all short haul flights out of Heathrow were cancelled, so we wondered if we were going to have an extented holiday in France whilst the snow thawed, but no, Ryan Air had their pilots at the ready to fly us home.

Our car however was covered in snow when got back to the car park.

This photograph was taken after we had put the girls into their seats and loaded our luggage into the boot so a lot of snow had already fallen off.
Then as we got onto the M11, i realised the windscreen washer squirter thingies (don't know what they are called) had frozen up, so i ended up with dirty snow being flicked up onto my windscreen from the other cars and lorries and all i could do was smear it all around, it was bad visibility i tell you.
Eventually clean snow flicked up onto the windscreen which helped and then not long after the squirters un-froze, so all was good, and we got home safe and sound.

Iris does now have gunky ears, so we are taking her to the doctors today, poor little mite.