Pirate Thursdays in Brixham

Every Thursday in the summer is Pirate Thursday in Brixham, thanks to the Brixham Buccaneers, i think i blogged about it last summer, hang on i'll go and have a look...

... yes here is a link to last year with a Captain Jack Sparrow.

But look-e-like-e-Depp wasn't there this time, though i'm told he does still come down sometimes, he's probably all famous like now and doesn't get out of bed for less than £2.95 and a packet of mints.
But a lady with a parrot on her shoulder was there, however when we finally managed to make our way through the crowds, she answered her mobile phone, and then stayed on her phone chatting away for ages, i mean it was probably about 8 mins.
There were loads of people waiting to pet the parrot.
Somehow i don't think she was in character.


But we did manage to pet the parrot, even if Daisy was quite unsure about the whole thing.
We did however meet a real live mermaid, who read us a story, she said she was a friend of Ariel's which was all very exciting.

Love is like a butterfly

Does anyone else, apart from my mum and dad and my sister Vicky remember the UK series Butterflies?
I used to love it for some reason especially her inability to cook, and the strange concoctions she brought out of the oven.
Here are two links to it if you have no idea what i am on about.
Wikipedia/Butterflies and www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/butterflies/

Here are also some little girl butterflies from our recent trip to Brixham/Devon last week. Daisy went first, cos she's had it done lots of times before, Iris at first said she didn't want it done.


Then she changed her mind and sat extremely still with her eyes closed, clutching her bottle of water, whilst her face was made up.

And then afterwards she kept asking us if the picture was still on her face.

They were both very happy little butterflies.

Two Devons in one month.

We have been down to Devon twice recently.
We went first when Daisy was on her half term which was a short sweet little break, Daisy and Iris slept in the same single bed which caused lots of giggling and not much sleeping on the first night, and a little less giggling and little bit more sleeping on the second night.

Then Nana and Tilly came back with us up to Somerset for the weekend and we took Nana and Tilly on a walk across the fields.

Then Daisy had to stay with Daddy, whilst Iris and me took Nana and Tilly back down to Devon because i had some work.

I will post lots of pics up next week, of all our adventures.


To start with one of these work type things was shooting a little boy called Noah, who is Hailey's son.
Here are a few shots of him.

Auntie Polly the pop star

As i said before (in this post) Auntie Polly is in a Pink Floyd tribute band called "In the Flesh" here is their website : www.floydflesh.com and during my recent trip to Devon for work (more on this later) i took a couple of photographs of her for the program.
I'm quite pleased with them really.

Of course to get those two shots above, i actually took 70 shots of her whilst she was singing, trouble was i kept getting her mid facial expression, either her mouth looked weird or her eyes looked weird or her arm looked weird, i had to time it just right so that her face looked just right.

Christmas Tour - Saltash - all the girls

Here is a photograph of all the children staying at Rachel and Josh's over New Year.
Roni (9) is smiling whilst she is cuddling baby Tom (6 weeks) and Iris is having a little cuddle too.
Ruby (7) is trying to assist with baby Tom, i think he was gradually slipping down at this point.
Daisy is a little unsure of Pippa (2) who has fallen asleep on Daisy.
Freya (4) is busy watching Nanny McPhee on DVD, on the computer.

Christmas Tour - A walk in the Saltash countryside

Lots of photos to come that might get made into a small book.

Christmas Tour - The pantomime.

We went to see the Torquay pantomime again this Christmas (our third in a row)
This years star was that fella who used to be in Brookside, Popeye or Sinbad, yes Sinbad that was his name in the show.

There is a rather funny photograph of Sinbad in his costume below, it is rather revealing in that his trousers are perhaps a little bit tight, maybe he had too many cream teas whilst in Devon.

Reviews:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/devon/
http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/

Daisy enjoying herself at the pantomime
The Dame who had truly fabulous outfits
This little line up of classic pantomime peeps included from left to right: Mark Jackson, Phil Randall, Emmerdale's Stuart Wade and Michael Stark (otherwise known as Sinbad)

Here is the actor Michael Stark (otherwise known as Sinbad) with rather strange trousers.



The next day i even saw "Muddles" Emmerdale's Stuart Wade in Sainsbury's in Torquay, he was at the checkout in front of me, i wouldn't have known it was him at all if the checkout girl hadn't asked him what he would be doing for New Year and he hadn't said well i'll be in panto doing Snow White.
I at this point immediately started talking to him, telling him that we had gone the night before and that we had really enjoyed it, which was a slight exaggeration, but i couldn't exactly tell him that it was quite similar to last years and the story was quite loosely based around the original disney film of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. But hey i enjoyed seeing him in the flesh, he
was quite shy and a little bit handsome.

Christmas Tour - Grandad Tony

Here are a few photos from our visit with Grandad Tony and Grandma Helena on the 29th December.

Not too sure why the girls look so sullen, they were enjoying themselves, honestly.

As you can see from this photograph.

Iris is tickling Helena under the chin here.

Here they are sitting on the bottom step, i like them sitting on this bottom step.

Here Grandad Tony is doing a little rhyme with them that involved tweaking different parts of the face, they liked it so much ...

... they then went on to do it to him.

Christmas Tour - Bella's party

We went to Bella's 3rd birthday party on the 28th as well, she is Daisy and Iris's cousin.

This is the only photograph i took of Bella, she is dancing with cousin Poppy and can you spot Daisy behind as well.

This is Iris having a little cuddle with cousin Poppy, Iris liked Poppy.

This is Poppy's little brother Oscar who is 3, he is very sweet.

This is Auntie Polly and her friend Ellie who were at the party as well.
Polly and Ellie wanted to make it clear that they are not gay, they obviously have a bit of complex about this because they are flatmates and they do everything together.

Christmas Tour - A walk around Battery Gardens

We actually spend Christmas eve, Christmas day and boxing day at Auntie Emma & Uncle Paul's house but for some reason i failed to get any even reasonable photos of anyone, but we did have a fabulous time, with lots of presents and food being enjoyed by everyone.

Then on the 27th we traveled down to Nana and Grandad's house to stay with them for four nights and again i didn't really get any photographs down there of anyone, what is going on with the lack of photos.

These three photos were actually taken on the 28th when we went for a walk with Tilly Dog to Battery Gardens.
This link will tell you all about how Battery Gardens was first used as a battery in 1586 during the war between England and Spain.


Tilly dog is actually looking out over Fishcome Cove which is part of Battery Gardens.



It was very cold and although you wouldn't think it, Iris was actually thoroughly miserable throughout most of this walk, which was why i didn't really get a chance to take many photographs. Daisy did enjoy herself quite a lot, she was with Marc who was down on the beach taking photographs for a photo synth he is working on.

Spectacular Sickness everywhere

Girls caught a virus down in Devon somewhere, Daisy was sick on Monday morning but insisted she was fine to still go to the zoo, so we went, however she was sick again that night. Iris was sick on Tuesday morning and then again that night, so we did nothing that day except hung out in Nana and Grandad by-the-sea's ample garden.

But they seemed ok on Wednesday so we decided to go ahead with the drive home. I stopped at a services on the M3 near to London, and the girls had a bowl of chips to share and an apple juice, which i now realise was a fatal combination.
Five mins after getting back in the car, Iris started to be sick into her lap, then she was sick again, and again, and again, and again. Then Daisy startws to be sick all over herself as well, i think only once but it was sufficient.
All i could do was watch the poor things, in my rear view mirror cos there was no sign of another junction to turn off at. It was probably about 20 mins of driving really quite fast, before i came across the next junction, and then all i could do was pull over in a tiny little lay-by on a main road and try to clean them up, then sit them in the front of the car and try to clean up their soaking wet car seats with wet wipes.

The sick was everywhere, it had even gone into the top of Iris' nappy, that's how bad.

Bloody hell, i tell you, bloody hell.

We are in Devon by the way

Visiting my family, Nana and Grandad by-the-sea, Auntie Vicky by-the-sea, Auntie Polly near-the-sea, all my cousins, and my cousin's children (once removed?) and Aunts and Uncles, and friends who all live near(ish) to the sea.

Other than getting my car MOT'd down here in Devon by Gary (who i would highly recommend in Galmpton) I also particularly came down to see Rachel and Josh who are back from The Bay of Plenty in New Zealand, where they were for two years. They have Freya who is nearly 4, Pippa who was born out there and the same age as Iris, and another one on the way.

Lots of photos to come when i return.

x

BBQ with Nana & Grandad by-the-sea

Nana & Grandad by-the-sea, hosted a family BBQ in honour of my grandad's birthday who died many many many moons ago, i believe my mum was about 12 when he died, so obviously i never met him.
Aunts, Uncle, and lots of cousins and second cousins all came over for a fun filled afternoon.

First off there was some tree climbing from Daisy, Poppy, Zach and Carmen.















Then Grandad rigged up a death-slide, which was good fun for the children, here is Ava modeling how to elegantly come down a death-slide.



And Steve had a go too.








Then a very small paddling pool came out and four children got in; Daisy, Bella, Oscar and Carmen.
















This is the youngest member of the family to date, Kristian, who is only about 7 weeks old at this point, sleeping very peacefully through the afternoon.




And in case you were wondering where she was, Iris was having fun wondering around Grandad's garden.

Freya & Pippa & Rachel & Josh

Josh with Pippa and Rachel with Freya, Poor Freya had just stubbed her toe so she wasn't feeling all that up for a family portrait.


Here Iris got in on the action and plopped herself back in the arms of Josh, Iris loved Josh, Iris really loved Josh.









Here is lovely little Pippa who being rather inquisitive got closer and closer to the camera, there is another version even closer but i figured we didn't need to see her bogies really.


Here are all four girls in the bath having a lot of fun splashing.