Weekend at Derbyshire

It was Tony’s parents Ruby Wedding Anniversary and on the 26th April they held dinner & drinks in a hotel in Derbyshire to celebrate with family & friends. We hired a car and drove up the Friday night, which seemed strange as I am currently in the process of getting my UK drivers licence so every time I have been in a car this year I have had a driving instructor next to me – I quickly fell back into my old driving habits which won’t help when I sit my test next week!

We took full advantage of being in the area by going to the theme park Alton Towers during the day. Both the kids weren’t tall enough to go on the big & new thrill rides and between them both found most of the rides we went on were too scary or not scary enough! Strangely enough they sit had a fantastic day! Tony and I, who both love theme parks and all rides, came to the conclusion that having the kids with us on rides meant that the whole time we were worried about how they were feeling meant we couldn’t quite relax and enjoy it fully – don’t get me wrong we had a great day too but are definitely making plans for us to go back child-free!

Oh another achievement of the weekend, i drove on my favourite motorway the M6 toll and clocked 100 miles per hour again, I easily get used to the faster driving over here :)

The Anniversary do was good as well and we made sure we were back at the hotel ready in time otherwise we would have been in serious trouble, plus Tony was a signatory for the bar tab!
So the eventfulness of this year has already begun and is continuing very soon as my mum and her partner arrive from Australia next week, so I imagine it will be nonstop for a month while they are here.

Spain - Family Holiday

After eagerly waiting since October last year, it was finally time to head off to Spain. We had booked 10 days in Fuengirola on the Costa de Sol, Southern Spain to try and guarantee some sunshine so early in the year.
Heavy showers welcomed us and it managed to rain solidly for the first 3 days. We tried to make the most of it by getting shopping and bits & pieces out of the way on those days.
On the first day a couple of British resort reps descended on us handing out scratch cards on which I managed to scratch off the “top prize”, we were whisked away in their car to the resort in which we were supposed to sit through a 90 minute talk about their holiday club (kind of like timeshare) and then claim the prize. Well 90 minutes lasted about 3 hours but we did come away with a bottle of Cava, a bottle of Bacardi, a free holiday (after reading the fine print we may not be able to use!) and a chauffeured drive around the area – so it wasn’t all bad.
The rain stopped and we ended up with a week of sunshine which was fantastic. We visited the local zoo, a theme park and lazed around the pool. Where we stayed was like a mini England, it was a strange concept to me to be in a foreign country and mostly hear English spoken with British accents, but was a nice place nonetheless. We ate well each night out, lots of seafood including Paella which I had been looking forward to having again, and we easily fell into the Spanish ways of life – sleep ins, buffet style lunches and siesta’s in the afternoons and staying out late for dinner & drinks, the way a good holiday should be.

The pictures are up on the photo page of the website.

Prague - Weekend Away!

On Valentines night Tony and I flew to Prague for a long weekend away together. As with most things we do it was not without some dramas! Our flight from Heathrow ended up being delayed by 2 hours, which meant we didn’t actually touch down in Prague until about midnight. We eventually found the taxi booked to meet us and we headed off towards the hotel. When we arrived at the hotel something seemed amiss as it appeared locked up and under construction. It turns out there were renovations taking place and we had been booked into a sister hotel, however when the woman on the front desk was trying to explain this to us she frequently used the phrase “I have to explain the situation” before actually giving us any information which did start to worry us! The taxi driver in the meantime had been called back to take us to the other hotel, thankfully as when we arrived the grumpy old man on the front desk didn’t appear to have any information about the change. He reluctantly gave us a key and brief directions to a shop that would be open and we finally managed to settle into our room at 1:00am.

We really enjoyed our time in Prague; we were in awe of the buildings especially in the old town square and the castle and enjoyed trying local dishes and drinks. On our first full day we stumbled across the “Beer Factory” which has beer taps on each table! We sampled the local soup which is actually served in a huge bread roll and realised we had well & truly over ordered when ½ roast duck each was brought to our table – check out the pictures on our photos page!

The Saturday night was also my birthday and we celebrated by booking a dinner cruise. Most of the tables were full so we invited another English couple to sit with us otherwise they were either going to be split up or sharing with an Italian couple nearby who, it would seem, would not appreciate sharing the table. We ended up having a great time and got along with them really well. After the cruise finished we all ended up at a cocktail bar near Charles Bridge until we were kicked out at closing time!

So we had a fantastic time of resting, eating, sightseeing & drinking and managed to visit a place that was at the top of both of our lists of places we want to see! On the countdown now until our 10 days in Spain, bring on April!

Happy 2008

Yes quite late into the year for the first blog of 2008! I promised myself that I would keep this news section up to date on a regular basis - I should have known better!
So the rest of 2007 was a bit of a write off. My mum came over for a visit in October which was great. She finally got to she where I have been living for that couple of years and I was taken out for lunch everyday which is a bonus.
At the end of October I had an operation to try and correct and older procedure I had a few years ago - this should have only been about a 2 week recovery period but, as most of you will know by now, I didn’t actually heal until the end of January this year!

We are in the process of getting Tony set up to start his own business. Once he is up & running he will be a one stop IT solution provider for individuals & small to medium businesses. This is being set up via a govt organisation so there is a 16 week program to follow but we cant wait - he will be doing something he loves and can work from home. Check out www.httpsds.com !

With some holidays booked and Australian visitors arriving this year, together with the possibility of buying a car (if I pass my driving test!) 2008 is shaping up to be quite a good one for the Hitchinson’s :)

London - Bank Holiday Weekend

Daytime....

We escaped the crowds of the "great unwashed" during Reading Festival which took place on the August bank holiday weekend.

We made plans to meet my school friend Jennifer at the Nags Head a Convent Garden at lunchtime, we had made really good time to get into London so had a bit of a wander around before hand. As we came out of Piccadilly Tube station I saw the most amazing thing (well ok not THE most but pretty damn good anyway!) an umbrella vending machine!! How much of a good idea is that? I even made Tony do the tourist thing and take a photo of me standing next to it - you can check this out on our photos page.

we also had time to stroll around Leicester Square & Covent Garden and watch some of the street performers. It was a glorious day of sunshine so we took full advantage and drank our beers outside the Nags Head.

We decided on the crooked surgeon in Soho for lunch which turned out must be targeted for the Australian travellers, as not only was our waitress Australian most of the advertising was aimed for moving back home to Oz! We had a really nice lunch and catch up together with some nice wine (or in my case lots!)

del.icio.us Tags: London , Pubs , Travel , Friends

While the kids are away..

The adults will play! As most of you will know Tony I have have been left childfree for 3 weeks as Kayla was taken away on holidays to Australia with my dad and Georgie was on holidays with her mum in Europe.

The house has been so quiet and we have had so much time to ourselves in the evenings as I walk home from work so I’m in the door at 5.15 each night. We also have only had to worry about feeding ourselves and not having to follow the usual routine of family life (eg getting baths ready, packing bags and lunches for the following day etc)

We have taken advantage, as much as we could due to finances, of being able to have adult time together.

During the first week Tony met me after work and we headed along to Santa Fe with some of my work friends to have dinner and drinks we had a really good time and I was only hung-over a little bit in the morning! We were able to go to our friends Mike & Ann for dinner one night (rather than them having to come to us like usual). The dinner was lovely, a home cooked curry, even if it did involve an emergency run home to get some antiseptic cream for burnt hands! I managed to consume a bottle & a half of wine so I was talking a lot with my hands – you can see this in the “dinner party” photos – and Tony had to help me stumble up the road at 3am!

We also caught up with Mike & Ann on the Thursday night before Reading Festival. Their band Joey Ultra were playing at the Walkabout, the amount of times I have been in the “aussie pub” after saying I wouldn’t spend the time I have in the UK in them!!, so along we went to show our support and like usual have a few drinks. After the walkabout we stopped in at The Great Expectations pub, which is on the way home, where Ann and I must have been really hungry as we spoke most of the time about great food! Because of this we had a mandatory stop at the servo further up the road and I was apparently quite drunkenly forceful telling Ann she “HAD” to get the cheeseburger in pastry that was on the hot shelf! We also even got a chance to go on a date to the cinema which we haven't done in ages!

del.icio.us Tags: alcohol, child-free, gigs, dinner party, pubs

Smoking Ban Rant

From July 1^st 2007 England introduced a total smoking ban. I can understand why this has come about, even as frustrating as it is (it would appear that the outside tables at pubs where you can smoke fill up really quickly!) what has really been annoying me with it is it would appear that smokers are being associated with a total lack of common sense.

Every workplace under the new law must be a no smoking environment, when this came into effect every work place building, eg offices & shops, paid for and put on display a no smoking sign with the words it is illegal to smoke in these premises. Now I’m sure some of these places it goes with out saying that there is no smoking - the chemist and doctors surgeries for example. What annoyed me even further was our workplace received an evaluation visit from a member of the local council to ensure that we were following the guidelines of the smoking ban and that a procedure has been put in place if someone attempts to smoke in the building (yes it is - could you please extinguish that cigarette as it is illegal to smoke in these premises!!). Now if every work place in Reading will be receiving these visits surely this will end up costing us tax payers additional money! 

del.icio.us Tags: Smoking Ban, workplace, tax

Words from the Tone

Hello All

I thought I should write something on here as its meant to be a family site and so far Nikki has done most of the blogging. My excuses is that I have a couple of other blogs and web sites that I have to keep up to date (not washing huh ?) Ok So I am lazy. when it comes to blogging and don't really write much unless I have something to say. As most of you know Kayla  run off and left us for 3 weeks for Glorious Australia (grrr she so lucky) also Georgina has buggered off as well to Spain so that leave Nikki and I child free for 3 weeks Whooooyoooo you might think but actually waking up this morning was very strange there was so sound coming for the girls bedroom, No Kayla Voice going Can you here me as she trying to talk to Iain on MSN or no really crap music from the Sim's computer game, No TV switch on in the lounge it was like a ghost town. Must strange I can tell you. Its amazing how quickly these sounds become part of your every day life. No Door bell ring as Kayla is picked up by the child minder. I am sure in the next three weeks that will become the norm and it will be a shock to the system when the children do return, So I think we should enjoy it while it lasts.

Hopefully enjoying it while it last will not be as bad for my health as it seems to have started out to be, This morning about 5 am Nikki decided to hit me in the face Why I am not sure we was both asleep !!!, You know I don't mind a slap when I have done something wrong but Not even I can get in trouble in my sleep (or can I)  the think is when she did it she woke up apologies and everything next morning hardly remembered a thing so tonight I am wear a crash helmet to bed.

Other new in brief

I have a cold so you should all feel sorry for me ok

If your going to Heathrow on a Sunday night leave 5 hours to do so its a bloody nightmare but if you leaving Heathrow you only need 10 min's

 and Final Congrats to Darren he knows why ha ha mail him if you want to know

Family Visits

Thursday morning we loaded the car up again and started our journey towards Cheadle Hulme (just outside Manchester) to visit my dad Kenny and stepmum Sheila.  We spent the afternoon at the local park catching up.  Tony was able to sort out some little computer problems in the evening for them both. 

As we had planned to have a birthday party for Kayla on the Friday, we had to leave Cheadle first thing in the morning.  We were making good time on the motorways heading South.  that was until a last minute toilet stop was required! the services were 20 miles away and judging by the tears we could not hold off that long!  We came off the motorway onto an A road and pulled off as soon as we could.  Unfortunately we came off at a car wash, and after Kayla relieved herself behind a billboard we had to figure out how to get back on the road without going through the car wash.  We watched an elderly woman try the same by driving the wrong way down the exit and back on but we decided we weren't going to be that stupid especially as there is a £500 insurance deposit held on the hire car!  Tony ended up navigating us home back roads.  We had to stop at the supermarket and pick up party food and the way home as well as the all important cake.  We made it in the door got the food out on the table and managed to finished getting changed just as the doorbell rang as the kids arrived.  We then had 2 1/2 hours to entertain some 8 & 9 year old girls!

Saturday morning we had to get ready to visit the other set of UK grandparents.  Tony's parents were having a BBQ for us all to spend some time together and celebrate Kayla's birthday (the 2nd of 3 birthday celebrations she is having this year!)  Tony's sister and her family also joined us - so all the kids had great fun spending time together.  By the time we left there last night driving the 1 1/2 hour trip home I finally reached the point of being fed up with driving! the novelty has worn off!

del.icio.us Tags: Manchester, Motorway, Computer, Birthday, BBQ

Big Day Out

After a fairly quiet day on Tuesday, we upped the ante on Wednesday and headed over to Bracknell to take full advantage of all the sports complexes there. We spent the afternoon at Coral Reef which is a swimming complex. We joined the long queue for the "fastest" waterslide - the Boa Constrictor. we all managed to sustain some kind of injury while flying down the flume (mostly skin off the elbows!) and each of us managed to come to a dead stop a few metres before the end and had to try and slide our way out of the flume before someone else came flying down behind us! The next time we lined up for a waterslide we opted for the family one - the python - this was a much nicer slide (does this mean that we are turning into old parents???).

We then spent the evening ice-skating. Kayla and I had been the previous week with her childminder and had a great time. So this week Kayla was straight out on the ice skating around very well. It was Georgie's first time skating so after a few times going around holding on to the rails and a couple of falls she then built up confidence to try little stretches without holding on. The first fall of the evening was by Tony, who hadn't ice skated for about 20 years! however he only became unstable whenever I came near him!!

It turns out, however, that doing 2 big things in one day was probably not the best idea as we had 2 little tired and irritable girls in the car on the way home - the key factors towards little arguments! But they certainly slept well that night!

del.icio.us Tags: Ice-Skating, swimming, Bracknell