Freddie goes to school.

It was Freddies first day at school on Wednesday, and he was very pleased with himself in his new uniform. His teacher seems nice, and although they do use reading scheme books, they also have a fair selection of proper books to read too. He only goes in the mornings until half-term, but as Katherine is also going to pre-school on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, there are two and a half hours of utter peace and quiet in the house. Fantastic.
Katherine loves going to pre-school, right up until the point where she actually lets go of our hands and goes into the room, then she screams like a banshee while we turn tail and run. When we pick her up though, she is having a great time.
Only 16 more years of waking them up in time for school to go, and we can have a lie-in again.

A Moment of History

There was a glorious moment for the Pullman family last week, as both sons turned out to play for Bournmouth Symphony Orchestra Cricket Club. Less glorious was the fact that I got out first ball, Tom didn't bat or bowl, and my only over had 3 wides in it. Never mind, there's always next year I suppose.

Up a tree

Up a tree
Originally uploaded by Jamie Pullman.

In Throop, we found a perfect tree for climbing on, with blue beetles in

it.

Cabbage White Blight.

Our cabbages have been covered in caterpillars for a few days now, and just like the way I was always delighted with the caterpillar outbreaks on my parents vegetables, Freddie and Katherine are captivated with the little buggers. One good thing about being infested is that we've got a couple of thrushes starting to visit the garden.

Memories

I put on Don Byron's Bug Music for my children to dance around to, and found myself being roped into dancing around too. The memory it brought back was one of me and the rest of a quartet I was on a cruise ship with, along with the seediest 'violinist' you'll ever meet, Gary Lovini, doing the madness walk around a nightclub in Tahiti. It wasn't Madness playing at the time, but it seemed the thing to do, and we carried on for around 10 minutes I suppose. The Tahitians had no idea what the hell we were doing, but as far as I can remember, when we started up again, in a perilously advanced state of refreshment, quite a lot of them joined in! That's what I call cultural exchange.
I've also just remembered that we were staying in a hotel that night, as we were going home the next day, and I didn't wake up in time to get dressed properly, and left a shoe in the bedroom somewhere.