Philip Norton

Every year (sometimes twice a year) my parents go to a small camp site just outside Rhyader, usually for a bank holiday weekend. This time we went with them. Some friends of the family who were already there and the plan was to meet up with them.

Phoneing up the camp site before hand we heard that it was very water-logged and that they had even shut down some of the site due to it being so wet. The weather forcast said that it would rain on the Thursday, but that it should be better on the Friday, and Saturday should be much better.

When we got there it was wet, and due to the activity of people walking about it was also very muddy. We booked until Sunday just in case the rain didn’t stop. Not being perturbed we set up our tents and hoped that there would be no more rain for a couple of days. It was muddy enough that some people went into town and bought wellington boots just so that they didn’t have to stand ankle deep in mud. I stayed in my trusty walking boots, which now need a good wash!

No such luck on hoping it wasn’t going to rain! It was sunny for just long enough on Friday night and Saturday to lull us into a false sense of security. By dinner time on Saturday it was raining quite steadily and any drying out that had been done was basically wasted. The ground just got wetter and wetter until everything we did or owned was just caked in mud.

Anyway, I had the plan that we would go Hay-on-Wye at some point during the weekend, so we went there on Saturday. We eventually decided that Mandy and I should go and Matthew would stay behind and go to the Rhyader “fun day”. Apparently the fun day wasn’t all that fun, and consisted of a few giant games (like a large connect four) and was very “small town” if you know what I mean.

For those of you who don’t know Hay-on-Wye is a town that has more book shops (mainly second hand) per mile than just about anywhere else on the face of the Earth. Just walking around it for a while you are hit by the amount of books that are present in the town. There are millions! Mandy and I went there with a certain number of authors in mind, but unfortunately found nothing. I was a little disapointed, but I realised that there are a few reasons why I didn’t find what I was looking for.

1. There are a lot of books. So therefore asking if anything is there just gets you blank looks. Most shop owners don’t know what they have in their stock, just due to the numbers of books there, but also due to the fact that lots of books also come in.
2. Looking through each bookstore takes a while and different stores have different ways of stocking and categorising books. I didn’t have all week to look through every store, but you could easily do that.
3. I assume that, although there are books coming in to the shops, there are a lot of people walking around and buying them. So the good and popular books go quite quickly and so finding them can be a little tricky.

I am back home now, and drying off. Everything in and around the tent is wet and muddy and I will probably spend tomorrow cleaning everything 50 times over as it is all caked with mud. Joy…

It would be nice to go camping and it not rain and spoil things. I’m thinking that we should just book ourselves into a hotel next time.

Tags: Family by Philip Norton
No Comments »

We have had our bikes sat in our shed for a good number of months now complete with rust and punctures.  So this weekend we decided to go and get our bikes repaired.  We phoned up a shop in Congleton that does bike repairs, but the guy was rude on the phone and not really all that helpful so we took them to Halfords.  I can’t fault Halfords for their service.  We had originally booked the bikes in for the 29th, but we got a call yesterday saying that things had been quiet there so the girl had done them herself.

We had to walk in order to pick them up, which is about 4 miles, but we needed to take Matthew with us.  He enjoyed riding on my bike (although he is a little small for it).  After getting home we put them back in the shed with the plan to go for a bike ride today.

However, when I got the bike out of the shed I found it had a puncture in the front tyre.  After getting quite angry, but still being able to repair it I then attached a bike seat so that Matthew could ride on the back of my bike.

Our little trip nearly started out as a disaster as as soon as I picked my bike off of the wall (with Matthew attached) it fell sideways and I had to struggle to bring the bike back up again from a funny angle.  I’m not certain that the seat is entirely safe as it makes the bike very top heavy and when I slowed down (for the hills) I ended up falling sideways.

Still, it was a plesant bike ride.  We went up to the cannal at the end of a lane near our house.  I didn’ remember, the last time I took that lane, just how hilly it was.  Plus, I am quite out of shape and so I wasn’t able to peddle all the way up in one go.  I just need to get more practice in!

Tags: Family by Philip Norton
No Comments »

I walked into the kitchen tonight and spotted a fox picking at the bread we had left out for the birds.  I think I scared him off to start with, but he was soon back for the rest.  We threw another slice out for him so we could take a couple of photos.  Here is a picture.

I think it is fantastic.  The garden to our house is a bit of an oddity really.  It was left overgrown for about 10 years and was used as a builders yard for a bit.  We still have a large circular saw in a cast iron base hidden behind a hedge.  I have been working on clearing it up for months, although I’m not making much headway.  However, one good thing about the garden is all the wildlife I see.  We have multiple species of birds, squirrels and I even saw a mouse the other day, but having a fox living nearby is just great.

The fox kept coming into the garden, cramming as much bread as he could into his mouth, and then leaving again.  So I can only assume that there are little foxes about somewhere.  I went upstairs to get a better view and Matthew was awake so I pointed the fox out to him.  He straight away identified it as a fox.  He must have learnt something from us reading him Beatrix Potter books.

This connects something I was thinking about the other day.  We usually put out some bread at night (try getting a 3 year old to eat crusts) and they are always gone by morning.  I just thought we had hungry birds!

Tags: Family by Philip Norton
No Comments »

We are teaching Matthew the alphabet at the moment, and he is comming along nicely.  Even though he is 3, he can count to 13 on his own (which is apparently very good) and is getting there with the alphabet.  Although he isn’t able to recite it much, he can spot the letters and tell us what they are.

Apart from two letters that is.  These letters are W and U.

When I say U he repeats back “me!” and when I say W, which I pronounce as “double-u” that is exactly what he hears and repeats back “double me!”.

How on earth do you get through to a 3 year old that it isn’t double you, but two letter U’s put together?  I’m sure he will work it out eventually!

Tags: Family by Philip Norton
No Comments »

Matthew currently has chicken pox.  For those of you who don’t know what this is (and I assume that this is only a few) is a disease caused by a virus that causes little spots or blisters to appear all over your body, which then scab over and heal.  Once you have had the disease you don’t get again, accept in rare cases.

It only lasts a week, but he isn’t allowed back to nursery for two weeks until the last of the scabs are coming off.  Mandy and I have both had it as children so we won’t catch it again.  Although Mandy might go spare being stuck at home with a sick Matthew for two weeks.

I’m glad he has it now as it is the best time for him really.  If you have this disease as an adult it is called shingles and is very painful apparently.

I’m quite sure he will be fine in a few days, although it does explain why he has been a bit naughty recently.

Tags: Family by Philip Norton
No Comments »

Matthew started nursery today at a local school in Congleton, and it seemed to go very well. When Mandy dropped him off he got stuck into playing with the other kids there and acted like he was being interrupted when she left him 15 minutes later.

When Mandy picked him up again before lunchtime he was one of the last children to come out of the room. He had to be led out by the teacher as he was reluctant to go and he was almost in tears as Mandy led him away.  Apparently he wanted to play in the sandpit!

Tags: Family by Philip Norton
1 Comment »

I was having a shave this morning when Matthew came into the room and we had the following conversation:

Matthew: Daddy….

Me: Yes?

Matthew: Doing! (what are you doing?)

Me: I’m having a shave.

Matthew: Oh… (brief pause) Daddy…

Me: Yes?….

Matthew: Doing!

Me: I’m having a shave.

Matthew: Oh… (brief pause) Daddy…

Me: Yes?….

Matthew: Doing!

Me: (deciding that a different strategy might work) I’m using this shaver to remove all of the hair from my face so that I look smart.

Matthew: Oh… (brief pause) Daddy…

Me: Yes?….

Matthew: Doing!

At this point I had finished so I just said that I was finished and continued to get ready for work. The cute things that kids do!

Tags: Family by Philip Norton
No Comments »

For dinner tonight we had pasta and sauce. Not the most exciting of dishes, but it filled the spot and was rather cheap to boot.

Matthew seemed to like it as once he had finished his little bowl of pasta he gave it to me and said “pasta more”. So I put some of my pasta into his bowl and he resumed eating. Mandy was on the phone to her mum at the point (and had been for most of dinner) so when he asked for even more pasta I brought Mandy’s bowl nearer and gave him some of that. This went on until he had eaten all of Mandy’s food. Mandy, by the way, wasn’t hungry so she didn’t get any more food, but she had eaten roughly half of her pasta before Matthew got hold of it.

Afterwards we had rice pudding and he did exactly the same thing here. Once he had finished his bowl he gave it to me and said “MORE”. He is going to eat me out of house and home.

Tags: Family by Philip Norton
1 Comment »

Today is Matthew´s second birthday and as Him and Mandy are staying with Mandy´s parents I travelled down to Aberystwyth this morning so that I could be there. Mandy has spent the last few nights making Matthew a cake in the shape of a train, which he kept pointing at and saying "choo-choo". He enjoyed blowing out the candles on the cake as well.

Tags: Family by Philip Norton
No Comments »

We spent a couple of hours last night re-arranging Matthew’s bedroom to get the bed in place where it would be next to a wall. He didn’t get to bed until late (for him) so there wasn’t much trouble in getting him to sleep. However, there was a lot of trouble getting him awake again in the morning. I’ve never seen him so tired.

Tags: Family by Philip Norton
No Comments »