rich_jacko

My sister and three nieces have been up to visit this week. The girls were really looking forward to it, and had been going on about how much they love Sheffield for ages. We had a really fun week. There were mostly games and hugs and laughter, and only a few strops and tears, so hopefully it didn't disappoint! :o)

They arrived Monday lunchtime and we had the traditional lazy first day. They settled in, we ate, then went to play in the park - finding our first elephant en route.

On Tuesday we hit the city centre to go elephant hunting properly. I'd got everyone a trail map and Herd of Sheffield pen to tick them off. It's a shame the weather wasn't as good as forecast and we had to keep sheltering indoors. We bumped into Ju and Jamie on Fargate but failed to meet up with them again in the Peace Gardens. We made it there later and Carly and Lauren had fun in the fountains (although Sophie sulked), then I went on the swing boats with them all. That broke up our elephant trail quite neatly before we resumed to find more. I was impressed with the girls' stamina and enthusiasm - I'd planned shorter routes but we kept going and found 26 large elephants and five little herds, making 60 elephants in total! Afterwards we went home, played with Lego (I'm very pleased they're all converts to the ways of the brick now) and cooked bolognaise for dinner, before settling down for a big screen evening (Zootropolis).

Wednesday was an epic adventure day at Magna. The girls loved the outdoor play area and spent ages climbing everything. They'd have spent all day out there if we'd let them. They also enjoyed all the hands-on stuff in the pavilions inside. Carly was a dab hand with the digger arm. Again I was impressed with how long they all lasted - we got there about 11:30am and didn't leave until closing time (which unfortunately meant we hit rush hour traffic). Lauren had her (early) birthday presents from me in the evening - more Lego of course!

We had planned to take it fairly easy on Thursday, which we did, but still managed to pack a lot in. We went swimming in the fun pool at Hillsborough in the morning. The Chivers (back from their holidays - Carly had been asking after Evie and Toby all week!) came round after lunch. We went to the park again and met up with Ju and Jamie. It was great to see the six kids getting on so well together, for the most part. I notice the three mums left nearly all the kids with me while they stood and nattered... In the evening we all piled back to min for an impromptu Chinese food and movie evening (Despicable Me 2 this time).

This morning we really did take it easy, with the kids lying in untilnearly half seven, which is extraordinarily late for them! I did a cooked breakfast for everyone. We did a petrol run, packed up and loaded the car, and they left around half twelve.

Already planning the next visit! :o)

( Photos )

June feels a bit like the eye of the storm, caught between a very busy May and an insanely busy July. I was actually in work for five normal days this week, for heaven's sake!

There seemed to be fewer birthday parties last month than most Mays (owing to a lot of folk being away), but it was still packed. I went to an enjoyable picnic in the Botanical Gardens on May Day; had a fab day out in Ecclesall Woods involving den-building and stone-baked pizza for Edy's 40th; was introduced to Green City Coffee near work by Ed and Krissy; hosted a birthday barbecue (the first of the year) in a brief burst of summer weather; and went to see my folks for my eldest niece's birthday.



June might be less busy, but there has still been stuff going on. Lard Club finally made it to Smoke, the weather was glorious again for the FFS, there's the Gamers evening I'm hosting tonight, and I'll be going to a barbecue tomorrow.

Then it's on to July in a couple of weeks. At least two work trips to that London, Adam's barbecue, maybe watching the Tour de France pass through Sheffield, Ju's birthday cocktail do, Ed's birthday meal, Andy and Jacquie's charity barbecue (Let's hope for some sun with all these barbecues!), and finally a trip to Glasgow to watch the Commonwealth Games to round the month off. I think I'm going to need a couple of quiet weeks to prepare!

Despite fears that I might not make it back through the flood waters, I had an enjoyable four-day weekend away visiting family.

I was staying at Mum and Dad's, where I earned my keep being Dad's "checker" on his GCSE marking. Either I've forgotten everything, or the doom-mongers are exaggerating and GCSE physics is still quite thorough and challenging (at least until this crap comes in - I've signed the petition BTW!)

On Saturday, we visited Vick, Ady and Carly. Carly still hasn't worked out what she wants to be doing about eight every evening, so I did a lot of pacing around with her to try to keep her quiet/entertained. She's just last week started tracking people and smiling properly :o)

We got back late and watched up Doctor Who off video. I thought it was a good finale with some nice twists and surprises, though the Doctor's return was a bit too messianic for my tastes and I wasn't convinced for a second that the Master would just lay down and die like that (and there's so many ways he can still come back...)

On Sunday we visited my brother Oliver and went out for Sunday lunch. I met his girlfriend Caroline for the first time, who seems really nice. His college campus is also fab (I'm somewhat jealous after I spent a year slumming it at Ranmoor!).

Back to Sheffield on Monday to discover a city devoid of flood waters and daily power cuts. I've no idea when it got back to normal, so I hope it wasn't too bad for anyone over the weekend.

I saw Shrek the Third yesterday evening, which was okay though nowhere near as funny or imaginative as the first two. This was on before the filum, and I completely agree with all the parents' complaints - who cleared such an advert for young kids to watch, and what the hell were they thinking?

Back to work today, and I had to suffer for my four-day weekend, with quite a stack of work (mostly correspondence) built up waiting for me. Ho hum, back to the grindstone...