Mersea Island

My wife and I took advantage of only having one child to have brunch together. We could have gone alone, but we took Leia with us. My son did have the chance to come but turned us down.  Leia loved it as she got to have a sausage (the photo is from when she was waiting for one).

Later in the day, I tweeted after a nap (the after effects of my COVID infection in April) on BBC Any Questions and one of my tweets was read out on Any Answers afterwards, with a comment that I was cheeky for making it! When I say one of my tweets, I mean part of it. They read “It will be good to see the Conservatives elect a Remain supporting LibDem as leader.” My tweet of course relates to Liz Truss.  It is not the first time a tweet of mine has been read out on the show, but it is the first time in a while, and it is one of my better ones. 

Afterwards it was a trip to Mersea, this time my son came along.  I would like to say a good time was had by all.  Dinner could have been better, but it was fine and we had a great game of Snog, Marry, Pie.  As for the trip itself, Leia loved it.   

My daughter contacted us from France and told us about her time.  She has been kayaking and is exhausted from doing so. We do miss her, but it is great having the time with our son as well with no bickering.  

A family reunion

Saw my brother today. The older of my two.  He had come down from Manchester with a long time friend of ours (and his) and we ate outside in the garden of the cottage they hired.  It was good for the kids to see them and Leia got to meet David’s dog.

Mersea Island

Today we have been the house of ill.  Yesterday we went to a friends house for New Years drinks.  I felt terrible, though got better while I was there (paracetamol is a wonderful thing).  However I crashed on getting home.  The downside was that my wife then started to become unwell as well.  So today we went out for lunch.  We have been to the West Mersea Oyster bar before (the picture above is part of the amazing view that can be seen if you eat outside) and have always loved eating there.  Today was no exception and

for the kids, they found a Pokéstop there.  Considering how busy it is there, the service, for the price you pay is great, and the food was fantastic.  Parking as always is fun there, but there is a car park just down the road from it now which we have used at times in the past.

After this meal, it was a drive to the beach, though we did make a slight diversion to allow the children to get more Pokéballs.  We left my wife in the car to read and enjoy the view while we went down to the beach to walk along it.  With little wind, I found the sound of water lapping against the shore to be very calming, and it was not too cold.  The children entertained themselves looking for shells and also by throwing stones into the sea and also playing chicken with the waves.  That last bit was why our walk was cut short, as my son, when distracted ended up with this shoes being soaked through!

So home again, and my wife and I took it in turns to help cooking, me peeling the potatoes and preparing the sprouts, while she did the clever bits.  After dinner, a bit of Modern Family and now, it is time for the kids to get ready for bed.  They are not too keen on this, but they will be back at school soon and need to get used to waking up early.  While my wife rests, I may get a chance to use the Fire Stick that I was given at Christmas to watch Vikings.  Though I will need to make sure that it does not wake her!



Anyway chess now.  I did spend time going over a bit of chess with the kids.  My daughter hates it, but they are both improving when it comes to thinking about it, and I hope this will help them with logic in the future.

I on the other hand have not done as well as I would have liked since my last update.

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