Starting a battle with no ammunition

I apologise of this picture causes offence in light of the recent school massacre in the USA. 

This morning, I woke, went to work to catch up on some paperwork and had to return home to be a taxi.  My daughter went into town and I dropped her at the friend with whom she was to walk into town.  In addition to this, my wife managed to get a free pampering session in town and went with a friend.  After dropping them off, my son and I went out to catch Pokémon.  He was annoyed with me playing Pokémon GO in Southwold yesterday but was more than happy to play it today.  In fact, yesterday he accused me of loving the game more than him.  I told him, that while he was wrong, he was right to tell me how he felt.  And then I explained all the things that we had done which did not involve Pokémon GO yesterday.  I do think that it is important to let him know that he can tell me how he feels, but while he was wrong this time, there will be times that he will be right.  I forgot to tell him that and will need to tell him that again.

After picking up my daughter, I had to attend a call of nature when back home.  During this time, I heard the screaming and shouting.  My son, had got one of his NERF guns and took a shot at his sister.  She got her NERF crossbow and shot back.  Apparently, my son felt this was unfair as he had no bullets.  My son, who started the battle, felt it was unfair.  And in addition to this, he forgot a very important issue with NERF bullets,  That being when you shoot someone, they can pick up the bullets to shoot you back.  However by the time I was able to get out to discuss this (I was tempted to walk out of the door and leave them to it) he was in such a bad mood, that he would not listen to logic on this matter.  That and he refused to let me look in his room to see if he had bullets there (though he agreed to this later).

Anyway, the day later turned out for the better.  And I guess in the interests of fairness, I should point out that my daughter left a bottle of orange juice (mostly empty) with the lid undone on the back seat of my car...

Southwold in February half term

Thanks to the visit of my mother, my wife and I were able to go out for Valentines day.  Her knee has improved to the point where we were able to walk to have a great meal.  One where I tried squid again.  And whereas I hated it before, I have to say I sort of liked it.  I doubt that I would make a choice to eat it from a menu again, but it something I would eat, possibly, in the future.  But it was great to be able to eat out, and while we love our children, having quality time together is very important.

Thursday involved a late meeting at work which mean that I was not able to watch the Arsenal match.  I was nervous before it as our opponents had beaten quality opposition before, but needless to say, I had nothing to be concerned about.  Some have commented that Arsenal can win the competition, which is true, but our away form is something to be concerned about in general.

But today, was a trip for all of us.  My mother had been dropped in London yesterday and the kids got to have a trip to Southwold which they liked.  They love the pier there, and today we ate in the Crown.  We have eaten here in the past, and before children, even stayed here one night.  The food as always was amazing, the kids absolutely loved the prawn burger that my daughter ordered, something that my wife tried as well  We enjoyed the pier while my wife browsed the shops and later, after collecting her, had tea there before heading back home.

Anyway, it is almost time for bed again, and here are the pictures my daughter took today.

Make up

I forgot a few things when I made my post yesterday.  

One was that I showed the kids where I used to live when we were driving through London.  I had the chance to show them my old primary school as well, but did not do so.  

What was interesting was how my daughter had gone out with makeup.  She is growing up, and while my kids will always be my babies, they are not babies any more.  I have to say, I almost did not notice it.  My wife did though.

Takeaway wine

I am tired, so a quick post and then for me, bed.

After waking up late(ish) for me, we travelled to London.  My wife had originally wanted to have breakfast at Brick Lane and then travel to Maltby Street, but after rising late, this was not possible, so instead we had something to eat in Colchester, and something to eat on the way down, and instead went to Maltby Street for lunch.  While I parked, by wife found somewhere to eat, a great place, out of the cold and with great and for us, original food.  I loved it, as did she.  The kids were in a bit of a funny mood so did not enjoy it as much as they normally would do.  The photo is of an array of wine that is available to buy to take away with.  I was surprised to see how empty the place was, but glad as this meant that we almost had it to ourselves, and of the food came quickly, something that is very important with two kids, kids who quickly can and have turned on us!

Before we left, we went to the Bad Brownie company, well, my son and I did, while my wife and daughter went to a different stall.  We are return customers to this stall, but we had something new, and loved it. My son was aware that it was not fully fair that his sister did not share her food,but got to eat some of the Brownies, but did not complain too much.  But considering that it is now the half term holiday, I am sure that will happen later this week.

After this, it was a drive to collect my mother who has kindly agreed to come up to Colchester to look after the children.  I made a bad choice when it came to the route we took, for we had decided to go to Costco first, but rather than take a quicker, but less direct route, I took my chances with a more direct route.  And I should not have.  To be fair, the kids were very well behaved over the two hour journey (that would have been much quicker if I had taken the roundabout route) and my son had so much fun catching Pokémon that he got bored and stopped.  I am not sure if my daughter was interested until she found out that she had a Mewtwo caught for her.  When on a trip to Brightlingsea last year she took part in a 'raid' and due to this, was offered a pass to an exclusive raid.  In summary, Pokémon Go is about catching and collecting as many Pokémon as possible. This raid allowed her to catch a powerful and rare one, one which I have failed to get, despite having two attempts.  We were not able to attend the raid in person, but one other player kindly used her account (with the permission of my daughter) to catch it.

Anyway, they are now all in bed and my mother is here to look after them.  They have grown over time, and I do hope that they behave for her, especially as she has given up so much time to look after them for us.

Last of all, the music is from a group, now defunct, formed by three singers from The Voice.  One has since left but we were listening to this in the car and no doubt till enjoy it again in the future.

Disappointed

First of all, I have a new iPhone. My old one had issues with its microphone which meant that I could speak to Siri and also record video's, but not make calls.  It has been an issue for a while and I needed to transfer photos and videos from it before having it sent away for repairs (well, trying to reset the software and when that did not work, sending it off).  I had an idea it might come thanks to the updates from EE, but once it arrived, my son and I walked into town to get it. One the way back, we stopped for what turned out to be his last Pokémon Go raid on his glitchy iPhone.  Because we had a spare iPhone 6 from having our phones from before, he has effectively had an upgrade, but his last iPhone 5 was terrible. He did not catch the raid boss, and he was understandably upset, but hopefully that will no longer be an issue for him.

After that it was a trip to see Tony and the Arsenal match.  And needless to say, I was disappointed.  In some ways I was expecting worse, but I never want Arsenal to lose, let alone against our local rivals.  The first half was a close thing, but our defence, the issue which I feared would fail us lost concentration too many times in the second half.  Still I was expecting worse, and it could have been so...

The one that got away

We have been the house of ill since I last posted.  My daughter had been off school and then, on Wednesday, my son was mysteriously ill.  Well, he did have a cough which sounded bad, and it is better, so I guess that he was ill enough to have the day off.  And due to the snow on Wednesday, I had to work from home as well (I did not feel up to cycling on ice).  Anyway, both are better now.  Sadly, my wife, who injured her knees on Sunday is not back to normal, though she is improving.

My son though is very happy.  When it came to Pokémon Go I had got another raid pass to catch a MewTwo. My son had got one as well, but this was for a raid in Devon, because of him playing Pokémon Go when he was there last year on our summer holiday there. Sadly, it is for this Sunday, and we have told him that we will not be travelling down there just for this. My daughter has been given a pass for one in Brightlingsea and we may or may not go to this. But going back to the raid, this was my second chance to get one of these rare Pokémon, the first raid being one that only a few turned up to take part in (which meant that I failed in this). And there was a large turn out. The MewTwo was defeated and of the fourteen players there, eleven caught it. And guess who was one of the three who failed...

Our fight song

Before I get onto freedom of speech, my son and I had an actual fight.  We are very alike in many ways and this can lead to conflicts that do not occur between my wife and him, nor between my daughter and I.  We have made up now though.  Both kids have been a bit snappish, but after breakfast, my daughter got herself out of it.  My son who was not as bad as she had been though continued to have a bit of attitude at times.  To be fair to him, most of the time, he was okay, but after an eventful trip to Freeport which involved a knee injury to one member of the family (or rather two), things got worse.  There was the odd occasion there, but nothing too much, but once at home things blew up.  It did not help that both of us were a bit tired.  But it is all settled now and my son was great once he calmed down and was the bigger man than me when it came to seeking peace between the two of us.  Anyway, the kids are relaxing in front of the Voice now before they head off to bed, which should be soon.  Due to my spectacular illness last week, we are catching up on that episode as well as the one from last night that we had not watched.

We had been out the night before with Isobel and Tony, starting in the evening which meant that Tony and I missed the Arsenal match.  While he was walking down with his lovely wife, he was getting updates on the score as Arsenal thrashed Everton at home.  My son was there with us while my daughter was at a birthday party.  We had good food, and for the two ladies, good wine.  That day had been a busy one for the kids and my wife with trips out shopping as well as a race to drop my daughter off in time.  

And the Arsenal match was a good one.  Our home form is much better than our away form, which is not good for our match against The Scum next weekend.  And we were helped by the terrible defending of Everton which is not going to be present next week.  It was great to see our two new signings play so well, but they face a much tougher test next weekend.

And when it comes to Fight Club, this of course refers to Jacob Rees-Mogg and his brave and appropriate reaction when people decided to prevent him from speaking.  I disagree with him and considering his latest comments which have been directed at the Civil Service over a report on Brexit, I consider him a fantasist due to his conspiracy theories.  But then interpreted, he decided to engage with the protesters who were not capable of engaging him in reasoned debate.  

I am a firm advocate of free speech (within reasoned limits) and my view is that if you can not debate with someone over a matter in a civil manner, you have no right to hold those views.