http://wobblechin.zoomshare.com/2.shtml The Martins web: Blog Sat, 15 Aug 2009 02:46:03 -0500 http://wobblechin.zoomshare.com/2.shtml/6056c89f4232915ee4088add7205bc4e_4a8667bb.writeback Sat, 15 Aug 2009 02:46:03 -0500 In the past month we have been up and down to North Wales like loons. My father in law has been increasingly unwell and as a result we have had to move him into a care home nearer to us. Although this is nice because the boys can see more of him and vica versa,it has meant a lot of leg work literally and on the phone. I think ALexander learned more about Welsh language from my cursing and muttering than he would have through living there for a month!! Anyway,Jim is now living 20 miles from us so things should now be much easier for us all. What else have we been doing? When the weather permits we have been out out out! Walking for miles,going to the parks to let off steam,swimming etc etc. Alexander has been off all over with his camera and will hopefully have some good pics for his folder. Alexander has been spending a bit of time each week learning more about sewing machine repairs and maintenance,and using them correctly,this is something he is enjoying immensely.Although he could never make a good living from doing sewing machine repairs,I feel that the skills he is learning are easily transferrable into any part of life and that the experience in itself is extremely good for his confidence. Alexander has now achieved more than 30 open water dives so well done him! Academically we have been looking at maths and physics in relation to both diving and aerodynamics,and we have watched programmes such as ones about the Vulcan Bomber etc,and today we are off to AirBorne. Because it has been the summer holidays,we have slacked off so that Alexander can spend time with friends that are at school and kick back a bit. Alexander is booked in next month to complete his Makaton stages 3 and 4. He also plans to start at Sea Cadets. We will also be going to Hampton Court Palace next month so we have been talking about Henry VIII and whether he has been a misrepresented case in history. We are also going to go to a chocolate factory for a day and have a go at making yummy chocolate stuff and even better,we get to keep what gets made! OH YEAH!hehehe!! Vampires have also been a topic here lately,so I think Bram Stoker may well be next on our reading list. Our vegetables are doing well,the sweetcorn is hugely tall,pumpkins are little hard balls growing nicley,sadly we lost our cabbages to hungry critters during one of our trips to Wales :-( hey ho,the strawberries have been very generous this year tho Toby generally eats them all before anyone else gets a look in! Alexander is currently in the process of making a family of stuffed pigs from a pattern that he has had to cut out etc. He is also making me an oak chopping board from an offcut left from making my worktops. I think that just about covers it! This week Liam is in Abu Dhabi again,so we'll be doing alsorts as usual,and hopefully now things will settle into a less disrupted routine. http://wobblechin.zoomshare.com/2.shtml/aa958cd35c37cd5d4628a540ebfe655c_4a59a136.writeback Sun, 12 Jul 2009 03:39:18 -0500 Alexander has been spending more time with Henry learning about sewing machines,he has now helped with the restoration of a 128,a 28,and a 15k80 (all Singer machines) and watched an electric one be overhauled.This coming week he will be learning about a Jones machine which he is looking forward to. Alexander has been busily plugging away at making his quilt top and has been considering having a go at making himself some pyjama bottoms. Physics has been on the agenda again this week,mainly discussing why on earth we put all this research into projects that actually achieve nothing useful a lot of the time,or at least it can look that way! The vegetables are growing well,the radishes were and still are yummy,the sweetcorn is taller than Toby now! I've been re-upholstering the sofa which Alexander has found fascinating because I obviously have no pattern to work from,only what I see in front of me.Hopefully he is learning something from this even if it is just a bit of additional respect for his over qualified washing machine operting mother!! We are driving up to North Wales again on Thursday until Saturday to see Granddad Jim and meet with his social worker again,and while we're at it (weather permitting) we'll be pootling about electric mountain again and maybe visiting Aber Falls if theres time. Alexander has been looking at diabetic cooking and dietary restrictions. Better go,he's diving today off the beach. http://wobblechin.zoomshare.com/2.shtml/bf4e8c618c9b895b09ce3a81cf407fd7_4a4e5826.writeback Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:12:38 -0500 Today we spent the whole day with Henry Cade (he used to own Cade Crafts in Lewes and also worked for Singer for many many years). We took along a 96 year old 15k that at some point had been converted from a treadle to table top and then to electric. Henry spent 6 hours with Alexander today,they completely dismantled the machine,cleaned and scrubbed it,oiled it where necessary (pretty much all over!) replaced the base and cover and then Henry made Alexander re- assemble it with only minimal assistance. The machine looks and feels totally different to the one we took along this morning. Alexander has arranged to go back and spend next friday with Henry working on a different model,possibly an electric. Henry gave Alexander a book issued by Singer sometime ago that lists useful things like serial numbers so that you can tell when and where a machine was made and it also lists all the different models that have been made since 1880. It really has been a fascinating day that was well worth every minute. We also learnt a lot about the history of Singer (did you know they made vaccuum cleaners at one stage?) and one of their factories based in Clydebank. We also discussed a place called Binns Road in Liverpool which is where the Dinky toy/Hornby etc factory is. Again,utterly fantastic. We learned so much partly just because Henry was happy to tell all about his 66 years of working in this industry, and partly because he was more than happy to impart as much knowledge as he could but in the most practical way so it was interesting. He held Alexanders attention without any effort. Alexander has had the machine out and stitched a few bits already to help clean oil off of the stitching parts. Anyway,thats all for now!! http://wobblechin.zoomshare.com/2.shtml/b7d9f644a0cd8e310273310bcdb67058_4a4866f2.writeback Mon, 29 Jun 2009 02:02:10 -0500 We got back from north Wales on thursday last week,after doing something in the region of 1200 miles in 3 days.Square bums doesnt describe it!! Granddad is a poorly chap but we will do our best to help him to make things as easy as we can. We will have to be going back up there probably at the end of next week or beginning of the week after. We did take the time to go look at Caernarfon town centre and at the castle,and we also went to Llanfairpwll again. Another place we visited was Red Wharf Bay which sparked an interesting natter about its potential for smugglers. We drove home through the mountains as opposed to using the main road. Over the weekend we have been in the garden a lot,tidying up,watering etc and generally relaxing.Liams brother popped down for a flying visit to sort some stuff out,so we didnt do much else although Alexander did talk to hime about his Physics which cleared up a few areas that were confusing him. I spent yesterday making a lightweight Thomas The Tank Engine quilt for Toby because although it is warm,he needs something to snuggle under that isnt as heavy as a duvet.He is a happy boy.Alexander is currently deciding which style of quilt he wants to have a go at,and is also currently making a tea cosy (good practice on a sewing machine). Alexander made a chocolate cake last week,and also a lentil and cheese bake.Last night it was onion soup.....gawd help us all,a kilo of onions went into it..... http://wobblechin.zoomshare.com/2.shtml/9b524a4d3416b69937ebbbc205e546cb_4a3e7445.writeback Sun, 21 Jun 2009 12:56:21 -0500 On tuesday we're off up to visit Grand-dad Jim who is again quite poorly. We plan to also stop in at Llanfairpwyll to see the trains and friends who own a craft shop there. So,thats the major part of our week blown out of the proverbial window! Alexander has been baking again,he has made an orange drizzle cake (this was quite a thing for Alexander because he had to think on his feet ie we had run out of lemons but he didnt realise until he was well into the mixing process so when he said to me I said that if a lemon is a citrus fruit then is there another citrus in the kitchen he could use as a substitute,and he tried the orange) which was delicious,he has also made a triple layered chocolate cake with buttercream. Very nice. Alexander has been attacking my sewing machine again and is measuring and planning in preparation for making his bedspread. We are reading Sherlock Holmes at the moment and discussing what the social norms were at the time (made evident through the use of drugs by Holmes etc) and what are the norms today. This is proving to be a complicated subject area as it covers such a wide spread. We have also been talking about why disciplines such as Psychology are inexact subjects because humans are contrary!! Digestion and allergies have been an interesting subject too because Nicholas (now just on 9 months old) is weaning at the moment and because we make our won baby foods,Alexander was interested in how to tell if and what is causing any unwanted reactions. We have also been back on the subject of the Moon landings since we managed to get hold of an original Commemorative Lunar Landings Newspaper - this has also added to our discussions on social norms. Otherwise we have had a house full of family friends which has been nice,as I type,Alexander is being taught how to make a curry in a traditional Sri Lankan way. Smells fab!! http://wobblechin.zoomshare.com/2.shtml/42197c584cc5dc27ffe541940ec6d1d0_4a312109.writeback Thu, 11 Jun 2009 10:21:45 -0500 Alexander now has 24 open water dives!! Last weekend he spent at Brighton Marina diving again,which he thoroughly enjoyed. We are hoping that he will do some beach dives soon and not long after that we hope that he will start diving off of the boat itself. All this diving is helping ALexander with his St Johns badges,it is nice to see that organisations such as this permit 'outside' activities to count. On the home front,Alexander has been out in the garden a lot because its a shame to miss out on this stunning weather. Work-wise we have been looking at the history of submarines and are currently stuck on Leonardo Da Vinci's designs and the American War of Independence. All connected,honest... Alexander cooked a green Thai chicken noodle dish the other day which was very very tasty, photos to follow. He says that he is planning on cooking a paella but substituting the prawns etc for chicken. YUM! We have been discussing in depth the semantics used in day to day life as well as discussing the origin of spoken language. Heidegger ("language speaks man") has been hot topic here of late. My anthropological text books and a few sociology books have had a real thrashing of late! This has led us neatly into biology eg whether or not Neanderthals could speak and if not then why not? As a result,next month (because as usual we are combining it with an appointment) we plan to pop to the British Museum to look at the hominid section. The temporal tree has been of interest as a result of the afore mentioned discussions. Next week we have a family friend coming to visit who is always very good because she will attack a topic with Alexander and the ensuing chaos is always well worth it. The other day we had the first of our homegrown strawberries from the garden which was nice! We are also now looking into courses for Alexander through the OU (now we know who we need to talk to there!!) with a view to getting course points in partial substitution for GCSE's. Not 100% certain of a gameplan yet,so watch this space! We are also back on the subject of the environment (Mr Al Gore again...) mainly the topic of the practicalities of biofuel eg how can we possibly hope to grow sufficient crops to both fuel our modern lives as well as enough to eat? Hmmmmmmm think on that one eh?! This has led us back to nuclear power discussions. I really must try to sort out a visit to a power station. On the home front,I slipped some discs in my back (boohoo) so have been in quite a lot of pain but otherwise thats survivable. We have been busily extending the kitchen into what was the old downstairs bathroom,which has involved removing the old toilet,and a lot of jiggery pokery and now we are waiting for the boiler to be moved and replaced. Also,we took out 77 year old Singer sewing machine to be serviced and Alexander will be spending a day with Mr Cade soon too learn about servicing both treadle and electric machines. Thats enough for right now methinks!! http://wobblechin.zoomshare.com/2.shtml/d469e526085d09167d27c2158c24b1b6_4a200a6f.writeback Fri, 29 May 2009 11:16:47 -0500 The weather has been all over the place of late but despite this we have been quite busy. We now have 2 large (smallest is 6ftX2ft) raised vegetable beds which are both stuffed full of vegetables. We also have strawberries,aubergines,chives,tomatoes,pumpkins,m elons and sunflowers on the go in pots. Toby is very proud of his carrots and radishes,Alexander is doing really well with looking after all the stuff he is growing both in the beds and in the coldframe. Alexander spent 2 days over the bank holiday diving again,each time his confidence grows even further and of course he learns more each time too. He is diving again next weekend too. The paperround is going well and we have noticed a general improvement in Alexanders stamina as well as general fitness levels. We have done a bit of cooking,we made meatballs in sauce with spaghetti,beef burgers,pizza and some other stuff all of which turned out rather well! Currently the kitchen is out of commission while we rebuild part of it. The contents of the kitchen are in the dining room whilst the boiler is moved and the plumbing put in for a dishwasher (my lovely mother in law is to be eternally thanked for that!) and the kitchen sink is being moved and replaced prior to having the wall between the kitchen and the old downstairs bathroom being knocked through. All in all it will be a vast improvement and is a really interesting learning curve! Not long before lastn CHristmas we were given an old treadle Singer sewing machine (dated 1932) but because of a variety of reasons we had done nothing with it. Well,last week we took it to a gentleman named Henry who has been servicing and restoring sewing machines for over 50 years.Henry confirmed the age of the machine and was very excited to discover that it had all of its original accessories complete with their box,instruction manual and even its receipt!Henry serviced it for me and we went back to his workshop today where he very kindly spent a couple of hours with us teaching Alexander how to attach the machine head to the treadle and the drive belt to the heead and the treadle.Henry has very kindly offered to let Alexander go and spend the day with him learning how to service and restore machines. Alexander is very excited about this!! As I type,Alexander is in the dining room with some material scraps practising using the sewing machine and is planning making a lightweight quilted summerweight throw for his bed. Practical to a fault!! We have also been watching Jamie Oliver At Home on TV and discussing the recipes and techniques that he uses,Gordon Ramsey prompts discussions on cleanliness and good business practice! Teehee!! Alexander has also been considering taking up a course in Reiki. We'll see where that leads! We are also currently looking at the history of submarines and planning to make a scale model of K-19. Fascinating. Ida the hominid ancestor has been hot topic here too. I guess its fair to say that we've been far from bored and idle!! http://wobblechin.zoomshare.com/2.shtml/ef48811fe97bb660f5b06b19a5282532_4a0ab90e.writeback Wed, 13 May 2009 07:11:58 -0500 In recent weeks we have been watching C4's Kirstys Homemade Home which is about restoring and furnishing a house without using anything new where sensible and possible. This has fitted in nicely with our current focus on recycling,the environment and the human relationship and responsibilities to it. In the programme Kirsty highly recommends skipping ie looking out for stuff in skips. Well,Alexander has taken this on board,walking home the other day,he spotted a rather nice garden bench sat in a skip,so he knocked,asked,got permission and brought said bench home.In a garden centre it would be about £65+ so not bad. All it needed was a brush up,some tightening up and a treatment to preserve it properly - it is a 'rustic' eg wooden one and it has been neglected. It was the funnieslt walk home tho!! Safe to say Alexander isnt afraid to recycle and reuse!!! We have spent quite a bit of time discussing musical genres too,Mendelsson,Mike Oldfield and Tenacious D being examples. Anti-matter still very much on the discussion board as are other types of energies etc and all linking back to the environment. Alexander currently has a sinus infection so hasnt dived for a couple of weeks.Hopefully this will improve in time for Brighton Marina at the end of the month. http://wobblechin.zoomshare.com/2.shtml/ad378677303f641c98c6f8831a4da8c0_49ffe5a4.writeback Tue, 05 May 2009 02:07:16 -0500 Been a busy week and weekend in the garden again,we have been busily planting up things like our peas and cabbages,sprouts etc,and finally have our large pot of strawberries on the go! Alexanders potatoes are doing well,this is the first time that we have tried to do them in patio bags and it seems to work well. Alexander and Liam cleared a load of the remaining junk from the back garden but not the wood because they reckon that they can build us a new back gate with some of it and complete the two other small raised beds that we want to build. This would be good because then the raised beds will have cost us quite literally nothing but a bit of effort!! Not bad eh?! We also cleared and scrubbed the patios and sorted the hanging baskets out,I put my Love-In-The-Mist seeds in too so they should poke their heads up at some point.Liam and Alexander plan to spend next weekend re felting the shed and summerhouse roofs and sorting out my laptop (one intense IT lesson for Alexander methinks!!). Alexander helped cook roast chicken and couscous last night - another Jamie Oliver/Sainsburys feed your family for a fiver recipe and it was actually rather nice though we all agreed that things like black olives and possibly a parmesan type cheese might work well in it. One for next time. Other than that,we havent really done much that sticklers might regard as educational ie workbooks etc but that is because on wednesday last week we were on the train and some horrid person stole our baby chaanging bag which (among other things) contained my purse which obviously contained my bank cards,driving licence etc so all of this needed to be dealt with and it predictably took quite a bit of time.Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Oh yeah,Alexander and Liam had a go at making beef burgers......very very funny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! http://wobblechin.zoomshare.com/2.shtml/a406a84f66b102c74ae0bbbedfb18d93_49f70d25.writeback Tue, 28 Apr 2009 09:05:25 -0500 The past 2 weekends have seen a lot of activity in the garden (not that youd be able to tell from the condition of the front garden!!)ie we sorted through the left over and reclaimed wood from the rebuilding of the fences last year so that we could build a 2X1 metre raised bed for our veg and also 2 smaller ones next to it. We also went out to look at the differences between Cow Parsley and Elderflowers. We watch Hugh Fearnley- Whittingstall making Chsmpagne from Elderflower which is something Alexander now wants to have a go at!!!! Alexander and Toby made and decorated some cookies whilst it was raining.Alexander has been busily looking into anti-matter and also at the theory of magnetic bottles which has been an interesting one...not my field!! Thank gad for uncle Richard!! It has meant Richard Feymanns books have proved invaluable.