Party

Been to a party this evening, Jake's piano teacher's 50th birthday party. In the tradition of all good parties, Jake played with the balloons, the dance floor was slow to fill, and Nicky danced with her Dad.

Jake took great delight in the football earlier in the day. Despite the fact that Spurs scored a great goal, Chelsea managed to win by scoring one goal that didn't go over the line and one that was offside. Methinks that was the end of any hope of champions league football next season.

Royal

Today has been spent mostly in front of the TV, taking in the spectacle that has been the Royal Wedding. And what a lovely day it was too.

It's been a long time since we last had a full on royal wedding to enjoy, and this one didn't disappoint. It had all of the right ingredients - a dashing Prince, a beautiful bride, a whole load of pomp, an abbey filled with music and ceremony (and trees too).

We even had the bonus game to play of trying to spot Mark on his horse, accompanying the processions back to the palace. We are fairly sure that we saw him a couple of times, having been back through the recordings of the coverage and done a little bit of freeze framing.

I approved of the choices of music at the abbey - great hymns, arriving to the wonderful "I was glad" by Parry, and a new anthem by John Rutter as an extra bonus. (At one point when the cameras were lingering over some dignitary or other arriving at the abbey, I was more excited to notice Mr Rutter heading for his seat.)

As I type this, the evening reception must be in full swing. I for one send my very best wishes to the happy couple - I think that this is the best thing that's happened to the Royal Family for a long time.

Bobby

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I had watched an episode of the Kennedys mini series on the History channel. Well, I have been hooked for the last few Thursday evenings, and tonight's was the final instalment.

Being the last one, it was therefore all really rather sad, as we watched first Jack and then Bobby come to untimely ends. The thing that really struck me was how Bobby, even more so than Jack, came across as the hero of the piece. How much of that was the writers exercising some poetic licence and how much is reality, I don't know. Makes me want to learn more about this amazing family.

How different the world might have been - twice over.

Topics

Two days done, and only one to go of this short week. The media are building themselves up to fever pitch about the impending wedding. I suppose we should do the patriotic thing and gather around the telly on Friday morning.

Not much to report from today. One of those got up, went to work, worked, came home, kind of days, and frankly from a blogging point of view, no-one wants to hear about that, just too boring. (Most exciting news from today being that we parted with alarming amounts of money for our Orlando flights in the summer. Not thrilling in itself, but must mean that the holiday is getting closer.)

Which brings me on to today's topic: topics.

Over the last three weeks, I was able to write a little bit about the day, but was safe in the knowledge that I could rely on my "on this day last year" theme to give me something to write about. Similarly, over the coming weeks there's lots to look forward to, and lots of things that will give me ample blogging material.

But, what of the went to work, came home, days. I could do with a theme for posting about.

Any suggestions welcome.

My best idea so far is to use it as a way of gathering material for my book. My specialist subject is obviously all things WDW-related, and I was thinking of picking a WDW topic and writing a brief piece about it for the blog. Those pieces could then be collated, updated for comments from my loyal, if small, readership, and bundled together to produce my bestseller!

What do you reckon?

Tuesday

It's been Tuesday all day today, but bank holiday confusion has had me thinking that it is Monday. Then again, maybe I should think of it as Wednesday, as there are only two more days until the end of the week.

All too confusing. Still, I could definitely get used to the idea of three day weeks and four day weekends.

Wingham

Bank Holiday Monday today, and so a trip out was called for, especially as the weather has continued to be lovely.

As was the case for Friday, we were up at a decent time, the dog was walked, and we were on the road before half past nine - a not unimpressive achievement for my family.

The destination today was Wingham Wildlife Park, which is a few miles past Canterbury on the road towards Sandwich. Nothing like as big as the nearby Port Lympne or Howletts, it was nonetheless a super day out, with lots to see. There were tiger cubs, recently arrived from a zoo in Belgium, meerkats and prairie dogs ducking in and out of their holes, but the show-stealers were the lemurs. We were able to walk through their enclosure and really see them up close. Some had babies attached who had only been born on Saturday.

There were even a few peacocks patrolling the grounds, and as a sign of just what a good time we had, none of them attacked Nicky!

Took hundreds of photos. Here are a select few.

Easter

It's after 8pm on Easter Sunday and I haven't eaten any chocolate yet today. However, I am confident that this poor state of events will be rectified before bedtime!

Went round to John and Margaret's for roast pork today (Hello Nanny and Granddad - I hadn't realised that you read this until you started calling me Rodney today - sneaking the link to here into your shortcuts was obviously worthwhile after all!). Jake successfully completed his Easter Egg hunt, finding chocolate bunnies along the way, and a cash grand prize.

After lunch we played a bit of swingball in the garden - Jake beat me.

Back here we've not been up to much. Tried out hoovering the garden with the garden vac that Nanny brought round when she returned Jake. It does a great job of picking up the dreaded catkins.

Finished off uploading the photos from our day trip to London on Friday, so here are a few from Regent's Park.

Home

Well, today is the last day in the recent series of looking back to this day last year, as 365 days ago we departed from LA, a week behind schedule, and returned to the UK. We'd had one of our very best holidays ever, and questions continue to be asked about when we might be going back. Lots of things that we want to do again, lots of places that we would like to spend a little longer in, and lots of new places still to be explored.

I've started to upload some pictures of our day out yesterday, and here are some highlights from the museum. They are: the Rosetta Stone, a statue from Easter Island, a two-headed serpent from Mexico, and the Sutton Hoo helmet.

As for today, we've been over to Owen's for a barbecue. A good time was had by all, and I've sat in the sun for far too long and had far too much to drink!

By the way - just noticed on the BBC news site that John Sullivan passed away today. Really sad news. I love Del Boy and Rodney, great characters. As some members of my family seem to find entertaining, I even know all of the words to their theme song, and take great delight in singing along when it comes on!

Good

Well that was a Good Friday.

We were all up early (for a non school and work day), the dog was walked, and Miff's patented fruit smoothies were enjoyed by all. Then it was off to the station, and onto the Ebbsfleet express - the first time for Jake.

A quick cab ride from St Pancras and we were at the British Museum not all that long after it had opened. We did a pretty impressive effort at seeing its most famous wonders. Pictures to follow when I have got round to doing some transferring from the camera and uploading to flickr.

Once we'd had our fill of the museum, it was another cab ride to a sandwich shop near to Regent's Park where we stocked up on picnic goodies, and then went and crashed out in the park for a while.

Fortified by food and a rest, and having been watching everyone else having fun, we joined the queue for the boating lake, and in the end decided to go for a rowing boat rather than a pedalo.

I can officially confirm that none of us are any good at rowing, but we had lots of fun anyway.

After another pitstop for a drink, we enjoyed some more of the park, before heading down to Regents Street, where we found ourselves some dinner. We even had a trip to Nike Town, where, to my great relief, we managed to get in and out without having to spend several hundred pounds on trainers.

Cab back to station, train back to Ebbsfleet, collect the dog from her second home on the way back, and here we are.

A good day had by all, and as I said, pictures to prove it to follow in a later post.

As for last year, our extended holiday was drawing to a close, and we took in the Disney parks for one final time, enjoying the Aladdin show again. In the evening we went for a meal with Henry and his parents at Bubba Gump's. The local police were there raising some money. We nearly persuaded them to take Jake away, but in the end they insisted on giving him back.

Finally for today, I've not forgotten that it is an important day in the calendar, and so often with me it is the words that are set to music that touch me. The Servant King is a beautiful hymn, and for me, the middle verses say it all.

There in the garden of tears

My heavy load He chose to bear

His heart with sorrow was torn

Yet not my will, but Yours He said

Come see His hands and His feet

The scars that speak of sacrifice

Hand that flung stars into space

To cruel nails surrendered.

Off

That's it - I'm off.

The good news is that, like lots of others, I have 8 of the next 11 days off, thanks to the wonders of consecutive four day weekends.

We celebrated this good news with a Chinese takeaway this evening, and have plans for a day out tomorrow. Watch this space for more details.

As for last year, today was the day of my magical mystery tour of LA, which kicked off at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, moved on to Hollywood Boulevard, and finished up at the Getty Center.

Happiness

Jake and I have just watched the second half of the North London derby. Spurs came back from a 3-1 deficit to draw 3-3. Good viewing, if a little tense, and the quality of the White Hart Lane entertainment bodes well for Jake and my trip there next month.

I got an email from my old college today. They get in touch with me from time to time to let me know what is going on and to invite me to various events. I never go, but it's nice to be included! This one was about a forthcoming event to discuss the topic of happiness - inspired, I think, by the Prime Minister's plan to start measuring it soon.

The invitation included a rather splendid quote, from Robert Kennedy.

"The gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile."

As for our look back to last year, having enjoyed a busy day at Universal on the previous day, we bimbled about in the Disney Parks, doing some animation classes, and taking photos of Jake with each letter of the California sign at DCA (which subsequently worked out splendidly in the holiday photo book).

Oh yes, and one other thing - I finally finished off Sebastian Faulks's "A Week in December" last night. Turns out that it's not the fundamentalists we need to be worried about, it's the hedgies.

Meetings

Today I was in London for the morning. I had a meeting in our newest London office. The meeting rooms and client areas are all suitably impressive for an organisation such as ours, but I have to be honest and say that they really don't do anything for me.

Today's meeting went fine, but I think that this stems back to previous experiences. The very first time that I went there, I ended up being taken rather ill and spending the rest of the week in hospital. Then, last Autumn, those meeting rooms were the location for my "interview" panel, which really did go quite spectacularly badly. To top things off, I think that my allocated meeting room for today was the same one that I was left waiting and stewing in prior to my grilling last year. Ah, happy memories.

Still, the weather was lovely today, and so after my meeting, rather than heading straight for the train home so that I could get back here and continue working, I took a brief detour and sat in the park for twenty minutes or so. To prove how nice it was, here is a picture.

(Picture uploaded in rather odd way. Can't for the life of me remember how to take photos directly from Palm to Mac so have ended up emailing it to myself and uploading from there!)

I wasn't the only one enjoying the nice weather today. Nicky, Jake, Barley and Nanny & Granddad headed for the coast, and to prove it, here is Barley going for a paddle.

As for last year, this was the day on which we decided we would take advantage of our extra time in California with a trip to Universal Studios. Originally we had concluded that there wasn't enough time, but with a whole extra week, we couldn't resist. Besides which, Jake got to have his five minutes of fame in the Animal Actors show.

100

My boss is flying off to Florida with his family tomorrow morning. Am I jealous? Well actually, yes I am (or maybe I am envious - I'm sure Mum told me a very long time ago that one shouldn't be jealous of others, but that being envious was a bit more acceptable?!).

I really shouldn't be jealous or envious. Whilst, shock horror, it has been over a year since our last visit to The Happiest Place on Earth, I should also remember that since then we have also enjoyed our California trip, including The Place Where It All Began, as well as our rather lovely Med Cruise. Then, to top it all off, today marks 100 days until we return - to visit our New Home (Bay Lake Towers) as well as a return to Animal Kingdom Lodge.

So, I suppose, all things considered, we're not too hard done by!

(Oh yes - and we'll be back again for Christmas. Lodgings yet to be confirmed, but I'll be on the phone just as soon as our seven month booking window opens.)

Jake had an appointment at the hospital today. He'd been referred by our GP a while ago. Nothing serious, but one of those things that are worth a "just checking" kind of visit. Judging by the reports I have received from both Jake and Nicky, they encountered an extremely nice and extremely good doctor, who has successfully reassured both mother and son (and following the receipt of reports, father too!).

On this day last year we were moving! We managed to extend our booking in the truly lovely Grand Californian Villas for a few nights, but at this point we were moved over the road to the Paradise Pier hotel. I think that we probably could have stayed at the Grand Californian for the rest of our stay, but we couldn't use DVC points, would have to move from our villa to a regular room, and would have been putting $400-500 a day on the credit card for the privilege. By moving across the road, we got to try out another Disney hotel (OK, not in the same league as GC, but still pretty nice) and were able to pay in points rather than in dollars.

We still spent most of the day round the Grand Californian pool, so that Jake could play with Henry, and then we went for a meal with Henry and his Mum & Dad in the evening. It may have been at this point that Nigel was getting excited about a plan to get us home that involved renting an RV, driving coast to coast, and finding a passage home on a transatlantic cruise. Now that really would have been an adventure!

Tickets2

Today was Jake's team's last game of the season - delayed from when the season should have ended due to the snow and icy conditions before Christmas. We'll gloss over the scoreline from the day, it's for the best. I could also comment that Jake played the full 60 minutes, but that turns out to be less impressive than it sounds when I also tell you that there were only 11 boys there this morning!

We will have to wait and see what happens next season, as there are mutterings of change taking place. Still, they are carrying on with their Thursday evening training, so hopefully that will help to keep the team spirit up across the summer.

After football we stopped off at the supermarket to get BBQ food, and then enjoyed lunch al fresco, although we did get dive-bombed by the catkins a fair amount.

We've just been on to the Olympics website and put in our request for tickets for next summer. We've requested tickets for both the opening and closing ceremonies (the £20.12 ones) as well as tickets for loads of events - athletics, table tennis, diving, cycling, football ... We've requested tickets for every day from 4 - 12 August - we'll be pretty worn out if we get all of them!

On this day last year, we found ourselves still in LA, which was not in accordance with plan A. We spent most of the day by the pool at the hotel, soaking up the rays. Nicky proved herself to have considerably more of the gift of the gab than me - I tried to get sympathy from the Disney people in getting an extension on our park passes, but didn't have much luck, so Nicky went to talk to them and we ended up with tickets covering the rest of our stay for a few dollars each!

In the evening we went out to a restaurant in Downtown, and shared the biggest pizza in the world.

Tickets

Just been watching the FA Cup semi final between Man City and Man Utd, and City have made it through to their first final since 1981. Given the teams in the other semi, City have to be favourites now, and so maybe they will manage to go one better than the last time ... and we all know what happened then.

In other footballing news, our Spurs tickets arrived in the post today. Jake and I will be at White Hart Lane for the last day of the season to watch Spurs against Birmingham. Turns out that our (executive box) tickets also come with a car parking pass, although we may still get the train - we'll have to see nearer the time what we fancy doing.

Had a pretty lazy day at home today - still trying to finally shift this cold - I think the patience levels in the rest of the family are running dangerously low now.

On this day last year, we were supposed to be flying home from LA, but thanks to the ash cloud, we had a fairly stressful day on the phone to the airline, on the phone to home and to work, and sorting out extensions on our accommodation and car hire. Once all of that had been done, we didn't fancy going to the parks and ended up going bowling, popping to the shops for more supplies, and having a quick dip in the pool.

In amongst all of the excitement, we only managed to take one photo on this day (on Nicky's iphone) unlike the 100+ we were averaging on other days. It is a picture of to record the fact that there was a Johnny Rocket's at Garden Grove (where we'd gone bowling), not that we actually ate there - we'd been to Denny's!

Friday

Thank crunchie it's Friday.

Too tired for blogging, so will have to make do with some pictures from this day last year.

Kennedy

Just watched an episode of the Kennedy miniseries on the History channel. Good stuff, even if it is entertaining to see the chap from the Full Monty playing the President's Dad!

Been on one of my day trips to Brighton today. Back to the office tomorrow, and then the weekend will be here. (Only one more day of having to put up with Madeley on the radio in the morning. Come back Chris!)

On this day last year we had our trip into LA and to the Staples Center to see the LA Lakers.

Lost

Went out for a meal with colleagues this evening. Meant that I missed the Spurs game, but probably just as well seeing as we lost 1-0 when we needed to win 5-0 (and Jake tells me that the goal was thanks to a bit of a goalie howler). So it's farewell to the Champions League for this season, and I'm not entirely sure if we will be back there next time round given some of our recent league form. Mind you, it might just be a very tense trip to White Hart Lane on the last day of the season if we need to win to finish in 4th again ...

On this day last year I was also suffering for being a Spurs fan! I decided to wear my football top into the theme parks, and then was ribbed by a family of Portsmouth fans also wearing their team's colours. A couple of days previously Portsmouth had beaten Spurs in the FA Cup semi-final.

Cold

Not having a whole lot of luck shifting this cold at the moment - I am a snot monster!

So, best to focus on April 2010 rather than April 2011 for the time being. On this day last year we were able to enjoy our first full day in Anaheim and took full advantage of both Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure.