A big day for Tiger

No longer a Tigger, soon to be a Piglet - what huge excitement for a child of soon to be 4. But what great teachers he's leaving. Thank-you Jenny, Karen and Roisin for all the support, love and joy you gave our Tigger Tiger. He's loved his year and though his little face says it all about the excitement of moving on, you were each the right thing at the right time. And the Pacuare People's habitat has certainly benefited from your creative instruction, though the Pacuare Parents never got a look in on the take home krispie cakes, not ever. Afterthought - 16 hands, one bowl ...we'll take the artwork any day!

Maybe the sun will shine today

I hoped it would, and for much of the day it did. Unfortunately it was the "much of the day" portion spent at the office. The rain greeted me at the South Bank as I met the rellies for a ride on the London Eye this afternoon. Third time for me but still a joy to see London in landscape; a joy shared by the rellies more used to rashies, white sand and sunshine. Everyone should look up more when they walk the streets of London; there is so much to see that is more interesting than the pavement.

A song I love, from Wilco's Sky Blue Sky album (a true Pacuare fave) kept going through my head - "Maybe the sun will shine today" A very appropriate song for a family heading to Legoland tomorrow.

Clarkie Case Notes 1

Faldeos Nevados (snowy slopes); Bonarda 2004; Mendoza. Wine of Argentina. This wine can only be produced as result of carefully managed irrigation in an area of Western Argentina that exists as as semi-desert. Interesting wine today for three (loosely associated) reasons: 1. today I did actually witness, in the month of July (???), snowfall and hail stones from a capsule on the London Eye, and with much imagination could transport myself to a snowy slope; 2. carefully managed irrigation could work wonders for our flooded Pacuare Veg Patch; 3. the wine was enjoyed in conditions about as far from it's origination as could be imagined - snow and hail in July?? Anyway, the wine is rich and fruity and tasted great with Lasagne and a debate on the state of the NHS with our rellie nurse from Oz. A fine selection from The Wine Society of Stevenage (TWOS). The resident "tasters" certainly wish it had come in bottles of TWOS as our other bottle of the night failed to warrant record.

New babies

Today a dear friend of mine had a baby boy, actually, looking at the time I can see it was yesterday - 9.11am, on Tuesday 3rd July. Congrats to Kristie and Nick; welcome to Samuel James Mathers. Certainly a future lover of the great outdoors ...

The Ozzies- our week so far

As mentioned by Si (out goes the formality of Simon), our "rellies" arrived on Saturday morning, to rain. The rain has certainly been a continuing theme and luckily the jet lag and novelty of arriving in England (from chilled out, "life's a beach so grab your rashie", Samson, Perth) has yet to wear off. As a result everything we say and do is a Pommy inspired revelation and adventure; we are doing our bit for the rise of Pommy "barracking". In terms of things to do in the Woking area on a rainy day, with plenty of children: Wisley Gardens, the place still rocks on a rainy day and I applaud the new greenhouse (more so than Si - though Ms Crotchety "Wisley Whinger" did cause an enjoyment blip for me too); Mercedes Benz World (so cool if you are over 5 and happen to arrive on the day you can sit in the 316k Mercedes/ Mclaren SLK somethingorother with your two Ozzie twin-7 year old nephews); Nemo and the other fish at any garden centre that happens to tolerate browsing families on grey and grotty days; picnics under umbrellas (just keep the rolls dry and promise hot chocolate for when they get home); trains to London (children love trains, especially those taking them to a new place while they eat cake); Woking Lesiure Centre (the slides are worthy of any water park I've been to - not that I've been to many, though you can take your pick in Northern Crete); baking yoghurt cake and chocolate sponges; getting the neighbours around; music; laughter; story telling and wine. Gosh! What with outings, journal keeping, homework and creative ways of drying the laundry of 8, we've had a pretty kiddy happy 3 days - rain has not stopped play, yet!

Note1:

Regarding train travel; can we please place the "Bah Humbug to Children Travelling where I can see them" brigade in the same category as the Wisley Whingers. Five well behaved children looking out of a train window and giving an occasional squeal of delight is surely a sparkle of sunshine on a rainy day rather than a crime justifying further frown creases and angry whispers. If you don't want to travel with the future then please do enjoy a first class seat in the rush hour commute; a combination which is too cost prohibitive for a family outing to infiltrate your space.

Note2:
Have just re-read this missive - the statement "getting the neighbours around; music; laughter; story telling and wine" could become a "phrase of common usage" on Pacuare People. The short hand for such frivolity is TWS - the "Turnoak Wine Society". Plenty of TWS insights to come. It's the codename for a collection of like-minded friends getting together and having a good time. As for wine, tonight I can recommend the Buckingham Estate, Reserve Shiraz from Western Australia. I missed the "minty high notes" but the spicy berry fruit was there to savour; at a £3 discount from a certain chain supermarket I'm almost tempted to put down a bottle to "develop with age", though we don't seem to be very good at that in the TWS.

Note to self:
My next post will be short.

Pacuare - who, what, where, when?

Pacuare is the name of a very long, beautiful river in Costa Rica. It also happens to be the core of a "Coast to Coast" Costa Rica trip, run by various adventure companies, which I took in 2001. Cutting to the chase, a lot can happen in 6 years; specifically a meeting of hearts and minds and two gorgeous and fun (do I sense a hint of bias) children called Thurston and Freya (more on Nordic references at a later posting) - hence the Pacuare People blog, with a boy called Simon and a girl called Karen. Writing of boys called this and girls called that - a Pacuare music fave has to be Antje Duvekot and a personal fave for me is a song called Dandelion. Brilliant, though not if you're planning a land speed record around your local park. On a shuffle fuelled run her music and lyrics always distract me from the pace! As an aside, a song is about the only place a dandelion would find itself welcome in our Pacuare People habitat, thought I'll leave the gardening talk to Simon. And I am told entries are best kept short. I fear I got overly enthused with my first ever contribution.