‘Twas Brillig*

I think Tux Paint, a kids drawing program, might be worth an install. Despite its name implying linux it claims to run on a large range of systems including Macs and (most importantly) Windows.

Final day in Weymouth - we had a great morning on the beach complete with a Punch and Judy show. We then had a little drive round Portland (with great views of chesil beach) - fed up with Dorset’s ridiculous pay and display charges (we only wanted a quick look), we drove into the car park by portland bill took a photo and scarpered. We then went for a little walk on chesil beach which is quite frankly enormous - although I suspect I was the only impressed member of the family.

In the afternoon we went to Lulworth Cove with the idea of then going to Durdle Door and someone (possibly with the initials SB ) suggested walking along the coastal path instead of driving. By the time we got to the top of the hill we were all unanimous that giving up was a very good idea.

First part of today’s trip was to Corfe Castle (a National Trust property - so effectively a free day). Corfe castle is a large set of ruins and practically ticks every box in my mental list of what a castle should be like - majestic ruins built on top of a hill.

The kids were also really happy to see the steam train running outside, although we didn’t go on it - maybe another time.

Today we went to possibly my favourite place in england. This was the first time the kids had been to stonehenge. #1 and #2 listened to the commentary - #1 being completely obsessed with listenening to all the extra information as well.

We also had a wander near the barrows - another ‘free’ day thanks to our NT membership :-).

I meant to drive back to the tent via the Cerne giant, but unfortunately whilst driving back I forgot :-(, oh well another year.

We had a day out today to Gulliver’s Kingdom (Matlock Bath, Derbyshire just over an hour away from Aldridge), it is a kids theme park and subsequently adult and child (90cm and over) tickets are all the same price, we had to pay for all three of the kids :-(. The eldest two really enjoyed themselves and want to go back, but I can’t help feeling £8.95 for a two year old who didn’t want to go on most of the rides was excessive - I can see the park’s point but a reduction for under fours would have been greatly appreciated. The site is really hilly - which we knew before we went - so there was a lot of effort exerted moving youngest and pushchair around. Next time we may go to the Milton Keynes park, despite it being nearly twice as far, it is newer and on a nice flat site.

I’ve just discovered local.live.com and sometimes the images are much better than google maps.

Aerial view of the first house I can remember living in, google maps can only show the whole of Cherry Willingham and virtually no detail.

Aerial view of the house I remember best from my childhood, google maps acheives roughly the same level of zoom but I prefer this one since it has the car I drive on it :-).

Aerial view of 2 Parker House where my grandparents (Partridge) used to live, google maps actually achieves a clearer image than this.

I know my grandparents (Bosman) used to live on Swallow Avenue, but I can’t remember where exactly, Google maps can only zoom in to the whole of Skellingthorpe.

My grandparents (Bosman) also used to live here. Google maps again can’t compete with this level of zoom and can only zoom into the whole of Wickford.

One of the harder bits of being a parent of young kids is attempting to not pass on your phobias which is why I was absolutely delighted today to be removing one of these from the kids play tent.

On other insect related news our youngest has been stung by a wasp; unfortunately the other two saw the wasp and started waving their hands around and screaming and he copied them.

I’ve updated the Bosman/Coy/Partridge/Packham* Ferris/Langstone** family genealogy pages with nearly everything I know - I need to add lots of source details and I want to rationalise the place names.

*My grandparents’ surnames

**Ruth’s parents’ surnames

For the third time in a year, #1 came very close to getting run over. This time he was running along a pavement close to home, on a street he has repeatedly been told to walk on, when a car which was reversing slowly off a drive bumped into him and knocked him down. Apart from a grazed ankle he is okay, I felt more sympathy for the extremely apologetic driver who was obviously well aware of the danger on his street. Hopefully he might believe us now that running on that particular pavement is dangerous.