Andy's Blog

Sometimes someone captures the moment more succinctly in a cartoon than any amount of twittering, news breaking, or radio obituaries.

Genius cartoon by John Campbell over at Pictures for sad children

Sometimes I wish was 8 years old again… actually, *most* times I wish I was 8 years old again!

Although it does seem that nowadays kids are wrapped tightly in a blanket straight-jacket of Health & Safety rules that stops them from experiencing anything that even looks like being a little edgy; like putting up posters without goggles *gasp*!

So whenever the opportunity presents itself, we chuck our sprogs into whatever adventures come their way, like boating on the local reservoir.  It’s especially at times like these that I remember my own yoof.

…and yes, this does mean that if the kids drop any food on the floor our first response is to pick it up, blow away any floor based additions and place it back on the plate for them to eat.  If you raise kids in a sterile bubble, don’t be surprised at what happens when that bubble bursts.

Anyways, here’s our smallest enjoying his day out on the Reservoir.

Whilst the Sun is out and I am away from the Gym, to allow my wrist to recover from its recent battering at a Karate Tournament, I thought it would be remiss of me not to go for a pleasant stroll around the back of the Industrial Estate where I work.

Through an Industrial version of the wardrobe in the Narnia stories and you go from Industrial Estate, and all its pre-fabricated buildings, to nature at its wildest… or at least a British version of wildest where the most that will harm you are stinging nettles and thistles.

Listened to Alicia’s Attic as I casually strolled and put the iPhones camera through its paces, as can be seen below.

Blink and too many years seem to fly by without you even noticing!

Number 1 son has spent his first week away from home, in an adventure residential camp, is now taller than both his Aunt and Grandmother, has bigger feet than his mum, has a mobile phone and we are now going through the joy of purchasing his uniform for Secondary School.

What happened to the strawberry blonde curly haired child that used to sit in my lap, just before bedtime, and want to hear the Gruffalo yet again?

Of the course the rush to teenage’dom almost inevitably leads to the descent into Kevin’dom!  The mantra “must not throttle firstborn, must not throttle firstborn” seems to be the order of the day at the moment… The joys of parenthood!

Another weekend completed and another GKR karate tournament competed.  Very soon, if I keep this sort of thing up, I’ll become an old hand at this malarky … which is more than my hand will become as I have managed to damage it once more whilst laying it, with forceful intent, upon somebody else’s person.  Enough of that story though.

This particular tournament I was accompanied by sprogs #1 and #2 on their first steps into competitive posing, flailing and shouting.  Unfortunately they didn’t win any medals but I was HUGELY proud of the way they conducted themselves both during and after their time in the ring.  Teaches them an important lesson too, I suppose, that you can’t win at everything – which School seems scared to teach them, in case it damages their delicate psyche!

I, also, didn’t do very well at the individual level and was somewhat relieved that Sensei wasn’t around to see the woeful effort that was my kata… who swapped my feet with a 7 year olds when I wasn’t looking?!

This did give me the opportunity to go around and “ra-ra” from the sidelines as a fair number of my fellow Sensei’s did get their medals.  We were competing for Silver and Gold in both the male and female instructor levels!  What a dilemma; Who do you cheer for when you want both of them to win?!

(I have just noticed the judicious use of “we” in that last paragraph.  I think Sarah, Katie, Shaun and Daz actually probably managed their collective bling amassing without my aid)

However, what personally what made my tournament the more enjoyable was being involved in the Team Kumite.  It wasn’t the fact that we came away with a Bronze medal, it was the sheer look of joy and excitement in Ed’s voice when he realised we had gotten past the first round.  The exclaimed “We’ve never gotten this far before!” and huge grin were worth far more than any lump of metal draped around the neck.

Title Disclaimer:
When asking your son to remember the word “YAKP”, as you concentrate on something else, remember to tell him that it stands for “Yet Another Karate Post” and not get into a conversation about the colour, texture, smell and relevance of “Yak Pee”.

The 10 minutes of confused cross-talking that went on, and combined “you what?!” looks, is not something to be reproduced.