The Grand Opening

Hi all,

First of all - this is the last post I shall be sharing to facebook. This was mainly done to try and attract new readers and get more hits - but to be honest - number of hits on the blog is not the be all and end all of blogging unless you are aiming to get millions and make some money.

I'd prefer any comments relevant to the subject matter to be actually put on the blog rather than facebook - as at least I know then that the person reading them has actually read it! As opposed to casual acquaintances I've haven't seen for years making obtuse comments based purely on the title. The comments have more permanence then anyway as opposed to the here today gone tomorrow nature of facebook.

Speaking of which I am still trying very hard to wean myself off facebook - there are some things that I have to be on there for i.e. work and the racing game we do on Saturdays but the rest is a constant distraction for all the reasons I've blogged about many times before.

I've decided that I would much prefer to get back to traditional ways of communicating with my friends i.e. actually meeting them in the flesh for coffee, etc or having a good old chinwag on the old blower - and by that I mean the landline - remember them?

If you want to know when the blog is updated - become a follower if you are a member of this site (I have 9 at present) or if you are not a member you can click on the follow by email link to the side of this page. As it won't be promoted on facebook any more after today.

Anyway, on to the subject matter. This blog's been brewing all day - but haven't really had a chance to put virtual pen to paper until now. Claire's just back from a shopping trip so can keep the little munchkins at bay whilst I type. Don't have to cook tonight as Friday night is family fun night with takeaway. We will be watching a usual child friendly JTV offering - though Ollie is going to have to be quite brave tonight as we've reached a dalek themed episode. Now I think at 5, this is just about OK - you might disagree, but I watched Genesis Of The Daleks which was broadcast when I was 5 and survived and that was a pretty grim story. Anyway Ollie is quite good at self-censoring. If he decides it is too scary, he'll take himself off up to bed of his own accord. We can't go on watching CBeebies forever. Before that we've an episode of Worzel Gummidge which is perfect for kids his age and which he loves. I have all of them on DVD - OK they may be old (from the 70s) but still good.

So what am I blogging about? Well the housing estate behind us has finally finished, been opened up and the first tenants are moving in - I've already met one of them today and she seems very friendly, a lady with a 3 year old boy. These flats are sanctuary housing, so I think we will get quite a few parents with young children. It will be nice to have some other children in the street again as we are just about the only ones at present.

I had a good chat with her though some of what she told me was quite surprising. These are new eco houses - some features of which are obvious such as the solar panels on the roof, but she also told me about the smart electricity they've got in the house which tells you if you are using too much apparently. However, I was quite surprised to hear that they have all had to sign up to a number of rules and certain appliances are banned altogether - for example they are not allowed dishwashers! Now I think that is taking the eco thing a little far - surely it's up to the individual to decide. I'm sure there are worse polluting things in the world than dishwashers and they can't all be that bad, can they? Good job they haven't got any jurisdiction over us and the neighbours, things are a little more old fashioned over this side of the car park.

With the passage opened up behind the flats we were able to take a new route home from school today which took us down Priory Lane, and comes out directly opposite our house by the new play area. Here's a picture of the new way in - which is a public right of way so no battles such as we had over the secret door.

Where does that go, Daddy?

This was only opened up today and I'm pretty sure my children were the first ones to go down the slide. Jamie was fearless, straight up the rope ladder. This was a bit too much of a challenge for Ollie, who took the more sedate way up. Amazingly I got them both sat up at the top at the same time and as there are two chutes to this slide they were able to come down in perfect synchronicity. Here's a shot of them at the top all poised and ready to go.

Ready Steady Go!!!

The gates in and out of the park are very stiff so once you are in there with kids my age you are pretty safe they are not going to be able to run out into the car park.

One very amazing and unexpected bonus is the Wi-fi. Now I took my Note and phone over with me to see if our signal reached that far - not expecting it to. But I was amazed to pick up a signal - not that strong - about 2 bars out of 5, but perfectly serviceable - got on to a few websites and there was no drop in service. Now to put this into context here's a picture from the bench I was sitting on when I was using the Note.

Don't take the picture yet Daddy, I want to be in it.

As you can see this is a good 50 metres or more from our house (the white building), possibly more, and the router itself is right on the far side of our house. Very impressed that it works so far away. BT comes up trumps again so I will forgive them for going down for an hour the other night at a most inconvenient time.

The other thing I worried about was that we'd be a bit of a goldfish bowl - that's our kitchen window you can see but this isn't an issue at all - at least it daylight as the light reflects straight back - you can't see into the kitchen at all. As long as we put the blinds down at night before we put the lights on then our privacy is secure.

So - it's all looking good.

Busy weekend coming up. Tomorrow we have the French market coming to town, so shall we be there in the morning, and the afternoon shall be taken up by a party up at the Scout Hut, so plenty to look forward to.

If you have enjoyed reading this blog, please take a look at my books on Amazon (Paperback & Kindle), where you can read lots more of the same! Click here.

Jason xx