Recently in Holidays Category

Camp is over for another year.  It's 10:50 on Sunday morning and we've missed Church.  Woke up FAR too late.  I guess camp was more tiring than I thought.

What a great holiday it was too.  It was really inspirational being around other people who were so up for God.  I've had a realisation while being away too; I'm too shy on my blog about my faith.  Not that I'm gonna go all "wierd" (spelling just for you S & J!) but I'm going to try to be a bit more open about it.  After all, it is the reason this blog exists....had I not met Jon (thru Church), I would not be writing this here.

The real highlight of the week for me was the last night.  All the kids and team were sat in the lounge at Tower Wood and talking about their spiritual lives, both before during and after camp.  They were so open and honest and encouraging to each other.  Quite an amazing evening.

Other highlights were gaining my Safety Boat certificate!!!  Wahooo.  Thanks (immense) to Graham Cutler for his work in helping me to get this.  Also, taking the power boat out with Caitlin and Jamie on board and seeing their faces as we were battered by all the elements and the wake of the Lake police!

I still have no cable to add photos (sorry), but as soon as I do, there'll be an update...I promise.

TTFN

Hipp

Well

If anyone has been reading Sarah's blog, you'll know all about Jamie's little "accident".  If you haven't, check www.realyouth.net/chalkbored and then come back to read the rest of this.

We packed up our troubles in the Old kit bag and smiled (ish) all the way up to Tower Wood on Friday night.  This is the outward bound centre on the shores of Windermere where we help run "Motivation" (the West Runton revision camp).  It's been fantastic so far.  We have a really great team and some awesome kids to work with this week.  It's been quite different to last year too.  Last year, we were daily contemplating shorts and t shirts.  This year, the dilemma is how many layers to wear!  Yesterday, we were on the water in gusty conditions, in the middle of a snow storm.  Absolutely amazing and surreal at the same time.  Truly awe-inspiring place at any time of year.

Today's conditions were much calmer.  Still a really mixed weather day, but good fun on the water.  One of the team, Graham, is putting me through the RYA Safety Boat course during the week.  I currently have my level 2 qualification, but to be really useful, I need the SB.  It's good fun and quite a challenge too.

Today's final challenge was driving home after tea.  Jamie has a follow-up appointment at the hospital tomorrow, to see if any further treatment is needed on his arm.  I was fine until just above Manchester on the M6 when I suddenly felt REALLY tired.  I pulled into the services and asked J to just carry on watching his DVD while I caught a quick nap.  3 minutes later - I was good to go.  Gotta love power-naps!!!

Anyway.  Washing's done now, so time to put it out overnight and hit the pit.  Back up the M6 again tomorrow to see how things have progressed while we've been away.

TTFN

Hipp

Long time since the last posting (just for a change).  Lots has happened.

Jamie's 6! 

Can't quite believe it.  He's an absolute diamond.  Just hope he realises how special he is!  Anyway, he got his DS for his birthday and equilibrium is finally achieved in the handheld world of the Old house.  Special moment watching him and Caitlin "connect" for the first time.  I don't fully understand how this works or what it means, but they seem happy!  Rather worrying that I'm in the IT business and don't know very much about DS consoles.  Maybe I should rectify this after their bedtime???

We've had Easter

Really odd to have Easter so early, but it has and was a timely reminder of how amazing God's creation is and how graceful he is to us.  Amazing.  We spent Easter entertaining the Gooch's (well, they may not have found us very entertaining - cue a comment Brian!).  Great to catch up after SO long apart.  Highlights were definitely taking the kids to the parks in the "odd" Easter weather.  They are all SO funny.  I managed to encourage Sarah to let them a bit more loose and just see what happened.  What happened was Jamie managed to master cycling on his BIG bike and Caitlin managed to fall off, a lot!  Hilarious.

We then spent the rest of the bank holiday with the Mills', up in Stoke.  Again, great to catch up and just watch children interact.  We went to a farm and adventure playground and had great fun.  I'll pop some photos on in a future blog, when I remember to bring the cable home from work! D'oh. 

D'minished

Tomorrow, we lose the kids for the night and Sarah & I let our hair down in the O2 arena.  It's, sadly, the last Delirious gig with current drummer Stew Smith.  Really looking forward to it, and excited at the new direction the band will undoubtedly take.  Another example of how God has changed lives and continues to do so, through my favourite medium - MUSIC

Plastic Hats?

While writing this epic, I have been slowly transmogrifying.  It's become a bit of a tradition that I "highlight" my hair before embarking on a West Runton camp.  As we're off to Motivation a week today, and as I'm off with work for a few days next week, this was really my last chance to get it done.  Sarah has obliged with the treatment once again and in approx 10 mins, the big unveiling will take place.  Watch this space.

Well, that's it for now.  TTFN

Hipp

PS - struggled to categorise again Jon!!!

Yes

The holidays are indeed over for us normal working types (sorry Sarah!!!).  I duly returned to base for a day's grafting today.  Only for today though as tomorrow it's a day's holiday to take Caitlin to High School Musical on Ice with her friends from school.  While she's there with Sarah, I'll be off to the cinema with Jamie - definitely the better option in my opinion!

All of this was supposed to be nicely encased in a round trip by train by National Rail have conspired against us, so it will be by car instead!

Anyway, enough about the future, I must mention the past....

What a GREAT holiday!  Quality time spent with family and friends.  Kids really enjoyed their presents too which has been really nice to see.  We never actually stopped all holiday, but never felt like we were out of control.  Just happy being busy and busy being happy.  Thanks to everyone we have spent time with (however short) and made it such a fab time.

What next - after the day out - my long-awaited knee operation!!!!

Plenty of blog time then.

Hipp

Another GREAT weekend.

Firstly - if you're reading this, cheers Vicky for helping out this weekend- you're a star!

Ali Orchard (name in despatches - whoo whoo!) organised a weekend reunion for all who attended Motivation and Sail & Surf camps earlier this year.  The camps are all part of the West Runton Holidays organisation (feel free to click the links for more info).

Anyway - enough of the advertising - the reunion kicked-off on Friday night at 8pm.  It was at a venue called "Dukes Barn" in Beeley, Derbyshire.  Had the reunion been about 4 to 6 weeks ago, this would not have been a problem.  However, finding this place in the dark - well that's a completely different matter.  It's amazing that the smaller the village, the more possibilities there are for getting wholly lost!

Once we finally got there, the weekend was a great chance to reflect on the camps, catch up and spend quality time worshipping.  For a venue, it was great.  There was a lovely walk through the grounds of Chatsworth on Saturday morning - on the doorstep!  There was an abundance of fantastic food (cheers Ali!!!) so I can only assume that the catering facilities were very good? (I don't do cooking, so I can only base my opinions on culinary quality!)  We had the use of a games room and a good sized meeting room.  Then there were the bedrooms; family Old had the use of an 11 bed dormitory (13 if you were to include the annexe) and an en-suite shower room with 4 showers!

We popped to a local church in Baslow.  It was great - I reckon we doubled the congregation.  It was a really welcoming place.  Jamie and Caitlin felt 'big enough' to join the kids group - this being a Very Big Deal for them.  They duly marched back into church with their group and straight to the front to show what they'd been doing.  They had carved out a pumpkin - not for halloween, but as a Christian symbol.  The pumpkin represented the world.  The scooped out inside represented worldly sin and the candle in the middle was the light of the world.  There was still a face carved into the side, but a smiling face and some crosses too.  Cool idea.  The worship was a real mix too.  We had a burst of Great Big God and a selection of 70's songs from Mission Praise - I realised that this was an era of progressive worship that I'd really missed?

Well.  The weekend's over.  Half term is over.  Back to work & school and life continues.  I like the fact that we can intersperse our normal daily life with these glimpses of wonder and fun.

Makes me feel all dreamy.....

Hipp

Seems like an age ago now, but two weeks ago, we spent the weekend with the Mills'.

We trundled up there after Caitlin's ballet lesson on the Saturday and met up at Trentham Gardens.  Great to meet up again and to see how much our respective brood have grown!

What started off as a lovely afternoon suddenly took a turn as the heavens opened.  Luckily, there was a toy shop close to hand, so we were able to bleed the shop owner for some top tips on Scalextric racing!  This made Jon think - a dangerous game at the best of times.  He remembered having a load of old Scalextric stuff in the garage - that was to be the evening project!

Anyways, the rain persisted, so we moved on into the garden centre and played with the toys, looked at the globes, shocked ourselves stupid at the money some people are prepared to pay for garden furniture!!!  We also managed to make THE purchase of the day - - - an olive spoon!!!

Back at Jon & Lara's, we got the kids into bed and then onto the MAIN project - get the Scalextric working.  With the combined minds of 1, we got the track setup and powered up - only to find that only one car worked.  Bit of a shame, but there you go.

We spent the Sunday at the monkey park - again at Trentham and found it most interesting (read that bit in a posh voice - sounds better).  Really good fun and well worth the entrance fee.  We had an ice cream before we drew the weekend to a close and that's when Jon dropped his bombshell.  He wants to strat a band (Great).  He needs a bass player (OK so far).  He has some ideas for names (Yes). "GRANNY MECHANICS" ---- NOOOOO

TTFN

Hipp

Just got back from the hospital after (another) consultation about my knee. I've been referred BACK in 2 months to see if it improves any more! Apparently, the MRI scan didn't CONCLUSIVELY show a tear although my description of the feeling (discomfort, lack of real stability, etc) indicates that there is. Anyways, back I go in 2 months. If I'm still not happy when I go back, I can choose to either have a steroid injection to ease the pain (no pain mentioned, remember - just discomfort and lack of stability) or keyhole surgery to investigate further. I tell you, if I ever find the kids who wrapped that swing......

Ho hum.

Family holidays are officially over today. We returned from Sail & Surf (Windermere) via Shrewsbury to drop off a boat and then via Stoke to visit some friends. The next day, I took Jamie to Norfolk to stay with his grandparents for a couple of nights. 2 days later, swapped the kids in Wisbech (one for each other, with grandparents - not for other random kids!!!). Tonight, I swap Da (Sarah's grandfather) for Caitlin - again at Wisbech. Miles on the car, or what?

Sail & Surf was awesome. We had a great bunch of kids to look after and the weather was fab. Sun and wind - perfect combination for any watersports activity. I spent most of the week pottering around the water in a rescue boat. Caitlin tried her hand at windsurfing (photos to be uploaded to Flickr soon) and Jamie generally splashed around. Sarah was basically shore based, chatting with the kids that came in off the water for drinks and stuff. Really good spiritually too; had to co-lead a dorm group (group of lads - late night discussion group) and found it both challenging and rewarding doing God stuff with da boyz.

When I took Jamie to Norfolk, I popped to the D2DT field to see what was happening there. Great to see old faces (Ant, Yvonne, Tim, Sally, Mr Stanford, Maurice, Jean and others, too numerous to mention). Felt wierd being back there with no campers having missed it all, but there's life for you. Progress, huh?

Anyways, that's about all for now troops. Do get / keep in touch.

Hipp

derek@realyouth.net (oh the irony of the email address - old@youth - hee hee hee)

The second holiday starts TODAY!!!

We're off to Windermere again (hence the addition of photos to Flickr). We're going to Sail 'n' Surf week C. It's another West Runton camp where the kids get to learn the basics of sailing and/or windsurfing and learning more about God in the process.

It's all very exciting. I will hopefully have an entry to post when we get back and maybe some photos too.

See ya soon

Hipp

PS - The photo at the top is Stanley Kubrick - - not me!!!

Well ........

It was potentially a very damp week. The weather forecast was grim. Then....on Saturday, just before we set off, Sarah checked the Internet forecast and the big black cloud that had resided over Shepton Mallet for the whole week had transformed itself into a big bright sunny glow.

We stopped in Bristol on the Saturday night with my old mate Ben and his wife Wiz. What an awesome way to start a holiday. Great friends, great weather, great food! Thanks to both for making us feel so welcome and starting our holiday so well.

On we moved to New Wine. The kids were VERY excited (even Jamie, despite his apprehension of the presence of balloons). We rocked up to find most people already set up. Dear Jon appeared with a beer and we had officially arrived.

Jamie's fears were soon averted too; apparently they don't use balloons in the kids groups because of potential latex allergies! Yeah for latex!

It was truly a fab week. Chillin' with friends. Livin' the outdoor life. Hearing great speakers (Not loudspeakers, but the likes of Simon Ponsonby - inspirational stuff). Watching the kids singing worship songs. Roll on next year!

Now we're preparing for Sail and Surf C. Back to Windermere for more of that Runton stuff. Looking forward to spending more time with friends and chillin' on the water.

That's all for now. Watch out for developments here soon!!!......

Hipp

On the Saturday, we decided to go for a bike ride along the old Tissington railway line. Nice and flat, easy going and really good fun. Here's the visual evidence.

Apparently, Hannah is too small to ride on her own. I think Brian wished she could at times - the tag-along had chain-linked pedals; not always helpful!

Jamie was in his element. Master of his own destiny!

Happy man Richard - sporting a designer drinking system......

Caitlin loves her bike. Always wants to ride it at home.

The happy group take 1.........

.........and 2!

Stunning area.

The kids were great while we were away. They really like the camping scene which bodes well for future holidays. Sarah and I learnt something too.......how to play Canasta. Amanda and Brian were kind enough to teach us over a bottle of wine one evening. Then, in an example of extreme kindness, allowed us to beat them at it the following night - how generous. You can try to win back the honours next time.......

Toodlepip

Hipp