School Choice

I got a text today telling me what school Lucy will be going to at the start of the new year. It was most welcome and at last I feel I have been included in her a little bit of her life that was closed to me. It is a good start, although I still need some basic information that is still lacking, such as which Doctor she is registered too, etc, but hopefully this is a start. It was nice to be told even if I didn't have a say.

Having looked at the school website, it looks like a good school with good ideals and a good Ofsted grade. It seems as good as the school that her sisters went to in Rutland. Her mummy has made a good choice. The next thing for me to do is to make sure I am included in her school life. I want to be involved in as much as I can. This includes parents evening and school events. I want her to know I am their for her as much as I am for her sisters.

M is for Music - David Bowie

Continuing the theme of live music from last week we have another of the artists I have seen live over the years that were as good in person as they are on record we have David Bowie. Now past his peak but when I saw him he was still in prime.

I saw him at the old Sunderland Football ground, before they built the new Stadium of Light. It was an amazing show and the atmosphere was simply fantastic. After a couple of supporting acts David came on and the place became alive. It was just amazing to be there and to here him sing and perform classics as well as newer songs from more recent albums. 

Now his voice like many of his generation has lost that edge and power it once had, but all the same, I would love to see him perform again in a smaller venue, and for those big numbers we have loads of live recordings of his shows.

Out in the Village

Here are a few of the pictures form my walk around the village with Lucy this morning. We had a lovely walk and ended up in the village park before returning home.

I'm hoping when the weather gets better I can spend some mornings enjoying the warm sunshine and get some more photographs of the village to publish in the blog.

Last Day of the Holidays

Well, it is the last day of the Easter School Holidays for the girls and I have had a smashing time with them all. It has just been lovely to see so much of little Lucy and her big sisters. It just makes us feel more like one family which is what I wanted for all of them.

In contrast to the dark cloud of the evening before the day started sunny but cold. For once I was up first, I had set the alarm to make sure that Lucy didn't sleep, and as soon as I was out of bed I went to wake Lucy from her slumbers. Soon we were downstairs snuggled in the chair with all her things as we both woke up watching MilkShake on Channel 5, until I cooked us both some breakfast. Lucy ate hers while watching Inspector Gadget and I just caught up with the morning news.

After breakfast I got Lucy dressed and we popped out into the village for a walk and to find some horses. Given how the day developed yesterday, I thought it would be best to make the most of the morning sun despite the keen wind. With us we took some carrots but in the end we never found a single horse we could get near enough to feed and so Lucy ate the carrots as walked along. It was so nice just to spend some time with her and take some pictures along the way. Other than the horses we found some pheasants, sheep with lambs, the odd horse rider and of course people walking their dogs. We walked all over the village and only place we missed out on was the church where the Sunday service was going on.

We ended up in the village park, which was part of the plan if the sun kept shinning. Lucy just let rip when she got into the little park and started by doing the trim trial. There was no stopping her. She can do it all now accept for the rounded log were she is still a little unsure of her footing and still needs a hand for confidence, but it won't be long until she has mastered that. The newer part of the trim trial is that little bit to big to big for her at the moment but she tries her best with a little help to get across it. As for everything else well she tried them all, but what she seemed to enjoy most was watching some larger boys on the their scooters on the skateboard ramp, clearly eyeing up tricks for the future. In the end we had to leave and finish our walk and return home. We had been out for hours.

When we got home Emily and Catherine were both up and in the family room, and they had been joined by Emily's friend Milly who was here to play on the X Box with Emily. Lucy loves Millie and soon she was sitting next to her chatting while the older two girls played their games. I had a coffee before I headed out with Lucy again, this time to the supermarket to pick up some food for lunch and dinner. The shopping didn't take too long as we whizzed around the supermarket and returned home. Soon Lucy was back sitting next to Milly, while I made some lunch with Catherine in the kitchen helping me. Catherine is really taking an interest in cooking bow and it is so nice to be able to teach her what I know.

After lunch the girls got on with making the most of the time they had left with Lucy, with Millie joining in. Just before the rush started Emily headed out with Millie and she said her goodbyes to Lucy until next time. Soon we were getting Lucy ready to return, I gave her a bath, did her hair and made her look as lovely as possible and after a quick play we set off for the city. Lucy sometimes has a 20 minute nap on the way to the city but I was instructed by her mummy she shouldn't sleep, and Lucy had a sour face on her all the way and didn't say hardly a word. Soon she was dropped off and after wishing her mummy a good holiday I left the city.

What was lovely was coming home to the sound of the song birds singing their early evening songs, it just reinforced what I like about living in a village. The house felt strange without Lucy, but that's not a feeling that will ever go away, I guess. It also seemed quiet and the older two girls were rather subdued, but that will pass in time as we roll on into another day.

After a cooked meal the girls go on with getting ready for school in the morning and catching up with friends. It was during this time I found I had a text asking if Lucy had a sleep in the car. It appears she said she had to her mummy. I replied she hadn't and in fact I had actively trying to wear her out. It just seemed strange that Lucy lied when she didn' need to. I wonder what we have done to her to make her tell fibs. Anyway, the girls did there thing until bedtime and went off to the land of nod and the house fell quiet.

I can't say how fantastic the Easter school holidays have been in someways. It has been so great to be with Lucy, Catherine and Emily. It has been nice to have Lucy for so many nights. It feels like she is one of the family again rather than a casual visitor, something that has been missing since last June last year when her mummy moved out of the area.

I love her and her sisters with all my heart. I never wanted this for them but at least over the holidays we had some extended time with her and that is something to be thankful for. The next, however many days, before we see Lucy again will be hard, but we will get through them. I just hope she has a lovely holiday. She is a special girl, like her all her sisters and I love them all to bits.

RMS Titanic

Over the recent months a lot interest has been shown by the press into the story of RMS Titanic which struck an iceberg on 14th April 1912 at 23:40 (Ship time) and sank at around 02:20. Of course many of us have seen films, television programs and some of us have read books about the subject, and for some reason this tragedy has touch many people more than most.

At the time it was hailed as the "Worst Ocean Disaster in Worlds History" with the loss of 1,514 souls, including some of the wealthiest people in the world, when the ship sank. The ship itself  was the last word in comfort and luxury, with an on-board gymnasium, swimming pool, libraries, high-class restaurants and opulent cabins. She also had some of the most advanced safety features including watertight compartments and remotely activated watertight doors. The there was just one thing she lacked, enough life boats to carry all the crew and passengers, although she was designed to carry 64 lifeboats only 16 where carried by the ship.

A lot has been made over the years about the lack of lifeboats on the Titanic but it has to be remembered that at the time, the Board of Trade's regulations required British vessels over 10,000 tons to carry 16 lifeboats and in that respect the Titanic didn't break any regulations. The fact that she was designed with space for more lifeboats shows the company that built her were thinking of the future. The thing was that at the time lifeboats were intended to ferry survivors from a sinking ship to a rescuing ship, not carry all the people on the ship. That was later to change after Titanic sank when passenger liners were required to carry more lifeboats and carry out regular lifeboat drills. 

Another of the advanced features carried by the Titanic  was a powerful wireless telegraph. This was provided for the convenience of passengers as well as for operational use of the ship. In the end it proved to a life saver. It also gives us one of the few factual records of what happened that night minute by minute as the operators tapped out messages to the other ships that were in the area, The value wireless telegraph system installed can be seen by Britain's postmaster-general comments when he said while referring to the Titanic disaster that, "Those who have been saved, have been saved through one man, Mr Marconi...and his marvellous invention."

One of the big controversies of the time was why the SS Californian, which was a few miles from the Titanic, never picked up the distress signals from the Titanic or responded to the distress rockets. If it had then the number of people lost would have significantly lower. It took over two hours for the ship to sink which should have allowed many of passengers and crew to be transferred to the SS Californian. As it was the it was the RMS Carpathia, who after hearing a distress signal, made it's way to the sinking Titanic, only reaching her last know position after she sank. She was over fifty miles away when it arrived it went about picking up survivors. Much has been written about why the SS Californian had failed to go to the assistance of Titanic, but it remains a fact that if the wireless telegraph on the ship wasn't manned during the night thing might have been so different,

As you can imagine after such a disaster there were investigations in to the sinking of Titanic in the United Kingdom and in America. The findings of both sets of investigations had a profound affect on the safety of passenger ships for years to come. To give an idea the level detail the investigations went into the American enquiry lasted 18 days, heard the testimony of 86 witnesses and produced a 1000 page transcript. Recommendations included the manning of radio telegraph equipment twenty fours a day on passenger liners, increasing the number of lifeboats, the implementation of lifeboat drills, the setting up of International Ice Patrols and the harmonisation of safety regulations internationally. Both investigations also found that the captain of SS Californ had acted improperly in failing to come to the aid of the sinking ship.

The fact that we are remembering this disaster one hundred years on show how much it has become part of our folklore. The whole story has captivated generation after generation, produced book after book, and made it to the big and small screen. It is a story that will continue for another hundred years.