It's been a while since my last post....I've been doing all the usual stuff, plus studying - here's an essay I have just written for my English language course.

Accidents

Accidents are common place in everyday life, from cutting ones finger on a sharp food tin, to tripping up a badly laid paving slab in the street. It is said that the most common place to have an accident is in your own home, I guess, this is because we have our defences down, not expecting to walk into an open draw or trip over a discarded wellington boot! The accident and emergency departments of hospitals up and down the land, could fill a book, on a daily basis, with the tale of domestic dangers galore.


I personally, was an extremely accident prone young boy. My mother would remark that “Your file at the Brook” the local hospital, “Is as big a phone book”, in reference to just how many times I made a visit. It’s a shame that the mid 70’s to early 80’s, were before the introduction of the loyalty schemes’ now employed by so many organisations. I could have paid for the family to fly down to Spain with my ‘NHS points’! The most notable of accidents, was when I was around 4 years old. We were visiting an uncle, who lived not far, in a block of flats - which come to think of it is irrelevant. When we arrived, I insisted on walking along a short brick wall that surrounded the flats, about 3 feet in height. This was all going well, until I fell of the wall. Not content with the damage that ensued from the fall, I then proceeded to roll underneath a parked car, slicing my chin on the rear bumper. So, another tick in the the Brooks’ visitor book for me!.

I try and be less clumsy these days, however it seems that the eldest of my two sons rather takes after me in this sense and often has to be reminded of impending dangers, such as the aforementioned cupboard doors and discarded Wellington boots. I think that despite societies protestations, there will always be a place for ROSPA (the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents), to spread the word of accident prevention.

Long division......really long!

So, evening or indeed, afternoon *delete as applicable.......  here comes another load of waffle about my life in the time since last I blogged.

A week's a long time in politics it has been said, and an even longer week when you have prepubescent small people in your house! bless him (!) our eldest continues to struggle with his emotions, blowing hot and cold.  It requires diplomacy of a level normally displayed by Kofi Annan and other high ranking UN officials....I'm sure I was as bad if not worse at his age, so best not to throw stones etc!

The thoughts uppermost in my mind, have been the need to get a regular study routine in place for my three GCSE's.  As I'm sure I've said, I am prone to procrastination (get on with it!) and need to get over this and the worry that I have bitten off more than I can chew.....must focus my mind on the fact that I have a better than average ability to retain information, and that this will see me right in my endeavours.

But lord almighty, how hard is the maths! I think I'm probably putting it on an educational pedestal, but I am struggling to get my grey cells round it. I've been thinking that it is a "pure" subject and, unlike the science and English language, is not really attached to anything specific at the moment.  I see it more as a theoretical thing, rather than practical......I'm sure this will come to pass.

Anyhoo, I am getting used to the new work/home balance that I have now, not working Monday, having a shorter working day on Tuesday and then knocking out longer days on Wed-Fri.   The boys seem to have got used to me being around more, and the difference between mine and mums ways of doing things.

I'm still doing my running, and really starting to get into my stride, excuse the pun.  This week I've been out twice, each time a 5 mile run, the second of which was a longer Thameside route, taking me from Borough High St to Lambeth Bridge on the south side, then over to the north side and back along, using Southwark to get back south, and then to the old office and a hot shower!   I'm hoping to apply for a half marathon around June, which I hope I can complete in around 2.5hrs.

Going to finish now, just a quick advert for any generous souls reading, my wife is training for her 3rd London Marathon in April, and is raising funds for two charities, please click here to read more and donate if you possibly can.

Cheers dear reader

3 weeks of January.......

So, almost at the 2nd month of 2011......what's happened then?

More running, as you can see to your right, that's it, there, I'm keeping track of the mileage I do. It's great fun, and helps keep me sane! and also keeps the flab from gathering.

I've been running this week with an ex-work colleague, it's great to run together, we get to catch up, over lunchtime, and even better, I get to use the shower afterwards.

Today, we ran from the office near London Bridge, over Southwark Bridge and then follow the river up to Westminster, then turn tail and head back. It was a perfect day for it, sunny with a bit of a chill in the air I took this pic.......excuse the bendy lamppost, hard to take a steady pic when you're on the move!

So, I've got my GCSE's underway (you remember, retraining to be a primary teacher....see this post) and it feels good to be on the path, Maths will be my nemesis I'm sure, English/Science seem to feel more easy, maybe because they're not a "pure" subject like Maths. Time will tell.

We've had a busy few weeks with various birthdays in the family, our youngest was 8 in early Jan, so we held a family tea and then kids birthday party for his friends. It was a good turnout and I think everyone enjoyed themselves, we did a great game for the kids where they had to dress in big baggy clothes (my tracksuit bottoms and long sleeved t-shirts) and see who could stuff the most balloons in them!

I've been twittering as ever, and you can see those to the right, and also been trying to keep up with friends blogs......

Well, last thing I'll leave you with is a link here to my wife's just giving page for her fundraising efforts, she's running the London Marathon in April, third time for her, so please take a mo to have a look and if you can support her that would be fantastic

Til next time

Home is where the blog is.....

I decided yesterday that I wanted to add a certain "widget" (fancy tech term for info from another website etc) that showed my running endeavours on my blog. Unfortunately the wordpress site I was using to host my blog, didn't allow "Java" format widgets, so I've decided to "come home" to my blogger which does allow it.....

For anyone who's been reading my posts, I have updated the blog with the "wordpress" published posts in the intervening period.

2010 ended in a really mellow, relaxing manner, Deb had worked til 5, and then I headed out to the mean streets of the capital about 6 and then got home around 10pm. We channel hopped for the rest of the evening, Graham Norton, Jool's Hootenanny and the Beeb coverage of the fantastic fireworks in central London.

We even managed an impromptu jive in our living room!

2011 started with a drive down to my parents place at Beltinge, on the North Kent coast, they absolutely adore our two boys, and so it's always great to visit. We've taken to doing some lovely coastal runs while we visit now, and took this opportunity to start the year off in style. We did a great new route, which was our longest training run since we picked up our trainers again last year, we managed just over 6 miles in a time of 1hr 20mins.

When we got back we had a great time with nieces and nephews who arrived as well, I've added a pic of our boys with my brothers girls - munching magnum's !!

So, that's all for now, certain 8 and 10 year old sons of mine are still not asleep!!

Decking the halls etc etc

Well, its been nearly a month since I last posted owt, and felt it only fair to update whats happened since.

Mrs J had just got confirmation that she had a full-time position with the libraries locally, and this is indeed been great news.  It's been a month of adjustment to the new routine, namely me doing the school runs and fitting in work around that, which I've found quite tough.  It's not that resent doing it, more that doing this 4 days out of 5, means that I miss both the morning and evening rush hours in the capital.

We've had a chat and the management at the libraries are considering a rejig of Deb's hours which will allow me to do a bit more of the rush hours and balance things out a little.

The journey to primary teaching has started in earnest, my GCSE Maths, English and Science all arrived a couple of weeks back and so 2011 will be the year of learning again! really looking forward to getting back in the swing of it.

Christmas this year has been a very nice low-key affair, my parents came to us christmas eve and stayed over, having dinner with us and then they moved on to one of my brothers for the evening, Santa delivered some nice non-tech presents for the boys, one of the best being a football table - plenty of fun had with that already!

Boxing day was spent at Mrs J's parents with her sisters and their families, always a great time with nieces and nephews, lots of cuddles and laughs.  My father in law is an amazing cook, and his customary bubble and squeak didn't disappoint!

Today's been nice, just the four of us, a nice fry up for brunch and then an afternoon of mainly constructing Knex stuff that the boys got for Xmas.

So, I'll leave it there, suffice to say I'll be quietly glad to see the back of 2010, it's been a very rocky period since August, but I'm happy to greet 2011 with a plan for the next few years, and an appreciation for what I have around me, two great children who have fantastic things ahead of them and a wife and partner who I respect and value more than ever.......

That's all, more next year!

Control and changing roles.....

Good news this week, Mrs J has a full time role back with the local libraries, which is like going home to her. It'll be great, and in many ways is the missing piece that has been so for a few years now in her life.

As a result we're now changing roles a fair bit, she has a two week alternating shift pattern, and being self employed, I'm not dove-tailing my work around that. It's good for our boys as they get to see more of me, and I get the opportunity to get to know their pre/post school routine/activities a little better.

Naturally this will now provide a little more financial stability, and along with the new job, Mrs J has taken over the reigns of our day to day accounts, which I have to say, has been a huge relief to me, and a big weight off my shoulders.....I'm such a bloody worry guts, and she's super cool and much more practical.

It's been a busy past week for us as Mrs J has worked a lot of it, this Saturday just past she worked and I and the boys went to my nephew Harry's 2nd birthday bash, and saw my immediate family, even my elusive/reclusive elder brother and his kids.

This morning we carried on our recently new regime of going for a run and the boys joining us on their bikes. Today we aimed for and completed a 5 mile circular route which was v eventful, youngest son's bike chain came off in the first half mile.....and we all generally had to battle thru some desires to turn back at a couple of points....we did it and finished in 1.06mins, an improvement of 4-5mins on the last time we did the route.

Oh well, nothing much else to report, thanks for reading!

It's a funny old world.....

The past few weeks have been emotionally charged as I continue to get to grips with the downs I experienced towards the end of the summer....I'm slowly getting myself back on an even keel, it's not easy and I'm blessed to have a very understanding wife!  The plans for primary teaching are still firm and I'm hoping to get the GCSE's underway before the end of the year.

Positively though, Mrs Jackcabnory (follow her here on twitter..... she gives good tweet!) has finally started the sessional work back with the local library service, this is exactly what she was doing in a fulltime capacity before we had our two boys.   She has been doing quite a few days and we've been able, with my work flexibility, to ring the changes quite a bit and gives me the chance to do the school run......and get more practice at the diplomacy needed with a 7 & 10 yr old!!  If all goes well she could soon be working fulltime and we will be able to get ourselves financially more black than red!

On the subject of Mrs J, she sells greetings cards, gift wrap etc, so have a look at her site here (publicity push over!)

We've had some good and bad news in terms of new arrivals.....I'll start with the bad news,  my youngest brother and his wife, who already have a nearly 2yr old boy, announced a few weeks ago that they were expecting no2.  Sadly they discovered this week that the baby will not make it, he has a disdended bowel (enlarged) and it has already burst.  It will be what they class as an "assisted miscarriage"...........

But the good news is that we today visited Mrs J's younger sister, and had the pleasure of plenty of cuddles with our newest family member, Jack.  He's a gorgeous little boy, born with downs syndrome,   into a loving family where he has two elder sisters to dote on him!   We're very lucky to now have a total of 10 neices and nephews between our collective 5 siblings........

So, I'm going to sign off here, leaving you a picture of the new addition........thanks for reading, and as ever I will endeavour to post more frequently....