Monthly Archives: October 2012

Being healthy and reliving my youth

So, I’m a bit achy right now. A couple of weeks ago I added Pilates to my exercise regime. It’s.. Erm… Well… Different! I did nearly laugh tonight at the sight of a room full of women lying face down whilst ‘swimming’ (kicking arms and legs). I went to the gym today too, so I’m pretty tired. I thought Pilates would help with my flexibility, though it’s too soon to tell. I’ll keep you posted! Apparently, if you’re tall it’s harder to be bendy. Not sure how true that is, but it makes me feel better about my unstretchyness (wow! New word).

A couple of weeks ago, we took the kids to see the lights in roker park. When I was little, the whole seafront used to be little up for christmas, as illustrated in some pictures I stole borrowed from Facebook:

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I remember how busy it was, and how many other people were there, just to see the lights. And generally how excited and hyper I was to be staying up late and getting the bus to Sunderland.

As these things do, the lights got less and less, and eventually got replaced by other events. The park in the town centre has lots if lights now in the holidays.

But this year, as part of the ‘preholiday’ season, roker park got decorated:

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There were rides for the kids too:

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We had fun, but husband and I realised something.. When we were small and hyperactive, and over excited, we wondered why our parents were grumpy and didn’t enjoy the experience as much as we did.

I lost count of how many times we had to ask our very bouncy, very loud toddler to calm down… And slow down…. And then there were tears when we had to go. So mammy and daddy were a bit worn out afterwards. And they understood why their parents were reluctant to be dragged out to these things all those years ago!

Overall though, we had fun, and it’s great to see things to do in and around the city I live in. I don’t mind being worn out, if it makes my kids happy, and gets us doing something new, as a family.

What childhood tradition would you like to share with your kids?

Well, it’s getting late, so..

Good night folks xx

Sam Baker, part two(ish)

So, the other day I mentioned that I was listening to Sam Baker, and linked to his website. Because I’m lazy I loaded it to copy and paste the URL. Which is a good thing, because that’s how I found out he was playing in Gateshead on Thursday. So, a few texts between family members and bribing of babysitters later, I got to play out on a week night.

If you’ve never heard of Sam, listen to his album ‘Mercy’, there’s debate in my family as to which album is best, but I would say to start at the beginning. And it’s my favourite too.

We ended up running late (co ordinating travelling from three different places is complicated). So, I wasn’t very organised. Nothing new there though! I’d never been to Gateshead Town Hall before, and it was surprisingly big. They had a very nice piano too.

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I like Sam’s music because he sings about real things, stories and his own experiences. He has fantastic banter between songs, and shares his stories with the audience, making you understand where the songs came from. His songs express emotion and his lyrics are uncomplicated and forthright. And well, kinda beautiful, I think.

Anyway, I’m rambling again.. For those of you familiar with Sam, the second set songs were: say the right words, angel hair, Palestine, cotton, iron (with tour manager Rebecca Kemp singing too), waves, Odessa, a new song (yay!), with boxes and snow as requests.

There’s a new album at some point too. Which is great. And hopefully another tour next year? We’ll be more prepared next time. Two years ago we saw him in a place called Chorley. It was a road trip for us, and despite the car going nuts on the way home (we ended up parked outside a house on a country lane, while the car randomly locked and unlocked the doors and boot, sounded the alarm and turned the wipers on and off, only to behave perfectly when a mechanic arrived. After unlocking the boot while we were on a motorway), it was a really good trip and we’d all like to do it again.

So, I’ll end by misquoting (probably):
Go in peace, go in kindness, go in love, go in faith…