30/366

30/366, a photo by sally_re on Flickr.

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So, on recommendation of the Occupational Therapist, we had Oscar's eyes tested. I was really hoping he'd inherited his father's 20/20 vision but it looks like Oz has my crappy eyesight. I started wearing specs at 11....

He doesn't need to wear them all the time - just for reading, computers and looking at the board in school.

Oscar, being Oscar chose the brightest pinkest frames. So now he'll be the speccy ginger kid with pink glasses. God I hope 7-8 year olds are more forgiving......

29/366

29/366, a photo by sally_re on Flickr.

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We swim almost every Sunday. Well, I say "we"....I never get in - I watch from the balcony while Rob splashes with the boys.

Both my kids are real fish - they love the water. Toby has always been super confident but, unlike Oscar, has never had a swimming lesson.

Rob has been teaching him on Sundays and this week he's mastered the doggy paddle - swam nearly an entire length -not bad for a five year old! He loves the fact that he doesn't need his backfloat anymore.

I'd love to sign him up for proper lessons but Rob is confident he can teach him. So proud of my baby boy!

28/366

28/366, a photo by sally_re on Flickr.

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I've been trying to get a decent moon pic for ages (inspired by Clogsilk) but haven't managed it - even with my tripod. This was a chance snap as I saw the beautiful crescent moon up in the afternoon - so I didn't have to worry about a long shutter speed. I'm no where near as good as Clare yet but am glad I captured one decentish pic!

27/366

27/366, a photo by sally_re on Flickr.

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My lovely chum Clare had her birthday today. This pic is actually a cheat as I took it yesterday when we escaped to Yo! in Bluewater for 40% off deal! And their register was buggered and the staff all flustered so I ended up only paying for half of what I ate....I should have paid for yours too Clare - apologies ! I owe you a birthday present.......

26/366

26/366, a photo by sally_re on Flickr.

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Our school is fab - the Dads' Group often hold extra curricular events and Thursday night was film night. We've never done it before - Toby goes to bed at 7.30 and the film didn't start till 6.45....but it was Kung Fu Panda 2 which we haven't seen or got.

So we went. Toby did fall asleep half way through but woke up in time for popcorn in the interval (they have to stop half way through for toilet breaks for little bladders!).

Really enjoyed it, although the boys sat ON me for most of it - there were mats on the floor for the kids and benches for the parents but I ended up on a mat being used as a sofa!

25/366

25/366, a photo by sally_re on Flickr.

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I am the luckiest girl in the world with the MOST AMAZING PARENTS ever. Most amazingly generous. Thanks to the Bank of Mum and Dad I test drove this baby today and we've bought it - it's being delivered on Tuesday next week.

I can't believe it. It's the newest car I've ever had - 2009 - AND it's got parking sensors! No more dodgy reversing!

I remember blogging about getting my Renault on the Used Car Roadshow when Toby was a few months old....and now hopefully it will be longer than five years before I have to replace this - it's a beautiful Toyota Verso - 7 seater so I can take all the boys and their friends - or jam my mates in the back for girls' night out or Book Clurb!

Now what to call it......

24/366

24/366, a photo by sally_re on Flickr.

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Toby is suddenly coming along in leaps and bounds in Reception. He's reading beautifully - really sounding out words and blending them. And, unlike his brother, he seems to like writing too! Last term he could barely write his name and wasn't interested. Now he's writing jelly beans!

23/366

23/366, a photo by sally_re on Flickr.

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I've wanted this picture on canvas for ages. In October I got a Groupon for it but it's taken this long to get it!

AND I had to build the canvas myself - it came in kit form! Not what I was expecting but then again it was a tenner....

This pic is actually from September 2008 - a chilly day but both boys stripped off and gleefully cavorted around in the nud. A lovely lady gave me her dog towel to dry them off as they found an inlet puddle and got soaked and shivery. But I love this pic. I picniked it b&w but had to keep their lovely hair!

22/366

22/366, a photo by sally_re on Flickr.

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While watching the boys swim today I naughtily snapped this (you aren't allowed to take pics in the pool but they couldn't tell in the gallery whether I was texting or snapping!)

Oz and Rob were waltzing in the water. Both my children are utter water babies....

21/366

21/366, a photo by sally_re on Flickr.

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This morning Toby was glued to me. No idea why but he's in a cuddly mood and who am I to complain?

20/366

20/366, a photo by sally_re on Flickr.

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The other thing I got in Bromley was some new pjs for Oz. He asked for pink. So I got him pink. Yes, they were from the girls department. No I don't give a toss and neither does he. He loves them! And kept thanking me and insisted I took this picture.

Love him.

19/366

19/366, a photo by sally_re on Flickr.

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Spotted in Bromley - how I wish I could walk in high heels cos these are gorgeous and totally me. Was almost tempted to buy them just so I can look at them and wear them while sitting down.....

18/366

18/366, a photo by sally_re on Flickr.

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It was a late Christmas today at our house - my lovely sister sent us a parcel with our presents in - mine was a fairy calendar starring the beautiful Twig the Fairy who I love...

17/366

17/366, a photo by sally_re on Flickr.

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Oscar has had a wobbly tooth for AGES....I warned him before dinner that it was hanging on a thread and he should pull it out before eating. But no....he swallowed it.

I was at a loss of what to do until one of my wonderful Stonecutter chums told me what she has told her girls - that the tooth fairy has a magic magnet that can get teeth out of tummies.

So I wrote Oscar a letter from the tooth fairy and he was overjoyed and totally fooled! He's quite naive for a seven year old but I love that about him. He believes in magic unquestionably....

16/366

16/366, a photo by sally_re on Flickr.

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At school today, Toby's class made bread! They're reading the story of the Little Red Hen and made bread rolls. He was SO proud of himself and so excited about his bread - he wouldn't share it (just like in the story) and had me butter and jam it for him....
One very happy five year old.

15/366

15/366, a photo by sally_re on Flickr.

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I have a feeling I may have PAD-ed a photo of this before - not sure - it's the wall in one of the new galleries in the Sammy Offer Wing - the whole wall has quotes on it - all Maritime themed - from Shakespeare to prayers....love it. And love the colour of the wood and the fonts too....

14/366

14/366, a photo by sally_re on Flickr.

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Lovely family day out today - went to see Miki at the Greenwich Theatre and it was lovely. We also ran around the park a lot. This water feature is outside the new NMM Wing and Oscar loved it - ran all the way to the top of the incline to float a stick down the waterfall steps. And I managed (thanks to fast shutter speed) to grab him mid-air!

13/366

13/366, a photo by sally_re on Flickr.

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Baby Alice turned one year old this week! Can't quite believe it - where did that time go? We were supposed to celebrate with her on her birthday but she was ill so it was postponed to Friday. We had yummy chocolate cake and Alice had her first Happy Meal from MaccyD's - all to herself! Instead of crawling around stealing everyone's chips...

Anne unfortunately wasn't too well herself but it was a lovely little party for our not so baby girl....

12/366

12/366, a photo by sally_re on Flickr.

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I had a wonderful day today - meeting with a very old friend for dim sum and coffee and catching up. Think preparations are beginning for Chinese New Year which is on the 23rd Jan - this beautiful dragon (?) was on the wall above the Wardour Street sign on the corner of Shaftesbury Avenue. I kept snapping it from different angles (hence the collage) - so beautiful!

11/366

11/366, a photo by sally_re on Flickr.

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When we got home from school today this little white bird was perched outside the house on the bush by the door. It seemed very tame and as I opened the front door it flew into the house. It must be someone's pet. It flew around the kitchen for a bit but was getting a bit freaked out by the boys so I let it into the garden where it flew off. I really hope it found it's way home....

Anyone know what kind of bird it is?

10/366

10/366, a photo by sally_re on Flickr.

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I'm back teaching at the Royal Observatory Greenwich again - wrote the show last year and it was very successful and we've had our contract renewed. My business partner Claire was delivering it before Christmas but I'm back on task in January. This is the view from the first floor down the beautiful staircase....

9/366

9/366, a photo by sally_re on Flickr.

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On one of the 12 days of giving app days you could download Snapseed for free. It's a funky little app which really allows you to mess around in great detail....so what was a mundane shot of the boys becomes something quite lovely! Still need to learn how to use it a bit more!

8/366

8/366, a photo by sally_re on Flickr.

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My baby boy is five...can't believe it. He had a great day - cake for breakfast, party at Rascals followed by shopping in the Lego Store and Build-A-Bear at Bluewater. I'm shattered. Happy birthday little man!

7/366

7/366, a photo by sally_re on Flickr.

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Today Oscar hit a milestone - he learnt how to push himself on a swing using just his legs and no one pushing him. My arms are relieved! Nothing so dull sometimes as standing behind your child pushing their back for half an hour - which is how long Oscar likes to swing! Toby gets bored in about five minutes so that's ok.

But no - now the boy can do it himself - and he was very proud of the fact!

6/366

6/366, a photo by sally_re on Flickr.

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Today is the day you're supposed to have your decorations down or it's unlucky. We actually took ours down on NYE but I wanted to use this picture somewhere in PAD so this is my excuse. My Mum makes our Christmas cake the same every year - icing to look like peaked snow, this Santa decoration and trees and a little signpost (out of shot). I love it. I'm a shameless traditionalist when it comes to Christmas and even though I never eat it (hate fruitcake and marzipan), I love this cake!

5/366

5/366, a photo by sally_re on Flickr.

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Poor Oz. Over Christmas he'd complained about a sore tooth but the dentist was shut for the holidays. Then he stopped complaining about it so I kind of forgot.

Picked him up from school today and his teacher said his face had been slowly swelling all day - he wasn't in any pain but it looked a bit mad. So cue emergency appointment at the dentist. With both boys in tow. Had to wait 20 minutes with very loud boys in the waiting room. Then we saw our lovely glam dentist Rachel (who looks like Myleene Klass) who said it was an abcess and the tooth could either come out, or she could try a mini root canal to try and save it. It's a baby tooth but I'd still like to avoid extraction unless necessary. Oscar is not great with the dentist - he's quite easily stressed but Rachel is brilliant with him - very patient and explaining everything that she's going to do with him. She gave me a prescription for penicillin and we're back in 2 weeks. Went to the chemist - prescription was wrong so load both boys BACK in the car, back to the dentist, back to the chemist and finally home 2 hours after we'd left school.

Shattered.com. Again! At least Oz isn't in pain and he's a star at taking meds (he has a lot of practice). He doesn't have to have the penicillin at mealtimes so I don't have to faff with the school giving it to him.

Not looking forward to the next step in 2 weeks but we'll deal with that when it comes....

A bit of navel gazing (Not PAD for a change!)

I just wanted to splarge out some thoughts and thought this was the place to do it.....not sure how to start it but I'm having a bit of a personal epiphany.....

To put it into context.I moved around as a kid - A LOT - my Dad was (is?) a Diplomat and we moved countries and schools a far few times. I've been to every kind of school you can name - International, All girls, private, public, comprehensive....and Grammar....We went to a very oldschool (excuse the pun) Grammar School in Belfast, N. Ireland - when I was about 11 until 13. I hated it. Utterly. Not my kind of school. And I was bottom of my class and constantly on report and I had an evil teacher - I still remember his name and am not sure whether I should write it here - he was horrible. Constantly told me I was stupid, that I'd never amount to anything - he'd tell the boys in the class that if he ever saw them outside school he'd beat them up. He was horrific. (He was also shagging one of the 6th Form). Even though my parents constantly told me I was bottom of the TOP TEN PERCENT by being in a grammar school, I felt stupid.

I went, after this, to a fantastic public school and was put at the top of their A stream class but was totally confused about this. I was honestly shocked. I wasn't clever....my sister was the clever one. I was creative and loved English but still basically thought I was stupid. I chose a non-academic future - did 2 A levels and went on to do a degree in Performing Arts (and only managed a 2:2 but I put that down to discovering sex and freedom and messing around). Then I end up with a husband with the brain the size of a planet - he knows everything about everything. And deep down inside I think I thought I was still stupid. No matter what anyone else told me, I intrinsically felt it.

Three years ago, on a bit of a whim, I became a School Governor. At my first meeting I was utterly intimidated by the rest of the Governing Body - all of whom had quite high flying careers or experience. I told myself I was there as a typical parent and not to worry about it. I've become more and more involved with the school and recently sat on a Performance Management Review and a Pay Committee. Bear in mind that I've temped all my life, never really had a "proper" job so never had to do appraisals or anything. I've just bobbed along doing my thing.

I brought up a couple of what I thought were obvious (or stupid) questions and actually had made some very relevant points. I surprised myself. I've stopped and taken stock a few times of what I understand and am very slowly, in my 40th year of existence, starting to come to the conclusion that everyone else - NOT the idiot teacher in Belfast - is right - I'm NOT stupid....

Today I sat on the School's Achievement Review with the School Improvement Partner and found it brilliant but didn't feel like the stupid token member of the meeting, the way I think I might have felt a couple of years ago.

It was interesting to me - how much impact that one year of school had on me so many years ago. How it almost cemented my own self image as "stupid". I do have a very intelligent sister - way out of my league academically. But I am not stupid. I do have a very intelligent husband. But that doesn't mean I'm stupid. It's bonkers really - I'm only just coming to terms with the fact that I'm not! I'm not very aware of politics but I understand more than I give myself credit for. I don't tend to read newspapers so I'm not up on current affairs and some things confuse me. But I'm not stupid.

It's been a lightbulb moment really. So I'm writing this down to remind myself on days when I think I'm an idiot. I'm not. And that evil fucking teacher (who I really want to google now to hopefully find he's in prison or something) was wrong.

4/366

4/366, a photo by sally_re on Flickr.

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This picture isn't the greatest summation of a crazy crazy day. My friend is ill and in hospital so this morning I went to her house to babysit her 2 wonderful girls - then took them back to mine where we were joined by Clogsilk and her two, and Anne and her two....8 children in total! It was chaos. Anne had brought ingredients for WW friendly mince tarts and this was about the only pic I managed to snatch. The house looks like a bomb hit it. I'm too exhausted to tidy up! It was fun though - a huge get together but THANK GOD they're back at school tomorrow. I'm off to bed insanely early to watch Great Expectations on my iphone in the bath I think....Uniforms are ready. Will do pack lunch in the morning as the kitchen is too messy and I can't summon the energy to clean it now.

2/366

2/366, a photo by sally_re on Flickr.

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After being holed up in the house for a couple of days we made the most of the sunshine yesterday and hit Dulwich Park. It was still really cold though! A few hours of climbing trees, running around and then the boys insisted on ice-cream! Bonkers!

1/366

1/366, a photo by sally_re on Flickr.

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And here we go again! And it's /366 cos of the leap year. This was how I celebrated New Years so this was me at the stroke of midnight (in the bath! Typical!) - the first moment of 2012 - so I thought I'd use it as the startup for this year.

I took the fireworks photos on my iPhone. Could actually see the London Eye and the southbank from our loft window which was cool! The top photo shows the glow from afar!

Looking back....

I have to say, on measure, that 2011 was a pretty good year. There was one huge tragedy - the loss of my brother in law at the age of 19 in February. Nothing really will be the same for our family after that. I'm still not in touch with my (ex)best friend and that made me sad this year.

On a more positive note - I turned 40 and had the most amazing birthday party and was overwhelmed with the love I felt from all my friends. I got my iPhone. We had the best family holiday we've ever had in Turkey and then the best Halloween ever in Detroit. I lost 43lbs at Weightwatchers with the support of my friends, and intend to lose at least that same amount this year. And thanks to my last year's resolution of doing the Photo A Day challenge, I have a visual record of this whole past year and I love it. 

So I'm afraid I'm going to do it all over again! I know this blog used to be more text and less picture....but I love being able to document my life in images. And I'm learning so much more about photography and wanting to take better pictures all the time. So readers, if you're out there, (I always forget anyone actually READS this as I don't get comments but I can see from the pageviews that I'm not alone in this corner of the interweb), I hope you don't mind that this blog will continue to be a home for my photo-a-day. 

Hey, at least I post a lot more than I used to! Not always ON the day...but I never got more than a week or so behind last year.

My life is a lot easier now that the boys are both in school full time. I'm working more - just before Christmas I launched Singalong Sally and I'm hoping 2012 will be busy with music! I also still have windows of time for myself and that's really important. Time for pictures! So if you do read me - do drop me a comment occasionally! I'm such an attention seeker. 

And finally dear reader, may I wish you and yours the happiest of New Years - 2012 has promise what with the Olympics in London.......(though I HATE sport of any kind so will probably be trying desperately to leave the country from June....)