PAD February 2013

PAD February 2013, a photo by clogsilk on Flickr.

Another month gone by already, so fast it was almost a blur! Started as always with J's birthday, and then his party.

Quite a few pictures of food this month, not that I'm obsessed or anything.

I've also started on a mission to photograph the top 10 murals in London during the year, and got two of them this month, plus a bonus former number 1 mural. And of course it wouldn't be PAD without some pictures of the London eye and a few sunrises/sunsets...

I was ill at the end of the month, which also put paid to photo opportunities a bit.

James and Claudia's parents' evenings

On Wednesday we had parents' evenings for both James and Claudia. I'm happy to report they're both doing really well. J's predicted levels haven't changed since last time, although they have a slight concern about his writing (that he isn't writing as much as he needs to basically). I think they haven't quite got his maths level right, but that could be because he isn't writing enough to show what he can do. He also has a bit of a temper and is stubborn - not exactly a surprise.

C is doing well - they don't really have targets in quite the same way in reception (thank goodness!) - but she's making great progress despite being pretty much the youngest in the class.

All good.

Happy 6th birthday James

Happy 6th birthday James, a photo by clogsilk on Flickr.

My gorgeous boy is 6! Where did all that time go?!

He's a challenge but also a complete delight. Wouldn't change him for the world.

PAD January 2013

PAD January 2013, a photo by clogsilk on Flickr.

I decided not to make January dry like everyone else, because that's dull and boring and January is my birthday month and is gloomy enough without adding to it!

Started the month (and year) with a lovely party at Nikki and Tim's, only slightly spoiled by my cat allergy! Started my new job on 2nd Jan and was treated to this glorious sunrise before I set off. I managed quite a few nights out - camera club, two book club meetings as well as Sex Appeal II at the Bloomsbury Theatre, which was ace.

Steam on the Underground was also a particular highlight.

I took J&C on their first ever march, to protest against plans to close A&E and maternity at Lewisham Hospital. Fat lot of good it did though. :(

Had a lovely birthday lunch with J, C and M then drinks at the Ravensbourne Arms in the evening with some of my favourite people.

Running took a bit of a back seat thanks to work, laziness and the weather, but I will be back!

Claudia's class assembly

Claudia did her first class assembly on Tuesday. I was able to take the morning off to go and it was lovely. They did some counting, a bit of phonics, retold the story of the Little Red Hen and showed us their hen pictures then finished up with the Nursery Rhyme rap.

Claud really got into it and joined in with everything!

Steam on the Underground

Slightly late writing about this, but better late than never! Two weeks ago I was lucky enough to travel on one of the special steam train runs that were happening to celebrate 150 years since the first journeys on the Baker Street-Farringdon railway, operated by the Metropolitan Railway.

It was a fantastic experience (and so it should have been for £150...), but some of the best photo opportunities actually came from standing on the station platform at Farringdon and watching as later services came through!

We started at Moorgate - here is Met 1 arriving to pick us up, next to one of the new Met Line trains:

Lots of people were standing on the platforms of the stations as we went by, it felt a bit strange to be watched by so many people!

Here I am with Met 1 after arriving at Edgware Road (pic taken by Darryl):

Trying to take pictures at Edgware Road was a chaotic muddle:

Did manage to get this one of Met 1 getting ready for the return journey to Moorgate:

And I quite like the steam on this picture taken after we got off the train back at Moorgate:

And this one of Met 1 as we left Moorgate after our journey:

The rest of the pictures were taken at Farringdon as later trains went through:

 I also took a video at Farringdon:

First performances for Claudia

It all got a bit hectic in the run up to Christmas so I didn't get round to posting this, but Claudia did her first two performances of her school career proper just before the end of term. She starred in the school nativity play as a puppy (don't ask):

I was able to watch her on the Thursday afternoon performance, and M went along to the Friday morning.

On the Thursday evening it was her ballet Christmas performance. Her group is the youngest group, and they performed an interpretation of Frosty the Snowman which was just so lovely I cried!

I think everyone else enjoyed it too. They certainly got the biggest cheer!

No Christmas performance for J this year, but I think we get treated to an Easter/end of Spring term performance instead...