Busy week

As I mentioned before, I have had a very busy week since returning from the holidays and it's probably worth a quick mention of everything that I've been up to in order to catch up:

• Met up for shopping and cakes (well Tiramasu) with a fab person from blog-land
  
• Continued that night out by having a a few drinks on Canal Street as well!
• Met up with for lunch an ex-work colleague, followed by
  
• Meeting with an out placement service (help me with CV etc)
• Having my son stay for another night after we saw G-Force at the cinema (it's silly but entertaining if you like that kind of thing)
• Playing football (badly - and not just letting him win) with my son in this lovely weather - really tired me out!
  

All this was interspersed with general bits and pieces and obviously job hunting, sending CVs, and trying to sort my life out.

Saturday was a totally lazy day when I didn't get out of PJs until well into the afternoon - I think I needed that wind down time but I got bored towards the end which was why Sunday had a little bit more activity in it.

Legoland and Windsor

It's taken me a while to get around to posting further pictures and commentary on the holiday with my son as I've just been so busy! I'll cover this weeks activities in another post and for this one concentrate on the fun from the holiday.

We've done the Legoland trip a few times and we've managed to stay in the Marriott hotel in Slough each time which is good because of it's location and ease but also because I'm still clinging onto Gold status so get access to the executive lounge (didn't actually make any use of that this time but it's still nice to have). We also go with the same plan each time; head into Legoland to go to the shop on the day we arrive and then do a full day afterwards (saves the distraction of buying Lego getting in the way of enjoying the rides etc).

We had really nice weather for the Sunday we spent in Legoland and, armed with my son's camera (well his Mum's) I got a few snaps of some of the things you can see on the rides. I had to take a picture of the scarey Tarantula since my son is so fond of reminding me that I'm scared of spiders (and heights).



We didn't do that many rides and this one was fairly sedate but did at least show off the models that there are in the park. The Legoland Village is actually quite an impressive sight as well (no pictures this year, got plenty last time) and it still fascinates my son which I think is quite impressive considering he normally likes doing activities more akin to running around than looking at things.

One ride we did go on, having queued for some considerable time, was the log flume, better known as "Pirate Falls" at Legoland. It's years since I've been on one of these and I agreed simply as it was the lesser of many evils - as I mentioned above I'm scared of heights so what I can deal with it pretty limited when it comes to roller-coasters and such rides. I'm not bothered about getting soaked though and we did the Viking ride last time which actually was alot of fun.

I wish I could post the picture they took of us going down the Pirate Falls, it is an absolute classic. My son looks absolutely terrified but, if you look carefully you'll see that at least he is brave enough to have his eye's open, I couldn't even manage that! I was telling him, and myself, all the way up that we'd be find and just get a bit wet and that it wasn't really that high. Right up to the point that we started to tip over the edge ... and then I realised that I really am absolutely terrified of heights and just clamped my eye's shut! The txt from my son's Mum summed it up quite succinctly: "Wimp!".

The following day we headed into Windsor with plans to go on the big wheel there - you can guess that we didn't for the reasons mentioned above - and visit the Castle as my son wanted to see this and the soldiers. I suspect I looked like a bit of a tourist while we went round Windsor Castle, can't think why though.


Before coming down to Windsor my son had, rather perceptively, remarked that I "wouldn't pay for seeing the Castle". Not entirely sure how he picked up on that but I guess I haven't hidden the fact that it rather annoys me having to pay to see something that we (as British tax-payers) essentially own or at the very least contribute to the up-keep of. I think my far-from Royalist attitude comes from my Dad but I think I tend to take this view independantly as well.

However, a few things changed my mind about this. For one thing you can now get free admittance to the castle for a whole year for the price of the entrance fee which seems quite reasonable to me. Also they had opened the Moat Garden and that was frankly beautiful and amazing to see.

The other thing that really made feel the visit was worth the money, was my son's reaction to the inside of the castle. He was obviously taken by the armour, guns, swords and other things that I guess boys will always be intrigued by but he was also fascinated by the coat of arms on the ceilings of one of the halls and we spent a good 10minutes trying to look for our favourite ones. He spotted some really interesting ones and it really was amazing to see him totally interested in something completely unlike the usual things.

Before we had gone in the castle and taken the bus tour (see previous post for the affect on my hair of that little trip), he'd been feeding the Swans on the Thames and I got some lovely pictures of him and them. I particularly liked this one:


I really can't put into words how much fun it was to have a holiday, even such a brief one, with my son. I simply can't describe how proud I was of him or how much it meant for me to be walking around holding his hand and having him chattering away and being such a smart, intelligent, funny, interesting, kid. There are just no words to describe how FAB he is!

Windswept and erm kinda interesting!

Well this is the state of me after a day out in Windsor, including a trip on an open-top bus! As I write this my feet are also recovering from walking rather too far in shoes that were a bit too high - they may (hopefully) have looked good but were far from practical!

Anyway, we had a fab day out, my son was wonderfully entertaining and amazingly well-behaved and a good time was wonderfully had by all! Now it's time for bed, heading home tomorrow.

Blasphemy!

I heard this story on the radio while driving yesterday. I wasn't paying much attention to the the news, it was just background noise keeping me awake and mildly entertained. However, as soon as I heard a few bits about this I could feel my blood start to boil.

Essentially it seems that a photographer who liked, as he says, the "architecture" of this particular church took some "erotic" photos of women at the location and now there is some kind of moral outrage and calls of blasphemy which seem to have culminated in legal action.

First some technical points - I'm not sure what the rules are regarding pictures involving property, are the owners entitled to some royalty if the photographer profits as a direct result of the setting? Would this apply to church land? Does church land count as private property? I guess there could be some straight-forward business considerations here which is fine, if the church could legally make money by being used as a location in this way all well and good.

As for this being blasphemous or morally wrong I find that prudish at best and in actually fact quite offensive and repugnant! How dare they vilify erotic art by making a claim that it is in some way 'wrong' or should in any way disgrace those who were married in this church or have loved-ones buried there. Propagating such vile, repressive and, in my opinion, downright evil views is the cause of many problems in society today. What gives any organisation the right to sit in moral judgement over natural sexual acts? Yes, I know they seems a really silly question when clearly almost all of the repressive and puritanical legislation passed in the UK/US (and probably everywhere else in the world) is due to ridiculous religious interference in governments or pubic opinion!

These prudish views are insidious (and insipid in my opinion) and permeate through many aspects of culture and society and are hugely damaging. The news story got me thinking about myself and the fact that I'm not exactly the most worldly-wise person there is, and I don't recall a huge amount of positive influence when it came to erotica; it's still viewed by many as something that may cause offense at the very least or even worse something that should be hidden. And that is so wrong, such a message should be spread, quite the reverse should happen.

Religions should stop trying to dictate moral standards by persecuting people and condemning their actions. Instead they should try leading by example and being accepting, understanding and open. Clearly this is an impossibility however, certainly give the evidence of history so far.

Pictures in the mirror

I thought I'd be done with taking pictures of myself in hotel bathrooms, I always thought it was a little desperate and certainly not the most photogenic lighting!

At least now I have a valid reason, the photo is documenting my hols with my son and while I look a bit tired tonight, wait until you see the state of me after another 3 days of this!

In all fairness I should say that, while my son has been very excitable and has talked lots he has been very good and really does have such good manners, I am so proud me him.

He's said some very clever and funny things but I'll just mention the one pertinent to this blog: he asked which Star Wars Lego figure I wanted and, when I picked Ahsoka exclaimed "why do you always want to be the girl?!". There isn't really a short answer to that one!