Mike's Random Muses

Aaron an Lewis have been growing nicely, putting on about 8ozs per week on average, they are now just over 7 weeks old and we are really enjoying looking after them when we get the opportunity. The last two weeks have been a little fraught though.

A fortnight gone Tuesday Lewis developed a hernia and Aaron got one a day later, both had to have operations on the Friday that week. The operations went well and the boys recovered as if nothing had happened. Unfortunately Lewis developed a hernia on the other side this week and had to have an emergency operation on Wednesday evening. Thankfully that went better than expected and he is back home again.

We're now keeping our fingers crossed that Aaron doesn't follow suit in the near future. They are coming to visit us tonight and I'm really looking forward to it. Little Aaron has learned how to smile and was using his new found skill to his full ability on Wednesday, whilst Lewis was in theatre. I think he loved all the attention he was getting, we'll have to watch that, I think he's a little attention seeker on the sly.

Labels: The Twins

The twins and their mother were allowed to come home yesterday, which was a relief to all. The twins are doing well, especially as they have now worked out how to 'eat'. We saw them last night and it's great to see them in their home surroundings.

I'm sure that mum and dad will cope fine, especially with a little help from all us grandparents when they need it. I know I'm biased but I think Zoe has some rivals because they're gorgeous.

Labels: The Twins

As of 00:35am this morning I became a Grandfather for the first time to two baby boys. The first, Aaron, was born at 00:17am and weighed 4lb 10oz's, the second, Lewis, was born at 00:35am and weighed 4lb 4.75ozs. Mother, my daughter-in-law, and babies are doing fine, though at the moment blood sugar levels are low. They were born 4 weeks early, but had to be induced as they had no room to grow any further.

The twins just hung on to be Gemini twins on a date with all the 2's in ie. 22nd May. An omen? Who knows? All I know is that I'm over the moon and somewhat tired, but not as tired as their mum. The look on their dad's face, when he came out to tell us the news, was a treat to behold.

We hope they will be home by the weekend.

As you know, it's a long tome since I've been on here, that's because a lot of things have happened and work got busier. It's still busy and creative blogging has taken a back seat, not that I was particularly creative in the first place. But Hey ho, that's another story, or something. Anyway, what's been happening in the Coffdrop household, well it seems like a lot at times, but then it doesn't, the major events are as follows:

Just before my last post we booked a holiday in Kalkan, Turkey with a company called Tapestry Holidays, we got the holiday at an absolute bargain price; because we paid everything up front we got a discount of 45% and were delighted with our luck, it was something to look forward too after the next big event that took place in mid August, and this was the big one, it was the Wedding of my step-son.

In the run up to the wedding the weather had been awful and we were expecting a day of dampness, but when the big day hit, the weather was fine and it went off with a bang. The afternoon reception and the evening bash were both held in the same hotel so one merged into the other. Both events were great as they should have been for the money that was splashed out on them. I think we and the Brides parents were the last to go to bed at around 3am on the Sunday morning. I think everyone enjoyed the do and everyone behaved, though there were a fair few ill looking faces the next morning, mine wasn't one of them surprisingly. Looking back it was one of the best days of our lives a complete success. The honeymooners departed on a two week holiday in Cyprus in a 5* hotel, courtesy of our deep pockets.

Three days after the wedding we got a call from the people who recommended Tapestry holidays to us, informing us that Tapestry had gone bust and our holiday had gone down the pan. Thankfully the were ATOL backed so enquiries confirmed that we'd get our money back, but we were informed it might take a long time. So I quickly filled in a claim form and got it off in the post in the hope that the money would be returned a little bit quicker. As it turned out it took two months for the money to be refunded and it came just before a hastily rearranged one week holiday in Makrigialos, Crete. That turned out to be a great holiday, in a quiet village with not many Brit's around. The weather was a bit up and down, but it was late in the season, October, and was to be expected.

We came back from holiday and learned some quicker than expected news, we were going to be Grandparents, am I really that old? To be honest it was only early days, something like 6 weeks after conception, so whilst exciting experience has taught us that this should be tempered with caution.

As November dawned, the company we booked our Crete Holiday with, sent us their Turkish brochures and they had take over the Tapestry hotel that we had booked and failed to get to. So we booked for Kalkan in September this year, but in a different hotel. We were the first to book and got the choice of dates and rooms, We got the Penthouse suite with private roof terrace of a hotel with it's own cliffside position and rock bathing platforms. Set away from the main town, it looks brilliant.

December came and our daughter-in-law had her first scans, the future grandchild, turned out to be two, she's having twins. It wasn't as big a surprise as you would imagine as Mrs C is a twin and my daughter-in-law is a twin. Had my step-son actually been mine it could have been worse as my mother is a twin too. I don't think they know just how much their life is going to change. Second scans earlier this month show that all the organs are developing properly and the two twenty week old foetuses are each the same size as a normal foetus at that age. They have some slowing down to do, or we'll be in for troublesome births. :-)

Finally: we got a letter from the travel agent last week, due to the owner of the hotel booking a week for regular guests and not telling anyone, the second week of our holiday this year has been double booked and the hotel owner will not back down. I think we're are fated on this one. The upshot of this is that the owner of the hotel will put us up in his other hotel for the second week, which happens to be the one we were booked into last year, he's giving us a deluxe suite with jacuzzi and a free treatment each in the spa at no extra cost to us. I've also stipulated a few more conditions, like they pay for the transfers, I will not be moved until a room is ready. We know people who have stayed in both hotels and they say we're getting a good deal. Oh, I've got the agreements in writing too, so providing nothing else happens I'm pretty happy about the whole thing.

Now if I could just find a way of reducing the amount of work I have to do at the office..........

I saw one of these hovering over an annual lavatera flower in our garden last Sunday. I thought it was a humming bird at first glance then decided it was some sort of insect that I'd never seen before. I only realised what it was when I saw a picture of one in The Daily Mail on Saturday. The article with the picture claimed they could be seen in the South West of England. I've news for them there's one up here in West Lancashire and what an amazing sight it was.

Well we were well and truely stuffed by Seville. I'm gutted, we should have had a penalty but the best team won. They didn't deserve to hammer us by such a wide margin though.

Sorry there has been no update on the Nice saga, but madness at work reared it's ugly head again. In the meantime I have a big game to look forward to, as Middlesbrough play Seville in the UEFA Cup Final tonight. It will be the biggest game in the history of the team, obviously I am praying for a Boro win, but as long as we give our all and our best shot that's all that we can ask for. Hopefully Steve McClaren will bow out in his final game managing the team with a big bang.

We're off to Malvern on Friday and staying over until Sunday, hopefully the weather will be nice, as we plan to visit the Malvern Spring Garden Show on one of the days.

The Nice saga will be continued in the near future.

Come On You Reds.......

Part two of the saga is a brief description of what we got up to whilst staying in Nice:

As it was early evening when we arrived at the Hotel Mercure Grimaldi, we decided to unpack and freshen up before looking for somewhere to eat. The room was comfortable and the rate we paid on the Easyjet hotel booking site was a bargain compared to the off the street price. Having freshened up we decided to wander down to reception and enquire about suitable places to eat. The friendly receptionist told us it was best to avoid the restaurants in the nearby Rue Massena, as they tended to be touristy and overpriced, instead she suggested that restaurants near the Opera in the old town were a better bet and suggest an Italian restaurant, which for the life of me I cannot remember the name of, but it was fairly new and the food was excellent. We got there at just the right time as 10 minutes later, queues for tables began to form, it was obviously popular as there were diners waiting for tables throughout the night. The best thing was though that nobody was rushed to finish their meals quickly or asked to leave the tables when they had obviously finished. The restaurant was located on the edge of the pedestrianised street where the morning market is held, near to the Opera Theatre. Having finished our excellent meal we returned slowly to our hotel, to recover from the days trials.

On the second day, which was a Wednesday we decided to stay and potter around Nice, but the first job was to find out the times of trains to Monte Carlo as we planned a trip there fro the Thursday. So after breakfast we had a slow saunter to the Railway station, about 15 minutes walk from the hotel, and picked up a timetable for the next day. We then took a slow walk back down to the promenade Des Anglais, which is the road that runs along the seafront. I love wandering in and out of the small street of places I've never visited before, experiencing the new sights and smells of a city. It has to be said that the French inhabitants were extremely polite everywhere we went, that's nit something you would find in Paris. The small back street patisseries and Boulongeries were filled with tempting treats that for the moment I was avoiding, there would be time for that later.

We arrived at the seafront and found a bench to sit on and watch the world go by, the beach in this area was a pebble beach, thought the weather was fine it was pretty windy so there weren't too many people using the beach for sunbathing, though one or two dog walkers were out and about. We sat and read for awhile and once or twice I watch the aircraft cross in front of us on their approach to the airport, none seemed to have the trouble our pilot had the previous day. At about mid-day we decided it was time to move and spotted a tourist Petite Train nearby which offered a 1 hour tour of the city, so we decided it would be a good way to get some bearings and pointers of what might be good places to visit in the short time available to us. At the end of an interesting little tour we decided on a walk along the sea front to the port would be in order, that killed off a bit of time, there were plenty of expensive looking yachts in the marina and again we sat for a while and watch some locals fishing from the quayside, before returning to the market area to grab a late lunch, which consisted of a couple of take-away ham, cheese and tomato sandwiches grilled/toasted in chiabata bread, we sat in a small park to devour our lunch, relaxing once again as the world slowly passed us by.

At this point we decided that a drink or two was in order so we retired to a small seafront cafe near to the casino and ordered a pitcher of wine to sip whilst we once again took time out and further wind down. By the time we'd finished I think we had reached a point where it felt like time was standing still. A return to the hotel was in order to prepare for the rigours of an evening meal.

This evening we decided to try a little restaurant we had seen just up the road from the hotel, we'd passed it on our way to the station. I think it was called the Davia, anyway it was next door to the first hotel we had visited. It turned out to be a cracking plan, it was only small but very friendly and very popular, but there was one table that remained reserved for the entire evening though no one was placed at the table. The meals were superb, very much home cooked local fair and the staff couldn't do enough for you. It was decided that a return the next evening would be in order as the prices were very good too.

So on returning to the hotel we ended an almost perfect day, I say almost because Nice inhabitants do not appear to have discovered the benefits of poop scoops yet. Though it wasn't a dreadful problems there were enough little messes left around to be noticeable, especially in some back streets and the odd small park.

The next installment will be about watching money ooze by.