We went to Puzzlewood. Here are some photos which are definitely not ours - they're much too good.
It's really...I feel like the word magical gets overused a lot, but it seems apt in this case. Even shared with a load of other people with children to entertain over half term, it was pretty amazing. Makes you wonder what it would be like to come upon it unexpectedly, alone, like walking into A Midsummer Night's Dream.
That's my opinion, anyway. Sherlock had his own ideas: i.e. it was a very large, green pirate ship, particularly the bridges. Well, obviously, right? There was a lot of stick fencing, primarily between Sherlock and the air, but at one point he called Mycroft's dogs (not present to defend themselves) blackguards, and there was a duel. Invisible flintlock pistols at (nowhere near) dawn, fairly tame piratey insults exchanged...
S: Your mum's...a hopeless landlubber!
M: She gets a bit seasick, that's all. I think that's uncalled for.
I sent the video to Mrs H. She firmly denies getting seasick at all, ever.
It's really...I feel like the word magical gets overused a lot, but it seems apt in this case. Even shared with a load of other people with children to entertain over half term, it was pretty amazing. Makes you wonder what it would be like to come upon it unexpectedly, alone, like walking into A Midsummer Night's Dream.
That's my opinion, anyway. Sherlock had his own ideas: i.e. it was a very large, green pirate ship, particularly the bridges. Well, obviously, right? There was a lot of stick fencing, primarily between Sherlock and the air, but at one point he called Mycroft's dogs (not present to defend themselves) blackguards, and there was a duel. Invisible flintlock pistols at (nowhere near) dawn, fairly tame piratey insults exchanged...
S: Your mum's...a hopeless landlubber!
M: She gets a bit seasick, that's all. I think that's uncalled for.
I sent the video to Mrs H. She firmly denies getting seasick at all, ever.
85 comments:
Wow, that looks just amazing. You always find the absolute best places to go for holidays. I think I'd have to agree with you, John, that the word magical could legitimately be used in this instance. That first picture especially with the little waterfall on the right is just beautiful.
Great pirate-y thoughts too, Sherlock, I bet flintlocks at not-dawn and duelling were the most fun.
I certainly wouldn't want to disagree with She who must be obeyed over the degree, if any, of her seasickness. ;)
If she did get seasick...would we ever even know? All I can picture is her stoically marching up and down the deck, denying any and all symptoms.
I think I hear my transfer papers for a small Met Police outpost in outer Mongolia coming through....
I think she'd just change the weather to be flat calm.
...Seems likely.
iiiicceeeeee crrreeeaaaammmmmmmmmm can we go to the park? Can I take my bike?
I suppose we should try to wear the dogs out a bit.
Depends if Mycroft will be seen out with me again though ;)
The dogs and the Sherlock yes.
Why can't we just live in a dome it would be better and then you wouldn't have to buy an expensive house or anything it would be fun.
well, because people start out like that and then build bigger and better and more secure places...and you end up how we are today. In houses.
You are the best nanny in the world, John. That is EXACTLY the video footage I'd want from the excursion.
Something else to put on my "If I had all the time and money in the world list.' That thing is enormous.
fA
Aaaaand we're home. We've put the sidecars on the telly, Sherlock wants a go in one.
The house is all empty of dogs and Mycrofts. But Maf is managing to spread herself out quite a lot - she's got so big!
John has his feet on my lap, and a large mug of tea in hand. I'm debating getting a beer. Or trying to persuade a handy 8 yr old to get me one...
I could get you one. If I can move.
what's the point of having a small child around the place if not to go up chimneys, pick pockets and fetch beer?
Valid point. When are we sending him up the chimney?
Not sure. When it needs sweeping? When birds build a nest at the top and drop crap into the living room?
Can I??
Ha, I knew that was coming.
I don't know, kiddo, I doubt you'd fit, to be honest. We wouldn't want you getting stuck up there, would we?
That probably wouldn't be very nice.
Nope. We'd have to knock a brick out and post food into you, and you'd end up being very thin and very tall. And when we sold the house the new people might only ever feed you runner beans and cauliflower, and not ice cream and cake. Which would be terrible.
Want to get me a beer? Promise you won't get stuck in the fridge.
All right. Can I have something too?
That would very much depend what 'something' is.
I don't know, somethinggggggg
well it's nearly bedtimmmeeeeeeeeee and you can't have beeeeeerrrr so what do you wwaaaannnnnttttttTT????
Banana milkkkkkkkk?
My simple plan of beer on the sofa has now severely backfired to having to get up and create banana milk which will doubtless fuel you into some sort of pre-bedtime frenzy...hmm. that'll learn me, eh?
I CAN MAKE IT just tell me how.
This will end well...
If you got stuck up the chimney, Sherlock, then how would Santa get down it. ;)
Is anyone interested in having a bit of fun with a World Cup competition like I mentioned before. If so then I have set up a site for people to put in their entries. It's completely anonymous, all it needs is a username so anyone can have a go, even people who don't comment and just enjoy reading these sites if they want to (you can call yourself Anon1 or whatever as long as I can differentiate between people). If people want to play along and John and Greg are amenable then I could maybe post a table of who's winning each night. I'd be happy to offer a £10 Amazon gift voucher code for the winner and a consolation $5 voucher for whoever finishes last (unless you'd rather just do it for fun).
The site link to play is - http://www.carryon.org.uk/worldcup2014/index.php/614726/lang-en
If you want to keep a note of your predictions you will either have to write them down as you go or alternatively if you don't want to do the entry online I can email you the score sheet that you can fill in and email back to me and you will then have your own copy to keep. I am joolz at coercri dot co dot uk. :)
Sorry for hogging, John and Greg, and if no-one is interested in it then just ignore this. ;)
sorry Joolz, that wasn't at you! It was about bedtime fast approaching and there being a picky Sherlock insisting on blending his own milk. I'll look at it in a mo.
Right, finally, after an epic bedtime battle, going to have a beer and do some footy predictions!
Joolz - personally I'm happy to do it purely for honour, no prizes needed! I know football (or soccer) isn't everyone's cup of tea, so no need to put any added pressure on!
...do I have to do ALL of these at once?
I think there is an option there to save it 'til later if you only do so many in one go and then submit it when you've finished them all. Ok on not doing it for prizes, it'll just be a bit of a fun if a few of us have a go, won't it. Thanks. ;)
Ha, I've done it! All of it!
And if anyone's worried about not knowing anything about footy - believe me, I have no clue who'll win between Japan and The Ivory Coast, or Nigeria v Bosnia-Herzegovina, so don't feel like you're at a disadvantage!
Well, Joolz, that was random on my part, I'm fairly sure my match predictions and my group predictions fail to match!
Sherlock and Mycroft, hope school treats both of you well for the half-term!
Lancs. - when I realised the same thing I tried to assure myself it was more sensible to cover all bases?? I'm sure Mycroft will be along with some sort of algorithm that brings about highest chances of success - or he might, if he didn't have exams to think about.
I had come up with the exact same justification! I fear my football knowledge is some years out of date... As to Mycroft, my dad always had a system, but I suspect that only works if you are the bookie!
My own entries are just as random, I should think most of us will be the same, unless we have genius skills ;)
Knowing anything about football makes no difference either as the first time we played this my husband won and he knows zilch and my brother who is the footy expert and follows just about every league going was second to last so everyone has an equal chance so it's good for a bit of fun. :)
Absolutely. All depends which teams turn up on the night - have been some spectacular failures in the past when countries with good teams put out a second squad for an 'easy' game and get their arses handed to them.
Mondays.
Whoever thought of them should be shot.
Totally agree!
Monday after holidays is the very worst invention ever!! It's weird how one day back can make it feel like so long since it was holidays!
Hope the day is going as reasonably as possible even though it's Monday ;-)
Yep. I almost have in to Sherlock's pleas not to go to school, but to all go on another adventure...
He's probably forgotten how school works, it's been so long!
Mondays are very nearly as bad as early mornings. ;)
Thank you for the pictures, John, a fairy wood is a very good fit, lovely!
I think I shall imagine that I spent the weekend there instead of running back and forth to and from the hospital--my dad had another stroke last week. Thankfully it seems to have been mild and self-healing, no thanks at all to the emergency room, where they didn't even give him an MRI for over 20 hours, and didn't diagnose him for over 36. Take my advice--it shouldn't happen, but if you ever have a medical emergency in the US, don't go to a major city emergency room!
Sorry to hear that, RR. Glad he's not doing too badly though.
RR how unfortunate your dad had such a poor experience. Fortunate, I guess, that he had a mild one. Being old is not what it's cracked up to be by those who think I should get excited about living ever longer.
ERs are dicey where ever! - though big cities must be worse - weekend nights especially. My parents' doctors always said to call them right after the ambulance if going into the ER, but depending on the practice and who was on call, the results were variable.
fA
RR - sorry to hear about your Dad, I hope he's doing OK.
Lestrade - agree entirely about Mondays. Mine started OKish, and rapidly went downhill from there.
John - Puzzlewood looks fantastic, no wonder you all sounded like you were having such a good time. Not a million miles away from where I am, somehow I've never been. Maybe I should do something about that.
Joolz - I filled in all the scores and guesses yesterday, and then it wouldn't submit :-( I think it's because I didn't have cookies enabled. Will launch myself at it again this evening - and thank you, for going to the trouble of putting it all together for us :-)
Mondays should be outlawed, but then that would probably make Tuesdays just as bad. Maybe we should all just have every other day off. That would be amazing.
Lucky for me, though, I had jury duty this morning, and after spending a few hours in a tiny room waiting to see if I would be picked to be on a jury, was dismissed. Now I am hiding at home until I absolutely have to go to work, which isn't for a few hours yet.
I have tried valiantly, but any resemblance between my scores and reality will probably only be in the eye of the beholder.
I just don't understand where Sherlock gets his energy. I think we should scan him, see if he's human.
I got in the door and virtually fell asleep just getting dry after my shower.
Can I do the football thing?
err...yes. But not until tomorrow now.
I can do it now!
Nope. You can go to bed now. I know you'll take about a million hours to deicde on each result, so we'll do it tomorrow.
Glad to see a Triumph winning the superstock at the TT today! Sorry to see someone else lost their life racing.
No comment on England v Italy, Lestrade?
in the footy?
...have just woken up to Sherlock poking me very hard and telling me I couldn't sleep in his bed.
how unreasonable of him! ;-)
RR - Sorry to hear about your dad, hope he's back to fighting fit soon.
Nameless - What a pain, sorry about that. My first try went wonky too, I think cos I pressed return on one of the entries instead of tab and even though I went back and filled it in, it didn't save properly and I had to re-do it. Maybe try saving it before you submit just in case and then at least you won't have to re-enter all the scores again.
DW - Did you want to leave it with just the winning team names or did you want to enter all the scores in numbers so that you have a chance of getting a bonus point on each game for getting the exact score correct. The only problem is I don't think you can edit the form so you might have to do it again sorry or if it's easier you could email your answers to me (email address above) or just put them all together in a post here (if that's allowed) like 2-1, 2-0, etc in a line and I'll convert them all over for you. Sorry.
AnonyBob - exactly! Why don't I get the run of the place, choose where to sleep, like Maf does? Favouritism I think.
And Maf nicked my spot on the sofa while I was gone.
I'm going to go and curl up on John's pillow on thebed to get her back.
There's a joke in there somewhere about you sleeping on John's head but I'm going to make it ;-)
Joolz, are you British, apologizing for my inability to read and follow instructions? ;) I think I fixed it; I just redid them.
I don't know that Lestrade's ever been accused of sleeping on any job, AnonyBob...
DW - you flatter me. I have sadly slept on the job more than I would like to admit.
How well you know us, DW, guilty as charged. ;) Thanks for that, I'll delete the first one and the second one is good to go. :)
RR, sorry to hear about your dad. I've always had good results at ERs, but I haven't tried one in nyc - just London.
I have a job interview tomorrow. Just crossing my fingers my stupid foot in a cast doesn't ruin things. Also that I get the job, heh.
Becca, good luck with the interview.
RR, all good thoughts for your dad.
So I did the footy thing, completely at random. I'm not even sure if the teams I picked to make it to the next round are the teams I had winning based on scores. I feel like I should have taken a screen shot of it so I know who to root for.
As for who invented Mondays, I believe we have the industrial revolution and organized labor to thank for that. No thanks to the farmers, who feed the cows every day of the week. :)
My Monday was actually pretty good--it's the start of Summer Reading at the library (kids keep track of what they read over the summer and get prizes), so we built a robot out of cardboard and tin foil, and put a walkie talkie inside to startle the people who paused to look at him.
Shocking that Sherlock wouldn't let you sleep in his bed given how much he (used to) sleep in yours, lestrade. ;)
Sorry about your dad, RR, I hope he mends speedily.
Ella
Good luck Becca! And less excited (since I don't follow it) good luck to everyone with their football - brackets? I guess not pool, since there's no prize but glory!
One of my kids' greatest joys was poking me half awake when I fell asleep reading to them or telling them stories, and then laughing at the nonsense that came out of my mouth as I tried to continue with the story. Yes, they had mockery down cold before they could read. ;-)
fA
Thank you, everyone, your good thoughts are very appreciated.
"Why don't I get the run of the place, choose where to sleep, like Maf does?"
That's a feline secret. (She could tell you, but then she'd have to kill you... ;) )
Oh, and best of luck, Becca!
Good luck Becca!
KHolly - yeah, a screenshot would have been good. But don't worry about predictions not matching, we already decided that was just sensible, spreading your bets!
The sweepstake in the office is being organised as I type...
RR - hope your dad is better soon.
Becca - good luck with the job.
As for the football, when does it start? Had I thought to keep a note I might have followed a bit more closely, but somehow I doubt it.
What's the office prize, Lestrade?
What's the office prize, Lestrade?
I suspect it will be a box of chocolates. Easier to wrap than Lestrade is.
There has never been a prize in this place that isn't booze or cold hard cash. In this case, both. A bottle of spirits of your choice and the balance in cash. £128 quid.
Not shabby, the office prize!
Good day, all. Fingers crossed, Becca. (Assuming you've not yet done the interview.)
fA
What happens to the prize if no one gets it right?
Not an option, someone will win
...if I didn't know what we were talking about, that would sound distinctly ominous. *deep announcer voice* "Many will enter. One will win."
Ha, DW! Very Hunger Games.
Well, If a team wins the World Cup someone will win. And now someone also has a bet on the whole thing being cancelled because of terrorist action... So even then, someone will win.
And the prize is generous. It's a sweepstake + I guess? Extra money from the cock-up tin being put to good use.
O.k. The more you tell us, the more questions. What is the office cock-up tin? I don't believe that NSY personnel have to put in a fine if they use a swear word, or forget to turn off the lights or use the last of the coffee without replacing it. But I can't imagine what else it would be.
fA
I too want to know what a cock-up tin is!
Interview went well, she strongly implied I would get a second interview. So my fingers are crossed!
Good going, Becca! I hope they get back to you quickly. (And that you have something else in the pipeline, even if less desirable, in case they don't, so you can distract yourself while waiting.)
fA
Using the last of the coffee without replacing it comes under a major cock-up in my book!
That definitely sounds like a terrible occurrence and I'm sure one that people only make once or face your wrath. ;)
Well done, Becca, fingers crossed indeed.
I could list the following day's predictions when I post the positions table each evening if that would help everyone to know who they're rooting for. :)
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