Wow... I am so lucky. Not only did I get to watch the Olympic opening ceremony on TV but I also got both my mother and my youngest giving their earnest opinions upon all that took place, complete with fashion advice...
From the beginning my mother complained, mainly about the members of team GB who decided to stay at their training camp in Portugal, although as I pointed out to her, with the Portugese economy in the state it is, it was probably cheaper to stay there for a week than fly home for the ceremony and then fly back again. Sometimes I think my mum should spend her negative energy calling the Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2... For those who don't know what that is, think a very polite Jerry Springer on the wireless where middle England complains about the standard of customer service in John Lewis.
Mother's complaints were soon joined by TJs. He got bored very quickly. "When does the running start?" he asked as Kenneth Branagh launched into character. I explained that this was the opening ceremony and the actual events don't start until tomorrow and the running not for another week. "So you're making me stay up to watch a boring show?" "You don't have to stay up," I replied, "I thought you would enjoy it." "Well, I'm not!" he snapped back and off he went to bed. Lea enjoyed it immensely and was clapping along having a great time. Then the flags came. "Why can't we fast forward this bit?" she asked. I explained that this was live and these were all the athletes that we're competing. "Apart from the lazy ones in Portugal!" Mum said.... Lea took all this in. "Well, if they are athletes then they should run round the track and this boring bit would be over sooner." I'm sure the Brazillian Olympic organising committee will be taking that point on board for the Rio games.
We took a trip to Chester Zoo today at a cost of £53 for a family ticket. This price is, of course, before food, drink, ice creams and toys. By the end of the day we had easily spent in excess of £100. Such is the beauty of having kids.
The zoo is a favourite of Lea's but not really of TJ's, or so we thought. When we came last year both children raced around the zoo, this time they seemed much more thoughtful and, although they remembered being here before they didn't recall many of the exhibits or the animals, which leads me to believe that last year they really weren't actually taking anything in. I am beginning to see that adopted children only take things in on their second time of experiencing it. This is probably due to their defence mechanisms learnt from early childhood, in that they choose not to remember anything as those memories will be taken from them at some point either by abusive parents or social workers. We are therefore spending this year repeating all the major activities we did last year and, to be honest, this time round they are so much better.
I shall write more tomorrow.. Stay tuned....
From the beginning my mother complained, mainly about the members of team GB who decided to stay at their training camp in Portugal, although as I pointed out to her, with the Portugese economy in the state it is, it was probably cheaper to stay there for a week than fly home for the ceremony and then fly back again. Sometimes I think my mum should spend her negative energy calling the Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2... For those who don't know what that is, think a very polite Jerry Springer on the wireless where middle England complains about the standard of customer service in John Lewis.
Mother's complaints were soon joined by TJs. He got bored very quickly. "When does the running start?" he asked as Kenneth Branagh launched into character. I explained that this was the opening ceremony and the actual events don't start until tomorrow and the running not for another week. "So you're making me stay up to watch a boring show?" "You don't have to stay up," I replied, "I thought you would enjoy it." "Well, I'm not!" he snapped back and off he went to bed. Lea enjoyed it immensely and was clapping along having a great time. Then the flags came. "Why can't we fast forward this bit?" she asked. I explained that this was live and these were all the athletes that we're competing. "Apart from the lazy ones in Portugal!" Mum said.... Lea took all this in. "Well, if they are athletes then they should run round the track and this boring bit would be over sooner." I'm sure the Brazillian Olympic organising committee will be taking that point on board for the Rio games.
We took a trip to Chester Zoo today at a cost of £53 for a family ticket. This price is, of course, before food, drink, ice creams and toys. By the end of the day we had easily spent in excess of £100. Such is the beauty of having kids.
The zoo is a favourite of Lea's but not really of TJ's, or so we thought. When we came last year both children raced around the zoo, this time they seemed much more thoughtful and, although they remembered being here before they didn't recall many of the exhibits or the animals, which leads me to believe that last year they really weren't actually taking anything in. I am beginning to see that adopted children only take things in on their second time of experiencing it. This is probably due to their defence mechanisms learnt from early childhood, in that they choose not to remember anything as those memories will be taken from them at some point either by abusive parents or social workers. We are therefore spending this year repeating all the major activities we did last year and, to be honest, this time round they are so much better.
I shall write more tomorrow.. Stay tuned....
We are indeed doing the same with our boys, visiting all the places we seemed to run around last year!
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