Family visit - Oxford Part 3 - The Extra Factor

I am not a huge fan of the X-Factor. To be honest I cannot remember who won what, when and other than a handful of contestants I cannot really think of any who have made a real career from winning it.

I hold my hand up and admit that I will occasionally watch the first few open audition weeks, although this is typically with the same type of morbid fascination that the ancients watched gladiatorial games. It is incredible to see young Wayne, whose Mum has put him up for it and whose voice she says is that of an angel, who would only be able to hit the correct note if it was lying bleeding at his feet and he had a big shovel in his hands, and who has as much chance of hitting the charts as I have of becoming the first man to walk on the sun! But for some reason it's is almost addictive to watch these people come on and murder a song before being ripped apart by the judges on the panel. It does seem a bit sad that celebrity is something that is so desperately sought that people will willingly risk national humiliation for the chance to gain it (I know that I couldn't carry a tune even in a bucket......and therefore I would not enter myself into a singing competition!)

This weekend, my Sister, who really enjoys the X-Factor, but knowing that she was going to be sharing the TV with three rugby lads decided to make things slightly more interesting with an X-Factor drinking game. I believe she found it online, and having had a brief look I know that there are several out there all along the same lines, but the rules that we played are these:

With a TV turned onto the X-factor and a drink of your choice in hand (admittedly alcohol in our case but this is not necessarily a requisit and I certainly don't suggest or recommend drinking in excess.....even if I do tend to end up doing it!)

Everytime one of the following happens two fingers depth of drink and drunk:

• Louis Walsh mentions that Simon Cowell brought the world...........(you can choose for yourself who to suggest or just use the fact that he mentions anyone)
• Louis Walsh mentions Westlife
• Simon Cowell winks at a contestant
• A contestant describes that this is their "life dream" or that they are "going to give it their all"
• Cheryl Cole calls someone "Pet"
• That anyone of the judges uses the phrase "you owned that!"

If this was not enough you are then to "down" the drink if:

• A contestant's performance is described as karaoke
• Cheryl Cole cries
• A performance is described as the "Best performance of the night", or
• Someone utters the phrase "you are the reason that this competition exists!"

I admit that after the first few rounds we had to swiftly move on to shots as we were running out of beer, although we kept to the longer drinks for the two finger challenges.

I don't know if I enjoyed the X-factor anymore than normal, although I must admit that it did seem to go faster.

Sunday was not so much fun!

Family visit - Oxford Part 2

Whilst in Oxfordshire we decided that we would take the opportunity to visit Minster Lovell Hall, now in ruins, about 10 miles from my Sister's house (well I say we.......some of the guys decided to stay at home and watch Welsh rugby and drink beer, but five of us went!)

We are hugely lucky in the UK to have ruins just literally lying around the place! They are usually really well kept by English Heritage and are always really interesting. I love the feel of old ruins and the places area always hugely atmospheric.

Minster Lovell Hall was given to the Lovel family by Henry I prior to 1124, passing through a succession of Lovels until John Lovel (d. 1310) was created first Lord Lovel.

After the Battle of Bosworth it was passed to the uncle of Henry VII but the Hall as ruined was built in the 1430s on the foundations of an older house, although nothing beyond foundations remain to the east, where accommodation chambers may have been sited.

The atmosphere was quite strange and apparently it is the home to two ghosts. The first is supposedly of Lord Lovel, who was said to have been hiding in a secret room when the servant who knew the location of the room died suddenly. The story is that workman later found the room where they found his skeleton sitting at a desk with his dog and a book in his hand. On opening the room everything fell to dust and his voice is apparently heard around the stones at night.The other is that of the Mistletoe Bride who whilst playing hide and seek with her groom, hid in a chest and got trapped. She is apparently seen climbing an no longer existing stair case. I didn't see any ghosts, but it was a very nice, but atmospheric place.

 

 

 

Such a cutie!

I did try and find the Mistletoe Bride or at least the missing staircase.

Richard, Jess, Bex and the Sopharola!

Another of the possible missing staircases

Family visit - Oxford Part 1

I think I have probably mentioned that my Sister and my little Niece moved down to Oxfordshire so that they could live with her husband who is in the RAF. They moved a couple of months ago, and although my parents and other sister had been down to see them, I have always been away, or busy or just not around, and so this was the first time that I have had a chance to see them and their house in what has seemed a really long time. So Sister I and I headed down from Hull, whilst her boyfriend and my half sister headed up from down South.

 

I have to say that the house was beautiful (well bungalow!) and although a Friday afternoon drive was hell (well it was the M1, followed by the M40 which at about 4.30 on a Friday afternoon was never going to be an exactly fun journey, but 45 minutes to do about 5 miles really did seem like it was taking the biscuit.....god bless loud music, nicotine and caffeine drinks.) We all arrived at about 7pm and got to catch up on what was happening in everyones' lives, who was seeing whom, how work was going, and where the short future was taking us (oh and maintained the family drinking tradition.....I should be able to update you further on this in Part 3 with a fantastic game!)

Saturday saw us taking my Niece, with my Brother in Law, and Brother outlaw, to a fantastic park just outside Carterton (a brisk walk of about 5 - 6 miles, which was really nice to get out of the house whilst the ladies organised things - Jess took her bike, although very much like her Mum who would insist her bike on any walk, and after about 200m decide that she didn't want to ride, but rather my Dad would have to carry the bike and give her a shoulder carry!)

I remember parks when I was a kid.....there was invariably a couple of broken swings, a slide with something smeared along its length, a see-saw and a roundabout with metal surrounds (I loved that.....is it just me and my friends who used those to see how fast we could get someone else to vomit?) typically covered in empty beer/cider cans, various items of clothing and pages from those top shelf magazines. My "old" parks would not even stand next to this one......a sandpit with cranes and a bucket and pulley system, two sunken trampolines, numerous swings of varying designs, an adventure playground that would have put the US Marines training grounds and the Krypton Factor's assualt course to shame, numerous slides, and a roundabout that looked like a cross between an IKEA table and the Travelator from Gladiators.

After a couple of hours of playing (I mean looking after Jess whilst she played) we headed back to a lunch that the wonderful ladies had prepared (we did treat them for their kindness later with boxes of chocolates and fizzy wine!). We did spend the afternoon either sitting watching rugby or out at Minster Lovell Manor, details of which I will bore you with tomorrow, but in the meantime I enclose a couple of photos of Jess, who is a wonderful bright spot in our life, enjoying her bike!

Becoming a Man

Growning up I had two real male influences in my life........and who have shaped me into the man that I am today. I can catch, skin, prepare and cook wild animals (although try not to need to do so anymore!) , can treat a woman with respect, can discuss cars and engines (with the impression of knowing what I'm talking about!)compete in a scrum or lineout, chop trees, give my heart to a woman, neck a pint in about 3 seconds, (enjoy sitting with kittens, cry at Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, draw and read a map - not sure about the validity of these)

My first was my paternal Grandfather, who died when I was about 7 years old. He was a veteran of the Second World War, who spent the rest of his life in the army, as a senior officer in what became the Yorkshire Regiment, and who was on one of the last ships out of Singapore before it fell. Despite never speaking of what he did during the war (although I have researched it and the decorations that he received were well and truly won!) after the war he dedicated his life to nature conservation and became a senior officer in the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. I only knew him for a short time, but remember him strongly as as wonderful man, who put his family first before everything, and was a complete gentleman, despite his somewhat rebellious youth! He and my Nana lived in York and we would go over every other Sunday where we would play in his garden, and he had a small sweet box which we were allowed to choose one after dinner, before watching the A-Team, Tom and Jerry, and wrestling (the proper wrestling with Giant Haystacks and Big Daddy.....when wrestlers were real! I'm pretty sure of that fact :) )

He was the first person to give me chocolate (at the age of a couple of months, even though my Parents were not going to give us sweets!) and promised me a whole large bar of chocolate when I could lift his medicine ball! Unfortunately I was only able to do this after his death. He was also the first person to give me beer (I say gave me.....rather he had vats of homebrew in ths garage that I was able to access!) I will always remember him and will always regret not having more opportunities to spend time with him.

The other male influence who has made me the man I am now and shall always be the most important man in my life is my Father. He like his own Father is a genuine gentleman, and I believe that without his influence and guidance I do not know where I would be. Like his Father he is ex-military who has developed a deep seated love for nature and the environment. He is kind and generous, will give his last pound to anyone who needs it, will treat a woman with respect, but is also hard working but still a lot of fun to be around!

My only hope is that if I can be even a fraction of the men that my Father and Grandfather are or have been then I will have really have acheived something with my life

Lil Niece!

My sister and niece are shortly to move down to Oxfordshire to move closer to her husband's work, so this was the last weekend we got to spend time together as a family for a while, and it meant that we spent the weekend as a family, and it was fantastic....(especially as I will also be moving to Manchester in the next few weeks as well! - something that I have mixed feelings about.....I can't wait to not have to spend four hours a day commuting, but have spent time in Manchester previously and have not taken to it massively and really love Hull)

Spending time as a family meant that there have been a lot of sitting around the table or in the garden soaking up the sun, talking, telling jokes, and remembering funny times and stories (most of which were highly embarrassing and usually centred around one or other of us doing stupid things often as the result of alcohol, or excessive sugar!) Whilst I am certainly going to miss my sister, I am also hugely going to miss my little four year old niece, who is such a hugely joyous part of our family.

Her arrival was something of a surprise. She arrived whilst I was living in Birkenhead, and my half-brother's ex-wife was pregnant (our family is seriously mixed up!!!!!) when I received a telephone call at about 6pm. I was just back from work and my Father telephoned to tell me that I was an uncle again...... (I already had 4 nephews and a niece, and my half-brother had separated from his wife and the child wasn't his so wasn't too bothered.......told you we were really mixed up!).....that went something along these lines!

"Great! Tell R...... and N....... I hope they are well!"
"No, it's not N...... it's B..... your sister!"
"Pardon? What the ******? How can she have had a baby? She's not even pregnant?"
"Seriously!"
"We saw her last weekend, she was definitely not pregnant......we went to the pub and everything!"
"Well she most definitely was as she's now at HRI with a little baby girl!"
"We'll be over next weekend!"

There really was no indication that she was pregnant, an even having been to a Dr that day she really had no idea (I know that this is the sort of thing that you read about in 'Hello' or 'OK' and think "yeah.....right......how can you not know?" but seriously there was no indication at all!) So very bravely my sister brought little niece into the world. She is truly remarkable. Now at 4 she is loves to dance and sing, has known most of the lyrics to "Mama Mia" for about a year and a half, and will take any opportunity to put on a show. She also loves to dance and if she isn't on the stage when she is older I will eat my hat......well maybe not, but she does have the temperament to be great on stage.

So this lil bundle of shock and confusion that arrived four years ago is a huge part of the whole family's life, who touches the life of everyone who meets her, and who is such a caring and loving little person, is shortly to move away, and I know that we will all miss her (although we will be visiting as often as possible!)