Tag: WDW Dads

That was the week that was…bobbins.

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon, Walt Disney World

I have to confess to not really being in the mood for my usual jovial glance back at the week just gone.

We’ve had a tough one, starting literally with the week, when Louise’s Mum called us early on Monday morning to say “she wasn’t feeling very well”.  I’m not going to go into loads of detail, but Louise hasn’t stopped all week, backwards and forwards to hospital, after two admissions in the week.  The diagnosis is still quite unclear, ranging from some sort of stroke to meningitis and although she is out of hospital, much the better for the medication, she’s far from right to be honest.

Louise’s Mum stayed with us here one night, in between admissions, and she’s now recuperating with another family member until everyone, including her, feel she is more ready to be home alone.

Add to all this that two other folk I know, one virtually, and one originally virtually but now also in real life, have also had pretty rotten weeks too.  It isn’t my place to outline their events, or even really comment, but the sooner the week is over the better all round I think.  Many of you will know who they are I’m sure.

Other events over the last week then pale into insignificance, and therefore I’ll refrain from rambling on about them here.  Not even a pleasing week of football results can rescue it from the bottom of the league table of weeks.  I can summarise events in one sentence.  Work, waney lap repair success and walking the dog.  To lighten the tone of this post, here is my mate Oli, now six months old, and becoming a very handsome young man, pictured on Saturday morning.

Oli six months
My mate

This may of course lead to a very short entry here, and me feeling that I’m short-changing anyone that cares.  Imagining that anyone does care, and may well be feeling short-changed of anything, I have posted a new article over at The WDW Dads website.  So please head on over there, and have a read by clicking this here link.  It deals with the oft discussed topic of what age is the best to first take your kids to WDW.  Consider it an attempt to inject some magic into a week bereft of any.

So with a respectful nod to friends with crappy news this past week, and a wish for Mary’s return to full health, I give this last week a two-fingered salute and one of my stares.

Onwards and upwards into a new week which will hopefully deliver closure on which bloody job I’ll be doing, and some improvements all round.

Till the next time….

 

This lack of WDW is clearly affecting my health!

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

Having had Emily at home all last week due to a nasty bout of tonsillitis, it would seem that the baton of grottiness has now been passed on to me.  I wouldn’t mind being ill so much, if I were able to be off work with it, but in the current circumstances that will not be an option, certainly on Monday anyway.  Is it every company that devotes most of Monday to meetings at which, if you are not there to present, the earth will cease to turn upon its axis?

I also have a new starter turning up tomorrow, so not to be there would be very bad form.  How much better it will be that I drag my sorry carcus into the office, and infect him with my illness so he can have time off later on in his first week!

Oli first walk
Stepping out

Other than lots of work, which means stress, hassle and problems, in the usual seemingly unending stream of nonsense, the only other thing to report this week is that Oli has been out for his first walks.  With Emily too ill, Rebecca and I took him out around the block on Wednesday night, and he did surprisingly well to be honest.  He obviously hasn’t got the rules yet, and does tend to spend most of the time eating his lead or sitting down, but he could be a lot worse.

On subsequent days he has ventured further afield, and discovered that he really doesn’t like cars, and feels compelled to chase every leaf that moves!  I’m sure he’ll get used to everything.  On Saturday Emily and I had him on the local park for the first time, and then Rebecca had him down to my Mum’s.  This eagerness to walk him won’t last with the girls I’m sure, but it is good whilst it lasts.

Rebecca’s willingness to be out with the dog is based on the amount of attention he attracts.  If Oli brings “cute boys” into any sort of conversation with her then he will have served his purpose.  She’d better make the most of it though, as at the rate he is growing, it will soon take all four of us to manage him on the lead, which will cramp her style just a little.

With half term on the horizon, we’ll see how willing they are to have him out when the inevitable lashing rain and icy winds kick in next week.

On Friday evening, Louise and I went out for tea, and the biggest plus to come out of that was that we were then able to spend Saturday night watching the programmes we Sky plussed on Friday night, rather than endure the seven hour marathon that is the X Factor.  Modern Family and An Idiot Abroad are two of our favourite programmes, so not being able to watch them on Friday made for a much more palatable Saturday.  My decreasing health levels, having to pick Emily up after a gig, and not much sleep last night have led to a Sunday of extreme couchiness for me.

Louise has had to do the BIG SHOP, and the ironing, added to a load of decorating yesterday.  Yes, it continues.  It might sound like we have a kitchen and dining room the size of Surrey, but we haven’t.  It is very nearly done now!!

Before I slumped into this life threatening cold, I did manage to splurge some random words out for the WDW Dads site.  Feel free to go have a read if you are so inclined.  It covers one of my favourite subjects, food!!

It does seem that most of the other WDW Dads spend 90% of their daily lives inside one of the parks, which makes me sick in a whole different way!!  Their constant tweetage from these places is both informative and depressing in equal measure.  Jealousy isn’t pretty, but then again I never claimed to be in any way pretty.

So that’s your lot for this week, my illness obviously is affecting my ability for bloggage, and I need to go and feel sorry for myself some more.  It is funny but in dozens of trips now I have never been ill on US soil, and never had so much as a sniffle inside a Disney theme park.  For the sake of my health, and the NHS it is my duty to be there as much and as often as possible.  You know it makes sense.

Till the next time…..

 

A bit of blog for the (WDW) Dads

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon, Walt Disney World

Final preparations continue for the new arrival.  This week we erected Oli’s crate, and sacrificed half of the kitchen to accommodate it.  We are all quite excited about our new family member, mixed, certainly in my case, with a fair bit of trepidation.  For the girls of course all they can see are the good, fun bits, but although it is a while now since we had a puppy in the house, I can still remember how hard it is.  Louise said tonight that it will be like having a new-born baby in the house again. However, they can wear nappies!!

As much as the week just gone must have dragged for the girls as they countdown to this arrival, it passed me by in a blur of constant and perpetual motion.  Being busy does make the time fly, which is a bonus when it is time at work.

wdw dads
Big Daddy

Outside of work this week, I found another outlet for my written ramblings.  For reasons that I cannot explain, a Disney website by the name of WDW Dads have added me to their roster of writers.  I have been billed as “International writer”, which is perhaps the most exotic way in which I have ever been described.  If you so wish, feel free to have a virtual wander over there.  My first offering can be found by clicking this piece of text.

It is a fairly simple view of how a trip to WDW differs when you live on this side of the Atlantic. Now if you were all to make your way over there, and leave highly complimentary comments on that article, well who am I to try to stop you???

After the first article of course, I now have to think of stuff to write about in future, plus come up with someone to waffle about here, and finish the trip reports.  Luckily, work is a dream and is not taking up any of my time currently!!

At home, yet another weekend has rolled by where I have been unable to mow my back lawn, and by that, I do mean the grass behind the house and nothing else.  We have had a week of relative dryness, so I was hopeful that I would be able to tame the wilderness out there one last time before the ravages of winter roll in, sometime in early October.  I haven’t had a mower on it since just before our holiday which is going on for six weeks now.  Since our return, a mixture of a little bit of apathy and a whole lot of rain has denied any reduction to the green stuff.

Thinking this weekend would be the time, as I lay in bed early on Saturday yet another tropical style storm paid us a visit, and pretty much hung around all weekend.  The lawn is wetter than the Total Wipeout course, and so it stays wild another week.  Maybe it is possible to mow a lawn whilst it is covered in frost?  I am not lay awake at night worrying about this, but I do fear for young Oli.  We may lose him forever in the knee-high jungle that is our back lawn.  Is it just a sign of old age to believe that every summer is worse than the last, and the only decent one we have ever had was in 1976?  Perhaps, but I can’t remember a wetter one than this year.

Now that I have dazzled you with exciting lawn news, I could perhaps tip you over the edge with excitement, by dropping in that I have also got a new pair of slippers.  Does anyone know where I can buy a pipe?

So to balance this level of banality, next week, rather than go to work, I am off to Rio, with Keith Richards and half a ton of Class A drugs.  Maybe not.  However, if the mood takes me I may lob my PC monitor out the window of the office, which would be very bad news for the swans and Canadian Geese that swim past my window all day.  Salford Quays is an exotic place!

keith richards
He cares not one jot about his back lawn

Don’t worry, next week I with fill this space with multiple puppy photos and tales of naughtiness and puddles on the floor.  This has got to be an improvement on rampant lawns and slippers?

Till the next time…..