A 'first' at 36

For a while now, 'A' has been driving me mad to go horse riding.  I have to say this is something I've wanted to do myself for as long as I can remember but I did wonder if at the age of 36 I was a little too old to be potentially 'falling off' a horse.  After a little discussion I finally decided to do a bit of searching online to see if I could find a suitable place for us to experience our first pony ride.  I came across a site called horsetreks.co.uk part of livetheadventure and after a few emails back and forth we booked a 45 minute hack.

The Ginny Hole centre was located in Stottesdon which was nearly an hours drive from home.  Far too much time, I have to say, to weigh up the pros and cons of why I'd finally decided to do this.  'A' was seriously looking forward to it though so I figured it was now or never.  When we arrived the staff that greeted us were so friendly they immediately put us at ease.  We discovered that I would be riding 'Apache' and 'A' would be on 'Thunder'.  We laughed when we heard the name of 'A's horse as I had mental pictures of a huge black stallion, rearing up and neighing!  It turned out that both Apache and Thunder were very lovely black and white cob horses that were extremely well behaved and calm and nothing like the the image their names conjured up.

As it turned it, 'A' and I were the only riders on this particular hack and as we'd never so much as sat on a horse before they decided it would be a good idea for us to each have our own member of staff to accompany us on the ride.  This was great as it filled us with a lot more confidence.  We were given directions on how to 'steer' the horse and get him to move and then off we went for our 45 minute walk.

We were told that the horses are extremely clever and that usually within 5 to 10 minutes they have a notion of what type of rider is 'onboard' and if they feel it's a novice then they decide to 'try it on'!  Apache tried this a couple of times by eating the hedge as we walked along and then doing some serious head shaking.  I never realised that it could be quite so difficult to control a horse.  You watch others doing it and it looks so simple, but even managing to keep your balance at such a height can be tricky if the horse decides to have a wobbly moment.  We did attempt a little trot on the way back up the lane which was fun but blimey was it knackering and we only did it for a couple of minutes!

I'm very pleased to say that neither of us fell off and both returned with our limbs all intact.  After seeing how high you are on the horse's back falling off would definitely be the last thing I'd aim to do.  We both had a fabulous time at Country Treks.  I can't see myself competing in the 2016 games but it's really something I'd like to try again at some point and 'A' has said the same.  Horses are such beautiful and intelligent creatures, it was a real honour to be so close to them even if it has taken me 36 years to get around to it.


'A' and I with 'Thunder'

June already?

Yes, it's June already and the longest day today too!  Hard to believe really looking out the window.  Today we have a mix of rain, cloud and yet more rain.  Beginning to wonder if we will actually have a Summer this year.

The last few months have been full on with work, in fact, for our little business year 5 has been our busiest to date (not that we're complaining!).

The lovely ladies choir that I belong to finally put on their concert back in April after 9 months of busy rehearsal.  We raised around £1600 in total half of which went to Short Cross Methodist Church and the other half toward research into Lupus.  Since then we've taken the concert out to a couple of other venues and we'll be performing again on Saturday night but this time in aid of Birmingham St Mary's Hospice who do invaluable work offering help and support to people with terminal illness.  This should then be our last performance of 'Film Fantasia' and then we'll have a short break before starting up again later in the Summer.

 

The school choir will be performing their Summer concert next Tuesday after rehearsing since January.  During the last few weeks we've taken a small group from the choir to sing at the Salvation Army's Birmingham Citadel and also at the 'Time Out' group's Jubilee Party.  We were made to feel very welcome on both occasions and children sang their hearts out.  They're more than ready now to perform their final concert and I think we're all a little sick of the songs if I'm completely honest!

My running has recently come to a bit of a standstill unfortunately due to some health worries.  Everything now looks to be clear so I'm hoping to get out for a run at the weekend.  This will be my first in 2 months so as you can imagine I think I'll struggle to get to the end of the street rather than manage the 7 miles level I'd finally reached.  It's a bit disappointing really as I felt I was doing so well, but I'm determined to get back to it and build it up gradually again as I did before.

The family are all well.  The school year seems to have whizzed by so fast, can't believe 'A' is nearly at the end of her first year of high school.  It doesn't seem 5 minutes since we were stressing about how she'd settle in.  'S' has had a good first year of study for his GCSE's and has done some marvellous things in Music in particular.

'P' celebrated his birthday at the start of the month so thought it was about time he booked in his birthday present from LAST year.....White Water Rafting.  See my next post for all the fun and photos!  He's still running and his performance has come on no end since he's been regularly running with the club.  He has another race tomorrow in Blakedown and during March managed to win 1st place in the competition on RunBritain for most improved running handicap..

Arnold celebrated his 2nd birthday on Tuesday.  Hard to believe he's been part of our family now for 2 years.  I can still remember when he first came home with us, I had to wear my knee length boots around the house in the peak of Summer to fend off his feisty puppy needle teeth!  Well worth the pain though, we wouldn't be without him :).

Goodbye 2011 - A quick catch up

After an unintentional and rather long break from blogging, 2012 sees my return!

The end of 2011 was tied up with family life, choirs and A LOT of reorganising on the business front.  December saw us take the school choir to the huge Young Voices event at the LG Arena in Birmingham (see here for last year's Young Voices post) along with a trip to the local Merry Hill Centre for their annual Choir Competition.  Although, we weren't successful with the latter, the kids did themselves proud and we couldn't have asked them to do more.  I was pretty choked up after their performance I can tell you.

Things have been extremely busy with work, this being the main reason for my absence from blogland (and cardmaking and crafting and basically anything fun!).  We have been evaluating our business by means of several review workshops with a local company.  This has seen us assessing our client base, finances and the services we offer in order to re-evaluate and push things forward from 2012 onwards.  Doing the business review has helped us immensely.  We now feel that rather than drifting from one contract to the next, we have an aim and a plan that will see our business grow, year on year.  In fact I'm quite excited about the potential things we have lined up for this year.

Ladies choir kicks off again tonight and we're making great progress with our rehearsals for the upcoming concert in April.  Three more harmonised songs to get through and then we're all done with the 'learning' part.  Only staging and a bit of choreography to master then and we're good to go.  School choir starts up again next week and I have a hell of a lot of work to do before then, preparing, recording and editing music. (Had most of the music since Sept and still only just got around to doing anything with it!).

'A' performed in 'Hairspray' with Youth Onstage at the beginning on December.  A fabulous show with some super performances.  Although, part of the chorus, 'A's confidence has grown no-end since she joined the group.  She struggled with the late nights this time and looked a little washed out by the end of it all.  She's decided to take a break from the next performance to give herself opportunity to try some of the drama available at school.

Christmas 2011 has been a far more relaxed one than of late.  Due to our busy work schedule during the lead up to the festive season, we were more than happy to simply chill and spend time as a family.  It was our turn to invite the family on Christmas Eve and this saw us offering our usual quiz to keep everyone entertained.  It's been nice having the children at home but I feel ready now to get organised and take on whatever the new year has to throw at me.

A Halloween Pumpkin Treats idea

Halloween Pumpkin Treats!

Take a look back at my blog post from last October for a great trick or treat creation!  I have to admit I've been a little busy this year and due to the fact that both DD and DS are getting older and growing out of the whole Halloween thing we've not been quite so organised!  Never the less, 'A' will be off out tonight with her friend and I'm making a last minute dash now in a futile attempt to find a pumpkin.  Mother of the year I am ;)

October update and a change of scenery

First of all, sorry!  Long time no post!

Things have been a bit busy recently.  Work has picked up, which of course is good but just means things are a bit more hectic.  Have been spending a lot of time over the last couple of weeks making updates to the website and looking at marketing strategies for the business.  We have a couple of meetings lined up this week too which should help things along.  Our lease now looks like it will be extended into 2012 which is good news as it means not having to start hunting for appropriate business premises again, which is just impossible!

'A' is still loving high school and has now been set for some of her subjects, really pleased that she's been placed in the top band for English and Maths.  She's joined the school orchestra and after a shaky start is now enjoying the sessions each week.  Her rehearsals are also well under way for Youth Onstage's production of Hairspray that will run at the end of November.  'S' finally decided to stick with his GCSE music option after much deliberation but has changed from Woodwork to Food Tech which we are enjoying as much as him as we get to sample his culinary delights :).



Finally decided last week that the grubby cream walls in the lounge just had to go!  We'd actually bought some green floral wallpaper samples back from B&Q some time ago with the intention of revamping the bedroom, but after buying the new sofa's we decided to go for this scheme in the lounge.  I trekked off to B&Q on Thursday to stock up on the supplies (Dulux Malt Chocolate and Laurence Llewelyn Bowen wallpaper) and we spent the weekend filling, painting, glossing and wallpapering.  Poor Arnold has spent the majority of this time behind his gate watching the proceedings.  I don't think he could quite work out why he'd been shut out but I think after last night's stressful wallpapering events and profanities he was quite glad to be as far away from me as possible!  All in all though I think we did well to get it all done in one weekend and we're both really pleased with the results.  Just curtains to buy now once we find some we like.



 

 

 

A September school update!

[caption id="attachment_1139" align="alignright" width="225" caption="'A' ready for first day at High School"][/caption]

Well 'A' has just finished her third week at High School and I'm so pleased to say she's absolutely loving it!  She's finding the lessons so much more interesting and challenging than at Primary School and she's even now starting to get into a routine with homework.  The first couple of weeks were hard as she found it almost impossible to get up and out on time each morning, but after lots of nagging and me finally losing it completely she's now started to pull her finger out!  She joined the Rhythmic Gymnastics club this week and thoroughly enjoyed it and next week she'll be off to school orchestra for the first time.  She helped out at school open evening on Tuesday by taking part in an organised badminton session and then afterwards within the Drama department.  All in all we couldn't be happier at how well she's settle in.

'S' has begun studies for his GCSE's but has had a few problems with the subjects he's chosen.  He has now swapped Woodwork for Food Tech but we're having major deliberations over whether he should change Music for Film Studies.  I think he finds the whole prospect of completing his Music GCSE quite daunting, you see he can't read music and has never had any real instrumental lessons, but the thing is, he has a real musical talent and one we think should be encouraged.  He has the ability to hear a song and magically recreate it on the piano which is something I could never do.  I think his talent would come on no end by continuing with Music but he knows that we will not force him and the decision has to be his.

However, one good thing that has come out of his indecision is that regardless of whether he continues with Music as a school subject he's now decided that he wants to learn to play properly with lessons from yours truly as well as additional theory lessons.  This is something we've tried many times before but up till now he's always want to 'play his own thing' and has not been interested in learning the 'technicalities'.  Will keep you posted on his progress!

The end of an era

Well here we are, about to begin the second week of the summer holidays and already primary school is a distant memory. For those of you not in the know, 'A' finished her final year of primary school on Friday 22^nd July and will be off to much scarier (well, to me anyway) High School come September. The last few weeks of term went by in a blur. We performed our usual summer concert with the school choir back in June and as ever this was a hit with the kids and the parents and even took our ladies choir in for an impromptu assembly performance. 'A' and the rest of year 6 shortly after, started work on their final school show which this year was to be 'Gel'. They performed the show over two nights and 'A' played Mrs Fletcher, a bit of a busy body come tea lady! She had to wear rollers in her hair and her Grandma's slippers but she loved every minute of it. The show was a roaring success and really showcased some new talents that we'd not had a chance to see before.

Last day of term came and went and surprisingly, not a tear was shed in the Griffiths household by Mother or Daughter. The usual traumatic leavers' assembly had been replaced by a more upbeat celebration of the children's time at primary school and although there were a few weepy souls there was not the usual flood of tears that has a kind of domino effect. Even the end of school bell went by without too much trauma. 'A' came out of school with a shirt full of signatures and couldn't wait to put her new found independence into action by heading off to the chip shop with friends (an essential trip that had been planned by the year 6's for a few day's and which we had no choice but to agree to!).

I did wonder if the fact that she'd actually left primary school and a whole chapter of her life behind, would kick in sometime during the first weeks of the holiday, but I can honestly it hasn't. I think the fact of the matter is, she's just ready to move on. If you'd have asked me this time last year I would have said, "she's still my little girl and will never be ready for high school in a years' time". However, she is and I can't believe the change in her over 12 months. Yes, she's still incredibly half soaked at times and has the memory capacity of a tea strainer but she has matured no end and I feel is really ready for the challenge of 'big' school. Whether I'll still be saying that in the Autumn when she's having friendship issues, detention for being late and not handing her homework in on time, remains to be seen! ;) Personally,  think the whole process was easier for me, knowing that I would be returning to the school again in September to continue with school choir.  It won't be quite the same though without my own lovely girl being there each week.  I'm sure she'll drop in from time to time though, should her busy extra curricular school life allow!

[caption id="attachment_971" align="alignleft" width="189" caption="First day at primary school"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_972" align="alignright" width="97" caption="Last day at primary school"][/caption]

Where did those 6 years go?

A May update (including wine!)

So......half term begins! Phew!

Been a busy last few weeks.  'A' had her SAT's a couple of weeks ago but the least said about that the better - a lot of needless stress and pressure if you ask me!  She's now moved on to Sex Education (or 'THE' Education) as she calls it and rehearsals for the end of the term show, so much more interesting times all round :)

'S' is pleased that he's been offered the Options that he'd chosen and has been informed that they're all off to Drayton Manor Park at the end of term as a graduation reward from KS3 to KS4.

'P' and I had a lovely trip to The Three Choirs Vineyard on 13th May.  I actually bought 'P' the voucher for wine tasting and a two course lunch for his birthday last year and due to the fact that it will soon be his birthday this year we thought we'd best get moving.  The Vineyard itself did not disappoint, set in beautiful Gloucestershire countryside it really was idyllic.  Unfortunately, the sun decided not to play ball on this occasion and headed off behind the clouds about 5 minutes after our arrival never to be seen again....well till the next day.

[caption id="attachment_881" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Wine tasting time!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_882" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Wine tasting in the courtyard"][/caption]

We walked around on the short guided tour and then returned to the courtyard to sample our selection of wines.  Shortly after this we headed to the Vineyard Restaurant to enjoy our two course lunch.  We were seated at a lovely table with a scenic outlook over the many acres of vineyard.  Being midweek the whole place was very quiet but no less attention to detail was paid by the staff.  The food was absolutely delicious, one of the best meals we've had and the fact that it was washed down by one of our 'tasting' choices made it even more memorable.

[caption id="attachment_883" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Lunch at the Three Choirs"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_884" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Lunch in the Vineyard Restaurant"][/caption]

School choir now have one rehearsal left before there Summer Concert next month and for once they actually seem quite ready! Shocking, I know !  We think the song choices have helped this year, funky as it is, all inklings of High School Musical have gone with their replacements being the likes of Hans Christian Anderson and South Pacific - much more choir friendly songs!

The ladies choir performed there concert 'It's a Man's World' again last night on behalf of Halesbury Special School to help raise much needed funds and awareness about the school.  This went well and a fair number turned up to support which was nice.

So now, on the brink of June all thoughts in the Griffiths house turn to the imminent birthday on the year.  Yes, 'P's big 4-0 that's coming up next week!!! So while he rapidly tries to complete his final year's uni work all celebration plans are left firmly in our hands.  Brave, brave man ;)

[slideshow]

Youth Onstage do HSM!

Back in January 'A' joined a group called YouthOnstage in Birmingham.  The group had been recommended by a lady called Jude Petty who just happened to be attending one of the courses we deliver.  'P' mentioned to her that 'A' loved singing, dancing and acting and she thought she might like to give it a try.  At first, although she enjoyed rehearsals, I think she found it a little hard joining a group where she didn't know a soul and we were extremely proud of her for giving it a try and continuing to attend each week.  What probably didn't help was our holiday back in February that took her away from rehearsals for 3 weeks, but unfortunately this had been booked and paid for long before 'A' had ever decided to join Youth Onstage.  However, a few weeks into her return and we could see her confidence was beginning to blossom and she slowly started to speak of new friends and good times.

Last week Youth Onstage performed High School Musical at the Old Rep theatre in Birmingham and what a superb performance it was.  We'd already seen the group perform their pantomime back in December so we knew what they were capable of but it was great to see even more talented youngsters taking the lead the parts.

It never ceases to amaze me that a group of youngsters aged 9 to 21 can have such power when they sing and I know many adult societies who could take a leaf from their book.  The whole cast has such an enthusiasm for what they do and you can see their enjoyment as they perform.  Music for the show was directed by Andy Johnson and the trickier numbers such as Stick to the Status Quo were handled with ease.  Suzy Petty was in charge of choreography and as with the pantomime it was great to see the whole cast taking part in many of the dances along with the more challenging routines that the cheerleaders and basketball players had to learn.  Direction was by Deb Brook and was fabulous, nothing was over played, the actors and actresses reactions were timed to perfection.  Our only fault with the show would be that in some of the songs the backing music was a little loud which meant that it was difficult to hear the soloist at times.  On many occasions however, the soloist was then joined by chorus which meant the track volume was required to be louder to compete with their fantastic volume :).

There were far too many talented individuals to mention them all but we were really impressed with Alick Draper and Georgia Towler who played Ryan and Sharpay.  Their comic interpretation of the characters was superb, especially with Alick 'camping' it up whenever he possibly could.  Hannah Brook and Adam Brown did the roles of Gabriella and Troy justice and were careful not to overplay the parts - their voices combined wonderfully.  Hannah Thomas playing 'Kelsie' was also a hit with us - we also couldn't believe how much she looked like the actual 'Kelsie' from the film!

It was a tiring week for 'A' with dress rehearsals on both bank holiday Monday and also Tuesday evening and then the show itself began on Wednesday evening and ran till Saturday.  But however tired she was her enthusiasm didn't wane and we could tell she'd thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience of being on stage and the atmosphere that goes with being part of a cast and show such as this.  She's made some great friends and is always keen to tell us how pleasant and friendly everyone is - she can't wait to return in September when rehearsals start for 'Hairspray'.  She actually asked me this morning, "Is it YOS tonight?".........I think she has the bug!