Steve's Seaside Life

Tagged: Family

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A visit to Scotland.

The girls on top of a moutain, (at maximum zoom):

Debbie and I took the girls to Scotland for the first time.  We only went for a few days so we did not stray too far into the highlands but based ourselves near to Ayr.  I love walking and the walk from the site to Ayr along the beach, we also did quite a bit of easy climbing and visiting of National Trust sites, but one of the highlights was a visit to New Lanark, and finding out about the amazing contributions of its owner Robert Owen to social reform.  Robert Owen: Owen of New Lanark and New Harmony is definately on my reading list.

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Jenny and I go to the Cinema.

I had promised Jenny a “1 to 1” trip to the cinema which is always really difficult to organise as the other kids always want to come along as well.  So I chose a movie that I thought would only appeal to Jen, “13 going on 30”,  I was not really looking forward to the film, but was really looking forward to the time with Jen.  As it turned out we both really enjoyed the film, and not for different reasons.  The film synopsis follows:

Jennifer Garner (Daredevil, TV’s “Alias”) and Mark Ruffalo (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) star in this hilarious flash-forward romance about a pre-teen girl who goes from geek to glamorous. With the help of some magic wishing dust, 13 year-old Jenna Rink (Garner) becomes 30 and gorgeous overnight, with everything she ever wanted, except for her best friend Matt (Ruffalo). Now, this grown woman must create some magic of her own to help the little girl inside find the true love she left behind.

Whilist its true that there was a romantic theme to the film, I think what Jen and I liked most was that the girl re-invented the woman, sort of as follows:…

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Spy Kids

Spy Kids. 

On our walk today we were playing Spy’s.  The kids used my Pocket PC to get instructions from Spy Central, and the camera to spot losts kids, (who glowed green), and other enermy spys, (who glowed red).  There were several model planes flying on the beach and they ‘radioed’ the owners to get them to take out the spies and rescure the kids.  They spent the rest of the day playing spys up in the twins bedroom, we are just off to go scooting on the promenade on their ‘hover scooters’.

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Beach Walk.

Tessa, Anna, Jenny and me went on a long walk today.  The weather was glorious so we trekked to Fairhaven Lake, the kids had an Ice Cream, (I am on a dairy free diet), and then we walked back along the beach.  I bought a very cheap low resolution camera...

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Drama School – Richard III.

Stephie was at drama school last week.  They did Richard III.  I thought it might be a bit dry, (not being big Shakespeare fan), especially after Blood Brothers the week before, but it was great.  The adaptation was loosely based around James Bond and Gold Finger.  They used the movie...

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If you ever visit Blackpool ….

If you ever visit Blackpool …. 

Eclipse™

We live 5 miles down the road from Blackpool, which is not one of my favourite places.  However on a quiet day its not a bad location for shopping, its got a great beach and the promendae walk is excellent.  On a busy day, (never go on a Bank Holiday!), its full of drunken louts and is best avoided.  That said it has some great entertainment my favoutrite of which are the yearly shows, and the best of these is eclipse, a combination of Music, Dance and Acrobatic circus.  It really is worth a visit.

Here is the marketting buzz:

Eclipse is the first and only circus musical created in the UK. This unique show is pure theatre. From booking your seats your journey through the elements and a fantasy of our world class performers will leave you truly amazed as they perform elegant and death-defying feats before your very eyes.

With the ultimate in choreography we dare you to see the whole show in one visit. All the special effects in this show have been created especially for you – so you will have a dream come true and a memory forever.

ECLIPSE – …

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Drama School – Blood Brothers

Jenny, my second eldest, just completed her first week at Drama Summer School.  She was part of a great performance of Blood Brothers one of my favourite musicals.  Jenny had quite a few small parts and did very well although she did get rather over-heated as she was wearing two outfits for the whole performance.  The cast overall were great and there is some real talent in the little group. 

We get to see probably 4 performances a year by this youth group and we are really getting to know the actors quite well now, its a special plus looking forward to seeing the best of them develop and trying to spot some of the talent that we are going to enjoy in the years to come.  I was also lucky enough to get to see the individual talent show last Thursday, some of the group shows were very funny, and one of the singers was amazing, she certainly had no problems with projection!

Stephie my eldest is at the school this week, doing the rather more academic Richard III, which she is enjoying, she has spent 3 weeks researching it on the web and creating a project folder …

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Some memories of Hospital

The operation went very well and the girls recovered very fast and got very bored even faster.  I continue to be somewhat amazed at the lack of organisation in Hospitals, a few examples follow:

 

  1. The welcome letter says to ring the ward before you leave home to check a bed is available,  the letter says you need to arrive at the ward by 7:30, but in fact they don’t staff the ward until about 7:30.  Not many people live that close to the hospital!

  2. When we arrived at the ward the notice above the WHITE phone said use the RED phone to request entry

  3. We arrived at 7:25, bearing in mind the fact that the letter said arrive by 7:30.  However the ward did not open until 7:30

  4. The ward was only half full

  5. In the end they decided to close it and moved us downstairs into another ward

  6. The hospital have out-sourced the TV’s, Phones and Parking.  Most of my interactions with the staff revolved around resolving issues with TV’s, Phones and Parking, and also private medical insurance refunds.

  7. Probably ½ of all nurse and doctor time was spent gathering and/or checking previously …

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The Tyranny of too much choice.

An article in Scientific American, titled The Tyranny of Choice has sparked a considerable debate on the web about the problems faced by western societies as a result of too much choice.  In fact the idea is a very old one, I came cross it years ago but it is not mentioned very often by your every day Happiness literature which tends to talk more about internal changes that people can make to the way they think rather than factors from their external environment.

 

You can sum up the material prior to this article as follows:

 

  • The intent of advertising is to make us dissatisfied with what we have

  • If we meet people who have more than we have, or have different spending priorities or saving priorities then we tend to be dissatisfied with what we have

 

These two factors are the main environmental factors that effect happiness.  In my experience they are even more powerful than having somewhere warm and dry to live and enough food to eat, which I soon got used to.  However some people disagree with this and consider these to be essential, (Hygiene factors in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs…

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Tablet PC for Jennifer

This is a short article that I wrote for the occupational therapist who works with one of my daughters who has Raynauds and Scleroderma.

 

There are a variety of different types of technology assistance that would benefit Jennifer in an educational setting.  My perception is that a range of techniques will be required that reflect the unpredictable nature of her symptoms and the variety of different tasks that she needs to perform.  There is no magic bullet solution that meets all of her needs.

 

Writing

 

When Jennifer has to write for extended periods there are a number of issues that need to be considered:

 

1.       Her ability to dictate in a fluent fashion is limited at this age

2.       Her hands get cold

3.       Her hands get tired

4.       Sometimes the movement/dexterity of her hands is limited

 

What solution options are available in addition to traditional pen and paper?

 

1.       Voice recognition

2.       Hand writing recognition

3.       Simple gesture recognition

4.       Different types of keyboard

5.       text substitution

 

Each option is considered in brief below:

 

Voice recognition

 

Voice recognition is …