Last May 2009, I headed over to Manchester to spend an evening/early morning out on the beer with cousin Alex, and on that occasion, it ended just before 6am. Tonight, I’m heading out again, and no doubt, it’ll end in the wee hours of the morning – daylight for sure – and all for the ’sound of quality’. On this occasion, cousin Simon Olsen is here!!! Hooray!! That means more alcohol, and more fun! Good times…
Moving house is stressful. It’s also tiring, and when you’re in the last few days in your house, there’s the matter of cancelling/moving/amending your address & account details with around 40 different companies. Yesterday, I contacted our house insurance company in order to cancel our policy. As one might expect these days, I ended up speaking to a call centre in India…an event which only added to the stress of moving, as I couldn’t understand half of what the customer service ‘manager’ was saying, nor could he understand what I was saying.
At one stage during the telephone call, I had to chuckle. We’re moving in with my Mum-in-law for a short period until such time that the legals on our new house have been done and dusted. Dorothy’s house is an old house, built around 1887, and over time, it’s suffered war damage, as well as damp, flooding and fire (an external garage), and understandably, this is seen as a greater insurance risk to house contents whilst we’re living there in transit. ‘Nick’ from the Indian call centre asked me if the house had suffered any “heew”, so I asked him to repeat this…still couldn’t understand what he was asking, and I asked him to repeat it twice more….but I still couldn’t understand what he was asking. And then he spelt it….
H for hotel
E for echo
A for alpha
WE for wictor
E for echo
I asked him if he was saying ‘hee-we’…and he responded by saying it again, and spelling it again, including the ‘we for wictor’. Then the penny dropped. He wanted to know if the house had suffered any movement or ‘heave’ (as in ‘we for wictor’). How Ywonne and I laughed.
Thanks to Colm for the jibjab 
Well, one month on from putting in an offer on a house, we withdrew our offer on Monday last. Lots of legal wranglings – unforeseen as the estate agent had advertised the property as ‘freehold’ instead of ‘leasehold’ – together with absolutely no progression of the purchase in almost a month, provided us with sufficient time to evaluate whether or not we were doing the right thing. Truth be known, we both felt as though a weight had been lifted off our shoulders when we made the withdrawal, so it was obviously the right thing to do.
This weekend, we’re off to view another 4 houses. Fingers crossed.
In September 2007, we put our house up for sale. Twenty one months whizzed by, and having reduced it in price 3 times, we couldn’t understand why it hadn’t sold, so two months before little Katrina was due (last June), we took it off. In January just gone, we decided to put it back on again – this time with a different estate agent & with a different set of photos. In line with the rest of the market, we reduced it in price again – overall by £45,000 (it hurts me to even type that!), but the new price brought much needed interest in the property.
Two weeks ago, we returned from a holiday in Centerparcs (sniff…fresh air!) and were absolutely delighted to receive a letter confirming Seán’s acceptance into a primary school in Aughton, West Lancs, starting next September 2010. The following day, we had a vewing and just like any other, we presented the house as best we could, and hoped for further interest. It came 10 days ago with a request for a second viewing – the first second viewing we’d had – and we were both excited and nervous, but trying not to get too excited. It went well, and the following day, we had an offer, which we accepted! Whoop-dee-whoop! The pressure was on…we had to find a house for ourselves.
Last Sunday, we went to view a property that we’d previously viewed in January, and having considered all aspects of the buy, we made an offer and it was accepted – hooray!! It’s amazing what can happen in such a short space of time. Today, we dropped into our estate agent and made all of the final preparations signatures, etc. and we expect that the whole thing will be through – done and dusted – by mid-May…actually, it may even be a little earlier, who knows.
It’s DAMN EXPENSIVE to move house…£7K in our case, but hey-ho, it’s what we want. I don’t think I realised just how expensive these things really are, and it’s funny when I think back about how we bought our current house – our first house; there were no estate agents involved and we kinda went into it with our eyes half shut. It was almost fun! So here we are with about 6-8 weeks left in our lovely little house, and this morning, I went outside to find that the word ‘SOLD’ had been added to the ‘For Sale’ sign by the pixies during the night – I love those pixies.
I hope that the new owners will be as happy in the house as we’ve been.
Wish us luck.
Leo. x
Here are the latest pics of the kids, taken over the last two weeks. Click on a photo, and use your [left] and [right] arrow keys to navigate.
It’s been a busy seven days.
Last Saturday, Graham ‘The Odyssey’ Hughes surprised us all by magically teleporting himself from Rome, Italy to the bar at FACT, Liverpool! Great surprise! A ‘Skype-ing event had been planned and around 30 of his friends gathered for it, as a live link-up had been arranged. For those of you not in the know, Graham’s currently mid-Odyssey, attempting to visit every country on Earth – by surface – in the shortest time possible. He’d secretly returned to the U.K. so as to attain some visas for the middle-east. Shortly after the event began, we lost sound, followed shortly by faint cries of, “can you hear me…can you hear me?” until eventually, the webcam link went down. Suddenly, and as if by magic, Graham appeared in the bar, shouting, “Can you hear me now?!”. It was great.
On the Sunday, we headed to his folk’s place for a similar event, and a similar surprise for his family, which also worked a treat. On Monday evening, I met up with Graham & friends in a bar in town, and seeing as we had a busy day planned for Tuesday, I got the last train home. Tuesday arrived, and post breakfast, we worked on a little bit of the Odyssey website and some film conversion, before heading to Granada Studios in Manchester for some filming for the news’ Granada Reports. Later on, we headed over to the BBC studios as ‘Auntie’ was also interested in The Odyssey. We headed into the studios of North West Tonight for a live interview with the legend that is, Gordon ‘The Krypton Factor’ Burns. Post interview, we met up with a technician from NWT, who was keen to get involved with the project.
On the Wednesday, Graham headed to London for an interview with ITN for the national lunchtime news, and later that night, I put out a news story on his website indicating that he was home. Thursday arrived and was spent generally catching up on the events of the week, sending & receiving e-mails and news contacts via the website. On Friday night, a meeting was arranged for The Odyssey team, but it fell through, much to my annoyance. Tonight (Saturday 13th Feb), I’m staying in with the wonderful Yvonne, our little angel Katrina, and enjoying the calm that is Seán staying at his Nana’s for the night! Bliss…
Here’s the footage from the ITN news piece on Wednesday.
Bye for now x.
BIG CONGRATULATIONS to Paul & Dawn Wilson on the birth of baby George, who was born at 12:24pm today, weighing in at a VERY healthy 9lb 9oz – now THAT’s a boy! Wonderful news…we’re delighted for you all 
This video shows the winner of ” Ukraine’s Got Talent,” Kseniya Simonova, 24, drawing a series of pictures on an illuminated sand table showing how ordinary people were affected by the German invasion during World War II. Her talent, which admittedly is a strange one, is mesmeric to watch.
The images, projected onto a large screen, moved many in the audience to tears and she won the top prize of about $130,000.00. She begins by creating a scene showing a couple sitting holding hands on a bench under a starry sky, but then warplanes appear and the happy scene is obliterated. It is replaced by a woman’s face crying, but then a baby arrives and the woman smiles again. Once again war returns and Miss Simonova throws the sand into chaos from which a young woman’s face appears.
She quickly becomes an old widow, her face wrinkled and sad, before the image turns into a monument to an Unknown Soldier. This outdoor scene becomes framed by a window as if the viewer is looking out on the monument from within a house. In the final scene, a mother and child appear inside and a man standing outside, with his hands pressed against the glass, saying goodbye.
The Great Patriotic War, as it is called in Ukraine , resulted in one in four of the population being killed with eight to 11 million deaths out of a population of 42 million.
Kseniya Simonova says, “I find it difficult enough to create art using paper and pencils or paintbrushes, but using sand and fingers is beyond me. The art, especially when the war is used as the subject matter, even brings some audience members to tears. And there’s surely no bigger compliment.”
Click on a photo, and use your [left] and [right] arrow keys to navigate.
2009 was a GREAT year for the Liverpool Skellys. By far the biggest event of the year for us was the birth of little Katrina Anne, who has just been THE most perfect baby since day one. Lucky us. When Seán was born in July 06, we figured that we couldn’t wouldn’t have another baby as good, but we were wrong. But the year hasn’t just been about Katrina…there have been plenty of other events throughout the year to keep us entertained.
2009 started with The Odyssey, Graham Hughes’ (Yvonne’s cousin) attempt to step foot in EVERY nation on Earth in one continuous surface journey, which, with 133 nations under his belt, is continuing to this day. Just prior to the start of his amazing journey, Graham asked me to run his website for him, and I agreed…delighted to be involved. “Err…can you also build it please?”, came the next request. I did, and it’s been incredibly interesting & educating to be at the heart of the project since. If you’ve not yet checked out The Odyssey, visit the website and bookmark it – it’s amazing!
While Graham was busy navigating his way around the sunnier, warmer climes of South America, the weather turned cold back in old Blighty, and Seán took delight in building his first snowman – kissing his work upon completion! I do that in work all the time. March came, and with the impending birth of a new baby, we decided to jet off to sunnier climes (Barbados) for the last big hurrah that we’d have for a few years. We were really lucky to be able to afford it at the time, and we had an amazing time there – fully recommended. One special highlight from the holiday was the chance discovery at sundown of a clutch of baby water turtles, who had just hatched and were scurrying from their nest to water’s edge several feet away – both incredible and wonderful to witness.
Back home, as the weather warmed, we started to get about and about a bit more, and we took several day trips with Seán, including one to ‘Farmer Teds’ (an interactive children’s park, set on a farm), a few to North Wales, and one particular park trip where he had a donkey ride – smashing stuff. By June, Yvonne was starting to show quite a bit (she was almost 7 months pregnant at that stage), so we decided to take a trip to Ireland to see my family before the baby arrived. It was really great, and we got to see almost everyone, just missing out on an opportunity to visit Louise, the youngest of my immediate family.
In early July, and for his birthday, we took Seán to visit Thomasland at Drayton Manor theme park, and what a day out he had – he still talks about it! Seeing as it was just down the road from Yvonne’s Aunt & Uncle’s house, we stayed over for a couple of nights and had a great laugh – they’re wonderfully kind and welcoming. A few days later, it was Seán’s birthday proper (7th) and losing the toddler look, we celebrated his 3rd birthday with the blowing out of a Peppa Pig cake. Several blowings out, in fact.
August, the month that the baby was due, and the jungle drums were getting louder! On the 25th, with exactly 38 weeks of pregagncy having passed, little Katrina Anne was born. Weighing in a 7lbs 6½oz, she’s been the model baby since…a placid, happy, smiling little angel – we’re VERY lucky. Every day is a pleasure. In September, another milestone passed as Seán started pre-school nursery, and it was kinda odd to see our little baby – not a baby any more – in a school uniform for the first time, but it was exciting too, and luckily for us – and him – he absolutely LOVES it! He can’t wait to go back – give it time, he’ll learn!
In October, with Yvonne fully recovered from the Cesaerean, we finally celebrated the birth of little Katrina with some friends, and at the end of the month for Halloween, Seán dressed up as a skeleton as we covered the downstairs rooms in spider’s webs, spiders, bats, spooky lights, halloween balloons, and laid out some goodies. Needless to say, it was the chocolate goodies that caught his eye first – kids, eh!
November, and I celebrated (if that’s the right word for it!) my 40th birthday [the big four-o] out and about for a meal, and on the night of my birthday proper, Yvonne made the most gorgeous seafood piella. Yum yum! Mid-life crisis? Forget it – just get the drinks in!
December, and for the first time, Seán visited Santa – or ‘Farmer’ Christmas as he called him – and it was the first time that he properly understood the concept of a fat red magic man on an oversized sleigh being pulled by flying reindeer! Bless him. Dressed as a donkey, he also starred in his first nativity play, although I should point out that ordinarily, he doesn’t dress as a donkey – the occasion lent itself that way. On Christmas Eve amidst the snow, and with Mummy’s help, he sprinkled ‘reindeer dust’ on the ground so that Rudolph could find his way to our house – I haven’t even done that! Christmas day…and Santa brought him the train that he had written his letter for. He must’ve been on the ‘Nice’ list.
So overall, it’s been a GREAT year. Here’s to 2010!!!
Leo. x
It’s been a lovely christmas so far…any decent time off with the family is always wonderful. Little Katrina was just four months old on christmas day, and she’s been such a joy to have around – she’s an absolute angel…the perfect baby. Seán was delighted on christmas morning to discover that Satan Santa had been earlier that morning, and the waking up of mummy & daddy at 4:40am faded into non-significance when his face lit up at the sight of the train set that had been pulled down the chimney for him – I should point out that mummy, daddy, Seán & Katrina all fell asleep again around 05:30am and awoke again around half-eight, so all was well with the world again.
Christmas day was great. A wonderful meal coupled with some good wine and sparkly – thanks Yvonne xx. So, it’s been really, really nice to spend time off with the family, and I expect that on New Year’s Eve, we’ll crack open some more bubbly – hooray! Here are a few shots of our christmas so far:-
Merry Christmas to one and all. Here’s a simple but lovely gift for you. CLICK THIS LINK to ‘Download’ or ‘Run’ the file to a location of your choice, and enjoy…
I love this!
I love this! Santa’s heard about Seán and he’s sent him a message from the North Pole! Click the picture below to watch the video (opens in a new window).
Click the picture to view Santa's message to Seán!
Seeing as it’s Christmas time, and yes…it IS December, I’ve changed the look of the website for the holiday season. Ho ho ho!