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.”
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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!
Just had a surprise bottle of champagne delivered to my door, complete with balloons and ribbons! Yes! Louise & Aidan, thank you SO much….I’m delighted, chuffed, lost for words – a GREAT SURPRISE!!! Hooray for birthdays!
Seeing as I haven’t put some photos of the little one up for a bit, here are some new ones. She’s lost that newborn look…probably because she’s not newborn anymore, naturally. She’s doing great – putting on weight and sleeping well, hence her Mum & Dad are too (sleeping that is). Yesterday, we took her for her first set of jabs – two covering three innoculations – and it wasn’t very nice when some blood came out of her leg…all part of it, I suppose. I was a bit fearful that her temperature would rise, and she’d be unsettled last night, but she woke at 3am, was back asleep by 3:45 and is still asleep now – yeah!
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It was such a nice day yesterday that we all decided to get out of the house and go for a walk through Calderstones Park, which looked great, especially with all of the autumn colours. I missed the match…Liverpool beat Man Utd 2-0, but it was well worth it. Here’s a few shots from the afternoon…
Just reported in The Independent this morning, Ray Kurzweil (inventor of the first machine capable of reading books to the blind, the first music synthesizer to perfectly duplicate the sound of a grand piano, and educational software, which helps students with learning difficulties) believes that by 2040, you’ll be able to upload your brain! I should also add that he believes we’re on the brink of a new age – the ’singularity’ – when technology will allow us to email each other toast, run as fast as Usain Bolt (for 15 minutes), and live forever! Yeah right! Click the image below to read the article…
Ray Kurzweil
BIG congratulations, happiness & love wing their way to Christian, Ditte & family in Copenhagen, who are celebrating the arrival of baby Lea Olsen, born yesterday afternoon and weighing in at a very healthy 3.9 kilos. Another girl in the family – hooray! Can’t wait to see the pictures 