Archives for Alexander - Page 3
Elf Mischief 2018 part 2
Following on from Elf Mischief part 1 here are some more of the things that Alfie and Timmy have been up to while they have been here in December 2018. I'll post a third part of Elf Mischief on Christmas Eve to capture whatever else those naughty elves get up Elf Mischief cont'd. Elf Milk On Friday morning we discovered that an Elf had decided that milk tasted better blue. This upset Lucy so much that I didn't manage to get a picture before the blue milk was poured down the Elf Protest On Sunday 9th December Lucy spent the day moving presents about. She looked at every present under the Christmas tree and inspected it. This got the elves worried, and they enlisted the toys to help them. In particular there were a number of tiny placards made. These…
Elf Mischief 2018 part 1
Our house is home to more than one naughty elf. Every December for the last few years there has been Elf Mischief. Here are some of the things they have got up to so far this December. Elf Mischief On the first night, leading to the morning of 1 December, the elves sneaked in and put the advent calendars in black bin bags to hide them from the children. I didn't get any photos of it though. Elf Sweety Fest The elves spent the night of 1-2 December bingeing on sweeties. I wasn't quite quick enough to get the pile of sweetie wrappers, but you can still see the evidence of sherbet! As elf mischief goes this is pretty minor, but you don't want to go too strong on the first few nights of December. Pants on the Tree Elf…
Henley Fort WW2 Experience with Year 6
I went to Henley Fort with my son's Year 6 class earlier today. Year 6 at Furzefield Primary School are just finishing their WW2 history module, they've studied WW2 since September. So today was a WW2 experience for them all to get a practical feel for what it was like being a member of the Home Guard or an ARP Warden. Henley Fort do both, and we split into two groups and had an hour and a half taster of each one. About Henley Fort Henley Fort is one of the outer London defences built in the late 19th Century, similar to Reigate Fort. It's up the hill behind the city centre in Guildford. The Forts were originally built as mobilisation centres, and artillery batteries, if the UK was invaded. They saw a bit of a revamp during WW1 and…
1866 Megagame – Offside Report
The Prussian Team for Game 2 of 1866 and all that assembles. Yesterday I played in an 1866 megagame, well in one of two 1866 megagames. Megagame Makers ran two simultaneous megagames about the 1866 bruderkrieg (between the Prussians and the Italians on one side and the Austrians and their allies on the other). One of the most interesting things about today's 1866 megagame was that there were two entirely identical games going on at the same time. The only difference between the 1866 megagames were the players. Both games had the same briefings, maps, counters and mechanics. The end results were quite different, although in both cases fairly close to historic. Certainly within the bounds of plausibility. My role in the 1866 Megagame Unusually I was playing the megagame. This was because Alexander came to play in his first…
Paris in August
Alexander and I are in Paris for the weekend to see the sights. It's cranked up about ten degrees since yesterday and Paris will stay very hot until it's time for us to go back home on Sunday. This is the first time I've used airbnb to book accommodation. I'm pretty pleased with it. The studio flat we're in is in the 7th Arrondissement of Paris and close to most of the tourist bits. It also has some reasonable amenities nearby, there's a typical Paris cafe over the road, and round the corner from that are a couple of places you can buy bread, fruit and other groceries. So we'll not starve this weekend, and with luck we'll get some proper French food while we are in Paris. Here's the view from the window. The dome just left of centre…