Winter way out East

Freezing fog this morning made for slippy conditions on the back roads to Norwich. Dom had to pull a lady out of her upturned car. What a boy! My run into work today was far less eventful, but allowed me a shot of Billingford Mill directly into the sun through crystalline air. Hope you like it.

The New Year

Lots going on in the Bowling household. Bryn is settling in, Morwenna is starting pre-school and lots of people have come to say hello to us all. Ben and Ali (plus bump) have continued the very fashionable trend of moving from Bournemouth up to East Anglia. Good luck to you both, hope it works out as well for you as it has for us. Anna and Thomas have met up with Lilly from Sweden and came up for a week. Lovely to see you all, lets hope its not so long next time.

Christas sister Anna went jetset and came up from Cornwall for the weekend (Iwas sciving in Birmingham). Then Grandad Pete, Jenny and Chester finally made it up from Bristol. Chester the dog was, of course, the star of the show and is often talked about by Morwenna. He was also a great hoover and made cleaning a lot easier that weekend...

Christmas, Family & Friends

As you can imagine, this was a magical Christmas for family Bowling. A proper tree, fairy lights and more presents for the kids than we knew what to do with. Morwenna even made some of the decorations herself. I don't think she really knew what was going on this year, but she is well primed for Christmas the next time around.

Lots of family have come to visit and everyone has been very supportive. Morwenna couldn't be more excited about having a little brother and always wants to hold his hand and cuddle him. Bryn for his part is always trying to find where she is in the room which is easy; she's where all the noise is coming from.

Number 2 has arrived!

Born on the 10th of December at 8.21 AM, weighing in at a respectable 7 pounds 9 oz, Bryn shot into my hands unassisted. He was born at home in our birthing pool, with Rachel at hand in our front room in front of the fire. More about Rachel later.

Christa's pregnancy had been uncomplicated and the birth was too. At about 4 AM things started to get going, so we set up the pool and made some calls. I got Morwenna ready and took her down to the childminder at 8 AM. By the time I got home, he was crowning. With no sign of a midwife, Bryn was born. When I lifted him to the surface, he was already checking his new surroundings and clocked mummy before he had even drawn his 1st breath. Everyone safe and well.

Rachel is a Doula, a group of unqualified women with lots of birth experience. As always , the Greeks had a word for it; to Doula is to 'mother the mother.' As a group, they are becoming increasing popular as NHS midwifes are increasingly under strain. Having requested that we sign a document stating that we understood that the NHS couldn't guarantee provision of a midwife, we looked for alternatives to the paramedics that the NHS would provide for us taxpayers.

I shouldn't get on my high horse, but all the statistics show that childbirth is the most dangerous times in a young woman's life, and that home births are statistically safer than hospital births, therefore, due to the cost of intervention, cheaper too. Ironically, there was an infection (C difficile) at the Norfolk & Norwich, closing many wards, so we couldn't take him in for a check up. Our family G.P came out and checked him over instead. Whats wrong with the old way of doing things?

Morwenna was amazed to find a baby brother when she came home and has been brilliant with him. Look at her face when she 1st sees him. She is bringing him all her old toys , holding his hand and making sure he is wrapped up in lots of blankets.

It's a dream come true and all down to Christa being an astonishing woman and mother. Those readers who missed their children being born have truly missed out. Those men who have yet to have the honour will see a courage and determination in their partners to be proud of. As I have.

Next photo competition

I cant leave a photo of blisters as the last pic on the blog, so have added this latest submission to the local photo awards. I took this photo of Nevada falls on a climbing trip in Yosemite valley six years ago. Hope you like.

I've got blisters on my blisters

Ouch! 1 hour and 48 minutes later, I finished. The start of the run was delayed since the weather was so bad people were crashing their cars getting to the Norfolk showground.

That meant that we had to wait in the wind and rain for things to start. Conditions were so wet I'm sure most of ended up blistering in unusual places. Thanks for the "vaseline your nips" advise Susie.Spoken like a lady who truly understands the trials of long distance running...Morwenna allowed me no rest when I got home. Sensing vulnerability, she paid me back for all the times I splashed her.

Thanks to friends, patients and family that supported me. All told, we have raised over £400 for The Big C. Well done to all of you and thanks again.

Norwich Half Marathon

Nearly 1 year ago, Dominic and I were sitting in the pub. Like many statements of sheer bravado, real ale fuels the fire quite nicely. Leaning across at me beerily, Dom said; "I've decided. I want to do a marathon before I'm 40." How old are you now I asked. "39" he said.

Without a moments regard for the hours of training, blisters and sweat, I agreed. We set our sights (in the clear light of day) on 2 half marathons 1st. Sensible, we thought. Well, the day is now upon us. Both of us now have injuries. Most recently Dom's old rugby injury has put him out of the running this year, but I'm just about ready.

December the 2nd, I shall be completing the Norwich Half Marathon in about 1hr 45mins (I'm just thinking positively!) Keep your fingers crossed for me, or even better, make a donation;

www.justgiving.com/alexbowling

Dancing Queen

This little girl is set for the stage. Thanks to Grandad and Grandma she now thinks she is somewhere between Stevie Wonder and the girls from ABBA.

Only one week til baba number two!! All going well, we are looking at December the 7th.

Fear 'stops child development'

"Some parents are afraid of letting children play unsupervised. Youngsters are missing out on their childhood because we over-protect them, a child play expert claims." Thus says Tim Gill on the beeb today. Well all a can say is Tim, Morwennas no-fear attitude is giving me a heart attack.

I never taught her this!

Here she is in October having an outdoor bath in cold water!

Below you will see her 'helping' wash the vegetables. We caught her licking the grease out of the grill 2 minutes later, but it didn't make for a good photo...

Life Begins @ 2

Morwenna had her second birthday yesterday. Thanks to all of you sent cards and presents. Whilst she was aware that a special day was coming, the presents were still a suprise. All post through the door was apparently for her (including the bills) and since christa's birthday is this weekend lots of parcels addressed for her may well have Morwennas grubby little hands opening them on Sunday.

Happy birthday tune on her new organ...what else would you expect?

You have to listen hard though-this isnt the Monroe version mr. President

Home sweet Home

The logs are in, the smell of woodsmoke and simmering fruit floats around the house. Small jobs that have been neglected take on levels of importance that cannot be dismissed. I even Spring clean arse about tit! Anyway, in an effort to stop our front step from wobbling, I took it up and this is what I found. I'm told that this is a common use for tombstones with typos by a stone smith patient. He could be telling me this so I dont get the willies. Anyone else heard this? Still, as a mark of respect we have left the stone face up. Most people don't seem notice it anyway.

Morwenna has taken to pulling faces. Most of the time its someone else's face she is pulling (ouch), but this picture shows she thinks its quite fun pulling her own occasionally.

Mum and Dad came over after a trip to Italy. This picture at least shows she can still pull the cute-little-grand-daughter out of the bag when she needs to.

Here is Morwenna's 1st video contribution to the blog. Turn up the speakers; I bet even George Formby couldnt play the ukulele so sweetly at this age. Only problem is as soon as she sees the camera, she wants to see the image. "I look daddy, I look." Honestly, the vanity.

Naughty but Nice

Another Cornish holiday. We were certainly spoilt with the weather. No real floods this time! We went down via Lewes for Susie and Robs Cooke's wedding- more on that to come soon. Also managed a quick stop off in Bournemouth and Taunton to see Joe and Sam.

Fishing, swimming, the occasional coastal kayak trip and lots of time with the Brawdley family was the sum of the weeks activities. There is always a nature moment to be had in Cornwall. This time it was whilst swimming out to the islands off Portreath towing my fishing gear. A yearling seal was very surprised to see me and took many passes past me to see I wasn't either food or a mate. Still, she followed me back to the mainland after an unsuccessful hour fishing. No doubt a curious seal spoiled my chances of any bass that afternoon. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it...

As always, its heaven to be way out West, but life always pulls us back to reality. Thankfully reality is just as much fun our holidays. Autumn has reached East Anglia. The fruit trees are ready early year due to the damp muggy conditions. Time for some jamming...

Cornish holiday

Had a great week off at the end of June. Drove madly after work to get to see fatfreddysdrop/ in Bournemouth with Marc and Vern. Great night lads. Then on to see a very pleased Lucy in Bath. She was diagnosed cancer-free the morning we arrived. She took the news in the same down to earth manner that she had when finding she had cancer in the 1st place. Big respect.

Stayed with Pete and Jenny in Bristol before spending the morning pulling veggies at the allotment and trying to get a decent note out of Pete's trombone. The kids did a better job than the rest of us.

Stayed just outside Falmouth with the Broadley tribe for the rest of the week and had a great time exploring Cornwall. Cycled, walked, swam, surfed, kayaked and fished ourselves into a west country frenzy. Seals and dolphins were spotted aplenty, but alas no fish.

Of course the real reason we were there was for Franky and Artur's wedding. Trevarno gardens proved to be the right kind of venue for the special day. All was very relaxed as we Brits welcomed Arturs family and the Brazilian contingent. Soon enough we were grooving to the Latin beats put out by the DJ's. Vicky looked after all the children that night and gave us all the opportunity to let our hair down sans kids. Thanks goes to all those who helped us out over the week. It was a great trip and we wont forget it.

Tis the season to be jolly

Yes folks, the festival season is upon us again. Not that we're regular festival goers, but with a family size tent from ebay and some grotty Australian lager, we were ready for anything. The pretext for the visit to Eastern Haze was that Dom was fronting "Tribe of Cro." Between downpours, the band gave us reason enough to jump around and stamp our wellies.

As always, these events attract their fair share of loonies. Most memorably, an bald old fat man dressed in a ballerinas tutu and tiara spend the whole festival busily engaged in a phone call on a banana. It was always a conversation starter wherever he went, which I suppose was the whole idea.

Other conversation pieces on show was the MI5 whistle blower who went on record with David Shaller in the 90's. She gave a fascinating talk on false flag terrorism and the world trade centre attack. Find out more at; http://www.911truth.org/

Getting ribbed during the rainstorms were the save water people. Cant imagine they have had a very productive year of spreading the word in the U.K this year. Good costumes though...

Summer Sun

I hate to rub it in when half the country is under 3 ft of water, but East Anglia has to be one of the driest places I have ever lived in the U.K.

Don't get me wrong, our high street has become a river more than once in the last month, but overall the weather has been very clement. Relaxing in the fast growing garden has been my weekend passion. Morwenna seems to enjoy the hammock nearly as much as me.

Brothers and Sisters

Here comes another baby! The 20 week scan was done today. All fingers and toes were recounted, and all limbs were where they should be. Morwenna seems to understand that there is a baby brother or sister in mummy's tummy, and appears to be very happy about the idea.

We agreed that we wouldn't find out if it will be a boy or girl on this scan. Of course, I wanted to find out, but you don't argue when the missus is pregnant. Fathers to be watch out and learn from my mistakes- in the face of this many hormones, a sensible debate what colour to paint the new bedroom is really never going to happen, so don't even try.

A good day for saddle sores...

Well, the deed is done. 100 miles from Norwich, onto the North Norfolk coast and back again in 5hrs 47mins. I have no intention of ever getting on a bike again, but I'm sure that's a natural response to friction burns...

The day started with toad in the hole and a bowl of porridge before driving up to the start at 6.15 a.m. Mist shrouded the city and what was chilly before the race became blissfully cold as we all developed a head of steam. People dropped by the wayside for early pees and punctures as the 2000 strong group of us passed by. Mark, Martin and I were pulled along in a whirlwind of slip streams and enthusiasm up past Acle and toward the coast

We did the first 50 miles in a blistering 2hrs 41 mins. From there things went a little slowly. Anyone who tells you that Norfolk is flat hasn't been up onto the North coast. The mist burned off by 11.00 and it turned uncomfortably hot as the hills rolled on and on. Sean was there in support at the water stops to provide us with a barrage of good natured abuse, which distracted us from the job at hand. Good job too. Somebody had to distract Mark; he was ready to give away his bike and walk home after 3 hours!

An hour after him, I was in the doldrums. Sure as eggs is eggs, that's when Mark perked up. I sat on his rear wheel whilst he shouted encouragement. I like to think I would have done the same.

We limped the last 25 miles back into Norwich. Descending the hill into the centre of town at over 30mph, blew away the cobwebs and the knee pain was forgotten. We were at the finish line in no time, shaking hands and drinking chilled beer. Magazines detailing future organised rides were being distributed by zealous cyclinsts. Needless to say, we weren't interested.

Mercury award winner!

I almost forgot, I won the (Diss) Mercury photography award last week. One of the photos I took in Borneo 2 years ago won. The prize was a lovely printed version of the photo on canvas. Cant be bad eh?

Addition number 2

Who would have guessed it? Well, quite a few of you so it would seem. Christa's swelling belly, a passion for odd foods and mild memory loss; all sure signs that a change is gonna come. We are, of course, ecstatic.



The house warming went down well, and provided us with the opportunity to tell all and sundry about the important day in December. Lots of folk from work and around the village came to cheer up our rainy day. Special thanks goes out to those who came from afar to turn our weekend inside out. Cheers Toby, Brita, Luna, Will and Nags. Our drinks cabinet overfloweth!

Norwich 100

I may have bitten off more than I can chew this time...
As you can see from the previous posts, I try and take part in or organise a charity event every year. This year is no exeption. Whilst here in pankake land, cycling has seemed to be a sensible sport to get involved in.

The gauntlet was thrown last year by my pricipal for this 100 mile event in North Norfolk. Like a fool I said yes, not knowing how saddle sores would affect my everyday life. Sadly, Mandy has had to drop out due to skiing injuries, but William (chiropodist), Mark (patient) and myself have been on an extensive training programme. The routine has involved 60 miles per week and as much fish and chips as you can throw at me. I have always thought nutrition is key. My legs havent stopped aching for 7 weeks now. Not kidding.

Last weekend we were unbeaten in the Beccles cycle for Life. 50 miles in a respectable 2hrs 57mins. Thinking that we would still have another 50 miles to go on the Norwich 100 is a little daunting. Nevertheless, the training has gone well. Training from now on will be fish and chips every day and our house warming next weekend, where protien shakes will be swapped for cocktails. Wish me luck.

Friends and family

Lots of people have come across to our place recently; Yens, Freiderika, Hans and Nina after a trip to the fatherland, Kate, Steve, Milo and Ruby for the bank holida weekend, and last but not least, Mum, Dad and uncle Josepeppi on returning from a bereak in italy.

Great to have you all over. Here are some of the photos that are the resuly of these trips. More coming shortly..

Morwenna at her best The Schroeder tribe

Morwenna and Milo sharing a harmonica

Morwenna pretending Nina is a little sister?