Tag: Macsen

Hello Monday

After a wet and windy weekend, it’s Monday. To tell the truth, Sunday wasn’t too bad but we stayed in anyway. I think it was justified, though, given how much of a rush Saturday was.

Macsen had another karate tournament, two hours away, so he and his mum were out of the house for most of the day. This left me to get the twins to their morning karate practice, fed, and delivered to their youth club for the afternoon. They were a bit when by the time they were home, although not as wet as I’d feared.

With Coronavirus restrictions still in place, audiences at the karate tournament were very restricted so the club had helpfully set up a YouTube live stream so that parents could watch from home. It worked really well.

I saw all four of Macsen’s fights (two wins, two losses — although one of those was very nearly a win) and was suitably impressed. He came fourth in the end, but it was close4 and he could easily have come third.

And here’s a sunrise to start the week.

How was your weekend?

We have a teenager in the house

Macsen turned 13 today.

Obviously, with the current situation his planned celebration has been postponed but we did manage a rather nice breakfast brunch at home. Outside, even, as the weather was nice and we have a fair bit of space.

Of course, nice weather is relative and, while it’s nice enough outside when moving around, once we sat down we realised that the wind was a quite a bit coder than we’d initially thought. So, after a lengthy discussion between Macsen and his mum as to who had thought of eating outside in the first place, we picked everything up and finished the food indoors

There will be cake later. And a film night.

Class of 2019

Congratulations are in order to Macsen for having graduated from primary school. The ceremony was yesterday and, although he still has two more days of school, none of the planned activities can be described as being in any way academic.

This is going to be quite a big change, for all of us. Until now all of the pre- and primary schools the kids have gone to have been in the same town (I call it a town, but large village would probably be a more accurate description) and all of these schools have been within walking distance of home. For secondary school, however, he is going to have to travel to the next town, so September will see him navigating bus passes, cycle routes and a whole new social milieu.

The twins are going to see a fair bit of change as well. Although they’re still at the same school for another three years, the school is due to be renovated, remodelled and largely rebuilt over the summer.

September is going to be interesting.

Silver

I have mentioned Macsen’s karate once before on this blog. Today was his second tournament – the Belgian JKF Gojukai championship.

Macsen made it through four fights, winning three of them – spectacularly in the case of the first fight. Although he didn’t manage to win the final fight, it was very close with only one point in it. And his performance was good enough to win second place.

Suffice to say, proud dad is very proud indeed.

Enchoperation

This weekend has been mainly spent cutting wood. After ten years, Eve has finally agreed that a chainsaw would be useful to have (as opposed to occasionally renting one) and I have finally gotten around to taking some of the large, overhanging branches on the oak trees that surround the house.

Of course, I had help.

Next time I might even plug it in.

Stump

Some friends recently dug up an old tree stump and, for reasons probably best not explored, asked if we wanted it. Of course, we said yes and said stump was duly acquired and unloaded. The plan was to leave it until the weekend and then start trying to figure out if there is anything we can do with it.

I think we’ll manage.

Angry Gnomes

On Friday, I was home alone with the kids and, while the weather could have been better, it was certainly too nice to stay indoors all day. The kids, however, wanted to stay inside and play Angry Birds.

So we compromised…