Keeping up with the Culveys – July 2013

So I have noticed that now we have 3 little monkey’s it seems we have very little time to ourselves to do things like write this blog!! I cannot believe how it can possibly be November already!! Our last update was in February, so I am going to do my best to get you up to date until about August, then come back to you during the ‘relaxing’ Christmas break and bring you all bang up to date fully!

So when we left you last, we had just returned from a crazy trip to Disneyland Paris. It took a few weeks to get over that trip so we had a couple of quiet weekends, but it couldn’t last...  Why? Well for one I checked in for a vasectomy (no more kids for us!), and secondly, it was my birthday!!!! My lovely, lovely wife arranged for the two of us to run away to a beautiful hotel just outside Brighton for the weekend. It was a wonderful spa hotel called Bailiffscourt Hotel. Right on the coast and set in fabulous grounds. We spent the afternoon getting massaged and chillin by the spa pool, then in the evening we had a stunning meal with great wine all by a cosy fire, it was such a fabulous getaway from the madness at home, we both really need it. Having said that, come the Sunday, we couldn’t wait to get back to the crazies!

Real life soon kicked in though as the Pox arrived! Kai was the first to come out in spots, he handled it very well and the bribery of gifts for not scratching the spots worked extremely well. As Kai started to recover, it was Logan’s turn to take centre stage, and boy did he get it. There was barely any skin between the spots, the poor little lad was absolutely covered, and his lovely smile disappeared for a few days, as he coped with it all. We had planned to head down to Nanny & Grumpy’s but we had to do the right thing and cancel. Thankfully he got through it and after a very difficult weekend of poor Logan crying almost constantly he started to win the battle and cheered up no end. And finally India took centre stage as the pox took hold of our little Princess. India luckily had the mildest bout of the three of them but again, there was a few days of suffering, but she coped admirably and the pox faded pretty quickly. So now they are fully immune for the rest of their lives, one right of passage complete!

Just to prove he was fully over his Chicken Pox, Kai completed his Karate grading to become a Blue belt, well done Kaibo!! I have no idea what stopped Indi doing it, but her social life is pretty hectic, so I am sure there was a good reason!

As we came to the end of March we spent a moment thinking of our wonderful Crazy Nana, especially for Lyra, Mothers Day was difficult, a day of remembering her Mum.

Before we left March though there was another milestone to celebrate and that was Grandad Peck’s mighty 70th birthday!! We all met in Northampton for a fabulous Chinese Banquet with all the Pecks, and many of the long time Associates of the great man. Too much was eaten, surprisingly, there wasn’t too much drunk (could it really be a Peck do??), but it was a fun lunch with the Oldies! We followed these jovialities with a very civilized dinner with the lovely Jane & Guy, and all the not so little ones!

April arrived, and it was the Easter holidays, and that means it’s holi, holiday time!! As we had a 6 month baby in tow this time we thought we would keep it simple with an easy trip to Dubai and then Oman (we really are mad!!). 

To be honest there was a little apprehension about the flight, it was Logan’s first. We needn’t have worried though as he was as good as gold! We had the bulkhead seats and he just about squeezed into the crib, so we even managed to watch a movie! It was evening time when we arrived in Dubai, but the taxi we had booked was waiting for us and the transfer over to the hotel was nice and quick. We were booked into the Ritz Carlton for a week, just of the Board walk near Dubai Marina. It is a lovely resort and we had sorted out an upgrade to a suite which for the 5 of us was perfect!

As we woke on day 1, Logan was kind and let us have a pretty good nights sleep, we hit the lounge for a very nice breakfast looking out over the resort with the Palm Jumeirah in the background, heaven! After breakfast it was on with the swimmers, the lotion was on, and we hit the pools! There must of been about 6 different pool areas to choose from, but Indi and Kai found the water slide and that was the one they wanted to hang out at. As the drifted on we found a nice spot to chill with Logan and be able to see the kids too, and that pretty much set up most of week one!! 

We did venture out in the evening to watch our favourite dancing water and have a wander through the Dubai mall! Lyra left me with the kiddies to get some scandals for them, didn’t find any but they did find some cool Sketchers trainers they loved, and after a lot of arm twisting Lyra caved in and they both left with a pair! I was officially in trouble! Of course we couldn’t come to Dubai without saying hi to a few old friends! My guide and ex-boss Tony, invited us around to the infamous Arnold’s Bar (in his front room) for a ‘few’ drinks and the chance to catch up with Neni, his Boys, and a few of THE boys from Alshaya! It was brilliant to see everyone again, and swap stories of how we were all doing these days. As you would expect, there were a few too many beers, and they were going down far to easily, just like the old days!!

After a day of rest to recover, it was time to collect the hire car, and start to squeeze all of our essential luggage in ready for our epic journey to Muscat! First of all though, we had a few more friends to say hi to over lunch... s owe headed off to the Irish village. Pauline & Nick, Saada & Ben, Susie & Steve, and of course everyone’s brood! What a great couple of hours together! the only problem was that as we sat there, we couldn’t help notice that it was getting pretty windy, and we know what that means.... a storm is a coming!! In Dubai, that means sand storm! With this in mind we thought we’d better get going as we had about 8 hours of driving ahead. 

Feeling confident, I didn’t worry about a map, a knew what to head for, or at least i thought I did! After about half and hour of driving up and down Sheik Zayed road, I had to cave in and ring Nick for directions!! All was fine, and we were soon heading in the right direction, but visibility was getting a bit poor as the sand storm really got going. Now normally we wouldn’t worry too much, just drive a bit slower, keep your distance, etc, but of course, we had 8 hours ahead of us, was going to be like this the whole way!? W e made loose plans to find a hotel at the Omani border, but thankfully by the time we got there it was all over. So we headed onwards, getting through the border took an age, but once on the other side it was pretty plain sailing all the way to Muscat. That was until it came to finding the hotel!! No problem we thought, Google maps is all we need, but in Oman we could not get a 3G connection so the maps were a bit slow in refreshing, still we followed the directions to the hotel, and ended up in the middle of a residential area in the heart of the city! Not quite the beach side resort we were expecting, and where was the hotel!? In the end we asked a taxi driver, and he kindly let us follow him to the hotel! Made it at last! Amazingly, Logan had been a star throughout, a couple of stops for food, but otherwise he slept or enjoyed the view and was  a little star.

The hotel was great, a stunning place, they took pity on us (we were looking pretty road worn), and gave us another upgrade! Yep, you guessed it we had a suite (Tony you should be proud, shiny, shiny!). We all crashed out, and looked forward to some serious chilling the following day!

The grounds of the resort were simply amazing, great pools, and even better, a private beach! The kids adored their time on the beach, and in the sea. They discovered the joy of crashing waves and being tumbled up on to the beach in the surf. They built sand castles and channels for the water to flow through, it was a fab time for all/ It was very hot, mid 30’s so keeping Logan shaded was a constant activity, thankfully the sea breeze kept it feeling nice and he enjoyed hanging out on the grass and bouncing on our bellies in between snoozes.

While we were in Oman, it was our Kaibo’s birthday! The big 7!! Well the hotel got to know and really gave him a special day. We had ordered breakfast in the room so Kai could open his cards and gifts.  Then down at the beach, Kai told the sailing school it was his birthday while we were grabbing a couple of boogie boards and they offered him a trip out on the Hobie cat catamaran!! So Kai, Indi, and Mum spent an hour cruising the bay, while Logan and I watched through the binoculars, they loved it! As the sun went down, we headed back to the room to get ready for our special birthday boys dinner at the very nice Chinese restaurant on site. When we got to the room we had a wonderful surprise, they had decorated the entire room! Complete with a banner saying ‘Happy Birthday Kai!’, loads of balloons, and a lovely selection of sweets, dates, chocolate, and fruit! It was amazing, and Kai loved the attention!

At the Chinese, again on our table there was a lovely message wishing him a happy birthday, and of course, they delivered a birthday cake too! What a lucky lad, he had a fantastic day, and felt very special!

Before we knew it though, it was time to head back to Dubai, so we all jumped in the car, and without making a single error we navigated our way back to Dubai, and the very comforting and welcoming home of Pauline and Nick! They had kindly offered to put us up for the night, and even set up another lovely evening of BBQing, boozing, great chat, music, nd of course, another birthday cake for our Kaibo!!

Next day though it was off to the airport, back on the ever so enormous A380 and back home to Blighty! No rest as usual, as it was straight off down to Nanny & Grumpy’s for a quick Happy Easter!!

Life returned to normal pretty quickly, Kai went to school dressed as a pirate (it was pirates day!), he looked amazing, big thanks to Abi for the costume loan.

The of course it was Lyra’s birthday! We kept it quiet on the day, but the weekend was full of fun, this kids were performing Legally Blonde in Reading, so we all went along to watch, the kids were great and everyone enjoyed the show. We even had an extra bonus when we found a Korean shop right next to where they were performing, we filled our boots with Ramien etc!!

As soon as we were done in Reading it was off to Abi’s where we were planning to celebrate Ly’s birthday properly!! As last years birthday for Ly was a very sober very pregnant) birthday, she wanted to make up for it by having a proper party! So we did!! All the usual suspects were there and at last Ly could party like only she knows how!! Lets just say Sunday was a quiet day.... :-)

While we are on the subject of Birthday celebrations, our Kai had still not quite finished celebrating his (what seems like) his never ending birthday!! It was time for his birthday falconry trip with some of his friends from school! We all met at the falconry and were told what we were allowed to do and what we shouldn’t do, then it was time for the fun! First up wasn’t a bird at all, but a giant rabbit! Now when they say giant, they are not kidding, he was a whopper!! The kids sat round in a circle and were allowed to pick up and stroke the cuddly brute (the rabbit, not me!).  Then it was time for the birds, they all listened to the talk about each bird then they got to hold them on their hand while I took the photo’s! They  held a Barn owl, and an Eagle owl, then they all laid down in a line and the Eagle owl flew just over the top of them! Everyone loved it. After all the fun we all headed to Frankie and Benny’s and had a slap up meal complete with birthday cake!! With that, we drew a close on Kai’s birthday, almost a month after it had started!

You may all recall that Karim has been studying endlessly to complete his IELTS (English for Foreigners) as he needs a really high score to be able to continue his final part of his Pharmacy studies in the UK. He has taken the exam about a million times and this year was no change, but still he continued to miss the target by the tiniest of margins, it was very frustrating for him and us all! The worry was if he couldn’t get the grade he was not going to be able to renew his student visa and he would have to go home, something none of us wanted.

As May arrived, and with Karim’s possible departure on our minds we headed down to Weymouth and stayed at my Mum & Dad’s place for a few days to show Karim the joy that is Weymouth and Portland! We squeezed ourselves and all our gear into both cars and headed South. Karim was very excited as he had heard us talking about Weymouth for a long time, but he had never been himself. We had a brilliant few days, with fab weather too. We spent some time on the beach and the kids even went into the rather cool sea! We had fish and chips, and plenty of ice cream.  It wasn’t all sea front fun though, we also headed over to the harbour to see all the fishing boats, and there we had a lovely lunch in a great little restaurant. Bizarrely while we were in there we realised that sat across the restaurant was an old boss of mine from Tesco in Turkey! It was really nice to chat to Simon and his Wife and find out what everyone was up to.

As is traditional with Weymouth trips, you have to head over to Portland to see the Bill and enjoy the wildness of this great outcrop. Ly stayed at home with Logan as he was worn out, but Karim, Indi, Kai, and I headed out. We started with the big climb up to the peak and looked out across Chesil Beach through the olympic rings, it was an amazing view. Then we headed on to the Bill. We wandered all across the bill and even investigated the shells and bones in the rocks! Karim chose to not climb the pulpit (after reading the plaques of those that have perished!) It was a memorable trip....

The one other must visit is our favourite... Monkey World, so before we headed home, we headed to the Monkey’s! Sadly on the way down I got a puncture, so before we drove home I needed to get a new tyre sorted, so while everyone else went to see the Monkeys I went to Kwik Fit to wait for my tyre to be delivered.... Just after lunch, I was all fixed up, re-packed the car and headed to Monkey World to meet the rest of the gang! I arrived with enough time for a quick climb on the adventure park area with Indi and Kai and managed to say hello to a few of our favourite monkey’s before it was time to hit the road and head home. It was a bank holiday weekend and most of the UK seemed to be heading in the same direction as us, so we decided to pull off and grab a pint and some grub before making the last leg back to sunny Binfield!

May also saw me heading to Venice for a week with work for our annual Sales & Ops Meeting which involves 3 days of meetings, then a day of fun followed by a gala ball where the Programme of the Year is announced. The meeting went well, the fun event was due to be Dragon Boat Racing but unfortunately the weather was so bad that it has to be abandoned due to high winds and choppy water making it all too dangerous. Thankfully the gala ball did go ahead so I got my tuxedo on and enjoyed a night of refined dining (and a couple of beers!).

Now that spring was blossoming, Indi and Kai’s school put on their sports day! It seemed like a lovely idea to take the day off work, pack a picnic, and watch Indi and Kai take on their classmates! The only issue was that when we woke up on the morning of Sports day, it was about 5 degrees outside! Hardly picnic weather! I don’t think the temperature got above 6 or degrees all day it was freezing! You had to feel for the kids in their sports kit, I was freezing with my coat on! Our guys did their best and you couldn’t fault them for effort and team spirit! The picnic stayed firmly in the car and we had it at home on the carpet rather than the grass! You have to love England and it’s fine weather!!!

As we came to the end of May it was time for Ly and I to turn back time with Caroline and Dan, as we met at the O2 to watch the might Depeche Mode in concert!! They may all be knocking 50 years old now, but they’ve still got it! They blasted out 2 hours for great tunes, and we (well I) sang my heart out!! Bloody brilliant!

Then,  it was June, and the sun came out, could it be summer?? Well the air was full of laughter as Auntie and Uncle were down for the weekend!! As usual we had a ball with them, and even had a rather swish dinner at Loch Fyne to top it all off! Auntie and Uncle wasn’t our only guest though as Olivia came to stay too  while her Mum and Dad were in Cyprus for a wedding.

We said goodbye to Aunt & Unc, and hello to Mum and Dad, who had come down to offer their taxi skills for India and Kai while Lyra and I popped off to Portugal for a week of detoxing, juicing, and lots of all things healthy at Jason Vales Juicy Oasis! The spa had only been open a few weeks when we arrived and it was absolutely gorgeous, true 5 star quality! Our week of healthy juices, hardcore fitness, yoga and bouncing on rebounders was just what we needed! Between us we lost a bundle of weight, but more importantly, we got ourselves onto a healthy momentum that we would continue for as long as we could! It also opened up a whole new wardrobe of clothes that I hadn’t been able to wear for  good few years!!

Indi and Kai had a band call for their Theatretrain performance that was just a few weeks away. The band call is an early start (08:00 on a Saturday!!), they all head off on a coach to a secret location where they practice the entire show with lots of other Theatretrain groups before returning on the coach to Bracknell about 19:00. It’s all pretty hard going but they always come back very excited, if a little bushed.

Prior to the big show, Indi had another performance to prepare for and that was her school play, which this year was called Porridge, and she was playing the part of Tom Tom, a very loyal but unfortunate criminal! She was a star in every performance throwing herself completely into the character. We all loved it!

The IELTS saga with Karim had continued to occupy Karim throughout the year and as we ran through June, it was starting to look a bit bleak, Karim was getting so close, but each time he would just miss the grade he needed. As we started to feel that Karim’s time with us was coming to an end we headed out for a day at Chessington, as it was another place we had not managed to go to over the last couple of years, well not with Karim anyway.  It was a gorgeous day and we made it to Chessington just before lunch so we headed to a shaded area and had our picnic and let our Logan to have a stretch on the blanket.

Lunch done, it was off to the park, keeping with tradition, the kids were only interested in showing Karim the animals, forget the rides! We started with the big cats, and it was feeding time! Then as we walked though the park, a gate opened and out came one of the sea lions! Right there on the path with us!  You couldn’t have gotten any closer! Next we headed to the new section of the park called Zufari, it wasn’t really Logan friendly, so Lyra and I left Karim, Indi, and Kai to it and we retired to a sunny corner that sold beer! They returned full of beans and talk of giraffes and lions, sounded like it was worth the wait.. The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering through the animal sections, and before we knew it, it was time to head home. Just as we thought the surprises of the day were done, we got back to the cars to find I had ANOTHER puncture!! Unbelievable, two in two months! The even bigger bummer was that I hadn’t gotten around to replacing the foam tyre filler that allows me to drive on it, so I was stuck! Lyra took the kids home, and Karim and I sat and waited for the AA to come and fix it. Thankfully, it was only about an hour and we were on our way home too.

Now when in England, there are certain obligations one has while in the old country. And as June came to a close, Lyra fulfilled one of these with the lovely Gwen at Henley on Thames for the Regatta. I dropped the off at lunchtime, and with some trepidation collected them about 11, but thankfully, they had managed to keep their decorum all through the day. True class, them girls!

Mid Summer arrived and the sun was still shining brightly, what a difference to last year, where we didn’t see the sun at all, this year we have been basking  in sunshine week after week! Early in July, you couldn’t wipe the smile off my face as I got to drive some of the greatest cars around a track for the day at top speed! Ly had bought me the experience for my birthday and it was absolutely brilliant! I started with the best, the Aston Martin Vantage, my absolute dream car, and it didn’t let me down, it as gorgeous, such a great feeling. That was followed by the Lamborghini Gallardo, and the unbelievable Ferrari F360, then finished with the one and only, ‘it’s a bit of an animal’ Porsche  911 GT3!! Days don’t get much better, thank you so much Ly, it was truly sensational. Not to be out done, Lyra got a ride around the track in one of the fastest cars around (so quick that you are not allowed to drive it yourself, the Ariel Atom! And if that wasn’t enough, later that day we met Jane, Guy, Devon, and Hamish in Windsor for a picnic in front of the castle, it was a lovely way to finish the day. Time with Jane, Guy, and the boys is always fun, and in the afternoon sunshine we all had  lots of laughs, and even a few games of football!

The following day, was Lyra’s Mum’s birthday, and the day we laid her ashes to rest in Heyford Cemetery. It was an emotionally charged day as we remembered what a wonderful Mum, Crazy Nana, lifelong friend, she had been to so many people. She had been given a beautiful plot under a tree on the edge of the Cemetery and we all gathered there to say goodbye. Indi and Kai read the poem that Lyra had written for her 70th birthday, with some minor changes. Auntie Irene read some of Olives favourite poems, how she got through them I don’t know, but she did. Then Casey sang and danced one of her favourite songs. It was very special to experience such an incredible outpouring of emotion, she was such a well loved person, and is so missed. Following the service, we had a picnic in on the Green, which was a great way to lift the mood and put a smile back on everyones face.

For Karim, time had run out, in his last IELTS exam, he came closer than ever to succeeding, but missed again by half a point, and that was it, he would leave us in a few weeks. Although we had known it could happen, it was still a shock when we finally knew Karim was returning to Kuwait, and leaving us after more than 4 years as part of our family. We had done a number of things with the knowledge that Karim might be off this year, so in the last few weeks, we just wanted to spend time together.

We did go to Loch Fyne near Windsor which we had been talking about doing with Karim for about a year, as usual the food was great, but as much as we wanted it to be perfect, sadly we had an appalling waiter, so it made the whole meal a little challenging! Having said that, we did get to chat about all the great times together, and we gave him a watch to remember us by, engraved with “It will be alright in the end...”

Karim had plenty of other celebrations with the neighbours, and his dog walking  posse, but all too soon, it was time to get him to the airport, and send him on his way, back to the land of sand.... :-(

Thankfully because of the wonders of Skype, we still catch up regularly, and our friendship is as strong as ever.... Even Logan loves seeing him on screen!

Well, I think we have reached a perfect moment to draw this episode to a close, so as we said to Karim, bye bye, see you very soon.

Much love,

Dan & the Culvey’s

xxxxx