14 June 2009

Every day after school Michael does 3 laps around the park across the street from our house. This exercise in strengthening his legs and building his riding confidence is all for the purpose of beginning family bike rides. In the photo above, I have joined Michael on his laps for the first bike ride that involved another person since he started his "lessons". This was earlier in the week, perhaps on Tuesday.

Thursday evening we did our usual game night and played 3 rounds of:
...with Mike winning, and 3 rounds of:


...with Neil winning.


Friday evening was extra special with Michael taking a trial Karate class at the Milton Mount Community Center. We were both very impressed and slightly amused at the level of attention and concentration he displayed. He was very keen to learn the karate techniques and to do them correctly, and he was not shy to announce that he didn't understand something and ask for clarification. He really did fantastically, and considering his level of enjoyment we will probably continue the course for him.

Our big day finally arrived on Saturday. We loaded up our three bikes and helmets and drove down to Hove. We all mounted up and rode our bikes down the seaside into Brighton to visit the Sea Life Center. We were so proud of Michael's riding! We like to call Mike the "middle man". When we are on the tube, or riding bikes...pretty much anywhere there could be danger, Neil goes first, Mike goes second, and I go third. We came upon this arrangement after a bit of a scare in London where Mike hopped off the tube for no apparant reason and barely made it back on before the door closed! Anyway, back the the subject...

We went to Sea Life center and we had loads of fun checking out the fish. They had a contest to find the giant lego man in one of the tanks, which as you can imagine, completely delighted Mike. He found the Lego man, and he got a rubber Orca for his troubles. We listened to a presentation about the fish and Mike told the presentors two facts that he had remembered from the talk and got a little candy for his troubles.

Afterwards we had lunch at the "American Diner", and I must say they did a pretty good job of with look, feel, and cuisine, then we peddled back up to Hove, loaded up the bikes and picked up Rod for an overnight. Amazingly, Michael biked nearly 3 miles!!!!












Today we spent the day at Brighton again. We started off on the beach. We laid out on a blanket and Michael went down to the sea, where he managed to get knocked over by a rogue wave, which he thought was great fun! We decided soon after that perhaps going to the childrens park, where they have a nice wading pool, would be a little more exciting for him.





We started out on the walk up the seafront to the children's park and were startled to find that a protest for climate change was being held right behind where we had set up our beach blanket. This is a case where "a picture speaks a thousand words", which I suppose is precisely why they chose this presentation. Unfortunately for me, I had to use the loo, and there was a line of naked and partially naked women surrounding me in the queue. Sadly for Mike and Neil, these women werent willing to respect the "men" and "ladies" signs, so they were also using the mens room. While Michael may be scarred for life, he got a very deep chuckle out of a woman who had body painted faces on her breasts. He has decided that she is a villian in Batman and her name is "Three Face".

Things got back to normal after that, and we got back to kiddie land and into the wading pool where Mike played with his Orca and the other children, then finished up with a mint ice cream while we walked back to the car. All in all a WONDERFUL weekend!

Until next time...