It's the weekend

Saturday afternoon doing laundry is hardly what you call exciting.  With the country gripped in a heat wave you'd think we'd be out on the beach or something like that. Instead other half is trying to fix the rotten, leaky roof on our boiler house before the next rain is due.  As for the next rain, well that could happen anytime as we barely go 48 hours without a shower or two, more often than not it rains every day.   

The last few days have been a real mixed bag.  I'm still reeling over Sol's surgery cancellation too.  She has an important appointment on the 28th of this month so we will do nothing before that date. However I've been checking out the private hospital and discovered one of the ophthalmic surgeons on the list there is the one that originally said he'd operate on her.  It's funny that, I would bet that if I find a few pounds laying around somewhere and take them to him, he would have her operated on that very week.  Anyway it's a real possibility right now but I am just taking a few days to think about it all.

buzz buzz

We found a wasps nest in the kiddies playhouse. We took it down and put it in a jar somewhere sheltered and the few wasps that were left hatched out and flew away. Its amazing that such a structure was made by these tiny little creatures.

Before & After

okay okay ...

I am rubbish at blogging.

I have zillions of photos and its going to take me a few days to post everything I want to. I seem to spend my days apologising to people in real life and in the blog world about my tardiness. I have been so busy; decorating, coping with a 'little' issue regarding one of my children's health just now, exams and my own health. I have to get a couple lumps removed and got surgery in two weeks time. Looking like nothing sinister but will know for sure once they are removed and tested.

With regard to the decorating, it has been a nightmare couple months. We took out the fireplace in our dining room and blocked that up. What we didn't realise is that the chimneys were blocked from above and blocking up the fireplace was a huge mistake. So we got a damp patch that then once ventilation bricks and holes were added into the chimney it took two months to dry out.

The fireplace before



The fireplace after - behind the the sofa. The main wall is decorated with a red colour, I need to get complete photos done. I haven't got my floor finished, and I also want a large canvas photograph of the kids on the wall but its live-able now and definitely more than passable now.

Boats, Robes, Teeth.

Well the last couple of weeks have flown by - once again. Here's a round up.

Well last blog update I had shared that other half had got himself a little boat. He was so keen on getting out on it he managed to get the boat insured and a tow bar fitted on the car in less than a day. It is a pity that he wasn't so quick and effiecient at doing DIY. The only thing that held him back was the fact we had only two life jackets ....so we got some decent ones from eBay. And now its just a matter of towing the boat down to the harbour and launching it.

The view from the harbour.


Here's Mag all ready to sail!


Here's the boat ....

wait ..... wait.... its not

this is the boat!

Okay I have to add in this photo, I forgot to share it in a previous blog. This is Seb on his Boys Brigade award night receiving his badges.

This photo, which I took on my phone camera at Mag's insistence. Mag was tickled by the "wide range of trolleys" on offer at Tesco. Well that is what the sign says but I am not sure that there are many to chose from.

The tooth fairy visited Seb last week...

...and this again this week. Poor boy can hardly talk, he has a big lisp thing going on, its quite funny.

The robes we got for Toni ... they are installed and are looking good. We got them from Starplan, in fact my other half was so happy with them he 'let' me go order some more for our bedroom. So I went and ordered two x 2 metre robes for our room which will really help a lot with storage space. They will be delivered and installed in July so we need to get our skates on and get the room decorated ... we never do things by halves in our house.

Just now we have a little room which is actually like a box room, but it is used for clothes rather than a bedroom or anything else ..the room is kitted out with large 'built in' robes and we have all our clothes and bedding in it. Well getting the robes for our bedroom means it will free up some of the the robes in the little room we have, and in turn I can utilise that room for something else. Long story here, but we have an extension in the pipe line with a utility room, so I am going to use this little room for a utility room and that creates an extra room when the extension is done. PHEW are you still with me, because it sounds so complicate, it isn't really.

Nuff Said

I suppose this ought to be a chat post, as I usually just post photographs on my blog.

The last two weeks have the usual blend of 'skooling' and every day life. Seb had his Boys Brigade parents night, he bagged himself a badge and made us proud as usual. Seb has tried so very hard at his BB, he is the smallest there.

Last week Mag went off kayaking in the Mourne Mountains with his Boys Brigade friends, they had a great weekend. I believe that they made water rockets with plastic bottles and a wooden launcher as well as hitting the amusements in Newcastle. He came home tired and happy.

Sol was at the zoo on yesterday with her Rainbows troop, she enjoyed seeing all the animals again. I had considered taking all of the children for the day and then perhaps taking summer to the gate when the rainbows were meeting but when I learned there would be 1400 there I decided to give it a miss. I let other hald take Sol up, and of course the other children wanted to go with him too. I spent four happy hours on my own, doing laundry, washing floors, and other jobs. As for other half and the kids they went and got fish and chips (without me).

Also yesterday Mag played chess at the UK Chess Challenge Mega Finals held in Belfast. He won first place for his age group so that makes him the the title of best player of his age group in Northern Ireland. He has to travel to England now to compete against the regional winners their ... then who knows what is next for him. Please wish him luck if you see him, he really needs the support. We have already booked his flight tickets, him and other half will go and make a weekend of it. We got return flights for the two of them to Liverpool for £83 from RyanAir ... not bad EH? So while the 'men' are off playing chess I get to spend a quiet weekend at home with my three babies.

This week has been a week of revision and that's how it will continue for the next month. Mag's final module for his Maths GCSE is split over two days in June. the first part on the 7th, and then on the 11th, I have no doubts in his ability to pass the exam with grades as good as he got for his other modules.

Oh and we decorated Toni's bedroom last week, what a marathon lightening fast job that was! We got it painted in the weekend and a carpet laid, all done in time for her new robes to fitted. I was feeling very pleased with how much we had achieved then came down to a bump remembering how long it is taking us to decorate the dining room.

And the final bit of news, and anyone who knows us is going to laugh their socks off. while my friends and neighbours are into caravaning and camping ..... drum role ..... other half bought a boat. NUFF SAID!

Meet Your Maker

There are 'makers' for everything!

Well there are and they are all living inside my kitchen except one. Thanks to my friend I am going to end up with yet another maker, a yoghurt maker. I wasn't going to but I will probably succumb...

I cant see my kitchen worktops, and my cupboards are full.

The makers are taking over slowly, one by one.

I have a bread maker, which doubles (or trebles or maybe quadruples) up as a jam maker, pizza base maker and jam maker.
Then there is the ice cream maker which I am using a lot at the moment. I have a smoothie maker which was leaking but now with a bit on imagination is fixed. I broke it because I put it in the dishwasher without taking the blades out so the seal ring and it seals no more. I got some plumbers tape, you know that white stuff that goes a bit stringy, and its all better now back to making smoothies.
I got a rice maker, it doubles up to make something else I forgot what ... maybe its porridge.
Oh I don't have a chip maker or chip pan, cant stand those wretched things, nasty, stinky, have you ever put one in a dishwasher?
I did have a pie maker, it make gorgeous neat deep pies in 8 minutes, sealed them and they were the most delicious pies I had ever eaten. Trouble about the pie make was that it was a b****r to clean so I got rid of it. the burger maker quickly followed suit. Ooh what I would do with a pie maker or burger maker with removable plates.

Anyhow, please tell me about your makers, I am always on the look out for new ideas.

Oh and while you are at it, shall I get that yoghurt maker?

Round up in few words as possible

This is Monday again, start of the Easter holidays for our schooled counterparts.
Every day last week I had planned on taking the children to the local farm and everyday it rained. The day it didn't rain our eldest child was marching in Belfast with his Boys Brigade for their annual batallion parade.
So today, once again we thought we would brave the farm, and once again the rain has arrived. Not that it's a major issue getting wet and possibly muddy, but six children (two of them not mine) getting wet and muddy isn't fun to deal with.
There's not an awful lot to report, Mag had a tummy bug on Friday morning and Seb felt he needed to spend the day in bed so it was a very 'non event' day.
As for me I am fed up with nagging all of the children to keep their bedrooms tidy and pick up their clothes. I am toying with the idea of giving myself a break from nagging and ignoring the bedrooms and let them get really messy to see if anyone notices and starts to pick up. Has anyone tried this? Does it work, or is it just more hard work in the long run?
Sent from my iPhone

Exams, Freefall, Bump & A Birdhouse. How can they all be in the same blog post?

Well a week has gone by and every single day I had planned on writing a few lines to update everyone. So here it is all those few lines condensed into one post.

Monday the 1st of March was pretty much a study day for Mag. The nerves were increasing and I could see that he was starting to worry about the exams the following day. There came a point where I had to tell him to put his books away, enough was enough. I have no doubts at all in Mag's ability but seeing him get anxious like this makes me wonder how children cope with doing ten exams all at once. Well I guess they do, as I did it myself when I was a teenager, but looking at it from a parents perspective is a different issue.

Tuesday, exam day! I took Mag to the school where he was sitting his exams for doors opening and was greeted by the exam officer who showed him where he would be sitting both his exams that day. The morning exam started at 9:30 and he seemed pretty relaxed about it all. Mag was home for lunch then back in again for the next exam at 1:30, after that I had an informative chat with the exam officer to discuss what is next. It was an interesting day to say the least, its been almost three years since Mag had been at a school and I guess it would have been strange for him.

Wednesday was a 'down' day! I had to laugh because what I call a down day is when you do nothing of major importance; rest, watch TV, just hanging out around the house. I posted on Face book that this is what we were doing and everyone sent HUGS. I didn't have the heart to say that I didn't need the hugs, just thanked everyone instead.

Thursday morning I met up with a couple of home educating friends and their children at Indiana Land in Dundonald. Between us we had ten children and the whole place to ourselves which was good. Unfortunately for Mag he is too big to play there but he did get a couple of sneaky goes on the free fall slide. As for the girls, there was three seven year olds lined up along the top of the free fall with the colly wobbles was an amusing site. The mums all stood at the bottom shouting encouragement and each one stepping to the edge then jumping back. I am not sure if I would have done the free fall slide, but they all did it in the end.
At lunch time I had arranged to go have lunch with my friend Lorraine, which we did and had a great afternoon. I didn't want to leave to come home and I think the two of us could have chatted very easily for another couple of hours.



Friday was our day at the science museum, W5. We needed to get out the house again, we have spend a lot of time studying and doing 'school' that this last while so it was well deserved. The day was good except the fact Seb ran into some perspex in the afternoon and ended up going to the children's hospital. He was okay in the end, but left with a nasty bump on his head.



Oh and I almost forgot ... Ashley made a bird box, what do you think?

Frogs and Toothpaste

We downsized our fish tank last week, well should I say we were forced to because we are doing work in our house. I needed the large tank out of the dining room so I bought a little 24 inch tank and set it up in the kitchen. Kind of liking the 24 inch tank we decided not to set the large tank back up again.

With the old tank we made a little frog pond in the garden, got a pond plant and some chemicals to make the water good. We did brick steps up to the top and down in the tank too - a haven for frogs (I hope). We do need frogspawn now, but that will be another venture no doubt, the pet shop said they do some but I am sure I can borrow some for educational purposes.

The frog haven led on to a whole discussion about pond life, and I dug out all the pond life keys we had got when we visited the Balloo Wetlands last year. That resulted in an impromptu visit to the wetlands again. It was very cold, and sadly vandals had burned down the bird hide, but it is still a nice place to visit. We had a look around and studied the water for a little while but due to the cold a couple hours found us home again. The children spent the rest of the afternoon looking at amphibians and pond life in their books.

Anyway - here's the photos!

Seb and Sol warming up after we got back. It was only when I downloaded my camera I noticed what the children had laid out on the arm of the chair. Have a look - cars and a tube of toothpaste for some reason.

Cleaning up my greenhouse

Today I am clearing my twenty-odd tomato plants, eight cucumber plants
with cucumbers attached, and a dozen or so pepper plants. I have had
to throw every single plant out, barring a water logged chili pepper
plant.
I spent all summer nurturing these plants, twice a day watering,
feeding, spraying and loving. Space, effort, money and most
importantly my time.
In August my tomatoes were healthy green and swollen. I went off on my
holidays at the start of September, handing over the care of my two
greenhouses to my much trusted neighbour. On my return from my
holiday I discovered not one single plant had survived. Well one left
and it is a chili plant which is water logged and half dead.
I don't know what went wrong, some were water logged, some were bone
dry, none of the plants appeared healthy. One greenhouse was closed up
and clearly never ventilated, the other destroyed in the wind with
little done to rescue it's contents.
I want to cry over this, my friend who came in to help me clear up did
cry as she saw every week the progress we had made. I can't say
anything my neighbour, as I am sure she feels guilty enough. It's
hard, when they were gone in the summer I looked after their crops of
tomatoes and peppers for three weeks, it never occurred to me that
things could go so badly wrong.

SUNDAY SUMMARY, Birthday, desks and sleep

Okay, I HAD planned on doing a "snap Shot" Sunday  but it turned out to be more of a photographic summery of my week .....

Here goes

Monday night the children asked for a sleep over. When we went to check on them this is what we found.


I spent most of Tuesday (between swimming lessons, and running the kids to summer scheme, and childminding) trying to tidy the house.
I have to say my husband has the most annoying habit in the world, his newspapers. He buys the Sunday Times every week but never gets it all read. I don't know if you know the Sunday Times but there are 60 supplements with it, and now he has started buying yet another newspaper. If he doesn't get one read he keeps it, and each week this rolls on till he has stacks. I am not allowed to touch the papers, if I were to throw them out he would come looking for a certain article or something. What annoys me most is the fact he stores them next to the bed, oh and the newspaper print stains our white painted floor. Thing is most of the stuff in the Sunday paper we have already read or heard about during the week on the NEWS funnily enough.

No photos from Wednesday, much to my regret! We had early morning swimming lessons then on to our home education day. It was a tiring day, but very successful so well worth it.

Thursday, after swimming, summer schemes, and child minding, Hollie and I set about making some jewellery. This is the bracelet we made which we have since given to a friend.

Okay, so the desks are not really from Friday but I will share the photo anyway. We got them in Tesco's, reduced from £49 down to £12.25 which is a steal. They are MDF and just slot together in two minutes, the kids love them and they are ideal for their crafts and colouring. I am sure they will enjoy doing their skool at them too.

Saturday was my birthday, 21 again! We had Moet & Chandon champagne mixed with orange juice for breakfast otherwise known as bucks fizz! I didn't do anything else for the day, just sat around and rested after another hectic week.

PLUM JAM RECIPE

We are making plum jam today.

Well you know its about time I saw the fruits of my fruit! My plum tree has hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds of plums on it. Some of the plums are ripe, some not, some past their best.

RECIPEyou need 2kg plums (fruit weight) or 4lbs (mix of ripe and almost ripe is good for pectin)
1 litre of cold water or 32 fl oz
125 ml of lemon juice or 1/2 cup
1.5 kg of caster sugar (warmed in oven speeds up process) or 3lb

Assuming you already know how to make jam and sterilise the jars!

You will need about 6 jars for this recipe if they are large ones or eight small. I always sterilise loads to be on the safe side.

Chop the plums up, and of course discard the stones. My fingers have turned yellow by the way so wear gloves if this worries you. The chopping up took ages so make sure you go for a pee first and do all your other stuff as you are going to be busy for a while.

Place the plums and the water in a nice big heavy pan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 50 minutes or until the fruit is soft. This is not an opportunity to go to the local for a pint or anything, just make yourself a cup of coffee and wait ... you probably need it after chopping up the plums.

Add the lemon juice and sugar now, stir them over a low heat for five minutes.

Bring to the boil now for 20 minutes (check for next stage from 15 mins onwards) , keep stirring or better still ask someone else to stir for you as your hands will still be sore from the chopping up.

Remove the scum from the surface and test your jam, it is ready when it falls from a wooden spoon in sheets. Don't do the taste test at this stage otherwise you will burn your mouth!

Test for the setting by placing the jam on a cold plate in the freezer for 30 seconds, if its ready the jam will wrinkle if you push it with your finger. Lick your finger!

Remove any scum from jam and transfer into jars. Put lids tightly on the jars and invert for two minutes, this creates a nice sterile environment in the led and helps create a good seal. You can store this jam for up to 12 months so long as you keep it in your cupboard.

The jars ideally need to cool over night and initially the jam looks runny, don't worry about this it will be set by the time you have your toast made the following morning.


I am also making breadmaker jam - recipe to follow!

SO FAR SO GOOD

My carrots! They have a bit to grow before they win any prizes, but so far so good.

Green Fingers

We have been getting things ready for the summer in the garden. The children especially have been enjoying the whole thing. Between us we have planted peas, tomatoes, lots of herbs, peppers, lettuces, cucumbers, and plenty of flowering plants also. I am not sure that we will be successful in our quest to grow veggies but at least its great fun for the children.

This weeks efforts ...

decorating and gardening

I only wish I had taken some photos the last couple of weeks. Well I did take 'a' photo but I cant share it, its far too personal ... one of me wearing some new underwear that I had got. On that note I shall move swiftly on to the more publishable topics.

The decorating in the hallway continues, we cant go any faster because we are only doing painting at weekends. Well Roy is painting and I am keeping the children occupied mostly. I am hoping we will be done this weekend.

Gardening, we have done lots of gardening. Mostly we have planted things in containers for now, some to be planted out when they are bigger and some to keep in the containers. We would still worry a little about frosts so I think its best for now. We have tended to our trees, cleared the debris from under them and added a little peat. We have a fair amount of trees, some in the garden and a few young trees in pots waiting to be planted.

Summer has been one for funny quotes this week. You will laugh at this one, I was slicing up a pepperoni sausage, Sol our three year old is scooping the pepperoni slices as fast as I was cutting them. "Hold on Sol, we need them for our pizzas", "No mummy, I need them for my mouth!" what can I say.

12th March - Entertainment at Ikea

We found ourselves child free last Thursday - its not what you think actually we hadn't escaped and left the kids with a sitter or anything. Roy finished work early and asked us if we fancied a trip out. Roy suggested going to B&Q but I protested a little after the last trip we had to that store, well not really for that reason. Actually I have decided what I want to do in my hallway, I don't need to see yet another tin of paint.

We plumped for Ikea in the end, I love Ikea! You can get lost easily in the Ikea store and spending money is almost compulsory too! Ashley stayed at home because he was not feeling so well. We took the other children with us but had not reckoned on the creche being empty or buck shee. So the children got booked into the creche and we strolled around looking at this bedroom fitment and that. I enjoyed our 45 minutes that the children were booked into the creche for, then even nicer was the additional half hour the girl in the creche let us have because they were not busy. We managed to get a cup of tea and a funny looking bun from the cafe too. When we finally picked up the children it felt like the trip was over, I mean we walked the whole way round Ikea and managed to keep our wallets in our pockets (well Roy's wallet in his pocket). I saw a dining table which would be perfect for us, price was nice too .... maybe I will get it one day.

After creche out we took the children up to the seating area in the cafe, this area over looks the end of the George Best Airport runway. It was fun to see the planes taxing down and then taking off, we saw a couple of planes land also. Then down below the windows you could see onto the loading bays - we watched people going about their business and the trolley guys playing with the trolleys in flower beds.

On the way out of the store we stopped at the clearance section where they have the ex-display stuff or things that have got damaged. Never being able to resist a bargain we had a rummage in there - BIG MISTAKE. I mean we did get the whole wall covered in Toni's bedroom .... perfect for storing all her crates and things (which is an issue). It is a pale pine wood approx 6 foot tall by 6 wide. The price was less than £85 previously marked at £185 so we felt we got a bargain, it was all Roy's idea! The unit itself had a tiny little chip on one of the brackets so that's £100 off just for someone being bit careless when they were building it. It looks a bit like this one, its a nice pale wood which are like strips laminated together.


Getting the unit in the car was another concern. The unit in the store was already erected so we asked if we could dismantle it ... the girl said we could but not until it had been paid for. DUMB STUPID STORE RULES. Okay - trolley - large unit - 3 toddler size children - yeah yeah I hear ya its only stupid people who do stuff like that.
Navigating the unit through the check out was an experience. Waiting in the queue for customer services to get the tools to dismantle the unit was another experience. The people in front were so slow, I mean how long does it actually take to get a price for a vase? "Use your flipping legs and walk into the store to find out" DOH!
Eventually we got a couple of allen keys so we can dismantle the unit. We divided it into two initially because it was precarious stood up on a trolley. Then I parked myself and the two trolleys at the door while Roy and the kids went to bring the car round to the pick up bays. Whilst they were gone I was people watching. I always find it amusing to see people come out of DIY shops and like places with huge 8x4 sheets or something or other then struggle to get them into their little cars. I always giggle at those people and now the watcher was about to become watched and that thought was even more comical. I noticed a lively family struggle their way to their van. The family's 5 foot palm tree blew over in the wind, it spilled compost on the ground and they just left it laying there! The woman held a packet of what looked liked chocolate hobnobs and she just continued to munch away on them whilst the two men wrestled two trolleys worth of flat pack boxes into their van. Oh they did go back and retrieve the tree but not before it blew over again leaving another pile of compost on the path.

Roy and the children arrived back too soon spoiling my entertainment, and then it was our turn to entertain the world. It wasn't that hard really, dismantling the unit - we had to re arrange the seat configuration in the galaxy (minivan to my USA friends) but still after plenty of discussions we got it in and the children seated safely though not without complaint. I turned around when we were finished and I noticed the car behind us, the nice man in there watching - he was smiling at our achievement (at least that's how I would like to put it) ... we almost took a bow there and then.

The unit is in situ now - its still empty because I have not had time to put Toni's toy boxes on it yet. Maybe tomorrow ....

Decorating plates & Eating Healthy

I started the day with my free trial delivery from Graze. One of the other home educating mums suggested that we might like to try it so we did! Pop over to http://www.graze.com/ if you fancy signing up. They send you these little boxes of fruit, veg or other things which make up three of your five a day F&V. It was yum - not sure whether or not we will continue after the trial - I might have to talk out local shop into keeping more exotic fruit and doing this service them selves!

Then there was this - it is a finger mouse. I haven't tried it yet, it was £2.00 from ebay and is a mouse that goes on your finger funnily enough.

Toni is still not the healthiest girl on earth and her eye looks sore, she still made it through the day's activities though.

We decorated cups and saucers with special paints that you bake on. Oh did I tell you my oven has packed up so that is a tough one .... neighbours come in handy there.

acting the fool!

Oh this one I did ......

Just kidding.

The completed job (almost)

It has only taken since last Wednesday for this 'bug' that we have to get round our family. I think we must be almost over it,Seb this morning was ill but he seems to be okay now. After changing his bed yet again we live in hope that tomorrow I might get that mountain of washing down a bit so it is not holding me to ransom any more.



I want to share something - a friend in the USA sent me an ornament. We do an ornament exchange every year, it makes it special to have something different, especially one sent by a good friend. This is what I got ...



Thankyou Kim XOXO







Today was a long one - I am trying (like everyone else) to get things ready for the big day.



We made some buns, the children decorated them .....



My kitchen - the longest drawn out decorating project in the history of mankind.

This has been going on since October, we had various things happen in between like a lovely big leak in the pipes under our sink.

S0 we have taken various shots from around the kitchen, all except the sink wall ... two reasons we have a gaping big hole where the cupboard should be,I am hoping we will get it put back tomorrow. Secondly we haven't finished that bit of tiles and it is not so pretty - I will slot those photos in as we get done.

anyway - so far ... The kids computer corner, this is where the kids play if I am cooking or what ever.


The breakfast bar.

Visit To Santa

Saturday was a bit different from usual. Started off we were dead lazy and had a lie in. We should be working on some painting but there you go.

The afternoon was spent running the children to chess club, and going to Harveys to get some shelves for Ashley's wardrobes. The shelves - which I eventually got (only through powers of persuasion) for a more respectable price of £28 wen they were marked at £71 - yes £71 for three pieces of covered chipboard!
On the way back I drove through the town which was relatively busy, but I did notice Woolworths wasn't so bad. I decided to take the kids on an impromptu shopping trip. This attempt at having a look at the Woolworths sale was definitely more fruitful than the last. The other day we went and the people were queued down the whole length of the shop and there were 'bouncers' on the door. This time I managed to get a few bargains including some smart new everyday cutlery which we were in desperate need of, glasses, socks, Christmas decorations, glittery things, a couple of watches and some clothes for the children.





We also stopped off to see Santa Claus in the Flagship Centre, Bangor.


He was a nice Santa and spent quite a few minutes with the children.























These are photos of the photos so they are not high quality, I think they came out okay all the same.

In the evening Roy and I managed to sneak off to the cinema. We were owed quite a number of babysitting hours from our neighbours so we took advantage of that and went to see Quantom Of Solace. It was good but I much preferred Casino Royale. Oh and Bangor Multiplex has been done out it is worth a visit, we much enjoyed the very comfortable VIP seats which were leather reclining sofas.

Feeling Washed Out

I wasn't going to post this photo but was persuaded otherwise!