I managed to get a nice little Palm Z22 cheap a couple of days ago, which gives us the opportunity of paperless caching. We’ve been out a couple of days this half-term with it and it’s almost revolutionary!.
Using Pocket Queries (PQ) you can download a lot of geocaches in one file, and then run them through a nice application called GPXSpinner. This looks at each cache and creates some nice html for it. This html is then parsed through to plucker which parses all the html and creates nice links between all the pages and then creates a .pdb file which can be installed on the palm (and viewed with plucker’s own viewer).
We were out today, and because we had a nice database of caches on the palm, could roam around with all the information we needed. Cool 
I’ve just returned from Kingswood, an activity centre on the Isle of Wight. It was pretty exhausting, with activities starting around 9:30 am (with an early rise for breakfast) and then finishing at 9pm.
The children thoroughly enjoyed the activities, including Quad-biking, archery, climbing, zip-wire, abseiling (both from the tower in the photo) and Night-line (following a length of rope whilst blindfolded).
Happy birthday Pete – sorry it’s taken us a whole week to sort this pic, but it’s worth it. Hope you got some sleep in the end. Trugs, Ads, Treasure and Zakster.
Isaac wants to show you the boat he made out of Jenga blocks.
Click the image for the full version.
Joe frightened me with this picture last night, carefully placed in the bathroom (all his own work).
The boys appeared last week on Meridian news which ran a piece on them winning the funniest grandchildren competition.
I came home to find Meridian senior presenter, Keith Malone, sat in my front room watching England win the Ashes!
As ever, the pics are available (password required).
We went for a walk in some nearby bluebell woods.
See the pics here (password protected).
Today, we all went on the Mid Hants Watercress railway for a steam trip to Alresford. Being on a real steam railway was a real treat for the boys and they enjoyed the old-fashioned carriages. We stopped off at Alresford for tea and then caught the last train back.
See the pics. (password required.)
Last week we spent the Easter week at Tenby with all the Fair Oak lot. We stayed at a lovely cottage near St. Florence. It was a huge cottage sleeping 12, with 6 adults and 6 children in.
The highlight of the week was the boys learning to swim without armbandsin the pool. They got very confident by the end of the week and enjoyed strutting their stuff round the pool. Joe even swam lengths of the pool.
We also managed to visit Pembroke Castle which the boys loved running and climbing around, pretending to be Sir Lancelot and Sir Galahad.
Folly Farm also received a visit, proving to be very popular, especially the fun-fair rides.
We also visited Heatherton park where the boys spent ages on trampolines and playing with the diggers in the sand.
Top all that off with a couple of days at the beach and you had the recipe for an excellent holiday.
Pics are here. (password required).
We’ve just got back from the Fun Factory, where the boys had their first go on a vertical slide. They were scared at first and went down with daddy, holding hands, but after that they were well away.
Last Saturday we went out for Shep’s birthday to a local curry restaurant. There was an impromptu Cloth foto session, with plenty of hot curry left over.
View the party here. (password required)
Yesterday Phillipa, our babysitter from where we used to live, came and visited us and we all went to Milestones. We had a great time and would thoroughly recommend it for anyone who has school aged children.
You can have a peek at our milestones pics to give you some idea of what it is like.
Does Tim Collins know what he’s talking about?
The Conservatives’ education spokesperson, Tim Collins, warned against parents taking children out of lessons.
“Giving very young children the idea that they will learn more outside the classroom than in it, is a desperately dangerous notion,” he said.
(from the good old BBC website).
I’m sure that lots of parents will take issue with the fact that good quality education takes place in the home as well as at school.
We baked some cakes. The boys got quite messy doing it but really enjoyed the creative side of cooking. They especially like the measuring and mixing.
You can see them here: http://www.monkeez.org/gallery/Cakes.
Yesterday we all went to the theatre to see Jack and the Beanstalk at the Anvil in Basingstoke. It was a great show with all the panto essentials – thigh slapping, boo’s and hisses, “oh no you’re not”‘s and corny jokes.
