29 posts tagged “felixstowe”
It's a bit of a rarity, but at the moment I have all four of my kids in one place. Number Two Son was 16 last Saturday and we decided between us that as he was finished school that we'd get the lot of them together - but we didn't tell the girls about our plan. Therefore, yesterday found us travelling a round trip of approximately 280 miles whilst they were at school. We got stuck in a slow(ish) moving queue for a few miles on the way home which meant we were about 20 minutes later home than we'd hoped, so sitting their brothers outside the school as a surprise was out of the question. We drove to KT's, and discovered that the twins were moments away and Number Two Son, always one for a good surprise, leapt out at the top of the hill and fairly flew down it after them. We pulled into the carport just as they came out, all grins and joking remonstrations about not telling them that their brothers were coming.
KT suggested that we all go to the beach after the girls got home from school today. Number One Son wasn't really happy with the idea of heading out into daylight (he's a moody beastie) but the others were and I gathered up N1S as well and made him go. I have to say, it seemed he was just trying to live up to his reputation as a misery, because once we got him out of the van he was more than happy to muck about with the others.
As soon as he was out of the van, Number Two Son had found a blue plastic 5 litre bottle stuck in the rocks, so he dragged that out and put it on one of the bins to be taken away. He started looking for shells, so I sent them all away to find me some treasure.
Number One Son found a common starfish stranded amongst the groynes. He brought it back for a few photos then took it back to the water. I like this photo as he is almost smiling!
Number One Son's biggest find on Number One Daughter's biggest - a motorcyle tyre!
The treasure found for me by the kiddoes.
All four of my kinder. Number One Son was determined not to smile though he did grin every time between shots. I need a faster camera!
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Things I Learnt Today:
I always knew they were agile and fit, but N1S in particular showed just how nimble he was when he bounced along the tops of the groynes. We watched some teens try the same thing two days ago and they were unsure and unbalanced. I think my kids are part monkey.
N1S has a lot of power in his throwing arm. He was throwing stones towards the groynes from near where KT and I were sitting and more often than not he got really close to them - in fact, he even hit them twice. Looking at Google Maps, I am fairly amazed that it seems to be a distance of about 150 feet (about 60 metres). I so wish he had some kind of motivation in his life!
Number Two Son is imminently better at skipping stones than his brother. N1S might have the distance but he can't skip stones half as well as his lil bro.
The Port of Felixstowe is the largest container port in the UK and is one of the largest in Europe. It was used in this ident for Channel 4.
The girls got to their positions at the hotdog stand half an hour early on Sunday. Of course, when we dropped them off they were fighting over who would carry what. Instead of one of them carrying the two bags with the small cupcakes and another taking the big box with the banana cake, both of them took a bag with J laughingly leaving her sister to take the box as well. Of course, with it being H, this did not go down well. She cursed, she shouted, she hissed and begrudgingly took the cake box out with her and upon catching up with her sister, dumped it, rather unceremoniously on the grass and stormed off. Ah, again, the joy of twins.
They were only due to be there for two hours and eventually came home seven and a half hours later, absolutely shattered and with sunburnt faces. They'd enjoyed some parts of the day but felt that as they'd stayed on for over five hours more than was required of them and helped take things back to the scout hut that maybe they could have been thanked a bit more. J was actually quite upset that when she pointed out that someone was mistakenly filling up my cake box with the cub's plastic cups that she felt as if they were accusing her of trying to gain a free box. When the cub's missing cup box was found she didn't get an apology and my children are really keen on things being balanced and she said so. That didn't go down too well. There were a few other things that upset them, but they felt the good parts were good experience and H's banana layer cake sold for £5.
So apparently, the UXB in Felixstowe was found yesterday and detonated last night. I can't say I know anything about that as we were out of town, but the Beeb says that witnesses reported a "thump and a plume of water" at 19.40 hours. You can see a video of that at Felixstowe TV here if you like.
Of course, the conspiracies are now flying about. Because of the exclusion zone whilst the RN took a week to find the bomb they lost, the sea defence work had pretty much ground to a halt as the ship bring in the rocks couldn't get to shore. Another wag has suggested that perhaps they found it just in time for the navy to enjoy a long bank holiday weekend at the beach.
My favourite theory though, was started by The ARmy Rumour SErvice. They said days ago that what the RN should do is say they'd found it again and set off an explosion anywhere so there would be a boom and a plume (we go to the beach a lot and I have to say, they did seem to be searching the whole coastline for as far as the eye could see) and then when the bomb reappeared, they could come down for another holiday and start it all over again. Hmmm... well, it's an idea, at least.
So, 15 minutes ago, there was a heck of a BOOM! drifted up the hill. It doesn't sound anything like when the rocks get dropped - that's more of an incredibly loud rumble (am I glad I now live a mile further from the beach than I did? You betcha) and it sounded too loud to be a container droping at the docks. So, was it another crane collapsing? A Lorry tipping? The real bomb going off? Who can tell!
I am off to go and pick on KT for a few. I'll be back stalking you all later. Toodles!
[Edit: On the local news, one of the reporters said that the RN had said that they identified the bomb because it had one of the orange straps still attached to it before going on to say that there may well be other bombs out there, but the one they blew up was the missing one. I say, where's our proof there actually was that strap on the bomb before they blew it up! ;oP
Look at this news report for the bomb exploding, a cute re-enactment by two little ones from Langer nursery and the reporter being fooled into looking behind him)]
Well, the Royal Navy are still, it appears, searching for the bomb they lost.
Okay, so it has a GPS signal.
Okay, so they had it attached to a buoy.
It's still blooming lost.
KT and I went to the cliff tops again - it's one of our favourite places anyway and as dedicated people watchers we thought it'd be fun to see who was about. Yesterday we ended up having little chats with an Anglia TV cameraman and various passers by, including a really fun lady with a dog that I think was a whippet. Today we watched a BBC camera man trying to get a shot through the mist and gloom before reporter Gareth George was ready to give his report for lunch time telly. What we found quite hilarious is how people react around someone of a minor celebrity.
There were a group of three middle aged guys who were goading each other to get close and talk to the camera man and when the reporter was over there the goading got more intense. One of them got closer and closer, each time skipping away before edging close again - but he eventually thought better of it.
There was the family, Mum, Dad and little girl who literally oozed towards the area where the filming was taking place and in an almost tidal fashion, ebbed and flowed as time progressed. We were of the opinion that they were hoping that as there was very little to see out to sea that the cameraman might do a sweep of the crowd - they certainly kept getting really close to the camera and arranging themselves so that all of them would be seen if indeed a camera sweep was required. At one stage three women came along with an incredibly mucky dog and the little girl was obviously scared of it, but neither parent seemed to realise and kept dragging her out from behind their legs, which was kind of sad.
Then there was the stalker brolly guy. He wandered up and down the cliff edge, finally stopping right in shot behind the reporter whilst peering out to sea. This resulted in a slight exasperated moving of both the reporter and the camera. He wandered off a little then kept heading back to them both, obviously wanting to know what was going on and when he finally spoke to them it was just as they were beginning the report and he got to told to go away for a minute. He stalked off but was soon back and got the cold shoulder again.
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Gareth George's report on the inactivity last night - the creepy lady from Morrisons freezer aisle is shown in there (she's got glasses and dark curly hair and has a few seconds worth of soundbite at Brackenbury Leisure Centre) - she stands with a freezer open as she stocks it and stares blankly, but slightly malevolently at people - it's most disconcerting!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7360802.stm
Okay, so I cropped the one of the girls so it's now square. I also have quite a thing for purple and I colourised them - I quite like the purple one - any opinions on that?
I cropped the shelter one to show just Number Two Son - I agree this is an improvement.
Another crop job - this time focusing on J's face a bit more.
The UXB lurking in the waters off Felixstowe shore is still on the loose. The divers from the Royal Navy have been unable to locate it after it was dragged from it's mooring by the tidal waters and although they do have a GPS on it, the tide and visibility are making it hard to track. However, they are hopeful that today it will be destroyed.
When they can find it...
The bomb found on the beach yesterday morning was positively identified as a 500kg German shell from the Second World War. It was much bigger than at first thought and specialists have said that it has the potential to wipe out half the sea front and cause structural damage up to half a mile away. Felixstowe was a prime target during the last big war due to the military use of sea planes at one end of the town and the effort made with radar at Bawdsey Manor at the other.
The Royal Navy Bomb disposal squad towed it two miles out to sea earlier with the intention of detonating it around 2pm, but the big blast didn't happen, much to the chagrin of the packed cliff tops. Local radio told us that Plan A was to tow it out to sea and let it drop to the sea bed in the hope the impact would set it off. That didn't happen. Plan B was that the RN would countermine it with explosives, but the current was too strong for the divers. They were reported as wanting to try again around 6pm, but were again hampered in their efforts. At around 7pm, there were reports that the bomb had broken free from it's anchor in the string tide, but I have to say, there wasn't much going on out at sea. The spokediverman has said that when it's finally detonated, the boom should be heard by pretty much the whole of the town.
The 1200 people evacuated last night were allowed to return home today, so let's hope that the bomb stays in place!
This post is the three portrait style photos I've chosen to enter the quest - and the others I liked from playing at the bottom of the post for reviews. All taken with a point and click camera, so no fancy close ups as it doesn't do much!
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Chosen by H - the twin on the right
Chosen by me - shows Number Two Son in a rare capture - no boss eyes, no sticky up fingers, no smear as he races to beat the camera - I caught this one just right. Also shows KT snuggled against the bracing North Sea wind and H doing homework on the bench!
Chosen by KT. On the same day as the above photo, J popped into the van and was doing Dracula impressions. I wanted a pic, but she made a great game out of hiding behind the blanket every time I pressed the button - the kids have learnt it's a slow old camera! This one was her cracking up because it was obviously such a great game! Behind her is the prom through the can window - less that a minute's walk to where the bomb was found yesterday.
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Another of the shots taken in the garden - J has a thing for sticking out her tongue at the moment and H just pulls the most fantastic faces...
I've been trying to get the kids to do death shots for years. We play at dead at home - did you know that when you are dead your tongue always sticks out? And to revive that person, all you have to do is push their tongue back into their mouth and shake them whilst saying 'Wake up! Wake Up!' - works everytime.
This lady's pooch was much admored by the two gents. The one bending down got right down level with the dog to give it some good old loving but this was the only pic where you could see the lady's face.
The Sisterly Love shot - in slight sepia style for KT, original for me and black and white for H
KT doesn't feel that some of these count as portraits - I disagree. Any opinions?
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