Canvey Beach Clean Up

We recently took a nice afternoon walk along the coast at Canvey Island and I was super proud of Brandon and Holly as they decided to have a beach clean-up and trolled the beach looking for any rubbish that they could pick up and dispose of in the bins. We also tried skimming a few stones and enjoyed a nice ice-cream to finish off our coastal walk.

On a sunny day it is amazing to live in a place where we are just 20 mins away from the coast and can enjoy such nice walks. If you can overlook the bad reputation Canvey Island has, it can be beautifully scenic as you can see in the pictures.

Beautiful scenery on a sunny day in Canvey Island.

I think our coastline is starting to clean up as it becomes harder and harder for companies to dump waste in the sea.

I know it is shallow, but the water actually looks cler and clean here.

These two were on a mission to clean the beach and went on a rubbish collecting mission for the afternoon.

Annual Car Clean, Parking Ticket and Insurance Cancellation!!!

Joshua has had a testing couple of weeks with his car as of late. It all started when he picked up his first parking offence in Wickford resulting in a £60 fine. However much worse than that, his black box for his insurance detected him doing 48 mph down Cranes Farm Rd (which is a 30 mph limit) and therefore notified him via email that this is dangerous driving and that they were cancelling his insurance. The annoying thing about this is he was only 2-3 months away from getting his first years no claims bonus. So I have had the stress of having to cancel his old policy (before they could cancel) and then sort out some new insurance so that he can still get to work and college! 

On the plus side he has now had Tina's Fiesta for nearly 10 months and up until this week I think he had only washed it once or twice (through a car wash, never by hand). Yesterday was the first time since owning the car that he has actually bothered to clean the car himself. This was  only because he bought one of those spray guns with the foam cleaner from Tik-Tok and was keen to try it out. I have to say it actually works really, really well and when fitted to my old Karcher jet wash it brought his car up beautifully clean. Needless to say I will probably be pinching that off him for my car as well! Let's hope with his new toy he actually keeps the car clean now and that this wasn't a one time novelty for him.

It has only taken 10 months for Josh to clean his car by hand for the first time.

He bought a new foam sprayer gun with foam cleaner from Tik-Tok to clean his car.

So whilst I say he cleaned it by hand, he really cleaned it by spray gun and hardly touched the actual car.

But it did work very well and I will no doubt be using this as well.

High Standards of Science Work!

How amazing is it to get sent home a letter like this from Holly's Science teacher. So proud of how she is killing her first year of Secondary School.

Suns Out, Pea-Shooters Out

The clocks have changed, the days are getting longer, and last week we briefly saw a glimpse of the sun. With our summer holiday now locked in and booked Brandon is determined to get a base tan before we travel this year. So at the first sign of the big yellow disc in the sky, he had his little pea-shooters (can hardly call them guns) out in the back garden.

Sun's out, pea-shooters out.

Sod's law we had one good day of sun and now it is overcast again!

Lea's 40th Birthday

On Good Friday the family descended on Min and Lea's gaff in Suffolk to celebrate Lea turning 40 on the 8th April and also to celebrate Easter. It was really nice to catch up with everyone and enjoy the very nice Easter spread of food that they put on. We took a box of little mini Easter egg's which we used in their garden for a little Easter Egg hunt. We ended up doing it twice and weirdly ended up with more than 18 eggs which were originally in the box!

Me, Lisa, Nicky and Min.

Then another Bro/Sis picture with Brandon, Holly and Josh.

One of the seniors of the family (Auntie Nicky) being dwarfed by Josh and Brandon.

Always got their bloody phones in hand!

No college or Tesco's for Josh and thus we even managed to drag him out for the day.

Easter Cycling at Hadleigh

Easter weekend and we finally had some nice weather with blue skies and a bit of sunshine. Holly has been nagging for a few weeks now to go over to Hadleigh Olympic Mountain Bike Park so with the weather the way it was, Sunday was the perfect opportunity.

Holly had a good cycle around although she seems to have got much more cautious that I remember from previous visits! Me, Tina and Brandon enjoyed a nice walk in the fresh air and then stopped in the café for a coffee and some lunch. Meanwhile Joshua was at home enjoying a rare Sunday off of work (probably in bed).

Brandon braving some rockery to get a picture by the Olympic rings from 2012. Hard to imagine they cycled down this!

The good old over under tube is still going strong from the 2012 MB course.

There is something quite rewarding about riding this little bit of the track.

Holly enjoying some cycling at Hadleigh Olympic Park.

Holly's Year 7 Spring Report

And just like her older brother Holly seems to be excelling in her Year 7 Spring report as well. Despite her anxiety and dyslexia issues she has been rated 1's and 2's (with 1 being the highest you can get) across the board in ALL subjects including the ones she dislikes. How can you ask for more than that?

Brandon's Year 12 Spring Report

I think I have mentioned previously how pleased we have been with how well Brandon settled in to 6th form and seems to be really motivated (more so than in his year 11). Well his Spring report pretty much confirms this as he is on track for a B in his Sociology, C in Economics and a Distinction in his ICT. So the girlfriend and learning to drive doesn't seem to be a distraction and he is still achieving good grades which is great to see. If only he knew what he wanted to do after 6th form!!! 

Home Economics - Smoothie Project Winner

So Holly has now started home economics (or what ever they call it these days) at school and last week made a nice little pasta salad which she had for her dinner one evening. As a small breakout group they also had to design and come up with a brand and the marketing for their own healthy smoothie. To do this Holly's team surveyed other students to get an idea of flavours, colours, prices and then developed their smoothie which they then had to make in class. She brought it home and I have to say it was pretty damn good, a tad on the think side (more like a yoghurt) but very tasty and nutritious. Her group did so well on this project that she was awarded a certificate.

Holly with her certificate as the winning group for the smoothie project.

Beauchamps Year 7 School Swimming Gala

Really nice to see that even in senior school Holly is still representing the girls in the school swimming gala and recently competed in a district school gala in both individual and relay events. The individual wasn't great for her as she was put in a breast stroke race which isn't one of her strong ones. But then her school smashed the relay and ended up receiving a medal for their efforts. Well done H.

Holly with her swimming medal from the district gala representing the Beauchamps girls team.

Joshua's College Work Experience at Ford Dunton

Last week Joshua completed 1 week of work experience for his college course and since he is studying engineering I managed to secure him a position in the tool room in the Ford Dunton Fleet Workshop. This was such a great opportunity for Josh to experience a real engineering center and to learn some new skills. Over the course of the week he got to do some sheet metal fabrication and they also taught him how to weld. In fact one of his tasks was to make a name plate where the name had to be written in weld material.

I also had the opportunity to drive Joshua around the high speed track in an all electric MS-RT Transit. He was pretty impressed at us doing almost 80kph on a banked corner and then experiencing the acceleration of an electric vehicle on the straights. We had one minor incident on one of the banked corners where a flock of pigeons were camped out on the track and had to make a quick exit as I came around the corner. Most of the flock cleared the vehicle, but one unlucky bird just clipped the windscreen! 

I really enjoyed taking Joshua to work with me and spending some quality time with him last week, in fact I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss it this week. We managed to meet up for breakfast in the canteen each day and then we met again for lunch which we usually followed up with a walk where I would show him different parts of the site. He had no idea how big the facility was as all you see from the main road is the front offices and none of the labs, workshops and test facilities behind the office blocks.

Joshua seemed to really enjoy the week and it has made him realise that there is a difference between working in something you enjoy as opposed to having a mundane, repetitive job. To date his only work experience is his part time job at Tesco and that has him doing exactly the same thing day-in and day-out. Even he admitted that a 7-8 shift at Tesco seemed 2-3 times longer than a full day at Dunton because the work at Dunton is more varied and interesting.

Day 1 and Joshua joins me at Dunton to start a week of work experience.

Over the course of the week they taught him how to weld and one of his projects was to make a name plate.

"L" Driver - And So It Begins Again!

It really doesn't seem like that long ago that I was going out giving Joshua driving lessons and here we are in 2026 starting all over again with Brandon. We are teaching him in Tina's Ecosport as the Fiesta that Joshua learned in has since been transferred to his ownership. Taking Joshua out ourselves and giving him real world driving scenarios rather than predetermined lessons seemed to work very well. The proof was the fact that he passed first time and only had 2 actual driving lessons just before test day, thus saving us and him a whole lot of money.

So the pressure is on me as a driving instructor and Brandon as a student to try and replicate how it went with Joshua. After just 3 lessons he has started really well and already has pretty good clutch control and doesn't stall (too often!). We have covered forward and reverse parking, emergency stop, road positioning, navigating small round-a-bouts and changing up and down from 1st to 4th gear and back. Only one minor incident so far where he went back a little too far in a parking space and brushed some bushes with the back of Tina's car (oops).

Brandon seems very keen to do the physical driving stuff with me, but Josh set him up with an App he used for the theory work which Brandon has hardly touched to date. So he will need to pull his thumb out and get that done as without a theory test pass we cannot even book his physical driving test. I wonder whether Brandon has also set up a little competition with his girlfriend Maia to see who passes first. She has a month or two head start on him as her 17th was in 2025.

Brandon suddenly has new found respect for the Clarkson, Hammond and May after realising driving is a lot harder than he thought.

He seems enthusiastic and keen to go out driving at any opportunity though.

He is learning in Tina's Ecosport. This was his first attempt at a reverse parking over at Robert Frew doctors carpark. Magnetic L plates back in play.

Pottery Paining

 Mid January Lisa had kindly booked a family day out doing some pottery painting. Unfortunately no Joshua and Tina as they were working on the Saturday and I initially declined thinking only Holly would be interested. As it turned out Brandon was also keen to go and took Maia with him as well. So thank you kindly to Lisa and David for taking Brandon, Maia and Holly out for the day. As you can see below they had a fab time doing the pottery painting and are looking forward to receiving their masterpieces back once they have been baked.

Brandon, Maia and Holly ready to start their pottery painting.

Maia painting teddy bears on her mug and Brandon doing a Sleep Token themed mug.

Thank you so much to Lisa and David for organising and taking the kids for the day.

Brandon even getting down in to the insides of his mug.

Holly choosing a cup rather than a mug and doing owls on hers. Nanny would be proud!

 

Really surprised Brandon wanted to do this, but he said he had a great time.

Maia and Holly's finished mugs ready for baking.

Brandon even did some lyrics or something on the back.

Holly's owls and the colours used are amazing. Very spring like.

And even the bottoms were painted to date the craftwork.

Xmas Leftovers & New Years 2026

As I said on Brandon's birthday post - really poor frequency of blog updates since Xmas 2025. Anyway here are a few leftovers that I forgot to post early Jan. Just a couple of pics showing my annual Jamie Oliver turkey and leak pie which always goes down a treat between Xmas and New Year - especially with the white gravy. Then there was my festive cheesecake which was equally delicious.

New Year was just the usual with all 5 of us at home enjoying some games, drinkies, snacks and then watching the London fireworks on the TV. Both Tina and Josh were working the next day so nobody stayed up mega late. As usual the final game of the night was the Game Of Life which has become a bit of a tradition for us on New Years Eve. Although over the years the debates during the game have got more interesting. This year for example it focused around how outdated the game was by only allowing you to have blue male characters and pink female characters in your cars. Nothing to cater for the other 37+ genders that you might want to chose for your in game kids!!!

2025 Jamie Oliver Turkey and Leak Pie.

Xmas cheesecake using some chocolate mint sticks as separator's.

Like usual New Year was spent as a 5 playing games with some snacks and drinks.