Harlequins Vs Saracens Guard of Honour

Yesterday Joshua had an amazing day out at Tottenham to watch his first ever pro rugby game with the Billericay Bee's rugby club and his cousin Amy to keep him company. The game was the big showdown between the Harlequins and Saracens which ended up with a Saracens win 36-24. To add to the experience the Bee's were the Guard of Honour for the day and got to carry out the giant t-shirt banner on to the field before kick-off. It sounds like everyone had a really good day and it was a great team experience for the Bee's to bond together off the training field.

Joshua's first visit to Tottenham stadium.

Joshua with some of his Under 15's team mates.

Can you spot Joshua and Amy in their seats?

The boys all getting their instructions and having a practice with the giant t-shirt banner.

All lined up and ready to get out on the pitch.

Lined up in the tunnel with the players.

Joshua with some of his team mates.

Out on the pitch in front of a full stadium.

The experience of a lifetime carry out the t-shirt banner at a Saracen's Vs Harlequins game. Awesome.

Holly in the School News Again

Another good week for Holly at school getting her picture in the news letter for her recent 2 gymnastics that she earned and for her efforts in the cross country finals.

Uncle Michaels' 45th Birthday @ Grumpy's Diner

Friday night we had a lovely evening out with some of the family to celebrate Michael's 45th Birthday. The Venue was Grumpy's Diner in Southend which was a new restaurant that we had not been to before. The restaurant is American Diner themed with lots of memorabilia from the US along with lots of artifacts and pictures linked to Elvis. 

Holly enjoyed dressing up for the evening and wearing the same outfit as Tina. Not sure I was happy to see her in my bedroom slapping on make-up before going out!!!! Anyway it was a lovely evening out catching up with some family and some very tasty burger and hot dogs to go with it.

Holly getting all dolled up ready to go out and celebrate her Uncle Michael's 45th Birthday.

The American Diner themed Grumpy's Diner.

Holly wanted pictures taken with all the memorabilia in the diner.

Including the little spaceman.

Holly, the birthday boy, Elvis and an old Cadillac.

Holly with the Statue of Liberty.

Looks like Holly is being serenaded by Elvis!

Joshua's Rugby League Update

As if we hadn't spoilt Tina enough on Mothers Day with a trip to Brands Hatch - she also had to ensure watching Joshua play rugby which she absolutely hates as she thinks it is too rough and violent. Today was a big game for the Billericay Bees as a win would have secured them a very respectable 3rd place in the league. They had a great game which was very, very tight and ended up with a 15-15 draw. So not sure what this does to their final position, maybe joint 3rd or 4th I guess. It's nice to see him enjoying his rugby and the team photographer got some great pictures of him from todays game.

Brandon's Young Driver Experience @ Brands Hatch

Not a ideal way for Tina to spend her Mothers Day but today was finally the day that Brandon had his Brands Hatch Young Driver Experience which we promised for his birthday. So this was is first ever experience of driving a manual transmission car and he got to do it on Brands Hatch race track.

The car Brandon got to drive was a Mini, the same as Joshua a few years back. He got to perform various maneuvers including in and out of cones, stop starting, 3 point turns etc. He actually did really well and didn't stall the car once, and despite all of the karting he has done, Brandon managed to switch to right foot braking just fine (karting tends to be left foot braking).

Anyway a few really good poctures from his driving experience today.

 

First Night Fishing of 2023 for Joshua - 17lb Carp

No sooner is the frost and snow cleared and the temperatures in to double figures and Joshua is asking if he can do an all nighter out fishing. So Saturday he went fishing all day over Gloucester park with his mate Tom, then about 6pm he calls me to pick him up and drop them off over Wick Park for an all nighter. I think he is bloody mad as the nights still get cold plus it was wet last night as well. 

I think Joshua was just desperate to get out fishing as he had so much new fishing gear for his birthday and Xmas and has hardly been able to use any of it over winter. Anyway the boy did good over the Wick catching a pretty decent sized 17lb carp at about 10pm.

First night fishing of 2023 and Joshua catching this bog old 17lb carp.

Cup Final Here We Come

Big day for Brandon's football team today as they were playing Hawkwell United in the Cup Semi-final. The first half the boys played outstanding and were by far the dominant team. But the ref seemed more aligned to the opposition and made some very dubious decisions including disallowing a goal from a free kick and not given a penalty to Academy for a clear hand ball in the box.

The boys kept their composure though and finally got their first goal towards the end of the first half. The second half was much closer as Hawkwell really started to go for the equalizer and increased the tempo of the game as the clock ran down. The ref was getting worse and worse which resulted in a few of the Academy boys making comments (justified in my opinion) resulting in a red card and a sending off. So with them having the ref in their pocket and Academy down to 10 lads, it was suddenly a 12 Vs 10 game and late in the second half Hawkwell scored taking the tie to penalties.

The penalty shoot out was quality with some great strikes of the ball. But Miles managed to save their 5th and Digger put his one away taking Academy through to the Cup Final on May 14th with a 5-4 win on pens. Justice was served as Academy were y far the better team and more deserved of making the final.

What was great to see was how much it meant to the lads and the emotion that came flooding out when that 5th and final penalty went in. Brandon being one of the first to lead the charge over to Digger to have a team hug. Amazing.

And to top that Academy are still sitting nicely at the top of the league. Could they dream of doing the double? The Cup Final and the League on one season!!!

The moment the 5th penalty goes in and the team charge out to Digger for a team hug.

Getting tight at the top now with Rayleigh Boys breathing down Academy's neck with 1 game in hand.

Brandon is Now Vacinated

As with Joshua last year the school as Brandon is now in Year 10 it was time for his vaccinations for Diphtheria, Tetanus, Polio and Meningitis ACWY.  Luckily no ill side effects for Brandon and despite having one in each arm, he seemed to suffer no arm pain either (unlike the Covid jabs). So that's 2 out of the 3 kids now vaccinated.

Brandon's First Date Night - Creed III

 

Brandon has been going out with his girlfriend Teegan for nearly two months now. She has come over to our house a couple of times and stayed for dinner so that we get to know her a bit. But I have been nagging Brandon to actually take he out somewhere rather than sit indoors watching Lucifer with her!!!

So I was really pleased to get a message from him whilst I was at work on Friday asking of he could go to the cinema Friday night. So at 14 this was really his first proper date night out with a girl to watch a movie and then have some food at McDonalds. Respect to Brandon as most dudes would probably pick a gender neutral type of film or even a chick flick for their first date night, not Brandon!! He chose Creed III, hahahaha.

Holly's Wickford Cross Country Achievement

Super pleased with Holly in the recent school cross country races. She raced in the first round at Wickford School last Thursday and placed a very respectable 6th place. This was good enough to qualify her for the CC final's this Thursday which were held over in South Woodham Ferrers.

The finals were a much tougher race and I support out of 50 or 60 kids, Holly must have came in about middle of the pack. She was a bit down on herself and expected more but we assured her she had done amazing to get as far as she had. She was the ONLY girl from Abacus Year 4 that actually qualified for the finals, so she was representing the school on her own (albeit a couple of girls from her football team from other schools were also racing).

Nice text message to receive to say Holly qualified for the CC finals.

Very well deserved certificate of achievement for being the only girl in Year 4 representing Abacus in the finals.

Brandon's Year 10 Options

Doesn't seem that long ago we were doing the Year 10 options for Joshua and suddenly Brandon's is now upon us. I attended the Options evening with him last week but to be honest he pretty much knew exactly what subjects he wanted before evening going. So the parents evening was really just to reaffirm his assumptions and make sure he had back-ups that he would be happy with.

His first option was to chose between Geography or History and this was an absolute no brainer for Brandon as he is a genius at Geography.

Then he had a whole host of subjects which he had to pick two for his first choice and then two back up subjects in case he couldn't get them.

So his two main choices were Statistics (which he has already obtained a certificate in) and ICT (which Joshua chose last year as well).

Then for his back up subjects he chose Triple Science (this would give him 3 GSCE's instead of the 2 GSCE's in the standard science subjects that they have to take) and Sports Studies (again another one Joshua chose last year).

Overall I think he has chosen well, playing to his strengths and giving plenty of options for different career paths.