We've all done it...

Come on now everyone's got a story about putting their heads somewhere they shouldn't have. Naomi got her head stuck in some railings and I think I got my head stuck in a child's toilet seat! Eron decided that this bucket full of sand was just the thing to wear as a space helmet!

Bucket or no, Eron is incredibly feisty at the moment, the 'terrible twos' (even though he's just three) I guess although part of me thinks it's not so 'terrible'. Yes it's a pain when everything he is asked to do is is greeted with a tantrum and the word 'no' is just not allowed. I do wonder though, it this just a phase or is this a part of his character that if steered in the right direction, rather than simply squashed, could be a positive thing. I bet the likes of Ellen MacArthur and Bob Geldof were pretty feisty two years olds.

Camping it up

It wasn't my much-planned and anticipated weekend in the New Forest on my bike but it was camping and it did involve my Bike.

Sussex Clubs for Young People organise a camp at Lodge Hill every year. The programme is run by SCYP staff and Lodge Hill instructors so all I had to do was get a group to the centre and look after them while they were there, right? Wrong! My group were 6 girls between 12 and 16 years old who seemed to have watched far too many soaps and enjoyed replicating similar melodrama at every available opportunity.

Despite the fall-outs and arguments there were highlights both for the group and for me. For me it was a great opportunity to see if I could get everything for a weekends camping onto my bike with out either looking ridiculous or crashing! It was also great to be in a tent again after missing our on a family holiday last year. Making a filter coffee at 6am in a small cold tent is surprisingly enjoyable when it's quite and you're catching a rare moment of peace.

I left the group with another youth worker on Sunday morning and headed off to Dalesdown where the church were having our annual Church day away. I arrived shattered and unshaven but having had one of my more interesting weekends.

'Parents needed'

'Fire lighting - parents needed' is what the Beavers programme said and the little boy in me couldn't resist. Obviously the adult man in me had to attend as well as I had a small group of some other peoples children but even so it was great fun. Eloise's dad showed the group some fire lighting technique's with some equipment to be used when matches aren't available. Ironically most of us have amble access to matches but we don't posses a flint steel or bow drill. Any way it was interesting.

The best bit of course was the chance to spend time with Cadan on his 'turf'. Beavers seems to be so good for him. I think its the mixture of structure and discipline mixed with independence and adventure - just what he needs and responds to.

We've come into some cache

So it's a treasure hunt, but global, with GPS... or not and you don't take the treasure but you can add to it... and it's a 'cache' not treasure!

Confused? Well here goes. All over this fair land of ours, and indeed the world, are hidden little boxes or cache's containing a log book and a few trinkets. The idea is that you log on to geocaching.com and find cache hidden near you or near where you're going for a day out maybe. These cache's have been hidden by other outdoorsy types who have also left instruction, GPS coordinates and maybe even some clues on the website.

Always on the lookout for free, all-age fun I decided to give this a go. So armed with a google map print out, some refreshments and three of my sons we headed out into the unknown. It was great fun and the boys were really excited (if a little confused). We failed to find our first cache but the second, later that day, we did. With the boys looking for 'muggles' I joined many others over the last few years and signed the log book. We also took a red nose and a wrist strap thingy but left a marble and plastic shark. fair swap I think.

Much more than just a walk. Great fun!

I Shouldn't have done it!

When there's no way that you can get what you really want it's easy to put it out of your mind but when it is dangled tantalisingly close, you can't stop thinking about it.

I'll elaborate... Now that I've passed my motorbike test I am allowed to ride a bigger bike up to 33bhp (if you interested!). I've been thinking that buying a bigger bike on our current budget was well and truly out of reach. Until, that is, a chance conversation with my brother led me to wonder just what I could get for my current little Honda and how much more I could would need.

So I mooched down to P&P in Chichester where the owner was surprised to see my little bike which is apparently quite rare and to him worth around £500! This plus the paltry sum I have saved is not enough to buy the Suzuki Freewind (an appropriate name reader who know me may comment) that I found hiding at the back of the shop (I'm sure it was winking at me!).

So I need about £800 which is alot of money but it's not thousands. I'm not keen on borrowing but waiting is going to be painful and there's always something more important. My big-boys' toy is close but not close enough :-( Now I'm thinking that maybe I shouldn't have looked in the first place. Hmmm