#FF @percythepigeon – Matty Boy and the secret pigeon racket

I met Anita Hunt back in March and one of the conversations we had was about the book she was writing. When the booked was launched, I bought a copy to read and to read to the girls.

When it arrived, I realised swiftly that the girls were too young at 3 and 4 to enjoy and understand the book (Ah-Hem Anita, a school age book with pics – pretty please urgently required in Essex).

Ever wished you could be a rock star?
Ever day dreamed about your team winning the cup or the league?
Ever wished that something magical would happen to you?
Matt is a lonely young boy, who uses his imagination to cope with the challenges in his life on a daily – if not hourly – basis.
Matt has been fostered into an eccentric new family the Joys, and has to change his home, school and friends once again. At the Joy’s he discovers and befriends Percy a scruffy, injured talking pigeon who has run away from his own family – the pigeon mafia – also known as the Secret Pigeon Racket.
Together they deal with issues of friendship, bullying, family and loss – and solve a royal kidnapping plot too!
Have you ever noticed a pigeon spying on you? No? Well take a closer look, you may be surprised!’

You can buy a copy of Matty Boy and Percy’s adventure here

Anita writes with depth, each detail makes Matty and Percy seem real. The opening chapters focus on Matty’s first day at a new school and the fact that he had experienced the new school experience several times before. I was interested  in this as by the time I was 13 I had been to 7 different schools.

The new kid feeling isn’t pleasant. Unlike Matty I didn’t have the benefit of a care worker or the Joys, I had parents that were indifferent to the impact that moving schools frequently has. I wasn’t expecting that to come from reading the book!

I so intensely dislike the new kid at school scenario that my eldest daughter who should have been moved out of a bad school was kept in one because I did not want to put her through the changing schools ordeal until she went to High School. I have since passed Matty boy over to her to read as I felt she may just understand how lucky she is in her circumstances and what led me to make the decisions that I did.

Matty’s journey is an interesting one and he manages to build a friendship with a pigeon and experience the ’something magical’ that many of us long for in childhood.

Matty Boy and the secret pigeon racket is aimed at 8-12 year olds, and is a good, long read.

Even if your child isn’t being bullied it’s interesting to get their views on the bullying behaviour – it may stop and make them think the next time a new kid joins their school.

I recommend you have a look at the website Anita has set up, see the book makes a donation to support the work of Bullying UK, the charity and see what you can do to help make bullying a thing of the past.

So this weeks Follow Friday in a blog, is follow @percythepigeon and show your support. Remember Bullies grow up, become parents themselves and may continue the bullying pattern of behaviour. That those that are bullied can become bullies themselves – emulating the behaviour that works, and bullies in the workplace and online can stem from being bullied at school.

Parents who tackle the bullies at school can find themselves arrested, banned from the school and that doesn’t help the bullied child. Bullying UK do tremendous work and need the help that people like Anita give them. So if books are not your thing, make a donation anyway – it makes a big difference.

Percy cannot do it all by himself, he needs our help too.

Sarah

Related articles

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• Bully Stories and Fairness
• New Research: Bullies face significant lifetime risks; bullying can be prevented
• Eight steps for overcoming a bully: A guide for parents

Alabama aint so sweet any more #walmart #nosamsclub #nativeamerican #p2

Never having been to Alabama, despite having step family that live there it’s a place that I used to visualise easily, it was on my places to visit list. Songs and films made it familiar to me, and now its even more familiar thanks to Facebook, twitter and other social media.

On twitter they are wearing badges asking people to boycott Sam’s Club and I asked Chris Milton what it was about and this is what he replied, via email

Sam’s Club is a brand name of WalMart. They’re basically electrics/electronics stores. Naturally, the line between WalMart’s behaviour and that of Asda is easily drawn (& I’m told WalMart also own Woolworths in Aussie).

The issue is that in Oxford, Alabama, construction of a Sam’s Club store continues to bulldoze earth from a native American burial mound (what we’d call a tumulus in the UK) and used it as fill dirt in the store’s construction. The mayor of Oxford has given his blessing to this.

Please just think about that for one sec. We are, quite literally, talking about the callous use of a sacred gravesite in order to build an adjoining store. It’s not even as though the store is being built ON the gravesite is: it’s not, they’re simply send bulldozers over to the gravesite to get earth for use in the store’s foundations.

Obviously we cannot boycott Sam’s Club. We can however encourage others to do so, and encourage others to boycott other Walmart brands such as Asda.

Thank you for asking, apologies for the rant. I honestly cannot believe this is happening. The main URL is http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=118679542703 Please try and use as many of #walmart #nosamsclub #nativeamerican #p2 in any tweet/FB messages you may send out on this subject.

Reproduced with permission via @BriteSprite

Tampering with a native American burial ground sounds like something right off of Stephen Kings typewriter! It doesn’t sound natural, it doesn’t sound right.

What is interesting is there are ‘x-ray’ style machines that could tell people whether the mound contains human remains, why hasn’t this been used to set peoples minds at rest? Even if it had no remains I wouldn’t condone building on sacred places. It’s plain not responsible so I hope Walmart have amended their CSR policy to include trampling over other peoples religions and destroying areas of natural beauty.

If I lived Oxford Alabama, I would buy all my gadgets from the internet rather than use Sam’s club, I’d let my neighbours do it to. In fact if I had the geek know how, I would set up my own online gadget shop that would put Sam’s club out of business and call it ‘Divine Retribution’, well maybe ‘Responsible Trading’ is a better name!

We need to educate Wal Mart about it’s Social Responsibility – it does not include doing things like Sam’s Club in Alabama. We need to tell them loud and clear we don’t like it and we shall boycott no matter what their prices are, or where in the world they are.

If not, we may be giving ‘em the green card to build a giant Asda on Stonehenge

Sarah

PS Help spread the word, please Stumble/Twitter/ socially bookmark and share this page, thank you.

Gary – Your Fired!

Sometimes Kev diverts the work phone to the house line, and sometimes it just doesn’t get mentioned to me as he has left and gone to a customers before I am out of bed in the morning. I don’t know the phone is diverted until it rings, usually when I have my hands full…

This means on rare occasions, you may get to talk to Jasmine on the phone. You may ring up and my three year old daughter will happily chat to you for ages, and then if you are lucky (and I am lucky too) she will hand me the phone. She can be rather demanding too and before you know it she will have persuaded you to part with crisps… or Pepsi Max and it’s always your last can

Her favourite caller is Gary, one of our customers and she will tell him all about Peppas Babies (the black and white kittens) and the rabbits they have caught. Gary has good fun winding Kev up telling him that Jasmine has lowered the rates, has sent in another van and all sorts of thing, and you know what – Kev falls for it every single time!

So Kev decided he was going to train Jasmine to tell Gary he was fired. It would be Alan Sugar style of course and he spent 72 hours training our three year old to say “your fired Gary”… Blokes, don’t you prefer it when they are playing with their Sat Navs!

Jasmine didn’t catch Gary for three weeks on the phone, and I thought that she had forgot all about him, Peppas Babies had gone to new homes, what would she have to tell him? Kev answered the phone last week, and it was Gary. Jasmine heard this and demanded to speak to him.

Very sweetly Jasmine told Gary he was fired. She then went on to tell him about Peppas babies for the 400th time!

Gary took it all in good humor. Now we just need to train Gary to tell the difference between Jasmine and Jessica and all will be all perfect

This truly is a family business and they start young these days!

Sarah

PS Gary, this is what that blogging thing I was telling you about, is about!

Basil-Wood and other tales of Basildon woe

Since I first moved to Essex nearly 10 years ago, Basildon has grown on me. At first I couldn’t stand it, but as I have mellowed even the chavvy things warm the cockles of my heart.

Today I have been reading the local newspaper and I got upset that Basildon council is planning on spending 400k on road signage on the A127…

BASILDON could become “Basil-wood” as part of a £400,000 makeover of A127 road signs.

The glitzy sign, modelled on the famous Hollywood sign, is part of a package of measures to signpost the district better and make it easier for visitors to find their way.

Source: Evening Echo

What a complete and utter waste of money! Facilities for schools would be nice, Basildon has a high number of kids by the age of 10 who don’t know their times tables. £400k is an awful lot of private tuition to see that kids in the future can add up. Maths tuition is diabolical in Basildon and Wickford,400k will see our future councillors will actually care about what our money is spent on.

What about the shabby tower blocks overlooking Basildon town centre? 400k is a tidy lick of paint and some good planting to make it look welcoming.

Drove around the Burnt Mills industrial estate lately? 400k fills a lot of the holes in the road, a Basil Wood sign just is frippery compared to what really needs doing and won’t actually do anything for the town I am sad to say.

The other article I read was quite sad, Basildon tops the list of reposessions in East Anglia. Not surprising considering Visteon went tits up earlier this year. What is surprising is the people thinking short term about the recession – it’s going to take some time to get out of this mess and our childrens children will be paying for the recovery.

You cannot rely on the Government to sort the mess, they were the last people to know about the recession and then promptly blamed the media. People have to act local, support local and do things local to keep the money flowing locally.

More jobs will come, Basildon is a good transport hub into Anglia and London but first we need to help it get back on its feet after the Visteon collapse. Wasting 400k on signage when its better spent on local regeneration, bah… I am not even going to say it. Ok I will, it’s lunacy. Tackle the unemployment, slow the reposessions and keep the money local.

Here endeth my Basildon rant.

Sarah

#FollowFriday from Essex – are you on my list?

This follow Friday blog is dedicated to all things Essex although some Kent and Suffolk may slip in – it can’t be helped!

@ataccounting ok, so he’s West Essex and Herts but we can forgive him that surely? A friendly tweet here and there, and he knows the answers to lots of things including how to eat things…

@changetrack and @KCBusinessSols a shout out to the Colchester crew new to twitter and just getting the hang of things, both lovely blokes in the real world

@Bizvits A marketing goddess with a down to earth touch, organising a tweetup in Norwich or is it Norfolk… OK, I know it’s not Essex!

@DarrenPorter Southend, France and Brick Lane – the man is well travelled and knows how to fix Tweedeck, you will enjoy his tweets

@johnkatcrittall For all things fun and geeky, John is quick witted and thoughtful

@PennyEssex well what can I say, when we are not plotting about one thing, we are plotting about another

@betteractnow She knows stuff, in particular about Act! Charming and Witty – yes I have met her too (Just wondering if I get out too much!)

@SallyOrmond and @AlexParr a great support when you are organising a networking event out of your normal territory, and what Sally doesn’t know about copywriting can be wrote on the back of a stamp!

There are others that deserve a mention, so I shall try and make another list this afternoon.

Sarah

#PepsiMaxWatch Essex….

Just got 12 cans for £2.39 in Farm Foods in Pitsea. They also do good value cake mixes if you have kids who want to make cakes and you dont want all the mess that goes with it

I have yet to win a Nokia 5800 I saved up 70 cans from last week and persuaded the Wag to enter them into the prize draw, not a sniff of a prize although the Wag did tell me gleefully that someone in Gravesend had won one…

Lets hope I have better luck with my current 24 tins

Sarah

What to do in Essex in the School Holidays

I think  I had better post some suggestions for what to have a look at and go and see in the school holidays in Essex, or this blog is in danger of becoming my personal ranting space… (that and the fact the MPs have now gone on 82 days holiday but I digress).

Wat Tyler park (Pitsea) is always a good choice in the holidays, in fact all year round. The new cafe complex has opened, the RSPB do activities there and there is also Go Bonkers doing the inflatables for approx £6 per child. Take a picnic and have that in one of the parks quiet spots, visit the motor boat museum and then let the kids tire themselves out in the playgrounds and on the inflatables. The parking is good.

Pets Corner in Harlow (CM20 2DH) is worth a drive. It’s free entry and has farm animals including an Essex pig, which is a rare breed, Llamas and reindeer. It’s open from 11 till 4.45 7 days a week.

Fingerprinting? Playing with handcuffs? then the Police Museum may be your idea of fun! Open times are a bit erratic but this may make a worthwhile wet Wednesday outing. Wednesday afternoon opening hours from 1pm until 1.40pm, open on some Saturday’s and the school holidays for special events and exhibitions. Check the website for events and current timings www.essex.police.uk/museum.

Rainham Marshes Teddy Bears Picnic is always a favourite with the kids.
A special day for the under 6’s. Bring your teddy, an adult and a picnic for a wondrous woodland adventure. Booking Essential. WEX members: £3.50, child non members: £5, adult members: £1, adult non members: £3.50 Wed 29th July 09 – 11am-1pm Rainham Marshes Nature Reserve Tel: 01708 899840 to book.

Oakleigh Fairs are returning to Hainault Country Park  for the seventeenth year running. Good level well-drained ground with plenty of parking (Council charged parking).
Entertainments to  include the Suffolk Punch horses, medieval re-enactments such as knights, line dancing, sheep sheering, working dogs as well as rural demonstrations. Arts, craft and gift marquees as well as lifestyle and food hall stands. Children’s entertainer, bouncy castles and fairground. (additional costs apply) Also at this event is the Companion Dog Show.
Admission: £5, concessions £4.

Grays beach. To me this is a giant paddling pool filled with sand and climbing frames and guess what, the kids love it. Parking can be a bit fraught at times and there are ‘wet’ activities as well. Ice Creams, sand and water -  a perfect day out for kids of all ages. Take lots of suncream and sunhats, there isn’t a lot of shade.

If the kids want a real beach, then Canvey beach is a good choice. Plenty of parking and made made pools so that when the tide goes out, the kids can still paddle. Dogs are allowed too, but keep an eye on them as the sea wall is very popular with dog walkers.

Not forgetting the family fun day in Wickford on the 29th of July, Wickford Memorial park.

Have fun…

Sarah

The Essex girls guide to camping, the final part

Parts one and two of what seems like a never ending story, that was actually only one night….

Having still to face a night in the tent after failing to pack food and plates, we now set about camping life.

I took Hanna Montana Ready Beds for the girls and they loved them. They are easy to inflate and deflate and fold up into a purple bag

Jas and her ready bed

The blue pump in the pic kept them amused for nearly twenty minutes and then Kev inflated them with his fast inflating gadget. He inflated our bed and put all the beds in their rooms, it was starting to look home, well almost.

Another camper came over to admire the tent. He was from Southend and his friend had got a tent like ours the weekend before and he wanted to see it up properly as it was sloping in the shop. Kev quickly established they had bought their tents in the same shop and on the same day, what a coincidence!

The chaps wife hated camping but it got the kids away from the TV and into the fresh air, so they did it every weekend in the spring and summer. The wife had turned her tent into an uber tent of somekind, it had every possible camping gadget. Something for me to aspire to the men commented sagely. I muttered something about important things to do and broke open a Pineapple Bacardi Breezer and left them chatting. It seems campers are a friendly bunch.

The kids went to explore the toilets and the shower block and I followed soon after to clean up any destruction from them.

Soon it was time to go in. It was the point of no return. No going home now. It seemed that no one but me understood the concept mosquito nets and when we went inside the tent ceiling was alive with bugs. Kev and the kids didn’t seem bothered but I made a big thing of spraying everyone with insect repellent as I had packed enough of that to sink a battleship

The kids went to bed and then it was just me, Kev and Spartacus, in the tent with nothing to watch. I had bought a science and tech magazine to read and Kev was annoyed that I hadn’t bought him anything to read, so we just sat and chatted as it got darker and darker.

After a few Bacardi Breezers we decided to go to bed, we muzzled the dog so he would sleep and we went to our room. OMG, it was so cold! How the Eskimo/Inuit race hasn’t died out – I have no idea. I have since been informed that layers are whats needed, and not just a quilt.

The last time I was that cold I was fishing in a storm off of a pier in Kent, it took me a week to warm up! I was warm when I got home, which indicates it was not as cold as fishing in a storm – that took a week to warm up and I have a very vivid memory of it 25 years later.

The girls got a little scared so they dragged their ready beds in to our room and we all slept huddled up together, they were having an adventure whilst I was fearing losing my toes to frostbite.

We got up early, and I was shattered. It was not a good nights sleep. Kev cooked breakfast and then we packed up and drove home to get some much needed rest.

That was our dry run, we have a 2 night trip in August. I need to start buying more layers in preparation for it. This weekend he is talking about taking me to Kent for a practice run with plates… if it’s cold again, it will be my dead body he is taking out of the tent the next morning! I did say camping would be the death of me.

Sarah

Ice Age 3: Loving Scrat

The Wag decided to take her sisters to the cinema again today, they were having another sister day.

This time they went to see Ice Age 3, which I understand is good for the under 8’s and not so great when you are 13 going on 30.

The younger girls really enjoyed it and have spoke non stop about Sid and the baby dinosaurs for the last hour – always a good sign :-The girls saw the 2d version as I felt they were not quite old enough for 3D and that the youngest one (age 3) would probably eat the 3D glasses….

On the way home the debate was whether Scrat was a squirrel or a mouse. I know it’s a squirrel but the mouse won as Jas could scream the loudest.

Tonight we are going to see Harry Potter, which I have been informed by the Wag is deadly dull… well, I need a few hours more kip after camping.

Sarah

Related articles

• Movie Magic (Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs) Part 2
• Ice Age 3 Clip: Sid Becomes A Mother

The Essex Girls Guide to camping part two

Following on from yesterdays post, here is part two.

For those that didn’t know, camping isn’t what you do when you are sick of your mates -  it isn’t going to clubs and getting as drunk as a skunk with your closest 5 gay friends.

It’s something that no self respecting Essex girl should do – It’s sleeping outside with only nylon protecting your from the elements. No, the nylon that I refer to isn’t your matching underwear – it’s far more sinister – it’s a tent!

We arrived all in one piece. The plus side to having a hubby that also delivers stuff is he knew how to load the car so we got there in one piece.

The campsite was in the middle of nowhere, which turns out to be something campsites all have in common. The site had 4 stars which went some way in preventing the forthcoming  nervous breakdown. The bloke said to park anywhere so we went and found a pitch and then let the dog to stretch his legs. Kev tied him to a post and then went about getting the tent up.

Spartacus

My husband is very practical and I hoped secretly that the tent would defeat him and that we could give up camping staycations before they even started. The bloke in the camping shop said the tent would take him (very experienced) just 45 mins to put up and it could take us up to two hours.

I had forget how practical my husband was, the tent took shape pretty swiftly.

Within what seemed like no time at all, he had the tent up, the posts in place and was doing something with glow in the dark ropes (which are a heaven sent thing when staggering around in the dark with a few Bacardi Breezers in you).

It took him 50 minutes and that included adding the interior rooms. So much for that deterring him then. I didn’t have a plan ‘B’ I was stuck camping for the evening.

Kev was demanding to be fed at this point and it was then he found out that I really had only packed a tin of pineapple. So he sent me to the local shop to buy some food whilst muttering sadly about wives neglecting their husbands. Saying I didn’t expect to get this far didn’t seem like an adequate defense so I jumped into the car and went shopping.

After driving around Bramblesham and admiring the fields and the sky, I decided I wasn’t actually any closer to the shop, so I would go to ‘civilisation’ and get some food. I found a Sainsburys in Warrens Heath

I found the ambient rice, some prawns, sweet and sour sauce, peppers, onions and decided that a wok would actually make this a not too bad adventure. I also got a chocolate torte and cream for dessert. At least we could eat civilised

I also bought a shocking pink trug to carry the plates to the wash up point back at the camp site.

Back at the camp, I proudly showed Kev what I had got and how civilised we were going to be, no beans from a tin can for us! ha, I could make this a brilliant trip, with a decent meal and I could manage one night without twitter and the like… Kev mentions something about plates. I say where are they, and he replied “where did you put them when you packed them?”

Pack them? oh dear. I wasn’t expecting to have to eat here, let along cook! “helllllloooooo, I told you I only packed pineapple, I wasn’t joking you know” the look I got said I had better cook dinner, so I cooked it all up in the frying pan, hoping all four of us could manage  to eat it with just two knives and a spoon.

The only one who had a plate was Spartacus… and Kev commandeered it before Spartacus could get his nose in it.

Poor bloke, marries an East London Girl, makes her live in Essex, forces her camping and cannot understand why she doesn’t enjoy it….

To be continued…

Sarah