Owen’s Extradural Empyemas

Posted on 23rd December 2023 by Lewis

Yesterday was a good day – Owen did not need to visit a hospital, for the first time in 63 days! The last few months have been pretty rough for all of us, especially Owen. He was in hospital for almost three weeks, then has been on “home leave” for 23 hours a day for the last six weeks, but needed to return to the hospital daily for intravenous antibiotics. He has not actually been discharged yet, but as he has been told he can stop the antibiotics, we are classing this as a win! This blog post may seem a bit disjointed, as it has been updated over the space of a few months, often at times when I was quite sleep-deprived. It was mainly written so I can look back on what happened, especially if Owen has questions in the future.

We think it all started at the end of September, Owen was falling over a lot – even more than usual. Enough that I was concerned enough to think I needed to call the doctor. However, Henry became ill, with whichever respiratory illness was going around school at the time, and we thought nothing more of it. Whilst Henry was off school, Owen had his flu vaccine and then became quite poorly. The boys were meant to spend the weekend with my parents, as Jen and I had a night out planned, to see Jo Whiley DJing in Coventry, so my mum came to stay and look after the boys on the Friday night, as Owen was too poorly to travel. His condition got worse over the weekend, he had a fever, was sick a few times and at points he was almost delirious. We still thought it was a bad cold or a reaction to the flu vaccine. By the Monday, he was feeling a bit better in himself but was complaining of sore hips. At this point, we visited the doctor, who suspected “Irritable Hip Syndrome”, but sent us to A&E to rule out anything more sinister. I dropped Jen and Owen off at the hospital and returned to collect Henry from school – then had to take him back to school for a meeting, which children were not really meant to attend. He was so good and sat quietly whilst the teachers explained to the reception parents that we needed to read lots with our children. By the time we got home from the meeting, Jen and Owen had finished at the hospital, so we collected them and all went to McDonald’s. The verdict from the hospital was that Owen had “Irritable Hip Syndrome” and a Urinary Tract Infection, for which he was prescribed antibiotics.

Owen’s health continued to improve, and he was back at school on Thursday, albeit with strict instructions to take things easy and to go to the office for his antibiotics at lunchtime. On Friday we had a nice evening watching Redbull Rampage and eating pizza with our friends Partho and Marilena, and their two sausage dogs. I had even managed to make a big batch of cookie dough for dessert. The rest of the weekend was quiet, we went for a walk in Millison’s Wood and I joined the Godiva Trail Riders for a ride around my usual loop. On Sunday Owen had the last of his antibiotics. By Monday he was back to normal, his hip was feeling better, so he rode his BMX to and from school. He even went swimming in the evening. Then, unbeknownst to me he woke up in the night feeling poorly. Jen was at the gym first thing in the morning and when he started playing up at breakfast, saying that he was too poorly to go to school I thought he was trying to get another day off. I told him that if was ill, he would have to go back to bed and stay there. Which he did, for the whole day, because he was actually quite ill. Wednesday was slightly better, he managed to make it down the stairs, to sleep on the sofa all day. By Thursday he still had headaches, although they were improving slightly. At this point, we called the doctor again and were directed straight to A&E.

Jen dropped Owen and I off at A&E and we were seen relatively quickly, although there was a bit of a wait to see the senior doctor. When we eventually saw her, Owen had decided that he did not have a headache anymore and that it only happened “at home, when my brother is annoying me” – I thought we were about to get sent home and had wasted a day, but thankfully, as it was Owen’s second visit in two weeks, she took it seriously and booked Owen in for a CT scan and some blood tests. By this time it was the evening, and Jen took over waiting with Owen. The CT scan showed something on Owen’s brain, which normally would not require further investigation, but given the headaches, an MRI scan was requested, and Owen was admitted to the hospital. Little did we know how long he would be staying in hospital!

The next day, Owen had the MRI and after it had been analysed, it was decided that Owen would be transferred to Birmingham Children’s Hospital for an operation the following day. There was some uncertainty if the infection/pus had spread from Owen’s sinuses into his skull, but either way, it was putting pressure on his brain and it needed to be cleaned out. Owen was also started on a course of intravenous antibiotics. Another CT scan was ordered, this time focussing on the sinuses. Henry and I were able to visit in the evening and deliver a McDonald’s before Owen had to stop eating in preparation for the operation. Owen and Jen got taken to Birmingham by ambulance – Owen’s first ride in an ambulance. However, it was not deemed to be a serious enough case for the lights and sirens to be needed. He was initially admitted to the “short-term surgery” ward, which sounded positive, but was then moved to the renal ward, as they had space, and there was no ENT ward. Whilst all of this was happening, Henry and I had a quiet morning at home, waiting for my mother-in-law to arrive to look after Henry and take him to a party, so that I could join Jen and Owen in Birmingham. Keeping things as normal as possible for Henry was going to be a big part of Owen being in the hospital.

By the time I got to Birmingham, Owen was ready to go into theatre for a FESS (Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery) procedure. He was able to walk himself to the operating theatre – bizarrely we had to go through an event, unveiling a new plaque, to get to the theatre, squeezing past photographers and dignitaries. This an article about who the plaque was commemorating. Jen and I were able to go with him to the anaesthetic room, which allowed me to meet the surgeons (Jen had already met them) and for us to be able to reassure Owen, who was getting quite nervous at this point. Owen went to sleep fairly quickly and Jen and I were left twiddling our thumbs, whilst the surgeons got to work. We went for a little walk around the block, but did not want to be too far from the ward in case Owen came back. In the end, the surgery was a bit longer than expected, as they fitted a neck line, to make administering the antibiotics easier. It was the evening by the time Owen came back from surgery – 24 hours since he had last eaten. And he was hangry! His nose also hurt, unsurprising as there had been a camera poked up it! As we were trying to sort him out with some food, the neurosurgeon came to visit us and gave us an update on Owen’s condition. I was impressed that he had gone into theatre for Owen’s procedure, even though it was being led by the ENT team, so that he could get a better handle on what the infection was. He also took the time to explain Owen’s condition – a bad sinus infection, which was putting pressure on his brain. Inside the skull, there is a membrane between the sinus cavities and the brain, but the surgeons were unable to tell from the scans if the infection had crossed this membrane yet. It seemed like we were lucky to have caught it early, as usually the first people know about it is when the patient collapses. In Owen’s case, they were able to treat it from the sinus side first, and monitor the brain side, rather than needing two separate operations. It also became clear that this would not be a quick road to recovery, with a long course of antibiotics required. The neurosurgeon said that he hoped to have Owen “home for Christmas” – bear in mind this was mid-October.

The neurosurgeon had also arranged for Owen to be moved to the neurosurgery ward so that they could keep a closer eye on him. On the ward, it became clear that Owen was one of the least poorly children there, which certainly put our situation into perspective. As difficult as it was being on the ward, the care he received was second to none. We quickly got into a routine on the ward, with Jen and I alternating staying with Owen and looking after Henry at home. We had to get into a routine because fourteen medical things had to happen each day, most of which the nurses left us to do:

4x sinus flushes – squirting a saline solution up his nose to rinse out anything, as he could not blow his nose for the first few weeks
3x thirty-minute intravenous antibiotic infusion
2x doses of anti-seizure medication
2x doses of nose drops
Another thirty-minute intravenous antibiotic infusion
A nose spray
A wash with some special antibacterial soap

In addition to all that the nurses had check Owen’s blood pressure, oxygen saturation, temperature and neurological responses every four hours. And of course, he needed to eat and drink – which all needed to be logged by the nurses, along with any trips to the toilet.

I was surprised to meet the physio team, but I think it must have been a standard procedure for patients on the neurosurgery ward. They were happy that Owen was fine walking and using stairs, so discharged him from their care straight away. I raised that Owen is usually pretty active and my biggest concern was that he could be bed-ridden for months and that lack of movement may lead to issues, so the physio told us about the play centre at the other end of the hospital, which really changed Owen’s stay for the better! We had to get a nurse to do some paperwork each day that we wanted visit but once that was done, Owen was free to leave the ward and visit the play centre, albeit only the indoor facilities, as his neck line precluded him from going outside. Being able to get off the ward was great, Owen could stretch his legs walking down the long corridors and the play centre was the sort of things little boys dream of – a big room full of toys, musical instruments, games, video games and staff there to make sure you are having a good time! On our first visit, after initially trying out the drum machine, Owen gravitated towards the Lego, building a Lego hospital, which endeared him to the staff straight away, and as they could see he loves Lego he was given a Lego Minecraft set, supplied by the Fairy Bricks charity. We finished up our visit with half an hour on the PS4. The only downside to the play centre was that we could only visit in the gaps between our various commitments on the ward. So usually we could only fit in a few short visits a day, but Owen made the most of these visits! There was also a smaller playroom on the ward, which Owen could use when we did not have enough time to walk across the hospital.

One project that I have thought might be worth doing with Owen “one day” was to make a stop-motion animation, and a long hospital stay seemed to be the ideal time for such a project! I installed the Stop Motion Studio app on Owen’s iPad and we started experimenting with Lego characters on the table at Owen’s bed, quickly learning the basics and that we ideally needed something to support the iPad. When Owen had built the Minecraft “Abandoned Village” Lego set from Fairy Bricks, we realised that it would be perfect for a stop motion animation, as there were multiple characters and buildings. We found a quiet corner in the ward playroom, built an iPad support out of Megablocks and put our new-found skills into practice. Owen was rightly proud of the end result, showing all his visitors and any doctor or nurse who came to his bedside. This is the film we made:

Whilst in the hospital Owen also got a lot of Minecraft practice, I had planned to set up a Minecraft server on AWS so that Owen could play with his friends, but I could not get into the AWS console on the hospital WiFi. I got as far as setting up an EC2 instance using CDK, via the hotspot from my phone, but realised that it would be easier to pay for Minecraft Realms and get Owen playing as soon as possible. The only issue with Minecraft Realms was that Owen could also not connect to it over the hospital WiFi, so he had to tether to my phone to connect to that too. We invited one of Owen’s friends to the realm, and when we next logged in, his friend had been busy – he had built Owen a house, and left him with lots of supplies and some nice messages on the wall. It was so sweet to see how they interacted through the game. Owen’s friend’s mum also got involved, building herself a nice house and garden. The only downside is that Owen can only have one world loaded at a time, so I think it will be worth carrying on my project to get a server set up.

When we were driving to the hospital in Birmingham every day I noticed a billboard on the side of the hospital, highlighting their campaign to fund an iMRI scanner for the neurosurgery team. This would allow the neurosurgeons to be able to perform MRI scans mid-operation and ensure that they have removed all of a tumour, for example. Whilst Owen did not need brain surgery, it was the neurosurgery team leading his care, so this appeal is close to our hearts. The Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity also do great work all over the hospital, including things like the play centre and running a Santa’s Grotto for patients.

After about a week on the neurosurgical ward, Owen was moved next door, to the gastrointestinal ward, as he was the least ill child on the neurosurgical ward and they had too many patients. Whilst it was good that he was considered the “least ill”, it was concerning that he was no longer on the neurosurgery ward. Other positives were that there was a bit more room around the beds, so it was easier day to day for us. And for Owen, the ward had a Nintendo Switch that he could borrow. Before Owen could be transferred back to the hospital in Coventry the last thing that needed to happen at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, was for Owen’s neck line to be replaced with a more durable “Hickman Line”, which goes into Owen’s heart, which is what you can see in the photo at the top of this post. This type of line means Owen can go outside and lasts for up to a year – although Owen should only need it for a few months at most! The downside is that it needs to be inserted and removed under general anaesthetic, meaning that Owen had to have a second, short operation, and still has another one to come in the new year to remove it.

Once Owen had recovered from his operation he could move back to Coventry, as a bed and transport became available. It was past Owen’s bedtime, on the day after his operation, by the time we were able to be transferred. As Owen was still awake we decided to get the taxi to Coventry, as it felt like a big step forward for Owen’s recovery and we did not want to risk waiting for more transport to be arranged the following day. When we arrived back at UHCW we were shown to our side room – after more than a week on wards it was nice to be in a quieter room with our own bathroom! It was also a nice touch that Owen had the same nurse looking after him who had looked after him before his transfer to Birmingham. And that she remembered him. We both had a good sleep in the room, but it was only in the morning that we learned Owen was in the side room to make sure he was not bringing any infections over from Birmingham. So the trade-off for our good sleep was that Owen was not allowed to leave the room. He did manage to borrow another Nintendo Switch from the ward play worker, so he did not get too bored between the various medicines and nose flushes. Being nearer to home also meant more visitors, so even though Owen was confined to the room, he as kept occupied.

Jen and I had a trip to Rome planned around this time, which we had to cancel. Fortunately, Henry was keen to stick to his part of the original plan – a four-night sleepover at my mum and dad’s house. After two weeks of alternating looking after each of the boys, it was nice to be able to have some solo time at home, to get jobs done and in my case get back out on my bike – it definitely felt like hard work after a few weeks off the bike, especially with much muddier trails.

On one of my bike rides I had a message from Jen, that as Owen was no longer in isolation in his side room, he could leave the ward and come home between his doses of antibiotics! I raced home, but Jen and Owen beat me, it was nice to get back to a full house though, even if Henry was not there. We had a quiet few hours at home, before I returned to the hospital with Owen for another round of medicines etc. The next morning we were able to come home again, and word had got out, so a few of Owen’s schoolmates called round to see him. Seeing his friends really cheered Owen up, as did his favourite dinner – Jen makes a great toad in the hole, but it must have tasted even better for Owen after a few weeks of hospital food! We also managed to squeeze in a quick Lego build, and a photo (the one at the top of this post) for the Lego #BuildToGive campaign – where Lego donate a set for the Fairy Bricks charity to distribute to poorly children in hospitals each time anyone shares a picture of a Lego heart on social media. Henry also got involved from Grandma’s house.

Jen took Owen back to the hospital – with an MRI planned first thing the next morning, the results of which would decide if the three times a day antibiotic could be stopped. Unfortunately, as is the way with these things, we were unable to get an answer from the doctors in time for Owen to come home, but the headline was that the size of the abscess had reduced. We were also told that we could stop the nose flushes. I took over from Jen, and the disappointment for Owen of having to stay in hospital one more night was somewhat reduced by him beating me at UNO. After he had fallen asleep the nurse gave me the good news that he was only due one more dose of the three-times-a-day antibiotic, which meant we could go home the following morning. Although, we would still need to come back each day for the daily antibiotic. Naturally, it still took some time for us to get all the paperwork completed for Owen to come home, so Jen came to join us after she had dropped Henry off at school. Eventually, at lunchtime, we were told that we could go home, and collect the paperwork when we came back in for the evening for his daily antibiotics. It was nice to be able to potter around together and to do a bit of Lego at home with Owen. And Henry’s face was a picture when he saw the three of us picking him up from school – he had really missed Owen. Henry had even promised that he was “not going to fight with Owen ever again”. However, that soon got downgraded to “I am not going to fight with Owen whilst he has his line in”.

On Owen’s first night at home, we had a bit of a scare, as he woke up screaming with stomach pains. Even though he was an inpatient, the ward told us to take him to A&E, Jen took him over, and it sounded like chaos, the ward where Owen had been was full, which meant A&E had nowhere to send patients, so they were also full. In the end Owen said he was feeling better, so Jen brought him back home, and we had a doctor check him over the next evening – and they said that they could not find anything wrong. He had a couple more episodes of this, but without the trips to A&E.

Although Owen still needed to go to the hospital for his daily antibiotics, having him at home, sleeping in his own bed (and us sleeping in our own bed!) and going to school was a big step forward. It did not take long for Owen to get back to his usual self, it was funny hearing one of his school friends saying it was good to have loud Owen back again. Even though things were getting back to normal, we still had to visit the hospital every evening for Owen’s antibiotics. It did not seem that the ward was set up to deal with longer-term patients on home leave, it was just a case of turning up every evening and seeing what happened, usually, we were put in a small side room, and sometimes Owen would be hooked up to the pump for his antibiotics straight away, other times we would have to wait for an hour or two, depending on how busy the ward was. Eventually, Owen was able to get booked into the day unit on the ward, four days a week, where things tended to run a bit smoother, Owen was usually their last patient of the day, so they were waiting for him. One thing that particularly annoyed us during this period was that we were paying at least £5 per day to park at the hospital, we applied to get a free parking pass, but the requirements were that you had to have at least three appointments a month, for three months. Daily appointments for two months did not cut it. It is madness that someone having nine appointments over three months gets free parking, but someone having sixty appointments over two months does not qualify!

In addition to the daily trips to Coventry hospital, there were also regular trips to Birmingham Children’s Hospital, for MRI scans, reviews with the consultants (both neurosurgery and ENT) and eventually an ultrasound scan to look for gallstones – a side effect of the antibiotics that Owen was on. Nobody had mentioned this at all, even when Owen was being checked out for the stomach pains he had been experiencing. It was only because a doctor mentioned it in passing. The scan showed that there were not any gallstones, but it did highlight the missing link in communication between the hospitals. Another example of this was when we were told that Owen would be stopping his antibiotics mid-November, which had been a date we were all focussing on, only then to be told that there were at least another four weeks to go, but as usual we just adapted to the new routine and carried on with it. It all seemed to be getting to Owen, as he had a few issues at school, he needed first aid at school most days, and it almost got to the point where he was going to be kept inside at break times, we are yet to get to the bottom of why, but anxiety about his line probably played a part of it.

Owen has not yet been officially discharged, from hospital, but after a review of his most recent MRI the neurosurgeons were sufficiently pleased with his progress that they said the antibiotics could be stopped, and that they would start the process to get his Hickman Line removed, which should be a day procedure. Until that happens, the dressing for the line still needs to be changed weekly, at Coventry hospital, but hopefully, that will be a quick job.

After seeing the neurosurgery team in Birmingham, we dropped OWen back at school, relieved that we would have a few days away from hospitals. Then we got a phone call from school… This time it was about Henry – “You need to take him to A&E?” He had bumped his face on a bench and split his nostril, so nothing major, but after thinking we would be avoiding the hospital for a few days, it was not ideal. Fortunately, it was a quiet day at A&E and Henry was seen quickly. He seemed fine in himself and was very well behaved waiting, he could probably sense how unimpressed I was to be back at the hospital. He mentioned to the nurse that he had bumped his head “but it is OK now”, so the nurse had to check him for signs of concussion. She also needed to get second, third and fourth opinions on Henry’s nose, so we were in there for a few hours. Eventually, they settled on a steri-strip to hold his nose together and a follow-up appointment with the ENT team when the swelling has subsided – another hospital trip. When Henry and I got back, we all went to KFC for a “traditional Japanese Christmas dinner” to celebrate. The next day, yesterday, we successfully managed to avoid hospitals!

This post ended up being longer than I planned, I guess that’s what happens when you have too much time on your hands your hands in hospital. The TLDR is that Owen had headaches for a few weeks, we took him to A&E, and they found an abscess in his skull, he was admitted to hospital in Coventry, and transferred to Birmingham Children’s Hospital for an operation to clear out his sinuses, then had a few months worth of intravenous antibiotics. He is making a good recovery and is now back home. Fairy Bricks gave him some Lego – donate to them! And the Neurosurgical team at Birmingham Children’s Hospital looked after Owen really well – donate to their iMRI appeal too!

My Fortieth Birthday

Posted on 4th December 2023 by Lewis

I only usually do birthday posts for the boys, but it was a big one for me today! The last few months have been pretty stressful, for various reasons, and plans for the day got changed, not to mention a birthday weekend away being cancelled. But in the end, it was just nice to have a day off work and spend time with family and friends.

After presents and cards with Jen and the boys, we got soaked walking to school. And then got home to a broken washing machine – it had sounded poorly for a while, so at least we already have a new one on order to be delivered later in the week! With the bad luck out of the way, the fun stuff could start – we took the MR2 to meet Partho for breakfast at The Barn At Berryfields. Given the poor weather, I had not been expecting to drive the MR2, but I figured that all of the rain overnight would have washed the salt off the road. It was good to get out with Jen in the MR2, even if it was just a short trip, with the roof up. Breakfast was tasty (as always at Berryfields) and not too big. It was great to catch up with Partho – he had made a card for me with photos spanning our 25 years of friendship, which was a really nice touch.

After breakfast, I packed the van and went to Leamington Spa to ride the new mountain bike trails on Newbold Comyn. It was cold and rainy, and my kit was still wet from yesterday’s even wetter ride, but I was not going to miss out on one of the few things that was able to go to plan. Even if my shopping trip to Leamington was scuppered by a too-good-to-miss Cyber Monday deal last week, and my Clockwork Evo, which I had hoped to ride, still being in bits in the garage. Jen had also hoped to do some shopping in Leamington, but her trip was replaced with a trip to her parent’s house to sort out the half-washed load of washing. I had a short but fun ride on the excellent trails – which were holding up surprisingly well given the recent weather. I can confirm that being forty is no barrier to jumping your bike and having fun in the mud!

By the time I got home and cleaned up, it was time to pick up the boys from school and meet my parents at Hickory’s restaurant for some BBQ food with my mum and dad. Dad convinced me to share the BBQ platter with him (I did not take much convincing) – it has been quite a few years since I last had the platter, so it was good to try the latest version, as it has all of the main things from the menu, which has been subtly updated in the years we have been going there. I will certainly be ordering some of the newer dishes on future visits. We came back home – to our newly refurbished living room(!) for birthday cake. Jen had asked me what I wanted, and I said “Devil’s Food Cake”, but it turned out that my mum has a unique take on Devil’s Food Cake, so Jen asked her to make it instead. It was a lovely cake, Henry also seemed to enjoy it, asking for a second helping. I am very lucky that both my wife and my mum make great cakes!

With the boys in bed, I ended the day with a wee dram of single malt, building the Lego Porsche that Jen bought me and thinking that as birthdays go, this has been a pretty good one!

Henry’s First Day at School

Posted on 7th September 2023 by Lewis

Henry, who still feels like the baby of the family, is starting school today! It is not as big a change as it was for Owen starting in reception, as Henry went to the preschool at school last year and went to holiday club in the classroom he will be in this year. It was nice walking to school and seeing all of Henry’s classmates from nursery, most of whom he had not seen all summer, it was also reassuring that he would have some familiar faces in his class. Henry only went to school for a few hours this afternoon, and I was surprised that parents were bringing the children into the classroom and getting them settled – Owen’s first day was in 2020, during Covid, so we just left him at the door. Having us there seemed to make it worse for Henry, but he soon settled down and was telling the teacher about our recent bike ride at Sherwood Pines, despite us not having ridden at Sherwood Pines for months. Hopefully, this was nerves, rather than mistrust of the teacher! I was quite proud that before we left him, he had already written his name in the writing area.

As with Owen, in addition to the mandatory photo by the front door, I asked Henry some questions, to record how he has changed over the years:

Height: 107cm
Shoe size: 11K
Bike: Frog 48
Favourite colour: Blue
Favourite food: Spaghetti bolognese
Favourite book: The Adventures of Paddington: Hide-and-Seek
Favourite thing to watch on TV: Alice’s Wonderland Bakery (an Alice in Wonderland spin-off on Disney+)
Best thing we did over the summer holiday: Going to Saltburn-by-the-Sea
What do you want to be when you grow up? He does not want a job, he wants to be a princess.

Owen’s First Day of Year Three

Posted on 6th September 2023 by Lewis

This year Owen and Henry are starting school on different days, so I am doing separate back-to-school posts. Stay tuned for Henry’s tomorrow – in the meantime, Jen and I are taking Henry for a special day out in Birmingham, before he starts school tomorrow.

Once again, the school holidays have flown by and Owen has gone back to school, starting in year three. Of course, after six weeks of waking up early, he decided to have a lie in this morning. I am sure that moving up to the “Junior” part of the school will be exciting for Owen, as they start to learn more exciting things, such as computer programming, there are also more options for extra curricular activities. I am sure that Owen will also be excited to see his friends again, he did see some at holiday club towards the start of the break but has not seen anyone for a couple of weeks whilst we were on our summer road trip. Towards the end of last term, there was a lot of karate talk between Owen and his friends, so we have started taking Owen to karate lessons. He has only been to a few so far, but seems to be enjoying it.

As usual, in addition to the mandatory photo by the front door, I asked Owen some questions, to record how he has changed over the years:

Height: 128cm
Shoe size: 13.5K
Bike: Orbea MX20 with a Haro Frontside 16 BMX for riding to school and a Vitus Nucleus 24 that he needs to grow a tiny bit more before he can ride it.
Favourite colour: Red
Favourite food: Pepperoni pizza with olives and pepper
Favourite book: The Beano Annual 2023
Favourite thing to watch on TV: Ninjago
Best thing we did over the summer holiday: Bike ride at Sherwood Pines, completing the red-graded “Outlaw” trail
When I grow up I want to be a: Coder

2023 Goals Update

Posted on 1st September 2023 by Lewis

I usually like to check in on my goals for the year at the end of June, but due to the issues with my blog server, I have reviewed them two-thirds through the year, rather than halfway through. You would have thought that would have given me more chance to check off goals, but we will see…

Pass the AWS Certified Developer Associate exam

Done! I cannot be too smug though, as it was a carryover goal from last year. Given how much time this took in the spring, I am not sure why I have committed to doing another certification, AWS Certified Security – Specialty in the Autumn.

Rebuild my Orange Four

Also done! Again, a recycled 2023 goal, but it has been great being back on the Four, especially at the Golfie earlier this week. I have been riding it so much that it needs a service now. The Clockwork Evo is also due a big rebuild – it was a good job I got the Four finished when I did. Fortunately, I now have Maurice, my new-to-me urban bike, for running errands around town, as the Four is too valuable to leave locked up outside shops. Currently, I have a commuter bike in the work stand for Jen, it was a freebie from a friend, but is taking a bit of time to rebuild, as I am not used to a lot of the road bike/SRAM components and everything needs a thorough clean.

Refresh my photography portfolio website

Not yet, but this is a good project for when the weather is rubbish.

Photograph more bike races

Another goal that I have achieved – I photographed the Cannock Chase Winter Classic cross country race in February, which I did not get around to blogging about, and the Racer’s Guild Downhill at Stile Cop in May. I hope to shoot a couple more races in the autumn too. Henry has joined the local cycle speedway club, so I expect that I will also shoot some cycle speedway races.

Take a wildlife photo I am happy with

I am not sure that this photo of a bee on a sunflower in our garden really counts… I have got better at spotting wildlife, both small ones in the garden, like the bee, or bigger ones when out and about, including a couple of herons and a buzzard.

Complete at least three 50km bike rides

This one is going to be a big fail – I have not even done one, nor am I sure when I will do one. I feel like I have been riding more often though, fitting shorter rides into my week. My longest ride of the year so far did not even reach 30km and that was on the 8th January. The Clockwork Evo is a better bet for long rides than the Four, so really should get that back on the trails again and see what I can do before the trails get too muddy again.

Ride 20km with Owen

Another fail, we have done a couple of 17km rides, at Llandegla and Sherwood Pines, but the full 20km has eluded us. It is getting increasingly difficult to get Owen out on the bike, although he enjoys it when we do get out. I am sure that he could do a 20km ride if he wanted to though.

Ride at Bike Park Wales with Owen

The plan was to go to Bike Park Wales in the summer holidays, but by the time I should have booked it, Owen had only done 2 MTB rides and I was not sure that he would have been able to safely ride downhill trails, so I had to give up on that idea. He has asked to go to 417 Bike Park though, which we may do between Christmas and the new year, as he will have a new bike to try out.

Ride at Bwlch Nant yr Arian

Not yet, but still on my radar. Partho and I had a trip planned earlier this month, but the planned full day trip turned into a brief trip to Cannock Chase, then we cancelled as the weather was rubbish

Ride some more of the “10 of the best XC trails in the UK” with Partho

At the start of the year Partho we doing well at getting out for monthly rides together, but life has started to get in the way. The closest I can claim to riding any of the “10 best XC trails in the UK” are riding some of the Glentress Blue trail earlier this week, and a few rides at Cannock Chase, including a full lap myself, and most of a full lap with Partho.

Tidy my office

Well it must have been tidy at some point, as I treated myself to a new keyboard and desk mat. It has got messy again though.

Tidy my garage

With all the ongoing projects this has not happened, nor have the 3 extra bikes to squeeze in to the garage. Although a tidy garage may help with the projects, so I should probably crack on with this…

MR2 jobs

The poor MR2 has been a bit neglected this year, at the bear minimum it needs a good wash.

Van upgrades

The van interior was insulated and carpeted earlier in the year. I also fitted a Loaded Bikes rail with fork mounts in the back, which makes transporting bikes easier. I also bought an awning. We have had some good roat trips, but other than testing the awning with the boys at Mallory Park, we have not had any day trips to set up the van and have a barbeque or picnic.

Monthly blog posts

Given that my blog was officle of the best part of two months, this is obviously a big fail!

Flagged emails

I had been making good progress on getting through my flagged emails, but currently I am on 595 (up from 536 at the start of the year), but my excuse for that is that I am on holiday from work and have recently been flagging a lot of emails to deal with on my return to work.

Get my weight down to 85kg

I think this is going to be a tough ask, I think I will be happy to get under 90kg by the end of the year! The trend of the year is downwards, but my last weigh in was before setting off on holiday and eating out a lot…

Life just generally seems to be busier this year, especially as the boys are getting more into their own things. Later bed times for the boys, and often having to work/study in the evenings after collecting the boys from school are reducing available free time, so next year I may need to slim down my goals accordingly.

AWS Certified Developer – Associate

Posted on 14th June 2023 by Lewis

One of my goals for 2023, and in fact 2022, was to pass the AWS Certified Developer – Associate exam. I am pleased to say that, after a lot of studying, I have achieved that!

For those that do not know, AWS is Amazon Web Services – Amazon’s cloud computing platform, which essentially makes all of the tools that Amazon have developed to run their online store available to other organisations from Apple down to individual developers/bloggers, like me. I have been using AWS to run this blog, and a few of my other sites for a few years. I have also been using it a lot at work, as we are an AWS Partner. The AWS Certified Developer – Associate certification is the next level up from the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner qualification I achieved in 2020.

After a few goes at studying for the exam around work, and some disappointing results in mock exams, I joined an AWS instructor led accelerator program -an intensive five week course covering the content and exam strategy. I ended up taking a bit more than the five weeks to cover the content, but felt that it really helped. Unlike last time, where I took the exam remotely at home, I went in to the local test centre in Coventry, which was a lot less stressful than than taking the exam at home. It was also an excuse to get out on the bike, and treat myself to a celebratory ice cream afterwards!

Henry’s Easter Holiday 2023

Posted on 29th April 2023 by Lewis

After each of Henry’s school holidays, his nursery asks us to send in some photos of what he has been up to over the holidays. As I have already collated the photos, I like to also share them on my blog – this time Henry helped to choose them!

On Easter morning, the boys hunted for eggs in the garden – Henry particularly liked this photo.

Later in the day we went for a big family lunch at Jen’s parents, Henry was very excited to push his baby cousin along when we went for a post lunch stroll.

It would not be one of these posts without a photo from the woods at the top of our road – we go there a lot. On this particular walk, Henry an I saw a buzzard!

Bonus baby photo

In addition to the holiday photos, this time we were also asked to send in a baby photo – Henry chose this one from when he was only a few days old. It looks to me like he is plotting something…

Henry’s February Half-Term Holiday 2023

Posted on 19th March 2023 by Lewis

At the end each term, Henry’s nursery set him (us) homework, to share a few photographs of what he has been up to over the holiday. Owen also had this homework when he was at nursery, but I did not think to share the photos on my blog. As it is a nice recap, I have decided to share them.

This picture is from our family ride at Hicks Lodge – Henry did so well riding the blue trail.

The boys stayed with my mum and dad in the Cotswolds, and took a trip to Cogges historic farm.

On the way back (sort of!) from collecting the boys from my parents house we called in at 417 Bike Park for Henry’s first visit to “the barn of dreams”.

Whilst I was photographing the Cannock Chase Winter Classic mountain bike race, Jen and the boys rode their bikes up to the playground at the local park.

Llandegla with Owen

Posted on 23rd February 2023 by Lewis

Owen and I were meant to go for a long ride at Sherwood Pines today, as Owen’s goal for 2023 was to better his previous longest ride (16km). We had decided that Sherwood Pines would be the sweet spot of fun, but without too many hills. However, plans changed, and I needed to collect a Facebook Marketplace purchase from near Stafford, which is in the opposite direction for us, we could have gone to Cannock Chase, but fancied somewhere new for Owen, so we decided to continue northwest to Llandegla. After a long drive we arrived at Llandegla around lunch time, so had a quick ride around the skills area, green trail and pump track before getting lunch at their excellent cafe – bacon sandwich for Owen and a burger for me.

The real fun started after lunch – we headed back up the climb past the skills area, and where we had turned off for the green trail. As Llandegla starts with a long climb, we took it easy with plenty of stops, to admire the view and take photos, such as the one above that Owen took on my iPhone. A highlight was when we were able to watch a forester machine chopping down trees and cutting the logs to size – the impressiveness of the machine was only surpassed by the obvious skill of the operator, stacking the logs by size as they went. Each giant tree took no more than a couple of minutes to cut, process and stack. What really struck me on the climb was how different everything looked from my last visit in 2019, it is a working forest, so some areas of trees had been felled, and in others, the trees had grown loads, it gave the ride a completely different feel.

At the top of the climb (519 metres above sea level, having started at around 350 metres above sea level) we treated ourselves to Creme Eggs – we had earned them! However they were quite hard to eat, as although it was sunny, it was a cold day and they had gone hard in my bag. Then we dropped in to the “Rollercoaster” traverse, which is shared with the main red-graded trail, before turning off down “True Blue”, what was already one of my favourite bits of trail anywhere was further improved by being lined with “Christmas trees”, Owen said it felt like we were in a video! It is safe to say that he also enjoyed this section of trail!

I felt a bit guilty after the next few sections of trail, as I had forgotten that there were more climbs, after the long initial climb – I always get caught out by this when visiting Llandegla, but Owen coped really well. As we made our way back to the van it felt like we were climbing more than descending, but as we were drinking our hot chocolates at the cafe after our ride, Owen told me that it was one of his favourite days on the bike ever! I was so proud of how he had ridden, not only on the climbs, but also on the fairly rocky downhill sections, which could not have been east on 20” wheels. As a bonus, it was also his first 18km ride, even though we had not set out for him to do his longest ride, and despite the climbing, he smashed his 2023 cycling goal!

2023

Posted on 2nd January 2023 by Lewis

Happy New Year!

2023 did not get off to a good start for me – being woken up by Henry before 8:00, then getting punched in the eye for not being his favourite parent – it was Jen’s turn to have a lie-in, which Henry did not appreciate. After that Hen went back to bed in a sulk to wait for Jen to get up.

Once again, Jen and I saw it the new year at home, but this year Owen managed to stay up for midnight with us! Owen and I have been working our way through the Star Wars movies, so watched Return of the Jedi – I was impressed at how he was able to stay awake and pay attention to such a long film. The film got us most of the way to midnight, and although Owen wanted to go to bed just before the clock struck twelve, we managed to keep him up to see in the new year and watch the fireworks on TV.

After the initial commotion, we had a quiet morning at home, even managing to get a few jobs done around the house and garden. After lunch we drove to Leamington Spa, to meet my parents. We parked at Newbold Comyn, and walked into town, via Jephson Gardens. Then my dad treated us to ice creams. After walking back to Newbold Comyn, the boys had a roll around the skatepark. Owen said that he had had a “lovely walk and a lovely ice cream”, which pretty much summed up our afternoon. We also had a quick peek at the new mountain bike trails under construction. The trails looked good and are one of the things I am most excited about this year – great trails within a thirty minute drive means that Owen and I will have a new regular riding spot.

We have not got much planned for the year – we had been thinking about a road trip to France, but with the new Entry/Exit System for the EU looking like it will cause chaos at the channel crossing, so we will wait and see how that pans out. We have got a few shorter trips pencilled in – Lego Land, a VW Show in Weston-super-Mare and hopefully a visit to my brother’s house in Kent. But before all that, we have a new sofa arriving next week! Something that I am not looking forward to quite so much is turning 40 in December!

As in previous years, I have set myself some goals for the year ahead:

Pass the AWS Certified Developer Associate exam

A recycled goal from 2022 – as although I did a lot of studying I did not take the exam. I need to pass the exam in the next few months, as my AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner certification from 2020 will lapse. And I promised myself a Fuji X100V when I passed – I have already bought it…

Rebuild my Orange Four

Another recycled goal from 2022, although I do not know if it is still a rebuild, given that the frame was replaced under warranty, so I am technically building up a new bike. Fortunately, I am most of the way there! I am waiting for my Four to be built up to ride the new red-graded trail at the Forest of Dean.

Once the Four is back on the trails, the Clockwork Evo is probably due a thorough service, after hard year in 2022.

Refresh my photography portfolio website

I have been using a Bootswatch theme on my homepage, which still needs a backend refresh, and I would like to carry that theme over to my photography portfolio website, which is hosted on Adobe Portfolio to tie them together. I could also do with updating the images, to include some more recent ones.

Photograph more bike races

Photographing the British Downhill Series mountain bike race was one of my highlights of 2022, and I would like to do some more this year.

Take a wildlife photo I am happy with

This was a failed goal in 2021, and one that has been in the back of mind since. My plan is to borrow a long lens from Fuji and spend the day at a nature reserve.

Complete at least three 50km bike rides

Rather than setting myself a year long cycling goal, I have decided to switch things up and target some longer rides. My longest ride to date is 48km, so 50km is achievable, but multiple rides should make it more of a challenge. I have got a few ideas for routes and hopefully my friend Partho will accompany me for some of the rides.

Ride 20km with Owen

This is more Owen’s goal, as he wants to beat his longest ride to date, which stands at 16km. I have no doubt that Owen will be able to beat this – I just need to find the right route. He rode 15km, on some of the toughest trails he has ever ridden at Coed y Brenin last year, but I do not want to make it too hard (hilly) or boring (riding along a straight/flat disused railway) for him. So I am thinking a return visit to Sherwood Pines may be in order – Owen has ridden the 14km blue-graded “Adventure Trail” there, so I am sure we could add in some loops of their red-graded trail to bring it up to 20km easily.

Ride at Bike Park Wales with Owen

Bike Park Wales is the biggest bike park in the UK, but well set up for kids. Owen and I have watched a few videos from there, and the trails look fun. Annoyingly we have missed the last few Little Rippers MTB group rides there. After our North Wales trip last year, I thought that a South Wales trip, with a possibly making a weekend of it with a return visit to Dare Valley Country Park to ride the main trails, as it looked like a good set up when we called in on the way to Bluestone in 2021.

Ride at Bwlch Nant yr Arian

Bwlch Nant yr Arian in Mid Wales has some great looking trails, and is also known for their daily Red Kite feeding – which is enough of an excuse for me to go for a ride. And may help with my wildlife photography goal. It also seems like somewhere that might be worth visiting with Jen and the boys as part of a Mid Wales trip.

Ride some more of the “10 of the best XC trails in the UK” with Partho

My best friend Partho shared an article with me called “10 of the best XC trails in the UK“. I have ridden a couple of the trails, and parts of a few more, but we have decided to try to ride a few more together.

Tidy my office

I spend most days working in my office, and other than what can be seen by my webcam, it is a complete tip. I still have my old iMac set up on my desk – it did not even get switched on last year, so I need to clear it down and get rid of it. I also need to move the artwork I hung on the dining room wall when I had my desk there a few years ago. As an incentive, I am going to treat myself to a mechanical keyboard when it is done, as I have been using the same keyboard at home since 2008.

Tidy my garage

As above, my garage is also a bit of a mess, with bike parts all over the place and not enough room to work on my MR2 Roadster.

MR2 jobs

This year marks ten years since I bought my MR2 Roadster, for the most part it has been cheap motoring, and very reliable, but I have neglected those little jobs that will prolong it’s life, things like cleaning the drain holes. The wheels could also do with a thorough clean and a good coat of wax. However, I’ll need to get the garage tidied first… There are also a few blemishes on the paintwork that I would like to get addressed.

Van upgrades

It is hard to believe that I bought my van three years ago – my plan had been to run it for a year to see how I got on with it, then make the interior a bit nicer, with carpet and insulation etc. The van has proved itself, and fits into our family life perfectly, so the interior upgrades are well overdue. It could also do with new tyres, possibly on bigger wheels, and I would also like to fit an awning rail to the side, so we can have some shelter when we park up. Family days out in the van are something that we want to do more of as a family.

Monthly blog posts

I feel like I have not been blogging as much as I would like the last few years, so in 2023 I plan to post at least once a month. Even if they end up being shorter posts, just sharing a photo and a few words.

Flagged emails

I currently have 536 flagged emails in my inbox, spanning the last ten years. At somepoint I have thought that there is something I need to do as a result of these emails, but either have not done, or at least have not subsequently unflagged the email. I am going to try to get this down to a list of tasks I genuinely need to do. I will attack it from both the top of the list, and the ten year old tasks at the bottom of the list, which I hope were not too urgent…

Get my weight down to 85kg

I have had this as a goal for many years, but never seem to make much progress on it, despite feeling like I am making more sensible choices when it comes to food. I am going to try to get a decent midweek bike ride in every week this year – working from home gives me the flexibility to take a long lunchbreak, so I am going to try to use that for bike rides, to hopefully help towards this goal.

Based on all these goals, it looks like 2023 is going to be a busy year for me, which should hopefully give me plenty to post about on here! Given my poor success rate last year, I have set up a document to keep track of them.