grandad kit

Thank you for reading my blog. If you have difficulty seeing your grandchildren, or have any views about my situation, I would welcome your messages by e-mail through this blog site. If you wish, just use a first name or a nickname and your identity will be protected, like mine – “Grandad Kit.”

Dear “Tom”

Deaf old lady

I am you other grandfather, the one you have never met. You are three years old, and although I have never met you, I love you dearly and always will. You are my flesh and blood, and always will be. We will meet one day, I am sure. I am writing this daily "blog" to you to make up for the fact that I can't speak to you right now. I hope that one day you will be able to read this.

This evening Nana Ann came up from London on the train and we went to see her nephew who is I suppose related to you in some way. Anyway, this young man is married and he has two children, one a boy who is two years old and one new baby girl who is just a few weeks old. Now when my young relativers get to two or three years old, I like to give them a special chair or a stool that's just the right size for them to use and no-one else.

When we got to the house, I didn't show the chair to your little cousin (the one two years old) but I secretly put it down in the corner of the room without him noticing. After a while he saw it and of course he went over to see what it was. Straight away, he found the secret box under the chair where he can keep his special toys and keep them away from his baby sister! Of course we told him "this chair is for you, and only you can sit on it," and he was very pleased.

The chair has a wooden back and two arms at the side. In fact, Nana Ann said it looked like a throne, the kind of special chair for kings and queens to sit on! So the lad's mummy straight away found him a crown which he put on his head and sat on the chair lust like a king on his throne!

If ever I get to see you before you get much older, you can be sure I will get you a special chair just for you to sit on.

Love from

Grandad Kit and Nana Ann

Thank you for reading my blog. If you have difficulty seeing your grandchildren, or have any views about my situation, I would welcome your messages by e-mail through this blog site. If you wish, just use a first name or a nickname and your identity will be protected, like mine – “Grandad Kit.”

Dear “Tom”

Thatched roofs

I am you other grandfather, the one you have never met. You are three years old, and although I have never met you, I love you dearly and always will. You are my flesh and blood, and always will be. We will meet one day, I am sure. I am writing this daily "blog" to you to make up for the fact that I can't speak to you right now. I hope that one day you will be able to read this.

We filmed some more people this morning, but this ws the last of this particular job and I don't know when we'll be fiming again. But you would have been interested in watching. Part of the making the film is to get people to walk past the camera. Then the cameraman says "it wasn't quite right, do it again." So the people had to go back and walk apst the camera again. Or a noisy lorry goes past or a plane flies overhead, and we because of the noise we have to do that part of the film again!

Then Grandad got ito his car to drive a long way down the A1 road, almost as far as London. Tomorrow I'm going to see a man who lives down near you. After getting to my hotel I had a spare hour or so and it was a lovelu evening, so I went for a walk into a little village. The houses in this village are very old, and some of them have thatched roofs - that is, instead of havign slates or tiles on the roof, they have thatch - which is made out of reeds. The thatch is very thick, it keeps out the rain and it makes the house warm. The people who put the thatch on the roofs, or mend them, are very clever. They're called "Thatchers" because they thatch roofs. That's where the name Thatcher comes. from. There would be a man called Jack who was a thatcher by trade, and so they would call him "Jack the Thatcher." After a while they would shorten it to "Jack Thatcher." And if he had a son William who was also a thatcher by trade - and it was very common in those days for a son to follow the same trade as his father and learn from him - they would call him William Thatcher and so on.

There was an old pub in the village so Grandad had a drink in the garden, listening to the birds singing and the wind blowing in the trees - very peaceful! There was a little play area there where you could have played while Grandad watched you and ejoyed his glass of wine.

Tomorrow Nana Ann is coming up and we're going to visit her nephew and his new baby, after we've both done our work of course.

Love from

Grandad Kit and Nana Ann

Thank you for reading my blog. If you have difficulty seeing your grandchildren, or have any views about my situation, I would welcome your messages by e-mail through this blog site. If you wish, just use a first name or a nickname and your identity will be protected, like mine – “Grandad Kit.”

Dear “Tom”

Deaf old lady

I am you other grandfather, the one you have never met. You are three years old, and although I have never met you, I love you dearly and always will. You are my flesh and blood, and always will be. We will meet one day, I am sure. I am writing this daily "blog" to you to make up for the fact that I can't speak to you right now. I hope that one day you will be able to read this.

Today Grandad went to interview an old lady for a tv film we are making. I had to ask her questions, and she was very, very deaf - so I really had to shout! I shouldn't complain too much, because I am a little deaf myself. This old lady - a very nice old lady - has a hearing aid, but when she put it on, it made a whistling noise, so she had to take it out again.

This evening I went on a run to the new bridge they are building across a small river near us. I've told you about it before, about how they build the bridge. Anyway, now they have built up the road on either side, so I was able to run across it for the very first time. I'll be one of the very first people to go across this new bridge, apart from the work people that is.

The road has been laid in layers of stone, which have been rolled with a very heavy roller so that the surface is flat and hard. Later on they'll put a layer of tarmac down, or perhaps two layers, with big stones in it. The, finally, they'll put the topping on, a thin layer of tarmac with small stones in it. That's called the wearing surface, because it has to take the pounding of all the cars and lorries that go along it. Gradually the wearing surface will waer away, and every so many years it'll have to be replaced. But the layers undernaeth should stay there for a hundred years or more.

On top of the bridge I saw the marks that the surveyors use to tell the men exactly how high each level of the stone and tarmac there should be. These marks have to be eaxct, otherwise there would be bumps on the road! Grandad used to be a surveyor on the roads and so I know what they have to do.

Nana Ann was a lot better yesterday. She's had an extra holiday today, for the Queen's birthday. All the people who work for the government, like Nana Ann, have an extra day's holiday for theQueen's birthday.

Actually, the Queen ahs two birthdays - her own natural birthday, like everybody else, and also another day which is her "official" birthday. Wht that should be, I have no idea. And the Queen doesn't need any extra birthday presents, she's a very rich woman - one of the richest in the country.

Grandad is off on his travels again tomorrow. I'll let you know where I am.

Love from

Grandad Kit and Nana Ann

Thank you for reading my blog. If you have difficulty seeing your grandchildren, or have any views about my situation, I would welcome your messages by e-mail through this blog site. If you wish, just use a first name or a nickname and your identity will be protected, like mine – “Grandad Kit.”

Dear “Tom”

Big explosion near your cousin's house

I am you other grandfather, the one you have never met. You are three years old, and although I have never met you, I love you dearly and always will. You are my flesh and blood, and always will be. We will meet one day, I am sure. I am writing this daily "blog" to you to make up for the fact that I can't speak to you right now. I hope that one day you will be able to read this.

A terrible thing happened on Saturday. A man was going to work in his van. He stopped to get a newspaper, and when he got back into his van and drove off, the van exploded. Unfortunately, the man was killed. But because it was very early on a Saturday morning, there was no-one else in the street, and no-one else got hurt - just the man who had been driving his van.

Nana Ann, who is still feeling poorly, rang up to see if everything was all right with your cousin Elaine and your Auntie Rosie who live nearby, but they were well away from where the explosion took place.

Later in the week I'll be going back down to London to do a job and also see Nana Ann. I hope she'll be better by then. If not, I'm going to make her go to the doctor's instead of just trying to get herself better.

Love from

Grandad Kit and Nana Ann

Thank you for reading my blog. If you have difficulty seeing your grandchildren, or have any views about my situation, I would welcome your messages by e-mail through this blog site. If you wish, just use a first name or a nickname and your identity will be protected, like mine – “Grandad Kit.”

Dear “Tom”

Rosebuds and a "cracket"

I am you other grandfather, the one you have never met. You are three years old, and although I have never met you, I love you dearly and always will. You are my flesh and blood, and always will be. We will meet one day, I am sure. I am writing this daily "blog" to you to make up for the fact that I can't speak to you right now. I hope that one day you will be able to read this.

You know I've had roses blooming almost all the year round? The buds that are coming through now seem to be a deep red, rather than the pink and white they usually show. How can this be? Or haven't I noticed it before?

Nana Ann hasn't been very well this weekend, so we missed our usual evening telephone call. There was a cold wind today when I went out for a run, but I didn't mind as it keeps me cool.

I've just had an email from a man who is interested in me writing a book, but he has to pay me enough money to make it worth while! If we agree on the money, writing this book will involve Grandad going all over the country (again!) and so I'll be even busier than ever. Better too much work to do than too little!

Did I tell you I have got a special chair for one of your cousins. He's only two years old, just about half your age. I like to get all my grand-nephews and grand-neices a specially-made, very small chair or stool that only they can sit on. These are made of wood and should last for ever. When they get too big to sit on them, I hope they'll pass them on to a younger brother or sister, or keep it for their own children.

I would just love to get you a special stool that only you can sit on. It's called a "cracket" with a round top and three legs, just like a little milking stool. In fact, it could be used for milking.

Love from

Grandad Kit and Nana Ann

Thank you for reading my blog. If you have difficulty seeing your grandchildren, or have any views about my situation, I would welcome your messages by e-mail through this blog site. If you wish, just use a first name or a nickname and your identity will be protected, like mine – “Grandad Kit.”

Dear “Tom”

Chelsea Flower Show, Wally Ball

I am you other grandfather, the one you have never met. You are three years old, and although I have never met you, I love you dearly and always will. You are my flesh and blood, and always will be. We will meet one day, I am sure. I am writing this daily "blog" to you to make up for the fact that I can't speak to you right now. I hope that one day you will be able to read this.

I know just where Nana Ann is today. She'll be spending all day at the Chelsea Flower Show. You're very lucky living in London, because there are so many things going on there all the time. But Grandad was born in the North of England and he likes living her. You were born in London, so naturally London will always be special to you.

The Chelsea Flower Show has been on all week, and Nana Ann has been there at least three days, but only for a short while after work. She likes going there on a saturday, because she can spend all day there. And Saturday is the day when they sell off all the flowers. You can be sure Nana Ann will buy some, even though her garden is quite small and she's already got lots and lots of flowers growing there.

I don't know what your garden is like, but I will take a guess that it's quite small too. If you have a big garden, you have to spend a lot of time looking after it. Soem people like doing that, but I don't and Nana Ann is too busy - so that's why our gardens are quite small. But I can tell you that the rose bush which kept on flowering all through the winter has started again with some beautiful buds that have just come through to open up into two lovely blooms - just today. So I've had roses growing almost ll the year!

I bet your Dad was watching the rugby sevens on the telly. Rugby sevens is the same as the usual game of rugby, but there are only seven players in each side instead of the usual fiftenn. That means there's a lot more space to run around and it's almost always very exciting to watch.

It won't be long before you'll be able to play rugby. I've seen plenty of young boys and girls not much older than you playing rugby. Instead of tackling, which can be dangerous, the boys and girls each have a tage or a ribbon on their belts. When the ribbon is pulled of by a player from the other side, they have to drop the ball. It's a good game and you run about a tremendous lot.

When your cousin Elaine was your age, I used to play a game of football with her called "wally ball." This is where you kick the ball against the wall and the other player has to kick it back. The first one to miss the wall loses a point. It sounds easy, but it's not. What you try and do is to kick the ball against the wall very hard, so your oponents can't get to it, or kick it at an angle so they have to run off to the side to try and get it back. It's great fun.

Love from

Grandad Kit and Nana Ann

Thank you for reading my blog. If you have difficulty seeing your grandchildren, or have any views about my situation, I would welcome your messages by e-mail through this blog site. If you wish, just use a first name or a nickname and your identity will be protected, like mine – “Grandad Kit.”

Dear “Tom”

Biggest cotton reel in the world

I am you other grandfather, the one you have never met. You are three years old, and although I have never met you, I love you dearly and always will. You are my flesh and blood, and always will be. We will meet one day, I am sure. I am writing this daily "blog" to you to make up for the fact that I can't speak to you right now. I hope that one day you will be able to read this.

Imagine the biggest building you've ever seen. Well, today I've been to the biggest factory I've ever seen. It's huge, really big. And inside they make all kinds of pipes and tubes - great big pipes and tubes that they use for moving gas and oil long distances under ground and under the sea. A lot of these pipes go to the oil rigs out to sea.

These pipes are flexible - that means bendy - and they are wrapped around huge wheels that look like giant cotton reels, the biggest cotton reels in the world. If you want to know what a cotton reel looks like, ask your Mam and get her to show you one in her work basket - I'm sure she's got one. The imagine this tiny little cotton reel, no more than two inches across, as tall as a house! And, instead of cotton wrapped round it, that is cotton which is a thin, thin thread, imagine a huge tube that's nearly as wide as you are.

When this great big reel is full with many many turns of the tubes wrapped round it, it is very, very heavy. Too heavy for any number of men to lift. It needs a giant crane to lift it, more than one in fact. First, there's a crane in the factory that lifts the spool (that's the thing like a giant cotton reel) on to a lorry, but again a lorry like nothing you have ever seen. This lorry is as big as a large house or a small block of flats. And it's square, not long like a lorry. And it ceratinly couldn't travel on the roads - it's far too wide. And this lorry has ten sets of wheels, each with four wheels on - that's forty wheels all together.

The driver doesn't sit in the lorry - he stands outside and operates the lorry with a remote control, just like you or your Dad might do with a toy car! Then the lorry is driven out of this huge factory and across the factory yard to a quay where a ship is waiting. Didn't I tell you this great big factory is down by the river? Anyway, it is, because the only way to mive these big reels is by sea. Then another giant crane takes the reel off the lorry and loads it into the ship. Then the ship sails away and takes its cargo of reels to the oil and gas rigs in the North Sea or to other countries where they are needed.

This is just one marvellous thing I could show you. Maybe I will, one day.

Love from

Grandad Kit and Nana Ann

Thank you for reading my blog. If you have difficulty seeing your grandchildren, or have any views about my situation, I would welcome your messages by e-mail through this blog site. If you wish, just use a first name or a nickname and your identity will be protected, like mine – “Grandad Kit.”

Dear “Tom”

Forgot the car keys, then forgot the car!

I am you other grandfather, the one you have never met. You are three years old, and although I have never met you, I love you dearly and always will. You are my flesh and blood, and always will be. We will meet one day, I am sure. I am writing this daily "blog" to you to make up for the fact that I can't speak to you right now. I hope that one day you will be able to read this.

Grandad did two silly things today. Well, one silly thing can be forgiven, but two silly things???? The first was, when I said goodbye to Nana Ann and left the house to go back to our home in the North, I forgot my keys, my car keys and my house keys. So when I go back, I wouldn't have been able to drive the car, and I wouldn't have been able to get into the house. Fortunately I remembered very quyickly, wnet back to Nana Ann's house, and there she was waiting with the keys in her hand!

The when I had finished seeing the people I had to interview (inlcuding that very important man I told you about) a man I had been working with said he would give me a lift home in his car - all 250 miles. So I said thank you very much, and he brought me home in quite good time. It was only after that that I realised that my car wasn't there - it was still at Darlington railway station in the car park there. So tomorrow Grandad will have to go to Darlington, just to collect my car. And there'll be an extra day's parking fee to pay as well. Worst of all, Grandad is going to have to tell Nana Ann he's done two silly things in one day (and not just one).

Love from

Grandad Kit and Nana Ann

Thank you for reading my blog. If you have difficulty seeing your grandchildren, or have any views about my situation, I would welcome your messages by e-mail through this blog site. If you wish, just use a first name or a nickname and your identity will be protected, like mine – “Grandad Kit.”

Dear “Tom”

Millions of books

I am you other grandfather, the one you have never met. You are three years old, and although I have never met you, I love you dearly and always will. You are my flesh and blood, and always will be. We will meet one day, I am sure. I am writing this daily "blog" to you to make up for the fact that I can't speak to you right now. I hope that one day you will be able to read this.

Guess where Grandad was today? He was in the big building near St Pancras sation that has millions and millions of books - the British Library. There was one particular book that Grandad wanted to see, and the only place where he could get a copy was in the British Library. So Grandad spent all day reading this book and making notes for a book I am writing. You have to read these rare and specila books in the British Library - they won't let you take them away in case you never bring them back and so no-one else will be able to look at them.

A great thing happened this morning. When we came out of the house, ther were the five baby geese and their Mummy and Daddy, feeding on the grass right in front of Nana Ann's house! We took photographs of them of course. It's as if the Mummy and Daddy geese wanted to say "thanks for thinking about us." Then Nana Ann gave them some bread, whcih they gobbled up, inlcuding the young ones. Usually in a brood of young birds, one or other is more dominant and one or other is weak and holds back - but with this lot, all five seem to be equally active and all five are exactly the same size. They are definitely big enough to stop the crows chasing them, and so they sould all grow up to be adult birds. And then we might se more than one goose nest on the island in the pond in years to come.

Love from

Grandad Kit and Nana Ann

Thank you for reading my blog. If you have difficulty seeing your grandchildren, or have any views about my situation, I would welcome your messages by e-mail through this blog site. If you wish, just use a first name or a nickname and your identity will be protected, like mine – “Grandad Kit.”

Dear “Tom”

Great news about the baby geese

I am you other grandfather, the one you have never met. You are three years old, and although I have never met you, I love you dearly and always will. You are my flesh and blood, and always will be. We will meet one day, I am sure. I am writing this daily "blog" to you to make up for the fact that I can't speak to you right now. I hope that one day you will be able to read this.

Today Grandad went to Darlington to catch the train for London. I leave my car in the station car park where it will be safe, although it costs quite a lot. Then I had a meeting in London, while Nana Ann went to the Chelsea Flower Show after she finished work. Then we met up to go for a meal and then home to Nana Ann's house. I showed Nana Ann a photograph of our front garden at our house in the North (the "jungle") and she was horrified! So when she comes up next month she's going to have to get someone to do all the work and put the garden to rights - because Grandad won't do it! (and even if Grandad did do it, he would do it all wrong!).

Nana Ann had some great news about the baby geese - there are now five new babay geese. If you remember what happened last year when two geese made a nest on the island on the pond just outside Nana Ann's house, they had five babies then but four of their babaies were killed and eaten by the crows. Well, the same pair of Mummy and Daddy geese have again made a next and again had five babies - but this time they've been very, very clever about it. I Never thought geese could be so clever.

For a start, they have had their brood of goslings (that's what baby geese are called) much later in the year. Last year it was very early when it was still quite cold and there wasn't a lot of food around for the birds. That was the time the crows were having their babies and that's why the crows chased and killed the tiny babay goslings, because they wanted to feed their own little babies in the crow's nest.

And anothetr thing - this time the Mummy and Daddy geese have made their next right in the middle of the islend, instead of at the edge, so it has been hidden in the long grass that grows on the island - so the crows didn't know it was there! Nana Ann didn't know it was there either. Best of all, the parent geese have kept their babies hidden in the long grass until the babies had grown up enough to be too big to ve caught and eaten by the crows.

Also, instead of taking their babies out on the pond to learn to swim stright away, as soon as they came out of their eggs, they waited until now. And even then they let their babies go on the water for only a few minutes, before taking them back onto the island. So there's every chance that all five babies will grow up, instead of only one as happened last year.

Love from

Grandad Kit and Nana Ann