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”

Alladin's Cave

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 the story of Alladin and the Forty Thieves? Or was it Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves? You might even seen it as a pantomime at the theatre. Never mind. The story is, Alladin (or was it Ali Baba?) followed the thieves to their secret store where they kept all the things they had stolen, which wa in a hidden cave. The cave had no locks on it, no bolts, no bars - it didn't even have a door. What happened was, when they got to the cave with the things they had stolen, the leader of the gang of thieves said the magic words and the rock face opened up to reveal the entrance to the cave. And when they'd put the stuff inside, the leader said more magic words and the cave closed up again so that no-one could see where it was - it was just bare rock.

So Ali Baba (I think that's the guy) saw this from a place where he was hiding. When the thieves had gone away, he went up to where the cave was and said the magic words "Open Sesame!" and the cave opened. Inside were lots of gold and jewels and precious things that the thieves had stolen. I forget the est of the story - I suppose Ali Baba brought all the things back to the people thye'd been stole from, he married the princess and lived happily ever after, becoming a wise leader of his people. Now I KNOW it musr be a fairy tale, because things like that just don't happen in real life.

Anyway, the whole point and reason I'm telling you this is that today I was in a fantastic building with a fantastic store of treasure - not treasure in money or gold or jewels or anything like that, in fact if anyone else saw it they would say it was jsu rubbish. But to me it was gold, pure gold - but not with any money value. What it is is a huge store of old photogrpahs, documents, books, letters, posters, bills and all sorts of other things going back a hundred years or more. It's a whole load of history, and because Grandad's books are mainly about history, it's just ideal for me. I could have stayed there for days and weeks and months! But I can always go back again.

No word yet from your mother, but maybe she didn't get my letter until today.

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”

They don't want my wee

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 went up to Newcastle again today, to a big hospital. This was just to have some tests, nothing to worry about. But they did tell me to bring a sample of my wee. So I went to my own doctor's here where I live and got a plastic bottle with a screw top. You can imagine it screws very tight - you don't want wee leakin g out into your pocket! But when I got to the hopsital they gave me the tsets all right, but when I gave them my bottle of wee thay gave it back to me and said they didn't want it. So I had to bring it all the way back home. Come to think of it now, I didn't have to do that, did I? I could just have easily put it down the hospital toilet (the wee, not the bottle) but I didn't think of that.

That's the trouble with Grandad - I'm a linear thinker, not a lateral thinker. Lateral means sideways. Nana Ann is a lateral thinker, but I rather think your Mam and Dad are both linear thinkers, just like me. So I suppose you'll be a linear thinker as well. It's just the way you're born. Lateral thinkers are good at seeing different ways round problems, linear thinkers just se one way and get on and do it - somethines good, sometimes bad.

Mentioning your Mam, she'll have had my letter today. But she's not the kind to do anything straight away. But If I don't hear from her by Thursday, I'll definitely give her a ring and take my chances. I'm coming down to London on Friday, and we hope to see you on Sunday! It could be as soon as that. to clap eyes on you (and you on us) for the very first time. That'll be a strange feeling. When my first little sister was born, I didn't see her staright away, because I was living with my Nana and Grandad and my Mam and Dad were living a long way away. And when my Mam and Dad did come, my sister wa still a baby, but quite a little bit grown. I didn't like it atall, beacuse I knew from then on I'd have to share things.

When I went to China, where most families are allowed to have only one child, I asked the children if they would have liked to have sisters and brothers. They all said "no" for the self-same reason, they'd have to share. But my sisters and I get on ok - we learned to share.

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”

Whistles and drums

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 still can't get over your Mam's e-mail not working. It was working just a few weeks ago. Now my eldest sister Pat rang me yesterday. She was expecting me to go and see her, but I wasn't there. That was because she'd sent me an email to my old email address and of course it didn't get through. I haven't had that address for two and a half years, and she's emailed me recently, but never mind. As I say, it was all my fault. Your Mam should get my letter tomorrow, but don't expect her to do anything for days or even weeks. We'll wait and see.

Do you like playing musical instruments, like whistles and drums? I bet you do, but your Mam and Da might not. I remeber when your cousin Elaine was very little, younger than you, we bought her a drum. She loved that drum, banging away all the day. This drove her mother wild, and she made us take it back! "She can play the drum when she comes to you house and drive you mad" she said. We've still got it, and a whole load of other instruments like whistles and flutes. If you coem to our house, you can play them to your heart's content.

Grandad was out on his bike yesterday, and running again today, in the nice weather. You need to get some sunshine onto your body to stay healthy, but not too much. I know for a fact your Mam will have put plenty of sun cream onto you when you went for your holiday at the seaside, and a sun hat. Too much sun without a hat can boil your head! (oh yes it can).

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”

Your Mam's email doesn't work

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.

What an anti-climax! After all that angst (just a posh name for worrying) the carefully (very carefully) worded e-mail I sent to your Mam has bounced back. It can't be delivered, I presume because your Mam has a new e-mail address. I daren't ring up and ask her what her new one is, as that might lead to diffilculties on the telephone. She's bound to say "tell me now" and I might say the words wrong. So the only thing I've been able to do is to print out the email as a letter and send it to your Mam by "snail mail." That means she won't get it until Monday at the earliest, and we want to get to see you on Sunday next! Phew!

I bet your Dad was glued to the television this afternoon. Scotland were playing Ireland, and Scotland won a very exciting game. I bet your Dad was over the moon. The Scots rugby team have been doing quite badly in recent years, so this was a big win for them. For me, I was on the side of the Irish. After all, I have an Irish grandfather (or rather I did have an Irish grandfather - he's been dead many years now of course).

Today I went to the paper bank, the can bank and the bottle bank with all the old newspapers, cans and bottles I've collected over the past month or so. I get four or five newspapers every day, plus lots of magazines, so there's a lot to go for recycling. Not so many cans, but quite a lot of bottles. Surely I don't drink as much as that in a month? But don't tell Nana Ann. She keeps telling me I'm only supposed to have a small glass of wine each night - but her idea of a small galass and my idea of a small glass are two different things.

I had a call from your Auntie Pat (my sister) today. She lives in Yorkshire. Apparently, she was expecting me to call and see her today. We were going for a walk by the canal and a picnic. But it seems she's been sending me e-mails to my old e-mail address - at least two years old! What was she thinking of? But, as usual between Grandad and a woman, any woman, it's all Grandad's fault.

Nana Ann will be ringing soon. I'll give her the news.

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”

I email your Mam

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.

Well, I've finally decided - I'm sending an email to your Mam tonight, so keep your fingers crossed. She didn't respond to my last card, so that's a bit of a bad sign. But she did say (and that was weks ago, the only time she has phoned me in a long, long time) that we might (repeat might) meet up next time I'm in London. As it happens, I am coming to London in a wek's time, and I will have time to meet up, on the Sunday, if it can be arranged.

So I'll not talk any more tonight.

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”

Horses trotting

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.

If you ever stayed up here where I live, you'd be sure to see horses trotting. A man or a boy sits on a very flimsy cart, just tubular steel. That's for lightness, because these are for racing. The horses are specially bred for speed, and they're trained to swing both legs on one side together, instead of the normal way a horse walks, trots or gallops, which is with the two legs on each side going in opposite ways. It sounds complicated, but you'll understand it when you see it.

I often see these trotting horses going past my window when I'm working, sometimes with quite young boys on board - not as young as you, mind. You can see these rigs racing at Agricultural shows, when there is great excitement and a lot of betting. At other times you can see them racing along one of our new roads, just to practice for speed. These guys even, at times, block of a road at both ends and have their own private races, juts for a bet. They're not supposed to do it, but by the time the police come along, they've all gone.

Talking of agricultural shows, which grandad used to go to regularly (to report them) they are all coming up now, but without any cattle or sheep. That's because of the foot and mouth disease which they've found in the south of England. Foot and mouth is a very terrible disease for animals, and it can spread quickly from farm to farm if it's not stopped quickly. Last time it happened, before you were born, thiousnads and thousands of sheep and acttle had to be killed to stop the disease spreading. That was a terrible time, especially for the farmers who lots all their animals.

I've written that e-mail to your Mam, but I'm going to leave it overnight and read it again - several times - before I send it to your Mam, maybe tomorrow night. So kep your fingers crossed!

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”

Have you been sailing?

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.

Somehow I don't think your Mam has taken you sailing yet, but I hope she has. The sooner you start, the better. My Grandad taught me to sail when I was a boy, a bit older than you I must admit, but what little sailing I've done since then, I've really enjoyed. (Apart, that is, the one time I took Nana Ann sailing in a near gale. We managed to get back to shore eventually, but Nana Ann has never come sailing with me since and I don't blame her!)

But there's lots of ways that you can sail, or row, in a safe place like a small lake. Rowing is fine. I remeber when I took your cousin Elaine out in a rowing boat (on a baoting lake) when she was quite samll, younger than you are now, and she insisted on taking an oar and try to rwo, even though it was far too big and heavy for her. So I had to row both ways, back and forth, as it were, otherwise we'd have been going round in circles.

The reason I'm thinking of sailing right now is beacuse Nana Ann and I have just been to the Isle of Wight for the first time and seen all the yachts like the ones your Mam sails, so naturally we think of her - and you - the more. So I guess if we ever get the chance, we'll have to take you rowing in the first instant. But there's nothing quite like being out in a sialing boat, zipping through the water with no noisy engine and no fumes. It's great!

I've more or less made up my mind that I'm going to send an email to your Mam. Like last time, I'll have to word ir very, very carefully so she takes it in the right way. Then, you never know....

Love from

Grandad Kit and Nana Ann