As the father of two young kids, inevitably I get exposed to the marketing assault on Halloween each year. Whilst I can’t comment with any conviction on what things were like in the UK more than a decade ago (before I had children and when, frankly, I probably didn’t either notice or care) and I […]
Category Archives: Parenting
July
21
Latitude: Family Match Report
posted by petegoold
Sixteen+ mossie/insect bites – including two on the face Two days of walking at least 14 miles (30k steps) Two terrifying lightning storms whilst in the tent Slap in the face from sleeping child: one One two hour battle with the elements to drag gear back to the car Beautiful sunsets: two Pleading with nice […]
A Tiny Change
posted by petegoold
I’ve been going through an interesting internal debate over the last few weeks about the extent to which my inbox governs my life, both inside and outside of work. Inside work is one thing – although it’s certainly debatable as to whether being super reactive and responsive, which is a trait that I value greatly […]
August
17
The Big Chill – A Parent’s Review
posted by petegoold
I have just discovered that taking two small children to a three day music festival is a pretty gruelling endeavour, even when there is some cheating (i.e. hotels) and a couple of adults involved. As my colleagues will confirm, I had been banging on about going to the Big Chill for weeks in advance. Having […]
Holiday Packing
posted by petegoold
So, we’re heading away for a couple of weeks and there’s a growing disparity between the fact that when I go away I want to leave all worldly trappings behind for a while (possibly aside from my flip flops and a healthy stack of paperbacks) yet somehow the quantity of things we take with us […]
Now We Are 6
posted by petegoold
It’s been a big week at work – but this weekend it’s my eldest daughter’s birthday and we have a ‘disco party’ lined up for tomorrow – with about 35 kids and 20 or so adults coming. Having been to a school disco with her earlier this week, which was enough to bring on a […]
Oh, The Irony
posted by petegoold
I’ve had a bit of a night of it. Although we have taken our eldest daughter to a couple of festivals (the Big Chill, twice), it’s impossible to take two of them at their age – or at least highly impractical. Nevertheless, every Glastonbury weekend, I try and watch as much of it as I […]
A New Love
posted by petegoold
Just back from a full two weeks away, which have been extremely restful. In particular, I’ve discovered an hitherto unrealised love of Lego. The fruits of our labour during the first week are certainly a far cry from the blocky monstrosities that I remember from my childhood…
Shooting Up
posted by petegoold
The first two months of the year have shot past – baby Goold is now steaming around everywhere causing trouble, mini Goold is halfway through her second term at school (as a result of which I’ve had to endure the emotionally-charged prospect of her first two school discos) and once again, England are being hopleless […]
Over & Out
posted by petegoold
I’ve been pulling back for the last few days and although there are still a few emails to be answered, Christmas is looming – and for the first time in 6 years I’m taking a full two weeks off with the family. Personally I want nothing more than time – spent with the girls and […]
Noise Pollution
posted by petegoold
Our eldest daughter’s starting school next Monday and, to make the best of her last few pre-school days, Emma decided to take the girls away for a few days to a cottage in Suffolk. Normally, wild horses couldn’t keep me away but having just taken a fair bit of holiday it just wasn’t practical or […]
Pasties, Cider & A 14ft Swell
posted by petegoold
We decided to break up the journey down to Cornwall, thinking that 5 hours would probably become 10 through the stops required with two little people in the car. So, we’ve been in-situ since Friday morning. This time last year the weather was glorious – unfortunately the rain for the first 48 hours this year […]
The Girls’ Afternoon
posted by petegoold
It’s been a top day today. At Christmas, I bought my other half and the other girls at Punch some tickets to see Take That at Wembley tonight, knowing full well that I’d have to take the majority of the day off to look after our two girls. As might have been expected, it wasn’t […]
Getting Back On The Horse
posted by petegoold
This week, I’ve taken the situation in hand and joined a local gym – although I use the term local loosely as it’s 15 – 20 minutes away, which may well present itself as a factor in my attendance at some point in time. Having joined on Tuesday, I’ve found a couple of hours on […]
Living Without Money
posted by petegoold
If someone had said to me at the start of the week: “If you give me £x, you can have whatever you want, whenever you want it, all week.”, I would have thought that ‘x’ (the cost of perennial contentedness?) would have been at least three times and perhaps even five times the sum that we ended up paying, if not more. In other words, I think I need more than I actually do to be highly content – which is, in itself, a revelation.
A Real Out Of Office Message
posted by petegoold
Delighted to be putting my actual out of office message on for the first time in a while as I’m flying to Spain with my girls for a week this weekend. It’s been a crazy start to 2009, we have another new person joining on Monday and are recruiting again. The great thing is that […]
The Inflatables Are OUT
posted by petegoold
OK, so i’ll be the first to admit that my fitness is currently not what it was, due to the combination of long days, hectic nights with our youngest and, fundamentally, a lack of time to get to the pool. What was a three-times-a-week habit has now dropped off to once a month, unfortunately. So, […]
New Look, New Home
posted by petegoold
So, a few weeks ago I moved this blog from it’s former home to this new location, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the software I was using, from a site called ‘edublogs’ was proving extremely painful to use despite being based on WordPress, resisting updates on a seemingly arbitrary basis. Secondly I also wanted […]
Slowly, slowly
posted by petegoold
Had a complete lack of time to update here recently, what with both the new little one, domestic illness still raging (and passing between the four of us) and the usual Christmas chaos. Our tree, which went up on November 30th to be fair, came down today – much to my little girl’s displeasure. I’m […]
Feeling Settled…
posted by petegoold
So, it’s been a long week. With three (now two) weeks to go before baby due-date, I’ve had a pretty lousy chest infection this week, which flattened me from Wednesday onwards. Two trips to the doctors in four days, a course of antibiotics and another of steroids later, I’m now feeling a bit better, which […]
Big Week, Big Weekend
posted by petegoold
We’ve had a huge week at work this week – back to back meeting throughout, or at least, so it has seemed at time. We’ve won two new clients (more to follow on this), one of which is relatively local (Birmingham), which is terrific and as a Midlands PR Agency, is something I’m keen to […]
Five Weeks – And Counting
posted by petegoold
So, our second little person (another girl, so we’re led to believe) is now going to be here in around five weeks. The house is in complete disarray, tempers are frayed, Annie – currently 3 ½ – wants to know when her sister is coming out and none of us are getting enough sleep. Having […]
Conker Madness
posted by petegoold
Oh and on a slightly less cerebral note, I’m loving conker season this year. Admittedly it’s slightly fuelled by the enthusiasm of my three year old but, correct me if I’m wrong, there’s nothing quite like finding the mother of all conkers, particularly if you’ve ‘unwrapped it’ (as it were). My house has bags of […]
Balancing Pooh-Sticks & PR
posted by petegoold
After a crazy fortnight at work, I’ve had a fantastic day today, sitting with a friend fishing, taking my daughter down to the stream to play pooh-sticks on our bikes and, slightly bizarrely, chopping logs in anticipation of the firs going on shortly for the first time this Autumn. All in all it couldn’t be […]
If this is a romcom, kill the director
posted by petegoold
So, at the ripe age of 34, apparently I’m the granddad of the PR team. Or at least, that’s what they’d have me believe. However at times I almost do believe the hype. In previous years we’ve managed to go to a summer festival, usually the Big Chill, but this year, with my second child […]
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