Another week passes and more damage is inflicted upon the house only this time not all of it is Bethany's fault. Rushing around last Sunday as I tidied before going to pick Alison up from work I wiped some crumbs from the wooden chopping board only for it to slip out of my hand as I turned to put it back. It caught the rounded edge on the front of the worktop taking a sliver out of the surface which cut through the board and embedded itself in the wood. Save for a small fragment that sliver glued back into place which is hardly professional but looks better than the exposed MDF or chipboard underneath.
   Not that Bethany hasn't been trying her utmost to redesign to her own specifications, mainly through the medium of crayon. The polystyrene style stones on the fireplace were brightened up with some pink crayon as well as the surround. While I applied Flash to the surround and sought help from Twitter for the 'stones' (WD40 apparently - although I've yet to try as the reverse had the graffiti so just left them for the time being) Bethany contiued her artwork by colouring in the screen on the television in the kitchen. Thankfully a damp cloth was all that was required to restore it to its usual condition.
   Her climbing continues apace and if you turn your back for the briefest of moments she will be on the dining room table and shuffling any papers you left there thinking that they were out of her way. Her
latest trick last night was to wedge a disc in the DVD player and as I stuck my fingers in to try and extract it to no avail she thought it funny to keep pressing the on/off button thus causing the drawer to open and close with my hand still inside and the cogs inside tickling my fingertips. After she went to bed I returned to the scene with a screwdriver and took the casing off allowing me to get the errant disc. It is working now but sounds a bit 'whirrier' than it did before. The remote control is still missing for it also.
   Bethany is also gaining more confidence climbing down as well as up when this morning she refused my hand and led herself down stairs using the banister for support until she got to the last few steps where the safety gate was in her path and she took my hand. Also in the play area at the Shuttle & Loom last week she managed to climb to the top but struggled to get back down. There were some other children playing in it who helped her down but she went back up later on and halted at a section of tubing where the floor was cut out and criss-crossed with straps. By this stage Alison had to retrieve her and we expected the same today but she crossed the straps no problem and paused at the perspex end of the tube to wave at us. She also managed to get down herself although Alison did have to go up a couple of times as the top level step was a little too high. She was about to hoist herself up that last step on one occasion when her ice cream came to the table. Telling her it was ready she understood and came down for her dessert, which she tried to share with us thus spilling chocolate ice cream down my front.
   Whilst her vocabulary continues to develop and she can repeat strings of words together she understands far more than you would expect from the still limited speech. I can thus ask her to put something in the bin or tidy something up and she will do so. If I put her shoes on and say we're going out she is standing by the door pointing at her coat and saying "coat" and "Let's Go". This morning round my parents she was trying to get out into the garden and using a padlock key on the door when my mam told her that "Grandad has the key, you'll have to see him". She duly went into the other room, brought my dad back and pointed at the door until he gave her the key from his pocket. We definitely need to stop swearing when we're not thinking. 

Quite an eventful sporting day that started with New Zealand lifting the Webb Ellis Cup as they were crowned rugby World champions. Commentators will have to find another topic to discuss now that they have rid themselves of the World Cup chokers monkey after edging past France 8-7 to win after that 24 year gap. That label will have hurt as they have been favourites a number of times and to have lost to a poor French side (who did play well in the final) would only have confirmed that status on home soil even without Dan Carter.
   Following England's exit a couple of weeks ago the captain Lewis Moody announced he was retiring from international rugby. At 33 he recognises that he won't be around for the next tournament and that England need to rebuild. His recent injury problems may have persuade him although a lot of players see these events as a good time to end their international careers if allowed that luxury. Moody has been a good servant for England as have a number of other veterans who may be considering their options before the decision is made for them.
   Most people in the UK will undoubtedly be talking about the Manchester derby where United were beaten 6-1 at home by City. Like United's 8-2 win over Arsenal earlier in the season it was one of those freak results that does not really reflect the difference in quality of the two teams but should serve as a wake up call to the red half (if they needed it) that they are still a long way fron challenging Barcelona. This sort of result has been coming with a drop off in recent performances with a number of key injuries impairing their defence in the main. The back four has not been stable yet this season and with a new goalkeeper not making the most confident of starts that has seen a once solid defence look vulnerable. At the start of the season Smalling and Jones looked solid and promising but they have been taking turns filling in at right back as Ferdinand and Vidic were accommodated back into the starting XI. That they are not yet match fit with Ferdinand in particular looking a shadow of his former self has not helped either.
   What was certainly shown up was Man United's lack of creativity from centre midfield which is what everybody knew from last season but which has not been addressed even after Scholes and Hargreaves left the club. Their dip in form has coincided with the loss of Tom Cleverley through injury who did look to provide a certain spark but whilst it is reassuring to see the faith placed in one so young rather than resort to the transfer window his absence has only highlighted the lack of depth that they have in that position. For all that City were good with David Silva in particular having a great start to the season. That, however, is the point of a league over a season as form dips in and out and it is how teams respond to the bad results which determines whether they are champion material or not.

A quick update on Bethany's progress in the past week. My parents got her some simple jigsaw puzzles; one set consisting of farmyard animals made up of two pieces and another of sea creatures. After being shown the two halves of an animal once she could then pair them off. In the case of the farmyard animals it even sounded like she called their names on assembly for cow, sheep and duck.
   Less positive is the big bruise and cut under her chin as she has a habit of tearing round the place with circuits of the table a particular favourite. Last evening whilst in the Brinkburn for Paul's birthday she was running round the table when the inevitable happened and she smacked her head off the side as she was distracted by everything else and no doubt getting a bit dizzy.
   It was not the first fall she had suffered and was soon rectified with a cuddle.

So the semi final line up for the Rugby World Cup is complete and does not include England. Yesterday's defeat against France was all the more disappointing as we never really competed save for a late surge after the damage had already been done. Typically as South Africa were knocked out this morning Peter De Villiers stood down as coach straight away where as for England Rob Andrew is going to conduct a report. Saying that I'm not sure if Martin Johnson should go or not which is probably as big an indictment of the team than any knee jerk reaction. Certainly the team underperformed and the coach takes responsibility for that especially as the team made more headlines off the pitch rather than on it. After a decent 6 Nations campaign the team appear to have gone backwards and what looked a good squad on paper have failed to deliver.
   The young, exciting players have not blended with the old guard who were supposed to lend an authoritarian air with the latter looking past it but still preferred to the youngsters in the pecking order. Hopefully the missed kicks of Wilkinson should not take the gloss of his career too much as we should build for he next tournament now without him as well as saying thanks and goodbye to Steve Thompson, Mike Tindall, Simon Shaw and probably Lewis Moody.
   For all that England's preparations were hardly helped by the usual shenanigans at the RFU with infighting leaving them without a permanent chairman, chief executive and performance director despite what acting head Martyn Thomas claims. A lack of leadership at the top filters down to a lack of leadership in the squad where a tour manager should have ensured the players behaved themselves during the down time. This all helps engender a lack of focus which if isolated may not have been a problem if the team were still performing on the pitch. However, England topped their group without looking particularly impressive and other excuses can be found such as Danny Care's injury or Courtney Lawes being banned for the first few matches these are the sort of mishaps that affect every team (New Zealand will no doubt more Dan Carter more than we the second choice scrum half). Similarly the theory that the midfield had not had time to gel as it was being constantly tinkered with is valid but not unique as France's player turnover can testify.
   France actually are reminiscent of England in the last tournament who got to the final despite themselves as the sheer force of will of the senior players dragged them into that showdown with South Africa where their limitations were exposed. Likewise despite Lievremont's eccentricities France have enough class to put a decent run together but can come unstuck at any time. You get the impression that Johnson was hoping for more of the same from England's class of 2011 but those old heads were 4 years older and his reliance on them and the use of forward play deprived the likes of Ashton and Foden from having much chance of running with the ball.
   One of the things that may save Johnson is if this is viewed as a work in progress and he may be allowed the opportunity to build the new team as the older players make way. The lack of any obvious replacement makes his position fairly secure as we prefer to appoint Englishmen and the RFU's obsession with Clive Woodward blinds them from any other potential candidates. As has oft been mentioned - the job that Shaun Edwards has done coaching the Welsh squad makes it a crime that England have not tried harder to recruit him to their coaching set up. All questions that Rob Andrew will surely address in his much anticipated review.


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   Bethany's speech development continues to progress as she has taken to repeating words we say to her when the mood suits her. Obviously some words are more distinct than others and when she is in a playful mood she'll point to an object wanting to know it's name and then repeating what was said. Her memory already seems better than mine as she now knows how to operate my parent's CD player after they demonstrated the sliding double door on the front of it to her. The other day she started playing with our traditional CD player and pressed eject after switching it on. I thought nothing of it at the time until yesterday when she had hold of a free CD that came with the paper. Noticing that she only had the sleeve I asked her what she had done with the disc only for her to point to the CD player and say "There". I replied "Yes, that's where it goes but where is it?" only for her to repeat herself. After a quick look and not seeing it I switched the CD player on and opened it up only to find the missing disc inside as she had told me.
   As if to emphasise the point, this morning round my parents whilst we were otherwise engaged we suddenly heard the song with her name start playing and noticed she had switched their CD player on and was dancing to her tune.

A unique case of a weekend seemingly lasting forever as I was not working overtime and Alison only had half days in the morning. We also crammed a lot into it as Margaret, Del, Diane and Tim came down to visit and we spent time catching up. Bethany enjoyed the extra company but still sought more and kept running up and down the stairs at Blackwell Grange and gatecrashing one of the 3 weddings that was going on at the time. She happily would wander into the disco, have a little dance and set off back down the stairs with whoever's turn it was to accompany her.
   On Saturday we had a barbecue at my parents as we made the most of the unseasonal October sunshine. This was followed by playing "Pin the Tail on the Donkey" which Helen had bought as a joke but which resulted in much hilarity with Tim failing to find the right wall from 6 feet away and Margaret's robot march as she swung her arms in alternative rigid fashion as she steered herself towards the target already becoming family legend.
   Yesterday saw us calling in to the Grange in town where Katie and Wayne were hosting a leaving do before emigrating to Australia. They had hired the pub from 2 to 10 and the place had been busy throughout as many came to say goodbye. Helen had been there since around 3pm as toasted her best friend and said our parents had called in about 5. We got there just after 7 and I had a "blast from the past" as I saw people I hadn't seen for nearly quarter of a century. At one point Helen mentioned seeing someone come in and the name didn't register and when she came back from chatting with her she mentioned she was with one of her sons. When they came over I recognized her immediately but the son was now a man in his 30s and a stubbly beard. I could tell it was still the boy we used to play with in the street we all lived in as children but had we passed in the street I would not have registered anything. As it was he had a few words of greeting with Katie's brother Stephen and was rather quiet. Myself being rather antisocial also kept my silence aside from when prompted by his father asking if I was Richard. After confirming he made a few pleasantries regarding Bethany and we went back to drinking our beers and let the women do the catching up.
   We left around 9 with Helen as we got a taxi back to Blackwell to call in and say goodbye to the Southern cousins who my parents were already with after dining with them. Saying goodbye Wayne seemed to get his second wind after the drinking games earlier had left him a little unsteady. He was taken with Bethany and was high fiving her as Helen and Katie said goodbye. Although as she is going to go round and see her before they depart it was not the big emotional farewell it might have been.
   I'm not sure if it was entirely our doing but not long after arriving at Blackwell and disturbing the peace of the convivial family group reminiscing as we barged in but another couple across the room left leaving us the room to ourselves. We weren't out too late but after the previous nights we all fell asleep on the couch when we got back but thankfully I have the week off to catch up on sleep and chores.
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