seashell

this time last week we celebrated one of our best friends' birthday.

michelle; once known as seashell to william, a nickname which has stuck with me and probably will do for years to come, hit the big three-oh!

we decided to pop round to wish michelle a happy birthday on the day itself, to drop off her present (mini vineyard) and share a scrummy cake. 

it may have not been homemade but the box was personalised! 

 

the celebrations continued on saturday with a party at the cob and pen in fareham and it was great to see everyone.

 

michelle is a wonderful person and we feel very lucky to be her friends. tony has known her since they were tiny tots, and although i have only known her for 5 (?!) or so years, i am certain that i will still know and love her when i am old and covered in wrinkles! we hope that you had a great 30th birthday seashell!

lots of love & cuddles, team s

xx

 

happy father's day, pa

happy father's day, pa. i know that we aren't ones for sharing our feelings often or out loud, unless we have the rum in us of course (!), but i truly do love you. you may have recently 'given me away' but i will always be your little girl and look to you for guidance. i hope that you've had a great father's day, even if mum has had you working your bum off at aab :)  

cold, windy, naked bike riding

on friday we participated in our first ever world naked bike ride in southampton. please be warned that this post contains nudity!

a little background details on wnbr... since 2004, every year in cities all over the world, people have been getting their kit off and going for an organised ride to demonstrate the vulnerability of cyclists and to protest against 'car culture'. whilst we were honestly mainly there for an aab promo, 100+ cyclists riding around southampton either completely starkers or very nearly so does make you aware of those bloody cyclists on the road. it also made me realise how easy it is to get around town on a bike, we need to do this more!

there was a little bit of time before we went on the ride which involved having to get ride of the childish giggle fits at naked men bending over in front of us and other naked men asking to take our pictures (mainly asking pippa and i, ahem). 

the ride went from the common (highfield road), through portswood, through oxford street, up to the high street and then back to the common. the atmosphere was mainly positive from the public and it was really good fun!

representing all aboard bikes was myself, pippa, stu & maria, joe, mum & ian. we had our two helpful van drivers (dad & tony) too! thank you very much to everyone for braving the cold, windy weather - it was a giggle! stu was the only one of our group brave enough to get his bits and bobs out, it was however a good effort all around. next year... strategic bodypaint!

oh, and pippa & i made the local paper...

barnaby the bear

we have had a new addition to the sainsbury household over the last week or so. and no, don't get too excited... we are not expecting mini-me number two!

barnaby the bear has been kipping round ours!

and who is barnaby i hear you ask? barnaby bear belongs to alphabets pre-school. he likes to visit each child's home and go on lots of fun trips with the children. from what i have read in his book he has been to a lot of great places. you can imagine my surprise when i picked william up and found out that barnaby was also coming to stay!

william had barnaby bear to stay over the queen's diamond jubilee so he went with us to visit the three queens when we went to mayflower park.

 

as it was half term, he went to visit grandma cats with william and they had lots of fun at the park.

barnaby bear is now back in his rucksack with his book full of adventures ready to go back to alphabets. william's first 'home project' done and dusted!

 

the queen's diamond jubilee - june 2012

this weekend has reminded me how proud i am to be british. 

just incase you have been hiding under a rock recently, this weekend the country has been celebrating with various events to mark 60 years of the queen's reign. the events that have caught my eye have been the thames river pageant, the three queen's visiting southampton docks, the concert outside buckingham palace and the various street parties up and down the country.

i have been enjoying strawberries, scones and the excuse to get the bunting out! if i could have bunting out all year round, i really would... although i'm not sure that tony would be quite so happy about it.

william and i also participated in the 'netley jubilee knees up' as all aboard bike reps. we cycled all around netley abbey as part of the parade and ended up being interviewed at the end of it! it was then time for candyfloss and a play in the park before the cycle back to aab hq.

i had organised an all aboard bikes marketing event which unfortunately had to be cancelled due to the awful weather. this was really disappointing as we had all of the bikes ready to go as well as the participants ready with their homemade picnics! there will of course be another event in the near future so keep your eyes peeled! this did, however, mean that team sainsbury had some spare time on our hands so we headed over to mayflower park in southampton to visit the three queen's, have some fun on the fairground rides and get absolutely soaking wet - william loved it!

community spirit. it exists. in this modern, busy world it still exists. seeing people celebrate together in our streets rain or shine has been an experience that i will not forget and i hope william will remember parts of it too. seeing the union jack everywhere has been a treat; it seems to have come back in fashion once more. i hope that everyone else has had fun over this long bank holiday weekend?

sunshine and bike rides

the weather in the uk recently has been wonderful. temperatures have been reaching the high twenties, which really is a rareity! team sainsbury have been making the most of the weather as you really never know how long it's going to last and the sunshine makes everyone happy (oh and it is a great opportunity to top up the tan!). 

 this afternoon we went out for one of our regular bike rides courtesy of all aboard bikes to hamble and back again. just a quick plug... all aboard bikes is my parents new business, a cycle hire and service business based just behind the royal victoria country park in netley abbey. we are forever taking a couple of their extraordinary bikes out for rides as it is a fun, cheap, family day out. 

when we fancy having an easy ride, we head off to hamble-le-rice which is roughly two and a half miles from 'the unit'. we then have a quick pit-stop, which is normally at the king and queen public house and then cycle back... responsibly of course!

today, we fancied that easy ride; but this time my parents (ruth and charlie grossett) shut up shop and came along with us. we all had such a great afternoon, and william enjoyed having grandad and grandma pushing him along whilst mummy and daddy raced alongside too. 

of course we had our pit-stop at the king and queen, sitting outside on the garden benches sipping pimm's (william had apple juice).

normally after this, we head on back for a two and half mile ride to the unit; but today we decided to make the most of the sunny weather and ride right down the gorgeous cobbley street to have an icecream by the water. william enjoyed a paddle with grandad whilst grandma chatted to some potential aab customers who took an interest in the cruisers we took out today. i even think that one of them had a quick test ride!

 much to william's delight, on the way home we stopped at a play park and had some fun on the swings and toys. 

 

who had more fun at the park? william or the grandparents? we hope that your sunday afternoon was just as sunny and happy.

 

introducing team sainsbury

hi all. jessica sainsbury here, wife of anthony sainsbury, yes - wife! i am brand spanking new to this blogging malarky (and may i add brand spanking new to this marriage malarky) but thought that it would be a good way to keep track of what our team, sorry... family get up to. 

so, a very short post to start with. but here are a couple of pictures of my wonderful family. jessica (mummy), anthony (daddy), william (our boy) and bobby (our dog).