Wednesday 15 July 2015

Hanging with the Hawks

This blog is mainly about one of our favourite families the Hawkridges. We have to say "one of" because yesterday Dan was telling his mum how we sort of look up to them as a family and they were his favourite family and then he quickly backtracked to say how great his own upbringing was.

They live in Morocco "which is safer to read about than go to" according to my Grandads very old, slightly racist book about the world. Most places are safer to read about than go to though aren't they? Reading is a very safe activity, unless you combine it with driving or something.

They have 3 kids probably ages 7, 5 and 2ish. Their kids are amazing, the oldest told me on Saturday that we should have 7 children: 3 boys, 3 girls and one boy/girl and we should all become dog walkers. The Hawkridges have the highest level of stress tolerance I know. Before they had kids they bought a pub and made it into an art commune. When they moved to Morocco they bought a van and drove there from Liverpool with a baby (it was their baby they didn't steal a random baby). They don't have regular boring old jobs they are artists with unsecure work. They own a tiny little shop/studio space thing, they buy reptiles to live in their garden and they're considering sending their kids to a hippy farm school in Morocco.  They go on a family trip to the ice cream shop every Friday, that is definitely something that we should make a family tradition.

Sean and Eleanor
Den building with the kids

I like to think me and Dan are fun and interesting. The day we met we were in a 4 tier human pyramid, we celebrate the new tax year, we've twinned our arm chair with an armchair half a mile away, I once dressed as a pond as part of my comedy act and we cycled to Kuwait once for lols. But now we have a baby and are looking at buying a 3 bed Semi I'm worried we might start turning into "those people" people who try and live near good schools and have life insurance and listen to radio 4, and recycle and read parenting books. Snore.... Although I'm not really against this per se, I really am against those things taking up so much time that we forget to celebrate the new tax year with some wacky tax themed games.

That's why I'm happy to have the Hawkridges influence in our lives. While they were over we made a cup of tea while I was on Dan's shoulders and I tried something I'd been wanting to try for ages. Unicycle pram pushing... it's amazing! It's faster than walking with the pram and more stable than just unicycling.