Big Jones News

We're moving to France!! 

Dan has been looking for a new job for a while because he was getting made redundant on 1st September. He's know for quite a few months that this would happen and has been considering different job options. Although his job is great in terms of flexibility and he enjoys working from home, writing procedures for a housing company is nobody's childhood dream. He was ready for change and a bit of adventure. He considered joining the police, which is something he's been interested in since he was a teenager, but there were quite a lot of downsides like random shift pattens, less money, and scallies shouting abuse at you. So he was also looking at remote jobs based in Europe meaning we could move abroad, and he got one! 

Because Dan is half French him and the boys can live in France (or anywhere in the EU). I can get a WAGS pass but only to France not the rest of the E.U.

The job is technical writing for an IT company based in the Czech Republic with offices in London too. So for example he would write a blog abut their stuff in English and French. Here's the kind of thing I would write if I'd got the job: 

Have you heard about our computer thingy? It saves loads of time. Instead of pressing loads of buttons everyday to check your computer system is all fine you just press this one button and then our special thing does all the stuff for you, like an overprotective mother. Think of all the free time your employees will have to just muck around! They'll be so happy they'll probably kiss you. 

Somehow him writing that but better is Dan's new full time job.

We've talked about moving countries forever. I can't really believe I've stayed in Liverpool this long. I've always thought I'd move somewhere Arabic speaking. In 2005 when I was 19 I went to volunteer at a community centre in Bethlehem, I had such a great time that I went back again in 2007. There was a time when I thought I might end up there more permanently, but then when I got together with Dan it felt a bit weird to take him to my gap year place and I thought maybe we should find a new place that's ours rather than mine. 

sleeping on a roof in Bethlehem 2007

We did our big trip cycling from Liverpool to Kuwait in 2013 with the view of possibly finding somewhere on the way that we might like to settle in. We really though Lebanon might be the place, but after spending a while there we didn't really get the feeling. You have to pay to visit the beach there, hotels buy up the best beach spots and make it like a resort you have to pay for, and I'm just not down with that. Also there's occasionally bombing and the electricity doesn't work half the time, but mainly the beach thing. We loved Jordan a lot more though, if I had to pick an Arab country to live in now Jordan would be it. It's a great holiday destination if you're looking for something a bit different.

A cool bit of rock in Petra, Jordan.

When we got back from our trip we realised how much we missed Liverpool. We were so well connected there and as we wanted to have a baby we thought actually it makes sense to stay where our support network is. There was a time when we were tempted to move again, when our house sale fell through and we were suddenly sort of homeless with a house deposit burning a hole in our pocket. It wouldn't really have been great timing though. It worked out well in the end, we bought the house we are currently in and had another baby. I felt really settled. I've enjoyed decorating the whole house, there was definitely a time where I really had no desire to move and Dan was worried we'd live here forever. 

In the elections a couple of years ago I said that if Labour got in I'll have another baby (because they had some free childcare policies) and if the Tories get in I'll move to France (because I hate them). I was a bit joking but a bit serious. That day was kind of the end of me seriously considering a 3rd child but I always thought if I didn't go for number 3 I'd want to do something else more fun instead, so that I wouldn't look back and just think that was a thing I didn't do.

So Plan A is rent out our house and rent a house or apartment in France for one year. We could go anywhere so we're currently trying to pick somewhere. Our criteria is:

1) The south because I'm not learning a new language for the weather of Devon. Why not just move to Devon.

2) Somewhere you can get to from Liverpool or Manchester airports. Because no one wants to travel to Gatwick.

3) Somewhere near the sea or a lake. 

4) Somewhere near an international church. I do want to fully integrate and learn French but it would be nice to have some English speaking friends, and to know some Christians.

And out of those places we'll see what you can get for your money and which ones we like. So far we are researching Marseille, Lyon, Montpellier and Beziers.

Then if plan A goes well and we like France and the boys are happy and stuff, then we might try and buy somewhere or at least move to somewhere a bit more permanent. But if it's not going well and we want to come back then we can. We might have lost the kids school places but we'll still have our home.

We told the boys, Eric has really no concept of time or geography so he doesn't really get it. Percy seemed fine about it. I asked him what he would miss thinking he might say the grandparents but he said "well we haven't see Stonehenge yet so we should probably visit there before we go" -sorry grandparents.

Percy in Nice 2019

I've signed up to French classes that start in October, until then Dan is teaching me. The kids are learning though "French with Mr Innes" on youtube. I forgot how annoying French is with all their gender stuff. like that I have to say Je suis AngalaiSE but the boys would say Je suis AngalaiS. It really made me think about French people who change gender and how difficult that would be for friends and family because there's so many more opportunities to make gender based mistakes.

I've been telling people we're going in January but that's really just a date I've picked from thin air. There's a lot of boring stuff to sort out but were going to do it! And we'll have a big party before we leave.

Au revoir mes amis.

Jonesfest 2021

I'm just recovering from the maddest weekend. If you didn't know me well maybe you'd think I'd had a big night out drinking - that's what normal people do in a mad weekend right? But I am far from normal. I'm recovering from having about 8 families doing a ceilidh in my very average sized garden, followed by my house being pretend burgled by 4 comedians for a game.

Jonesfest is a festival I hold in my garden for no reason. People keep asking me "what this in aid of?" and "are you raising money for something?" and "is it someone's birthday?" No. I just love people. I've missed people, and I don't have the right personality for a January birthday. It came about last year after we finally got our garden fixed. We got this decking area for eating outside, but when you take off the table and chairs it looks just like a stage. And when you own sound equipment and have lots of creative friends it's just rude not to put on a festival.

The first one was last August. At the time it felt like we were celebrating the end of covid but we now know it was just that little sweet spot between 2 lockdowns. It was more restricted last year, it was the rule of 6 indoors and 30 outdoors. I cancelled a lot of the things I had planned. We had a circus skills workshop and a drama workshop for families, a bike ride, a baking for kids session and a breeze block sculpting workshop. It was a lot of fun and not too much work.

This year I decided to go bigger. I'd planned two evening performances, a music night and a comedy night, as well as a load of other workshops and stuff. It was a lot to organise, probably a little too much and about two weeks before I was pretty stressed and had no time. I could have put less effort in, but once I have the idea in my head for something I find it hard to back down. I don't think anyone would have complained if they didn't receive complementary Jonesfest tote bags, but that didn't stop me getting up at 6am, before the kids, twice so that I could print more Jonesfest tote bags. I also took a whole day off work to sew together plain cotton bunting so that every kid could paint a bit to decorate the garden and then at the end they could take their bit home.

The Friday was the bunting workshop and the all age music festival (with face painting and hair braiding). Dan was going to play some of his album (Exhume check it out on Spotify) and then I had 2 other very talented friends that I had somehow managed to persuade to play. I woke up to heavy rain and Percy running in saying "happy jonesfest!" he was so excited! It was a difficult decision to cancel the first nights activities, but I think it was the right one. We did have gazebos and stuff but I don't think many people would have come and and I don't think it would have been that fun to be out in the rain. Percy was so gutted though and was in tears. I was pretty sad too, but we continued with the bunting making which the kids loved and then saturday was a big day of fun.

The day began with a crochet workshop led by my mum and a simultaneous chess tournament. I've never done crochet before it's really hard! It's like a magic trick, if you're good you just wiggle a stick next to some wool until it makes a flower, if you're bad you just make a blob.

The next event was the kids show. This was the one thing I knew a lot of people were coming to. Half an hour before it started it was pretty stressful. I had a house full of family we were trying to make lunch for, sound equipment to set up, I was running all over the house trying to find rugs to cover the slightly wet grass, some good friends that we haven't seen for ages arrived early and I just didn't feel I had the capacity to be nice and get things done (sorry friends don't take it personally!) but then it all came together. and by the time more people arrived I was pumped and answered the door like "WELCOME TO JONESFEST!!!" the garden filled up with families and it looked mad like a real festival.

We started the way all good festivals should start with my Dad playing nursery rhymes on the accordion. I'd forgotten I'd agreed to sing them on the mic. Then we had the absolutely awesome Leila doing a teaching some super hero style dance moves, she's so good at what she does. If you have pre-school kids you should take them to her group, it's so much creative fun. Here's her theatre company 

Then we had my good friend Steve and his granny puppet reading a story. He did this a bit on Facebook live in lockdown, and I'd forgotten how genuinely hilarious it was. He was just reading the book A Squash and A Squeeze by Julia Donaldson but the accents and the little asides and the way he interacted with the audience made it incredibly entertaining for all ages.

The finale of this mad show was my dad attempting to teach everyone the eightsome reel, a sort of ceilidh dance. He only recently started learning the accordion and is good considering that, but he was not good enough to play and shout the dance moves so it descended into a beautiful chaos, and then I tried to help by shouting random things like "right hand star!" with no clue if that's what they were meant to be doing.

After the kids show there was meant to be an adults aerial hoop workshop, which turned into a bit of a free for all mess around on the hoop. We watched Jo be amazing and other people struggle to get on. It was loads of fun though and very kind of her to drive her hoop set up all the way from Bradford with a baby.

Baby Zac getting into the festival spirit

The evening was my comedy night, I couldn't wait. I had 4 of my most favourite comedians who I would also call friends to entertain the audience. 

a calming rabbit cuddle is what comedians need before every show.

We did a mash up of the shows Mock the Week and Taskmaster. So for mock the week we did things like "unlikely things to hear in a covid briefing" and everyone stepped up to the mic with their funny suggestions. Then we did some Taskmaster style silly tasks, they had to recreate an artwork on a teammate's face. Then we played a blind game of connect 4 where I scented the pieces. The red counters smelled of peppermint and the yellow ones smelled of next perfume. Blindfolded contestants had to take a piece from a mixed box and place into the connect 4 game. Every third go the non-blindfolded member of the team got to play a piece. While I was setting up for this game I was thinking "maybe this is a rubbish idea for a game, I should have given it more thought," but it was actually incredible. What made it so funny was that Mike (who is Bulgarian) had never heard of the game Connect 4. So it got to his go, he was on the red team, and there were about 5 red counters in and only one yellow one - it was an easy win for the red team if only they knew what was going on. Mike seem to seriously have not worked out from the title "Connect 4" that you have to connect 4 until his frustrated blind team mate shouted out "JUST GET 4 REDS IN A ROW!"

The last game was the maddest and the one that Dan thought was not a good idea. But I think most of the time, as risk increases fun increases. The game was to burgle our house. So the 4 comedians got given a bag (a Jonesfest totebag of course) and they had 5 minutes to go into our house, in the dark (because it was late by this point) and search around for the most valuable items. There were two kids and a baby asleep upstairs: if you wake anyone you loose the game. When you think the 5 minutes is up you have to go out into the garden and climb behind the shed, over a bit of chicken wire to some wood off our property. No one was allowed a watch or phone, they had to just guess when 5 minutes was up. Then they all came back and revealed their loot.

Lee had misunderstood the value thing and squeezed a breeze block sculpture of a head in his bag. Mike had a load of random thing like several pencil cases of felt pens and a wii remote. Anna had taken the kettle, but Sean was the clear winner with our house keys, our car keys, my sisters car keys and the house keys of our neighbours who happened to be in the audience! The night came to an abrupt end when we got heckled over the fence by the neighbours and then it started to rain. It was the most bonkers joy filled thing. Mike wanted to chat to me about using this panel show format again and I'm happy to see if that's possible, but something makes me think it was a "you have to be there" kind of moment and those people and this weird garden festival scenario was the perfect combination for this exact type of weird silliness.

Sunday was a lot more chilled and started with a lino print workshop. It's something I've been learning for a few months and it's really fun and I love to share things I've learnt. 

After lunch we headed out to Childwall woods for a wide game. This particular game, called dragons, is one I grew up playing. The knights have to find a flag and take it back to base, the dragons have to catch all the knights and take them to the secret lair. It's so enjoyable to play and way better exercise than a walk in the woods. I arrived dressed in a full dragon onesie of course, and Percy was in his generic reptile onesie (crocodile or dinosaur maybe?). When we pulled up, there was a big group of people in hi-vis jackets that were "Friends of Childwall woods." They demanded an explanation of why were we dressed like that and then I had to explain the concept of wide games and then Jonesfest. I showed the guy a video of people doing a ceilidh in our garden, as if that was some kind of explanation of why I was dressed as a dragon.

I must have first played this game about age 10 and continued playing it until my early 20s. One of my friends Ben that came with his son says he remembers playing a game of it in a park with me back in the day and getting weird looks for chasing me. It was exciting to be passing on this game to the next generation! To make it work with small kids we didn't let the kids go off independently, so Dan had Eric and I had Percy. We also made a whatsapp group before we started so we could communicate vital info like "it's the end of the game." This was a new dimension that didn't exist when I played before. As well as communicating important stuff we could send threatening messages like "we're watching you little knights" and that's always fun. I quickly discovered that a fleecy onesie and wellies is not the quickest outfit for chasing people. It makes sense if you think about it, you never see Olympians wearing wellies. The whole thing was a lot of fun and I'm really up for doing it again, the more people the better so if you're in Liverpool and up for it let me know.

The finale of Jonesfest was a bring and share tea. I was so exhausted by this point my legs were aching from the aerial hoop and dragons and I just wanted to sleep, but only my sister Sarah and the Curtis family, who are big fans of Jonesfest and have been to nearly everything, came and it was a really lovely chilled out end to a mad 3 days.

There were points where I thought I won't do it again, it's a lot of work and sometimes it can be disappointing when people don't turn up to something you've planned, or the weather lets you down, but by the end I was so happy with the whole thing and I'm already having thoughts about Jonesfest 2022. If you helped out or just came along thank you so much for being part of this very weird but fun idea of mine. 

10 Years

My last blog post was about all the exciting things that were happening in July. Now that it's August I can update you on them.

My Interview: I didn't get the job doing art workshops with the Brain Charity. I think I gave a good interview, the feedback was that my art workshop idea was perfect, my answers were all good but evaluation is a big part of their projects because it's funded by Children In Need and so they have to show a lot of positive outcomes to get funding and I was not experienced in evaluation because in my job I work for myself and I am almost never asked to evaluate my projects afterwards in a formal way. It's a bit of a shame but so much has happened since that I entirely forgot that I even had an interview, it's only that I looked back at my previous blog.

On the same day as the interview I was asked to provide art workshops for a lunch time holiday club. Marcus Rashford's school dinner campaign means there's money to provide children who would normally get free school meals with a lunch box of food and some fun things to do. So every Thursday I go to this beautiful community garden surrounded by less than beautiful high rise flats and help the kids to make mosaics of butterflies, which will eventually go up on the fences.

Dan's game show: He didn't win any money. He had a great day and met one of his idols Lee Mack. Out of 100 people 6 won £1000 and one won £10, 000. He did fairly well though, he was in the top 25% of contestants.

Jonesfest: ended last night and was absolutely epic I'll write a whole blog post on it very soon. But to be chronological I first need to write about our 10 year anniversary holiday...

It's been a decade of a lot of change. At the beginning of our marriage we were 25 and we bought a very small house in a very dodgy area of Liverpool. Dan worked in Southport in a job he didn't like and communted by motorbike so was out the house for 12 hours a day. I had just been made redundant from a company that got me to go into school and delivering art projects and so was trying to make a go of doing that without the company and sales team that I was used to. Skip forward 10 years and we have 2 boys and a rabbit, a bigger house with a garden. we've been on a big two month cycling adventure, I became a comedian, and also have managed to do the art workshop thing off and on for 10 years. Dan has a much more local job. It's not all been great; I had cancer and we were sort of homeless for 9 months and Dan will be redundant by next month, but we are very grateful to be in the position we are in.

I've been looking forward to this holiday for about 3 years. I love to celebrate things and I knew I wanted to do something to mark 10 years since this beautiful day.

Photos by Daniel Charles Photography

I remember being dumped with the grandparents on my parents 10 year anniversary when my Dad took my Mum on a surprise trip to Paris. I was about 7 and all I really remember was one morning not being able to find my knickers and being old enough to be embarrassed to go down stairs naked and ask for help, but not old enough to think about a different solution like putting a dressing gown on. I'm sure my grandparents did loads of lovely stuff with me, but that is my only memory.

Anyway I managed to exchange that slightly embarrassing moment where I was abandoned by my parents, for 5 nights of free childcare from my parents! Totally worth it. Originally we were thinking of going to Portugal but in the end, because of the uncertainties, we decided to stick with Britain and I'm glad we did. It was less stressful and we were lucky with the weather.

We stayed in a nice hotel, in a tiny place called Lamphey near Penbroke in South Wales. Being in a hotel meant we had literally no jobs to do. The biggest chore I did all week was rinse out my swimsuit after a swim. Given that every evening after the kids are in bed we do half an hour to an hour of tidying the house this was amazing! In the run up to these days away we we so incredibly busy. I was having less than a hour of free time in 24 hours, sometimes getting up at 6 to do stuff before the kids got up and going to bed really late. It was not sustainable but I kept telling myself the more I got done the more I could relax and enjoy the holiday, which I really did.

The first day was really hot, we dropped the kids off at my parents early in the morning and made the big drive down just stoping in McDonalds for breakfast. I went to Pembrokshire once 2 years ago to visit my friend Hazel who lived there. It was the school holidays and Dan had to work but I was free all summer so I took the boys down for 5 days, an it was amazing - apart from the bit where I lost 2 year old Eric in a farm park for half a hour: that was the worst bit. But the best bit was Tenby beach, such a beautiful fun beach with an island you can swim out to. Except last time I was there my friend was at work and so it was just me and the boys and I couldn't swim out the the island. 

So this time I came prepared. We parked up after our long journey purposely left all our valuables in the car and headed down for a swim. The water was so clear, I found it refreshing on a hot day (Dan said it was too cold) we swam out towards the island to find you can actually swim into a cave and right out the other side of the little island! 

Other highlights were cycling to a castle, doing an inflatable obstacle course and jumping off a cliff into the sea.

We had a big chat about what things are important to us in life and realised we really are quite compatible! We both want more nature particularly beaches in our life, we both value journeying and adventure, not doing what everyone else does, we both want time for creativity (we are creative in very opposite ways but we highly value creating things). Lastly I value having friends round for meals and parties and inclusion of as many people as possible, whereas Dan values rest and quiet time. 

Dan has just kindly supported me in putting on a 3 day festival in our house and garden where I invited everyone I knew. So if you know Dan maybe don't drop round in the next few days while he recovers.

Heres to the next 10.