It is with some sadness that I announce the retirement of Jimmy and Grandad 1.0. It is with a little excitement that I announce the arrival of Jimmy and Grandad 2.0.

Both Jimmy and Grandad have known that this day was coming and have embraced it with the resilient attitudes you would expect. Many of you will not know this but Grandad has for some time suffered from repeated fractures in his legs due to his age, and Jimmy’s clothes have, quite frankly, become a disgrace.

Jimmy and Grandad 1.0 were there to witness the arrival of their upgraded selves and welcomed them with open arms. As with many upgrades some things are better, and newer, other things are not quite what they used to be. You will notice that the new Grandad has had to resort to glasses because his eyesight isn’t quite as good as Grandad 1.0. You will also notice that Jimmy 2.0 doesn’t quite have the same wide smile as Jimmy 1.0.

So I would ask you to welcome the new Jimmy and Grandad as they try to take on their new roles. It can be quite demanding to be expected to travel so widely.

Jimmy and Grandad 1.0 will be entering retirement on the third floor of the bookshelf. From there they will be able to continue their studies of human behaviour without having to participate in quite so many adventures.

It is the end of an era.

It’s been a little while since Jimmy and Grandad have been out.

I think they are feeling just a little upset by having their house moved from my nice warm study out into the garage, so I should probably make it up to them by taking them out.

But where?

We are going to the theatre in Manchester on Saturday night, but I’m not sure I can get away with flash photography in the Royal Exchange . Might be fun to try though.

Came across SlideFlickr today so thought I would share all of the Jimmy and Grandad pictures with you:

I had a bit of a strange experience writing this post though. When I pasted the SlideFlickr code into Windows Live Writer is decided that it would be a great thing to go off and open loads and loads of browser windows.

For those of you who have missed Jimmy and Grandad – they have returned. They’ve always been here, I’ve just been too busy to observe their daily adventures.

For those of you who think the pictures are a bit dark – it is winter here, which means it’s dark most of the time .

Jimmy and Grandad now have their own Flickr Set please feel free to comment on their adventures.

I’ve had a few questions about “Jimmy and Grandad” and there current showing on Oak Grove well here is an explanation.

In a house at the end of a cul-de-sac in a quite corner of Lancashire’s newest city is an upstairs room. Some would look at this room and believe that it was just an ordinary room. It has four walls, a window and a door, nothing special there. In one quite corner of this room though is a four storey wooden house. It has a basement with a garage for the car. It has bedrooms for the inhabitants. It has a bathroom in the attic. It has everything that a modern family could possibly want.

In this house lives a wonderful extended family; Grandma, Grandad, Mum, Dad, Jimmy, Emmy and Tilly the baby. There is even a full set of pets rabbit, cat, and everyone’s favourite Tyke the dog.

Most of the time they are just an ordinary family doing ordinary things in an ordinary way. But like all ordinary families they are really extraordinary. When Jimmy and Grandad get together anything could happen and it regularly does. Jimmy is a lover of gadgets and technology, Grandad his somewhat slower side-kick. Physical slowness isn’t a problem for the quick minded Grandad though and he gets it faster than Jimmy most of the time. In this world it’s mental agility that counts.

They may not look cool, they may never change their clothes, they may never comb their hair, they may be made of wood, but they are extraordinary.

Welcome to the adventures of Jimmy and Grandad.