Portland Climbing

Beautiful day in the late summer sun.

First day back at work...

... and I'm exhausted. And it wasn't even a full-on day, just meetings and admin stuff!

Yesterday was a brilliant end to the holidays, though. Bobby and I cycled the 40 miles to Brighton, along the back roads. It was a beautiful ride, traffic-free for much of the way. It felt so good to be outside, in the sun, and moving...

The last hill almost killed me though. It went on for what seemed like forever ... but we made it (just) and then it was downhill into Brighton, and a cold beer and a delicious meal at a beachfront restaurant.

Pictures on facebook, if you want to see -

And we had a good family evening - Indian take-out, to belatedly celebrate Em's excellent AS levels.

I have tomorrow night's dinner already prepped and in my new crockpot - I love the way it looks, hope it cooks well too! It is cool that you can saute onions in the crock on the hob, and it can also go in the oven and under the grill...

Back to normal?

So college opened today after our two snow days. We were one of only three institutions in the district to open, apparently. We need every lesson we can get, as the lower sixth students start their exams on Monday. About a third of the Sociology students made it in - and, fair play to them, for some of them it took almost 3 hours, what with the ice - and about two-thirds of the Psychology students made it in. Which just about sums up the difference between the two groups...

A 3 day work week seems just about ideal to me. Enough to keep busy, not enough to get stressed.

I am still liking the snow - though I am starting to get a bit frustrated at not being able to drive anywhere as the novelty factor begins to wear off.


I still found the walk home magical, though...

Christmas is coming!

I love all the Christmas lights. The trees along the road opposite the college are all white and sparkly, as are the fir trees next to the park. It makes leaving college in the dark (the sun sets ridiculously early at the moment; it's pitch dark before I've even finished teaching every afternoon) a pleasure instead of a chore.

The other nice thing about the insanely short days is that you can get up very late and still be in time for the sunrise. On Saturday we went for an early morning run - left home at 6.45 - and were able to run by moonlight. Beautiful, specially running round the duck pond in the park. It was a good run - except that it clouded over and started to pour with rain when we were about half a k from home. Nothing quite like slodging through a muddy field in the pouring rain, and having your trainer literally get stuck in the mud! I'm very grateful for hot showers.

Work is going well at the moment; I am feeling organised and (touch wood) on top of things. I have really nice students in all my classes this year, which helps too! And I'm starting to look forward to Christmas. I think all the Christmas shopping is done. I did mine online which was completely painless. Soph needed me to take her shopping, though, so we went to creepy-Crawley on Saturday morning. She is a very thoughtful gift buyer - I was impressed by the things she's chosen. And we had a fun girly morning together.


Christmas itself should be good. We're going to this cottage on the Cornish coast with my parents - I can't wait for long windy walks along the cliff tops! And then warm nights in front of the fire, with the kids, and board games, and books, and hot chocolate.... Only 11 more days! And only 8 of those are work days!

Not everyone seems to be feeling the festive spirit, though - poor Emily routinely has to deal with angry customers on the evenings when she works at the local Chinese take-away. People get annoyed when the wait times are long - fair enough, but why take it out on the two teenage girls behind the counter? One of the teachers from her old high school was in there on Friday night; Millie says this woman got really angry when she had to wait for her order, and then, as they were leaving, her boyfriend grabbed a prawn cracker from the bowl on the counter, threw it on the ground, and snarled "I'll be back"! Seriously, what kind of an idiot behaves like that? Emily and Claire (the other student who works there) both thought it was funny; it sounds a bit upsetting to me, though. You'd think the teacher would want to set a good example to former students - presumably she didn't recognise Emily ...

Rainy Days (and Sundays)

Grey windy darkness today. It's dreary, and depressing.

Yesterday was busy - it was a surprise family celebration for my uncle, and my cousins had flown in from France and Switzerland for the weekend. So we got to hang out with all the baby cousins - well, the cousins' babies - who were multi-lingually adorable. Between them, they - or at least, the ones who have got to the verbal stage - speak Swiss-German, French, Italian and English. So that was lovely, and reminded me of how sweet toddlers and babies are. Sweet, and noisy. I loved that stage when mine were in it, but I wouldn't like to go back to it.

Sadly, though, we hardly saw Bobby this weekend; he worked flat-out. He's home now, though, and the implementation went really well, so he is (justifiably) proud. I like the fact that he's good at what he does.

After my parents left today I sorted out my lessons for tomorrow. I am ready for the week, but am feeling distinctly uninspired. I enjoyed my week off, but it didn't feel quite long enough. Hopefully the adrenaline of facing my classes will make me more enthusiastic (specially as I am teaching all 8 periods tomorrow); right now, the prospect of the next seven weeks seems rather bleak. I think it's the post-PGCE "what-now" feeling - I have the permanent job I wanted - but what's the next goal?

Pleasantly tired

Just got back from a little run with Sophie.

It was lovely - we went through the park, up to the ridge of the hill (Sophie says she feels like a rabbit when we go along that bit, tired from all the hopping), back down through the woods, round the duckpond, past the allotments, through the fields, past the horses and along the footpath back home.

Reminds me of the Bears In the Night book I loved so much as a five year old.

It's not yet five, but the sun set twenty minutes ago, which makes me feel that it's time to start cooking, even though none of us is hungry yet. I think I am programmed to start thinking about dinner as the sun sets. This is why I want to start cooking before 3.30 in winter (when I'm still at work) and can't bear to begin till 9.30 or 10 at the height of summer.

Tomorrow my parents arrive; they'll be spending two nights with us. I spent today marking and doing lesson prep; still got quite a bit to do before they arrive... and I suppose I should probably do a spot of cleaning as well... I need more hours in each day. How I wish I could give up sleep... If I did, that would make two of us, as poor Bobby is not sleeping well at the moment. He's very stressed about this weekend's implementation, so he struggles to fall asleep, and is awake by 4 every morning. His curse (and blessing) is that he really cares about what he does, to the extent that it affects his health at times. I hate it when he's so stressed while I'm on holiday - knowing that he's miserable makes it impossible for me to feel completely happy.

Half Term

Thank God. I really need this break.

Nine days of freedom - and three of them have already flown by.

The days are going to get shorter and shorter from now on, because the clocks went back yesterday. Soon I'll be teaching the last period of the day, and notice that it's pitch black outside...But on the plus side, I love the whole run up to Christmas, all the lights and the decorations, and the carols...

Yesterday was fun, albeit tiring. We went into London, because Bobby needed to take his poor drowned iPhone into the Apple store (you can read about his emotional trauma at his blog). We thought we'd make a day of it - do a bit of shopping (winter coats for the girls), and take Stephen out for a meal. It was a good day, but I was knackered when we got home. Oxford Street was heaving, and it's tiring fighting for pavement space with so many other people. The meal - very late lunch or very early supper - was absolutely delicious, and revived us all. But then, we got on the world's slowest train for the return trip. Instead of the journey taking the usual 30 minutes, it took us more than half an hour just to get to East Croydon. We stopped - for ages - at stations I'd never heard of before. And we had to change three times. This, as Bobby pointed out endlessly, is what happens when one travels without an iPhone.

Today has been pleasant too. I have cleaned the house (no more of that this half-term), eaten cookies baked by Emily, done the ironing (I love the smell of ironing water) and finished my book. Ian McEwan is now officially my current favourite author.

Not sure what we'll do tomorrow, but I'm going to try to make myself go for a run before breakfast. The weather is absolutely stunning at the moment, and I know it won't last. This was Sheffield Park Gardens last weekend ... beautiful colours...



My parents will be spending this weekend with us, so I should get my marking and prep out of the way before they arrive. Then, we have a big family gathering happening on Sunday - a combination welcome party for my cousin's new baby girl, and a surprise 70th birthday party for my uncle. It will be interesting to meet up with all the cousins again. Bobby won't be able to join us, though - he's going to be working all weekend. I will miss him - at events like that, it is so nice to be to catch his eye at certain moments and know that we're both thinking the same sort of thing... I am glad we are still in love. Someone I work with - actually, two people I work with - really seem to dislike their partners, and see them as nothing more than income sources. It's depressing listening to them - it must be grim to have annoyance as the primary emotion that you feel towards your spouse.

This morning...

We paused on our run this morning to take this picture... Still can't get over how lucky we were to land up here.

The rest of the day has been tending to sicky Sophie (who has a horrible hacking cough and headache), taking Ems for her cervical cancer vaccine (ow) and cleaning (four loads of washing currently hanging on the line). So, nothing special... but the autumn sun makes the mundane seem beautiful.

Glad it's Friday

Poor Sophie.

Today was the day of her blood tests - fasting blood tests, at that.

Things could have gone better.

We were at the hospital just before 8 (the blood taking department opens for business at 8, and if you get there right as it opens you can be in and out in 10 minutes). We were both rather hungry (I hadn't eaten or drunk either, in solidarity with Soph...) but in good spirits. But, the second after I'd driven into the carpark, I realised that I'd left the pathology form at home. Aaargh. It's one of those annoying carparks that gives you a ticket, you pay at a machine inside the hospital, and then use your ticket again to drive out. So I'd have to walk all the way into the hospital, pay, and then go home again... But luckily Bobby hadn't left home yet, so he brought the form over to us. So, slightly stressful, but no crisis.

Because of the delay, 10 people had got in before us, so we had to wait for about 45 minutes to be seen.

Once in the blood-taking room, there was another delay because the nurse had to find out what one of the tests - the key one - was. (I'm glad she asked; a while ago when Ems had some bloods done they tested her for glandular fever instead of IGF-1. Unsurprisingly, she tested negative).

The nurse had to draw quite a few vials of blood, and Sophie was doing really well, until, while the second vial was being done, she said she could hear her pulse beating - then her eyes rolled back in her head, she went a nasty grey colour, and she passed out cold. The bit that scared me was that she was kind of twitching while she was unconscious. It only lasted for a minute or so, and then she recovered consciousness... Scary for both of us, though. And she felt really rough when she came round. The nurses were very sweet; they were outraged that the doctor had scheduled such a big array of fasting tests when only one - and a non-essential one at that - strictly needed to be done fasting. They sent us off to go get some food and drink into Sophie, and then bumped us back to the front of the queue for the remaining tests. Sophie was very brave again - and, fortunately, there was no more fainting.

I thought Sophie might want the day off school after her unpleasant morning, and I was ready to phone in to work and ask them to organise cover for me, but she said she was fine and wanted to go to school. So that's what she did. Tough little cookie.

Let's just hope that all the tests come back completely normal, so we can steer well clear of hospitals for the forseeable future.

Another milestone

Yesterday was Stephen's first day at university.

Here we are outside the King's College library...



Coincidentally, this weekend also happens to be the weekend when many buildings of historical interest which are usually private are open to the general public, so we were able to tour the library. Pretty amazing...

We were in London by 11, and while Steve got his room key and started unpacking, Bobby and I went to what was billed as an orientation session for family members. Afterwards we met up with Steve again for lunch.

.

His walk from his hall of residence (hall = res for SAs, dorm for US people) to campus is quite spectacular - along the Thames, opposite the Houses of Parliament, past the London Eye and over the bridge to Somerset House.

There was lots happening along the river on Saturday - street art -



someone juggling a glass ball



dancers taking a break - I liked the juxtaposition of the African dress and the Houses of Parliament in the background -



and people blowing bubbles.



This is Stephen's hall - Brian Creamer House. It's in the grounds of Lambeth Palace, and very close to the Archbishop's Park. Because it's set back from the road and hidden from public view it feels very tranquil, despite being so central.



After we'd eaten, we walked back with him and picked up a few groceries on our way - the hall is self-catered; each group of four students has a kitchen to share. A far cry from the pampered existence Bobby and I had, back in the day! And then we said goodbye. He had a party to go to, and we had to get home to the girls.

The day was too busy to feel much sadness. But today all the emotions have hit hard. A mix of happiness for Stephen - the start of a whole new phase for him - and apprehension - how will he cope - and sadness - because we're going to miss him.

This is the end of an era... Of course he will come home... often, I'm sure... but he's now officially a young adult, living on his own. Very bittersweet... Bobby is also quite emotional - I don't think he'd expected that Steve's starting uni would feel quite this momentous, but it does. It really does.

Need a better plan...

Well, so much for that.

Bobby and I had planned to make sure that Sundays were free from college work and housework, so that we had a whole day to relax as a family. Didn't manage it this week, though... I worked pretty solidly today - 9.30 till 11.30 this morning, and then again from 1pm till 7. This on top of working yesterday afternoon from 1pm till 11pm. Ridiculous. That, plus the usual weekly chores, meant that there wasn't much time for relaxation this weekend.

It wasn't entirely gloom and doom - there was some enjoyment in the weekend, in amongst all the work.

Sophie had a sleepover here on Friday. Three little girls, lots of giggling.
I took Emily and Sophie shopping - undies and shoes.
Bobby and I went for a really nice run early this morning.
And the five of us went out to dinner tonight, at our usual Indian restaurant.

But I feel exhausted, rather than refreshed. Working this much on the weekend is not really do-able long-term. I am going to have to get through all my prep during the work week, otherwise I'm going to burn myself out.

And in any case, I won't be able to work much next weekend - it's the weekend that we take Steve up to uni! First chick to fly the nest... Quite a milestone.

Whoosh...

...the sound of another week flying by.

Work this year is going to be hectic. I have a "real" timetable this year (no more NQT remission), I'm teaching three courses instead of two, and I'm mentoring someone who's embarking on their PGCE, so that's yet another period a week. It's going to be odd - albeit less stressful - being on the other side of the observation!

So I'm going to be busy, which means that the weekends are going to be precious.

I went for a run early on Saturday morning, and then we cleaned the house and dealt with the laundry. Bobs went to fly his planes in the afternoon while I did some college work, and the kids hung out and read their books. The evening was also low-key - ironing and chatting, mainly.

Sunday has been a day of relaxation, though.

We went for a walk



and then on to Fanny's Farm Shop for brunch. It's so pretty there, especially round the back in their kitchen garden section - little battered tables hidden in the foliage. There's also a treehouse that one can hire for special events - I'm wondering if Sophie would like her next birthday party there...



Then we went blackberry picking. It feels quite eco-friendly getting food from the hedges, and I always feel like I've earned it, by the time I've fought the thorns and the nettles that grow interspersed with the bramble! I decided to make bramble jelly this year, instead of jam - the seedy bits were slightly annoying last year. But I got slightly freaked out by how repulsive the berries looked while they were draining through the straining cloth. It looked distinctly like something a serial killer might have in their kitchen. Very disturbing.



The end result looks good, though. I have three jars of jelly sitting on the kitchen counter, ready to be tasted at breakfast time tomorrow morning. I hope it'll be a good start to the week!

Last hurrah

Bobby's mum and sister left for South Africa on Friday. It was lovely having them visit, and it still feels odd without them here - the house feels much emptier, and cooking meals for five instead of seven feels wrong. Hopefully it won't be too long before we see them again...




And today was my first day back at work after the summer holidays. Interestingly, I have noticed that the more holiday I have, the more I want. Apparently, for me, there is no such thing as enough free time. It's not that I don't like my job - I do, and I can't imagine a nicer one - but I like being on holiday with the kids more. Presumably I will get back into the swing of the work week, but I was shattered when I got home today, and it wasn't even a proper work day - just meetings and such!

Since yesterday was my final day of freedom we decided to have as full a day as possible. So we took the train to Waterloo early, and went to see Stephen's hall of residence. (He starts university on the 19th - eek!) He is so lucky - he'll be able to walk to his lectures along the Thames, looking at views like this one!




Then we went to Covent Garden Market, and looked at a variety of tat, and watched a guy on a unicycle.

Then on to Camden Market...




...for lunch next to the lock.



The food stalls there are amazing - everything from Ethiopian to Chinese.

Then to Regent's Park, for a lie down on the grass, a cup of tea, and a walk though the gardens...



... before going to Trafalgar Square, on to China Town, and to the book shops in Charing Cross Road.

This is a reflection in the mirrored surface of a bridge as we came up from a tube station.



While we were at Foyles, I bought myself a copy of Margaret Atwood's new book. I feel slightly guilty about it - normally I'd wait for the paperback or just get it out of the library - but the cover was so beautiful and it felt so satisfyingly heavy when I picked it up that I couldn't resist. The girls got books too. Sophie got Forever Rose, by Hilary McKay. I absolutely love her books, they are funny and honest and intelligent and also very charming. And Ems got Tell Me No Lies, by Malorie Blackman. Bobby is still working his way through a programming book he bought when he went into London with his sister last week, and Stephen is tackling some of the books he'll be studying, so they didn't get anything...

The weather was so gorgeous that we couldn't bear to go back home, so we went back to the South Bank and had supper outside at Wagamama.




We lingered for as long as we decently could, watching the people go by, and then wandered down onto the pebbles next to the Thames.




One thing about the British and the sun ... when it shines, the men tend to take their shirts off, and it's not always an appealing site.




This view, on the other hand, was truly beautiful...




We walked a roundabout way back to the station, and were well and truly tired by the time we got on the train. Not in as bad a way as the drunk guy who got on the train at East Croydon, though, and staggered up from his seat after a few minutes when he realised that he had no idea where he was, or where he was trying to go. He alternated by saying "Oh dearie, dearie me!" and "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" Lucky conductor, getting to deal with him...

Wow!

Emily got her GCSE results today: 6 A*s and 5 As. (She took an extra subject last year; hence the 11th result).



We're going out tonight to celebrate.

What we've been doing...

Horses on the hill at the allotments...



Tower bridge...



Boat trip on the Thames...



On the grass outside the Maritime Museum in Greenwich...





High up on Beachy Head...



and deep down in the Underground. The escalators were broken so Bobby's mum had to walk all the way down those steep stairs; a bit frightening for all concerned. I'm grateful it was at a quiet time of day - it would have been terrifying if there'd been loads of rushing commuters pushing past her.



Outside Buckingham Palace. (There's water behind them, and no, he didn't actually fall in...)



And to tea in a rather sinisterly decorated farm shop.



Poor swine-flued Bobby missed out on a lot, though he did recover in time to have a good day in London with his sister yesterday. He's back at work today; what an infuriating waste of his week of leave!

And, note all the blue sky! The weather has been glorious; the English summer at its best.

Up and down

Up: my mum-in-law and sister-in-law have arrived. It's lovely to have them here, and we've been sightseeing and doing touristy things. Tower of London, boat trip on the Thames, Greenwich market, Hever castle... And the weather has been gorgeous. Hot and sunny; most un-English.

Down: Bobby has swine flu. He's quite ill. High temperatures, muscle aches, sore throat, sore chest ... generally miserable. I think he is starting to feel a little better but it is a nasty flu. The NHS system has worked very smoothly; we picked up his Tamiflu as soon as he was diagnosed so he could start it promptly ... and we didn't have to pay a penny for it...

Up: Stephen got his A level results today. He got his predicted grades so he can take up his place at King's College and start his philosophy degree in a couple of weeks. So all that hard work has been worth it. He's excited; so are we. Excited and proud.

Every cloud...

I had decided that this would be the week where I got stuck into preparing for next term and got all my schemes of work and so forth orgnanised.

Only, on Sunday, Emily somehow tipped my glass desk top onto the floor, where it shattered into a million tiny pieces.

I tell you, having a sheet of glass destroyed next to you is quite a way to wake up from a peaceful Sunday afternoon nap! Emily had been using my laptop at my desk, while I read on the bed ... until reading accidentally turned into sleeping...

Amazingly, she was completely unscathed. Gave me a hell of a fright, though.

It's a bit of a nuisance, as it means I don't have anywhere to work at the moment. But on the plus side, if I don't have anywhere to work, then I can ignore the work with a completely clear conscience. So yesterday and today have been baking, gardening, relaxing with the kids days. Tomorrow I'll be taking Sophie and a couple of her friends to swim at the Guildford Spectrum, so no working then either. Heh.

I will have to get started thereafter, though. Bobby's mum and sister arrive on the 15th, and will be here till the beginning of September - which is when I go back to work. Obviously I can't work while they're here, so I must get my lesson planning out of the way before they arrive. Guess I'll start on Thursday ... or Friday ... or maybe it would be better to start on Monday. Fresh week and all that. We'll see.

Quiet

It's grey and rainy and dreary right now. The house is quiet - the only thing I can hear is the rain on the windows. The girls are out (Emily's working, and Sophie's at a sleepover) and Bobby and Stephen are all the way downstairs. The weather forecast says we should get some sun tomorrow, and I hope we do; the combination of wet and chilliness, along with not being able to exercise (sore hip/back/butt) is starting to get me down. I caved in and went to the doctor this morning; she has given me some stronger anti-inflammatory painkillers, and I think they are helping. I am so frustrated at not being able to run - it's been two weeks now, and it really irks me to think how much fitness I must be losing with every sedentary day that passes. The doctor said it'll probably be another two or three weeks before I can run again. I'm hoping it'll be sooner, though.

I think part of the reason I feel so blah tonight is that, in addition to missing out on exercise-induced endorphins, the past few days have been so busy and so much fun that now, in the aftermath, I have the what-now blues.

Wednesday was Sophie's roller-coaster riding birthday celebration, Thursday and Friday I spent with my parents in Beccles, but today has been mainly laundry and vacuuming and rain.

Sophie's birthday worked out really well. We dithered about whether or not to go to Thorpe Park - it's quite expensive, and the weather forecast wasn't good. So the thought of paying a lot of money for a rained-out day worried us. But we couldn't think of anything else that would be as fun, so we decided to go for it. And it didn't rain at all! We got there early enough that we were able to go on the best rides without queueing at all - and Sophie was pleased to be enough over the height requirements that the people with the measuring sticks didn't even bother to approach her. In the evening, at Sophie's request, we played Risk, and Charades, and then watched a DVD.

Here she is eating her birthday breakfast (crepes with lemon and sugar, and chocolate milk)



This was the first ride we went on - quite an adrenaline rush!



And here are the girls on the last ride of the day. We saved the wet ones till the end...




So, all in all, Sophie had a good birthday. And then the girls and I left for Beccles first thing the next morning. (Bobby had to work, and poor Stephen is jobhunting.) When we got there, my folks had put balloons up, and my mom had baked birthday cupcakes for Soph. We were thoroughly spoiled all the time we were there - they'd gone to all sorts of trouble for us. It was very touching... Made me happy, and also sad. I still get panicky sometimes; it's been five years since my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer and she is so well at the moment, but I can't help worrying that it will come back. I know that this worry is pointless, and normally I keep it at bay, but it's really bothering me right now. I need to deal with the anxiety - rationally I know that it's not serving any use, and that allowing it in only spoils what we have now - but it's hard to deal with...

Ugh.

One more picture, just because - it's a cabbage white butterfly, sitting on a cabbage at the Beccles market. There were dozens of butterflies fluttering around the veggies - beautiful - and surprisingly hard to photograph! Guess I will never work for National Geographic.

Yawn

Sophie had her birthday sleepover last night, so we had five extra twelve and almost-twelve year olds in the house last night. Activities included giving each other facials, watching girly dvds, making pizzas (I bought ready made bases and they put their own toppings on) dancing, and giggling. Not a lot of sleeping, though. They were up by 7.45, which surprised me, as they had still been awake at 1 last night, when Bobby and I went to sleep. And they were dressed and ready for the day by 8.30 (much spraying of Impulse and use of hair straighteners involved in the getting ready process; between the body sprays and the hair products it was fairly hard to breathe for a while...) After breakfast they went to the park. Well, five of the six of them did. The sixth wasn't allowed to go without an adult being present. Which I think is utterly ridiculous. But her mother won't allow her to go anywhere at all unchaperoned; apparently it's because her two older sisters went off the rails during their teens so her mother is determined that the youngest will have no opportunity to follow in their footsteps. Doesn't seem like a very good strategy to me, though. Stopping her daughter from doing totally innocent things now is surely going to lead to major rebellion later on?

I'm glad the sleepover went well, but I must admit I'm also glad it's over. Six 12 year olds is 5 too many for one house, really.

Can't believe Sophie will be 12 tomorrow, she still seems like my baby girl... She's asleep on the bed next to me right now, looking very small and young... Hmmm. Ems seems to have passed out too. It's amazing how many people can fit onto one regular-sized double bed. Ems is also growing up far too rapidly. She and her friends spent yesterday shopping on Oxford Street... I wonder if the poor child who wasn't allowed to go to the park will ever be allowed to venture out on such trips?

I am relieved that I managed to sort out the car today; its MOT is done and its car tax is paid. I found the whole process very stressful; dealing with forms always panics me far me than it ought to.

Stephen is stressed too, I think. He needs a part-time job as he has to earn some money before he starts uni at the end of September, because he's run through every penny of the money he'd saved up. And so far, he's had no joy in finding one. I feel very sorry for him, but I also feel incredibly frustrated and annoyed that he quit the job he used to have on the spur of the moment, and that he's spent his savings and has hardly anything tangible to show for it. I suppose this misery is the way that people learn the consequences of their actions...

Anyway, no-one's allowed to be stressed tomorrow, because it's Sophie's birthday and we're going to Thorpe Park to celebrate. And the next day, I and however many of the children wish to accompany me are going to Beccles to spend the day with my folks. Looking forward to both events greatly.

Today...

When we walked down the road to the Coop to get the paper this morning, Roly Poly came with us. He waited outside the shop when we went in, and then he walked home with us. But in a very cat-like manner - the whole way he sauntered along, pretending that he just happened to be walking that way anyway. Though he did call us when we walked out of the shop. Perhaps he was worried we wouldn't look both ways before we crossed the road.

It's been a lazy, pottery sort of day today. We did a bit of work in the garden, but aside from that everyone's just been hanging out reading their books.

I am very pleased with our little veggie garden. The tomato plants are laden with tomatoes; can't wait till they ripen. We eat mange tout and lettuce from the garden every day, and the courgettes are a success, as are the mint, thyme and rosemary. I have high hopes of the butternut and the pumpkin (though I was livid when I saw that those bastard slugs have eaten one of the baby pumpkins; will be making a new slug trap tomorrow) and I think the carrots will be ready to eat fairly shortly. Not sure when the beetroot will be ready, but they all look very healthy. Our only failure thus far has been the spinach; hardly any of it took. We planted some cabbages today, as well. I don't actually like cabbage much, but Bobby has a craving (presumably not a terribly urgent craving) for coleslaw, so in they went.

Ah, school holidays - I should have that Sunday feeling, but, since there's no work or school tomorrow, I feel like it's Friday night every night.

I am desperately hoping that I will be able to go for a run tomorrow morning. I am getting very frustrated with my back/hip - every time I think it's better it seizes up again and it feels like someone is ramming needles into my hip. Seriously unpleasant. Am hoping that taking things very easy today will have helped...