Losing the plot?

Last week I plumbed new depths of disorganisation.

I needed to pick up a gift for someone before work, so I drove in (normally I walk), parked in the Morrison's car park (local grocery store) and walked down the high street to M&S. Bought a gift, and a gift bag, and a card - and walked back down the high street to college, forgetting all about the car. The next I thought of it was at 5 that evening, as I wandered around the college car park wondering where on earth I'd parked it. Finally a dim memory of walking down the high street worked its way up into my consciousness, and I realised what I'd done. I'm such an idiot; that fit of absent-mindedness is probably going to cost me £70, as there's a camera in the parking lot which counts you in and out, and the max parking time allowed is 2 hours. So I flinch every time I hear the post arrive. Ugh.

I do worry about my memory; I seem to forget everything unless I write it down. And even then, sometimes I forget. I used to be so good at keeping track of things - not anymore! I guess it's partly due to the fact that I have a lot more to keep track of these days. That, and old age - I'll be 40 in a month...

We're going to start thinking about Christmas this weekend; ideally I'd like to organise it all by the end of the month but I'm not sure we'll manage. College runs till the 18th, we're celebrating my birthday on the 19th, and we're off to Cornwall on the 20th, so, one way and another, it all has to be done before the end of term.

I love this time of year, busy though it is. I bought a beautiful advent calendar on the way home from work today - a pretty one, not a chocky one - can't wait to start opening the windows!

Killing time

I have half-an-hour or so before I need to pick my folks up from the airport. They've been in Portugal for the last couple of weeks. It'll be back to reality with a vengeance for them once their plane lands in Gatwick; it's grey and rainy and cold today. Though to be fair the weekend was gorgeous here ... We didn't make much of the weekend, though, as Bobby was working. The implementation he was dealing with has finally happened and it went well. He's very relieved, and basking in the well-deserved glory.

I went for a run this morning and enjoyed it. This came as a surprise, as every run I've been on for the last couple of weeks has been dreary and tiring, to the point where I had almost decided to find some other way to get my exercise in. I particularly enjoyed running through the graveyard today(I'd insert some pun about the quick and the dead at this stage but I can't quite figure one out.) It was beautiful, all mist and long grass and fallen grave stones. Maybe tomorrow I'll take Bobby's phone with me and take a couple of pictures. (Mine has a crappy camera to go along with the rest of its inadequate features).

Tomorrow I intend to put the finishing touches to all my assignments, and then I'll be done, done, done! Two years of hard work...seems hard to believe I'm actually almost finished... And, nice surprise, there was a letter in my pigeonhole at work on Friday; they're bumping me up another notch on the salary scale! So my salary as of September will actually be quite reasonable.

It has been lovely hanging out at home these past few days. (We're half-way into the half-term break). Is this a sign of old age, that pottering around the garden in the sun and drinking tea with the kids seems positively delightful? Used to be my idea of utter boredom...

First birthday of the year

Happy birthday dear Stephen!





We took the train in to London so Steve could spend his book vouchers at Foyle's. It is really pleasant doing stuff in London on New Years Day as there are always far fewer people than usual about.





While in London we took a stroll down to the Philosphy building at King's College - if all goes according to plan, that's where Steve will be studying next year! Bobby and Steve outside the Surrey Street entrance...





...walking down to the Embankment





... girls outside the Embankment side of the university...





Buses on the bridge...




and the London Eye...





Reading on the train on the way home...





Emily is racing through the Twilight series; wish I could find a new author I liked as much! Perhaps best I don't, though, I have an awful lot of work to do this year..

Me trying to stave off death from hypothermia in the dreaded depths of East Croydon station. Am surprised that, in my weakened state, the exorbitant cost of the inferior coffee didn't finish me off once and for all.





I could go all mushy and write pages about Steve at this point but I won't because he wouldn't care for it. I will say, though, that I love him very much.

Home from the Highlands

I loved our recent camping trip. The Highlands are beautiful. Mountainous and remote; it's not often that one gets a feeling of space and emptiness in the United Kingdom, so we relished it. I wish we could have stayed longer. Scenery aside, the kids always get on so well when we're outdoors, and life is so uncomplicated. Meals, for instance, are so quick and easy, and we're always so hungry that they taste fabulous. Am toying with the idea of getting rid of all our current kitchen equipment and sticking to using the gas primus and the five enamel plates and cups that we use on camping trips.




We didn't book any campsites before we left, but the ones we stumbled across were lovely.





Aside from the midges. At first we didn't think they were too bad, but after a while ... aaargh! Horrible burny itchy bites that stick around for days. Midges in your hair are horrible; we now understand why people buy these funny looking helmet thingies. And the thought of using Midge as a pet name (as in The Various, a book which Sophie read recently), seems completely inappropriate.

My natural tendency is to want to sort everything out before we go on a trip, and book ahead; I'm coming around to doing things more spontaneously though, as the campsites we've booked online have often been disappointing compared to the ones we've found serendipitously.

The first campsite was at Glencoe; this picture was taken during a walk up the mountain. They filmed some of the Harry Potter movies here; I can see why.





This is Castle Stalker - for Monty Python fans, it's Castle Aaargggghhh, from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.





And this is Stephen, on the rather scary wire bridge at the base of Ben Nevis. We didn't climb Ben Nevis, much to Bobby's disappointment - since the kids just had trainers on, and we didn't have any cold weather gear, I vetoed it. Next time we'll come better prepared.





Two more castles - Castle Urquhart, on the shores of Loch Ness





and Castle Cawdor. Many bad Macbeth-inspired jokes were made.





More pictures of the second campsite we stayed at, as well as Oban and various family members, are here.

The road trip itself went well, largely because I made a giant sacrifice, and let Stephen and his long legs travel in the front with Bobby while I went in the back with girls. Hence, the car was a squabble and shove-free zone. We also all really got into the book-on-tape which we'd taken with us - Noughts and Crosses, by Malorie Blackman. It's aimed at young adults I think; a very good way of getting people to realise what apartheid was like. Some parts of it were almost too adult for Sophie but I think she was okay with it. Malorie Blackman does not seem to be the most subtle writer in the world, but the book certainly held everyone's attention, and sparked a lot of discussion. And it made Bobby and me remember how things used to be in South Africa... So odd to think that when I was pregnant with Stephen we were doing things like go to Free The Beaches protests. Seems like another world.

Choices...

I'm in the throes of planning a camping trip for next weekend, and trying to figure out which campsite to pick is making my head hurt. I am not very good at making choices; I tend to dither for ages. I've been looking for ages, and have come to the conclusion that I really I just need to pick one and be done with it. We plan to go to a little town in Wales called Hay-On-Wye. It's supposed to be extremely pretty, lots of outdoorsy stuff to do, and - best part - it's packed with second-hand book shops. We've been wanting to go there for ages, and since the weather is supposed to be nice next weekend, we decided to do it now. The two older kids are being awkward though. Steve claims he won't be able to get out of work (he is working Friday and Saturday nights at the moment, but I am pretty sure his employers would cope if he weren't there for one weekend) and Emily has a party that she wants to go to on the Saturday, so they are not remotely enthusiastic about going. Not sure whether to make them both come (hoping that they'll enjoy it in the end, but realising that they could sulk and make it miserable for all of us), or to let Stephen stay and force Em to come (on the grounds that he is 18 and reliable, but she is still only 15, and hence not old enough for a weekend without her parents) or to let them both stay home, and have Soph bring along a friend for company. Life was much less complicated before we had teenagers...

Beautiful Tintagel

This is the beach at Bossiney cliffs at low tide. The picture below shows how it looked a couple of hours before, when we arrived. I took this one from top of the path that leads down to the beach.





We had a lovely break. The youth hostel was gorgeous. A little house nestled at the bottom of a bumpy dirt track...





... right above the cliffs.





I had forgotten how cool the YHA hostels usually are. Often in fabulous locations (where else could we have cooked with a view over the Atlantic), and visited by interesting people. The first night we were there, it was just us and an elderly man on a walking tour; thereafter a French family with three boys arrived, as well as a couple with a little baby and an adorable three year old girl. Typically the sort of people who take their kids to stay at tv-less, internet-less, mobile-phone-receptionless youth hostels are more into board games than nintendos...always reassuring to see parents sort of like us.

We spent our time in North Cornwall walking the coastal path,admiring the castle, and playing on the beaches. It was lovely; cold, but in a good-to-be-outdoors kind of way, rather than a miserable way. I'm glad we didn't camp, though - on our first morning there we woke up to see drifts of hail piled up outside the hostel!

The rest of the pictures are here. I particularly like the ones of Sophie learning to skip stones on the beach at Bossiney cliffs, and the one of the church at Glebe Cliffs.

So that was all good. What is not good is that I currently feel dreadful; like I have flu, but without the temperature. Every muscle in my body aches, and I feel as weak as a kitten. I've spent the whole day in bed - couldn't face the stairs, even! - and I don't feel any better than I did this morning. I suppose I will have to ring the doctor if I still feel grim in the morning... This is not good, as my parents arrive tomorrow evening and will be spending two nights with us. Hope the kids carry on being as adorably helpful and wonderful as they have been today, as there is absolutely no way I will be able to do things like change bed linen and scrub their bathroom if I still feel like this tomorrow...

Stephen turned 18 today.

It's truly bewildering, how fast time flies. Seems like just a moment ago that he was a toddler. Now he's pretty much a grown man. Though watching him chucking a ball at my nice clean livingroom walls a moment ago, that seemed particularly hard to believe...





Here he is with his sister, united in a temporary teenagery truce; they both got laptops as a combined birthday/Christmas gift.

We went to the Natural History museum this morning, to see the Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition.

I love the look of the Natural History Museum, especially at this time of the year.






The exhbition was excellent; the pictures were truly amazing. And it was interesting reading about the lengths that people went to get those great shots.

A few more pictures from our day...

Sophie waiting on the station...





Pigeon outside the Natural History museum...



And the Tardis at London Victoria.





Happy new year, everyone!

Toy of the day this Christmas was one of the stocking-fillers - Tiddly Frogs, followed closely by the Purple Wriggly Worm which Ems is holding below.





It was a lovely day. Dark and rainy outside, but cosy and fun inside. We had a houseful of people, as my parents were staying with us as well as Bobby's mum, but we all fitted into the house just fine.





Boxing day was good too, with my aunt, my cousin, and her daughter joining us for the day. Sophie had tons of fun playing with her second cousin (or possibly first cousin once removed, who knows) and the rest of us ate yet more.





And the sun came out so Sophs could play with her Christmas present - a netball post and ball.





So, two wonderful, harmonious family days.

By day after Boxing Day, though, Bobby and I were starting to keep track of whose relatives were most annoying. I think my dad won my by a short head (combining extreme tactlessness with boring anecdotes is never good), though his mum (freakishly positive about every possible situation) and mine (Eeyoreish in response to the former) were both definitely in the running. So, after my folks and aunt had left, we spent the rest of the day pretty much holed up in the loft, recuperating from Relative Overload by reading, sleeping and (in Bobby's case) fiddling with his toy planes. Very soothing.

On Sunday the celebrations will start again - Emily will be turning 15! So odd to think that she could be ready to leave home in 3 or 4 years time.

We spent yesterday's beautiful sunny bank holiday in London, visiting the How We Are photography exhibition at the Tate Britain, and then strolling along the Thames with the rest of the holiday makers. All the street performers - the statue people, the jugglers, and musicians - made for a really nice atmosphere. A good end to the summer holidays. I go back to work later this morning; starting off gently with a meeting at one today before it all gets real tomorrow.

The rest of yesterday's pictures are here. None of Steve, since he was working. I feel like we hardly see him these days...

I can't believe how quickly this past week flew by.

The holiday was lovely. The cottage was comfy and warm, and big enough for the seven of us not to feel crowded or too much on top of each other. Predominant memories - long cold walks in the fog, sheep (the cottage is deep in sheep-farming country), board games, chinese jumprope, and reading by the fire. (We got a little carried away when we visited Wigtown, a little town famous for its many wonderful bookshops, causing the cottage to look, as my mom put it, "like a demented library"). I do love second-hand bookshops. Their range is so much wider and more varied than anything the big chains can offer. And we went for several drives when we'd done all the walks which were close to hand. The scenery was beautiful in an undramatic sort of way - rolling green hills, sheep, fog-coloured lochs, ruined churches and spiky leafless trees.




I took loads of pictures; I think I might put one up every day for the next couple of weeks, to remind myself of the holiday when the daily grind begins again.

Looking back, the holiday wasn't very typical of us - normally we don't really go in for just sitting around and relaxing, especially for so long. But everyone enjoyed it, so I think it must have been what we needed.

So. Happy new year to everyone! Back to school and work tomorrow; house chores and laundry today. It is cold today (oh how I hate this icy house, my fingers are literally getting numb as I type here - I cannot WAIT to move) but the sun is shining so I should get going.

Two whole days of painting over the ghastly blood-red walls of our bedroom in the new house, and I find, to my horror, that the new, supposedly calm, neutral colour which I picked because I thought it would make the room seem tranquil and peaceful actually just makes the walls look as though they have been coated in sludge.

I am hoping that when I next see those walls - in a week's time, when we get back from Scotland - they will seem less dire. We plan to leave tomorrow at four tomorrow morning; I am looking forward to the break immensely. I think it'll do us good to be in an environment where we can't possibly do any chores of any description. And no internet or tv either, which will be good for us too.

Meanwhile, I hope that all of you who'll be celebrating this week have a wonderful time. See you next week! (Or maybe, next year!)

The sun came out yesterday, so my birthday was gloriously sunny and frosty. A lovely treat after the greyness we've had recently (and before today's freezing fog!)

Some birthday pictures ...

Frozen sparkly cobwebs on the train station. We had ample time to study these, because we missed the train by 30 seconds - it was still on the platform as we arrived, but, since we had to get tickets, we had to wait a chilly half an hour for the next one.



Tower Bridge and the Thames.



The ice rink at the Tower of London.



Me, skating. The coat is my birthday present from Bobby.



View of the monument, built to commemorate the Great Fire of London. On a whim, we paid to climb its 311 stairs on the way home from skating.



View from the top.



It was a lovely day. It ended on a good note too - we braved the cold to walk into town and eat at one of the local Indian restaurants. Really delicious meal.

Conversation of the day :
Me : I feel so old. 37! Old, old, old.
Sophie : But you're getting wiser too!
Me : Thanks Soph, that's nice to hear.
Sophie : Yes, you're like an owl.

One of those compliments that leave you with an uneasy sort of feeling.

The kids' schools and my work closed for the holidays on Friday, and Bobby goes on leave tomorrow, so we're all free for the next couple of weeks! Yippee!

Last week was crazy, what with the house and work, and I shopped like a mad thing yesterday, so it feels wonderful to finally have a peaceful afternoon at home.

One interesting thing from last week - I was asked to go on a field trip with the media students, and ended up watching them film an episode of Fortune, a rather patronising and (in my opinion) distasteful ITV show in which millionaires (one of whom, weirdly, is Jeffrey Archer) give money away. It'll air early next year sometime, I think. I've always been quite cynical about so-called "reality" shows, and seeing this has made me even more so. For instance, you know when a contestant says something, and then they pan to the audience so you can see the expressions on people's faces - joy, or outrage, or whatever? Well, they actually get tons of those shots before they even start filming the show, and cut them in later as they see fit. Same with the clapping. They had the audience clap excitedly, clap boredly, hiss in disgust and so on, so that they had all that recorded before the contestants or millionaires actually arrived on set. Also, to add insult to injury, the studio where they were filming looked more like a barn than an actual studio. Looked like a barn, and felt like one too, since an icy wind was whistling in through the open doors. However, everyone in the audience had to remove coats, scarves, gloves etc, so that it looked as though they were in a real, warm, studio. So if you ever see the show, and the audience seems to have a blueish tinge to them, that's why.

In other news, we celebrated Emily's 14th birthday on Sunday. She doesn't actually turn 14 until the 30th, but we decided to do it before Christmas so that her birthday doesn't get lost in all the post-Christmas-getting-back-from-holiday muddle.



She had planned her day down to the last second, (my darling girl is nothing if not organised) and she loved every second of it. So Sunday was devoted to buying her a new outfit, having lunch out, watching a movie, and playing board games in the evening. She loved the day. And she'll have her non-family party once we're moved into the new house.

Speaking of moving, the floor is looking pretty good! We just have to do the edges of the living-room, and that whole room will be finished.



The worst floor-laying moment was probably down to me. Last night, I noticed that two of the planks weren't quite as tight as the others were. It wasn't really a problem, but I suggested that Bobby tap them together anyway - and in so doing, he dislodged a plank for real and so had to re-lay a whole enormous section. Aside from that incident, the rest of our DIY stuff has been quite stress-free, thus far. Though we're not done yet ...

What I am done with, however, is Christmas shopping. I am quite proud of this, since I only started yesterday. Not only have I bought all required presents, but I have also taken each child on a separate shopping trip to buy gifts for his or her siblings and assorted relatives. I normally go all dithery and pathetic when shopping, and end up hating the experience, but this time, oddly enough, I actually enjoyed it. Perhaps leaving everything to the last minute has its advantages?

Days left till Christmas : 10
Days left till we leave for Scotland : 9
Days left till we celebrate Emily's birthday : 2
Number of gifts purchased thus far : 0

I keep waiting for my life to get un-busy, and I realised today that it probably never will. And then if it ever does, I'll probably be miserable because I'm bored and lonely. Or so I tell myself, as we muddle through our current chaos.

We have been working on the new house every evening; not sure how long we can sustain that, though, as I am starting to feel quite burned out. It makes for an awfully long day, if, as soon as we've got home from work and cooked dinner and done the dishes and helped with homework, we head out again and paint.

So far, we've managed to paint the livingroom, the kitchen, and the diningroom. It all looks very nice, I must admit. We've also ripped out the livingroom carpet, and tomorrow (gulp) we start laying the new floor.

Next week will be more of the same, though it's further complicated by the fact that we'll be celebrating Emily's birthday on the Sunday. Her actual birthday is on the 30th of December, but since we'll be travelling home from Scotland on that day, we decided to bring it forward so we could celebrate properly. We're doing quite a bit of date-shifting this holiday period, actually. We, and my parents, are going to be staying in this cottage in Scotland from the 24th to the 30th of this month. We'd wanted to travel up a couple of days earlier, but the cottage wasn't available before the 24th. So, we are going to move our family Christmas to the 26th, so that we can have a fun Christmas Eve together instead of one spent in the car. And I think we may move Steve's birthday (January 1) to a week later, depending on how he feels about it.

Can't wait till the end of next week; that's when the schools break up.



Bobby's taking leave too, so we'll all be on holiday together and things will feel properly Christmassy. I love this time of year!

Walking to work this morning, I saw a robin perching in a holly tree, with a beautiful frosty field in the background. It still startles me when I see all these traditional Christmas-cardy scenes in real life. I wonder how long it will take before having Christmas in winter feels natural?

Today was actually the first frosty morning we've had this winter. This month has been mild, but grey and soggy and rather dreary, completely unlike last November, which was cold, but beautifully sunny and frosty.

Today was also the day that I forgot to take a house key with me, so arrived home from work in the dark, and the cold, to find the house locked and empty. Steve was fetching Sophie from her after-school club (she goes to Journalism Club on a Wednesday afternoon), Ems was at her extra-credit after-school Classical Civilisation class, and Bobby was at work. Luckily Steve and Sophie were just a few minutes from home so I didn't have to wait too long. And luckily it wasn't raining.

This evening Bobby and I spent a bit of time picking out a couple of charities to donate to. Bobby's work has a really nice scheme whereby you can set up a monthly donation to charities of your choice, and they will match your contribution. We have been feeling a bit guilty because, since we left Florida, we haven't really been contributing anything to any charities at all. And with Christmas coming up, the time seems right to set this up. So, we think we will make a monthly donation to Amnesty International and to the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund.

On a related note, if anyone is looking for presents for people who have everything, Oxfam Unwrapped has some really good things - £18, for instance, can buy safe water for 25 people. Or at Christian Aid, £10 buys a disaster survival kit, £25 will buy you a bicycle for an HIV outreach worker in Malawi, and £75 will buy a midwifery kit for a volunteer midwife in Burkina Faso. A lot more worthwhile than yet another calendar, box of chocolates or bottle of aftershave.