One word? When seven would do…

Everyone had a lie in this morning til 10am. Don’t remember the last time Ady slept in that late ever!

Ady made up for his lazy start by being very productive tidying and cleaning in our bedroom and the upstairs bathroom ready for the viewing tomorrow. Our en suite shower tends to get used as a storage space in the winter when we don’t tend to use it as a shower, but we figured it would be better presented as a shower than a cupboard to prospective tenants.

We then had a go at trying to start my car, after running well at the beginning of the week it’s now not starting again. We have my Dad’s jump leads so were at least not running my battery down but it refused to start.

We loaded Ady’s car with the remainder of the roof tiles. These have been in our garden for 10 years since we built up into the loft. They are the tiles off our roof and we have kept them all this time incase we ever extended and needed them. They have been moved from front to back garden and into several locations including infront of the garage and in the chickens area, I’ve rung round tile merchants to try and sell them, stuck them in the local free ad paper and put them on freecycle twice. No one wants them even when we’ve tried to give them away so we’ve admitted defeat and taken them to the tip. On the plus side the smashing them into things on the hardcore and rubble pile was quite theraputic :).

We came home via Sainsburys where I returned the wrongly purchased wine and got some proper stuff. Even the bloke on the customer service desk was appalled at the idea of low alcohol wine. Dirty bastards ;).

Back home again the kids spent some time in the garden while Ady and I pulled everything out of the cupboard under the stairs. Most of it went back in again but has been sorted into two piles – one of a few boxes that will go to my parents, the other of the camping stuff we want to keep, which we have decided to store in my car while we’re gone – my car is going into a locked garage so will be safe and dry.

We had a couple of bags to go a charity shop, a couple to be chucked out and another large box that needs listing on ebay, I’ll try and get that done this week. The kids came in and spent some time playing with air drying clay which I had found and given them to do whatever they wanted with providing they didn’t make loads of stuff we would then need to find homes for.

I got dinner on – roast beef, while Ady and Davies watched Pirates of the Carribean. Scarlett came and hung out with me in the kitchen and we spent ages looking at a book not sure if it is this exact one but one of this series, of which we have several and she’s just discovered them and is enjoying them lots.

Dinner was delicious, we watched Countryfile while eating and all got quite indignant about chickens and eggs. For dessert (not desert) Ady and I had chocolate mug cakes made in the microwave with added toblerone pieces and the kids had triple layered jellies I’d been making through the afternoon with Scarlett’s help. We made a couple in pint glasses with plenty of room for the couple more layers she wants to add in tomorrow.

The kids went to bed and I realised we’d forgotten bad, good, learnt today so I went visiting with my laptop and did that. Not quite the same as the telling the rest of the family but better than not doing it at all!

Ady: Bad: Nic’s car still won’t start! Good: 10am lay in! Learnt: The tip lifts it’s height restriction barrier on Sundays.

Scarlett: Bad: Having to go to bed! Good: Had a nice family day and lovely dinner, Learnt: how to make rainbow layered jellies.

Davies: Bad: sad about cattle with TB on Countryfile, Good: Had fun playing in the garden with Scarlett, Learnt: Mummy likes the sound of smashing tiles.

Nic: Bad: managed to set smoke alarms off by putting candle wax on the fire, Good: finally got rid of roof tiles, Learnt: the kipper tie was designed by Michael Fish (not the weatherman).

I had work this morning, which I really struggled to get up for. Once I was there it was fine though, 3.5 hours is a perfect shift length :).

Ady and the kids did the queuing at the post office thing with all the ebay parcels I didn’t manage to send yesterday thanks to my car not starting.

I had a message on my phone from the letting agents to say they have a family interested in renting the house who would like to come and view it on Monday. I’ve been getting quite twitchy about this so even if nothing comes of it I am really relieved to have someone coming to see the house as it means the letting agent is being effective at getting it out there. Our cut off date for everything falling neatly in to place is January 20th – which would give me time to give a months notice and leave on the date I want to, Ady his full months notice, leaving party could happen as planned and we can have a week away in the van before we actually start WOOFing at the first host. So fingers crossed for this last variable to fall in our favour.

Back home we had lunch and then Ady carried on taking stuff from the front garden to the tip. We have a list of last things that need dealing with and clearing the garden and garage is on Ady’s list. I wanted to move some logs around as we have been stacking them up as Ady’s brought them home and then filling the gap so we’ve ended up with the greener wood nearer the back door and the seasoned wood further away. So having cleared a big gap I moved a load of the older stuff down near to the door and then did a load of chopping it up into smaller fire sized logs. That should keep us going for a good few days :).

Davies and Scarlett played and then decided to go outside too so they spent some time playing in the garden and I nipped along to my Dad to borrow his jump leads so we can have a really good go at getting my car started tomorrow. I also popped into the supermarket and managed to buy low alcohol wine. Not at all sure what the point of that is, it’s like bloody cheezley or tofu! A product masquerading to be something it’s not! Arse UU

Back home again I was feeling a bit rubbish. I’ve had a bit of a sinus headache and been quite congested and not sure whether it is the tail end of something or the beginning of something new but I was really cold and shivery and just exhausted so I went and had a bath and finished reading my book while the others all watched Total Wipeout.

That restored me sufficiently to send children to bed (not to sleep of course although Scarlett did fall asleep quite happily tonight without me needing to spend any time with her, just one of my cardigans to snuggle up in). Ady and I had pizza and watched the Derren Brown fest that was on.

Scarlett: Bad: Not allowed Mumma’s jumper to take to bed and snuggle with (she got it in the end) Good: Enjoyed playing out in the garden Learnt: slugs drop their slime when a predator picks them up and their slime numbs tongues (not learnt through experience!)

Davies: Bad: Didn’t get to watch Pirates of the Carribean with Daddy Good: No Squibbling with Scarlett today, Learnt today: Why emergency vehicles use blue and red lights.

Ady: Bad: Campervan wouldn’t start (battery dead) Good: Cleared lots of crap from garden, Learnt: No foxes on the Isle of Man (although when trying to corroborate this story I found a conflicting report 😉 ) so he’s now gone for no badgers instead. Not really a shocker what with badgers not being real in the first place.

Nic: Bad: Bloody car still won’t start! Good: Letting agent rang to make a viewing appointment for Monday, even if it comes to nothing at least I can stop being twitchy about it until then 🙂 Learnt: That my Dad has a superstition! He is about the least likely person I can think of (other than myself) but he always turns his money over when he sees a new moon. Today I was with him when he saw it so he told me to do the same.

We all woke up super late this morning 😳 which is of course why Davies and Scarlett are so shocking at getting to sleep at night and then why we all wake late and then go to sleep late etc. I’d say it was a vicious circle but actually I think it is more a slightly disgruntled rectangle ;).

The chickens have been really comical today, I was in the kitchen and heard a tapping at the back door and opened it to see a whole gaggle of them looking expectantly at me. The main cockerel had tapped on the door with his beak and was looking really proud of himself. I rewarded them with some cereal that no one likes (why do we always have at least one box of cereal that noone likes? Even when I have fed it all to the chickens and thrown away the box a new one seems to get nominated) and some brie which one of them very entertainingly got stuck on her beak. A bit later I was in the kitchen again and could hear a crowing outside and one of the other cockerels came in and ate some bread off the doormat.

I’d semi arranged with my parents last night for them to come to the museum with us this afternoon but my Mum rang to say she wasn’t feeling too well so they wouldn’t be coming after all. I spent ages wrapping up a heap of stuff we’ve sold on ebay and after lunch we went out to the car with the intention of stopping at the post office on the way to the museum.

Except the car wouldn’t start 🙁 It has rained all night, all day and all the next night (and actually quite a lot of today) and the pavements were still soaking wet as the sun hadn’t got down as far as my car by then so I was not terribly surprised. It did mean no museum and actually as the bag was so very heavy I was not up for carting it all the way into Lancing it also meant no post office.

We were about to head back indoors but the kids asked to go for a walk. After some debate about which direction to go in we decided to do a penny walk, tossing a coin to determine left or right. The first flip at the end of our road determined towards the downs or towards the beach and on tails we headed north. The penny led us on a pretty straight route although right near the top of where the houses run out and it becomes the downs we did rather a lot of up a road (steep hill) along, down the next road (steep hill), along, up a road (steep hill) although we never actually did a circuit on ourselves. We got tantalisingly close to a field for about 10 minutes but kept turning away from it until finally the penny let us go that way. We then ran out of decisions to make so clambered to the top of the hill, admired the lovely view back down across houses to the sea, admired the downs and then caught sight of the rather gloomy black clouds heading our way so decided to head back for home. We decided to walk a different route as far as possible rather than retrace our steps so put the penny away and tramped across a field until we met the road.

At least it was downhill all the way, although the threatened rain did arrive about 10 minutes before we got home. I then cursed not having chopped wood before we went out so got totally soaked wielding the axe. A slice of Christmas cake and large cup of tea along with a change of clothes restored me though :).

Tea for the kids, fire lit, I’ve enterered a competition to win loads of outdoor clothes for our adventure (am sticking to one attempt to get sponsorship / writing deal / stuff a day. It would be nice but it really not what the year is about so I really don’t want it to take over and become that), Ady came home and we did bad, good, learnt today:

Davies: Bad: didn’t go to museum, Good: got PSP back, learnt: about a white dwarf, 1 tsp weighs a ton (from a documentary about space we watched this morning)

Scarlett: Bad: fell over and got mud on my toy, Good: nice walk with lots of animals, learnt: about penny walks (she really liked the idea)

Ady: Bad: Drove a long way for a meeting and the person was off work, Good: It’s the weekend! Learn: Europe is the only continent that has no desserts (we have observed that his bad and good is very dictated by his day at work, glad we are restoring that balance soon)

Nic: Bad: car wouldn’t start, Good: enjoyed where we live today, our penny walk would either have taken us towards beach or downs and both are lovely, Learnt: when you would use fish or fishes (in response to a question from Davies about sheep, deer, fish type words).

I read a chapter of Narnia, the kids were in bed, both happily as they said they were tired, by 7pm. Neither asleep still at 11pm mind you… Watched Penn & Teller, had dinner, Ady said lovely slushly things about him and I (awww ♥ ) and I’ve had another evening of sobriety by my standards as the cellar is looking pretty depleted and we have no cash to restock this month!

The lyrics of the Ballard Of Lucy Jordan seem very wrong as I hit the Age of 37. I wonder is it like the Age of Not Believing but for grown ups?

I shall not be cleaning the house for hours or rearranging the flowers, the kids shall not be off to school and in a matter off weeks the husband will not be off to work. Funnily enough I’d totally forgotten that song until I sat down to write a blog post and then suddenly had ‘at the age of 37…’ running through my head so went to find the song.

Maybe it’s written for a reason though, maybe it’s some sort of pre mid life crisis 😉

Anyway. My age of 37 commenced with home made cards from my babies – Scarlett’s adorned with many kisses and love hearts and a picture of a horse, Davies’ illustrated with his made up character ‘Day’ carrying a huge birthday cake with help from (made up character) friends. My gifts were a huge selection of chocolates – liqueurs, white toblerone, Thorntons etc., some fancy bubble bath, a Thornton’s birthday cake and a book. My main gift is my amber which is yet to come but I quite like the idea of a gift still travelling towards me to look forward to. Both children stuffed cash from their Christmas money into their cards and both were thanked very much but had the cash returned to them.

We breakfasted on cinnamon rolls which I am considering a birthday gift from LovelyEm as she gave me the recipe and they were so delicious I feel the need to bestow gift status upon them. Both children made me cups of tea throughout the day and at this stage of the evening I am prepared to overlook the level of sibling squabbling (should that be called squibbling? I think so. Will henceforth call it thus) and remember everything fondly with rose tinted birthday glow about it.

The kids played with geomags, I made paracord bracelets for everyone using some stuff that had arrived from ebay and included some very cool clasps with survival whistles built in.

I was born at 10:10am and at least one parent always rings me at that time on my birthday (I was clearly very sociable, my children were born at 4:35am – Davies and 1:51am – Scarlett which is far less acceptable a time to be calling them when they are adults. Maybe I should encourage them to move to a different time zone…) so the kids and I were placing bets on which parent it would be and when the phone rang at 10:09 I picked it up without checking caller ID. It turned out to be Julie 😆 She was aware it was my birthday so wished me Happy Birthday and then proceeded to chat for 25 minutes while my poor Mum was frantically trying to get hold of me, in the end ringing my mobile and speaking to Davies intead 😆

The rest of the day passed fairly quietly. I had a few more phonecalls, lots of texts and well wishes which all made me feel very loved and special 🙂 We ate more cinnamon rolls for lunch as we loved them so much.

Ady arrived home and we did our good, bad, learnt today stuff:

Davies – Bad: no PSP, Good: Going out for dinner, Learnt: about static electricity

Scarlett – Bad: DVD on that I didn’t want to watch, Good: loved the cinnamon buns, Learnt: that horses can bite their own tongues

Ady – Bad: getting work colleague into trouble inadvertantly, Good: upheaval a work, another colleague leaving, Learnt: How to change font size on PC

Nic – Bad: the PSP incident, Good: lots of birthday wishes from friends, home made cards from kids and thoughtful presents made me feel loved, Learnt: how to make paracord bracelets from kit.

The PSP incident is Davies being caught at 130am this morning as I went to bed, still playing on his PSP, that he isn’t allowed to play on it bed in the first place. I took it off him, gave him a right roasting and went to bed in a right strop 🙁 . We have discussed it at length and I will probably let him have it back tomorrow. I hate rewards and punishments and would never remove it for an unrelated ‘crime’ and actually just knowing how angry and diasppointed I am is sufficient ‘punishment’ for Davies who is very much a ‘pleaser’, particularly of me but I suspect it’s done no harm on this occassion.

We all got ready to go out and then met my parents and Frazer at a nearby steakhouse. We’ve only been there once before the food is excellent and we had a lovely meal there. While chatting we were reminiscing about a restaurant we used to eat in in Manchester and we mentioned we are going up to stay with Lynda & Stuart next weekend. The suggestion was made than my parents come up with us and book into a nearby hotel so we rang them, got a recommendation for one close by and arranged for that to happen which wil be lovely :).

Back home again for cake and fizz. We lit the candles about 5 times so various people could have a go at blowing them out 🙂

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and then I was invited up to Davies’ room where D&S put on a Birthday Show for me. We finished up creating 3 and 7 in honour of my new age 🙂

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I suspect I have long since blown any hope of being remembered as sane, sensible or otherwise normal as a parent 😉

Scarlett had a bit of a wobble as she sometimes does at the end of a period of very disturbed and late nights so I sat with her and talked it out. Everyone else said goodnight and left or went to bed.

I had a lovely day, I have now seen both ends of it and quite aside from the meaningless flurry of emails I got from places I must have given my date of birth to over the years I have felt very touched by the texts, emails, facebook and friendfeed messsages, my gifts from family are perfect, my day with kisses and cuddles on tap from my babies has been wonderful and whilst none of my plans for the age of 37 involve driving in open topped cars through Paris I am utterly confident that this year of my life will have plenty of adventure, thrills, spills (year of the spillage), laughs and love woven through every day.

I caught up on the WW blog this morning, helped Davies with a couple of rows of knitting. He’s mastered knitting pretty quick although is finding purl tricky. He needs to do stocking stitch for what he wants to make but I am thinking maybe I could do the alternate every other row of purl for him which would speed it up for him and make it less of a challenge.

Scarlett gathered her new selection of books and sat looking at them, asking the odd question and for some bits to be read to her. I wanted to take a couple of things back to the library and collect a couple more that I’d had email notification had arrived for me so we decided to walk there. I want to get more active, rely less on the car and try and spend time outside in the coming weeks. I know we have the ‘last visit’ rounds to start sometime soon but suspect finances and lack of actual stuff to really do out and about will mean we spend lots of time at home so walking from home to places when possible would be a good way of acheiving this.

We decided to have lunch first so ate and watched some science type programme and then wrapped up warm. It had gotten really dark and was bitterly cold when I went to chop some logs so I really thought it might snow but actually when we stepped outside it was drizzling with rain. A quick vote and we decided to walk anyway.

I like the conversations we have driving or walking, always really interesting and often utterly apropos of nothing. We talked about our litter walk, Davies put forward some radical ideas for getting people to clear up after their dogs, we talked about why we put a certain name first when talking about two people – eg Davies & Scarlett, Nic & Ady and tried to come up with patterns and reasons – oldest first, male first, person we knew first etc. We couldn’t spot one other than in all the couples with a Chris we knew we tended to put the Chris first (which only later on this evening I pledged to amend on my phone address book as it’s a right pain scrolling through them all to ring Julie). Oh and just what would happen if you stood on a pavement crack – apparently my Mum said to them while out walking you mustn’t stand on the cracks or it will break your mother’s back. I’d always said as a child that if you stood on the cracks the ‘bears would get you’. I backed this up a bit further on when we saw a huge lump of dog poo and I speculated it was actually probably from a bear instead 😆

At the library I thought my heavy bag carrying was at an end when I handed over a load of books we’d returned but I’d forgotten Scarlett and her book grabbing ways so I ended up carrying even more home again. The kids admired my Cavemen Stories display (and selected a book from it) and Scarlett sorted a book that was mis-shelved that had her most indignant!

We got home and about five minutes later the drizzle turned to really heavy rain so our timing was pretty good. The house was cold as I have turned the heating down, both because I don’t want a huge end bill from the gas company and because I do think we have the house on the hot side, so I debated lighting the fire (trying not to do that til it gets dark, want to eke the logs out until we leave), putting the heating back on or getting some socks. In the end Tarly declared it cold and she lit the fire 😆 I did get some socks out and put them on the radiator to warm up (once the heating had also been put on) but they are still hanging on the radiator now.

I made the kids some tea, managed to set the smoke alarms off by catching the sausages while trying to wash up at the same time and then the phone rang. It was the woman from yesterday calling to see if I could find the paperwork from our loft conversion as the council had told her they had no record of it. Argh! Fortunately I know it was 100% approved by the planning dept. and signed off by the building regs dept. but our copy of the paperwork is tucked upstairs in the loft in a box pushed right to the back. I’m not at all sure it would be worth the couple of hours it would take to get to it. I tried to ring the council myself but got no reply so I’ll have another go tomorrow. She did sound quite doubtful and then said she had found online where planning permission had been turned down in 2005 (when we applied for a further extension and it was refused). Sigh. A minor hassle but I imagine that will be several phonecalls and chasing around I could just do without.

That prompted me to sort out our paperwork folder though which was on my list of things to deal with, on the offchance it was in there rather than in that box in the loft. It wasn’t but I have now pared it all down to a small folder that we’ll leave with my parents incase of emergencies. Am now getting all anxious waiting for the phone to ring – need to hand my notice in by 20th January and Ady by 28th January which doesn’t give us much time to have a tennant lined up really.

Ady arrived home and we did our good, bad, learnt today lists:

Davies Bad – plasticine character got broken, Good – done well with knitting, Learnt – about why you can’t smell your own farts (from one of those Science museum books, why eating bogeys are good for you etc.)

Scarlett – Bad: that I put the fire out (she put too much paper on it once it was going), Good: paracord bracelet whistle catches arrived in the post, Learnt: reticulated pythons are the largest snakes in the world at up to 10 metres long.

Ady – Bad: been told I have an appraisal at work next week, Good: Bought birthday presents for Nic within budget, Learnt: about consumer rights on goods fit for purpose.

Nic – Bad: lost paperwork for house build, Good: jump, jump, jump it’s my birthday tomorrow, learnt- how free range chicken farmers keep up their egg production through the winter.

I talked to my friend Rose who has just come back from celebrating New Year in New York and then my Mum to arrange to go out for dinner with them tomorrow.

I wanted to see my birthday in but not be too late to bed. I think I’ve more or less managed that :).

I woke at 9am, poor Ady had left for work a good two hours before that. I woke the kids and had them downstairs breakfasting by 930am, tomorrow we’ll try an earlier start as they were both still awake at midnight again tonight despite being in bed by 9pm. The craziness of Christmas, New Year, guests and Ady being off work always takes a good week or so to realign though so I’m not too worried. Coupled with which we don’t have much of a pattern to be getting back to anyway, me and the kids.

We watched ROAR while they ate, which is part filmed at Port Lyphme or as Scarlett calls it ‘my birthday zoo’ and all got irritated by the very silly female presenter who kept making stupid comments and giggling.

Scarlett got out pens, pencils and paper and was doing some drawing while I was making a start on a blog about plans for the year (post below). We talked about that for a while and then Davies got his pens and paper out to draw a picture of the character he wants to knit. We talked a bit about how to do it and I got out my bag of zips, buttons etc to see if I had anything suitable for it. I didn’t and offered various shop options to go and buy the stuff. As we are broke, it is barely a week since we gave them Christmas gifts and the kids each have nearly £100 Christmas money from various sources I said he would have to fund it himself. The money they each have is their spending funds for the year as we have said we are unlikely to be able to pay for anything over and above basic provision of food and clothes etc so any additional stuff they might want over the year will need to come from their own funds. This is a great strategy for getting them to *really* think about how much they want / need something, particularly as I have always been opposed to pocket money so they have not had the chance to learn money management from that. Davies very sweetly agreed he should pay for the stuff and that ‘you are giving me plenty Mummy by teaching me the skills to make it and spending the time with me on it, that is far more valuable than money’ Oh he can talk a good sweet talk that boy ;).

We nipped into Lancing, the car started second go and was fine running, hurrah :), got the wool from a shop with a small knitting and sewing department, then drove around a bit at the other end of Lancing to find a parking space to go into a large charity shop there that has a very good haberdashery section as well as a cafe and other well laid out areas. Sure enough we got a second hand zip (they cut them out of otherwise no good clothes) and little packet of buttons (ditto) for 20p which I paid for as I also put 20p towards Scarlett’s heap of books she’d chosen. She got 10 books for £2.20 as they had buy one get one free and she got a selection of wildlife and nature books and spotter guides on birds, British wildlife etc and a copy of all of the Enchanted Wood stories in one book which she was thrilled with as she’s been listening to the audio book. She said she’s going to have to learn to read as she intends filling all her alloted space in the van with books so she needs to get maximum value from them. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of an illiterate bookworm before but I certainly seem to have one in her.

Back at home we had lunch – proper food with side helpings of fruit and raw veg to start making up for Christmas crap food and then Scarlett worked through one of the spotter guides for zoo animals while I showed Davies how to knit and purl. He is cack-handed at the best of times, amazing given how many skills he has in drawing, plasticine modelling etc. but caught on to both stitches really quickly and is going to practise some alternate rows of both as the toy he wants to make is stocking stitch. Once he’s mastered the stitches we’ll work out a pattern together and he can do it. He did a bit of that and then spent some time pencilling in detail on a rather lovely sunset mountain and rive scene he did in watercolours last week.

I made some phonecalls – checking we will get authority from our mortgage company to rent the house out, cancelling my car insurance renewal, trying to cancel Sky tv, checking with my Dad where he plans to keep my car while we’re away and whether my Mum knows about them storing our stuff, reducing my mobile phone tariff etc and some time online – checking bank balance, cancelling direct debits, changing BT billing dates and getting quotes for monthly car insurance, landlord insurance and making copious lists of things we can do now, things we can do once we’ve found a tennant and things we need to be thinking about.

The woman came to do the EPC (energy performance certificate) which all houses need if they are sold or let so we chatted to her for a while and the kids were impressed with her digital tape measure.

I chopped wood, lit a fire, out chickens away, dealt with a couple of loads of washing, made the kids some tea (sausage and mash and their choice of veg) and had a slice of Christmas cake with a cup of tea to celebrate being so productive and industrious :).

Ady arrived home and so we all caught up with each others days. Normally when he goes back to work I am secretly a bit glad to get the day back to it’s usual rhythm but we really missed him today. Hopefully this bodes well for later in the year ;). Scarlett showed Ady all her books, Davies showed him his plans for his knitting and we read him what we’d written for our plans for the year and he added his to the list. We decided to start good, bad and something new straightaway.

Davies – bad: spent some of my money on knitting stuff, good: completed a level on Simpsons, new thing learnt: how to knit

Scarlett – bad:dropped breakfast on floor, good: bought loads of great books at bargain price, learnt: that there is a bird like a cormorant called a shag and there are two types of pelicans

Nic – bad: realised a BT bill is due that I had not budgeted for in an already tight month, good -very productive day, learnt – that string theory is probably not ever likely to be something I understand 😉

Ady bad– had to go to work, good: Tuesday already not Monday, learnt: why the sky is blue – Ady was struggling to think of something he’d learnt and Davies asked if he knew why the sky is blue. He didn’t so I googled it for a more comprehensive answer than the one I was blundering through, which led to us all learning more about rainbows into the bargain.

We all watched the Stargazing Live thing although I snuck off a bit before the end to have a bath. Leftovers for dinner for Ady and I (curry from the weekend for me, chilli from the freezer for Ady) and I feel properly caught up on this blog now, ready to catch up on the WW one tomorrow.

Every year we sit down and talk about things we want to do / see / experience / achieve / learn in the coming year. Everyone gets as short or long list as they like but they need to take the bulk of the responsibility for achieving it themselves.

This year has been a slightly different experience as it is something we sort of did back in June / July when we first started talking about the WW adventure and of course has very much shaped that being planned. But I wanted to do it, both to ensure we all have some personal needs being catered for during next year, to help give some direction to what we do in our downtime and because it is the kind of conversation I love having with the rest of the family, a really interesting thing to read back at a future point and because it allows everyone to have their own private goals alongside the rather crazy experience I suspect we are lined up for this coming year.

So, here is what we came up with:
Davies
ride a bike This was on last years and possibly even the year before. Not at all sure how it might happen but I guess we have 2 months before we go and are likely to come across bikes we can borrow along the way.
Master reading and writing This was also on last years list. Davies has definitely improved, which is what I think he had on last years, this year he wants to ‘master’ it.
Keep a journal & maybe publish it I love this idea. It comes from reading the kids my Wondering Wanderers blog and sharing with them the idea that maybe one day it could be a book. He chose a rather gorgeous couple of blank books and has so far written ‘Davies’ WWOOFing adventure’ in one and ‘Davies” WWOOFing adventure 2’ in the other ready to keep an account of how he sees the experience.
Fishing – the whole thing, catching, gutting & cooking a fish He has the fishing rod, Ady knows enough about fishing to help him do all of this and it is high on the list of things he, Ady and Scarlett are looking forward to doing together. We’re going to look out for a book on it pitched for beginner children too.
Visit Stone Henge A definite very early history thing stiring with Davies, what with all his YACs, pre-historic flint knapping, Stig of the Dump stuff and so on. We’ll aim to do this before we head off.
Learn some sewing and knitting & make a sack boy toy Sack Boy is a PSP game character he loves. He has previously sewn a toy for himself and now wants to master knitting. He’s already bought the wool and picked up knit and purl really quickly. I suspect the actual making of a toy will take longer but he did get stuck straight in. He said knitting will be a really valuable skill not just for wool but for cordage and natural materials too.
Do some wild camping (in woods in little tent) Davies is desperate to use his little tent and do some camping off the beaten track. We’ll definitely ensure we make this happen this year.
Learn about sheepdog training I find this fascinating too, we learnt a bit about how sheepdog are trained at the Countryman show last year but Davies would like to learn more, hopefully we will stay with someone who has sheepdog and can answer his questions fully.
Understand the farming year, different challenges in different seasons Otherwise entitled getting back to nature I guess. One of the things Davies is really looking forward to is understanding what happens when and how it all comes together with farming, agriculture and animal husbandry.
Resurect the ‘what I learnt today’ & introduce ‘one good thing, one bad thing’ Davies remembered the ‘what we learnt today’ exercise that the four of us did for a while last year and asked to start doing that again. I mentioned a ‘one good thing, one bad thing’ idea I’d read about a family doing in a book recently and we decided it would be great to do both and record them all, particularly as we expect this to be a year of real highs, lows and learning.

Scarlett
Improve reading and writing I can’t quite believe she said this after all her insistance that she will *never* want to learn to read and write but she suddenly wants to. I am hoping that as with most things the instant she actually wants to do it, she will do it quickly and easily. We’ll see 🙂
Keep a journal you may spot a pattern here as I asked Scarlett after Davies had told me his ;). But Scarlett also has a lovely blank book and is up for keeping an account in her own words of the adventure.
Improve knife skills, carving & sculpturing wood Both children got new knives for Christmas and Scarlett is particularly keen to actually *do* something with hers. She’s less keen on the idea of using it to gut fish but does like the idea of using the skills she learnt last year carving chalk – she spent hours and hours over the summer with a penknife and a lump of chalk – and do some stuff with wood.
Learn how to catch a fish (and probably let it go again!) 😆 her words!
See a badger & fox in the wild Obviously she is very keen to see all sorts of animals but these two she has seen on TV captured with night vision cameras and is most looking forward to observing with her night vision kit. Of course she does know badgers don’t really exist ;).
See golden eagles and wildcats flushed with the success of finally seeing dolphins Scarlett has scoured her UK wildlife books and added these to her list for 2011 as we’ll be spending time in Scotland in the autumn.

Ady
Animal slaughter and butchering this is very much Ady’s big yearning to learn about next year. He really likes the idea of a future career in this area and is keen to gain as much knowledge as possible.
Understand mechanics of the car Ady has been really frustrated by his lack of mechanical car knowledge. Actually we both have been irritated by how little we know about cars and engines and how little ability we have to put things right. If we had more time and money before we went we had debated both going on a basic course to learn more. I imagine sheer necessity will mean we come out of the year with an increased knowledge of what is under the bonnet of the van but we both intend extending our know-how in this area.
See Northern Lights This has been my big thing for years and is very much shaping our route. I know the chances are actually quite unlikely but we’re hoping by adding it to both of our lists we might double our odds somehow 😆
See Golden Eagle or sea eagle I think Scarlett’s wildlife spotting thirst has rather infected us all and Ady was hoping to catch a sight of an eagle in Scotland last year but didn’t, so he’s hoping to have another go this year.

Nic
See Northern Lights as above, I’ve wanted to see the Northern Lights for years and only fairly recently learnt you can see them from the top of Scotland if you are really lucky. Fingers very firmly crossed as I believe they can be even more elusive than dolphins 😉
Kill, cook and eat something – I really want to learn how to hunt or shoot or fish or slaughter, not because I particularly want to kill but because I think it is really important as a meat eater.
Milk a cow or a goat actually. I’ve wanted to do this for ages, it’s high on my list of WWOOFing ambitions.
Witness a live animal birth – I’ve seen various eggs hatching and watched a couple of lambs and a calf being born at Coombe farm but really want to experience it in not such a zoo-like environment.
Get over my dog phobia I suspect I will always be cautious and I have made what I consider great strides already given my previously quite paralysing fear of dogs. When I was younger I would cross a road to avoid walking past one even on a lead and I always checked before going to someone’s house whether they had a dog. I am still very nervous but have faced it a fair bit recently and will simply have to deal with it while WWOOFing (clues in the name ;)) as loads of the hosts will have dogs so I will be staying in the dogs house and not really able to do anything but live with them.

I’ve read back over previous years posts and have always talked about groups, clubs, lessons, trips and events we are planning to go. Swimming, Badgers, Wildlife Explorers, YACs etc have all finished for us for now and budget constraints mean we are unlikely to be doing much in the way of trips before we head off. While we do have some meet ups pencilled in (hoping J&J do a May event, BabsCamp etc.) most meet ups will be if people are able to come and track us down, which we very much hope lots of people will. We do intend taking time out along the way but I suspect it will be to drink in the free views and atmosphere rather than expensive entrance fee incuring attractions, and to have a rest!

So in terms of where we are planning to go; well coast to coast really, England, Scotland and Wales. What we hope to see; as much as our eyes can drink in – wildlife, nature, new experiences and new directions. What we want to learn; self sufficiency in practise, what it entails, how to live a lower impact life, how to survive with less of everything, how other people live. What we hope to gain? Time together, a story to tell, a new chapter in a changing world and a changing family. I hope we are fitter, healthier, closer, more skilled, more in touch with what we want from life at the end of the experience.

Friday – New Years Eve. I worked all day, but I’d had over a week off and indeed have over a week until my next shift so not too much of a hardship really. It was a mix of busy and quite cheery with everyone wishing each other Happy New Year, and quite tedious when it got very quiet in the afternoon and dragged. I’d worn a jumper, albeit a short sleeved one and was roasting plus had failed to make any lunch to take with me so rang Ady to collect me for lunch so I could come home and eat and get changed into something cooler for the afternoon. He ran me a bath so I had a quick dip, washed my hair, got changed into something far less seasonal, ate and went back to work again.

We’d arranged, fairly last minute when we realised we were free on NYE and they were driving almost past the door on their way home from Christmas with family, to have Marcus and Michelle here for the evening to see 2011 in with. This was fab, we’ve all missed them (and Chloe of course) and had been really disappointed not to have a planned visit from them before Christmas due to illness. They had already arrived before Ady came to collect me from work and completely misheard me saying I was ‘going to get my Nicola clothes off’ 😆

A lovely evening followed, with us making efforts not to peak too early despite cracking open the fizz well before 7pm. Davies and Scarlett had a sleepover and spent their time between us downstairs and a film in Davies’ bedroom. They saw midnight in with us, watching the fireworks in London on TV and then they headed off to bed while we watched Hootenany from March ;). We learnt that Michelle has a rather shady past time for which she has convictions, after which Ady gave her the first kiss at midnight 😉 I’m happy to retain my amateur status 😉 . Both Marcus and Ady were quite taken with Kylie on TV though, I guess she is more their age 😆

We enjoyed friendfeed giving us snippets of other people’s celebrations, had a phonecall from my mum at midnight (I don’t think either of us heard anything, she was in a pub with people shouting all around, I was in the lounge with the TV up so loud one of the speakers fell off) and texts from people throughout the evening.

We went to bed about 3am I think, having waited so long for 2011 to arrive it would have been rude to abandon it too soon once it got here ;).

Saturday – New Years Day. Clearly having seen it in properly there was not so much of a rush to get up ;). We debated going to see some local morris dancers but no one was really in the mood, Scarlett and I nipped out to Lancing as I’d forgotten to pick up an anniversary card for my parents (married on New Years Day 39 years ago), but we didn’t find one in Lancing and ended up getting one at the shop around the corner.

Marcus and Michelle had the Grand Tour of the campervan. Much chatting, laughing, eating and drinking continued until our next guests arrived – The Barts 🙂 We had a lovely few hours crossover of everyone here, with my parents arriving to collect their anniversary card / exchange New Year & anniversary wishes adding to the mix before Marcus and Michelle headed off for home. We did tell them not to go…. 😉

My parents left not too long afterwards and with everyone fed and the kids directed towards upstairs if not sleep we had a very enjoyable evening chatting, laughing and playing a game that James’ secret santa at camp had given him which was most entertaining and kept us going til nearly 3am again.

Being the Year of the Spillage the Ady machine came out at least once, and there was almost a PMSL spillage when James recreated Ride on Time by sitting on his watch and dashing about the room 😆

Which meant another late start to Sunday. Everyone was looking rather peaky and so a walk to the beach was decided as ideal therapy, once Kirsty & James had had the Grand Tour of the campervan. On the off chance I tried to start my car which had been standing since before Christmas and I’ve had several attempts at starting and failed each time. It started first time so I decided I would drive it to the beach to give it a run. The kids wanted to come in my car too which meant taking Ady’s would be pointless so we went in mine. It took a bit of warming up though and died just before we were about to turn into the beach carpark. It did start again, get across the road and was fine all the way home so presumably just needed a bit of a run to get going properly.

The beach walk was just gorgeous. It was late thanks to faffing at home and then further faffing with the car so we were approaching sunset at 330pm but the light was amazing, the sky filled with stunning colours and of course the sea reflecting them all.

There are about a million pictures on flickr 😉 but my faves are:
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” alt=”fisherman dugging for lugworms” />

and the obligatory self timer shot of course ” alt=”self timer” />

Back for hot chocolate, tea, coffee etc for those who wanted it, dinner for the kids and then off upstairs for them while we had a lovely curry and another evening of admiring the kindle, chatting and a couple of rounds of Spot the Intro. I’m practically a gamer now 😉

It might have been getting on for 3am again….

Today Slightly quieter from the kids – Davies and Marcus did some gaming, Scarlett and Alex carried on playing with the toy animals. The Barts packed up and headed for home, with sandwiches foisted upon them by Superhost Ady ;). We tidied up, chopped wood, hoovered, did some washing and then collapsed.

Ady and I attempted to compile a list of things we need to do as really final throes of planning should begin in earnest. So I now have a long job list, Ady is back to work ;). Scarlett had a long bath and I brushed her hair which had gotten very wild and tangled. The kids had tea, Davies had a bath and then I read them the first 4 chapters of Chronicles of Narnia – The Magician’s Nephew. They have seen a couple of the films and Scarlett has been listening to some of the audio books so they are familiar enough with it to sit through the slightly wordy text of the original stories now. Reading it aloud not only brought back the memory of reading it myself as a child, it also brought back the memory of Frazer and I creating a little area in my parents loft just like Polly’s complete with sweets, torch and some toys which I had quite forgotten until reading it.

Despite an 8pm bedtime Scarlett didn’t fall asleep until 1130pm when I went and sat on her bedroom floor as she was struggling with being alone in a room in a proper bed after Davies’ floor with a roomful for the last 3 nights. I assume Davies is now asleep but he wasn’t at that point. Grr. But I guess having seen 3am myself for the last 3 nights and sitting here still now at long gone midnight I possibly can’t really talk…

So, a lovely start to the new year, filled with friends, laughter and sharing exciting dreams. Our adventure is really feeling like a close realit