Almost over…

Yesterday I was woken to the sound of rain. Not good as we were planning a trip to the South of England Show for the day. A quick phone conference with my Mum about the state of the weather meant my Dad went off to work and we agreed to talk again in an hour. An hour passed and although it was still raining the BBC weather forecast for Ardingly was sunny intervals with no rain and it did look like it was clearing up, so we decided to go anyway.

Ady was off doing his second and third exams. He didn’t have a great day, the questions were focussed on a couple of areas he’d not been advised to revise on, so we’ll have to see whether he did well enough on the other questions or has sufficient generic H&S knowledge to have answered those questions well enough to pass. He is not confident but is just massively relieved that the exam is over and he doesn’t need to be either revising or feeling guilty about not revising every time he has a spare ten minutes. I’m really proud of him for sticking with something he found particularly challenging, regardless of the results and even if he doesn’t pass this time he can retake in December and can already quote ‘trained to NEBOSH standard’ on his CV regardless of whether he has the actual qualification or not ;).

Mum arrived, laden with picnic and we headed off to Ardingly in Ady’s car (he’d taken mine to college). The children put on a Doctor Who dvd (Cybermen episodes) to watch which scared Scarlett to the point she needed a cuddle. My Mum was convinced she was about to be sick as she’d gone white although I was pretty sure she was just scared (my Mum is totally phobic about vomit though which accounts for her hysteria) and was begging me to pull over. It took a while before it was safe to do so in a bus stop and a quick cuddle and chat with Scarlett reassured me she was fine and we put some music on to sing along to and all was well for the remainder of the journey.

Ardingly was great, as ever. Loads of stalls to look at, things to try out and learn about and livestock to look at. The children ground some grain to make flour, had a look in an ambulance (and sat in the drivers seat – D tried to turn the sirens on :lol:) We looked at pigs, cows, sheep, chickens, ducks, bats, birds of prey and horses. Davies amazed the British Red Cross volunteers to the point they took me aside to ask where he’d gotten his resuss. knowledge from having placed his hands correctly on the dummy’s chest and used the right terminology when talking to them about it. I explained he was a Badger (SJA) but all the while was wondering what they’d make from Aprilia if they were impressed with Davies. 🙂 Scarlett demonstrated loads of knowledge about chicks and chickens too, being thrilled to see a very large, very proud, very tame, very impressive cockerel – and then watched a hen in a cage lay an egg and went off to tug the sleeve of an official to let them know all on her own :). They both spent ages talking to a woman from the customs and excise department exhibiting endangered species souveniers seized at ports and airports and the various ingeneous methods of smuggling drugs into the country. I’m always staggered at the information they retain from various places and the confidence with which they retell it and interact with adults – utterly confident that they have something to say worth listening and totally expectant that people will want to hear it. As ever they did me proud :).

They both required a bath when we got home, so had a speedy dinner followed by bath followed by bed, but it was a late night, again.

This morning we finally watched last weeks’ taped Doctor Who, fretting that although it was not a follow on episode tonight we probably shouldn’t watch tonights until we’d seen last weeks. I cried, Scarlett lost interest, Davies and Ady deemed it a ‘bit soppy’. We needed to stock up on chick food so we dashed over to the supply store which due to loads of traffic took way longer than expected and meant we were all cutting it fine for our afternoon arrangements. I was off to work and Davies was taking part in an ‘It’s a knockout’ tournament with Beavers. I was really sorry to miss it, but Ady took loads of photos. Due to our rushing I ended up in town slightly early for work so had a quick look in the charity shops and ended up buying a skirt, a jumper, a t shirt and a shirt for under a tenner altogether. :).

Work was slow, particularly as I had a specific place I’d rather have been. I’ve been thinking lots about seperation between me and the children and probably have a blog post about it floating round my head for a less late in the evening and more sober time. Ady and the children collected me from work and we headed off for McDonalds tea for the children and me to pick up a few bits of shopping from the adjoining Tescos.

We came home in time for a bath for the kids before Doctor Who. I dashed round to get the chicks in – they’d been out in the run all day and needed their brooder clearing out. I need to give a bit of background here about just how clumsy I am – I probably stub my toes on average twice a week, am always covered in bruises and scratches and quite genuinely do walk into doors, fall down stairs and collide with door handles on a regular basis. Anyway, I was walking up some very shallow steps in our garden with the chicks plastic brooder when I caught my two smallest toes on the chicken run, stumbled, dropped the brooder (making a big hole in it where it slammed down on the steps) and instantly realised I’d done more than my normal stubbed toe. My little toes sit almost underneath the next toe up on both feet normally but it is currently bent right out away from the other toe at a very queer angle and depsite lots of anaethesatising wine it isn’t really easing in pain. I have now bandaged it to the next toe along and taken some pain killes but I am anticipating a rough night and hoping it doesn’t call an end to tomorrows plans.

We watched Doctor Who (well Davies and I did, Scarlett got scared and went to bed and Ady went to read her a story), children went to bed, I mostly moaned about my hurty toe and Ady cooked dinner.

I’ve done loads of thinking about all sorts of things this week, lots of which I’m intending to blog about just as soon as I sit down at the laptop without being too tired, too inebriated or too rushed to do so.