I always plan to do very little and be home-based on a Tuesday. It often doesn’t actually happen that way but today it did. This morning I stayed in bed and finished the book I was reading which meant the children had sorted their own breakfast out by the time I came downstairs. I got various loads of washing done, dried and in again, ‘fed’ the Christmas cake with brandy, let the bantams out (well opened the door so they could come out at least, they chose not to, so I checked on them and they seemed fine, no eggs, but all present, correct and cooing).
We popped out as my wrist has been playing up again the last couple of days – I still can’t decide if it is RSI, arthrytis or what – and I wanted to get a wrist support to strap it up, particularly for work as it’s my right wrist and I am often carrying heavy books in each hand. There was a vast selection in Boots varying from really expensive ones to simple tubular bandages which you cut your own thumb hole in – so I went for that. We had a look at the Christmas present stuff out on display while we were in there – thousands of pounds worth of packaging given by people who don’t have a clue what to actually buy for people, recieved with no real gratitude, half priced on Boxing Day. I shudder to recall how I worked in that environment for so long and how mid October was already high pressure, long hours, well into the 12 week countdown to Christmas with panic about the January sale already queuing up ready to stress me out as soon as I’d finished worrying about that. I also shudder to think just how much I used to buy into that whole consumerism mentality, I really have changed a lot…
We also went to Sainsburys, having had a quick look round the aquarium next door and looked longingly at the tropical fluorescent fish and little turtles. Quickly in and out of there with no feeling of sticking out thanks to half term ;).
Once home we spent some time with the bantams and coaxed them into their run. I got cold outside so went back in to do some baking (very cheesey cheese scones and some lovely banana and chocolate chip cakes – very well received by Scarlett particuarly who proclaimed them the ‘very best baking you’ve ever done Mummy!’). The children, predictably let them out of the run and were very stunned to see just how high they can fly (wings clipped tomorrow I reckon :)). They played outside for a while before coming in for cheese scones for lunch.
On a nostalgia trip I’d borrowed The Box of Delights from work. I don’t actually remember anything about it other than it being one of the first TV shows I actively looked forward to being on each episode. A quick google reveals it was in the run up to Christmas 1984, so I would have been rather older than D&S and possibly more excited about it marking the countdown to Christmas. 15 minutes in it was clear it wasn’t grabbing them so we turned it off.
Davies got the plasticine out and played with that for a while. He’s got some fine wire to make armiture frames for inside his models so he was experimenting with making rabbits with moving ears. Scarlett was a bit bored and roamed about for a while before settling with me to play zoo tycoon. It’s a bit beyond her really so on a bit of a whim because I’ve seen it mentioned on blogs a few times I found Starfall and she played on that. She really enjoyed it and would probably have played on it happily for hours, which sort of surprised me as Davies would never have sat with something like that, he’s always been very suspicious of things dressed up to look ‘fun’ when they are clearly ‘educational’ – although he is quite happy to do educational things when they are being honest about it! 😆 Infact I got bored pretty quickly so we interspersed playing that with some youtube clips. I’d wanted to show them Lee Evans dance to Bohemian Rhapsody but actually upon viewing it wasn’t at all suitable and actually was pretty unfunny, but we did find a James Blunt clip mentioned in Popbitch yesterday which we watched over again and have been singing ever since. :).
When we got bored with that I got the marble run out and we built a very tall collaborative effort which worked well til it fell over. They both played with that a bit more while I wandered off. I like marble runs, the idea of testing, experimenting and working to an end goal really appeals to me. We have two, a bright plastic one (probably ELC) and a nice straight line wooden block one from a car boot sale, neither gets loads of use but they have been played with a fair bit over the years and are one of those things like a jigsaw that any visitor can’t help but have a go with if they are round when they are out.
Scarlett and I put the bantams away for the night, she is just so happy to have birds again and is excellent with them. She’s just so confident, unflappable and able to deal with them, she talks to them really well and just really enjoys looking after them – it’s great to watch :). Can’t wait for eggs.
The kids had tea (Davies said he wanted something made of pig so he had bacon sandwiches, Scarlett had bacon on one plate and a big bowl of pasta too) and I’m about to pack them off for an early night before having an early bath and tea myself as Lucy is coming over to keep me company with Ady being away.
Hope your wrist is ok. I’ve just had manual handling training at work so could bore you to death about the way to handle books… ‘Don’t’ is the long and short of it. You a bit feel of a fool with two books on your trolley, though!
Comment by Allie — 24 October 2007 @ 9:26 am
I suffer from a bad wrist and a couple years ago invested in one of the terribly expensive wrist supports from boots. it was definitly worth the money and when this one dies i will replace it with the same, it really is so much better than the tubular supports.
Comment by Liza — 24 October 2007 @ 4:34 pm
forgot to say – PMSL at the james blunt clip 😆
Comment by Liza — 24 October 2007 @ 4:35 pm
perhaps they are too little. Poppy adores TBOD and has the DVD
Comment by Heather — 27 October 2007 @ 6:30 am