Badger Badger

Ah this morning feels a very long time ago!

I worked this morning and when I arrived Yvonne said to me ‘I just have a feeling it’s going to be one of those Wednesdays’. And it was. I was on the Enquiry Desk for the first hour and dealt with two queries I had to get help to deal with and then got shouted at by an elderly man over computers and whether we could teach him how to save documents. He went away sort of ok in the end but had been really irate with me which was just wearing. That said it was odd how I flipped back into dealing with customer complaint mode so efficiently when I’ve not had to do so for about 8 years now. I feared all my skills in that area had gone to be replaced by my threatening tones as used on wayward children instead, but I’m reassured to find I can still do it when required.

Lucy stuck around so after a catch up with Davies after which I started to get fed up with him constantly interupting me I had a chat with Lucy and the children carried on playing. They left around 3pm ish so Davies showed me all the many pictures he’d been drawing and after some toying with the idea I decided to go and sort the bantams out. We’d acquired a new home for them; a sort of kennel type structure with a flat, felted, removable roof. A better size than their current pallet made home and easier to clean out etc. Also their run needed moving as the grass it had been over had totally gone to mud. So I shut up the old house, set up the new one and moved the run over to where the new one was. This meant both ends of the run were open for the bantams to escape from although they are not particularly interested in escaping so I knew it wouldn’t be too tricky to catch them if they did get free. I’d just reached this point of no return when it started to piss down with rain and Candle appeared to sit close to me, eyeing the bantams menacingly and me mockingly as I slithered around in piles of chicken shit in the rain :roll:. I got it all sorted though, put hay in the new house, filled up both their waterers and their food, weighed down the roof to make it fox-proof and then left them to it to settle in. They were going mental over the new fresh grass (which they’ll decimate within a week) and I was worried they might not venture into the new house but when I went out half an hour later to check on them they were all cuddled up in there together looking snug, so I shut them up for the night. I am the chicken whisperer :lol:.

The children had an early tea (need to sort out their teas really as we are out four nights a week at what would normally be their tea time – I think an early tea and maybe a light snack before bedtime after groups would work best but we’ll have to see how it all pans out) and played with their DSs before getting into their Badger uniforms. Ady had managed to get home early again today in honour of it so we both took them down to Badgers. Ady waited in the car while I took them in and Davies took Scarlett off to put her coat away while I talked to the leader. She told me to just pay Davies’ subs for now and to give Scarlett a couple of weeks to settle in before paying (suits me, we’re broke this month!). Meanwhile D and S had come back into the room and Davies was teaching Scarlett the single most important focus of after school groups; how to slide on your knees across a polished floor :lol:. I think she may come to rethink her skirts over trousers stance ;). I called out a cheery ‘goodbye guys’ and left.

Ady and I sat in the cold dark car outside and had indepth chats about what we want to achieve this year, what holidays we have planned, stuff to do with Ady’s job, what I should talk about at my annual review at work and where we would really, really like to live. It was good :). From next week I’ll take D and S on my own and sit in the car and read. This is great because it is right next to the beach so as soon as the season changes I’ll be able to have beach walks all on my own while they do Badgers :).

I went in to collect them and they were out the room collecting their coats. They came back and Davies clocked me but Tarly didn’t so I was able to watch her without her knowing for a short while before she finally saw me and beamed at me :). She was chattering away to all the other children and just looked like she was really loving it :). Julie the leader said she’d been fine, just a bit ‘Tiggeresque!’ so that might need reining in a bit but at least no worries about her confidence eh?! They were both full of it all the way home with Tarly thrilled to have done it and made ‘loads of new friends’ and Davies seeming very pleased to have her there too. I was slightly concerned that he might feel ‘his’ stuff has been intruded on but actually he seems really pleased to be taking his little sister along to Badgers and Swimming so hopefully it will continue so smoothly. And hopefully Scarlett can tone down her bounciness and excitement and Badgers and Swimming enough to listen and know what’s going on :lol:. She seems to be really looking forward to Rainbows now having done these two things this week so successfully so that is good too. 🙂