Work all day for me. It went fairly quickly; I spent some time on the enquiry desk but didn’t really have many enquiries as it was quiet while I was on there. I spent some time chasing up reservations that have been outstanding for over a month (we get a print out) and some time printing off reading group questions and discussion ideas for next weeks reading group which I’m running. It’s a book I suggested but we struggled to get hold of copies so I’ve not actually read it since I read it back at the beginning of last year so I wanted to refresh my memory. It was one I really enjoyed but for several personal reasons so I’m hoping it was still a good read for people who haven’t worked either in retail management or in a large shopping mall – What Was Lost
Sian and I were deeply entertained by reading passages of a delightful book called ‘Peter and Pamela Grow Up’. It’s writen by ‘HW Tame, the Headmaster of a large mixed primary school and a marriage guidance counsellor’ who has ‘for the last few years given a series of lessons on the facts of life to his school leavers aged between 10 and 11 years’ because ‘he feels that if a child is not given some form of sex instruction before he leaves his primary school there is great danger when he comes into contact with much older children at his secondary modern or grammar school, that he will learn about sex in a way whihc can easily lead to his adopting a wrong attitude towards it’. It is an hilarious read and if I get time I may well type out some it’s wisdom so I can share it all with you 😆
I enjoyed most of my lunchbreak alone in the staff room with a cup of tea and a magazine but then the tutor who runs computer classes came up and shattered my peace with his inane chatter :(.
The afternoon went quickly as I was weeding out old dvds and cds which always whiles away the time quickly.
Back at home Ady had been here in the morning and among other things had been showing Davies how to use word as he wanted to type up some of his Star Wars stories. In the afternoon my mum was here and I think they mostly did lego.
I got home and was pissed off about Ady and even my Mum messing about with the laundry (Ady had washed pretty much all the dirty washing in the house, and possibly even some clean stuff too, there’s so much of it) but without actually giving much thought to getting it all dry. Then Mum had taken a load out of the machine and left that in the basket (would have been better left in the machine until I could deal with it) so there was wet washing everywhere and all of the dry stuff was still waiting to be put away, curse, mutter, gripe). I made the kids’ tea and sat down thinking there is no bloody way I could have this as my all-the-time life only seeing the kids for an hour to feed them, coming home after work to deal with housework and cooking etc.
Davies was doing lots of tic like noises while he was eating and I quickly realised there was something upsetting him. He didn’t seem to know what it was himself but we unravelled it in the end. He worries that Mum favours him over Scarlett and is really hard on Tarly. He hates it and feels uncomfortable with the favouritism, guilty about Scarlett being treated unfairly and doesn’t really want to be fawned over by my Mum anyway. Also he’d overheard me telling Scarlett yesterday that the crossest my Dad had ever been with me when I was a child was when I let Frazer take the blame for something I’d done and just stood by and let him get into trouble when I was the one who’d done the ‘crime’. This was designed to make Tarly feel sorry for something she’d done yesterday but actually made Davies feel bad today when he used a bit of lego Scarlett wanted so she made a fuss and then got shouted at by Mum as he felt he’d got her into trouble by something he’d done.
Scarlett, predictably didn’t even seem to have registered any of this but it had made Davies feel guilty and therefore stressed and tic-prone. I can never decide whether I am too in tune with him and pick up on things that he’d just learn to deal with or whether if I didn’t step in and help him all of his little things like this would get worse and out of hand. Ah well, it’s academic anyway really isn’t it.
All of that thrashed out Ady arrived home and we finished the Mr Gum book we’re on and Davies took the first one on audiobook up to bed with him to listen to (about 4 times I think as A turned it off when he went up to bed at 11ish) as read by the author which is always my favourite way to listen to a story as you get to hear just how they wrote it.
Scarlett is very restless and keeps calling out and crying in her sleep but not waking up. It’s days like these when Ady doesn’t get home til gone 7pm because he’s been home in the morning and I only get a couple of hours with the kids during which time I spent in the kitchen or dealing with the fallout of not having been here myself that I question whether work is worth it 🙁 which is a shame as I had a good day and was only being asked by my boss when I thought in the future I might be able to increase my hours… Surely there’s enough call just between us lot for development of a clone machine to be justified? 😆
Watched Comic Relief does The Apprentice and am looking forward to the real Apprentice starting again soon :). And now I think I’m ready for bed too, I had a night of very vivid dreams which had me waking up feeling I’d not rested at all but actually ben incredibly busy all night!
sympathies for the clone issue – there are many aspects of work that I very much enjoy, not least some adult time away from squabbles 😉 and yet I’m determined that my main wish is to stay at home with the kids for the foreseeable future. It is a very difficult situation/ decision isn’t it?
Comment by jax — 13 March 2009 @ 10:05 am
LOL at clone idea. I think life would be worse as I’d probably be irritated by me, spend all my time grumbling about the other me and become seriously hacked off with life, the universe and everything
Comment by Michelle — 13 March 2009 @ 6:04 pm