One word? When seven would do…

Saturday Pulborough Brooks for Wildlife Explorers first thing, I do wish I made it to more of the monthly trips but they almost always seem to coincide with my Saturday to work. Scarlett went in first. The RSPB have recently acquired a lot of the surrounding land around the existing reserve so Davies, Ady and I had a wander round part of that. It was beautiful – a really clear winter morning. We got really close to the deer in the next field and were fascinated by loads of pairs of trees growing really close together but two different types, the branches were all intertwined and one pair had trunks wound round each other too.

We walked back to the visitor centre to have a quick look round there – and Davies and I started the county jigsaw puzzle until it was time for Scarlett to come out and Davies to go in. She’d been learning about woodpeckers and they’d been out on the reserve looking at woodpeckers (we’d seen a pair too and heard them knocking on the trees). We finished the county puzzle and then went for a walk round the reserve with her. Davies has two and a half hours at his session so we had plenty of time for a very leisurely stroll round. It had been very flooded up there and there was still much evidence of that with the path very muddy and sodden in places (put me in mind of Kessingland ;)). We had another look in the visitor centre and Scarlett spent some money on two polystyrene glider birds (like the planes but done as birds) – an eagle for her and a pigeon for Davies. Then Ady, Scarlett and I had a drink from the cafe and sat in the outdoor play area drinking them. So lovely to be able to sit outdoors again :).

Then it was time for Davies to come out so we collected him. His group had also been learning about woodpeckers and been out spotting them and had made a paper woodpecker too.

We went to Ady’s work to collect more logs and by then it was close to 3pm and we were all starving so we called into Sainsburys for food supplies and then took them to my parents to drop off some logs for them and share a late lunch with Dad who was home. Sat and chatted to him for a while about various things including paying him back for the new boiler – which he has paid for and *only* cost £1400 all in which I think it a really good price, hurrah for Mark The Plumber :).

Back home again Ady and I had baths and got ready to go out while the kids mostly played on the xbox. Scarlett lit all the candles from the night before again being very careful and sensible about fire and dripping wax. My parents arrived to stay with Davies and Scarlett and Dad took Ady and I into town and dropped us off.

We were having a meal with 3 of Ady’s ex-work colleagues and their partners (Tim who took us out for the Most Expensive Meal Ever late last year and Mrs Tim, Debs who I’ve probably never blogged about before but it very nice and her husband Gary who is the campest straight man I know and Tom who is our pheasant dealer and Ingrid who acutally is still one of Ady’s colleagues as she works there too), Gill who still works there at the moment but is about to leave and Fergie (previously mentioned on blog as Danger Man, Alison will know who I mean ;)). We were early so went into a pub for a drink to wait. It’s a pub which is right on the seafront and has tables and chairs out the front which people seem to sit at year round and always looks all nice and seasidey but we’ve never actually been into. We ordered a pint of beer and a large glass of wine and nearly fell over when that came to £7 – we just don’t do pubs! 😆 We were soon joined by Tim and Mrs Tim, Gill and Fergie – the others met us in the restuarant which was just along the road.

The restuarant came recommened from my Mum, who eats out quite a lot and some work mates of mine had said it was good so we’d booked in on that basis as we have no idea which restaurants are any good these days. The decor was lovely, the atmosphere was really good and the waiting staff were friendly although the service was incredibly slow – we sat down at 8 and didn’t have any food at all until gone 9pm and one of the starters was wrong! Most of us thought the food was average rather than amazing – I had deep fried brie followed by salmon steak and it was all bland and rather boring, and the salmon was overcooked. Ady had tiger prawns followed by a seafood pasta and that was very nice and I did try various bits of various other people’s meals which were all nice enough but nothing amazing.

We did have a LOT to drink which would have bumped the price up considerably so the £30 per person bill was probably quite reasonable on that basis. I’d carefully avoided sitting next to people I thought would be boring and ended up at the end of the table opposite Ady and next to Tom which was fine. After the main course we all swapped about anyway and Fergie came and sat next to me so I mostly talked to him :). We left there just after 10 and went back to the pub where we took over their games bar and pool table and had several very rowdy and not particularly skillful group pool tournaments while singing along, equally rowdily and badly to the karaoke in the next bar. It was a lot of fun, we laughed loads and it was actually a really good evening :).

I attempted to invite EVERYONE back to our house but Ady who was rather more sober than me vetoed that on the basis the kids might still be up, my parents would be annoying and I had to be up this morning. So he rang Dad to collect us and we waved everyone else goodnight.

Dad’s first words when we got in the car were ‘so there have only been the two incidents tonight. Both involving fire!’ 😯 The first was the glass shattering on one of the pound shop candles (four for a pound, I can’t believe 25 pence worth of merchandise has let me down like this :lol:) but noone checking it until the still burning candle had put a scorch on the table. Bloody candles, bloody table eh! It isn’t too bad as although it is obvious it looks like another knot (the table is pine and has several knots). The second incident was Dad banking up our fire so much the chimney (which was in dire need of a sweep) caught fire. Big time! There was smoke everywhere outside apparently, cars slowing down, people walking dogs stopping to stand and stare and two people rang the doorbell to tell them. Really really lucky that noone called the fire brigade as they will just stick a hose down the chimney and extinguish it which of course creates one hell of a mess in your room with soot and water everywhere. The chimney in the fireplace is black, a big chunk has been burnt from the hearth and you could still smell smoke in the air when we came home several hours later. The kids said it was all very dramatic and they’d wanted to ring me about the table and the chimney but my parents had said not to! 😆 As it happens nothing serious came of it but as usual I am left questionning just how sensible and responsible my parents are. It’s no wonder I have to resort to candles from the pound shop to appear grown up when I come from stock like them! 😆

We sat and chatted for a while before they left and we went to bed.

Sunday Started far, far, far too early as I was on a course at Badgers today. The timing was just really bad with a night out last night and if I was at all sensible I would have been more sober last night but nights out come along so infrequently I feel obliged to throw myself into enjoying them when they happen. I had stopped drinking fairly early to ensure I was clear to drive this morning though.

The course is one SJA are putting all their youth workers through and is a big chunk of a Btec qualification. I am still wondering quite how I ended up being talked into this whole Badger thing and today just perpetuated that really. I think SJA is a great organisation, I love the Badger programme and having learnt more about Cadets and the other awards and things they do for youths today I am even more impressed with them. Davies and Scarlett have got a lot out of Badgers and I think Davies will love Cadets too so I am trying hard not to resent giving something back really, at the same time as knowing this is so not me.

The morning covered Every Child Matters and the SJA Youth Charter and how they cross over and deliver their vision along with the structure of the programmes – basically as well as attending meetings each week the children are always working towards some award / badge / certificate etc. I did notice that they should be rather more input from the children themselves than I think necessarily happens at Worthing and interestingly Julie asked me today if I would be up for doing a ‘Badger pow wow’ which is all about talking to them about what they want so perhaps she has recognised that and sees the sett could move more in that direction. I’d certainly feel more comfortable with that sort of dynamic.

There were lots of very enthusiastic youth workers there which would grate on me at the best of times so tried and hungover and slightly resentful of being there on a Sunday rather than still in bed or at home with my family I was very irritated by the dots on i’s on name badges being turned into smiley faces, hearts and flowers. There is definitely a ‘type’ for these sorts of things. I suspect I am not it ;).

We broke for lunch and I chatted to Julie and the other leader, Angie a bit but as I had long since realised from the last 4 years we don’t really have a lot in common. She is trying very hard with me though and I suspect it will get easier. After lunch we did some stuff about philosophical ethics versus professional ethics and what parents, Badgers and SJA should and can expect from leaders and assistant leaders. I was further irritated by the woman next to me, who had really bad teeth writing the wrong version of their / there / they’re on everything she did and wanting to engage me in how great it was being a leader conversations. It all felt rather too much like being at school, spending ages learning about something that was boring and easy and having to wait for everyone else to catch up. On the plus side we did finish a whole hour earlier than expected so I filled my car up with petrol on the way home and was sitting in a bath with a book by the time I’d been expecting to leave :).

Everyone has been tired this evening and spent lots of time slumped across each other cuddled up on sofas. Ady cooked a lovely roast dinner, we all watched Got to Dance and Australian Masterchef then Davies and Scarlett went to bed. Neither of them fell asleep very quickly mind you and Davies sent me a text to say ‘see you at bed tum (sic) love davies’ which I worried might mean he’d got into our bed but he hasn’t. He may even have acted on my reply text telling him to sleep well! 😆

Tomorrow I have yet another training course, this time at least I’ll be paid as it’s first aid for the library and I am also waiting to hear back about a H&S training course for the Waste Prevention Advisor. I guess it’s all good for my CV even if I do feel like one of Davies or Scarlett’s furture offspring are teaching me how to suck products from the chickens!