Waking at Alarm O’clock this morning and I was aware of Scarlett in the bathroom. I hit snooze and staggered out of bed a couple of minutes later and was sure I could ‘feel’ a presence. I checked the stairs and Davies’ room (where he was still asleep) but could see noone so sat down to put my make up on. I could still feel someone near and then realised Scarlett was hiding in the shower 😆
The kids had breakfast and we all got engrossed in the Sarah Jane Adventures then they scrambled to get dressed just before there was a knock on the door and it was my Mum. She had rung last night and been a bit shirty about not having seen us for weeks but quickly realised guilt tripping me is a redundant exercise so settled for nice and arranged to call over this morning. Davies showed her his Harry Potter lego that they’d bought him for his birthday and had arrived since and then her and I had a catch up chat. As usual conversation turned from pretty much every topic to her finding an oportunity to slate my Dad but we glossed over that and had a mostly pleasant catch up.
The BT engineer arrived soon after my Mum and was Very Nice (both to look at and for his phone fixing abilities 😉 ). He quickly deduced it was a problem at the exchange so headed off there to try and fix it. He rang me about 15 minutes later and asked if the phone had just rung. I said it hadn’t and then realised it couldn’t as I’d unplugged it, so plugged it back in again (while commenting that I couldn’t do his rather technical job 😆 ) but it still wasn’t working so he said he’d come back. He arrived back abotu 15 minutes later and said there had been a problem at the exchange but that didn’t seem to be fixing the line and now we had no phone line at all, meaning NO INTERNET! He appreciated the gravity of such a situation and got it fixed for me, including disconnecting several extra phone jacks we’d had put in around the house when we did the loft extension but don’t actually use. He said it would make my broadband quicker too (although I confess to not actually noticing that).
Scarlett offered to make everyone a cup of tea so headed off to do that, including the BT man (we were calling him Mark by then. It was his name, we didn’t just decide to) then Mark left, Mum stayed for a bit longer and tried to make light of the night I had to dash over there to seperate her and my Dad so I gave her a bit of a lecture about Frazer and Davies and Scarlett joined in to say they get scared and worry when Ady and I get cross with each other (which is a very infrequent occurance obviously) so they can’t imagine what it must be like to live with parents who argue all the time.
Mum left and then we headed over to Tasha’s. Davies and Toby disappeared for most of the time we were there, Tarly spent some time with Tasha and I and also helped (as in licked out the bowl) Tasha bake chocolate cake. Really enjoyed the couple of hours there laughing, bitching and cuddling assorted cats (Tasha has seven so plenty of choice). I do miss a cat 🙁
Ady rang to say he was not far from home so we left Tasha’s and went home too. I was really keen to get an extra swim in this week (we are past the halfway point of the swim and I am not yet at the halfway point so will need to do two swims a week now) so Ady had promised to get home as soon as he could so I could dash off and do that as the pool is open later tonight. I got there at 530 and chatted to the receptionist and the swimming teacher who ran the Swimathon and always gives me some little comment about how long I have been swimming for each week so now she knows I am doing the Channel Swim too and will no doubt be encouraging me :). I really wanted to crack the 100 lengths in two hours having gotten closer each time and then realised if I managed 100 I might as well try and do the 106 to bring me to 500 lengths cummulatively which would feel nice and tidy :). I was off to a flying start and after one hour had done 55 lengths. I’d done 77 by 1.5 hours (which was great as it meant I smashed my previous Swimathon record of 75 lengths in 1hr27mins – I did the 75 for Swimathon in 1hr37mins) but slowed up and managed 99 in two hours, completing the 100 lengths in about 90 seconds after the 2 hour mark. I stayed in for the last six and did 106 in just over 2hrs 10 mins. Knees not too bad, upper arms feel exercised but not agony. I suspect if I had 4hrs a week and funds to keep it up I could actually get fairly fit doing this twice a week. Fingers crossed I will be getting fit by other means next year but swimming could actually be a future option for getting all fit and healthy.
I staggered out, got changed, went to Morrisons for pizza toppings and went home. The kids were still up having decided to be worried about me and then proud of me. They poured me wine (having ascertained I wouldn’t rather have tea), put a bowl of nuts next to my bath for me and Davies brought me £2 to sponsor me and made me promise to pay it in and dictated a message to go with it.
I had a bath, the kids eventually went to bed, Ady cooked pizza – not good, he’d used wholemeal flour which really didn’t work for pizza.