I’ve been sleeping badly the last few nights and last night was not helped by Davies staggering into our room just after 2am saying he’d had a bad dream. He got into bed with us and that meant the rest of my night was even more unsettled. This morning I talked to him about his bad dream and he said I had gone out to a party and been talking to him on the phone when I had slipped into a pool and been attacked by a crocodile! In waking moments he is very rational about all his current little quirky worries so I’m happy they are more a child who is able to articulate concerns and share them with me rather than anything too overwhelming.
We were all up early this morning thanks to a complicated set of childcare arrangements for today. Julie had offered to have Davies and Scarlett this morning but then rung me to say she’d double booked and Jack and Maisie were booked into an education workshop at a place called Time Machine Fun which was organised by the localish Home Ed group she belongs to. She suggested I contact the organiser (who I know) to see if Davies and Scarlett could attend under her membership with her as their nominated grown up. I got in touch with Cate who kindly agreed that would be okay but mentioned some reservations about it being designed for over 10s with adult assistance for under 10s leaving Julie stretched a bit thin.
Julie came up with all sorts of possible scenarios including Scarlett and Maisie going somewhere else while she took Jack and Davies but we eventually settled on Ady taking Davies and Scarlett with him, dropping them off at 10am and meeting Julie there and then staying in the vicinity incase he was needed. Davies took his phone incase he wanted us and I was to go to work and come home and have some childfree time before Ady brought the kids back in time for Badgers.
I’m rubbish at being without the kids, I hate them being taken anywhere in someone else’s car and admit to being far more clingy than is healthy. Can’t help it though.
So Ady took the kids off just before 8am and I used the quiet house, no disturbances, 100% sober time to sit and write an email to our local friend who is dying. I’ve been meaning to do it for nearly 2 weeks, had bought a card to write by hand in but not managed it and then heard she was checking emails and happy to be contacted that way. I agonised over what to write but settled for telling her exactly what I think of her. I think generally we’re all a bit rubbish at that. Sure, sometimes it wouldn’t be nice things you’d say so they are better left unsaid but I think hearing the good things that people think about you is lovely – both to say and be said to. So I let it flow, told her all I admire and love about her, some snapshot memories of times we have shared and just typed it all out. I felt terribly sad for having had reason to do so but happy to have said it all.
Then off to work.
I spent some time on the desk, some time taking down a display and some time shelving. None of it very exciting really but it went quickly. Davies rang at one point but I wasn’t around so just got a message to say ‘Davies rang to check you are okay.’ bless him.
I needed to get some bread for Badgers tonight so called over to Sainsburys and then called in to see my Dad for half an hour. He was looking old and tired which always distresses me. I’ve deliberately not thought too much about months away not seeing my Dad but for me personally that will be a hardship on a low level, pang of missing him every now and then type way.
Davies rang and Julie spoke to me to say she had had enough and wanted to leave so I arranged for Ady to go and collect the kids early (only by about an hour). Davies and Scarlett tell me they would have happily stayed all day and indeed one of the most interesting sounding bits was scheduled in for the very end of the session and they were running late already but they needed to get back for Badgers. They learnt loads about cameras through the ages, made various cameras with junk, took some real cameras apart to see how they work and generally enjoyed themselves loads.
Ady rang ahead and asked me to run them a bath as they were filthy so I did that and gathered up spices from the kitchen to take to Badgers along with some info off wikipedia about spices and bread. Ady brought the kids home and they went straight in the bath while Ady had a coffee and then headed back out again.
I saw the things the kids had made and heard all about their day, brushed and plaited Scarlett’s hair and trimmed Davies’ fringe so he can actually see out of it again (he refuses to have the length at the back cut at all, I think he may be competing with Tarly :lol:).
We drove to Badgers singing Bohemian Rhapsody which the kids declared far more fun than listening to real music and said we should do more often. 😆
Badgers was quite a good one. First I got out all the spices, let them smell and look at them and talk about ones they knew. We then talked about what spices are: dried fruit, bark, seeds, flower pods and other vegetative matter used for flavouring, colouring and preserving foods. We talked about which were which eg cumin, coriander, pepper seeds, cloves as flowers, ginger and tumeric as roots, cinnamon as bark, saffron as stamen. We talked about other purposes: medicinal, religious ceremony, perfume. What herbs are and where we get spices from – 86% from India.
Next I brought out a selection of breads and we tried them, I had french bread, bagels, nan, tortilla wraps, ciabatta. We talked about bread and water being the basics for bread, all of the other ingredients that can be added, how bread can be baked, fried, steamed and how it is one of the first prepared foods dating back to neolithic period. We talked about where flour comes from and types of mills they may have visited; the south downs used to have loads of windmills and a few still remain. How neolitic people would have made flour and then sampled some of the breads I’d brought.
We had some time left and I’d mentioned last time the idea of the Hungry Badgers planning a Christmas party so we talked about venue, guest list, themes, invites etc. Then I split them into two teams to take about food and drink and entertainment ideas. It seemed to work with the the olde kids writing and the younger ones doing drawers of their ideas.
Back at home Ady had made the kids some tea so they ate and watched the W&G contraptions thing on BB1. Then we wrapped up warm and headed back out again into Lancing for the Beach Green firework display. We’d been thinking we would finally go and ‘do Lewes’ this year having never actually managed to get there in all the years we’ve lived down the road and now having children old enough to take along for the early part of the madness there but I am working til 6pm on Friday so I just can’t see us getting into Lewes before it all closes down. We could get the train in (although those are also packed) but it would involve a couple of changes and I’d be slightly worried about bonfire, late night Friday craziness again on the way home. I wish I’d realised a few weeks ago I was working and could have planned a couple of hours off in the afternoon and got over to Lewes with a car or the campervan earlier. But I didn’t and we need to be up early on Saturday morning for Wildlife Explorers and we have friends over for dinner on Saturday and a whole host of other reasons leading to us being sensible and not going to Lewes after all :(. Which meant I’ve been scouring for local firework displays and in deference to the event that is Lewes there is very little happening locally on Friday itself.
We drove into Lancing and parked a little way away from the beach then walked down. There was a big funfair there but we avoided that and headed straight to the beachside edge of the roped off area. There were people with buckets collecting for the local cancer hospice charity (the display was free) so the kids chucked some money in and got a balloon and a little fuzzy bug thing from the bucket toting man. The fireworks were excellent, a good ten minutes worth of very impressive bangs, whizzes and colours that had everyone oohing and ahhing :).
Back home the kids went to bed, we had baths and ate dinner infront of a taped Apprentice from earlier. I did start this blogpost then but fell asleep over my laptop to had to give up and go to bed!