Once upon a time, when you all first knew me I was pretty different to who I am now.
Sure there are glimmers of that person – there is still the cleavage, the wine-supping, the drunken singing – you know all the most attractive aspects of my personality ;).
But you knew me back when I wouldn’t sleep anywhere that didn’t have an en suite bathroom, now I go camping regularly and am off to live in a campervan and stay with people who live off-grid, with no running water and compost loos.
You knew me when my solution to being out at Bluewater (a place I would never go at all now) after dark was to go and buy new pyjamas for the children to travel home in. On my credit card 😆 Now I’d not be at the shopping centre in the first place, don’t have a credit card, would be buying pjs from a charity shop or hand weaving them from nettle cordage. Or something 😆
You have known my diet is pretty much entirely meat, with the odd bit of lard and carbs chucked in. But you have read about my brush with lentils, beans and chickpeas. Certainly not converted and still only see the point of pulses as collage materials but aware they may be presented to me under the guise of food next year and I may well be hungry enough to eat them.
Time was when I used to sneer at crafters. Then I made rag rugs, learnt to knit and bought a sewing machine.
I’ve always hated dogs, been terrified of them, but a few weeks ago I grabbed a snarling one’s collar and lifted it away from Scarlett’s ducks. I’m nowhere near over my fear but I have in the back of my mind that we will probably get a dog at some point which will hopefully conquer it for good.
There are not many of the ‘things I’d never do’ that I haven’t now done actually and last night I stepped back from my utter boycott of Harry Potter and went to see the latest film. I’ve never read any of the books or watched any of the films before. When the ridiculous hype around the books started I was filled with disdain. I admire JKRowlings success, love the stories of her as a single mother sitting in coffee shops with her notebook scribbling away and can’t help but have respect for the marketing and PR machine which swung into such action to create the buzz around the whole thing. But it’s fantasy, witches and wizards, other worlds, goblins and magical beasties on broomsticks, it’s school and pretend and spells. I hate fantasy, never read Lord of the Rings or any of the other classics of the genre. I don’t care about Terry Pratchetts books or tv adaptations, I’m not interested in vampires or teenage werewolves or people with wands. I am interested in real people, who live real lives and face real challenges. If I want fiction I want it based in truth, if I want boarding school stories I’ll read Malory Towers, if I want stories about childhood friendships and adventures I’ll turn to Swallows and Amazons.
But when I tried to book three tickets for Ady, Davies and Scarlett to see the film I couldn’t get our usual front row seats as there was a block of four and you can’t book three and leave one seat on it’s own. So for the sake of £6 for the fourth ticket I booked it and decided to keep it quiet. Except when I said I’d booked the three tickets for the kids to go with Ady tinged with excitement were little sad looks and an ‘I wish you were coming too Mummy’ comment. So of course I caved in…
I spent yesterday at work, mostly moaning about Harry bloody Potter and Fish bloody restaurants. As not only was I making the ultimate sacrifice of going to the cinema to watch HP, I’m also going out with Ady and some of his work colleagues and ex-work colleagues for a meal. In Portsmouth, an hours drive away. I’m not super keen on at least 3 of the people going (which always makes for interesting seating arrangements as I try and avoid sitting next to them) and having gone to a fish restuarant last time I expected us to be going somewhere different this time. But no, another fish restaurant it is. Two nights running of things I don’t want to do. I’m not very good at being a martyr ;).
I also did singing for Baby Rhyme Time – on countdown for those, I think I have about 5 or 6 left before I leave and one of those will be the Christmas one, put books on shelves and other such library stuff.
I got home and helped the kids get HP’d up. Davies has a proper dressing up cloak and glasses from my Mum, he drew a scar on with lipstick and wore his Badger trousers underneath and the only white top he owns – one saying ‘The world is my classroom and life is my curriculum’. We all liked the idea of wearing a Home Ed top instead of a school uniform under the cloak so much Scarlett did the same :). Scarlett had also had her hair in plaits from the night before so it would be all curly – not sure who that was supposed to make her look like but she liked it :).
We parked in town and got to the cinema where anyone dressed up got a vouched to get a free drink – they had set up the various kiosk and bars in the cinemas (there is a theatre and two cinemas together, owned by Worthing council and run in a nice independant way, much prefer them to the multi-screen complexs over in Brighton). The kids chose some ‘polyjuice potion’ and to ease my pain I got a glass of white wine too – paid more for that one glass than I usually do for a bottle! 😯
The film was utterly as I’d expected it to be. I was bored, not at all sure who most of the characters were and not remotely interested in what was going on. I spent most of it watching the kids, who really loved it. I definitely won’t go to the next one and I really just proved to myself what I already knew. Ah well.
Home for a very late dinner for us and the kids straight to sleep (within about ten minutes of going to bed – hurrah! That’s the solution then, take them out late, get them home late and they will actually go straight to sleep. Not sure it’s sustainable as a sleep solution really…).
I watched some Children In Need and then went to bed.