We’d arranged to meet up with The Other Goddards today for a walk in Arundel. We’ve done it for the past few years at some point over Christmas (last year was Christmas Eve). It is so unseasonably warm (I’m not even saying mild now, it’s actually warm, we’ve seen bees and butterflies in the last week and stuff is starting to come into leaf with new growth) that it was nice to be outside and we’ve all gone down a coat level into Spring / Autumn coats rather than proper winter ones.
Chris came too which is always a mixed blessing – good because it’s nice to see him, nice to all 9 of us be together and good for Ady to have some time with his brother, but bad because he is incredibly controlling and hard on the kids and can kill any joy with a few words. Julie is fairly similar to me in terms of being relaxed about stuff with the kids and we are inclined to let the older ones roam fairly freely, especially in places they are familiar with. I utterly trust Davies and Scarlett, particularly after the year we have had and as a foursome with Jack and Maisie they are very sensible together. It was also nice for Jack and Maisie to have some ‘time off’ from Lorna who is currently perfectly Annoying Little Sister apparently.
We fed the birds there – a mix of ducks, swans, coots, moorhens and some gulls and marvelled over the huge trout swimming about. The water level was so low and the trout so huge they were not fully submerged with their top fin poking out of the water jaws – stylee :). Then headed off to walk around the lake. I fell into step with Julie and we talked about sibling relationships, my crazy parents, my brother (Julie is an only child and of course Ady and Chris despite being brothers didn’t actually grow up together so I am the only one with standard sibling relationship history to draw on. From my experience fighting like cat and dog while still being prepared to do anything for your sibling and always taking their side in a fight is normal and standard. I think Davies and Scarlett enjoy a very special sibling friendship aided by their lifestyle and having very complementary personalities) and plans for the coming year. It feels good to have plans A, B and C all tucked away in reserve and less nights left at my parents now than we have already spent here. Am so desperate to hear about Rum now one way or the other.
D, S, J & M had climbed the bank and were walking parallel to us, Julie and I shouted up to them to stay together and meet us at the end which they shouted back OK to so we carried on walking with Lorna. At the end though the older ones didn’t appear so after about 10 minutes of Lorna getting impatient and Chris getting angsty we started walking back again. We were met by Davies to say Jack and Scarlett had got stuck in some deep mud and couldn’t get out. Ady and Chris went ahead although Julie and I caught up with them before they’d done much. Chris was just shouting at Jack and calling him an idiot 🙁 and telling Ady he’d need to rescue them as he had wellies on and Chris didn’t.
And they did need rescuing!
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Jack had managed to get his feet out and is crouching here but is welly-less as they were left in the mud and he was stuck crouched on a log. Scarlett is up to mid thigh but with feet still in wellies! They had realised they were stuck so Davies had been building up a pile of wood for them to try and anchor themselves on to get out but it hadn’t worked and I think Jack was starting to fret (Scarlett thought it was all hilarious!) so they decided Maisie should stay and guard them from a safe distance while Davies ran to find us. What was bad was that several groups of people had walked past them and studiously ignored them, Scarlett said she even heard one person say ‘those kids look stuck…’ but had not talked to them. Ady and I managed to lay branches down to create a platform and haul them out then Ady recovered all the wellies – Scarlett’s were at the end of their life anyway but Jack’s are Hunters so worth digging out!
Jack continued to be berated by Chris but we made it clear to all four of them that we thought they had done well. Clearly getting stuck in mud is not something to be applauded but they had worked out the best course of action, worked together and Davies and Scarlett had done a great job of keeping Jack calm. I was really proud of all four of them, particularly when Davies and Scarlett told us that Jack and Maisie had been dreading Chris’ reaction.
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Note that level of mud to Scarlett’s mid thigh! 🙂
Back at the car Scarlett stripped off to pants and T shirt and we headed for home. After a quick wash off we had lunch and then walked up to the shops. We’d deliberately not bought Scarlett anything to go with her hamster knowing she’d enjoy choosing things herself so she needed a little house / shelter, some more chewy things and a ball for exercise. Davies had said he wanted to buy her something for the hamster too so they went clutching Christmas money from various people. The animal Christmas stocking treat packs were half price so Scarlett picked up a couple of those which worked out very cheap for treats and chewy things, she got a very cool exercise ball which can be used fully enclosed to run around the room or set on a stand to be a static ball or inside the cage with one of the sides off set on the stand to be like a slightly more enclosed wheel. The wheel that came with the cage was pretty rubbish so we’ve taken that out, had a tidy up in the cage and Humphrey spent a very happy 20 minutes rolling all around the lounge in his ball :). It’s now installed as a wheel in the cage where he is loving that too :).
We tried to get some new wellies for Tarly but she has exacting requirements of being ideally green but certainly not pink or purple or sporting flowers or things and she wants them as high up her legs as possible to enable the deepest puddles and streams to be navigated in them. So Brantano didn’t cut it!
Davies’ present from us was a second hand DSlite as his current one, five years old and very tired is giving up the ghost. He’d agonised over what DS to go for testing his rumble pack in various different friends DSs over the last month and trying to decide whether to have a new model and nothing else or a second hand one and other gifts too. He eventually decided on a second hand DS lite which we found in his requested colour of black. Sadly it seems to be one that had had a replacement casing put on and not very well. The buttons seem misaligned and the volume doesn’t always work. I felt really sorry for him that all his trying to make the right choice had backfired even though we promised a replacement as soon as we could sort it out. My parents said they thought we should buy a new one rather than a second hand one and that they were prepared to put the extra money towards it so he could have one. I contacted the ebay seller and arranged to send the rubbish one back for a refund and then we realised it’s almost impossible to get new DSlites anymore. The Sainsburys up the road from Mum & Dad’s happened to have two but then Davies decided actually he wanted red rather than black so the whole thing has continued to rumble on. Today I suggested to him that actually maybe he should think about a DSi or 3DS instead and just keep the tired DSlite for using with his rumble pack been as there isn’t much difference in the price. Sure enough at Sainsburys they had a red 3DS and loads cheaper than anywhere else we could find one so Mum went back up with him and got it and he is utterly delighted with it. We’ll reimburse Mum our share once the ebay one has been refunded. I feel a bit rubbish that we were not able to do that for him without their help and know it will be mentioned lots that actually it is now another present from Mum rather than what we got Davies for Christmas but Davies so doesn’t care about where it came from anyway and I am really happy to see him so chuffed with it.
I had a bath, followed by Ady and then Scarlett and cooked dinner – I cooked up leftover jacket potatoes with some onion and garlic, the last of the cold turkey and gammon and a salad. All very nice and mostly from leftovers – I’ll convert my parents yet! 😉
I sat with the kids til they fell asleep tonight, mostly because it is the most reliable method of keeping them quiet and therefore asleep quicker.