This week has definitely been too busy. I’ve been doing Post Office shifts as Jinty is off, we’ve had six volunteers here plus Home Ed friend Leo, the weather has been a crazy mix of rainy, midgey and this weekend tent destroying gales. We’ve been taking phone calls from dysfunctional families in Sussex on both Goddard and Davies side and the calendar stretches ahead with yet more of the same. Friends and family visiting, all of which is lovely but exhausting.
We have however had a very successful volunteer event, largely due to Martin, the dad of the family volunteering with us, who is an Ady style work horse! The two of them have delighted in pushing wheelbarrow upon wheelbarrow full of path materials up the hill leaving the youngsters far behind. The French girl came on Monday, worked on Tuesday and left on Wednesday! The French boy came on Monday, sort of dangled about for most of the week, moved his tent inside the bell tent and managed to fill the tent, the camping shelter and general area with rubbish and leave the bell tent door open so it blew down in today’s gales. Leo has been great, really easy company, helpful where he can be and just generally delighting in all that Rum has to offer.
I’ve been intensely hacked off with Julie & Chris and my parents who are all being woolly about when they might want to come up until we finally decided for them all and told them instead. My Mum is being all shitty about the fact we are planning a week in a holiday cottage on Harris & Lewis asking if we have won the lottery?! My Dad has bought us a car which is very lovely and much appreciated but appears to be much smaller than we would have chosen given we wanted something suitable for supermarket shopping runs/ all four of us plus dog / sleeping in if stranded off the island. As I say much appreciated but also annoying for my Mum to be insinuating that perhaps we should not be having a break in October but paying Dad back for the car instead, which he announced to me by saying ‘I’ve bought you a present…’ so not really something I would then offer to pay him back for. I’ve booked tickets for me., Davies and Scarlett to see a live show they were desperate to see and Mum is also annoyed that I didn’t count her in for coming along to that too, precisely the last thing the kids would want and actually something *I* want to do with them anyway… she has plenty of opportunity to do nice things for them /me if she wants to at any given time, she just never chooses to. Argh, anyway, didn’t come here to rant, well maybe just a little.
Leo leaves tomorrow, Scarlett and I are off for dentist stuff on Tuesday for two nights (another couple of evenings of blah with Alison, sigh), back on Thursday and then friends arriving on Friday for the weekend. They leave Monday and then more friends are arriving although not staying with us next week. Then a whole week of nothing before the next lot of volunteers followed by Mum & Dad, followed by Ady’s brother… we are going to be so, so ready for that holiday, I can’t believe my Mum begrudges me it.