Today has been very pleasant actually. It was a picnic in the park at Chichester for the new EO Local Contact team (me and two other ladies who are covering West Sussex between us) to meet each other and any other local HE folk who wanted to come along. We’ve been sending out emails and ringing round the contact list, posting on local yahoo lists and generally putting the word out and thanks to a mention in the Activeo newsletter as well we had a fairly impressive turn out. There were at least four people who are either in the middle of deciding whether to HE or very very new to it who came along and hopefully were reassured and got some support and information to help them. I met a few new faces which was nice, got to feel like a real Home Educator by giving out lots of advice about resources, support and ideas and actually for the first time ever felt very much a part of the local HE community. 🙂 The Activeo folk who were there were all lovely and friendly and several will be at HESFes so I will be making sure I mix and mingle with them as well as the MP campers. Julie came along and Ady also met us there which was nice as he so often misses out on the nice side of HE so that was good. With many of the local schools being used as poling stations there were also various other groups of school aged but school attending children which I am not sure whether was good as we blended in or bad because there were more people around to notice the ‘lentil brigade’ element to our gathering 😉 Whatever, it was a nice couple of hours, reassuring for HESFes and the sun shone too!
Nipped into the town centre as there is the nearest Lush shop to us in Chichester and as part of my ‘final blow out’ before the scary decision is made tomorrow by the bank I thought I’d have one last stock up session in there inlcuding some portable shower products for HESFes! Also went to Boots for some style in, wash out colours for me and the kids hair if we feel so inclined (red for D, pink for S, and purple for me) so I am feeling pretty sorted for HESFes now. I am not too worried about packing clothes etc as I *always* overpack anyway but as we are at Seadown and will have spare space in our van I am fine with that. The only decision left to make is whether to take both cars with us on Saturday and leave one with me for the week or to come up in just the one and let Ady bring it home with him on the Monday. I am tending to think I will want the security of having a car with me incase of medical emergency, food supplied running low, needing to escape home at short notice or deciding I hate it and want to come home right NOW in the middle of the night in the middle of the week…
Nic, I will have mine with me – I’m now driving down on my own, gulp!
Comment by Jenny — 05 May 2005 @ 6:08 pm
P.S. Forgot to say, rats I meant to go to that picnic and forgot about it – was Caroline there? I also know Aida as she is an independent midwife who works quite closely with my midwife.
Comment by Jenny — 05 May 2005 @ 6:09 pm
yeah Caroline asked after you 😉 Didn’t know you knew Aida as well – ooh it’s so incestuous this HE / natural parenting lark isn’t it!
Comment by Nic — 05 May 2005 @ 9:07 pm
Apart from having to do a shop the day we arrive, which I can’t do in advance as it takes us about three days to get there for some reason (?), I never use the car at all when I’m there. I did go to Bournemouth last year when Bob flew down, but that was different. Although I will also admit that I like the car there, with a full tank, to cover tsunami escapes, decamping to local A+E dept, etc. I always buy towles and baked beans in preparation for any moajor cut-back on expenditure. Not sure why…..
Comment by Joyce — 05 May 2005 @ 10:09 pm
I did think of you when I was listing all the possible scenarios I might need a car for Joyce 😉 Think we’ve decided to bring both this time and see how we go.
Comment by Nic — 05 May 2005 @ 10:16 pm
I’ve got that one- or two-car dilemma too. I’m nervous about being without one for a week.
Comment by Joanna — 05 May 2005 @ 10:46 pm
I’m only bringing my car because neither of us will be able to fit all of our stuff in one car. Did that make sense? Probably not. Plus I’ve agreed to bring someone else’s camping stuff, lots of our local group are coming this year too.
Having said that, I am planning to run Anna back to Exeter for Stagecoach on the Sunday so I will be using it. Wondered if anyone wanted to get together for a trip to Crealy during the week, as well?
Comment by Sarah — 06 May 2005 @ 7:48 am
we’d be up for that Sarah. I am sort of planning to escape a couple of times even if just for a few hours if it all gets too full on so that might be a nice thing to have planned. what day were you thinking?
Comment by Nic — 06 May 2005 @ 8:39 am
That sounds good. I usually get HESFES fever at some point, but can nver drag Hannah away. But if a couple of people were going, it would probably be more appealing.
Comment by Joyce — 06 May 2005 @ 9:37 am
I dunno – midweek sometime, when we all feel like we need it? It’s not the cheapest of places to go to, but there is a fair bit of undercover play there so might be good if it was a dreary day. Would be about a half hour drive. Just figured we could decide as and when …
Comment by Sarah — 06 May 2005 @ 11:55 am