Davies and Scarlett have been at that stage of feeling well enough to want to play together but not quite well enough to pull it off without annoying each other today. 🙁
This morning was a round of letting out and feeding adult chickens, feeding children, checking on chicks, putting away washing, sorting more laundry and getting several loads washed and pegged out on the line.
Davies assisted me in moistening the remains of egg membrane to remove it from the chick still in the incubator. It’s still in there now, still in inside the egg position but still cheeping and alive. The other chick I didn’t expect to last the night is also still with us. It’s been adopted by Scarlett and spent much of the day inside her sleeve where it seems very happy. The rest are all going to Tom on Monday but if that one, which she’s called ‘Liberty’ survives them Tarly is going to keep it. I doubt it will survive but it’s certainly a fighter.
Scarlett and I took her stones out of the tumbler where they’ve finished their final rinse and are now polished. I’m really impressed with them and we’ll definitely do another load when we next go to the beach and can collect some. I think we’ll put the tumbler out in the garage though, it is *very* noisy.
I finally sat down with a cup of tea and my laptop and sent a couple of emails (one for Frazer to appeal against his parking ticket) and got our gas and electric bills online after our meters were read last week. I opened the first one and it was over £400 in credit. I suspected the other one might be the same in reverse but that was also in credit, by over £500. Two years ago we were over £500 in arrears and spent most of Ady’s annual bonus clearing that to get us back to a zero balance. The meters were last read in June last year and I seem to recall the monthly payments were increased slightly as a result so the overpayment must be in part at least to me nagging everyone about using less gas and electric, which feels good :). So we’ve reduced the monthly repayments on both by nearly half and will be getting rebate of the overpayment. Not sure what yet we’ll spend it on but we do intend spending it and enjoying it! 🙂
I spoke to Julie on the phone for half an hour catching up on news -mostly gloom and doom really; me whinging about us all having been ill and her telling me that Jack fell off his bike yesterday and has fractured his elbow and is in plaster 🙁 I think we managed to cheer each other up though and hopefully will actually catch up in person soon.
Ali and Freya arrived while I was finishing up my phone call and we had a nice afternoon. The children never really settled into playing very well together. Davies was being very full of mischief and boisterousness and Scarlett was being very delicate but they did have some periods of leaving us to chat including some DSing, some Xboxing, some eating ice lollies outside.
Scarlett slumped first and ended up sat back on the sofa, chick in her sleeve. We discussed at length the idea of introducing sticker charts with smilies and frownies and a nayughty spot. I said I was all in favour of 360 degree feedback and was prepared to also be judged with smilies and frownies. Freya immediately awarded me a million billion and thousand frownies, which Tarly took back and Davies re-awarded me (not sure why) so Tarly and I planned to run off together and start a new life with new names (Moon and Star) and make our living from busking and selling branded merchandise. Just another surreal afternoon! 😆
Ady came home and I ran Ali and Freya home. When I got back Scarlett was about to go to bed, Davies was eating dinner having had a bath and everyone was pretty tired and subdued, me included.
So, really happy about the bonus cash, really traumatised with all the chick angst and just really tired by all the convalesing.