Are you waiting for me Michelle?

Cos I’ve been waiting for you and I just know whoever gets there first will mean the other one doesn’t bother with such a comprehensive account! 😉

Friday Was back to work for me. Ady was home in the morning, Frazer came over at lunchtime and Dad came over mid afternoon so Davies and Scarlett had a three tiered childcare arrangement for the day. Not at all sure what they did but the house was fairly tidy which was good :).

Work was fine – I had baby rhyme time in the morning which was quiet – only 8 babies and we had a bit of a frosty theme to it – I quite like the idea of introducing new songs every now and then. By lunchtime I was feeling worn out though and starting to wonder if perhaps I had been ill through the week and not realised as I’d done a fair bit of sitting around on the sofa and stayed in all week too – far from my usual gallivanting week.

I did a display in the afternoon – New Years Resolutions. The library is playing host – starting point and finishing point with refreshments to a new local initiative called Take A Walk which is guided, graded walks taking in the local scenery. This was a fairly small group – I think there was six of them, all older people but the idea was quite appealing so I got chatting to the organiser about whether she would welcome children along. She was incredibly enthusiastic and knew all about ‘Educating Otherwise’ as she called it having met HEors before. I’ve had a peep at the programme and will try and get along to something in the next few weeks. I think it would be interesting for me and the kids and provide us with a different outlook on some of the local sights aswell as a way of meeting new and interesting people we wouldn’t usually cross paths with. 🙂

My car had needed loads of deicing in the morning and at just 5pm when I went out to it in the carpark it was completely iced over again so I sat for nearly 10 minutes which the windscreen defrosted. De-icer in cans just doesn’t seem to do the job like it used to…

I got home about 520pm and somehow managed to make toast for Tarly, dash round and pack up clothes and toiletries for me, Scarlett and Davies (Ady had packed his own), get important things like wine and lemon meringue pies ready in the kitchen for Ady to pack up, persuade Scarlett to get into her Rainbows top and find something to take for show and tell.

Ady arrived home and took over feeding Davies and loading up the car just in time for Tarly and I to dash round to Rainbows. We were slightly late which was great as it meant I escaped paying subs. I know that is awful and of course I will pay next week but it means I can put that tenner into my car as petrol for next week instead.

The activity was colouring in paper dolls to be put on the wall for this terms display which they all did in super quick time so there was loads of time for the girls to get the toys out. There are skipping ropes, hula hoops, balls and stuff for them to play with. I ended up surrounded by small girls asking me to count their skips, play catch with them and so on, which really pisses Scarlett off as she is very clear about why I am sitting there and it is not, in her opinion, to be interacting with other children! Fortunately I share this opinion with her so am always very pleased when she finds a way of snatching my attention back. This time is was decided to push her way through the crowd to sit on my lap and demand a cuddle from ‘MY’ Mumma. 😆 My Dad always says that kids and animals always flock to people who ignore them and I rather think he is right.

Ady and Davies were supposed to collect us so we could head straight off but after standing outside for five minutes and already feeling like we were getting frost bite we walked home to find them still here faffing about. :rolls:

We managed to be away by 20 past 7 though and despite ridiculously cold temperatures – most of the way we were getting an external temp reading of -5 on the car dashboard, it dipped at one point to -7 – and Ady moaning about the grit spray on the windscreen and insisting on trying to wash it with the water on the wipers which just kept freezing, and really thick patches of fog, and warnings on the radio traffic reports and the overhead motorway signs of traffic and delays – we managed to arrive in bang on 2 hours just as the SatNav had expected :). Really straightforward journey.

Fantastic welcome to Mich, Marcus and Chloe’s gorgeous house :). Wine, snacks, smells of lovely food cooking, guided tour including having a wine soaking hug from Michelle in her bedroom! 😉 The house is just lovely, really homely, comfortable, steeped in history and charm and somehow spacious and cosy all at the same time. I felt very at home there 🙂

We had food, suddenly realised it was way past midnight and I think the children went up to bed about 1am. There is some sort of time black hole there though as whole two hour periods slip away in what feels like about ten minutes. Some of us went to bed quite late 😳

Saturday was therefore a slow start. Davies and Scarlett were still really getting over having been rough all week and were coughing aplenty and looking all pale, wan and cracked lipped. I’m sure tiredness didn’t help. We had a lovely brunch and did plenty of slobbing about which is what I’m sure most of us would have happily continued doing but Marcus galvanised us into action and we eventually headed out to Stockwood Discovery Centre. A fabulous FREE (so totally in budget!) museum and gardens.

We admired the carriages, sat in the ones we were allowed to (Mich and I decided there were plusses and minuses to various modes of transport of ladies), had a go at pedal powering the train round it’s track and worked our way outside. The drive there had been so beautiful (realised just how beautiful today when we did the same drive in thawed out conditions and it was all mundane and boring roads) with frost and ice coating everything for a real winter wonderland look. The grounds were the same and as it is tree filled it all looked very pretty and magical and Narniaesque.

The kids had a play on the various play stuff there but poor Tarly managed to stand up too quickly when there wasn’t enough room and crack her head on a lump of wood. The lump that came up on her head was the biggest I think I’ve ever seen on either of my children, it truly did look like a small egg, and she had cut the skin too so there was a little blood. She was very brave and didn’t cry for long or make much of a fuss really. I did offer to scoop up some ice from the ground to put on it so I was a very caring mother ;). Michelle reassured me that lumps are better out than in. I wondered later if that was one of her famous ‘say it with confidence and it doesn’t matter whether it’s true or even if you believe it yourself, other people will’ statements but Tarly seemed fine :).

The kids had a play on the various play stuff there but poor Tarly managed to stand up too quickly when there wasn’t enough room and crack her head on a lump of wood. The lump that came up on her head was the biggest I think I’ve ever seen on either of my children, it truly did look like a small egg, and she had cut the skin too so there was a little blood. She was very brave and didn’t cry for long or make much of a fuss really. I did offer to scoop up some ice from the ground to put on it so I was a very caring mother ;). Michelle reassured me that lumps are better out than in. I wondered later if that was one of her famous ‘say it with confidence and it doesn’t matter whether it’s true or even if you believe it yourself, other people will’ statements but Tarly seemed fine :).

There were various interesting things to look at including an air raid shelter complete with siren. It must be from hearing it on TV but air raid sirens always have this deep effect of getting my heart racing and making me feel really panicked.I can hear shouts and smell fear and hear running footsteps and children calling out and everything alongside the sirens. There were also four hens who seemed very hungry and thirsty and their water had more or less frozen over. We gave them some frost which they pecked up to drink and later Tarly and I got seperated from the others briefly and found a courtyard with a squirrel raiding a bird feeder and scattering seed so we scooped up a couple of handfuls and took it back to the chickens.

It’s a really cool place, loads to see, plenty of interactive displays and if we weren’t so cold I’m sure we’d have stayed longer. We got plenty out of it even so and would definitely go there again if we were in the area. Marcus and Chloe went ahead so missed out on the self timer opportunity 🙂

There was a geocached in the park outside the centre so we set off to find that. It was allegedly 300 metres away which turned into a further 300 metres and the temperature (and daylight) was rapidly dropping.We all debated turning back but in the end all seven of us carried on and found the spot from where the clue directed us. After a false start as to where north was we think we found the area but couldn’t find the cache :(.

It was beautiful but incredibly cold and Michelle and I rapidly lost interest and led the way back to the car. We were offered the house keys to go ahead and let ourselves in as Michelle needed diesel but declined and followed them instead. This meant we joined them on the double the distance detour over hills and past fields. It was very pretty and we thought either Michelle was leading us the scenic route or petrol stations were few and far between but realised later it was a wrong turning 😆
Davies requested to listen to Court of King Caractacus but we didn’t have it in Ady’s car so we sang it instead. Followed by Two little boys and then American Pie. It was a slightly abridged version of the latter ;).

Once back at The Manor we took sherry which seemed only fitting :).

Marcus produced yet another delicious meal, unfortunately although Scarlett found enough on offer to sate her hunger Davies didn’t and by that time was tired, hungry, feeling the cold and rather miserable. He’d decided to slip into the victim, oh woe is me role and was in turn making me feel guilty and irritated. He did rally in the end with the aid of an Old El Paso tortilla wrap and the bits he liked from a lemon meringue pie and all was well once more :).

Another lovely, late but not as late as the night before, evening with more chatting, drinking and playing I’ll name that tune.

Sunday Another leisurely start to the day with chocolate croissants, bacon, sausage and egg. As an aside we were so very well looked after, it was easily the best catered for I’ve ever been with a good solid diet of carbs and meat with the vegetables on the side so I can eat or leave as I choose without causing offence. Late dinners totally in line with our eating habits and my own semi-acceptance of tables meant M&M really were the perfect hosts in my opinion :). No idea if this is careful research and planning or very happy coincidence but either way I was very happy!

After some fraughtness and further being his own worst enemy-ness from Davies Ady did what he does best (well one of his many skills really ;)) and spent some time playing with all 3 children together, before quietly withdrawing which meant that everyone parted on good terms. We did some diary coordinating and finally after about 3 one last cups of tea’s we set off.

The journey home was just as straightforward as there and we were home in just under 2 hours. The children ate and had baths, we watched a cuckoo programme which was really interesting, followed by something on Animal Planet and then they headed off to bed. Not to sleep mind you – I heard Davies talking to Ady when he went up to bed at 1030 and Scarlett was in and out of her room for ages too. We watched the show about animals swarming with DT being Scottish in his narration which was really interesting and I’m cursing flickr for it’s slowness in not having uploaded all my photos so I can publish this in it’s fully illustrated state.