One word? When seven would do…

Writing this mornings post motivated me to get the children sorted and we headed off into town. Parked for an hour and a half and thoroughly enjoyed wandering the shops with a child holding each hand. I am a much better mother without the distraction of internet access within reach 😳

I cannot find any of the many pairs of sunglasses I know I have owned over the years – as I have never paid over about a fiver a pair this is not a cause for great concern but I will need to sort out at least one pair. So we did a circuit of cheapo womens clothes shops including Dorothy Perkins, Evans, New Look and many, many more. I found loads but none were under a tenner a pair and given my admitted track record with them in the above paragraph I reckon a fiver is my top budget, so I am still without sunglasses.

We spent time in The Works and ELC too but just for fun rather than for purchasing. I collected some additional contact lenses from the opticians, saved a stamp by paying a cheque into the bank over the counter and did get some very cheap retail therapy by way of a swimsuit (suddenly realised that if I am planning to meet all of my personal hygiene needs for the whole week at Kessingland by just going swimming every day I probably need at least one extra swimsuit), a tie dye vest top (bargain, £3 and I *am* Home Educated! 😉 ) and a pair of not really needed but really very pretty sparkly pink flip flop type shoes. The swimsuit was a bargainlicious £4 and is a perfectly acceptable navy blue crinkle effect material construction but made me laugh uproariously when I tried it on as it has padded boobage! Now without disclosing my actual dress size I think it is fair to say that most women of my size are usually fairly amply endowed when it comes to that area, by default if not original design, so the padded boobage has a real comedy effect of making me look like a very amateurly drawn Jessica Rabbit with hugely exagerated hips and boobs. On the plus side this even greater than normal draw to my cleavage area should take attention off of my nether regions in the time I am in no mans land between dropping my protective round the waist towel at the pool edge and heaving myself into the water. 🙂

I also took Scarlett for her inagural trip to Claires Accessories. She was like – erm suitable metaphors don’t come to mind really other than kid in a sweet shop or kid in a toy shop. She was like a Scarlett in a shop full of sparkly hair things, make up and jewellry, that’s what she was like. Oohs and ahhhs aplenty. No cheap sunnies though 🙁

We had sausage rolls and doughnuts from the bakers for lunch, eaten in the car and purchased from Greggs – there used to be a Greggs round the corner from our house in Manchester and then another in the town we lived in and one on about every single street corner or so it seemed, so it was with delight we welcomed the opening of one in Worthing shortly after we moved back here. It just feels ‘dead northern’ 🙂

At home the children played, apart and together, we did some more drawings, I had some cuddles with them both, fed them an early tea and then it was time to head off to Badgers for me and Davies. He just looked sooo grown up in his little uniform. I know he’d have been in school uniform now for a full two terms but somehow he became a changed child when he put his black trousers and black shoes on with his little Badger jumper. The deal today was that I sat in the next door room to where Badgers is and although he was not allowed to come and visit me, he would know I was there. He did get the chance to peek round the door and blow me kisses twice and my ears pricked up every time I heard his name called or heard his voice but he did really, really well. It was the first week of the new term so lots of not a lot in terms of what they did – the covered fire drill for the building, repeated the Badger promise (I – , promise to be a good badger and try to do my very best in absolutely everything I do) and they had a few cadets there who showed them how to do ‘parade’ involving lining up, spacing themselves out and being ‘at ease’. I could hear Davies joining in, asking questions and being spoken to. At the end they played a game called ‘duck duck goose’ which seemed to be some form of tag or somesuch and I could hear Davies laughing like a drain at the antics of one of the older cadets. He came out full of it and looking forward to next week. I am so pleased, he is getting exactly what I had identifyed as lacking – social contact with a big group – all either his own age or up to five years older, they are a nice bunch of children and all of course very local opening up scope for mates he can ride a bike to play with a couple of years from now and he is even getting contact with older teens and young people in the form of visiting cadets, all of which he adores. He is learning to play games, do stuff without my controlling eye and build some sense of who he is without it being in relation to me. Very healthy and I confess slightly tear jerking for me but I’m pretty sure I am hiding it well in my pride in him and my joy at him enjoying it so much. Of course next week it doesn’t run as it’s bank holiday but the week after we’ve agreed I will sit next door again with a view to just dropping him off the following week. If it were not for the whole dealing with my issues at leaving him somewhere and his issues about being left I would not be in such a rush really – it was actually quite blissful to sit reading my book in relative peace for a whole hour knowing Ady was at home enjoying time alone with Tarly and Davies was having such a good time.

Tomorrow my Dad is going into hospital for electric shock treatment of some sort to try and cure an irregular heartbeat. He has been on blood thinning drugs with weekly blood test for months for a condition he has known about and been uneffected by since boy hood but suddenly started to get all health conscious in his older age and decided to have something done about. It will be his first time in hospital, his first ever anaesthetic and I think he is secretly nervous so I will be waiting to hear it has all gone smoothly and he is home safe and fine. Ironically Ady was also at the doctors this morning for an ECG having gone there last week with chest pains and shooting pains down his arms. He has a history of digestive problems and we paid to go private for investigations a few years back to diagnose a hiatus hernia so he has been on medication all week to try and rule out some sort of digestive problem but the ECG returned not altogether normal results so it looks as though further investigation will be done. I have been resolutely not thinking about it really and will continue to do so until I know what it is I should be giving head space to.