Cashpoint’s working again

As in, we have money in the bank account to withdraw from it. November was a *very* tight month and we have managed the last fortnight on about 20quid. I did fork out £40 for tickets for two theatre shows for later in December and get both kids winter coats but I’m not altogether sure where the rest went. Realistically December probably won’t be much easier but today at least we went crazy and blew about £25 on just having a nice day.

Ady was working over in Brighton first thing so offered to run us over to the cinema. I’d decided to catch the train as it is cheaper to pay train fare to Brighton than petrol and parking (which is extortionate over there – last time Ady took the kids to the cinema he paid about 8 quid for parking – cheaper to wait for the dvd to come out and get that even when it’s a free Filmeducation screening!), but as he was going there anyway we got a lift with him and then only had to get single tickets to come home.

We found the cinema after a bit of toing and froing and Ady dropped us off and we had a quick wander round the shops in the area to get cheap sweets, drinks and popcorn from the pound shop. When we got back to the cinema there were already one school group inside and another queueing up outside. They were making all the children (reception? year one? very small kids) be quiet before they’d let them in which seemed a bit cruel and pointless and indeed rather impossible – Scarlett commented on ‘school kids being really noisy’ but as I pointed out if there was a cinema full of her and Davies’ it would be far noisier! 😆

We filed in with them and I nipped off to the loo leaving Davies and Scarlett to go in and find some seats – as usual they sat right at the very front. We saw Lucy and The Rs arrive but they sat elsewhere in the cinema which was just as well as it’s far better to concentrate on the film than try and sit with mates I reckon.

I first heard about The Fox and the Child when Scarlett told me all about a trailer she’d seen on tv about it and we googled for ‘fox’ ‘film’ and ‘girl’ to find out what it was. I’d said I’d take her to see it when it was on general release but it never came to the very local cinemas and then it came up as a FilmEducation showing so we booked it. She has been so desperate to see it for months and was really excited about it all weekend. 🙂 I was slightly worried that it wouldn’t live up to her expectations and as others have said I’d seen some poor reviews of it but I needn’t have worried. Davies, as ever at the cinema sat totally immersed in the film. He sits completely still and it’s like he’s gone into the screen. Scarlett, for the first time ever also sat spellbound and aside from a couple of whispered remarks to me just lapped up every minute.

I’d say it wasn’t much of a plot line, infact it wasn’t really a story at all but the landscapes and cinematography was breathtaking and there was something quite beautiful in it’s simplicity.

We left and walked with Lucy and The Rs through Brighton into the main high street in search of kid-friendly fast food,finally finding a Burger King, it was crappy and expensive but the kids ate every mouthful. I was really amused and proud of Scarlett who was outraged at the ‘girls’ toy she was given (a cabbage patch doll thing) and marched up to the counter herself to exchange it for a ‘boys’ monster truck! 😆

We then parted company as Davies, Scarlett and I wanted to go back to some of the shops we’d walked past for a proper look. There is an area of Brighton with really cool shops selling all sorts of things where I used to go loads in my teens and I knew D and S would love. We went to The Bead Shop where I spent mucho money in my teens, was much more restrained today but could easily have blown loads of cash just for the sake of owning the lovely beads.

We got to the station and none of the computerised boards or monitors were working to tell you what train was going where when. I got confused at the ticket machine and only ended up buying a ticket for me intending to get one each for the children when the tickets were checked on the train. In the event noone checked our tickets at all so the kids rode free although that honestly wasn’t my intention. We asked a guard which was the right train for Lancing and he advised us to get on one going to Hove and change but when we got on and it started moving the on-train announcement said it was stopping at Lancing anyway so we didn’t need to change. We saw a rainbow out of the train window so that was the main topic of conversation on the journey along with whether or not there really was a pot of gold at the end of them.

A 15 minute walk home from the station which chilled us muchly and then I sat drinking tea and peglooming while the children disappeared off to play with their monster trucks. They said they only wanted toast for tea having had chicken and chips at lunchtime but Scarlett had 6 slices of toast and claimed to want more – I refused, even *I* couldn’t eat 6 slices of toast in one sitting! We had a nice retro time watching Cbeebies bedtime hour with Charlie and Lola and the Bedtime song. Ady came home and Davies spent some time showing him various things he’s been making including a foam lightsabre and a ‘saving electricity box’ which is a cardboard box with stickers and the certficate he got today from RSPB for his Climate Action award and a book he’d made from old envelopes (recycling) showing why we need to combat global warming and save the planet :). He’s since stuck stickers in the bathroom to remind us to turn taps off and on the worst lightswitches in the house for being left on :).

Scarlett and I read some Aesops Fables as bedtime stories and I made tacos for dinner.