Cava fuelled reminising

Ady and I have been together for 16 years today. I was a fairly regular diary-keeper back then, hey I was 19, it’s what we did before t’internet and facebook and blogs ;)and I’ve just dug out the diary entry for 16 years ago. I won’t type it out, it’s embarrassing and actually possibly not that promising relationship-wise but I’ve just found a slightly later entry for 6th June 1993 which says ‘if we survive the next six months then we can handle anything’. The ‘next six months’ entailed living with my ex boyfriend and despite various ups and downs we did indeed survive and given we’re still here 16 years later I guess we did handle a fair bit along the way. I’ve also found a proclamation on one page of the diary which says ‘I LOVE ADRIAN GODDARD and I want to marry him and have his children and grow old(er) with him and live with him forever and ever and ever’ and we seem to have made pretty good headway with that list so far :).

I asked Ady earlier if I’d changed much and he said not really. He said I’d grown up (bear in mind he was already 29 then and from reading a few more bits in my diary from that period I think that would be fair to say ;)) but my passion, fire and opinionatedness hasn’t changed. Given I spent about an hour ranting at him about the government and in reading my old diary I ranted about various other things in pretty much the same way I guess he did know what he was getting himself into 😆

I think Ady and I are a very good match, we challenge each other, make each other think and see the other side of things as we rarely think alike or come at things from the same angle. I think he softens my rough edges and I give some spikes to his softness, I think we’re a good team and above all we make each other laugh every single day. He’s always gone along with my crazy ideas and notions and cheered me on when they’ve worked and picked up the pieces and kissed me better when they haven’t. There are things about us which really piss the other one off and we’ve faced a few tests along the way but he’s always remained my very best friend, my biggest champion and when I look into his eyes I’ve always really liked the version of myself I see reflected back. And given how amazingly wonderful our combined genes have proven to be in Davies and Scarlett I’d say we’re a pretty good match :).

There, you’ve not had a good old fashioned sentimental Nic-post for ages. And I didn’t say awed or wonder even once 😉

So to today.

I worked this morning which entailed getting up at stupid o’clock and rousing reluctant children to do the same, inserting cereal into them, coating them in clothing and inserting them into the car all well before 8am. We discussed how simply dreadful this would be if we had to do it on a regular basis for school and Davies suggested they might get used to it at which I gave a hollow laugh and confessed I never did! Or maybe I’m just lazy 😉

Children duly dispatched at a welcomming and completely ready for their arrival Liza’s I headed back work-bound. I was early enough to nip home and change the top I’d managed to spill a large amount of my insulated mug of tea down when I tried to drink it in rush hour traffic jams and dribbled it down myself instead.

Work was fine, it went quickly and I spent some time thinking about ideas to tie in with all the poetry stuff currently happening. Must email someone important to run the ideas past them actually.

Back over to collect Davies and Scarlett and I stopped for a brief chat while Davies and Scarlett finished their ice lollies which they are still not very efficient at eating rather than dripping 😆 We came home via Toys R Us for a birthday present for a friend and Sainsburys for dynamo torches which they needed for Badger again.

Home again for a divided two hours of the time available with Davies playing xbox for the first hour while Scarlett drew an anniversary picture each for Ady and I. Mine was her and I at the aquarium with me wearing my favourite colour and a load of signs at the aquarium about what you are and aren’t allowed to do (eg stroking animals).She got me to spell out aquarium for her too. I think all Davies’ current writing is enough to spur her on to keep up.

Scarlett then spent some time doing ‘body art’ on my foot which she turned into a beach scene with sky, sand, sea and multicoloured pebbles using make up, nail varnish and felt tips. It was very pretty 🙂

I got their tea sorted while they watched TV for the second hour – Horrible Histories I think, once I’d sorted tea I was reading

Then it was time for Badgers. Apparently the torches were for shining on different materials, presumably to see whether the light penetrated through or not. They also practised crossing the road which we inadvertantly stumbled across on our walk so had to hang back in order not to interfere with. On the drive to Badgers we were singing along to SmashMouth songs very loudly and being generally rowdy which always puts Davies and Scarlett in a good mood :).

Ady was already at Badgers waiting so once the children had gone in we went for a long walk and chitter chatter, mostly about the Home Ed review and governments in general. I decided the only answer was anarchy or emigration.

I brought D and S home for pjs and stories while Ady went to buy cava to celebrate our anniversary. We read a pile of storybooks that Tarly had got from the library last week and the first chapter of which has had excellent reviews and I stumbled across while looking at various kids ‘situation’ books at work and thought would be worth a glance.

Scarlett came and chatted to me while I was in the bath about some new children at Badgers who she had looked like a giant next to. She was telling me that they had princess torches and a packet of princess tissues and she thought that was silly as kids need torches and tissues without there being a princess on the front. I wonder how long we’ll be able to preserve her cynisism over branding ;).

Davies and I had a very interesting conversation earlier about choices and money. He had wanted one of the same toys we’d brought for a friend’s birthday and I said no as it was a tenner and we had a long chat about how buying one thing means you are making a decision not to buy something else and how making decisions about spending shape your lifestyle. We talked about not having a car and how that would change our lives, whether one big glossy holiday is worth more or less than 5 camping and youth hostel holidays with friends a year, whether working loads of hours to have lots of money to buy stuff is more important than having time to do whatever you want even if you have less money to do it with. I explained that for now they are bound by Ady and my choices to an extent although we’re always up for discussion about how the family finances are managed. I gave him the choice between a planned cinema trip on Saturday or the toy and unsurprisingly he chose the cinema. I’m glad as I’ve always gone for experiences over possessions, but I do understand that an 8 year old struggles with why we can’t just have both.

And I think that’s it. The cava has kicked in and I am feeling very mellow and at one with the world :).