Way too early start this morning. Qotd from Tarly being “when you said I’d have to be up early this morning I didn’t realise you meant I had to get up in the dark!’ 😆 It was 7:30am.
Ady and the kids headed off for Ady to drop them at Julie’s for the morning. I got dressed, dealt with chickens, hung some washing up to dry and went off to work.
A fairly non-eventful morning really – we were stamping books to be returned on my birthday which made me realise just how close to Christmas we are :). I still have three shifts at work before then though so no wind-down for me just yet.
I popped home quickly to get changed into my jeans as it was very cold and not at all skirt weather and then drove over to Chris and Julie’s. I did pop into Littlehampton quickly as I’d spotted some nice snuggly pjs for the kids in Peacocks last week but not been able to buy them without them noticing so parked, whizzed in and bought them and whizzed back out again in under ten minutes.
At C&J’s all was well and they’d all had a nice morning including a frosty walk round the fields near their house. The four older cousins had got on well and were all in the garden when I arrived. There was friction however over a poorly crow. Maisie had spotted out while they were out walking and when she got close enough to nearly touch it and realised it must be injured got scared. Julie (foolishly she admitted!) mentioned it to Scarlett who insisted on going back for it, picking it up and bringing it back with her tucked into her coat. Much debate had ensued about the crow with Scarlett being adamant she should bring it home /to the vets, Julie wishing she’d never seen it at all and Chris fetching his air rifle with the intention of putting it out of it’s misery, what with it being ‘bloody vermin!’ and all. I arrived in the middle of all this and smoothed things over between C&J and intending on taking it away with us to take to the wild bird sanctuary nearby. I then realised it was 10 miles in the wrong direction and would make us late for Badgers so went to have a look at the sorry specimen for myself.
The crow looked pretty old, had a gammy eye, couldn’t fly and couldn’t really walk. I admit to being in agreement with Chris in many ways although shooting would be a bit excessive when a blow to the head would do the job. I persuaded Scarlett it would be better left in their garden as a vet would just put it down straight away whereas at least in the garden it stood an outside chance of survival.
Ady, who apparently had a pet jackdaw when he was younger tells me I should have brought it home after all and is now planning to collect it if it’s still around tomorrow but I don’t have any great desire to run an animal sanctuary really. I’ll leave all that to Ady and Scarlett but very much doubt it will still be around tomorrow really.
I had a cup of tea and chat with Chris and Julie and then we left and headed for home. The kids and I both had bowls of pasta (I’d not eaten any breakfast or lunch) and then went off to Badgers.
It was supposed to be a film night but first the laptop wouldn’t talk to the projector and then the volume wouldn’t work loud enough for anyone to hear so in the end that was abandoned and one of the other parents led them in a sort of Badgers Got Talent type extravaganza. Davies started to look peaky, was fed up about the film and clearly not that happy about me starting to be in some sort of Leader capacity (children were already trying to hold my hand and compete for my attention) so Ady took him home while I had brief planning meeting with Julie the leader and another woman who is being a helper next term as part of her OU course (she also has children at Badgers and will probably end up staying on as a leader eventually). I will be helping with Communication Badger while Davies and Scarlett are in another group doing Entertainment Badger, which I think they will enjoy and will mean contact is limited. I am still not thrilled at the idea as I enjoy the time with Ady and the other parents but have been rather backed into a corner. I’ll give it a term and see how it pans out.
Scarlett and I came home, I nipped back out again to get some bits for dinner and then read some stories to Davies and Scarlett. I’m looking forward to seeing friends tomorrow, but very tired so heading off to bed at Early o’clock. I must be nearly 36 or something with all this new found sensibleness!
We have resisted all attempts to get us to help at stuff like brownies, guides etc which was hard given initially we were around a lot more than other parents. I know we were considered a bit mean but tbh I feel we both do lots of other vol stuff and we were therefore not going to be coerced into something we really didn’t want to do. I felt it was important for H to do at least some stuff without us being there and also it was one of the rare times we felt we had a hour to ourselves together. And actually, after she had settled H herself didn’t want us hanging around. Tough to say no, though.
Comment by Joyce — 17 December 2009 @ 10:09 am
I’ve previously resisted, having been asked at Lancing Badgers, Rainbows, Beavers but was really concerned that after the Lancing Badgers closed due to lack of adult help the same could happen at Worthing.
I don’t intend doing it long term and have made that clear, but felt rather backed into a corner this time.
Comment by Nic — 17 December 2009 @ 7:10 pm
Ours is family run. The 2 adults are a mother and daughter (daughter is main badger leader and her mum is just there as the other adult – mainly just sits and takes subs). Then the leader’s 2 younger children are all there too – Badgers and Cadets are run at the same time and I think the eldest daughter is now 18 and so also can count as the other adult. They seem happy to keep the running in the family which is great.
Comment by Michelle — 18 December 2009 @ 12:30 am