Another day ‘in the smoke’ for the kids and I today. Last night it was Scarlett’s turn to kick Ady out of bed and sleep with me. She came crashing into our bedroom at about 1am shortly after I went to bed, claimed she had a ‘runny tummy’, used our en suite loo and then got into bed. Ady very quickly fell out as the little one said ‘roll over’ and went off downstairs to sleep in her bed. She’s a noisy bedfellow is Scarlett, full of sighs and groans and mumbles so I didn’t sleep well and had some very odd dreams none of which I can recall now.
Ady had rather lovely-ly gone off to Tesco before work and picked up some picnic bits for us. Unfortunately it was a rather random selection and whilst I appreciated the effort I was perhaps not as grateful as I could have been over the results. Felt further shamed by Michelle’s comment on yesterdays blog when I read it later on the train :oops:. So the morning was not peaceful or restful but was fairly similar to the mornings on the tv show ‘outnumbered’ with odd shriekings, crazyness fro children and everyone deciding they hated each other before 8am! 😆
Order restored the kids and I were out of the house at an unheard of ten past eight which gave us time to park at the library,walk to the station, buy our train tickets and have time to spare to nip into Asda to supplement our picnic and for me to make use of the rather bargaintastic ‘meal deal’ of a hot drink from the vending machine and a very fancy doughnut for £1.50 :). Kids chose a mini french stick each from the vast array of available morning goods and we went to wait for our train. Ady rang to say he’d had his early meeting and still had a job although about 8 of his colleagues don’t :(. I suspect Ady’s job is pretty much forever safe given our links with the owner of the business but that of course doesn’t mean for a pleasant working environment and may well cause issues with our level of flexibility for childcare. Much debate here and ongoing I suspect about what we all want out of life and what is important. Who knows what will become of it. I am feeling characteristically optimistic about things in terms of what will be will be and new challenges present new opportunities but I suspect I am far enough removed and insulated from Ady’s world to retain my rosy glow. I hope my positivity at least frees him from worrying a little whilst remaining supportive and understanding of the stresses. I don’t know,I think I have a bit of a ‘life’s too short…’ mentality at the moment and am inclined to suggest we all give up our jobs, find what we love and spend the rest of the time doing it!
Whilst wearing rainbow and stinking of tea tree oil of course 😉
So we got on the train, it was a really busy carriage and we sat with people the whole way including at one point a really offensive business-suited bloke who pressed his leg against mine really agrressively all the way (I was slightly over on his seat because the bloke on the other side was sitting with his legs open and taking up more than his seat). He huffed and puffed and tsked at the kids including rather hilariously brushing his leg off when Scarlett’s foot touched him, which I thought was very ironic given the level of physical contact he was imposing on me. I rewarded him with a tsk back and a very hard stare when he moved with great drama to another seat as soon as one was free. Need to remember to take DSs or other things for the kids to do next time as conversation alone isn’t sufficient and they either get louder than I think other passengers want them to be or bored and a bit whingey and want to both sit on my lap and slump against me. I get all nagging and end up probably being more annoying to fellow passengers by micro managing the kids than if I just let the kids be kids and be a bit giggly and silly.
In contrast London seemed really quiet today and the tube and streets generally seemed far less frantic than usual. We arrived at the RI and found Merry and girls in the loos. Merry offered to buy me a cup of tea which is an offer than doesn’t need to be made twice so we decamped to the cafe for 20 minutes or so and were joined by Alison and younger two (if you don’t count Dylan ;)).
This meant we were late in and we sat up the back on the opposite side to the usual Home Ed area while the others went right upstairs. We sat among a school group which was interesting and made me feel loads better about the kids train behaviour / my excessive going on at them ;). The lecture was fab:
Magnetism and electricity might not seem to be linked but they are, an important discovery made right here at the Royal Institution by Michael Faraday. This talk will include demonstrations on how magnets work and what they can do. From compasses telling you the way to get home to lightning and some pretty big sparks. By Ian Dunne who was just ace.
Really engaging, really targetted at the age group present, perfect mix of education and information combined with laughs, fun and slapstick. All 3 of us really enjoyed it :). In terms of engaging Davies and particularly Scarlett I’d say it was the best we’ve attended so far.
Davies loved that Dunne said he’d come to a lecture at the RI when he was a boy and been really inspired, that he felt proud to be at the same place as one of his heroes Farraday had been at and that had been what set him on the path to end up there himself. We found a statue of Farraday and Davies really liked the whole ‘dreams can come true’ and ‘one chance happening could set you on the path forever’ type stuff. 🙂 Scarlett just found all the information so very visible and easy to understand – a very accessible lecture. 🙂
We bid Alison and co farewell and then headed off to the park with Merry and girls. Merry and I managed a good hour of chatting which was lovely, don’t recall the last time we did that and the children mostly got on with it. I overheard Maddy announcing their family news to Davies and Scarlett in a very excited and happy voice which was lovely :). They headed off to see ‘the Queen’s house’ while we went off to the Natural History Museum to The Cocoon. We were over half an hour early so I asked if we could possibly change time slot and they put us at 210 instead of 230 which gave us about 10 minutes spare. After a quick ‘what shall we do then?’ poll we chose the dinosaurs and literally walked all the way round practically without a pause. Then on to The Cocoon.
So what did we think? Well given the amazing amount of free museum stuff in London I wouldn’t have wanted to pay but we did really enjoy it. I have booked to go again next time Ady is in London with us and will aim to visit the full works that time as we only went round the Cocoon and none of the additional bits such as the Attenborough studio or climate change wall. We all learnt loads, loved the natureplus cards and enjoyed the many interactive displays. It reminded me in many ways of the Millennium Dome. It was very quiet and that was nice as we could go round in a leisurely fashion and I read out most of the signs to the kids and we talked about stuff as went which worked well.
Well worth a visit, it did teach us all loads about specimens, how they are used and why, the importance of continued research and field trips, the sharing of resources worldwide and other such stuff. We recommend :).
The children wanted to know things about what the big dinosaur skeletons are made of and the history of the building – how long it took to build etc. so more to revisit there with them when I know the answers myself! 😉
We had time, just, for a really quick look at the stuffed mammals and finally a quick peek at the blue whale before needing to head off if we were to be home in time for Badgers. I thought we’d miss the train we caught last week but it turned out to be about 10 minutes later than I’d thought so not only did we catch it we were also on it in time to get seats and a table which was fab :).
On the way home we talked about stuff we’d found out today, my evening course, magpies which included me finding them the Richard Herring piece on the one for sorrow, two for joy song and reading them it from my phone. Davies thought it was really funny 😆 and some communal storytelling with one sentence each getting more and more surreal.
We got home shortly after Ady who had got them some dinner cooked so they had time for eating and getting changed before we dashed out to Badgers. I was all set for dropping and running as we were slightly late but I got summoned in and Julie the leader asked if I could possibly stay as they only had two adults and 18 children! Ady and I drank tea and coffee and sat chatting with each other and then Julie for the session including getting some lovely feedback from Julie about Davies and generally chatting. I was pleased as she’d pissed me off last week but she repaired that this week and made me think perhaps she was being friendly and joking rather than having the dig I’d assumed she was making at me and the kids.
Home via Morrisons and after late nights, early mornings and a long day the kids went straight off to bed, we had steak and chips and watched an interesting programme about twins.
I am so ready for my bed. And so not ready to go to work tomorrow!