But thankfully I have an excellent crash team who swept in to pick up the pieces. One I am married to, two of you are reading this and know exactly who you are and the fourth is a five year old boy.
So we’ll box all that up and put it firmly to one side and talk about the rest of the day.
We went to see Lucy, Rebecca and Richard today, we got there around 11 ish and the children played while we attempted to chat, we had lunch and then headed off down the beach for a walk / run around. The beach is literally at the end of her road (one minute walk). There is a small cafe and gift shop there just as the coast juts ever so slightly inland and it’s called Splash Point – because that’s exactly what used to happen there. It used to flood and splash over the road at storms and high tides so about 20 years ago they put loads of huge boulders there to break the waves before they head up the beach. Despite all the signs saying Danger No Climbing I remember clambering about on them when I was a child myself so when Davies started to do so I gave him a warning to be a bit careful (which he is by nature frankly!) and let him get on with it.
Initially Scarlett hung back with Rebecca walking along walls and playing with small stones:
But very predictably where Davies leads Scarlett follows – only with altogether less care and regard for personal safety! They enjoyed a good 15 minutes before she fell down one of the gaps between the rocks and scraped her cheek 🙁
I dashed across the rocks myself to hook her out and then realised that I was actually far less able to clamber than the children even without the hindrance of a 3 year old who flatly refused to let go of me. I could barely stand up on the surface let alone attempt to climb down. Davies managed to scramble down himself and then he watched Richard and Rebecca while Lucy came out to me and Tarly and we managed to get down by passing her between us as we got down ourselves. Huge comedy value for all the drunks and druggies who sit in the shelters along the beach anyway!
We then wandered round the ornamental gardens along the beach and past the closed for the winter playground and outdoor paddling pools. Lucy and I stood chatting while Rebecca jumped around and D & S headed off into the emptied paddling pool and found a bit of disused wooden pallet and a strip of roofing felt to make some sort of pirate ship and invisible water sprayer to assist them in their game of being Peter Pan and Tinkerbell. Reassured me once again of what a 5 year old would choose to do if left to their own devices – clambering over rocks, imagining bits of beach rubbish to be props in a game, assisting in rescue operations and getting quite a hefty slice of real life drama at home too – who need school eh? 😉 We headed back to Lucy’s for another cup of tea and a play before coming home.
We’ve been thinking about getting a slow cooker for a couple of weeks – we used to have one when we were both working at B&Q and between us were doing 4 late shifts a week and it got lots of use. Whoever was working the late would stick something on to cook before going to work at lunchtime and then we could either eat seperately when we got in from work or wait and eat together without anyone needing to start cooking so late. The children are getting ever more adventurous with what they will try and eat so things like curry, stew, casserole would be something they would try at their tea time and if it’s being cooked for us anyway it doesn’t matter if they don’t like it. Also of course it is frugal to buy stuff like cheaper meat and cook it longer, and to be running one small slow cooker rather than have the oven lit for 8 hours. Not at all sure what happened to that orignal slow cooker but we no longer have it. So we had a leaflet through the door with supermarkets special offers last night and in the one from Co-op there was a half price slow cooker. When Ady got in from work I dashed out to both local branches of Co-op and picked one up in the second one I tried. Unfortunately when I got it home and unpacked it it is very small indeed. It would probably just about fit a dinner for two, but certainly not the batch cooking ready for freezing or the cooking a bit extra for the children I had wanted it for. So that’s a pain 🙁 Will have to take it back and also see if I can track one the right size down someone cheaply too. Anyway, that was a very boring last paragraph 😉 so as it is my predilection to leave my posts on a high here is one last photo which is from a while ago but always makes me smile 🙂
Get your kids some practical clothes woman!!!! Walks at the beach for kids should NOT be done in lovely looking sheepskins. The kids look like they are off to some formal Sunday lunch at their aunt’s not to mess around on the beach. No wonder Scarlett whips them off the minute they get in the front door 😉
Lol – you know a couple of months ago a comment like that would have been enough to have me heading to Millets, credit card in hand to kit them out for beachside walks. And of course we have our planned woodland walks (y’know the ones we do instead of going to Disneyland) which they probably need some sort of suitable attire for. Guess they’ll be wearing their faux sheepskins and I’ll just have to wash ’em lots, or layer all their clothes up til they are warm enough to be set free on a beach in January without coats cos they’re wearing six jumpers each – might hamper their clambering ability a bit though!
But at least if they fell over they’d bounce!
(Laughing to myself at the image of D&S wobbling about like Michelin men 😀 )
I’ve got a Morphy Richards 6.5l monster and it’s way big enough for us.
Was £25 at Amazon, but seems to have gone up to £30 now. I love it though. 🙂
Wish I lived near the sea, looks lovely to be able to go to every now and then.
Never really been into slow cookers, but I am remebering to sue the pressure cooker more and I’m getting better at preparing stuff and then putting it in the oven on the timer so it’s down wehen get back from where ever.
THe sea, yeah, lived by the sea in three different places/times. I miss it.