My Mum had appeared here on Monday evening after work last week, spent some time with the kids (I was cooking a roast dinner, so hobbling round the kitchen when she arrived), been all surprised when asking after our allotment and being told we would obviously be giving it up at the end of the season (they run from October to September so we’ll see out this year, harvest our potatoes, onion, garlic etc and dig up our apple tree once it’s fruited and replant it here in the garden before handing it back to the first person on the very long waiting list) as we’re going away. She said ‘Oh. So you really are going away then? Really?’ as though we regularly come up with harebrained schemes and don’t see them through. It is true we do fairly regularly come up with crazy notions but after getting married in Las Vegas with 3 weeks notice (memorable quote ‘we’re doing this whatever you say. I’d love you to come with us and be part of it but if you can’t then we’ll celebrate with you when we get back’), getting pregnant with Davies (they were in Australia at the time, told them over the phone, Dad asked ‘so what are you going to do then?’ I replied ‘become a parent I guess’), moving to Manchester, having a home birth, Home Educating, not getting a divorce when the full horror of our debts came to light, going camping (but what about the ensuite bathroom?) and so on, I think we have form for seeing them through really.
So I guess the silence is punishment that we are going to do this after all and their faint protests : Dad ‘but you’re really lazy Nicola, you do realise you’ll have to *work* don’t you?’, Mum ‘what will you do if you need medical attention?’ have been ignored. But Davies has been missing my Dad, hell I’ve been missing my Dad and I don’t want the next few months to be akward, I want them to wish us well and be excited on our behalf even if they think we’re bloody mental.
So once I got up – I was doing installment sleeping again – 11pm til about 4am, then about 2.5 hours listening for the cockerels to start crowing, watching Scarlett sleep and feeling sorry for myself that I wasn’t, then sleeping from about 7ish til 10ish when Ady brought me a cup of tea. The others were playing Goddard-opoly (one of those make your own opoly kits from years and years ago), I checked that everyone was in agreement and we rang my parents to see if they were about for us to go over and visit.
They were, we did, I was teased for not helping make lunch despite being nearly in tears from pain – ankle playing up big time today for some reason, Davies was fawned over until I asked Mum to stop (he was looking embarrassed, I was fretting that he’d get Frazer-itis and still be at home when he’s 48) and Ady was being remonstrated with to ‘have a day off’ when he got up to wash up which was clearly just a dig at me as if they’d really cared they would surely have just washed up themselves rather than sitting there? I set my Mum’s laptop up to our flickr account so they could see our holiday photos, the kids sat with them to give a commentary but Mum mostly talked over them and Dad fell asleep.
Sometimes it’s nice to have a crazy idea like a year on the road made easier for you by reminding you that you won’t be leaving behind all that much 🙁
At bedtime last night Davies had complained of a lump in his throat which I’d put down to either tiredness of the onset of a cold. This afternoon he rapidly started to go downhill so it is a cold. He said he wasn’t hungry and as we’d been at my parents longer than I’d anticipated we’d left it rather late for a roast dinner so we’ve defered that til tomorrow and the kids had a quick tea, some story (we read half of ‘not bad for a bad lad’ by Morpurgo) and then bed. Not that they went to sleep mind you, but at least I’d done my best at getting them there.
We seem to have mislaid one of our speckled hens who we are hoping has tucked herself up safely for the night away from foxes as she is not in the hen house with the others. Ady and I both spent some time searching for her to no avail 🙁 Fingers crossed she reappears safe and well in the morning.
We had Stephen Fry echoing round the house as both D & S are listening to different Harry Potter audio books while we watched Stephen Fry in America on TV.
ugh to parents who don’t seem supportive. I can never work out if I’m lucky to have parents who don’t seem to care either way what we do, or if it would be nice to have someone interested! Hope the hen made an appearance.
Comment by Kirsty — 26 July 2010 @ 9:25 am
You’re not exactly heading to the other side of the world. They could meet up with you at interesting places along your journey. Honestly.
Ever tried asking them if they have any dreams?
Comment by Michelle — 27 July 2010 @ 8:12 pm