I worked this morning, my Saturdays have been jiggled about for the next few months as we are short staffed due to a couple of vacancies on my Saturday off and it is mainly staffed by relief workers so they wanted a ‘second in command’ type person to be around for the morning and to cover lunches – and asked me! 🙂 Due to being on leave and having a couple of weekend things booked (like Kelmarsh) it wasn’t a straight swap though so I think I am on a sort of two on, two off type arrangement.
It was uneventful anyway, I spent two hours on the enquiry desk where I was shamed by a small girl (couldn’t have been more than 8) who spelt out ‘tutankhamen’ for me when neither I not her parents could spell it 😳 She’d been learning about it at school but I was still very impressed :). I then spent an hour piddling about doing things like clearing out my work in tray and throwing away loads of out of date paperwork from one of the folders I have have taken over dealing with (faulty cds and dvds) as someone has left. Finally I spent my last hour on the counter doing yet more sorting out type stuff. I like the way Yvonne runs the library at Lancing, she works in a similar way to me and we were talking yesterday about how she made lots of changes when she took over as supervisor.
I came home and we had lunch. Ady and the children had been in the garden most of the morning and Ady had made some bread rolls (that I’d meant for Davies and Scarlett to make actually but never mind :rolls:) – it’s the third morning out of four he’s spent with them alone and it’s interesting to observe the change in patience levels when it is the norm rather than a novelty… 😉
We went off to Beach Dreams which is the annual Shoreham (neighbouring town) festival and part of the Adur Festival. It was the tenth one and somehow the first we’ve ever made it along to. There wasn’t much going on to interest us really, it was mostly stalls selling things, beer tent and a very loud drumming session, although I think we’d missed lots of earlier stuff happening. So we walked along the houseboats instead, a couple of which were open displaying artwork. The houseboats at Shoreham have been there for years and always formed part of the landscape from my childhood when I spent time in Shoreham as my Granny lived and had a shop there but I’ve never walked along so close to them let alone been onboard. Do click the link as they are fascinating and a real interesting way of life with some amazing work gone into their construction. Some of them contain things like half a car, a washing machine and so on in their structure and one has a microwave as it’s mailbox. Inside the couple we went on was equally quirky and interesting – both had pianos in them, wooden flooring, bright colours, interesting shaped space and a real cosy feel to them. Shoreham Beach altogether has a real community feel and the boats are an extension of that with most of them having connecting planks between neighbouring boats.
We left there and popped to Tescos to get stuff for dinner and look for shorts for Davies who doesn’t have any and has finally grown out of most of his trousers too. They had nothing so we went over to Asda instead. This was slightly hellish – packed with people and as we were with Ady who’s shopping style never goes much past browsing level we were doing lots of aimless wandering with the children dozily just missing being bashed by people’s trolleys until I took charge and marched round, child on each hand while Ady trailed behind me with the basket.
Home for their tea of lincolnshire sausages as enjoyed at Ardingly and requested each night since. They both went out to play with the chickens until Davies came in for Doctor Who. Scarlett was dragging out coming back inside despite having been asked a couple of times and then I suddenly heard a dreadful shriek and looked out of the window to see her looking horrified. Ady went out and she had run (her default setting) and either trodden on or skimmed over one of the chicks who was badly hurt. Ady dealt with the chick while I dealt with Scarlett who was very shaken, utterly horrified and in a bit of a state. I calmed her down, assured her it was an accident and although it doesn’t make bad things get better or make you feel any better there is no blame to be placed in accidents. Ady thinks the chick will be ok – it’s inside for the night in a crate but does seem perky enough despite a fairly nasty head injury. I guess if it lasts the night the signs are good for it. I have been telling Scarlett not to run near the chicks since we had the first hatchlings last year though so maybe sometimes things need to be that illustrated for her before they finally sink in. Hopefully there will be no lasting consequences and she’ll have finally learnt her lesson.
Davies and I watched Doctor Who and Doctor Who Confidential while Ady read Scarlett some stories in bed. She’s had a bad week really as she’s been playing up and I’ve been coming down hard on her which has resulted in a couple of nights unbroken sleep with nightmares anyway so I anticipate her waking again tonight. When I say I am coming down hard I am just applying zero tolerance to things I might normally let slide but I’m still not using punishments etc. She is just being told very firmly once or twice and then I am either shouting or changing my tone of voice with her. I’m sitting with her and explaining everything afterwards and she is fine but she tends to do quick recovery from upsets in the day and then obviously dwell on them in her sleep – she’s always been the same.
I have RSI on my wrist from holding the DS and I am still not passed Day 29 on Dolphin Island. I have possibly spent more time rearing the sealife this week than my own children but I can’t put it down! 😆
Hoping the chicks of both poultry and human varieties are okay in the morning.
Comment by Michelle — 08 June 2008 @ 12:10 am
I think, once upon a time, you made fun of me for playing DS games to obsessional level ….. so no comment!
Comment by Sarah — 08 June 2008 @ 6:20 am
😳 I know and I’m not even remotely enjoying it, just really pissed off I can’t do it. We’ve persuaded S that maybe a different game she can actually play herself would be better so the plan is to swap it for something else and I’ve wiped it clean and considered myself beaten by it. The relief is immense! 😆
Comment by Nic — 08 June 2008 @ 5:07 pm
aww you must be missing seraphine and pinkie and … nope they’re the only ones i remember.. don’t worry i’ll bring my one over so you can play it again 😉
Comment by Liza — 08 June 2008 @ 7:16 pm