One word? When seven would do…

Yesterday after a leisurely chocolate croissant breakfast we all walked into town together. Marcus headed off to work and the rest of us did the many charity shops Hitchin has to offer (I think we counted 11!) and conducted an unsuccessful advent calendar hunt too. I didn’t particularly want chocolate ones and definitely not ones with nothing at all to do with Christmas, so finding only Hello Kitty, Peppa Pig or Mario ones we didn’t bother. I also didn’t want to pay four quid each for them, £8 for some cardboard that will kick around for a month and then be rubbish is also a big fat no. I do fret sometimes I suck the joy out of stuff like that for D&S, infact I hereby pledge to get more Christmassy from tomorrow!

We picked up some interesting books from the charity shops (the only thing, apart from clothes we actually need right now we are allowing ourselves to buy. People who don’t have a house really shouldn’t be acquiring more stuff!) but mostly just enjoyed being out with Michelle and Chloe. Michelle treated us to lunch from the bakery and then we had a poke around in the local museum which was really interesting with a fab pharmacy set up in one room using actual rescued fixtures and fittings from a pharmacy and a very high standard exhibition of a local art group’s competitive work.

Michelle, Ady and I then rather slumped on a bench. Late night, excess of alcohol, lack of tea so far that day all caught up with us so while the kids explored the kids area – Scarlett was carding some wool, no idea what Chlo and Davies were doing, we sat. We then braved Sainsburys before heading back.

Back at M&M’s we drank enough tea to restore our equlibrium and chatted – the mix of both drunken and sober chats over the course of our stay was excellent :).

Marcus came home and he and Ady did important research type stuff (they assured us, they weren’t cooking dinner anyway!) while I went with Michelle to take Chloe and friend to choir and have a wander round their local B&Q. There is something rather homely about B&Q stores to me even after all these years (first real job was at B&Q, started as a part time evening checkout operator when I was 16, ended up a Kitchens Manager six years later).

Back at the house the kids went off to play, we ate olives with proper olive forks and a very productive, lengthy and enjoyable thrashing out of our business plan ensued, continuing before and after dinner.

It was another late night and another very enjoyable evening. 🙂

This morning we were all very bleary of eye and not completely with it. Scarlett had at least two instances of either being really dim or wilfully disobedient but as both of us were too tired to be fully coherant I suspect it was dim 😆

We said our goodbyes – thanks again for having us guys, you were amazingly helpful, we really appreciate all your input xxx and hospitality! 🙂

On Marcus and Michelle’s recommendation we stopped off at Stockwood Park to look at the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition which is currently on display there. We were there for a good hour, walking through the park, spending some time identifying the herbs in the healing garden area, looking at the bee display and finally checking out the photographs. World class pictures of wildlife – ticks all our boxes :). We really, really enjoyed that, particularly the young photographer section and the One Earth section with a winning entry of a turtle tangled up in fishing nets with a pleading look on it’s face. Loved the little write up on each entry from the artist. Scarlett was adamant there *had* to be at least one photo depicting the northern lights so she went off and found it (she was right!) and we all picked favourites. Lovely to see so many from Scotland of gorgeous landscapes and wildlife :).

We left there and had a very straight run back to Sussex, stopping only to call into the supermarket near home for food supplies. Back at Mum & Dad’s Dad arrived home just after us. Ady and I spent ages researching cardboard boxes for moving purposes (we have everything stacked up in the room we’re in in old plant boxes which do not seal closed and therefore don’t stack well. It feels really bleak living in a room with boxes piled up everywhere plus I think we could probably get rid of even more stuff if we went through them again so repacking into better boxes which we label properly ready for the eventual big move would be a worthwhile thing to do and tidy the room up hugely too.

I made dinner for everyone – pizza (which we’d had last night but had already been promised back at home and none of us mind too much having it twice in a row!) then Dad and Ady went out. Davies had a big overtired wobble about Ady going out which resulted in me staying with the kids til they went to sleep and having a big chat with him about stuff. He is mostly just tired from two very late nights and three weeks of really very intense stuff going on in his life. The transition from van to host to here didn’t come easy for any of the four of us and this is not a great environment to be in anyway. We have lots of uncertainty about what happens next, pressure of business plans and general paperwork and getting everything sorted and are in that phase of a new life choice where you are constantly defending and justifying and explaining which is just wearing. I know I feel slightly wrung out by it so I’m sure the wrong end of two very late nights, not enough fruit and veg and water and far too much time sitting in the car or infront of screens has just caught up with him. We talked about big scary adventures, how we are in control of this and if we decide we want to stop and go back to what we had before we can do so at any time. We talked about the positives of his potential new life rather than the likely tough bits (which I fear he may have had focussed on too much within his earshot of late) and I watched the weight leave his shoulders and the sparkle and enthusiasm come back into his eyes.

As I said earlier I think the time has come to get the business plan finished and in the post and then think of it no more, ring Jill and get some firmer plans for Glastonbury and then put everything else out of our minds until after Christmas and spend the next 3 weeks throwing our everything into Scarlett’s birthday, Christmas camp and then Christmas itself. Bring on the magic and tinsel!