One word? When seven would do…

Ady took Davies off to work with him today. It was a last minute arrangement made last night at Davies’ request. It’s one of the advantages of A’s job actually that he can do that every so often. He couldn’t take both of them off really as they’d prevent him from actually doing his job but one at a time gives him a bit of company on the long drives, them an idea of what Daddy actually does when he goes off to work and a bit of a rest from me for the day 😆 and that wasn’t a typing error ;). They had a good day apparently, McDonalds for lunch, introductions to several of Ady’s regular stores inlcuding the whole Home Ed chat when D was repeatedly asked about going back to school next week and some precious one to one time with Daddy, which Davies, quite specifically rarely seems to get but definitely seems to crave.

Scarlett scrambled into bed with me when they headed off early this morning, bringing with her a little seashore spotters book from last weeks car boot sale. It has sea creatures and plants to be seen on the coast around the UK with little bits of information about them all so she started off showing me all the ones she knew or had actually seen (cuttlefish, some seaweed, shorecrabs, spidercrabs, starfish, jellyfish) and then we went through the whole book and named everything. Some of the descriptions she wanted me to read in full and after a few noticed that ‘English Channel’ and ‘North Sea’ kept coming up, so we talked about how the whole of our country is surrounded by water but off different bits of coast it is different seas – the sea here at home is the English Channel, in Kessingland it is the North Sea and when we used to go to the beach from Manchester (usually Southport or Blackpool) it was the Irish Sea. She thought about that and then asked ‘but they all join up don’t they?’ which I agreed to and then pondered privately about territory out at sea and where one ocean starts and another ends. Must google that actually…

We got up, she drew pictures on my back with moisturiser while I put my make up on and then got dressed and we came downstairs for her to have breakfast and watch some tv. I’d told her that we needed to go into town to go to the bank but after that she could decide what we did. We headed into town and parked slightly out of town to walk in as there used to be a kitchen shop on the way where I was hoping to get a few cake making bits but it appears to have long sinced closed down. We went to the bank where we spent the time in the long queue guessing which cashier would be free next, then walked through town to the other bank via various charity shops. I paid the mortgage and then we wandered around town for a while. There was some sort of foreign market on (Worthing frequently has market days, about 3 a week I think, one of which is a regular swap market with one of the French coastal towns where their market traders come and set up here and ours go and set up there for the day, wonder which is the most successful?) so we looked at the various foods before ending up at The Works. I’d been after some gold and silver paint but they didn’t have any. Scarlett chose a couple of bits from their ’59 pence each or 2 for a pound’ area and got some scented gel pens and a little notebook set, which has delighted her all day so was well worth a quid. We carried on walking to the other end of town where there is another kitchen shop but they didn’t sell what I wanted either, but were able to recommend somewhere else to me. We were then only about 5 shops away from the charity shop my Mum works at so we called in to see if she was working today and she was. She was delighted to see us and plied Scarlett with a pretty pink basket and showed her off to all her workmates :). Scarlett was a bit overwhelmed without Davies to deflect the attention and spent a lot of time buried in my shoulder. 😆 We left there and headed back to the car with Scarlett needing a carry for some of the way as she’d worn her other crocalikes which were rubbing.

We stopped at the recommended sugarcraft and cake decoration shop on the way home, which although was only carried very depleted stocks (wonder if they don’t bother replenishing after the wedding season or something) did have what we wanted (blue food colouring pigment, gold edible glitter). As we pulled out of our very tight parking space the bloke in the car infront, who I’d vaguely registered as he drove by suddenly turned around in his car seat and started waving frantically at me, which totally threw me for a minute until I realised it was my brother :lol:. We drove past my parents house to see if my Dad was home and then drove past him too, but he wasn’t on his way home as he didn’t turn into their road.

Next we stopped at Sainsburys to get a few bits for dinner tonight and for Scarlett to choose whatever she wanted for lunch. Turns out her needs are few and aside from a pink iced cake from the bakery she was happy to have the pastry off my chicken and ham pie. We had a look round the aquarium shop next door and a lengthly look at the jewellry stands in Sainsburys though and it was quite nice bowing to all her requests for once. Home for lunch, she played with her notebook and pens and I had a quick play online and then we debated painting the dalek or going out to the beach. She was happy to go with the dalek so we started that with me in charge of the spray paint and her in charge of brushing the excess in so it didn’t drip. It was quite windy so I needed to spray closer to the surface than recommended otherwise the paint was getting blown away before it made it onto the dalek! We ran out of the first tin of paint and the second tin I’d bought was in no way a match for the gold and we quickly realised we’d be needing at least one more tin even if it had been the same colour so we hopped in the car and set off on a paint hunt with our empty spray can for colour matching.

We went into Lancing first, with me still wearing my paint and paste splattered jeans much to Tarly’s amusement but only found one tin which we knew was probably the wrong colour, so we drove up to B&Q where we were able to get a perfect match. We came home and finished the spraying bit and then tried to start the contrasting bubble bits but really struggled to spray without getting it all over what we’d just finished, so settled for spraying it into a pot and then applying with a paintbrush. That tin quickly ran out and wasn’t giving much coverage so we tried mixing some paint with yellow and white and some gold glitter but that didn’t work either. So we set off again to try and find some contrasting colour. We tried a different DIY store but gave up and went back to B&Q.

When we got home Ady and Davies were back so the three of them snuggled up on the sofa together playing xbox while I got some more done before realising the gold we’d bought was almost the same shade as the spray paint :roll:. Ady was going back out again anyway to collect some logs off a workmate he’d helped to fell and chop up a tree in return for the firewood (and a crate of beers 🙂 ) so he went off to change my paint for me too, while I did all the various other coloured twiddly bits and finished off the sink plunger bit. Oh and made the kids’ tea.

Ady came home and bathed the children while I did the last few bits of the dalek before announcing it finished (Davies is very chuffed with it, totally worth it 🙂 ) and came in to cook dinner for us.

My wrist is really painful again. It started hurting about 2 weeks ago and I thought I’d laid on it funny during the night but it’s not really gotten better. I do notice it twinges at work when I move a shelf full of books along at once, or lift several hardbacks in that hand (which you just do, when you are moving a pile of books even if it’s just briefly to gather then into the crook of your arm) and I guess the painting today has aggravated it which has happened before when I’ve done something like wallpaper stripping or painting when I am bending my wrist a lot. Annoying low level grumble pain rather than anything to take painkillers for. Might tiger balm it and go to bed.