One word? When seven would do…

Up early this morning as I was working. While we were running around getting ready to leave the house I realised we’d forgotten to put the bins and the blue recycling boxes out. I was on the phone to Ady when someone knocked at the door. I was hoping it was the tent delivery but it was the blue box men – three of them – come to ask if we had any recycling as we normally do 🙂 Really must email the council to commend them about that. 🙂

Picked Lucy & co. up, dropped them all back here and headed off to work. It was really busy this morning and it went really quickly. F was in working and I get on well with her, also the normally mardy old cow D was very friendly today too and a new starter was in for training. She works for the council already and mans a council helppoint in the library a couple of afternoons a week so she knows us all already and knows the building but was learning all about the Dewy Decimal, shelving and issuing and discharging books. I quite surprised myself with how much I could tell her :). There was a slightly hysterical episode at the photocopier when a woman came in with very limited English and two sheets of paper with arabic or similar writing all over them asking for them to be copied onto a double sided single sheet and to have two copies of that. She finally got across to me what she wanted and then I couldn’t get the bloody photocopier to do it, so I called over F, the woman ‘assisted’ me in explaining to F what she wanted, F couldn’t get it to do it either so we called over D too and all told her together what we wanted. We eventually got the key for free vending copies and just tried every setting until it did what we wanted :lol:.

I was home just after 1pm to find not one but two tents delivered 🙄 .

I was home in time for a quick cup of tea and a chat before dashing off again to the dentist. Davies and Scarlett claimed a tent packaging box each and set about decorating them – Scarlett started writing her name, getting stuck on the R and then finishing it off. Davies drew all over the inside and out and got me to spelt out ‘private’ for him so he could write that.

My Mum has lost all of her top teeth due to gum disease and her gums receding so badly that her teeth all became wobbly and were taken out before they fell out. This has understandably hugely traumatised her and although she’s had her false top set for about 5 years now she is still not accepting of it and is currently undergoing some sort of consultation with someone about getting permanent implants drilled into her jawbone. Her problems with her gums started when she was pregnant with me and our original dentist always said it might be a hereditry problem and watched my gums closely for signs, which appeared to be there. I have already been told by our new NHS dentist that they want to see me every 3 months instead of every 6 for that very reason so today was my 3 monthly check up. Sure enough she said my gums were not looking great and she wants to do a treatment on them to do with plaque built up. She’s given me mouthwash and posh toothpaste and I’m going back again in 2 weeks for some treatment costing nearly £50 that she promises will make a difference. It seems a fairly small price to pay if it prevents what Mum’s gone through I guess. Fortunately, aside from the financial cost I have no objection to going to the dentist so at least it won’t be something I have to dread.

I came home and Lucy and co headed off. Davies and Scarlett came inside with me – they’d been in the garden for most of the morning I think, and played really nicely together all afternoon, although they did get loads of toys out :roll:. On Ali’s recommendation Davies watched Bamzooki yesterday and utterly loved it, so he’s been drawing creations and making them out of k’nex ever since, just his sort of thing. 🙂 So there was plenty of that going on.

Dad arrived as I was getting the kids’ tea and then Davies and I went to Badgers. Davies announced out of nowhere that he was happy for me to not wait in the carpark today and he’d see if he was ok with it. I’ve been to the localish supermarket briefly the last twice we’ve been, having shown him where it is in relation to Badgers in advance so he knows where I am. I’d already decided to take a book with me and wander down to the beach instead of sitting in the car so I told him that and that’s what I did. I took him in and he waved me off and then I walked down to the beach. The tide was right out and it was lovely down there, I found a quietish place to sit up on the stones and watched people walking their dogs, flying kites and walking along, I read my book for a bit and then drew a picture of the pier (not very artisically using the biro and blank paper in the back of my diary, but I think it’s recognisable as the pier 🙂 ) and then I tried to write a bit about what I could see, feel and hear as a writing exercise. It was all quite poetic until I got to the line about being ageless, nameless, careless thinking about how I had sat on that beach as a child, as a teen and now as a wife and mother and may well sit on it as a grandmother and an old woman too and for that brief moment in time nothing else mattered about me or who I am other than sitting on the beach when my mobile rang with Davies’ voice hollering ‘Mummy, Daddy’s on the phone! Mummy, Daddy’s on the phone!’ which rather spoilt the line and gave me at least two of my labels back again – teach me to be pretentious and arty eh? 😉

I walked back up to Badgers and sat in the car for the last 10 minutes watching them playing out on the grass running around and playing Stick in the Mud which was nice and then it was time to go in and fetch him. They’re doing Eco Badger this term and had been making bicarb and vinegar volcanoes which D is an old hand at, but it looks like they’ve got some pretty cool environmental stuff coming up to do this term which is nice. On the way home we talked about how Scarlett will start going there in 2 more terms and how she is braver about going to places without me, but how that is mostly because she has Davies there.

I read Scarlett a couple of bedtime stories then had a bath. I cooked curry and pilau rice for dinner and Davies appeared in the kitchen so tried a bit of it all and helped to put the spices etc. in for the rice before going back to bed, then we watched The Apprentice for some shouting at the screen tv.