Mad dogs and Englishmen…

As I said to Hannah the week before last and then spent ages trying to deconstruct it and make sense of it! 😆

This morning we took Malice back to the vets for a check up, so we were all out of the house, breakfasted and dressed prior to 9am. So we could do it if we had to, rather glad we don’t have to though! 😆 The children were really well behaved in the vets right up until Malice was being examined when they decided they didn’t want to share the single chair and were going to be fairly noisy in their negotiations as to who got to sit on it alone and who didn’t get to sit on it at all. 🙄 Malice is doing fine, the vet is pleased with her progress and we made an appointment for three weeks time to have her jaw unwired, which should be the end of the saga really. He shone a torch into both eyes and is pleased with the non-functioning one and feels happy that it can stay and will not cause infections or other trouble, which at least cosmetically is a good thing (not that I believe Malice to be a particularly vain cat! :lol:). The news on the other eye is less good, it is still very blood filled and he thought he could see further retina detachment (or something) which suggests the likelihood of sight returning is lessening ever more. 🙁 She is managing really well though and aside from choosing slightly odd places to curl up and go to sleep – like the middle of the kitchen floor, infront of the front door etc – she is pretty much just Malice really.

We came home and the children – well OK I 😳 made a big song and dance about clearing up an accidental mess they’d made. I threatened school on the basis that I am fed up with our relationship being me shouting and them sulking, they resent not getting any of the fun stuff and all of the crappy stuff and so do I, so I explained that if they went to school we would only see each other a couple of hours a day and could concentrate on the good stuff. We all kissed and made up after Davies said to me ‘but Mummy you only get cross and we’re only naughty when we stay home all day. Maybe we should go out with our friends more then you get to talk to your friends and we get to play’. Fair point!

I’d arranged Home Ed group to meet in the park today, we’ve not met for quite some while but a new woman had joined the yahoo list and exchanged a few emails with me. She has a 9 yo daughter who she removed from school last week to HE and was really looking forward to meeting others. Except I had this dread that aside from me, D and S there weren’t going to be any others…I hate feeling responsible for people’s HE perceptions and expectations. Julie didn’t want to come to the park so we arranged to meet at the beach after the park with me fully expecting this poor woman to have driven 20 odd miles to meet me and my little children in a park.

But no! No sooner had I sat down that she arrived, very friendly and chatty, quite happy to just sit and talk to me and then we were joined by Lucy, Richard and Rebecca and Peter and Sue with their 9 & 10 year old grandsons. Hurrah! The children all played together and the adults had one of those really inspiring and exciting conversations about celebrating individuality in children, raising them to think and learn rather than remember and be taught and feeling like we’d uncovered the secrets of the universe, well education at least! It was actually a bit of a shame to leave after nearly two hours but hopefully we’ll do it again next week.

So we left there and headed to the beach, the local beach at the end of our road. Paid a mere quid for parking, got the kids changed into the sunsuits and they were away – over the green, over the stones, brief stop to remove their shoes and into the sea before I’d even reached the stones! Julie, Jack and Maisie met us there. Julie performed amazing contortions within a pop up tent and got into her swimsuit and went into the sea with Davies and Scarlett (Jack and Maisie are less keen on the sea, or the sand, or the stones, or the noise of the jetskis) where they had a fab half an hour or so, their laughter could be heard way up on the beach. I’d not thought any further than the children’s suits and towels so I sat on the beach feeling like someone’s Granny wearing my jeans. I don’t think I’m a swimsuit on a beach kinda woman really but I’m checking out ebay for an adult version of the kids’ sunsuits for next time – it looked way too much fun to be sat up on the beach spectating! Renewed my intentions to sort out swimming lessons for D & S too – they’ve been on the waiting list at the local pool for the best part of a year already, they love the water too much to wait much longer and I really want them to be able to swim well. I had lessons at the same pool when I was about 7 and I reckon it was too late really. I am a weak swimmer, I hate getting my face wet and I would doubt my own ability to get myself out of trouble in the water let alone help anyone else, I can’t dive and I can see how much fun it is for all the people who can – I don’t want D & S to miss out.

We walked along to the cabin selling icecreams after a while and ate ice lollies as quickly as we could before they melted then we went back and the children clambered up and down the row of rocks leading to the sea. By then the tide was coming in and far from emptying out the beach was actually getting busier with children arriving presumably after school. Davies, Scarlett and Jack started a game standing on the bottom rock which the waves were just breaking on as the tide came in and stood yelling and throwing stones into the waves, after about ten minutes I looked up and they had been joined by five more children and had a whole gang of them playing. Davies and an older girl (about 8 or 9 I guess) then organised all of the children into some convoluted imaginary game involving lots more yelling, leaping into the sea and splashing about. Oh and lots of laughing!

We eventually dragged them reluctantly away around 5pm, they had sandwiches for tea and then had a really long, cool bath to splash around in some more and get all the sand and salt off them. They’re still awake now but the temperature does finally seem to have dropped a little so I’m hopeful for a better nights’ sleep tonight.

Tomorrow is as yet free but as we are all determined not to fall into the at home therefore having a crap day trap we have a pile of library books on origami, making models, making pop up cards and general paper craft to look at and get some ideas from and then maybe some art and craft. The librarian told me to come down and get them signed up for this summers reading whatever it is this year thingy at book group last night so we might wander into town and do that. And the paddling pool and sandpit may end up being a good bet if all else fails.