Monday – green with a white cross on it

Another stupid o’clock start with the kids and I getting up while it was still dark this is not the life for us we thought as we staggered around in various states of undress trying to eat food and drink tea long before our bodies were ready for being upright, let alone starting to function with digestion. We did leave the house before 8am though, on time for my worked backwards timings of me needing to be at a First Aid course in Southwick for 10am, not entirely sure exactly where so needing to arrive in Southwick at 945am to find the place, so needing to leave home at 920am, so needing to drop Ali, Freya, Davies and Scarlett off by about 910am and handover food, supervision of cupboards and sharp objects, pass on where I’d hidden the matches incase Ali wanted to have a go at creating fire related issues while she was in charge (my parents having set a precedant I imagine all future house and child sitters will be keen to follow), needing to collect Ali and Freya by 830am to allow time for traffic blackspots which I am only ever made aware of about twice a year when I attempt foolish missions like the above. So we had to leave before 8am to get there by 830am.

For once all of my timings had buffer space in them and we were in Lewes by 820am. On that basis I chose to sit in the traffic blackspot at the prison crossroads rather than use the rat run I know of which would have had us sat outside Ali’s nearly 10 minutes early. Plus we were listening to Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick and drumming and pretending to hit each other with imaginary rhythm sticks so I sort of missed the turning ;).

Driving back to ours also went super smoothly and we were home by 9am allowing me to have a cup of tea with Ali before I left and watch with amusement at a collaborative toasted cheese sandwich making with Ali and Scarlett and the Very Sharp Knives 😆

Then I left and found the Community Centre where the First Aid course was happening. I did the course sometime last year so actually probably shouldn’t really have been on it again so soon but it is recommended that you have a refresher each year and I’ll get paid for the days work as well as getting a first aid certificate so it’s worth it. It did remind me of various things I’d forgotten too such as how many breaths and compressions for CPR. I really liked the woman running the course last time and she remembered me from before too. She has since moved to Devon to a farm with 27 acres and is pretty much living my dream lifestyle so we chatted about that and I have her some hatching duck eggs advice, we talked about pigs and sheep and I fuelled my dreams for the smallholders lifestyle.

We did a lot of practical work in pairs and I sat with and worked with E, who is a fabulously camp library assistant from a local ibrary. I’ve met him a fair few times and he is great fun. When I laid down to play dead on one of the mats so he could put me in the recovery position he said to me ‘never mind being dead, that turquoise mat looks fabulous against your hair!’ 😆 😆 It was a much more interesting and enjoyable day than the training before but I still struggled slightly with the classroom situation two days running. Whilst I never considered myself to have hated school it’s interesting how much I buck against the while institutionalised feeling that being back in that environment gives me. I did used to enjoy delivering training though and still slightly hanker after being the one at the front of the room but I suspect that says more about my egotistical physce than anything else ;).

I phoned home at lunchtime and all seemed well (if rowdy ;)) and the course was finished by 415pm. It had started snowing during the afternoon although the ground was far too wet for it to settle but it was pretty driving home again in it. I gave Ali and Freya the choice of being taken home by me at that point before rush hour or waiting for Ady to come home after rush hour and was pleased when they chose staying as it meant Ali and I had a couple of hours to chat.

Unfortunately the 6pm we had been expecting Ady stretched to 7pm which I suspect was just a little too long for all the children, who were all pretty tired by then. Davies and Freya had enjoyed playing Xbox and Scarlett had had some great one to one time with Tarly making bath bombs from a set Ali had got Scarlett for her birthday and hadn’t been fully explored. Some time was spent watching the effects of the made bath bombs (very glittery :)) in the bath we started running for Davies and Scarlett. I made some tea for those children who wanted to eat and Freya had a rest under a blanket 😆

Ady got home and he supervised baths and tidied up while I ran Ali and Freya home again. It’s not far but twice in one day there and back with the halfway run there and back for my course had me clocking up nearly 3 hours driving and still tired from the excesses of the weekend meant I was pleased to be home when I finally got back. I cooked dinner (potato gratin and pork chops sliced off the large joint Ady had roasted for dinner on Sunday served with sweetcorn pan fried with butter – all very delicious – I’ve not cooked dinner for ages it felt like).

goddardstuff.co.uk was playing up, firstly just on one of the offshoot sites and then I couldn’t get onto my blog or email, or the site which hosts it either so eventually I gave up and went to bed. At 1130pm, which is incredibly early for me but as I was struggling to stop my eyelids drooping over my laptop I decided I needed it.