It was Pulborough Brooks day today. It always seems to come round much more frequently than monthly. It’s one of the few local ‘organised’ things that we almost always attend, mostly because there is no certainty who will turn up and I quite like that aspect to it.
We’d been planning to take Tasha and co but they were otherwise engaged so we headed off slightly late as I was drinking tea and Davies and Scarlett were engrossed in something else. We arrived at 1045am and as we walked into the visitor centre we came across Chris and Julie :). Chris has done something to his hand so has been off work for a few days and decided to come along too. He and I don’t always see eye to eye on everything but it was really nice to see him today (it’s been a while) and we had a good chat :). The four cousins went off almost as soon as we arrived and did the whole walk together, way out infront of us. Infact it was only Davies who popped back briefly to us who we saw for the whole walk.
Lorna did of course stay with us 😆
We walked part of the way with Katie who organises it and chatted a fair bit about last weeks Bubbles and the national events being planned. I got some nice positive feedback on my telly stuff and I talked to Chris and Julie about Davies’ Badger camp.
Back at the centre the children were already in the playpark so we said goodbye to Chris and Julie and I sat down while the kids ate and played. It was a very nice couple of hours :).
Scarlett had £5 (again!) from Davies buying something or other (oh I remember, he got a W&G dvd) so she looked, at length, in the shop to see if there was anything she wanted to buy. She decided there wasn’t.
Eventually at about 130pm we decided to head off. On the way I decided I’d neglected the allotment for long enough so we nipped home to grab a few bits and change shoes and went up there for an hour or so.
The children ran off to play in the woods up at the top of the field. They are enjoying a lot of freedom lately but I am trying to let them have as much as they feel comfortable having. Davies will need a mobile phone for camp so I am planning on putting a small amount of credit on a phone each for them and showing them how to make and recieve calls. I think being able to check in with them and vice versa will make me feel happier too. I suppose they were gone for about half an hour and then they came back down and came into the allotments with me for another half an hour or so. I’ll blog about allotment stuff in the relevant place rather than here.
We left as it started to rain and went to Tescos. I wanted some vegetables for dinner, a mini pedal bin for the food waste in the kitchen, a sugar shaker for icing sugar and to look at external harddrives as Ady had said they had some on special offer. While I went off to view these mostly unexciting things I left Davies and Scarlett in the toy aisle. When I went back they were both very excited as Davies had found a Ben 10 figure he really wanted and Scarlett had decided to use her £5 to buy it for him! I’m not sure who was most happy about this – Davies was delighted at getting his toy and Scarlett was thrilled to be doing something nice for him – they had a big cuddle in the middle of Tescos which nearly brought tears to my eyes :).
We came home via the tip where I dumped off 3 huge sacks of allotment weed waste which just isn’t compostable as it comes back again. I got filthy doing so and was all squirmy all the drive home again with muddy hands.
Ady had beaten us home and got the kids tea on. I spent time putting loads of photos and music onto the harddrive to make my laptop breathe a sigh of relief and start running a bit faster.
And that’s about it for today really…
We decided against mobile phone as a) they say tale no valuables and I could see it becoming something other kids would take if they knew it was there and she wouldn’t be able to use it privately. B) she said if she spoke to me if she was a little bit sad it would make her a lot sad. If she is a lot sad she would be able to use their phones to call as she wouldn’t be able to be a lot sad and not have anyone know about it.
She told me not to ring her at all.
I would like a text or email saying she’s fine but am having to say to myself that no news is good news.
Xx
Comment by Michelle — 11 August 2009 @ 8:53 am
C’s going to camp next week and the instructions specifically say no mobile phones and that they’re likely to make homesickness worse. Although it may not be the child’s homesickness that’s the issue here…
Comment by Jan — 11 August 2009 @ 9:06 am
They have a proper mobile phone policy. They all need to be handed in to be kept in a secure place and given during alloted times with a signed disclaimer form. So he’d need to ask for it if he wanted to make a call (which i suspect he won’t, but I want to be sure he can if he wants to). They are accepting post every day in to the camp and they can send post out too. He’s taking in a SAE and paper for each day so he can at least send me a note each day if he doesn’t want to talk to me.
We’ve got a code phrase for him to say if he is wanting to come home but is under pressure to stay but he does appear remarkably anxiety-free about the whole thing (if slightly more cuddly than usual).
Comment by Nic — 11 August 2009 @ 10:14 am
Contrary to standard advice (as is her way!) I think Tilda was much happier when I was speaking to her frequently. Tough call though.
And they all had to phone or send a postcard on the Sunday to say they were there safely 🙂
Comment by Alison — 11 August 2009 @ 6:56 pm
It makes me wonder how we and our parents survived our trips away without mobiles.
Comment by Chris — 12 August 2009 @ 12:38 pm
I went away for a week when I was 9 and 10 and didn’t miss home at all 🙂 I did when I was 11 and went to France for 2 weeks over Christmas though! After that I went on Girls Brigade camp and my mum was there anyway 😉 Then did a French exchange again when I was about 14.
I suspect Tilda just wouldn’t have gone at all if there was no way to be in contact.
Comment by Alison — 12 August 2009 @ 1:24 pm
I’ve been trying to recall residentials I went on as a child. I only ever did school ones (never went to any outside school things at all like Guides etc.). I’m almost certain we didn’t do any overnights until we were at senior school. I did several residentials with the school choir but they were very local and I *always* phoned home daily from the phone box. I did two residentials to France too – one for 3 nights and one for a full week (I was about 15 by then) and again phoned from a public phone box several times over the course of the time away.
I’m expecting Davies to not ring me actually – he didn’t when they slept over at Ali’s recently and I wasn’t sure whether he was trying to prove something to himself and me by not needing to or whether he felt strong all the time he didn’t actually have to speak to me. I do think he’ll send me post though.
Comment by Nic — 12 August 2009 @ 6:40 pm