Really enjoyed having nowhere to be until this afternoon today. I’d been awake in the night with an upset tummy and was feeling slightly delicate. Nothing more came of it although it’s been a bit rumbly all day, I suspect it was eating a big bowl of pasta at 11pm last night when I got in.
I pottered about processing laundry, talking to chickens and doing some online stuff while Davies and Scarlett spent most of the morning exploring the loft space in Davies’ room. They have set up a sort of toy hospital for painting back on worn off bits of toys and had dug out Buzz and Woody (quite excited about the upcoming Toy Story 3 here, it’s what Davies’ 4 cinema tickets prize is being saved for apparently) and done some repair work to them. I called upstairs to them every so often but they were quite happy.
I’ve been debating a small sewing machine for a while for various small sewing tasks and we had a small excess of cash this month so after researching online and reading reviews I reserved one at Argos and nipped along to collect it. I’ve not had time to look at it properly but will try and have a play with it tomorrow afternoon. I’m quite excited at the idea of playing with it :).
We had lunch and then gathered together swimming stuff and headed out to Highdown Gardens to meet Julie, Jack, Maisie and Lorna for a couple of hours. We had a really nice time in the sunshine – Julie and I moving from bench to bench and sitting chatting while the four older children – and Lorna too when the others were nearby played in the trees and pathways. I was lovely 🙂
We went straight to the swimming pool from there. Due to my dodgy tummy I’d decided not to swim, also I’d not watched the kids lessons for quite a while so I thought I’d watch this first one back and then maybe watch one at half term to see what sort of improvement they’ve had. The instructor who had been running Swimathon came over to chat, ask how I’d felt recovering on Sunday, tell me I’d done really well and said she’d hold me to my intention to try the 5k next year :). She was so complimentary she actually made me blush 😳 :).
Scarlett had asked for some goggles at the end of last term so we chose a pair for her and she seemed to like them. She also wore my green swimathon cap so for once she was really easy to spot in the pool. As she has been going in the big pool albeit with me doing lanes for months I said she could go in the shallow end of the big pool after her lesson and I kept a close eye on her. I know she shouldn’t really be in there til she’s 8 but I really can’t see the difference between me concentrating on swimming lengths but in the pool and me watching her from the side, she’s actually better supervised by me sitting in the spectators area than me swimming.
Scarlett’s lesson went well, she is continuing to progress. She put her feet down a lot and I’m not really sure why as when she didn’t she was easily the fastest swimmer in the group, there is a marked difference between her and Davies though and I suspect a large part of it is her reduced ability to pay attention to Carolyn, the instructor and do precisely as she’s asked without getting distracted.
Davies was looking really good, I think he’ll go into the next group fairly soon. He has a really nice style and I was impressed to see him doing front crawl, back stroke and breast stroke today all really well. He needs to use his arms more for backstroke and sort out his breathing for front crawl but he is definitely a better swimmer than me for doing proper strokes. I felt quite inspired to try putting my face in the water and getting my head round front crawl too.
We beat Ady home by about five minutes so he chatted to me in the kitchen while I made the kids’ tea – Scarlett was assisting with the egg glut by having french toast :). I had a quick cup of tea and made some pastry to chill in the fridge before going back out again to the library for Book Group.
We’ve been reading Geraldine Brooks’ March this month, which is the story of Mr March, the girls father in Little Women and what happens to him while he’s away being a chaplain at war. I’d really enjoyed it, despite not having read Little Women or being a big fan of historical novels. The group was pretty split with nearly half not finishing it and only about half of those who had enjoying it but it made for interesting discussions. The group was over 20 tonight which Brenda and I agreed is really too large a size. Brenda’s job is being looked at in the next phase of restructuring and she is worried she may be made redundant so checked with me once again that I’d be happy to run Book group on my own if needs be. I would but I am wondering if I have made a rod for my own back with the level of ‘in my own time’ stuff I seem to do for the library. Ah well. I get enough back to justify it I guess.
Back home again I made the custard to go in my pastry for quiche and that cooked while I was in the bath to go with the jacket potatoes Ady had already got in the oven. We watched Heston Blumenthal who I am never sure qualifies as genius or insane but is entertaining nonetheless.
March sounds good. We’re reading Little Women for HE book group in a couple of months time
Comment by Jan — 21 April 2010 @ 10:06 pm
I really enjoyed it Jan. I’ve not read Little Women (although I did pick up a ladybird book version from a charity shop with good intentions so may yet do so). I’d quite like to read Geraldine Brooks’ other books too, they look good.
Comment by Nic — 21 April 2010 @ 10:40 pm
We have a spare copy in my ‘books to list on Amazon when I get round to it’ box I can let you have when I see you.
Comment by Jan — 21 April 2010 @ 10:52 pm