Which was neither busy or productive but did ease us back out of being with a big group and we got all the washing done!
Saturday morning I was back to work, having managed to only take 7 hours leave for the week. It was busy which was good as I was still tired and quite possibly nursing some sort of accumulated hangover, but nice to be back. I learnt that the full time colleague who has been trying to leave since I started there nearly a year ago has finally got another job (although she hasn’t actually handed her notice in yet). I’ll miss her but it will be nice to get another new colleague and as she had most of the more interesting jobs allocated to her it gives me a chance to try and nab some of them for myself too :). It also means that I will probably end up doing Storytime on my Thursdays and Baby Rhymetime if it falls on my Fridays as she used to take it in turns with the Senior Library Assistant. This is good too, makes my working day a bit more varied and gives me an ‘audience’ 😆 ;).
In the afternoon we headed into town. Scarlett spotted Fur Real Cat in a toy shop last month when we were getting a birthday pressie for Ben and has gone on about it ever since. I’d said ‘no way’ to spending £40 on a soft toy but actually she gets a lot of play out of soft toys, more so than anything else we’ve ever bought her and she does love cats (her other choice of gift being a real live kitten!) and it does just bring one small item into the house rather than yet more plastic crap so when I discovered Argos have a tenner off them bringing it down to £30 I reserved one online and we went to collect it. We found a parking space in the two hour zone so wandered round town for a couple of hours, soaking up the pre-Christmas buzz. We had a bit of a result in a charity shop too with me getting a Boden skirt, several books and bits for under a fiver. Then Ady and the kids went back to the car while I popped to Argos to collect the cat which miaowed all the way back to the car :lol:.
We watched tv and the children had an early night. We watched Flood which neither of us was particularly impressed with, infact I fell asleep. The effects were not magnificent, the storyline was a bit weak and rather natural disaster movie predictable with ex-wives and estranged sons and fathers being thrown together which seems to happen a lot in such films and we were very distracted by Nigel Planer being in it and kept saying ‘heaveeeee’ to each other a lot and giggling over the key lines.
Today I was reminded again of how lovely Ady is with tea brought to me in bed, roast pork served up and all the washing and drying up done, and glasses of wine and cups of tea brought to me at regular intervals – all that layby action must be playing on his conscience 😉 :lol:.
We headed off to a car boot sale this morning but other than a rock tumbler for me for the bargain price of £2 we returned empty handed. I’ve wanted a rock tumbler since I was a kid for no real reason other than just wanting one and never getting it so I’m a bit thrilled. It all seems in good working order despite looking pretty old so we might pop to the beach tomorrow and get some stones to tumble. It’ll be a good lesson in patience if nothing else – phase one (of five!) takes 8 days.
Once home the children did some drawing – Ady’d brought home some cardboard boxes from work to use as temporary storage in the playroom which haven’t been used for that but have been appropriated by the children as excellent for creating ‘houses’ so they’ve been making them up, deciding who they are going to house and then creating the perfect residence. Before camp they made a Simpsons house (Davies) complete with full quota of Simpsons family and a jaguar house (Scarlett) with all sorts of details and relevant stuff. Davies had picked up a Crazy Frog toy at the carboot sale for 20 p so he built a house for that with all sorts of ‘crazy’ details like a too small door because Crazy Frog apparently would go through the door all hunched into a ball in a crazy fashion. I sat and failed to sort out the playroom any further or list any items on ebay simply because I couldn’t be arsed to move :oops:. Scarlett and Ady went and washed his car and both got very wet.
We had lunch / dinner and discovered Doctor Who weekend on UKTV drama so spent the rest of the day watching that including the last one with Rose which both children insist they’d not seen before and had me sobbing at the end. We finished off with a couple of Simpsons episodes and then the children went to bed and Ady and I sat watching War programmes including the My Son Jack one which is still on now.
Tomorrow we launch back into normality, work for Ady, Magical Mondays and Beavers for us and we’re a full week lined up ahead of us as usual. I’m feeling rather more settled thanks to the good company and enjoyable time I had last week. The chance to ‘chew the fat’ a bit with friends, spend some time away from home and routine, do a fair bit of what all four of us do best and shine at and actually a bit of appreciating where we live on the couple of trips walking on the downs, along the beach and Ady taking people off to the airport has settled me back into being ok with where we are for now. I know it’s not what I want long term, I still have my dream and know Ady shares it too of a different lifestyle to what we’re living now, but I’m restored and rejuvenated sufficiently enough to bide time again for a while. I’m busy planning lots of stuff to look forward to and enjoying counting my blessings again rather than bemoaning my woes.