Rain Shops Clutter and Neighbours

So, we have been:
Into town with my mum in the rain on Tuesday
- it just started to drizzle as we got a few steps down the road and then built from there. I had made sure F had a coat, but completely forgotten to bring mine, so I ended up buying a fold-up thing from the 'Outdoor' shop. It's better than the one I already had, so that's good. In town we had a nice lunch in the vegetarian cafe, where F mostly behaved very well, despite offering 'How about dying' as a conversational gambit. She's just been through another phase of talking about dying a bit and asking about it and actually being very sad and crying and saying she doesn't want to die! She seems to have got over it again the last couple of days though. Mum very generously bought a few summer clothes for F and then paid for some that I had chosen for myself too - a really nice deep red skirt, the same style as a blue one I already have, and a short-sleeved blue fadey dye (don't know what the 'fashion' term is for this kind of pattern!) T-shirt with some sparklies on the front, similar style to a long-sleeved one I bought the other week. F still could do with a few more summery things like cheap comfortable shorts and T-shirts, but has most other things covered I think. The shopping was pretty tiring for F, but at least we didn't have the feet-hurty thing of our other recent trip. She was wearing her wellies, so there was plenty of puddle-splashing all the way home.
Decluttering (me)
- set aside Wednesday and today for a major declutter followed by cleaning/hoovering. Have filled 3 binbags so far. Most of the clutteriest areas are cleared, bar a few things that there just isn't a designated space for (leftover Xmas cards that we could use next year - having trouble thinking where to put them)
Storytelling (F)
- F continues to tell stories a lot. Yesterday she made up a version of Madagascar using 4 toy sea creatures in the bath, calling it Madagascar Ocean Adventure, with a whale as Gloria, a shark as Marty, a crab as Alex and a turtle as Melman (? is that his name). Today she has just got out her fantasy land jigsaw puzzle with characters (from you Mrs MT last year - she has really got good use out of it) and done some of that.
Inviting neighbours round for cuppas (me)
- Saw Mandy over the road pushing her twins T and S on 2 separate wheelie toys in the direction of the local shop and opened my door and accosted her from across the street! So they came over about half twoish. Mandy is lovely, totally easygoing, good company. The twins are 2 now, F was very good with them, bringing them things, showing them things, sharing things, etc. At one point she tried to teach them how to write (or maybe say?) the word CAT, showing them Dozy Mog and writing the word CAT on a piece of paper and saying it to them in rather a teachery way! They all got on really well, better than before, didn't seem to need much supervision or intervention. Made a very welcome break from the decluttering for me and Mandy is not the kind of person to be fazed by sitting in the middle of half-filled binbags! As always we talked about our carpets first and how filthy they are - she had just had a health visitor that morning who had walked in the door and said 'your carpets have taken a battering haven't they?' so we tsked and tutted a bit over that. As Mandy left later, I saw Annie from 2 doors down, so shouted at her and invited her in for Tuesday morning next week with her 1-yr old or without.
Working (me)
Going fine, delivered a job this morning, more to do for Friday which means I will probably stay up late half-watching/listening to the fresh numpties in the BB house whilst finishing it.
Visiting the MTs tomorrow and seeing Mrs MT and M for some comedy in Brighton Festival on Saturday.