F keeps coming out with things that really make me laugh, kind of one-liners, and I keep thinking 'oh I must blog that!' but then I forget. Obviously I need to take a little notebook with me everywhere or make more use of the peripheral functions of my phone.

Today I got up earlyish as I had to get into Brighton to go to the bank to get money out to pay the builder half of his cash this evening. Also had a cheque to put in. F got up too and had breakfast and then sat cutting a bit of plastic out to make something for the ponies, before deciding to come with me and we were out of the house by 10.

So glad it's stopped being rainy all the time, it was sunny and lovely. Nice not to have to rush because of rain or lateness, so we dawdled luxuriantly. We popped into the park on our way past and F had a slide on the new slide, which is getting less sticky now I think. We looked at the stream at various points, saw and heard various birds and made companionably amateurish attempts at identifying them. A lot of signs of spring around, we've been noticing. I do so love where we live - the other day as I pulled the kitchen door blind up, the first thing I saw was a horse going along the bridle path at the back of the garden. I love the massive number of trees around here too, every horizon is shaped by them.

After the park, we made our dawdlish way along into the town centre, as F had been asking for 2 weeks to go to a shop we went into back in December, where she had seen a soft toy she wanted and had 'hidden it so noone else would buy it', as we'd not wanted to buy it for her at the time and she'd hoped to go back and buy it later. I'd agreed that we would look at it and if it cost more than a certain amount she could do jobs to pay for it, but if it was less, then I would buy it for her, since she had been thinking about it for about 6 weeks. I warned her that it might not still be there. She didn't know the name of the shop but managed to describe it by logo and colour and location, so when we got into town, we found it and, although the shop had had a change around of stock displays, we found another puppy very similar to the one she had wanted. It was just within the amount I had said I would pay, so I bought it.

Then we went to the shoe shop as F's Crocs have disappeared and her feet have grown anyway. We were really lucky there - they had Holey Soles - only one pair in her size and they were the Fuchsia colour and half-price in the sale! She has been wearing her wellies everywhere and that's tiring for town walking and I think they aren't that comfy for her now. She could do with a new pair of wellies plus some trainers or walking shoes too now, but at least when it's dry the Holey Soles are good, so comfy. The other day I came home from a day in my wellies and when I took them off, instead of being shoeless, I changed into my Crocs because they were actually more comfy than bare feet after walking all day!

Next we went back to the station to get the train into Brighton, bumped into C and E (from MMs) on our way, which was nice. E was between drama and ballet, so only a quick chat.
At the station, F put her ticket in the barrier and checked that the word 'Child' came up on the LED display as she went through. I wondered to F why I didn't get 'Grown-Up' or 'Mum' or 'Middle-Aged' - no fair! We played more Defective Audio Commentary, today mistaking children for bananas and trains for planes, among other things. The Downs looked glorious in January sunlight, with blue sky all around.

In Brighton we meandered down to my bank, spotting all sorts of things on the way that led to interesting chats, such as Dr Who DVD box sets with pictures of Davros on and model vintage cars and stuff. Got to the bank and accomplished my mission smoothly, which was a relief, though not nice walking around with all that cash in my rucksack for the rest of the day.

Next we went to Marks and Spencer to have a drink and snack and see if they had any nice pyjamas and dressing-gowns for me. They didn't, despite F's best efforts to interest me in a dressing gown covered in pink hearts! I was looking for simple black loungewear and it was a no-go - pastel colours, fluff and frills all over the shop. At the cafe, F took charge of our tray and chose herself a whole lunch instead of the 'flapjack and juice' scenario I had expected. She chose salmon sandwich, cheese scone, coffee cake and a banana! And she ate the lot, with juice. She kicked her shoes and socks off, munched away on her sophisticated fare and made conversation with me and other people nearby very nicely. At some point she asked me what the symbol is that has a circle with half in one colour and half in another colour, like black and white, with a bit of the white in the black and a bit of the black in the white - nice description of the yin/yang symbol I thought. So we talked about some meanings of that symbol and then discussed why I wouldn't eat any of her salmon sandwich, whether she would eat fish and chips when she was older, and the differences between her Holey Soles and my Crocs, with another lady joining in on that one.
In between I eavesdropped on neighbouring conversations - Marks and Spencers is a bit of an island of non-Brightonness in the middle of Brighton, in a way, so the conversations kind of reminded me of Maidstone, where I grew up. There was a man and woman lamenting how Corrie now had gays in, for instance, instead of being about 'real' people. Ironically, the same couple went on a bit later to talk, with great sensitivity and positive warmth, about two older women they knew who had, by the sound of it, moved in together and seemed to be in love! Interesting listening to their vocabulary choices, as they avoided verbalizing most of what they were saying, but still said so much. The use of English in real conversations is something I could listen to and analyse for years - I loved Conversation Analysis and Pragmatics on my degree.

Having completed our metropolitan endeavours, we headed back to the station and caught the train back. A group of 2 large families got on and sat all around us. They were very nice on the whole, chatty and friendly, but 2 of their children, aged about 8-10, kept pulling the seatback trays up and down, with an excruciating long drawn-out squeaking noise every time. The 4 parents each made attempts to stop them, but were ignored completely in the long term. Very annoying, particularly as I have had F do this sometimes on a train and she has always stopped after a couple of times with me asking her to, and reminding her that it's unpleasant for everyone else on the train. So she was making faces at me, but didn't say anything till after we got off, rather tactfully. From the group's conversation they clearly saw going on the train as a bit of a novelty and I suppose weren't used to the idea of thinking of other people on public transport.

We walked back home via the park again and did laptopping and sofa-flopping. J cooked pizza, which was fab, and I had wine with it.