Glasses, Friends, Forest School, Chatterbooks, Sleepover, Drama, Yoga and cat poo

Monday

I went to the opticians and had everything checked and ordered new glasses (£340 - aarrrgggh) - have been waiting for a good pay month for the last 18 months to be able to do this. I am very short-sighted (so the NHS gives me £13 off the price), about -12, so glasses are always pricey. Really would have liked to have purple frames again but have got a nice blue shade so should be OK. Will be lovely to have glasses not held together with pipe-cleaner again and feel 'smart' enough in them to go out places rather than having to use contact lenses for out-and-about times. I do wear my pipe-cleaner bridged ones for local shop but wouldn't want to go any further in them.

After the opticians I had a coffee all by myself in Costa's and then met a friend from Writers' Retreat for lunch, which was lovely. We had a good catch-up chat over soup and bread and then a wander in the Railway Land nature reserve.

Back home, Season 6 of Smallville had arrived and so we watched the first few episodes and had Chinese food I think!

Tuesday

Freya (she has asked me to stop calling her 'F' here and really I think that's fine) had her friend E round for a play. They had a lovely time, mostly playing outside I think. I was working and did a bit of housework.

Wednesday

Freya had Forest School in the morning and Chatterbooks in the afternoong. She came back from Forest School with her web/dreamcatcher made of wood and string and a mosaic that she'd done. She'd been worried about the web thing as she'd missed the session when the others had finished theirs and taken them home, and then it had been half term, so it was good that she got to finish it and bring it home. 

In between Forest School and Chatterbooks she had a bath with some ponies and demonstrated that she can actually be very organized by knowing exactly where her 6 library books were! I didn't have a clue so that was good. Chatterbooks is every 3 weeks so things can go astray quite easily.

She came back from Chatterbooks with an Usborne chemistry book that looks good. She's also been revisiting a beautiful Periodic Table book with sumptuous pictures that J got her.

I was very tired, having had one hour's sleep with a very big deadline that morning, and I went to bed at about half nine. Freya came and gave me 2 dream ponies so that I would dream of horses on beaches and she read me a few pages of Anne of Green Gables, which was just bliss!

Thursday

Livewires was going to be sports/fun day but was cancelled. At least we got a lie-in though! Freya's friend was coming over for a sleepover later so Freya and I sorted her room out a bit, removing some items that were taking up too much room, hoovering and generally improving. Her friend came at half two and they had a lovely time, out on the trampoline with foam tiles making a sort of den, playing with Sylvanians, ponies and Barbies, making impromptu cloudy lemonade and watching Toy Story 3. Gave them pizza and chips for tea and when J was home we all played Battleships - the 3 of them against me because I'm too good at it, apparently. I did win, so maybe I am.

They went up at about 10 and were quite lively for another hour then started to settle, but were still awake long after midnight!

Friday

We were all up fairly early, so girls had had only about 7 or 8 hours I think. Quite tired, and Freya did get a bit teary and remained wobbly throughout the day with little things triggering her getting upset or angry, so we had to have several 'talks' none of which really resolved it all as it was mainly tiredness.

Nevertheless they had some fun in the morning, despite tiredness and pouring rain, and me having to deal with stressful aspects of long-haired cat having poo attached to it's bum-fluff and not letting me decontaminate it.

It was still pouring at midday, even worse in fact, so I took them up to Drama by taxi.

Drama now stops until September, which is quite a loss but I know summer will whizz by anyway. While they were there, I had to go and do some money-juggling cash-machine business to give J some cash at work, which is luckily nearby, so I did that in an absolute downpour, then came back and sat in on the session. They were doing some more work on an extract from A Midsummer's Night Dream, with lots of emphasis on expressing meaning with sound, saying words in different ways to fit the meaning. Was good and the three of them all seemed very engaged. Drama teacher M packs so much in to the time, in a quality way, not a leave-you-behind-if-you-don't-catch-up way. They finished up with some movement games and tongue-twisters.

E's grandparents gave us a lift down to Yoga, which I hadn't attended before. Was nice to see C and M and K there. I sat in the corner being a bit of a norty whispering mummy, just because it was that kind of day and I needed to a bit. 

I had thought the Yoga might be aimed very low and be a bit 'silly' because it is always advertised as being for little ones. But it was good, plenty there for Freya and older ones too and didn't seem to be at all patronising or annoying. So that might be something we do more often.

Freya and I walked home in the rain together after buying a couple of books and some felt pens and a few other bits. I was feeling very knackered by then (I'd stayed up late working) and bought some curry from local shop for dinner too. Once we were on our own she was all fine and no more tears or trouble. Sometimes it comes from situations with multiple things going on, too much communication to misunderstand or want to understand all of.

Enjoyed a Friday evening of wine, curry and Smallville, interrupted by an unpleasant half hour of J and I having to deal with the long-haired cat's nether regions. Slept like a log after quite a busy week.

Bees and chats and inks and apps

Yesterday F and I walked into town for a bit of shopping. Had a lovely chat whilst walking, she came up with an idea for a phone app, involving taking photos of objects/toys and then putting them on photos of backgrounds with simple speech bubbles to fill in and sending your creation to friends or sharing them on Facebook etc. She invented something else too but can't remember what it was, oops.

On the way we passed a small exhibition of paintings by this artist. We popped in to see the pictures. Very lovely use of colour. The artist was there in person and very friendly, she showed F the inks and brushes she uses and encouraged her to have a go with some compressed inks she had there too, F tried out the purple and blue, incredibly vibrant colours, lovely to use. F was slightly shy, or not knowing what was expected of her I think.

We got our shopping, including cat collars with bells to try once again to reduce our cats' hunting success. We had a small shocked bird to deal with on Friday evening. And remains of a mouse Saturday morning.  And another, or possibly (poor sod) same small shocked bird Saturday evening. Just hate it. Don't think we will have cats again, or maybe have boy cats I suppose, who don't seem so bothered about decimating wildlife.

After the pet shop, we went round the corner to this event at the nature reserve. It was our first time visiting the pavilion there. Downstairs they had honey-tasting and some crafts/activities that were all on the younger side. Honey tasting was popular though, with about 10 different honeys. Also monitors showing bee activity. 

Then we went upstairs to see the permanent observation hive, which was fab. The professor was excellent, answering lots of questions, I learned loads - pollen being different colours on different plants for instance. He had many questions from children about how queens are produced, what weather is best for bees, etc. F's enjoyment was significantly increased by the fact that her friend E suddenly appeared, with siblings and grandparents, so it was lovely to see them unexpectedly there.

F and I finished off our afternoon with a drink at Costas with books, spent a lovely hour there, just reading and occasionally chatting about what we were reading.

Other things from sometime in the week 

 

F found an abandoned Barbie in the garden and cleaned her up very thoroughly, quite a transformation and was impressed by how she persevered at it, even if a lot of our nicer bathroom products got used up in the process! Oh we had a good conversation about Barbies and why we didn't originally want one in the house and the difference between realistic toys and unrealistic toys, cartoons, etc.

F started reading Anne of Green Gables, seems to be liking it but taking a break for another Jacqueline W at moment.

F went and played at neighbour's house but their little girl behaved horribly to her again. F said she seemed all nice but then punched F as part of 'playing school'. Hmph.

We all sobbed at a Smallville episode called Lexmas where Lex is shown the happy future he could have by being good, but it includes Lana dying, so he has to decide not to be good to save her. We are rushing through Smallville at a bit of a fearsome rate now as we've got a bit of a weekend habit of watching 3 in a row most nights! Think it might be a good bridge to Buffy though.

F made a big box out of some big 2ft square foam tiles we have, big enough to get in. Oh she also did a disappearing trick using a big cardboard box, which she had got into with a sharp knife and carved holes in from inside, think that was last week, anyway.

F did some maths in the Carol Vorderman books we have. She has definitely got to a stage where she is having to work at maths and look at methods rather than it just being stuff she can automatically do. So a bit of an adjustment. Hard to have to step back slightly from 'just knowing' or feeling it just works for you to having to process and follow instructions. But she doesn't seem to mind and is enjoying what she does, so that's good.

We watched all 3 Toy Story films on consecutive days, which was lovely. I feel better about crying at Jessie's song every single time, now that I have heard that Tom Hanks and Tim Allen did so at the premiere! F planned and stuck to a schedule of activities for her small Toy Story figures - they did bunjie

F went to Forest School on Wednesday and enjoyed it as usual.

F has been doing a 'cryptic crossword' in the back of her JW book. She has also been asking about a lot of word meanings (some of them rude - eek!) too lately.

We all had an interesting conversation, started by F, prompted by Game of Life cards, about whether we'd rather be a lawyer or a mechanic and why. J and I both just about decided on mechanic, for similar reasons, though when younger might have gone for lawyer.

I had a ton of work to do on Thursday and Friday, it was very hard and I delivered right on the edge of the French business day ending. Must deliver next job in better time as I think someone had to stay behind in the office on a Friday to pick up my e-mail. Good to have more work again as May was a bit rubbish after a very good April. Have got more for Tuesday and Wednesday so had better do some today in fact.

Bodiam - Cranbrook - Maidstone - Home

Monday

Off to stay one night with grandpa Chris.

J's dad picked us up at 11ish and we all headed off for a pub lunch (bit Francocentric to be comfortably vegan there but they managed to put something together for us, though wouldn't countenance the thought of making garlic bread using oil instead of butter). 

Then we went on the Kent and East Sussex steam railway from Tenterden to Bodiam Castle - a surprise part of the day planned by grandpa C - we had discussed the castle but not the train, must admit I do love steam trains.  

I've always wanted to go to the castle, but never quite got there before. Very picturesque, had some sunshine. I loved J pointing out the carp to F on the walk on the bridge over the moat and knowing that some of those same fish may well have been there when he visited Bodiam as a child with his parents.

J and F went up the winding stairs to the top together and F stood on the grid with the drop below, though apparently she didn't immediately realize she was doing so.

Got the steam train back, then grandpa C's car to his flat and settled in there. F was very keen to go to the local playground because we had been there last time we visited, when she was not-quite-2! 

We all went over the road to a nice Indian restaurant (much more vegan friendly than Frenchish lunch) and F proved herself now able to properly enjoy an Indian meal, even if she only really had mutter panir and a bit of bread. She was very taken with the array of dishes though and even tried some sag aloo just because it was there. So I predict we'll soon be able to have the odd meal out at local Indian restaurant, rather than always going to Pizza Express or Terre a Terre. 

J had the unpleasant experience of the wrong dish being brought to him and putting a few spoonfuls on his plate then realizing it was bits of corpse (think it was lamb something - ugh). But the error was remedied fairly promptly and the food was delicious. I had a vegetable dhansak and J had vegetable jalousi. Grandpa C had something prawny I think.

We rolled back over the road and watched an episode of that Inside your body prog, which I've been meaning to catch, so that was good. F was enthralled, so might have to check out some more similar soon.

Tuesday morning, after looking at lots of family pics including ones of J as a toddler, we breakfasted on toast and fruit, Grandpa C had bought lots of strawbs and raspberries so F and I ate loads of those. Caught the bus out of Cranbrook. On the bus, we decided it made sense for F and I not to go home but to go straight to mum's from Tunbridge Wells, since the Cranbrook bus was going there anyway, whilst J could head home. Left J at 29 bus stop and waved to him from our Maidstone bus. Gorgeous sunny day for top deck travel, with obligatory (more) strawberries.

Got to my mum's about 3ish on Tuesday, intending to stay till Thursday morning (but...)

At my mum's we played cards (me, F and mum, with me very much micro-managing to keep it going as F didn't know how to play and mum had forgotten!), ate too much (me, F and mum), sat in the garden (mum and F), played a role-play game devised by F (mum and F - it was almost dramatherapy like, involving games with memories, role-play in restaurants with friends played by F, all sorts, very complex and well thought out and mum seemed to be enjoying it!). Mum isn't doing that well really, her short-term memory continuing to deteriorate bit by bit, making it very difficult to do anything e.g. forgetting sometimes now how to operate her tv, forgetting how to use her phone. It's very sad to see, I am not good with any of it really. F was brilliant though, bringing giggles and snuggles into the house. Though poor girl did get very upset when mum just really couldn't remember her name - until recently mum has remembered with a nudge but it just wasn't there any more. Felt sorry for F as she cried about it, my mum calling her by my name. In comparison my own struggle with having bits of the Daily Mail read out to me many times over was not so hard!

Anyway, F and I had a lot of time together too, especially on the Wednesday - went for a walk to get some shopping in the morning, and a geocaching walk in the afternoon - semi-successful! Two new caches had been hidden fairly near to mum's so that was exciting. We found one, took out a little bracelet and put in two blue glass pebbles. Couldn't locate the other one but tried very hard and amused ourselves with various comedic interpretations of the clues.

Back at mum's I had got all our dinners going when suddenly got an e-mail from C in Lewes asking if F was still going to an activity day locally the next day! (this is the 3rd thing in a week that has come up double-booked - am really not doing well with it, must get a decent calendar and A System). This activity day had been booked weeks and weeks ago. 

Had to decide quickly what to do, so we ate our dinner and then headed out at 8pm to get bus and train and train. Travelling at that time, of course, it turned into one of those epic journeys as we hit a long gap in direct services and had to do weird routes that don't make sense. But there was a glorious sunset and we were both in good spirits, so it was fun, though we were very tired after 2 nights in 2 different strange beds.

Arrived home via Hove and via Brighton at about midnight! Was lovely to get into my own bed with lots of space (J and I shared a small double at his dad's, F and I shared same size at mum's). Think F must have slept very well.

Thursday

Woke F up early for her activity day - at local animal sanctuary focusing on cats. She had a really good time, and it sounded like they had done loads. She came back with a 'kitten mitten' she had made - not sure how much of it she did but it is long traily bits and bobs attached to a glove, very good idea and can tell she really enjoyed it. Also she and her friend had had quite a bit of time with kittens and cats, been in the little cat pens, etc. Very pleased it was so good as the woman who was doing their children's stuff there is on maternity leave and we weren't sure. 

Friday

F had drama - I was going to walk her up but then had to be available for contact from mum's doctor or his receptionist about mum's iron pills, so C kindly agreed to take F there and back. Drama was apparently also good, they did some Shakespeare, working on a small piece from A Midsummer Night's Dream. I think F gets quite a lot out of working with text now, especially the ways that M deals with it in these sessions, focusing on the sounds, using visual ways to explore different voices.

When F came home, I was still finishing a bit of work, then she ate a couple of platefuls of fruit and we watched Toy Story 2 and Monsters Inc. She got some small Toy Story figures at my mum's and had brought the two Jessie figures down to watch with her, as they're very much her current favourites. We had never realized that there is a Jessie figure in Monsters Inc, in Boo's room when Sully says goodbye - F spotted it as we were watching and we had to rewind to be sure! The Jessies on the table were highly excited of course. F is very good at spotting those details/references in films and remembering things, but we must have watched that film a dozen times and never noticed it before. What a coincidence that we picked it today.

And am hoping for quite a restful weekend again, hayfever is bad so not much energy or desire to be out and about. A long lavender bath will do me, some Doctor Who, some Smallville and a glass or two of ginger wine and something to read.

Rest of floppy week

Must admit both F and I thrived on our week of being at home! I kept expecting her to get very fed up but she didn't. I knew I wouldn't get fed up, love home me.

We watched more films, played with Bananagrams, using the letter tiles to create stories from random words working together - ended up with something about Royal hens having a magic pot and somebody fighting a duel. F had a lovely lavender bath and proper hairwash as she had been a bit too ill for all that over the previous few days. I've just done the same today, having only had showers. F and I watched Toy Story and Toy Story 2. And ate lots of fruit.

Other than that we talked a lot and had silly jokes and went on our laptops.

Doesn't make for fantastic blog material but was all very nice and comfortable and cosy.

Been watching lots of Smallville again, plus watched Tangled again with J on Thursday evening.

Yesterday was J's and my anniversary of being together - apparently 17 years is meant to be celebrated by giving each other furniture! Nope didn't do that, but everything we did do was lovely so that's OK... 

Continuing with a home-centred weekend as the weather is rubbish and home isn't.

Flopping about at home, Sylvanian dress, God

Although F is over the feverish stage of whatever it was, she's kind of floppy and got a horrible cough, so we're flopping about at home this week. I'm also floppy and a bit coughy too, so we're all about the sofa, DVDs, home stuff.

So far we've watched Tangled and Toy Story 3, plus a few things on i-Player. F has played Sims 2 and we've played chess together.

Today F wanted to make a dress for one of her Sylvanians. Because I was largely doing other things, I didn't interfere as much as I might have done, with the result that she did lots of it herself. Aspects of sewing are extremely difficult if you have not-quite-two good hands - threading a needle, tying a knot, cutting things, coordinating holding fabric together and getting a needle into it - all very tricky. Fortunately F has tons of determination when she's on a mission, so she did all these things eventually and improved with practice too. Was very impressed with her perseverance, not for first time. She is also not too proud to ask for help when she really does find she needs it, so I helped with a couple of bits at the end, but she did more than 90% of it and she stitched the seams herself very well. Was really pleased that she ended up with a result that she was very happy with too. Good feelings abounded!

These are some of the design pictures:

This rubber band was the inspiration, but didn't get used in the end!

And here is the finished result, as modelled by Can'tRememberHerNameSylvanianCharacter (bad parent):

Dozy Mog is slightly envious I feel (as well as grubby).

Yesterday we made mango and strawberry smoothies (bit much really, think one or other would have been good, or maybe just eating the fruit). We've been eating lots of fruit.

Had a very long conversation with F about God and what a superior being might be like if it should exist and why such a being probably wouldn't be concerned to treat people like a particularly vindictive type of knee-jerk SuperNanny with a norty step of eternal damnation, but would rather help them be nicer in a wiser and more loving way than we could probably ever guess at. And would definitely be more concerned with people not hurting each other than with lesser 'sins'.

Also F is doing really well at extracting herself from strops by deciding it's not worth it and saying 'Never mind' - did it again today, just when I thought I was in for 20 mins of anguished wailing or shouting from the garden. She listened to what I'd answered to her impassioned plea, processed it, went quiet for a bit and came in 10 mins later, absolutely fine! Is good. Like.

Had a few days of not being able to go on The Awesome Beast, due to breathlessness, but went on today.

We've finished Season 3 of Smallville, we have been rushing through them a bit lately, sometimes watching 3 or 4 back-to-back. Become a bit of a ritual, with hot chocolate. Has got loads better since Season 1.

Lovely Saturday, Honeymoon from Hell and Sylvanians Story

Friday

F didn't come home from sleepover till 5, so I had a whole day to myself, finished all 3 small jobs I had, one ahead of deadline, which is always a good feeling.

Not sure what else I did really, think that took most of the day. Oh I watched and listened to things on i-Player.

Saturday

Was a lovely proper weekend day. I had 10 hours sleep, woke up at 10ish and had an hour to myself while the others were still in bed, so had a big mug of tea and peace and laptop. Then when they came down, we all hung out and had breakfast, half-watched a Simpsons episode. At some point I got some writing done and did 2 lots of 10 mins on The Beast. J and I also did some garden stuff, planting up chilli (or they might be peppers) and tomato plants. F went on trampoline a while and did a couple of chores (don't think she's put them on Chore Wars though). Then I sat with her and showed her how to sew (we've done this before but she didn't seem to count that) - it's very hard for her to coordinate holding a piece of material with moving the needle. She wants to make clothes for some of her little animals and dolls.

Had a lovely shower and cooked sausage rolls, garlic bread, chips and salad for dinner, which we ate whilst watching Doctor Who. 

Sunday

I went to see my friend Nigel's play Honeymoon From Hell - a musical comedy. He has 3 things in the Festival Fringe, all very different. It was excellent, fast-paced comedy, very funny. It was lovely to catch up with a few old friends and some newer ones from writers' retreat there. I stayed for a drink afterwards too.

Back home though, F was a bit under the weather and had a too cold/too hot thing going on. She had some warm soya milk and then hot chocolate for the coldness, snuggled under her duvet and we all watched a lot of episodes of Smallville back-to-back until she was tired enough to go to bed. She had a fever in the night and had some Calpol.

Today

F seems pretty much better, just a bit floppy and needing extra cuddles. I feel like I'm coming down with it, so hope it passes as quickly as it has for her. Just feel a bit off, and achey. 

So no Monday group, quiet day at home. F is playing The Sims 2 on XBox. She started the day by coming in to me while I was still in bed and telling me about a story idea she'd had, based on Sylvanians, with 3 different female characters of different ages - one an orphan growing up with foster parents, but they also had to look after the ranch that had been left when her parents died, so they were too busy to spend time with her, another one with a very traditional family with a woman who spent her life doing houseworky things, another who was a celebrity in the fashion world. In the story the celebrity woman and the houseworky woman would become friends and bring change into each other's lives. And the young orphan girl would find a secret place on the ranch in an apple tree that would bring magic into her life. She had some good names for them too. Hope she will write it, but even if she doesn't I like the form of the idea and was a lovely thing to wake up to.
Since I came back from writers' retreat I've managed to do a bit of writing every 2 or 3 days, hope I can keep that up.

Sunday  

was a loungy slobby day with a bit of Mah Jong and Smallville and stuff.

Monday  

was dentist's check-up appointments for all of us and poor poor F had to have a small filling, which was done there and then. Horrible shock for her as I always think she has done a good job with brushing so had been reassuring her that her teeth were OK - yes I felt crap for many reasons. Poor girl, it sounded painful, J was in with her. Very horrid. Since then she has made me watch her brushing and we think we can see where she wasn't getting enough done.

Afterwards we went to the coffee shop, can't remember what else, nor what we did back at home nor anything about Tuesday really. My memory is rubbish this week, think it's lack of sleep (hayfever started now). 

Wednesday  

F went to Forest School and had a really good session as they did some of the observational/finding/spotting stuff that she likes a lot, amongst other things. So she came home quite bouncy and also quite muddy and I chucked her in a bath for an hour before she went off again to drama (rearranged due to teacher having got an acting job for a few days in Prague). 

She had another lovely time at drama and came back and read me a poem, that she had been helped to annotate to indicate different emphases, inflections, tones and such. Was lovely for her to have Forest School and Drama on same day as she loves both. Very kind of her friend E's grandpa to give F a lift with E to both too.

Which meant I had quite a few hours to myself and managed to do 2 lots of The Awesome Beast (cross-trainer) adding up to 30 mins. I lurve that thang. I also did a tiny bit of writing and some washing up. And, clearly at least an hour or so's worth of faffing.

It was J's first day back at work after more than 2 weeks off, so we all felt a bit odd at times.

Today  

I took F to Livewires, where the theme was a charming Merrie England mix of Robin Hood and Marian plus May day traditions. Was a glorious sight to behold seeing 12 children of assorted heights, assorted awareness of what they were supposed to be doing and random levels of autonomy and intermittent desire to do it their own way all managing to dance rather charmingly around a Maypole and weave patterns with the ribbons, wearing bells on their feet or hands or heads and garlands of foliage and ribbon. Am really hoping somebody will share photos, should have taken some, it was just delicious. And rather reminiscent of what May day must have been like in little villages in days gone by, especially if the mead had been flowing all day and the folk were not to be druv.

Very different to my memory of Maypole dancing at school, extremely carefully regimented we skipped along upright and grinning artificially in our uniforms, with teachers clapping the beat and calling 'Out' and 'In' and 'Under' and 'Over'. Still rather liked it though, making the patterns in the sunshine. But today's version was a more gloriously free and beautiful thing by far.

F had a bit of a wobbly on the way to the session, she's adjusting to 'normal' after her dad being home and me being away, mostly she's been using a good strategy lately with those situations but today she got herself into a state and we had to sit down and talk it through for a bit. Once it was over though, she got on with things and joined in happily with the dancing and other fun stuff.

I left her there as she was going home with C and co. for a sleepover with E. Back home I've done 10 mins on the Beast (so far I've been on it at least once every day except while I was away) and a bit of washing-up, now preparing some work for tomorrow - came close to getting a nice big piece but got 3 small pieces instead, which at least is something.

Writers' retreat, J and F's Big Walk, Draw Me a Bird

Monday to Friday

I was away at writers' retreat (pics are here), having a wonderful time writing (and drinking and chatting) with the same people as last year - we all loved it so much last year we wanted to do it again and Nigel (very good friend for over 20 years) kindly organized it again. We stay in a castle in Dorset, writing exercises are set each day by N, writing is shared every evening and feedback given by everyone to everyone. We take it in turns to cook. Monday was travelling day and some sharing of writing in the evening, Tuesday settling in, first writing exercise and I was on cooking duty with LJ, Wednesday was a very peaceful day and I got quite a bit of extra writing and plotting done as well as having a long bath and chatting to LB, Thursday most of us walked to a cafe and back, Friday was packing and coming home day - I came home via a quick visit to an online friend, very special, lovely to see her in person as she is so often a great source of friendship and support to me. 

It was a great week, I cried, laughed, slept like a log and made progress on some writing I wanted to get on with. Lovely group of people to be creative with - inspirational and supportive - and the castle and setting is just idyllic, with a roaring log fire every evening, lots of little corners to sit and write in.

Meanwhile, back at home:

Monday F went to group with C and family, then back to their house for the afternoon.

Tuesday J and F got a train to Glynde and then walked back via Mt Caburn, which is a serious walk.  They finished up at Pizza Express, where so many mistakes were made with their food that they wouldn't accept payment from J in the end! We are fairly frequent customers there, so I guess it was good customer relations. A well-earned meal for them, am very impressed that they walked so far with such steep bits too.

Wednesday F went to Forest School in the morning.

Thursday F missed me a bit I think.

Friday J and F went into town and bought a book and went to the coffee shop.

J did such a great job of looking after F, I came back to a happy, calm and contented child.

Today I took F into Brighton to see Draw Me a Bird, which was a piece of dance theatre. She very much enjoyed it, I quite liked it. Afterwards we got the bus back all the way into Lewes and went to the coffee shop. Walked back via both parks, bumped into neighbours, nice local stuff. And then she had a bath and I cooked lasagne and roast potatoes and we all watched Doctor Who rather late.

Busy 8-day catch-up and let's treat ourselves to some random bolding shall we

OK Last Friday

- didn't do much, can't remember much except answering an American friend's questions about the monarchy as she was watching the wedding! I got drawn into watching a bit with her questions, and with people on my forum who were watching - though the discussion on my forum was fun, with a great range of attitudes to the whole thing and a lot of flippantness - can tell we're missing BB! F and J were both wisely completely disinterested and neither of them got up until it was mostly over anyway. F spent a good few hours playing Animal Crossing in bed I think.

I had a long bath at some point and I can't remember anything else

Saturday I went to my mum's to see how she's doing. She definitely has signs of dementia (vascular not Alzheimer's), which makes me feel very sad and rather dread the next few years for all of us. On the positive side, she is mostly happy and not distressed and still able to live at home at the moment and I will do everything I can to keep that possibility for as long as it's doable. Her memory is just shot. And it's surprising how memory plays a huge part in so much. So, for instance, one day she suddenly doesn't know how to operate her telly, but the next day she might. Overall though the number of forgotten things increases and very few new memories can be made, and ones that are are corrupted and misremembered.

And that's enough about that here.

My time at mum's was fine, we watched some soaps and ate a lot of nice food and I got very grumpy about being offered a cup of tea 8 times in 45 minutes - I am not tolerant of repetition, which is a great issue to have when spending time with someone with a memory problem, of course! However it was mostly fine.

Managed to fit in a coffee and chat with old friend J before catching the train, which was lovely, really lovely! Think we covered pretty much everything, although now of course I'm immediately thinking of other things that would have been great to talk about with her.

Train journeys were good both ways, did reading and looking at lovely sunny scenery out of window and thinking and not thinking, both of which are good.

Was lovely to get home to J and F, as it always is, I must love them or something!

We watched the new Doctor Who and then I had to work but they watched Voyage of the Dawn Treader and I half watched. Did loads of work Sunday night and Monday night, in order to have a few days off at same time as J (he has first two weeks of May off but I won't be there for the second one).

Monday J's dad came and we all went to Blackberry Farm, where the best bits were the jumping pillow, zip wire and biggish slides for F and lemon sorbet cones for me. I think my daughter might well end up thinking that jumping pillows are standard features of farm life.

Biting cold wind, despite beautiful sunshininess there. I prefer Spring Barn I think, the food was really a bit rubbish and didn't like the atmosphere of it somehow, something shoddy about some of it, but it would be quite different on a schoolday I think. They do do gentle pony rides there, which I think F might fancy another time.

Grandpa C was in a bit of a feisty mood with combative conversational gambits, unfortunately, so that coloured the afternoon a bit too.

Tuesday our cross trainer was delivered and J and I put it together, which was quite a job! Have used it at least twice most days since, it's great! This is it. I am starting gently with plenty of scope for making it harder. It's a Totally Awesome Beast!

Other Tuesday things were all homey and cosy and I had a long bath and enjoyed not working.

Wednesday F had Forest School in the morning and Chatterbooks in the afternoon and some time at home in between, playing Jet Set Go (time management Travel Agency game). J and I did a bit of shopping and had a quick coffee while she was at Chatterbooks. Didn't feel I'd had proper time with her. Bought some white material to make a Victorian apron for her workshop the next day. Stayed up till silly o'clock finishing it!

Thursday F was booked on a Victorian role-play workshop, organized by C on behalf of E and L. The premise was that the children (a dozen or so of them I think) were young servants applying for jobs in service at Preston Manor

It was splendid, the children all entered right into the spirit of it and concentrated massively. They did loads of different activities, can't remember all of them but there was: making ginger biscuits, squeezing oranges for marmalade, preparing apples for baking, churning milk (though didn't seem to be about butter, some controversy there); blacking a grate, making firelighters, polishing silver I think; beating rugs and other laundry tasks I can't remember. Sometimes there wasn't room for all the adults in the room where they were working, so there was opportunity for a bit of whispered chat among grown-ups now and then!

Afterwards we all spent some time in the grounds and then said our goodbyes. J and F and I went on to Terre a Terre and had a lovely earlyish dinner there. Came out and caught a bus with no waiting.

Today F had E over to play and they had a lovely few hours happily doing stuff with pocket pets and planning out their fictional world with a bit of mapping and discussion. F and I went into town, did a bit of shopping and then went to the fair. Unfortunately F was a bit tricky during the shopping part, and I suddenly felt exhausted by it all, so didn't have much energy left by the time we got to the fair. Did enjoy the bumper cars though as there was a bit of space to really whizz around. Got bruises from the bumps though. Ghost train was predictably rubbish. F also went on various non-ridey things like slides and bouncy things and also went on a couple of smaller rides. It was OK, but I wasn't in the best mood for it, you know?

Returned home very knackered but enjoyed a 10-minute session on the Totally Awesome Beast before curry, mmm.

Wednesday

We went out for most of the day - first into town to get cash out and buy picnic items and fruit for a friend we were visiting later. At the cash machine we bumped into local home-edder K on rollerblades, so he entertained us with some moves while we were in the queue.

Bought some pens in WHSmiths and went to Waitrose where we bought sandwiches and fruit and chocolate and crisps and drinks and caught the bus over to Brighton.

Lots of bus ed conversations - hmm what did we talk about? I know some of it was about animals, reproduction, what different animals do about looking after their babies/eggs, wish I could remember more. Talked about various sea animals, clownfish, sea horses, others.

Changed buses in Brighton and got the 5B over to Hove Park where we met up with L and C and families. Had a lovely couple of hours there, especially once the sun came out. 

F and I left earlier than the others to go and see E and her daughter L - F had wanted a playdate of some sort with L and after much e-mail debate E and I had decided this was the best way to achieve that right now. We took some lemon drizzle cake from Hove Park cafe and headed over to E's. Had a lovely 3 hours there, was wonderful to have time with E, chatting outside in the sunshine while the girls made a magazine and had ice-cream. It's a complete privilege to know E and even more so to be allowed to steal some of her precious remaining time for a bit of a gossip and a ramble. Wonderful person. Not fair. Hmph. 

It was lovely that the girls enjoyed playing and L might come for a sleepover sometime too.

Very harmonious day between me and F - had a total of 6 bus journeys and all were completely pleasant and chatty. 

Today we started a 3000 piece jigsaw - I love jigsaws and haven't had many opportunities to do them since having F. This is a lovely underwater scene and huge. Not having a table, we're doing it on a roll-up thing, which I really hope will work as we have no space for leaving a jigsaw out, sadly.

I also checked out and joined this. Love this idea - my main problem with chores, personally, is that the reward of things looking and feeling better/cleaner is not cumulative. So you just get things from a negative state to a neutral state but then they will just go negative again. Bit like trains can never be early, only be on time. But this is an amusing way of giving a cumulative reward, and surprises along the way, for the boring repetitive chores. Love it! Still setting it up at moment...

Today also F and I planted some wildflower seeds in pots in the front garden by our living room window. They are supposedly species that will be attractive to butterflies. Hope they will grow. If they do I might be tempted to do some veggies, after last off-putting experience with things that got eaten by slugs/snails.

Also F watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and played some Animal Crossing, she is doing a lot of building up museum exhibits at the moment.

I had to spend substantial parts of the long weekend working, unfortunately, but we still fitted in some Mahjong and the now-traditional cryptic clued hunt for F to do to find her Easter egg. 

F went in the paddling pool quite a bit, though it has a slow leak due to a slide having been put in it a bit recklessly!

F also played some Professor Layton with J and also played co-op in Portal 2 with him on the XBox (I think!). Also she and I have been playing a bit of Animal Crossing here and there.

Can't remember what else, it's a blur. I decided it was the perfect weekend for J and I to watch the Planet of the Apes films, and we've managed 4 with only the very awful Battle for the Planet of the Apes left to do. I really enjoyed watching them and discussing them, despite or because of them being mostly shite!

F helped J cook yesterday, so she did some chopping and seasoning and stirring I think. Today she and I did some tie-dying/painting with dye on some white leggings I'd got for her, and an old shirt of mine.

 

Also I did DIY! With a power drill! I put up a peg rail in the hall, to try and sort the space by the door which just gets full of my bags and rucksacks as well as shoes. Have hung bags and rucksacks on it and it's coped so far!

Zip wires and Livewires with lots of pictures

First filling in the missed Saturday:

F and I walked into town - bumped into Dani Greenhouse on the way, with L. In town we picked up her glasses, bought some clothes, spent a couple of hours in the coffee shop with books. Think when we got home I had a bath and then we watched "the owl film" (Legend of the Guardians?), which we all had very low expectations of so were all able to be pleasantly surprised and find some aspect of it that was enjoyable. Did keep having a strange mind thing of going 'but why owls?' but enjoyed the basic story of attempted fascism vanquished by motley gang of heroes. And beautiful animation. (but why owls?).

Sunday I did blog - poetry mainly and lots of sitting in garden time. 

Which brings us to Monday when we went up to Spring Barn with J's mum and met up with C and co. Had a very lovely afternoon there, perfect weather and although it was busier than term time, it was still easy for the kids to do everything they wanted with no queuing. Grandma J went on the bouncing pillow and the zip wire. I had plenty of chatting time with C, which is always good. F, E and M (and sometimes D) went on pillow, go-karts, zip wire and the slides, swings, etc. J also went on the zip wire and so did C. I was norty and didn't. F managed to do zip wire standing up, which was a New Achievement! J hadn't seen her do so well on the go-karts before either so that was nice for him to see how she'd got the hang of it with pedalling.

I had only had 1 hour's sleep but didn't feel tired until the evening at all. Work has continued to be fairly crazy, and I've said 'yes' to a bit too much, but for all I know May will be completely different so it feels safer to keep going right now...

Tuesday and Wednesday I worked a lot and F was very good and I really can't remember anything about those days, which is crap. Think F played DS, watched films, chatted and snuggled now and then. I know we talked a lot about pumps because ours had gone missing and it should have been paddling pool weather, so we did a lot of looking at things that might work instead and trying to join things to other things in very Heath Robinson ways.

Thursday we headed off to Livewires (monthly group with a theme and parents bring activities and resources) for a Romans themed session. We made every effort to get there on time - I hate having to wake up to alarm - but the bus sailed past us 3 minutes early as we reached the top of the hill. At which I got very cross and really struggled with letting go of being cross - which is a thing I'm always trying to get F to do. So for the next half hour whilst waiting for the next one I found myself in a bit of a cycle of saying 'bloody buses, honestly, 3 minutes early' and then going 'no but I'm not going to go on about it' to try to set a good example. Then I'd forget again and get cross and go on about it, especially as far too many other buses that were no use to us went by and shouldn't have even been there. Quite funny because I hadn't spotted how bad I am at that - and obviously that must be partly why F does it too. Her anger is louder/more violent though because she doesn't swear. A good swear brings my level of anger down pretty fast, or a nice volley of sarcasm or heavy irony.

Eventually the next 29 came along and we got on and I started to 'do my homework on the bus'. I had committed to doing a Centurion helmet making activity and had been provided with a link to some instructions, which I was adapting a bit, using gold card and pipe cleaners. So having been in work work work mode, I did all my cutting out on the bus! *tuts at self* 

So we were half an hour late but hadn't missed anything, set my table and activity up and B talked to the children about a day in the life of a Roman citizen and soon had them putting on togas and making offerings at the household shrine.

After that I was completely besieged by children wanting to do my activity and just about managed to keep up with helping those that needed help, though I think a couple wandered off and came back. It went really well, I really enjoyed it, the energy that kids bring to something when they're keen is always very uplifting. 

Obviously having thousands of red pipe cleaners would have brought a greater degree of authenticity but I think the home ed creativity angle came in with the kids choosing their own colours and being able to add that personal touch! They were like hippy centurions dude...

All my card and pipe cleaners got used up and everyone that wanted one did one, so I was very pleased.

Other activities included: making mosaics; making bullas; making bread, crushing garlic in oil, eating the bread dipped in the oil; Roman use of herbs, medicinal and cooking; playing with a miniature ballista and building block city walls. It was a fab session, very active and engaging, the kids just soaked up bits of knowledge whilst having a great time running around in their togas.

Really liking Livewires very much right now. Think B particularly has brought so much energy to it, it's infectious!

F painted my face at the end of the session - was hoping she would just do a flower but she kept coming at me with a wayward brush that I just couldn't cope with, so we had a small skirmish about it, then she did a kind of rainbow flower on my forehead, which was fine, in fact I still have one red eyebrow and one blue.
She had beautiful daisies and foliage done by B, very pretty!


We then headed home and did battle with the paddling pool ready for E to come for sleepover - am going to change to calling her L actually as she prefers that - realized our hose connector/adaptor thing had lost its washer and had to ask C to whizz me over to Homebase, picked up another one and eventually had a cleanish paddling pool being used by F and L with slide (which today we find has inevitably made hole in pool bottom, oh well...). 
As well as going in the pool, F and L did a bit of playing with pocket animal toys, lots of Animal Crossing on DS, watching film and The Simpsons and making and eating puff pastry tart things, putting on whatever they fancied. This included such zany combinations as 'cheese and custard' and 'carrot and pineapple' - was pleased they managed to eat all of them and they very much enjoyed cutting out the shapes and choosing bits to put on.

They looked a lot messier than this when they came out, but yummy. They also had garlic bread.
J and I had curry and after we'd all eaten we played Pictionary as is traditional when L sleeps over. J and I won, as is also pretty much traditional. Some tricky ones!
The girls went up about 10ish and watched a film on F's laptop, had a midnight feast at midnight and were still awake and getting a bit noisy at half past one! So I went and asked them to lie down, which F was not happy about, though it turned out she was more worried that I was angry. I wasn't, just wanted them to get some sleep and not be overtired.


This morning they got up about half nine I think, I came down half ten and did croissants for their breakfast and they played a lot of Animal Crossing on DS again and are now in pool (punctured but slow leak!) for their last couple of hours together, playing with pocket animals in boats (tupperware boxes).
Having a non-working day today but will have to work at least some hours each day over the weekend as have fiddly Russian to do. Have planned with J to watch Planet of the Apes films in the evenings!