just another morning here

Sometimes I just can’t be bothered with twitter, the moment has passed, or I know I won’t be able to fit my sentence into 140 characters so it’s just not worth trying. Or I decide it’s just not worth wasting a text over whatever random thought I had. So here’s a collection of things I might have said this week had I got around to it.

Yesterday
Lots of people at work in a hoo-ha about the strike. I have sent off my unison application form so will be joining in with whatever strike action ends up happening.

Feet feeling very vulnerable today as I’m wearing flipflops at work, unusually. This is due to having driven not cycled because of leaving early for violin exam, and knowing that Tuesday mornings are swimming sessions. Still, it leaves toes at risk of all sorts of accidents!

Lady at Miscarriage Support Group brought in all her Fimo craft stuff to show me. She makes some lovely jewellery pieces and has offered to do a workshop for me and the girls over the summer if we can organise ourselves.

Today
Woo hoo, today is our last proper Wednesday of the term - next week we’re at the Donkey Sanctuary and the week after we’re on strike, then the Wednesday after that is the first day of the holidays!

Steve brought home the industrial carpet cleaner from work, thank goodness, the kids’ bathroom was beginning to smell like an old people’s home.

Breathed a sigh of relief to go back to Suzuki violin after a month of solid exam preparation - started book 3 tonight which was fab. Playing mainly by ear is so much easier than anything else!

I find Wimbledon so boring. Can’t decide which is worse, watching Wimbledon or watching Steve race virtual cars around virtual tracks. Not to mention listening to random Italians on PS3 headsets talking to one another throughout the race

The last orchestra rehearsal of the year was on Saturday; we have concerts next weekend and then that’s it until September. After orchestra all the kids went to the cinema to see Prince Caspian, in various combinations. Abbie and Joe went first, with a friend from orchestra who also lives round the corner so we share transport occasionally, then after the chamber rehearsal Anna went to join some school friends who were at the cinema for a birthday party. It did feel something of a milestone to leave my youngest two children at the cinema on their own - I then had a couple of hours all to myself, which was very nice

Home then to clean out guinea pigs, get some washing done, and generally relax for the evening.

On Sunday we didn’t have a morning church meeting so got a welcome lie in. Steve went off to work to catch up on some paperwork, dropping the rest of us in town. Bagged a new geocache at the station, then shopped a bit before meeting Steve and coming home for lunch. Then in the afternoon we had our piano teacher’s end of term concert to go to, followed by a late afternoon outdoor joint church meeting including a BBQ tea. Both those events happened at the kids’ school, which was good as I didn’t have to drive anywhere!

Only a few weeks left until the end of term now - and counting, I need a proper holiday, a weekend just isn’t long enough!

Steve had to answer a tie break question today, which was:

What song best represents your driving style?

Answers in a comments box below, please … and then I’ll tell you what I said. Not sure it would win the competition though! You can do what song best represents Steve’s driving style and then another song for your own driving style if you like, as I suspect they might be different

And so another week rushes by. Lots of coughs and sneezes here this week as well as our fair share of sore throats. Oh, and a near-death experience of flu for the man among us, obviously a mere cold isn’t good enough for him

On Tuesday Abigail had a special trip up to an event at the University; from what I gather it was a Devon County event for schools to do with generally being green and environmental issues. [yes, I am informed - a Travelwise Schools' Event.] She and three other friends from their school Environmental Group got to go - lunch was laid on, so that was a treat. She enjoyed herself so much that she forgot to come home after school and visited the book fair instead, spending someone else’s money in the process!

Needless to say, Come Straight Home Unless We Have Arranged Otherwise has been added to the ever evolving list of after school ‘guidelines’ for the kids, along with Don’t Light Candles Unless An Adult Is There, and Raiding Of The Snack Box Prohibited Until Mummy Gets Home. I have been somewhat surprised at the mischief that can happen in the 10 minutes between when they get home and when I get home!

All of this week Anna has been madly doing last minute rehearsals for her Year 6 Play - Roger Ravenbeard, Scourge of the Oceans. Performances began with dress rehearsals in front of other classes on Wednesday, then they had two real performances on Thursday, and the final one on Friday night. Anna was playing Mrs Ravenbeard, Roger’s mother, and was on stage almost all the time. She did really well and we enjoyed watching the final performance, not to mention the takeaway with Grandma and Grandpa afterwards.

Not much to report on Josiah I don’t think … still working hard on music exam stuff, and he received multiple compliments from his accompanist at our rehearsal on Wednesday, so that was encouraging.
Steve and I not up to much other than work either; he’s been working on Gran Turismo racing and not improving all that much.
I’ve been trying to keep up with housework (constant battle! think I’ve caught up a bit tis week but it won’t last long!), and attempting to fit the odd cache in here and there.

A weekend of following this cello girl around, as she has another concert tomorrow as well! Today’s was fun; after the usual Children’s Orchestra practice, when we went home, the Youth Orchestra jumped on a coach together and went down to Exmouth for a performance in Manor Gardens, at what is apparently known as their ‘performance stage’, although it looks more like an upmarket bandstand to me!

It was slightly drizzly at first, but having cancelled the concert last week it went ahead today anyway. Abbie, Joe and I had picked up Aunty Esther along the way, taken her home for lunch, and then took her out to Exmouth and subjected her to the concert as well

We armed ourselves with details of a few local geocaches to find; glad we did, as it kept us moving until the sun came out. Did a couple of micros, then the last one was a tiny magnetic nano, very well camouflaged to look like a bolt head, it took me far too long to find it despite the fact that I was looking in exactly the right place! Afterwards, the sun finally appeared, so we bought ice creams and sat in the park for the rest of the concert.

The tv and broadband were both down at home today - the first of which didn’t bother me at all but the second was awful! TV came back on just in time for Dr Who, which pleased the children, and the internet finally back on at around 11.30pm.

After school today Josiah had a birthday party to go to, and Anna had a cello lesson, so I dropped them both off in quick succession and went for a walk with Abbie. Had in mind to find a geocache which I knew was relatively near the party Josiah was at - turned out to be literally just down the road!

Anyway we had a nice walk together, the find was easy and unearthing the cache itself was fun too, because of the way it was hidden - a huge crate full of micros, all with little notes in them! I let Abbie hunt through about half of them before suggesting that the crate might have a false bottom There was a veritable treasure trove when we finally got there, Abbie was chuffed with a cuddly little leopard travel bug that she took out, in exchange for a Disney Hotel soap (I knew those would come in handy!). Walked back and got ice creams on the way, well it was very hot and it was just the two of us, what more of an excuse did we need?!

Picked Joe up from his party at 6ish, Steve had collected Anna from cello a bit earlier. We have had a manic evening since, with Steve going out to work again between 6.30 and 8pm, a gardener coming round (sad I know but I just don’t enjoy it enough to spend the little spare time I do have these days on gardening, I’d rather pay someone else to do it), making pasties with the kids, eating them, and trying to track Merry’s movements down the country! Looking forward to spending what is left of the evening with her whenever she finally gets here

A bit of a DNF weekend. Well, Steve and I started off well by going back to a cache I’d given up on during half term (ran out of time) and found it, on a nice walk by ourselves while the children were at their kids’ club. Strange looking photo I know - I was blue to start with, for some bizarre reason Steve’s phone went loopy while taking a picture. I kind of like it though! After this success, the rest of the caching weekend wasn’t so great.

The children all had orchestra on Saturday morning, and while I stayed there as well for a committee meeting, Steve and his mum went shopping for Joe’s birthday present.

We’d thought we’d go out for a geocache/walk in the afternoon but then it started raining, those really heavy wet showers. So we did a cache hunt which was a drive through Devon lanes one; found all the clues easily enough but then didn’t manage to locate the last cache, and the Grand Prix qualifying was about to start, so we gave up on that one. Of course the sun came out too, which made me cross that we’d gone out in the car instead of walking! Bought icecreams when we got home and had a late dinner after Dr Who.

Steve discovered this GT competition which he fondly imagines he has a chance of winning. He spent the rest of the evening going from the top thousand to the top two hundred times, and making me completely and utterly sick of the sound of computer game car engines. I personally think the competition has been sponsored by the manufacturers of the latest PS3 Steering Wheel … place your bets how long it will be before he buys one, ladies and gentlemen.

Today Steve went off drag racing, the girls went off to a craft fair with Ruth, Caitlin and Riona, leaving Josiah and I to go to church. Afterwards we decided against drag racing spectating; instead we went to the church ‘Open House Lunch’ at our friends’ house, and then went out for another walk/multicache hunt in the afternoon with a few friends. Arrived at the first co-ords and couldn’t find the first micro, so had to abort the whole thing as obviously we couldn’t find the clue for the next step along the way! Ah well. I guess this gives us plenty to work on, I have a clue for the location of the first one now so we’ll go back sometime and hope for success another day.

The girls had a fantastic time at the craft fair and came back with loads of bits that they’d made in the children’s craft tent, as well as random stuff they’d spent money on Many thanks to Ruth for taking them. I really wanted to go too but was on the creche rota so I couldn’t!

Watching the Grand Prix now and doing all the usual Sunday evening stuff (ie madly folding uniform which is still hanging on the washing line!), and catching up with housework that I’ve procrastinated over all weekend. Although that could probably wait until tomorrow … !