just another morning here

Abbie and I went with Exeter Children’s Orchestra to Crealy today. It was a nice day for it, and I think the kids had fun. It sounded ok too, considering that the majority of the brass section were away and that percussion were quite depleted as well.

A few people stood around watching and sound carried well from where we were – but mainly it was just fun for the orchestra members I had a chat with a couple of interested parents, and met someone around my age who’d been in the orchestra over 20 years ago!

Got a bit of work done while I was there, but still seem to have more to do this evening … in fact I am procrastinating by blogging

Meanwhile in other news, Anna was off at her first SWMS day, all on rhythm – she seems to have enjoyed herself, and Steve said the performance at the end of the day was ok. Josiah was singing morning and afternoon so he stayed at school all day – managing to get his clean trousers muddy in the process somehow so now I’m washing them for the second time this weekend

Steve did the food shopping and went to work to sell a car. Just trying to catch up and get ready for the week ahead now, as well as having another early night because we all need it.

Actually today seemed quite chilled out in comparison to some Saturdays. Joe left early for choir as usual but then the girls and I had an hour extra at home, since orchestra started later than usual – that was really nice Really gearing up for Russia now, which is quite exciting!

We had Josiah’s friend with us for the day so have had two boys and two girls – I’ve not had to remember names today, just used ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ when yelling at people Came home via Sainsbury’s for some essential stuff we’d forgotten (birthday present, pudding for shared tea tomorrow, etc!), and had lunch. The girls then got ready for Caitlin & Riona’s party at Decoy Park, which goes on into the evening.

Meanwhile the boys lazed around watching tv (I took Will out for a quick geocache too but Josiah didn’t want to come!), then eventually got ready to go back to school for their practice and tea before the evening’s concert.

Steve and I went for a quick look in the camera shop (always dangerous, we’re at our best when blowing money) then a bite to eat together – on our own Then we went back to the Cathedral for the concert. It was great, lots of blow-you-away choral stuff, re-creating the Coronation, with footage from the actual coronation on a screen behind the choir.

Just home, now I’m catching up on the last Gareth Malone that I missed in the week … I’d be in his mothers’ choir

So, this weekend:

We had a final meeting for those going on the Russia trip with the Exeter Children’s Orchestra. Over the past few weeks the magnitude of this undertaking has begun to sink in with me, and I am feeling rather anxious about being ‘in charge’ (not totally, thank goodness, but almost), I am beginning to pray daily that everything goes according to plan and no-one is sick, loses their passport, etc. etc.

The girls and I pootled around town while Josiah sang in the Cathedral on Saturday. We bought Steve a shirt for Father’s Day which amazingly he likes and it fits nicely (at least until I wash it), so that was a result

On Saturday night Josiah had a friend round for his birthday treat. We went up to do a nightcache (named RIP Nightcache) in Taunton. Had dinner en route, which was nice. Of course, being practically midsummer, it didn’t get dark at all until after 10pm so we managed a couple of extra caches before the night cache. The boys enjoyed finding it – Joe had new ‘nightvision’ goggles as a present from his friend – but as nightcaches go it’s not the best one we’ve done, since the trail was very short, only two markers. One of these days we will get round to setting a nightcache ourselves.

Anyway, after that we came home and had a late night viewing of Dr Who before the boys slept the night camped out in the garden. This morning they loafed around playing games which was nice In fact we all loafed around for most of the morning; the children went across to the park, and I cleaned the bathroom and cleaned out the fish, but that was about the extent of our activity.

Later on Josiah went out to sing evensong, and I got a bit of food ready – after evensong was the annual Dec vs Can cricket match and choristers’ party. Annual, though apparently it has been rained off over the past few years. Dec and Can are the names of the two sides that the choir sit on (Decani is the side of the cathedral where the Dean sits, and Cantoris is the side where the Cantor sits. I still get muddled up even after a year and never know which is which), so it’s a competitive game. Apparently Can have won the last few times but today Dec definitely had the victory – both in the boys’ cricket match and the girls’ rounders match. It was a lovely afternoon for it, so we enjoyed sitting out in the sun watching them play and chatting. The girls came too – Abbie went over to watch the rounders and played with a rather gorgeous puppy who was there, while Anna mainly helped look after the toddler belonging to the family cooking the BBQ. So, lots of food afterwards, then home for an early night before Monday morning comes round again, sigh.

Pick and Mix tea is what we have when we empty the contents of the fridge (and larder) onto the table and everyone takes what they want. Okay, not the entire contents, but you get the picture. Rules are that as long as we eat a sandwich/wrap/ricecakes and a piece of fruit then we can add pretty much what we want. The children think that this is a huge treat, so when I announced at the beginning of the week that it was going to be Pick and Mix for dinner every night it was met with huge excitement.

However, the reason for this is that we simply don’t have time this week to cook and sit down together, so I wasn’t quite so enamoured with the concept – not for a whole week! So if you want to be very bored hearing about the various reasons, read on …
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