just another morning here

Josiah has every right to feel proud of himself and utterly exhausted this weekend. In fact I think he’s so tired that he can’t manage to admit he’s pleased with himself yet, but I hope he will, tomorrow perhaps!

We had a really busy weekend full of musical stuff, and a night with friends on top! First came the strings workshop at orchestra, which this week was fine, Joe just joined in with no problems, and seemed to really enjoy himself this time, thank goodness. Simply a case of knowing what something is going to be like, and he’s ok. After sticking around on duty while EYO had their rehearsal as well, we got home around 1.30pm, and only had an hour for lunch before we needed to turn around and leave for Josiah’s Suzuki Group lesson.

So, the afternoon was pretty much filled up with that (3 - 5pm). Joe enjoys these lessons as well, they’re really fun, but he works hard during them too - lots of practice for the next day’s concert.

Home for a quick tea, a very brief catchup with Uncle Marky who appeared to stay the night in our house while we were away, having brought my sister back to university - still sorry we couldn’t see more of him but hey ho. We got to the Portico around 9pm and had a lovely evening catching up.

This morning some of us went out to walk Dylan (and find caches ) while others of us lazed around the house. It was a beautiful morning for a walk … and the kids enjoyed just hanging around together too, an added bonus in an otherwise fairly manic weekend! We left there late morning and dropped Anna with another friend in Reading, then drove into London for Josiah’s graduation concert. Typically Steve managed to find a free parking space just around the corner from the concert hall!

The Suzuki system doesn’t have exams, instead you ‘graduate‘ from a book/level when you are ready, and this involves making a recording of a particular piece which is sent off for adjudication, then comments are sent back to the teacher.

Joe did this recording back in the summer, so would have graduated anyway, the concert was just an ‘icing on the cake’ thing, and we decided to go and take part this time round. We’d been to watch something similar a couple of years ago, so had an idea of what to expect, but it was still fairly nerve-racking for Josiah. His jitters got the better of him during the rehearsal, but he did manage to go and stand up on the edge of the stage with his teacher, behind a curtain so no-one could see him! After that though (and an ice cream break ), he knew what the expectations were, and was absolutely fine and happy to go and sit with the rest of his group for the proper performance.

The concert itself was good, and needless to say I was exceedingly proud of Josiah for managing to take part Video may follow tomorrow but it’s too late to faff around with it now.

Drove out of London appreciating lots of nice houses - the benefit of not being on the underground! Picked Anna up and carried on to Cribb’s Causeway before stopping for dinner, and then got home really late, and everyone went straight to bed. Another suzuki friend here told me they weren’t going because it was too much of a late night on a Sunday (having been in previous years) and I can see why, I imagine it will have a knock on effect tomorrow, but hey ho, you only live once.

Beautiful weather, time with family, and some geocaches to boot. All housework done yesterday so today was free for us to enjoy. The kids and I went to church, while Steve attempted some invoicing at the workshop but after an hour with customers, then he ran out of paper, so he didn’t get very far!

After lunch we went out for an exceedingly muddy but fun walk ourselves, then ended up at the grandparents’ along with Em, Robyn & Lola. Steve and our kids stayed there while I took everyone else out on another walk and found a few more caches - Robyn loved the treasure hunting - one of these days I will have to take her to a bigger cache with proper treasure in it! We stayed for tea afterwards, and then a film while Steve de-virused all the PCs in the house. Fab day, and I feel like we had a productive and enjoyable weekend all round

Now I must fold the washing otherwise no-one will have any school clothes to wear tomorrow!

Some more smiley faces on my map, and it all happened spontaneously which was fab
Joe was at his friend’s house, Anna was on the way to hers, when my friend rang up and decided to come over for some caching. Abbie moaned and groaned about it, desperately ringing round her friends to see which ones were in, but didn’t find any - then the minute before we left her friend rang and invited her over as well!

So I had a happy couple of child-free hours to walk and hunt. We picked Josiah up and did one more cache on the way back, which is why he’s in one of the photos too! Especially pleased with the cache where I’m in the photo - firstly it was a satisfying puzzle to solve, and then it was a cool cache hide as well

Steve won his class at Wiscombe hillclimb again today (no Cosworth, yawn), while his dad was doing the honours for us at the Guildhall Motor Show, which we did last year and it was good enough for us to want to repeat the experience this year as well. Steve and I will be there tomorrow so if you read this and you’re in town during the day, then pop and see us.

Been at Crealy all day. Wondering how I can feel so tired having essentially not really done very much! Nice that Adam & Emma, Robyn & Lola came out as well - Adam is off to Afghanistan on Wednesday, for six months.

Managed a quick cache on the way home. Steve got home shortly after us, having had an ok day hillclimbing; another 2nd place trophy to find space for on the shelf (yes the Cosworth was there again). Then we had dinner and an early night for all the children. I think I will be following very shortly!

But we got out for a bonus cache in the rain at Stover Country Park this afternoon. Pretty disappointing really, only a micro/small with no swaps in it despite having to find clues for co-ords and it being hidden in the children’s play section where it could easily have been bigger, but never mind. I am now the happy owner of a free-from-Millets Garmin Geocoin so that’s my excitement for the day - my caching friend picked one up for me in Torquay this morning I must pop into town here too and see if they have any.

Anyway. Orchestra has started again for the year so we were there all morning. The ’season opener’ fun day is tomorrow, which means we all get into Crealy for free, in exchange for a couple of sets there! Should be fun.

Anna has an orchestra friend who, over the summer, has moved up to Reading, and she’s come down for the rehearsal today and Crealy tomorrow so we have her staying the night so probably no sleep tonight, but there we go. I like this particular friend a lot so I don’t mind They are currently fimo-ing while I’m playing San Juan with the other two (payoff for having been dragged out for a geocache!).

So it’s back to school, and back to sporadic blog posts! Had to hit the ground running when we got home from France last week, so we’ve been busy …

Since last weekend I have managed to do all the holiday washing, not only the clothes but all the sheets and sleeping bags from the caravan as well. I must admit that this was helped by coming home to empty washing baskets rather than the half-full ones I had left, that was one of the benefits of having my parents staying in our house while we were away, thank you Lorraine!

Last Saturday we didn’t manage to get much sorting out done - instead we all went out to visit Grandma, and Steve and Josiah went into town and then out looking at cars to buy for the garage. The girls and I enjoyed our friend Maria’s hen party - Anna and Abbie came to the afternoon ‘tea party’ and then I dropped them home before going out in the evening as well.

On Sunday Steve had to work as he had invoices that had to be done before the end of the month, so we dropped him (and our bikes) down to the workshop for the day. My day was spent organising - menu and food shopping, and tidying up all the debris left in the hallway from the holiday!

Monday was my last full day off before going back to work. I had thought that I’d need to do the last minute school shoe buying with the kids but then Steve offered to do that on Tuesday when a friend got in touch suggesting a day geocaching up and down the canal. That sounded infinitely preferable to me, and a nice way to end my holidays Anna arranged to go out for the day as she had a birthday party to go to, so Abbie, Josiah and I ended up doing 12 miles on our bikes, stopping for caches along the way.

Actually some of the caches were on the ‘not cyclable’ side of the canal, so we had to walk that part, pushing bikes through shoulder-height undergrowth - hard work! I was not allowed to moan and groan about all the bruises and nettle stings when I got home though, apparently ‘extreme terrain geocaching’ is an extreme sport undertaken at my own peril. Thankfully the kids had opted to stay on the proper cycle path side of the canal, they would never have made it!

Still, it was a fun day. We had drinks at pubs/cafes at both ends, and Steve helpfully picked our bikes up for us later on when he picked Anna up from Lush where she’d been for this party. Did you know Lush did birthday parties? I didn’t, and not sure what it cost per head - but it sounded fun and she came home with lots of goodies.

Tuesday was my first day back at school - no children until Thursday though. Had some time in the classroom and then some training on visual impairments which was interesting. So Steve had the kids and managed to survive Clarks shoe shop far better than I would have, emerging victorious with sensible school footwear all round. We realised that Anna had one more day off, so quickly arranged a day with Grandma for her on Wednesday. Piano lessons started after school, with a new piano teacher as our old one is having a baby soon, so we decided to make a change at the beginning of the term. Actually the teacher is not entirely new to us, she’s Anna’s cello teacher as well - all seemed to go well with lessons and best of all she forgot to bring the bill, so I have a reprieve on that!

The other two were back at school on Wednesday - now both in Key Stage 2 so that felt more grown up for Joe; waiting in the playground rather than going straight to his classroom, and lots of new things to boot. Josiah was a bit nervous about the changes, as he *really* hates not knowing what is going to happen, but he had a good day by all accounts, and now that he knows what to expect he’ll be fine. Both of them were happy to be back seeing friends and seem excited about the year ahead in their new classes.

I did some more interesting training yesterday, on the Optimusic system - we have a relatively basic system in school, on a trolley so that it can go to different rooms - just with a couple of light beams - but still plenty of possibilities. Some great programming uses for more able children as well as the easy switch operation making it accessible for children with additional needs. I liked it a lot, could see a lot of potential in it, but unfortunately I can’t see me ever really having time to use it properly so I’ll probably end up forgetting how to do it!

So today was the big day. Not only did I have children in my class, but Anna went off to high school. No big deal, she was all ready and had arranged to meet a friend half-way there to walk together.

Seems like it all went fine, she’s happy anyway, and that’s about all I’ve heard so far! Well, apparently she won a pen in English, for being the only person to remember a long list of something or other. Took her to her cello lesson afterwards and had to pay the dreaded bill - still at least there will only be one pupil concert to attend!

Not enough time to blog tonight, the light has gone and I still have to cycle back to the tent (paths are pretty dark on this campsite!) Photos are here with descriptions where appropriate, and this is pretty much all we got up to today, with breakfast first, a convoluted route to the Playmobil Funpark, picnic lunch somewhere in the middle, Versailles, and then dinner back at the tent. Kids then played in the woods with their friends while Steve and I came to the bar for coffee and internet fix, and they are all now watching a DVD in the van while I finish off here.