“I’m in Aberdeen tomorrow” he said casually, as we drove home from the station. Nothing unusual about that – sometimes he’s working in Aberdeen several days a week.
“Oh,” I said, “what time will you be back?”
“Usual time. Maybe a bit later. I’m on the 4pm train.”
“What! We’re booked for 7pm. Don’t say you’ve forgotten.”
“Oh… Perhaps Continue reading
January 4th 2010
Dr Foster went to Gloucester in a shower of rain…
Torrential rain, snow, blizzards. It must be spring. The snow has only just melted Continue reading
(You thought I’d forgotten, didn’t you?)
“Midnight? Midnight? It’s Christmas Eve for goodness sake.” It was just as well it wasn’t me on the phone to the AA as it was at this point I suffered a sense of humour blackout. “There are a lot of people having a far worse Christmas than this” I kept muttering to myself.
“Very sorry sir, but there are some people who’ve already been waiting almost 8 hours.”
“We’ve already been waiting 8 hours. You want us to wait another 8?”
I buy more coffee and some peanuts, the only gluten-free food available. Despite the fact that we’ve been almost the only customers all day, the lady in the cafe still doesn’t acknowledge us. Meanwhile GPD phones our best hope of rescue, but they’re already in Blackpool for Christmas. Or Bolton or somewhere starting with a B off the M6. We knew it was a long shot.
We debate trying to get the car back onto the motorway, to bump ourselves back up the priority list. Unfortunately, though, we figure that might result in a priority ride to A&E so abandon that plan.
Harthill’s only saving grace is the free WiFi. Continue reading
Things were easy when the boys were small. Birthday parties maybe involved booking the swimming pool or local bouncy castle for an hour or so, a few sandwiches and crispie cakes, grapes for the health conscious and a party bag or two. We went through taking a few friends to the pictures and then it all went quiet for a while before we got to paintballing.
So, this year… “Mu-um?” “Yes?” (note the nervous upward inflexion).
“Can we have a few friends in? And will you go out for the evening? Maybe you could stay out overnight?”
What?
“How many friends? Who? And there’s no way we’re staying out overnight.”
We hummed and haahed. We prevaricated. Continue reading
On the first day of Christmas my 3 boys gave to me…
…a basketful of dirty laundry.
So that would be GP1, GP2 and GPD.
It became a basketful or more after I collected 3 wet towels from one bedroom floor and 4 from another then went into the bathroom and threw a wobbly at the pile of clothes on the floor. I collected it all, dumped it in the sitting room, and proclaimed that henceforth any clothes I picked off the floor would go into a bin bag and then the bin. And I wouldn’t be the one replacing them. It worked for a while…
On the 2nd day of Christmas my 3 boys gave to me…
…two piles of ironing and a basketful of dirty laundry.
Nothing new there, then.
On the 3rd day of Christmas my 3 boys gave to me…
…3am vomiting*, two piles of ironing and a basketful of dirty laundry.
*Poetic license. It was only 1 boy – GP2. Too much chocolate rather than alcohol we think hope. Murphy’s Law, according to the Guardian, states Continue reading
That’s not my age, despite all evidence to the contrary. This is my 200th post and, in recognition, I thought it should be a momentous one.
I am going to get my hair cut tomorrow.
Regular readers will understand that this is truly momentous, enough to keep all those slow posts-in-waiting smouldering a little longer behind the scenes. Other readers I will refer here and here.
…Christmas. I’ve just finished the Christmas cake. Sob. I suppose I could make a Rest-of-the-Year Cake but I probably won’t get around to it. So I thought I’d jot down a few things I like about Christmas for a soppily sentimental and very unseasonal post. Just when you thought it was all over for another year…
This is going to be a very selfish, mean-spirited, churlish, curmudgeonly, whingeing and Grumpy Old Woman sort of post. There. You’ve been warned. For more enlightened, friendly, positive, cheerful reading you could try some of the links on my blogroll instead. Iota’s started posting again about life in the States and she’s always entertaining and currently much more enthusiastic than me. Or there’s Reluctant Memsahib who writes about homeschooling, schooling of the boarding variety but mainly day to day living in the Tanzanian outback. And you could try Potty Mummy, Mother at Large and Pig in the Kitchen for general entertainment and cooking tips. Oh, and I nearly forgot Fidra books who are offering to give away books to schools. I hope you’ve all gone now so I can complain in peace.
Well, brother-in-law got engaged at Christmas. Good news! Exciting news, even, as his fiancee only appeared on the scene in September; Mother-in-law had, I think, secretly started to give up hope of any more grandchildren and suddenly hope came galloping into our Christmas celebrations. Sister-in-law to be, who keeps Continue reading
Just to continue a theme that seems to have developed over the past few posts. It is simply not fair that your older brother has his birthday six days before yours. Particularly when you’re the one who gets really excited about these things, and you’ve been counting down the days for weeks. Those six days of anticipation are sheer torture and it becomes so difficult to sit still and concentrate on anything! It’s the same every year of course and I do hope that the excitement continues for a few more years.
Once the birthday and its inevitable anticlimax is over we’ll be counting the days to Halloween and planning guising costumes, then the days until Christmas. It’s a good thing there’s always something to look forward to!
