Categories: uncategorized
Date: 02 March 2004 19:17:02
Never a dull moment here, you know!
It's been a good day, all things considered. The toilet cistern is working, and the boys now have no excuse for not having a proper wash as they have hot water in the bathroom too. I got to walk Smudgelet to school and accumulate a lovely collection of funny looks from passers by as the two of us proudly walked along, taking it in turns to make up mutually insulting verses for a nonsense song of our very own. Such a musical family!
I dropped Dad off at the hospital and was told they'd phone me at about 1pm when he was ready to be picked up. So I had three hours to squander in Newport. Yippee! A mini spending spree saw me buying six teaspoons, two plates with faces on, a Nemo swimming bag and a pair of wellies... oh, and the wrong jeans. I bumped into another friend I haven't seen in ages - one from my adoption support group - and we stood having a good old natter and mutual moan while her unbelievably sweet-looking foster child (not so sweet when awake) slumbered off in his pushchair.
Coffee and cakes in Thorntons was rather a pleasant diversion. I really should have complained. I mean, I said to the assistant that I really shouldn't have a caramel shortbread, and she went and put one on the tray. Being a meek and uncomplaining sort, I stoically ate it. I did, however, face the eternal dilemma of the single person in a cafe - by the time I'd got my coffee, all the tables had been bagsed by the "other half" of people behind me in the queue. I nearly had to go and sit in the toilet to find a seat! There must be a solution to this, which doesn't involve me hitting someone with my walking stick (mainly because I don't have one)
Lunch was also a really pleasant diversion. It was my first visit to Pizza Hut and won't be my last. And especially nice seeing as someone else was paying. The additional thing I will say in Pizza Hut's favour is that it seems to be out of range for my mobile phone. It wasn't until we walked out after our meal at 1pm that I found a series of calls from the hospital announcing that Dad had been ready for collection an hour early!
Once I'd fed Dad and got him off to bed feeling rather queasy (Him, not me, though I felt queasy at the mere thought of an operation on my eye under local anaesthetic!) the plan was to collect Smudgelet and take him swimming while Tiddles had his climbing lesson. It didn't quite work out that way. I only intended a quick nap, honest I did. It was when I woke two hours later with a Smudgelet sitting on top of me watching The Clangers and only ten minutes to go before I was due to collect Tiddles that I realised how tired I must have been after my late night last night.
Smudgelet is full of excitement as they are having a "Performing Arts Week" this week with all sorts of exciting things like puppets and circus skills and magic and drama. Today was circus skills and he was utterly delighted to tell me of his expertise at balancing a peacock feather on his nose and his chin and his finger. Knowing Smudgelet, I'd have expected him to be balancing it in his eye! But no, apparently he found it easy. I must get one of these peacock feathers, if only for the chance to see him in action. The downside of performing arts week is that he has had to learn to spell the word "audience".
Right, off now to make Dad have something to eat and to steal his new iron while he can't see me "borrowing" it!