Categories: uncategorized
Date: 23 April 2008 20:30:14
Well, would you believe it, April crept up on me without warning and has almost flown by without so much as a by-your-leave. If you've been noticing my absence (OK, so it was only Ian who did, but thank you Ian for boosting my beleaguered morale!) then I should explain that my reasons for not blogging were twofold - partly because I was so unbelievably busy that I just haven't had time to wiggle my fingers over the keyboard and partly because my computer, the one which was beginning to look somewhat sickly, has gradually declined until finally reaching a fairly terminal state. I am now frantically trying to keep my cool as a struggle to transfer all my settings (the procedure for doing so seemed so straightforward until I got to the final stages!) and set up my email (after many years relying on my computer to remember my password for my email, I'm now scuppered as I haven't the foggiest idea what it was!) and all my much-used programmes (OK, so where on earth did I put the Publisher disc? I NEED it NOW!) so that I can dismantle the old fogey still perched on my computer desk and replace it with my bright shiny new baby.
To Smudgelet's delight, I even splashed out and bought a laptop too, seeing as they had a really special offer on. It's got a built-in webcam and microphone (Not sure my sister will be amused as she bought one when they first came in... for about £800.... while this was under £300 with a free bag and a year's interest free credit.) so we have been playing around with skype as well. I'm hoping we'll be able to talk to my nephew in the Cayman Islands and maybe even see my great-nieces from time to time before they're grown up beyond all recognition.
Recent delights: The Wightmeet went fairly well, I think.
We went up to spend the following five days with my sister, which was great fun. We took the boys bowling and were rather delighted to win one game each, leaving the ten-year-old and more especially the fifteen-year-old seriously lacking in street cred... which I rubbed in by beating my fifteen-year-old at pool. Mwahahahaha! We took them to Waterworld and, deciding against paying £5 each to go in and spectate!!!!, my sister and I sat reluctantly in the cafe, drinking coffee, chatting, and reading our books ;o)
Then the boys and I relocated to Morley for the St Pixels weekend which was marvellous fun and very relaxing too, to say nothing of refreshing the spirit. Our fifteen minutes of fame is yet to come... the first two days were filmed for TV.
One more week of holidays saw me finally losing my marbles and allowing both boys to have a friend to stay. So I was surrounded. Two teenagers, two ten-year-olds, (boys, the lot of 'em, and with the smelly socks to match!), one tomcat, one male gerbil and two tiny male minnows. It proved a fun but rather exhausting and expensive exercise - whoever would have believed that two teenagers would find it so difficult to amuse themselves without causing expense??? I even had to buy a new bike, as Tiddles has had yet another growth spurt and looked rather ridiculous having to raise his head to avoid his kneecaps going up his nostrils as he pedalled.
Back to work on Monday for all of two lessons. The rest of Monday's lessons and all of Tuesdays were taken by someone else as I had the most expensive and time consuming Parents' Evening to attend. Tiddles and I left Smudgelet staying overnight with Honorary Auntie M while we caught the 11am ferry and sped... hmmm, would have sped, had the other traffic cooperated.... across the British countryside to arrive at Tiddles' school just in time for our first appointment at 3.30pm... and that was without stopping for lunch! The meetings went fairly well - he's settled and cooperative and, apparently, a pleasure to teach, but he's going to fail all his exams unless he pulls his finger out and starts doing some work! Still, the way I look at it, he's in school and he's happy and he's safe. The qualifications can always come later if need be. Nevertheless, he had a good old lecture, of course.
Now, should I book into a Travelodge overnight or should I drive home at 5.30pm? Hmmm... a Travelodge is expensive when there's just the one of you, so maybe Laterooms on the internet can help. What do you reckon? A five star guest house right in the vicinity of the school, for £42 for the night, including breakfast? That'll do nicely, thank you very much. It was the perfect end to a tiring day, especially as I was the only guest! The room had TV and radio, WIFI (bother, forgot the lead for my laptop), lovely en suite, complementary sherry and chocolates, biscuits, teas and coffees of every shape and form, including a little cafetiere and "real" coffee with fresh milk. And you should have tasted the breakfast. Oooooooooh, a real treat. What a come down to return to mountains of washing (four boys' worth!), dirty dishes (we left in a hurry), an empty fridge (four boys' worth!), and SCHOOL!