Families - who'd have 'em?

We're up in London again, doing Xmas with my family. We were due here for lunchtime yesterday, but by the time we'd struggled out of bed after the Crazie party, tidied up, realised how really far behind with the washing I actually was, found enough clothes for everyone to pack, found a bag to pack everything in, re-arranged the car so that the kids could watch a dvd all together during the journey and actually got all three kids in the car it was 11.30, so we finally madew it here mid-afternoon.

They were all brats during the journey too - argued so much over the dvd that I turned it off after 10 mins, fought over the food, dropped drinks, complained of feeling sick, needed a wee, changed places, argued over who had more pillow, (but not actually slept at all) and generally tested our patience trhe whole way.

Once here, they were mostly OK. Cousin G (and sister S) came over for the afternoon, and they played nicely - and noisily! They ate supper well, then G went home and we tried to put them to bed. LMB was fairly annoying about it, but not loads more than normal, but LMD was having none of it. She screamed until I went and sat with her, then refused to go to sleep at all. After an hour I gave up, and made her a camp bed in our room, so the other two could get to sleep, and tried the normal tactic of shutting the door and letting her cry for 5 mins. 2 hours later she was still screaming! she quieted down if I stayed with her, but refused to close her eyes!

At 9pm, I totally gave up and let her play downstairs until we went to bed:-(

Even then, it wasn't very sucessful. She finally went off to sleep in her camp bed at 11.30, only to wake up half an hour later because her eczema was itchy. It is really bad at the moment poor thing:-( But she woke every 20-30mins throughout the night - which meaqnt I woke every 20-30mins throughout the night.

Then, at 6.20am, Mstr A decided he was awake, so kindly woke up LMB too - who immediately started crying & woke up the rest of the household!

The whole family (almost) is coming over to se us today, and will get treated to whiney, miserable, tired brats. Oh Goody!

Turkey Sandwiches...

A quiet day today - The girls got up with Aggie about 7ish and I go a lie in till nearly 9! Then we swapped, as I looked after all three of them (mstr A woke up at 9 too!) and Aggie went back to bed for a few hours. We didn't even all get dressed until nearly lunch-time;-)

The kids have all played really nicely - with their own toys too, and with each other. It's felt a bit surreal really - like a TV family:-) Even Nanny A managed a whole afternoon here without cleaning anything!

We've not been as organised as last year, but all the washing up is done, the laundry is getting there, and homes have been found for some of the toys. Tomorrow is tidy up day ready for the new intake on the 28th - when cousins are coming for 2nd Christmas during the day, then it's the Crazie party in the evening - being hosted here for the first time ever due to my stupid allergies:-( I feel a bit guilty for stealing it off CQ - who has always organised & hosted it - but it will be good to be able to put the kids to bed and have a bit of grown up time too.

The food is nearly all one too - that's definitely an improvement on last year:-) Me and Aggie had second Xmas dinner for supper last night, and there was enough for turey sandwiches all round at lunchtime today, leaving just a few crumbs (and half a choccy Gateaux - but I'm sure that will disappear tonight), so all in all, not too bad. Hopfully I'll manage to get real food into everyone tomorrow.

I'm looking forward to a nice relaxing evening tonight - maybe a bath, and getting stuck into my new book:-)

Merry Christmas!

It's Chriiiiiissssttttmaaaasss!

Mstr A woke up at 6.40am - went for a wee, and then ambled straight back to bed!

So we all got up at 7am as usual:-)

Aggie was definitely the most excited of everyone desperate to do everything at once, but once I's calmed him down, we had a good morning. The kids ate chocolate for breakfast, the turkey is cooking (*sniff sniff*), the older two are both ensconced in the back room playing with their favourite toys (Mstr A with his flexi-track, LMB with Pom Pom Pals!), and it looks like we're going to have a kind of relaxing morning!

LMB & LMD both liked each others presents! But I expect they'll get over it pretty quick;-)

Here's hoping everyone else's day is going as well:-)

t'was a few nights before Christmas

The dreaded Tesco shop was done. The children all excited & the parents were hung-over - not a good combination!

Our friend Fly came to visit yesterday. We've known him since we started Uni (he lived downstairs from me in first year halls, then we shared a house with him & his girlfriend for a year too), but as he now lives in Aberdeen, we don't get to see him that often. I've called him fly here because the first time Aggie & I saw the video for "pretty fly for a white guy" we both looked at each other & said "that's fly!!" It was him to a T - both in the way he looked, thought and acted:-)

Of course, that was 14 years ago now! We've all moved on quite a lot since our uni days. He's a pilot now, engaged to be married next year, but in many ways he seemed exactly the same as when we were still teenagers:-) We chatted a bit & played with the kids durng the day - he happily settled down to Nintendo games with Mstr A, then once the kids were in bed, P & V came round and we all settled down with a yule-log (it being the shortest night, even though it was the 22nd not the 21st - apparently it's something that happens occasionally), a few bottles of home-made ciser, some wine & an assortment of ciders, beers and spirits to play a game of Talisman. P & V come round to play this irregularly, but Fly had never played before, but soon got the hang of it (it's not dificult - when sober!). He did make it the longest game ever - but that just gave us more drinking (and eating of christmas sweeties) time. We finally packed up about 1am, and all ambled of to bed.

LMB woke at 3.20 missing her toys - which i told her I would find if she went back to sleep & went back to bed. She screamed again at 3.40, as I hadn't returned with said toys. I explained that i meant I would find them in the morning, and tried again to get some sleep.

LMD woke at 4.30. It was her first night in a real grown up bed (I know, bad timing, but it's part of her Xmas pressie and we don't have any storage space!), and she fused to go back to sleep whatever I did. i tried leaving her, I tried staying with her. I tried bringing her into our bed. I tried cuddling her, snoring at her, souting and cajoling! She finally passed out at about 6.15.

Mstr A came bouncing in at 7am yelling "Good morning mummy!". I tried sending him downstairs on his own and grabbing a few more minutes sleep, but LMB was up soon after, so i gave up & came downstairs too!

I've had better days - especially as they're all getting pretty excited now. And today was tidying day - we have managed to clear out all the toys from the front room, and Aggie made it over to CQ's to drop off RCA's and her partners presents, as they can't make the Crazie party this year:-( But there's still lots to do! At least Chunnukah is out the way now - the kids have loved lighting the candle each night - and doughnuts are good at any time;-) I don't think the calendars match up so much next year - maybe I'll look up another festival to secularise - any ideas?

Some random thoughts

umm, as the title suggests, heres some comments on what has passed through my brain today....

It was LMD's carol concert today at nursery. She had to dress up as something from the nativity or something "Chrismassy" so I sent her in a little santa dress & hat, which drew many "ahh's" from staff and parents alike. However, when we turned up at 11am to watch the singing half the kids were in tears, LMD jumped onto my lap the moment she saw me & refused to move throughout the concert. Only one child made any effort to sing along, and she didn't manage more than a few words. You do wonder about the need to have a carol concert for under threes!

I officially signed on with the DWP today, for the first time in a decade or so. I have to say, it has improved vastly in that time, but JSA is still the only benefit they make you feel guilty for claiming, and defintely the only one where they do not give ANY help at all. Not in what you can claim, how to claim it, what else is available etc. Considering less than 2% of the population claim JSA, and only a tiny proportion of them stay on it for 6 months or more, you'd think they could be a little more helpful! still, i've signed up for whatever Job clubs are called now, which means i get all my phone calls, stamps etc free, which will be helpful. And they have accepted that my hours are limited due to care commitments, which is a big step forwards!

I see Hamley's have seriously screwed up. I think they should honour the sales - it's their own fault for not paying to set up their website properly (online voucher codes are hardly a new thing - even I Blogged about them a while back), and they could cover the loss! Lets be honest, 60% off Hamley's prices would barely bring the stuff down to normal store sale prices anyway!

Still, apparently I am actually Pure Evil:


How evil are you?

How cool is that?

well it made me smile anyway. So there!

We watched The Hogfather on TV over the last couple of nights. At last, a good adaptation of Pratchets books. Lets hope there'll be many more. I vote for Guards! Guards! next.

You'd think from watching the BBC over the past 48 hours that the world had come to a stop. Oh my, it's foggy and some aeroplanes have not taken off from Heathrow. Can a worse calamity have happened? At christmas time too! There was some miserable bugger being interviewed ad nuseum on the TV this morning. Paraphrased he said, "I flew in from Miami yesterday (Wow, way to get the symapthy vote man) en route to Glasgow. The flight was cancelled and it's cost me £100 for a train ticket instead, which will make me four hours late" When asked why they wouldn't compensate him, he said, because the airline had laid on coaches, but he doesn't like coach travel, so he chose to buy a rail ticket instead. To me, it sounds like the airline has been perfectly reasonable. Fog is something that no one can control - not even at Christmas time! And rail travel is better for all domestic journeys anyay!

Fortunately Stanstead has not been affected, so my mother should still make it to Ireland tomorrow. Otherwise i was half expecting her to turn up here!

The story of her life?

It was LMB's nativity play today. Considering all the children are between 3 and 4 years old, it went rather well - sadly a number of them were unable to make it (I expect they were off sick) so the roles were all switched around. Therefore instead of being the expected Inn Keeper, LMB strolled in as the back end of a donkey! I do hope that does not turn out to be the story of her life!

I don't think she's a budding RADA candidate somehow - she looked terribly worried when she first came in, and had to be man-handled to her position by the staff:-) But once she saw me she gave a glittering smile, which she quickly worked out achieved lots of "ahhh's" from the audience and so treated each and every member of it to the same! But she also spent the whole play clutching teddy, and only sang about half the songs before deciding she'd had enough and sitting down (making the donkey look very wonky!). Still, she is one of the youngest there - and I thought she was the best!

Mstr A had a good day today - he went over to Grandad's (Aggie's dad) to drop off/collect presents with Aggie and was so well behaved we took him out to lunch at the local italian. He even managed to behave like a normal civilised person while we were there, and remained sat in his seat for the whole meal! It was a pleasure looking after him today - here's hoping for many more like it.

Aggie is off work because his arthritus has crippled his hands:-( He is currently unable to use them at all, which makes him pretty useless really! Fortunately my cold only lasted a couple of days and I'm back to normal at last. The cough finally cleared up last week - pretty much the moment I handed in my notice, which makes me wonder how much of it was stress related - although I'm still a little wheezy when I get tired it's not a real problem any more thankfully.

All done

The christmas shopping is all done! The last few pieces were finished today:-) I'm quite impressed really. Just the rest of the wrapping, and the food shop to do now!

I also started my claim for Job Seekers Allowance today - it's all done on the phone now, which is soooooo much easier than the last time I tried to claim anything, way back in the 90's. They'll phone me back tomorrow to complete the claim, which should go through without any problem as far as I, and today's phone man, can see. An extra £45.00 a week will make a massive difference, so i hope there's no problem.

LMB was sick at nursery today, so we had to collect her early & they won't let her back until at least Thursday:-(

And I've got a seven dwarves cold - sneezy, snotty & sleepy, along with woolly head, painful throat, sniffles and icthy eyes:-(

Mothers and money

Well, I survived the weekend with my mother. Nothing major to report really. We didn't get into any major rows. She paid for the kids to see Santa, and experienced her first ever winter walk on the beach ("it never occured to me that you could go to the beach in winter time"!!), she managed to restrain her criticisms of Aggie to only a couple of commens and kept her opinion of my my bad parenting techniques to herself for once!

Other than a brief disagreement about the prices in London - I said everything was more expensive there, she said that other than housing everything was proably cheaper! Yeah, right. i pinted out that transport cost more as cars are more expensive to buy, insurance is higher, congestion means that your MPG is worse so fuel prices are higher (plus fuel prices are higher anyway), and the option of walking to town doesn't exist. Then I mentioned that the take away we bought on Saturday night for the 6 of us came to £25.00 here (with enough left over for a good lunch today), and would've been an easy £65-75 in surburban London (I dread to think what it would have been in central London), that a cinema ticket in London costs anywhere between £8-17, and here is abour £4-5, a theatre ticket here is £8-16, in London it's £40-150, a coffee in a cafe here will set me back between 50p-£1.50, in London i don't think I've ever seen any for less than £1 in a greasy spoon, and decent cafe's cost nearer to £3. I reminded her that the reason she always takes so much more home with her each time visits is because she is constantly exclaiming over how cheap the clothes, ornaments and knic-knacks are here compared to London (she had just bought an ornament from a shop in town!). I think she thinks I will still move back "home" one day. even though I've spent more than half my remembered life out of London, and all of my adult life avoiding it, she doesn't reqally believe me when I say I wouldn't come back even if I had enough money to buy bloody mansion there!

Aggie managed to avoid having to do anything with her, or say anything to her by booking the weekend on EVE!

Still, a pretty sucessful visit I think. I expect i'll get the proper run down tomorrow from my sister, after my mother goes round to moan at her about how I'm doing everything wrong!

I did send her home wih a nice big TV to give to my sister. Hers was pretty ancient and has died, and as she & her boyfirend are in the process of splitting up (she's buying him out of his share of the house) there is no money spare for a new one, so i asked the local freecyclers, and was given a 21" working Tv for her, just in time to watch all the christmas rubbish:-) of course that's another good thing about living here rather than there - Londoners are miserly B****** - her local freecycle is pretty rubbish. over here, TV's come up fairly regulary:-) She's got it all set up & working and says it's the best Xmas present I could've got her - which is lucky really, cos I can't afford anything else! We're supposed to be getting ourselves sorted out financially at the moment, but it doesn't seem to be working:-( Money is just so depressing sometimes:-(

Never mind the Mother-in-Law jokes

My mother is visiting this weekend.

Don't even ask!!!!!

I would just like to say

At least half of all my search engine hits are on "Fuck me shoes" or "mother Fuck"

Does that say something terrible about the world, society, the internet, my blog or my readers?

Showing his true colours

Having succesfully pissed of all his core supporters, it's nice to see David Cameron showing his true colours with his "family values" campaign. A good way to lose that little support he has gained from gullible voters (yes, RCA, I AM looking at you pointedly!).

It has long been the view of the right wing that if only everyone behaved like proper christian families everything would be all right, but on the few occasions they have made it a specific policy, it has generally backfired on them.

"If marriage rates went up, if divorce rates came down, if more couples stayed together for longer, would our society be better off? My answer is yes."

Ahhhh, THAT's how to solve the worlds ills. Make marriage the ambition of your life, only allow children to born into wedlock, and disallow divorce. Because when the country was run like that, we didn't have any crime!

Although, of course, it didn't apply to the rich anyway, so why should Dave "the man of the people" care. He was born to a rich father, a titled mother, raised in beautiful & expensive Oxfordshire, attended Eton - one of the most exclusive & expensive public (read private if you are not aware of the strange English school descriptions) schools in the world, and then in Oxford University - where halls are compulsory and cost more than twice the grant + loan for a year! In his adult life he has continued to keep his feet squarely on the ground with the masses by waltzing into a nepotistic job with the tory party, marrying someone who was both titled AND rich, and since becomming leader has happily continued to excersise the "old school tie" philosophy by ensuring the majority of all appointments are given to old Etonians!

Of course, I'm sure that he thinks I am just wonderful, having left my disfunctional & benefit depandent roots to go to University, buy my own home, get married & have children - in that order too! But I know that under tory party policy that became progressively harder and harder to do, as unemployment rose, grants shrunk (dissappeared) , interest rates shot through the roof, and state benefits were cut.

still, everyone knows that all single parents are bad parents, all non-working families are a drain on society and not getting married destroys the very fabric of our community, so he must be right then!

I feel......

much happier!............ Today was only a half day at work, as i had the afternoon off to see Mstr A's Xmas play. Half day's are good! I didn't mind that at all:-) Last week was a pretty horrendous time to be honest, with problems at Mstr A's school, finding out about work and having locum solicitor being really nasty to me. Today, she was all sweetness & light, and was being a total ***** to colleague (also leaving at Xmas). Colleague says she's often like that - she likes to be horrible to one person at a time! hmmmm, good employee relations there then! Also, last week was the busiest time at work, with so many people wanting to get exchanged or completed with leeway before Xmas. although there are still a number in the pipeline over the next couple of weeks, the bulk are done now, and we're back to "normal" ongoing stuff.

Quite proud............ Mstr A's play went pretty well. He mentioned to me at 5pm yesterday that he needed a red T-shirt & a santa hat for it, which was a bit of a frantic rush to find! Apparently he was supposed to tell me last week, but forgot! What happened to letters home?! Anyway, i found them (even if the hat was a little small), and he managed to troop in with the rest of his class, sing the first song & deliver his line to the audience before being taken off to sit with a teacher. This was obviously planned as a way to try and keep him in on place and (almost) still during the rest of the show, and worked pretty well from what I could see. Aggie commented how obvious it was that he was different to the other children:-( Sadly it is more and more obvious as his peers get older & more socially aware, but I'm pleased to see the school seems to be handling it pretty well.

Relieved really............ I also checked when school broke up, as I had next Wednesday written down & Aggie thought it was Tuesday. However, I discovered it was actually this Friday as his school has Inset days on Mon & tues next week. We checked with the leisure centre, but their holiday scheme doesn't start till Wednesday, as that is the official holiday, so after a bit of debate, I thought "screw them" and handed in my notice at work. As they refused to give me the months notice they had promised and instead decided that a week would be sufficient (but in the circumstances would extend it to two weeks to make me stay till xmas), I took them at their word & gave one weeks notice as of today. So now I finish on Friday, which will solve all the problems of childcare next week, give me the chance to see LMB's Xmas play (which she wasn't allowed to take part in without me being there), do the Christmas shopping & get the house sorted out a bit - all of which were really worrying me. I haven't seen the practise manager yet - but I don't really see what he can say!

At a loose end - again........... I'm looking forward to a few weeks off, but not sure what will happen then. Once again I'm in the position of not knowing what i want! I know what I don't want:-) I've kept the girls in Nursery three days a week for now, so I'll just take things as they come!

Greener grass

I have to say, i'm quite looking forward to leaving work again. They've given me a date - the 22nd December - I didn't think they were going to pay me through Xmas somehow! I know I spent a lot of time moaning about being a SAHM, but equally I've found working full time to be quite stressful too. Not the work itself, which I enjoyed well enough (secretarying isn't exactly the most exciting of vocations, but it was fun enough), but the pressures it put on my time & home-life.

Maybe if the hours weren't so long it would've been better, but it's not just that I haven't had any time to see the kids, or even that I'm too knackered to do much in the evenings. It's that I don't have the time or ability to do all the things that I want to do to be the person I want to be. I miss having decent meals every day - not cooking them particularly;-) but having them to eat & knowing the kids are getting decent food each day. I really miss having the direct contact with mstr A's school & daily contact with his teacher. I went in to see him this morning after Mstr A shouted "bad" word at another pupil (he called him a dickhead *snigger*, I have no idea where he heard it, but I've heard worse come out of 6 year olds mouths personally! still, it's the principle....) and mentioned to him that I'll be back dropping off & picking up from January. he agreed that it was much better when I was there & had daily contact - especially as Mstr A is not able to cope with the totally free play before & after school. I miss having time to do the weekly shop properly, and to spend time with the girls. I miss having the time and energy to do things with Mstr A in the evenings. I miss surfing the net during the day:-)

Of course, i'm sure I'll be climbing the walls within a couple of weeks and looking for work again:-) But I have decided it's ot the right time to go back to full time work. I've given up planning for the future, as the future seems to have plans of it's own - but I don't even know what I want to to! It's nice to able to plan things again for anytime, without worrying about leave, work days etc. And not worrying about school holidays which were starting to prey on my mind. But then again - I'm not sure if we're going to survive financially. Not that we were surviving financially on the wage I was getting, but at least there was the hope that it would go up at some point!

Now I just have to ty to persuade the nursery to reduce the girls hours in a couple of weeks without charging me. I know that they actually ask for a months notice - but i know that from when Mstr A went there a few years ago. Come to think of it - they also failed to give me any contracts, hadbooks or details of their terms & conditions when I started there in september!

Bastards!

So I did put my foot down yesterday and said that I needed to know what was happening in January. he promised to give me an absolute answer today.

Today was really really busy, as we have a lot of cases desperately trying to complete in time for Xmas. At 4pm today he called me into the office and said there would not be a job for me in january.

Bastards!

I asked why, and he mumbled something about the way they are organisng the department next year, which could mean:-

1. They hate me (I hope not, but who knows and there's nothing i can do about it)
2. They think I'm rubbish at my job (I think i've down rather well condering i had no experience and even less training from them! in fact i was just thinking this morning how much more I know now than when I started)
3. Considering the locum is leaving at Xmas, the main conveyancing solicitor has been off sick for much of the year and the legal exec trained in conveyancing is pregnant, they could be closing down their conveyancing department (I doubt it - it's very busy, and we're still opening new files)
4. They actually are re-organising the department to reduce the use of secretaries all together

Now, personally, I don't see any need for legal secretaries in this day and age - not for the general run of the mill stuff anyway. The new case management system goes live in January which will automatically print out standard letters and progress the case along at a reasonable speed and TBH, typing just isn't that difficult a skill to learn really. I'm sure the lawyers could do it if they tried:-) And it would make little time difference in most cases. I certainly never had a secretary when I was a manager - not even when running a whole department. Aggie has to type all his own letters etc too. It's the modern way. But it doesn't make me feel much better:-(

I did point out that he had absolutely guranteed that he would have an answer for me by the end of Nov as I have to give a months notice to the nursery, and therefore would he confirm my leving date as i had asked for a months warning. he will get back to me tomorrow! Huh!

TBH, I'm not that upset about leaving - I liked it & I would have happily stayed, but the hours were awkward, and the pay left me worse off than not working, so I'm not upset that it'll be ending. I am really really pissed off about the way they've treated me though. I think if I hadn't stated that I HAD to know today, they wouldn't have bothered telling me till Xmas! I still haven't had an offer letter for the time I've been there, or a contract, terms & conditions, induction etc. and they definitely implied that the job was permenant, even if the details were not yet agreed.

Ah well, time to start organising my life yet again, with all new goalposts!

Dr's again

Yep, I went in to see my Dr again today. The poor man must be getting pretty fed up with me by now! I nearly didn't get to see him, as when I phoned for an appointment bthis morning, after hanging on hold for 20 inutes, i was told there were no appointments with him left. Fine, I said, I'd like a telephone consultation with him then. No, only Dr X is doig phone consults today, would i like that? No, I patiently explained, because this is an ongoing cse, and Dr x does not know the past three months of case history. The receptionist tried to tell me that Dr X would havemy notes, but I told her that was irrelevant since Iboth she & I know they don't have time to read through all my notes before each consult, even if they wanted to. I pointed out that I had tried to make an appointment two weeks ago, one week ago, and yesterday and was told to call this morning. Today is the only day my Dr is at his ow surgery all week, then he's off on holiday till Xmas, so it was a now or never situation. I asked the receptionist to pass the message on to my dr that i would like a phone colsult. She refused - I am not able to do that, she claimed! I asked for the direct dial number to my own surgery, but she wouldn't give that out. It was only when I asked her outright if she was personally refusing to even pass a message on to my Dr, and could I take her name please, that she suddenly decided she could phone him & ask!

an hour later she phones back and offers me an appointment at 10.30.

I pop into the practise manager & tell him - no problem. I wander down to my solicitor & let him know I'll be out of the office for an hour, no problem. I courteously let the locum know too, & she asks why? is it important? and starts to suggest that she's not keen on the idea when I leave anyway! Like I'm likely to be taking emergency dr appointments just for a bit of social chit chat with the busyest Dr in Weston!

Anyway, Doc says the infection is almost cleared up, so the residual whzing must be caused by something else - even if it was started by the i nfection originally (or by the allergic reaction, I'm not sure). So off I go with another prescription, for yet another inhaler. if this carries on I'm going to have to get a pre-payment certificate!

I make it back to work in less than an hour - and as i said I'd work my lunch hour to make up the time, they've done pretty well really. colleague tells me I should "be careful" about making medical appointments during work hours as "they don't like it". I tell her that's all very well for her - she finishes at 3pm every day. My working hours are 9-5.15, with a 1-2 lunchbreak. My Dr's hours are 9-5, and they are closed 1-2 for lunch! i think about it for about half an hour. then decide to go talk to the practise manager.

i tell him i am not impressed that I was reprimanded for going to the Dr's. i was ready to launch into a tirade about employees rights & employers legal duties, but he happily agreed that locum was out of order, and not to worry. As long as he & solicitor know, that's fine. I know this is not the time to be getting mouthy, but really!

on the plus side I got paid today:-) On the minus side it was oly £30 more than I used to get for working two days a week - and I thought that was pitiful after my previous proper pay packets!

i still don't have a job offer. I am going to have to put my foot down tomorrow, because if I'm not going to be there in January I need to cancel the nursery - or I'll be paying out £1000's and getting absolutely nothing in!

Success!

Mstr A had some friends round to play & have Sunday lunch today. Not only did all three who were invited accept (Even though I did warn the parents to check with their children first as he can be a bit too much for some kids), but they all played for three hours with no shouting, fighting or major structural damage to the house:-) Mstr A had a bit of a tantrum just before lunch, but the others all took it in their stride, and left him alone for 5 minutes, so he got over it and joined in again without problem.

I also heard the nicest thing ever: When Mstr A came downstairs at one point to ask if he could play with his gameboy, and I said no, he had to play non-electronic games today so all his friends could join in, they had come to play with him, L piped up and said "I came to play with you Mstr A because you're my best friend"!

Wow, not only a friend, but a best friend! And a really nice boy at that!

The school has just been OFSTED'd, and received a pretty good report, especially since they have a far higher than average number of pupils from "disadvantaged" backgrounds and pupils with various "problems" there. I was very impressed with the three kids who came round today - all nice, well behaved and "normal" children - in that they behaved in the way, and were interested in the things that I expected 6 year old boys to be. In fact, they were far better/easier than the friends he used to invite from his old school, which had a higher than average number of children from white middle class nuclear families, and as a faith school is being held up as best practise by the Gov't.

All in all, a very sucessful day.

A quick tidy round

When Aggie stumbled downstirs with LMD this morning (I knew that if I didn't get her up she would get him up - sneaky huh?) I reminded him that today was designated "tidy-up day" in our hectic schedules, as a) the place is a tip, and b) Mstr A has invited three friends round to play & have Sunday lunch tomorrow - his first attempt with children from his new school, so it would be nice to pretend to the parents that we are not complete and utter slobs and are a desirable family for their children to befriend:-)

Surprisingly he threw himself intom the idea - and promptly started clearing surfaces & filling bin-bags. Then he had this brainwave - let's rearrange all the furiture in the front room while we're at it! All the sofa's came out, the cabinets were all moved. More and more stuff ended up on the floor as he was going to "find a place to put it" later. By lunch time the room looked like a scene out of a war-film!

Of course, it meant that I was left with cleaning the kitchen - including last nights supper stuff which was still left out all over the place despite him being home alone ALL evening! And cooking lunch. And sorting out the children all day. And tidying the back room. And cooking supper. A well as helping him act out an episode of "how clean is your house" and vacuuming up dust balls the size of my thumb nail! Now I know where they get that footage from - it's from behind furniture that hasn't been moved for 5 years!

Still, it does look better now - finally! we still haven't found a home for all the toys - but then again, we are supposed to be clearing some out ready for the new batch to arrive for Christmas. oh, and we managed to find time (and space) to put the Christmas decorations up too:-)

I remember that!

I went out last night. Just me - for a meal & a disco with some girls from work. It's a long, long time since I've been out having fun, as me! I'd forgotton hat fun it is:-)

I put all the kids to bed, then left Aggie in charge as i tottered down into town in silly shoes. I'm old now though, so i did wear a coat - unlike many of the other girlies I saw wandering around in boob-tubes and mini-skirts!

There were 10 of us - all girls - in a little private function room near the sea front. The food was good & plentiful, the alcohol was pub prices - which is much better than hotel prices! and the disco was badly DJ'd but OK music. I got to wear a little black dress:-)

It all finished about midnight. I had a lovely stroll home along the sea front - the tide was right in and it looked very serene as I passed Marine Lake & Knightstone Island. I soon took the silly shoes off though - walking home barefoot in the rain wasn't nearly as cold as they were uncomfortable:-)

By the time I got home it was 1am. Much to my surprise Aggie was still up - on the computer! So of course when LMB woke up at 6am, muggins here was the one to get up with her, while Aggie had another few hours sleep! Typical!