I stopped having drinking, and therefore having hangovers, when I realised I prefered not to wakeup to stinky nappies and screaming babies with a pounding head and mouth like the floor of a birdcage.
Somehow I forgot all about this and spent a very enjoyable evening in our kitchen with friends and two jugs of Pimms last night. Sneaky stuff Pimms. You don’t realise how alcoholic it is until you try and stand up.
Today head hurts, and have had to change two stinky nappies. Blurgh.
Bacon sandwich needed.
She forgot how painful fun could be
Filed under Random
Tripping worries me
DO school trips scare the bejesus out of you? After all these years they still terrify me. Paranoia is set to maximum.
I know it’s irrational. I know accidents are few and far between, and more injuries happen in the home than anywhere else, but I can’t help it. Coaches, travelling, peer pressure and teachers off their own territory. Terrifying.
They might still have a month left until the summer holidays, but my lot seem to be on school trips every week.
Jed’s already been to The Black Country Museum, and went to Thorpe Park last Friday. Thorpe Park, a blinkin’ theme park, with big roller-coasters. And it’s miles and miles away. He had to cycle to school alone at 7am. I couldn’t even be there to check the coach’s tyre pressures and smell the driver’s breath.
He groaned as I made him put on sun-cream before he left and failed to persuade him to wear a hat. He said the words no mother wants to hear: “Stop fussing Mum, you’re turning into Grandma.”
All day I was checking my mobile for messages. I gave in after lunch and sent a text while trying to be nonchalant: “How’s your day going?”
“Brill” came the eloquent reply. Eventually.
Next week Dougie’s off to Warwick Castle (high walls), then there’s Jed’s trip to London’s West End (at night, for goodness sake), Billy goes to Twycross Zoo (wild animals!) and Doug has a French day at Wicksteed Park (don’t even get me started). Jed’s the only one of them allowed a mobile phone. I’m going to be a nervous wreck. Thank goodness the day-trip to France was cancelled. . .
Filed under Parenting
They digested the anticlimax in different ways
SORRY kids, that’s it for at least another four years. Those ridiculously-highly-paid footballers you idolise managed to dash the hopes of millions.
After all the weeks of hype, the wall-charts, the family sweepstake, the flags, the face-paint, and the anticipation, we had to explain to our confused six year old why England had been knocked out of the World Cup.
We also had to explain why a clear England goal hadn’t counted. That was tricky.
Yes Billy, the goal was in, and no, it didn’t go on the score thingy because the referee, (who must never be argued with), didn’t think it was a goal. Even though it was, obviously. And no, they don’t have video replays like rugby.
Everyone was screaming with elation when our goal/s went in, the boys clasped their hands to their faces when the German goals went in.
In the last minutes, Billy turned away, picked up his folder of Match Attach cards and let out a big sigh.
“Well, I wanted Brazil to win anyway,” he muttered, before going out in the garden to forlornly shoot a beach-ball at a mini-goal.
The older boys were like their Dad after the result. Sullen. Meanwhile, I’d had to leave the room to stop anything unsavoury coming out in earshot. It’s hard to be reasonable and sportsman-like when you want to shout expletives at people who get paid in a day what you earn in a year.
If nothing else, being an England fan as child is a great lesson in life’s anti-climaxes.
Filed under Parenting
Is this weather making my leg ache?
I had major cruciate ligament surgery in my knee 20 years ago. Since this hot spell started, it’s been aching like mad, and has become stiff and difficult to straighten.
Without any other explaination, could it be the weather? Or am I just getting old?
Filed under Random
Wilting in wedges in Flaming June
Cottesbrooke Plant Finder's Fair 2010
WHAT a brilliant week it’s been for gardeners to get out and get hold of their plots. And hopefully the weather has stayed good for us to enjoy some events that spotlight how great our county is for gardens.
The first pickings are coming thick and fast. I feel like the ‘strawberries and fresh peas from the pod diet’ suits me just fine, with new potatoes, garlic and onions forming the basis for meals for weeks to come.
The blackcurrants are ripening beautifully, and the strawberries are my best yet. More varieties needed for next year though, to prolong the eating!
I got to do some backbreaking weeding this week, and the hoe has been in full service. Sweetcorn, peppers, tomatoes, cucumber, courgettes, parsnips, beetroot and carrots are all growing well, a couple of pumpkin plants have gone in, and I replaced some of the missing bean plants.
The beans aren’t doing so well for me this year. Not sure if it’s the weather or the slugs, but even quite large plants have wilted. Still time though, so I’ve planted yet more direct plus a few in pots at home. Beans are usually so easy!
The flower garden is at it’s best, and I’ve cut lots of peonies and roses for vases indoors, something that I usually can’t bring myself to do. But everything is so floriferous this year it makes you want more freezing, snowy winters if this is the result.
Away from home there’s the increasingly popular Cottesbrooke Plant Finder’s Fair on this weekend, with lots of specialist nurseries and top-class speakers including Alys Fowler of Gardener’s World fame, Dan Pearson and James Alexander Sinclair.
Bring any excess plants you might have as there’s a plant swap, and make sure you give yourself time to look around the amazing gardens, which are under the competent stewardship of head gardener Phylip Statner.
The show is attracting visitors from all over the country and this year is organised in association with BBC Gardens Illustrated and the Daily Telegraph. Entry is £7.50 which includes access to the gardens, with under 14s free.
Make sure you bring cash as you won’t be able to resist some of the plants. There’s a plant crèche to help stash your purchases and a Punch and Judy show will be performing too. If the weather holds, the third year of this event looks set to be the best yet. It’s open 10am-5.30pm today (SAT) and tomorrow. Might see you there. . .
UPDATE: Went on Friday, wilted in heat, stupidly ignored own advice and wore high wedge heels and could barely stagger across poo-ey field clutching large rose bush. Queue to get in took 25 minutes, queue for food was shockingly long, £5 ‘surprise’ fee for speakers James A-S, Alys and Dan was cheeky when it had already cost £7.50 to get in. However, plants were lovely, weather fab, advice from growers invaluable. Roll on CPFF2011.
Food queue
She studiously avoids the parents’ race
Bill came second
LIMBER-UP fellow parents: It’s sports day fortnight. A time to revel in victories or bemoan the over-competitive.
While our nation’s footballers are making us world-class nail-biters, our off-spring will be giving it their all on the playing fields of England. Weather permitting.
Primary schools are the last bastion of parental pride for Unusual Sports. But these days you need to be a stay-at-home parent or have a flexible boss to be able to support your kids on school sports day.
Having two at the same school means a full-day of me bellowing support from the side-lines. Doug, now in his final year of primary school, Year 6, is doing ‘proper’ events including high jump, long jump, javelin (but not with real ones) and laps of the field.
Meanwhile, Billy is in Year 1 (which is actually the second year of primary school) and has progressed from Angelic Angels (are there non-angelic angels?) and Eggs on Toast events to Jumping Jellybeans and Jack and Jill races.
I can’t remember the details but there are usually hula hoops, bean bags and balancing involved. And somehow, the teaching assistants manage to keep it all just about together as children have false starts, disappear in all directions and in some cases, refuse to move at all.
When the boys were younger, sports days were different. There was a spell when headteachers seemed frightened to let children compete against each other. There were no winners. Everyone got a sticker.
It was rather confusing. The kids didn’t know if they were meant to try to win, the parents didn’t know whether to congratulate or commiserate, and although I’m sure the intention was to avoid anyone feeling bad, it didn’t really work. I’m not even sure it sent the right messages about trying your best.
A few years on, and schools have re-discovered the benefits of the ‘House’ system, where every pupil is put in a house, like at Hogwarts. At our school they are Cedar, Cherry, Oak and Birch. I can remember mine from primary school: Drake, Raleigh, Grenville and Hawkins.
The children are allocated a house when they start school and can win or lose points for behaviour and effort, including at events like sports day.
There are some parents who are happily non-competitive. I’d have to hold my hands up and admit I don’t fall in that camp. My children will roll their eyes and tell you of the occasions I’ve taken games a little too seriously.
It’s not quite at the stage where the boys worry if they lose, like some poor kids whose ‘Trophy Parents’ seem to be living their own ambitions through their offspring.
But I do like to cheer them on, alongside all the other parents who have swapped shifts at work.
I draw the line, however, at getting involved in the Parents’ Race. No ta. I may be competitive but I’m not deluded.
I’d be the one who fell over, twisted their ankle, or any other manner of public humiliation possible over 50 metres. I won’t further embarrass my kids by trying to hoick my ageing bulk down the field as the other younger, thinner and fitter parents sprint to the finish.
That way everyone’s a winner.
GOT your childcare sorted for next year then? Yes, it may be time for the long summer break but now’s the time to book your childminder or nursery place for September before school term ends.
You may be planning to go back to work after maternity leave, or thinking about working from home. Whatever your circumstances, finding the right childcare can be more stressful than moving house. How do you know what’s ‘good?’
The first thing you should do is question everyone you know who has children and used childcare. There’s nothing better than a recommendation from another parent. They’ll also be honest enough to tell you what pitfalls to look out for, and who to avoid.
If you want a nursery, just drop in to a few and see what’s happening. Most nurseries should welcome ‘surprise’ visitors so you can see exactly what’s going on at any time.
There are two types, state-run LEA nurseries, usually attached to a school and often offering part-time places for the over-threes, and year-round private nurseries, who take babies from six weeks up to pre-schoolers of four. Type your postcode into the childcare section of www.direct.gov.uk and you’ll get most registered childcarers in your area, including nurseries.
Filed under Parenting
Allotment haul
First pickings of the year from the allotment. Ten spuds, bowl of strawbs, broadbeans, peas, garlic, shallots and an onion. For tea. Yum eh kids?
First harvest from allotment
Filed under Gardening
Father’s Day
Had a nice lie in today. Kids brought Bloke breakfast in bed for Father’s Day. I didn’t even get a cuppa.
Filed under Parenting
They all loved strawberries
THERE can be few moments more satisfying for the gardener than the first pickings of the year.
This week we’ve started eating the fruits (and vegetables) of our labours as the broad beans, first garlic, peas, early spuds and strawberries were ready for picking.
The strawberries barely make it off the plants before the kids are scoffing their faces with them. I’m not sure a single fat red berry has ever made it home. A home-grown strawberry is irresistibly tasty.
Baby Bonnie has worked out exactly where the strawbs are on the allotment and scurries off up the path to get first dibs on them. She’s usually trying to force her way under the netting before I’ve even untangled the fixings and pegs. She just loves strawberries. I’m dreading when the crop stops coming. Hopefully we’ll have currants and gooseberries ready by then.
The battle with the weeds goes on, but at least I’ve got my leeks and sweetcorn in the ground, and I’ve planted out three courgette plants too. Leeks are easy to grow from seed, and if you were too late you could check out the garden centres for strips of ready-grow leeklets, they may even be reduced. You make a wide, deep hole (I push the handle end of a hoe in to make mine) and simply drop your tiny leek into it, without backfilling with soil. Just water each leek’s planting hole once they’re all in and leave them to it. They won’t be ready until next winter so the hole allows the stem to swell and stay blanched.
I don’t know about you but my onions are looking pretty fat and ready, although the leaves haven’t dried and drooped yet, the sign I usually look for. My onions were a disaster last year. Hopefully the combination of heavy rain and blazing sun has helped them on the home straight.
One disappointment: my little apple tree. Successfully moved from home to allotment due to football damage, it had looked like it was enjoying its new position, in full sun with lots of space. But having blossomed well it has now dropped every one of it’s little fruitlets, so I guess there won’t be apples this autumn again. Not sure what I did wrong. Very envious of fellow allotmenteers who have lots of fruit from relatively young trees. Maybe it will third year lucky.
I might have been doing this gardening lark a few years now, but sometimes I just feel like an absolute beginner.
Filed under Gardening
Hilary Scott Writes 