Yesterday, the children arrived home before Keith and I so I texted Sophie to ask her to get the washing in as the weather looked like it was going to rain. It was also our bin day and on the way home Keith and I speculated on whether the little darlings had bothered to bring them in for us. When we got home, the bins were still standing forlornly at the bottom of the drive and Sophie hadn't bothered to get the washing in as "it was raining". Both of us exploded, especially as Mikey had, for the second day running, left his school uniform on his bedroom floor without bothering to hang it up or put his shirt in the dirty laundry basket. This followed on from his losing his bus pass this morning, on only the second day of term! Luckily for him he found it before it was time to take the bus home otherwise he may have had a long walk!
My mum was working in London at the age of 15, commuting on the train from Dartford every day, something I told Sophie through gritted teeth. The thought of my daughter catching a train early every day and finding her way to offices in London is laughable at the moment. Is it our fault? Do we mollycoddle kids too much these days? I remember getting home from school before my parents at her age, and preparing the vegetables for dinner before putting the hoover around, and I had to do this every single day!
Sophie and I calmed down and went for a walk but I'm not sure she'd taken any of our annoyance on board because when we got back and I got the hoover out, she lounged about on the sofa until I shouted at her to help her dad put the ironing away! As Keith is coming into work with me every day at the moment, the household chores have had to take a back seat. This also means that dinner tonight was a huge disappointment after a run of delicious meals. Keith had to take Mikey's trousers up and do some ironing so we opted for a Chinese meal from Tesco which was absolutely awful! I think we'll go back to home cooking for the rest of the week!
Thursday, 8 September 2011
Tuesday, 6 September 2011
Back to School!
It was Mikey's first day at his new school today and far from being nervous about it, he was excited, which was a good thing! Not so sure his sister felt the same way, though!
Keith and I saw them off and then we drove into work. The difference in the traffic was amazing and it took me almost twice as long to do my normal journey! I was not amused. Next week I will go back to driving in at 7.45am when the roads are a lot quieter!
I don't suppose the weather helped much today as it's been very windy and wet. Not the most ideal of days to go back to school!
Monday, 5 September 2011
Turning back time
A new DVD arrived today from Amazon. Since researching my family tree I've become very interested in life in Victorian times (and earlier) and I thought that buying a DVD about life on a farm in Victorian times would help give me a better picture as to how my family lived in the 1800s as most of them were farm labourers with the odd blacksmith or "Horsekeeper" thrown in.
I ordered "Victorian Farm" which I'd missed when it appeared on television (I did manage to watch Edwardian Farm) but included in the box set was "Tales from the Green Valley" with the same people living for a year and working a farm in what was supposed to be 1620. I found it fascinating (my family think I am very sad) but I never did history at school as I hated the History teacher so I feel I've missed out on a lot of education. It was really interesting to see them struggling with life in the 1600s and I certainly appreciated going into my kitchen after I'd watched one of the episodes and just turning on the oven to cook our evening meal! As much as I love the modern world and all its fabulous inventions, part of me would love to go back in time and just live in a bygone age for a little while. The countryside on the film looked beautiful as did the old farmhouse with its stoneflagged floors and huge open fires. A romantic view probably, but I did envy the people taking part who, no doubt, went back to the comfort of modern living when the filming at the end of the day was over!
I ordered "Victorian Farm" which I'd missed when it appeared on television (I did manage to watch Edwardian Farm) but included in the box set was "Tales from the Green Valley" with the same people living for a year and working a farm in what was supposed to be 1620. I found it fascinating (my family think I am very sad) but I never did history at school as I hated the History teacher so I feel I've missed out on a lot of education. It was really interesting to see them struggling with life in the 1600s and I certainly appreciated going into my kitchen after I'd watched one of the episodes and just turning on the oven to cook our evening meal! As much as I love the modern world and all its fabulous inventions, part of me would love to go back in time and just live in a bygone age for a little while. The countryside on the film looked beautiful as did the old farmhouse with its stoneflagged floors and huge open fires. A romantic view probably, but I did envy the people taking part who, no doubt, went back to the comfort of modern living when the filming at the end of the day was over!
Sunday, 4 September 2011
Out and about!
Today it rained...and rained and rained! I'm not complaining because it gave me a great excuse not to mow the lawn which is what I'd planned to do today! Instead we went off to Corby (tradition remember!) to buy Mikey some new school shoes and trainers and I treated myself to some new cushions for the beautifully clean conservatory as the pink ones we have in there are definitely a bit old hat!
In the afternoon, Sophie and I went off to Home Sense and after much mooching about I bought some new lampshades, what I thought was a pillow and a photograph frame. Unfortunately, when I got home, I didn't like the lampshades, the photo wouldn't fit (I'd cut it smaller for another frame) and the pillow turned out to be a draught excluder! Oh dear! I wouldn't have minded so much but I spent ages choosing them all!
In the afternoon, Sophie and I went off to Home Sense and after much mooching about I bought some new lampshades, what I thought was a pillow and a photograph frame. Unfortunately, when I got home, I didn't like the lampshades, the photo wouldn't fit (I'd cut it smaller for another frame) and the pillow turned out to be a draught excluder! Oh dear! I wouldn't have minded so much but I spent ages choosing them all!
Saturday, 3 September 2011
Domestic chores...
I was awake at 4am this morning and could not get back to sleep, so I went downstairs and caught up with some recorded programmes until 7am, when Keith went off to do the shopping. I went back to bed and read but fell asleep, not waking up again until almost 11am! I was horrified as I'd planned on doing lots of things today!
After my sleepy start I did manage to motivate myself and I managed to get some overdue chores completed in the house. I had to clean the conservatory as it had been completely taken over by the flies and the wasps. I took out our three pepper plants, harvesting a good handful in the process! I cleaned the room thoroughly and then re-potted our three vines into much bigger pots and put all the plants back into the garden. The conservatory was much cleaner without them!
Just as I was sitting down to relax, the phone rang and one of the staff told me they'd run out of coffee, so off we had to go to Booker to buy some more, which was a bit annoying! Never mind, by the time I got back home it was acceptable to have a glass of wine, so I did!
After my sleepy start I did manage to motivate myself and I managed to get some overdue chores completed in the house. I had to clean the conservatory as it had been completely taken over by the flies and the wasps. I took out our three pepper plants, harvesting a good handful in the process! I cleaned the room thoroughly and then re-potted our three vines into much bigger pots and put all the plants back into the garden. The conservatory was much cleaner without them!
Just as I was sitting down to relax, the phone rang and one of the staff told me they'd run out of coffee, so off we had to go to Booker to buy some more, which was a bit annoying! Never mind, by the time I got back home it was acceptable to have a glass of wine, so I did!
Friday, 2 September 2011
Watching bats!
Today has been beautiful - a real late summer day with warm temperatures and lovely sunshine. After dinner I sat in the garden with a glass of white wine and watched the bats flitting about. It looked to me like they were flying in a big loop and I did wonder whether they were living in the eaves of our house or the garage. The sky was a gorgeous deep blue, cut in half by the fluffy vapour trail of a high-flying plane.
The children joined me after they'd washed up but I think their noisy chatter chased away the bats!
The children joined me after they'd washed up but I think their noisy chatter chased away the bats!
Thursday 1 September - Mrs Grumpy!
I find as I get older I'm getting more and more grumpy (my family will tell you I've always been that way) and today I was particularly irritated by other people's driving. Is it me or are people not indicating in cars any more? Are we all supposed to be psychic now and be able to tell where a car is headed without them using indicators? It's getting to be a real gripe with me!
On the way home from work, on a country road, I was overtaken by a young man in a small car who'd been hanging onto my tail for the last three or four miles. He overtook me and the car in front, swiftly followed by another young guy in a souped up thing who just about got in as there was a car coming the other way. Neither me nor the car in front were going particularly slowly, the road has a few dips and is quite narrow but I was glad to get them both off my back!
Then as we drove into our local village, a woman behind me drove the wrong way into our funny road system... we have a tree in the middle of a junction and anybody turning right must drive around the tree rather than in front which has confused people in the past. As I was turning right myself she can't have been concentrating very hard and obviously hadn't seen the very big No Entry sign! She was very lucky there wasn't another car coming and realised her mistake when she saw me! So there was another reason for me to say a few words!
Hmmm! I relaxed though at home and enjoyed the lovely weather we had today. Summer seems to have made a return and the weekend is forecast to be warmer and sunnier than of late. Perhaps I can get out into the garden for some late summer sun!
On the way home from work, on a country road, I was overtaken by a young man in a small car who'd been hanging onto my tail for the last three or four miles. He overtook me and the car in front, swiftly followed by another young guy in a souped up thing who just about got in as there was a car coming the other way. Neither me nor the car in front were going particularly slowly, the road has a few dips and is quite narrow but I was glad to get them both off my back!
Then as we drove into our local village, a woman behind me drove the wrong way into our funny road system... we have a tree in the middle of a junction and anybody turning right must drive around the tree rather than in front which has confused people in the past. As I was turning right myself she can't have been concentrating very hard and obviously hadn't seen the very big No Entry sign! She was very lucky there wasn't another car coming and realised her mistake when she saw me! So there was another reason for me to say a few words!
Hmmm! I relaxed though at home and enjoyed the lovely weather we had today. Summer seems to have made a return and the weekend is forecast to be warmer and sunnier than of late. Perhaps I can get out into the garden for some late summer sun!
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