Just Jo!

….when you step on the edge of the cat’s litter tray and it upends all over the back of your leg and the bathroom floor???
But don’t you just love it when that’s the worst thing to happen all week?
Apart from missing the last bus home when you’ve got four girlies in tow??
Which is what happened last Friday after a lovely day out at Castle Drogo with one of our groups.
And very nice it was to see people I haven’t seen in a while. Although, as I was being responsible for children other than my own, I didn’t get much of a chance to chat, because every now and then I can actually be quite sensible….

Love this one, although I got woefully left behind.

And just after this is when we missed the bus. Not so much ‘missed’ as much as Stagecoach suddenly deciding that they were going to stop running the bus. A bus we’ve caught countless times coming home from Chagford after seeing Olivia’s grandparents.
The girls kept me entertained though….

After witnessing a quite spectacular sunset, not that the girls were overly impressed….

….we wandered up to Drewsteignton to partake of liquid refreshments and await our lift home.
A bit of a late night, followed by what was supposed to be an early start the next day. But we overslept and it was far too hot and humid to be rushing about, so plans got changed. Fortunately we’ve got very accommodating friends who are very lovely!
Instead of going to Newton Abbot to visit a World Music Festival (which by all accounts wasn’t as good as hoped), we got the train straight to Totnes, then got a steam train. Which pleased Olivia no end, because she’s suddenly Harry Potter mad and kept saying it was just like the Hogwart’s Express. Repeatedly.

We met up with our friends down by the river….

Then it was back to their’s, a lovely meal, chatting and staying the night, followed by a day up on Dartmoor….

We could quite easily have spent much, much longer there (including more shared food at our friends house!), but we really had to get back for Olivia to get an early night. She was very tired. She’s not good when she’s tired. In a whiney, moany, tearful not good way when she’s tired. She proved my point when I said we really had to get home, she wailed. So did B. Yes, I managed to make two girls cry that day!
But she needed her sleep!
For this!
Windsurfing!
Another one of the activities that yours truly has organised.

A very successful day, very much enjoyed!
After she’d finished, we did a bit of shopping. A new tent. One of life’s essentials.
It is! Honest!
We discovered on our last camping trip, that our tent wasn’t quite big enough. We had to put our bag in a friends tent. See? We needed a bigger tent!
And on Tuesday, I needed a new phone. I did! Honest!
Especially one with a camera!
Which I had to test out while we were seeing our friend Di and checking up on her allotment….

I like my new phone almost as much as my new camera!
A Sony Ericsson, but go to Phones 4 U, so much cheaper than Amazon!

Big news last night was that Adam found out he did very well in his trip up to London last week.

Can you read it? He’s practically got the job! So he’s a happy little camper. Except you’d never catch him in a tent. Ever!
But we (as in the girlies of this household) tested out our new tent this morning….pleased to say, it works! Which is jolly good as we’re going camping again very soon.

What other news?
Ooh yeah! We saw one of Olivia’s school friends while at the river on Monday. Except he’s not a ’school’ friend any longer! They’ve taken the plunge and he’s now being home educated! Yay! Perhaps all my ’selling’ has paid off! So we’re looking forward to seeing lots more of them.
And the kitchen? Yep, lady from the council came. I’m having pale cream flooring, beech units, very dark blue marble worktops, white tiles and I’ve got a funny feeling I’ll be providing the white paint for the walls, ‘cos they don’t do white. It will be taking three weeks (give or take a few days), but they’re taking everything right back to bare floor and bricks. New wiring, new plumbing, everything.
No idea when of course….
But like I said, do I care?
Absolutely not! Oh life is indeed good!!
And today (or yesterday, now that I’ve seen what the time is), seeing as my new phone is on the Orange network, it’s (it was) Orange Wednesday. So we went to Vue to see The Simpson’s Movie. Buy one, get one free. So I was assuming I’d pay for an adult and Olivia would be free as she’s a child and therefore cheaper than me. But no! I am apparently cheap! Shut up! I got in free! I’ll make Olivia pay next time then!
And Olivia started back at drama. And very happy she was to see all her friends again. Athough, as some of them pointed out, they have seen her over the summer holiday….
Oh yeah, and I’ve booked our tickets for the Tutankhamun exhibition in London. The second week of December. Maybe Adam will put us up overnight. Or not….

Apart from the truly horrible news about Laura, things are much better here.
We (as in Olivia and yours truly) have set up our own Flickr group. Mainly at Olivia’s insistence, but I must admit to having a bit of fun with it too.
I’ve remembered to put up a photo of Olivia’s play, it’s just unfortunate that the day she did it, I really wasn’t in the mood to be faffing around posting photos. So here’s one of her big scene….

I’m also allowed to finally post a photo of Olivia’s stone age scene ‘cos it’s now finished….

We made a flying visit to group on Wednesday. There was another workshop at the museum the same day. Animals in Native American art, so we got to make totems. But first we had to say hello to this beast….

We had one of Olivia’s drama friends with us, who took part in the totem making but refused point blank to go anywhere near the snake.
She came back to our house after and set Olivia up with her own Bebo account. Because Olivia really doesn’t spend enough time on the ‘puter.

I’ve had a birthday, so I’m now older than I was. Whoop de doo. It was going to be postponed ’til next week because we’re all skint. But both the kids took it in turns to make me cups of tea in the morning. Then Olivia disappeared off on a Guides day out, leaving me with the pleasurable company of Adam for most of the day, ’til he disappeared off to work. I had a bath. A long one. With lots of bubbles.
Then Lisa treated me to a lovely night out. Tapas meal, then a club with lots of alcohol.
And a very nice barman, who made the mistake of almost falling onto our table. He was very lucky to escape our clutches!
‘Twas a very lovely night indeed, thanks Lisa!
And my birthday’s not over yet, as Adam is treating us to a meal out somewhere after he gets paid, which is on Friday. But he won’t be here that day. He’ll be up in London being interviewed by Richard Branson. Sort of.
Anyway, I digress, got home at 1:30, then woke up completely and couldn’t get to sleep ’til gone three. Which was not good, as we had to be up early the next day in order to catch a train. We were heading back down to Totnes to be picked up for a drive to Spitchwick, on the edge of Dartmoor. A birthday picnic, not mine, a little friend who is now the grand old age of three. Although I did get Happy Birthday sung ‘at’ me.

We saw ponies too! Well, it is Dartmoor….

One of those truly lovely and relaxed days with friends, plenty of food, plenty of chatting, plenty of giggling….
More pics here.

Boring food shop and bill paying day on Monday so we’ll gloss over that.
But we had another lovely day out yesterday.
Lisa picked Olivia up and I got the bus. Which meant that I obviously got there hours after Lisa and her sister.
Where?
The Amazing Maize Maze at Bickleigh. A gloriously hot sunny day. Picnic first, ride round on go-karts, then the maze. The girls had to find brass rubbings hidden in the maze. The brass rubbings all joined up to spell out “Sir Robert Baden Powell Chief Scout of the world Be Prepared”.

My personal fave from the day….

It turned into a very hot day, not helped by the fact that the last rubbing was incredibly elusive. I’m sure someone kept moving it. But, after purchasing ice lollies, we headed back into the maze determined not to let it beat us! Yay! We found it! Then there was the obligatory paddling to be done.

Lisa took all the girls home. And I missed the bus by seconds.
The driver shrugged apologetically as he pulled away….
Not too concerned though, there is a jolly nice pub across the road.
I took some pics in the garden while supping me shandy….

More pics from the day here.
Yes, another one of them lovely days.

This morning we’ve had a visit from the council man to do the annual gas check. The fire is never used, except as a display area for Olivia’s arty crafty bits and pieces, so we had to clear it off for him. I happened to mention that we never use it and he asked if I wanted it taken away. Ooh! Yes please! So we have a little bit more room in the sitting room now, which will be occupied by a bookcase (currently residing in Olivia’s room) as soon as another council man has bricked up the hole and replastered.
But…. but…. but…. the bestest news is that Adam wasn’t winding me up about the kitchen!!
There is a lady coming this very afternoon to go over colour options with me . Yay!!! Blokey this morning said they take about three weeks to fit it, which means no kitchen for the duration. Do I care? Not a blinkin’ sausage!
And I had a lovely card from my mum and stepdad with a big fat cheque in it.
Adam’s gone to pay it in for me, ‘cos I’m not stepping outside the house, just in case I miss the council ladyand my new kitchen is delayed.

So little to blog about!
It’s a case of, drop Olivia off, meet friends (sans children!), pick Olivia up, come home.
Except yesterday was a bit different in that I rushed home to make a whole load of sosmix rolls and then went out to meet me friend.
Today’s different as well because Adam had another early morning dental appointment and then went straight to work. So that meant there was no one in the house at all. Except Maisy. Who’s not exactly ‘in your face’. And tends to just open one eye to look at me before rolling over to get more comfortable. But anyway, I repeat, the house is empty!! Completely and utterly so!! (Except for Maisy)
Oh what to do with myself??
So I’ve had me bath and now I’ve got the tedious task of trying to amuse myself for the rest of the afternoon. Olivia doesn’t finish ’til 7 tonight (dress rehearsals, dahling), so I’ve got over six hours on me tod!
Do I go and read in the garden?
Or do I go upstairs to watch a film?
Ooh, decisions, decisions….

Nice sunset last night by the way….
Olivia saw it and wanted to get a photo of it. I told her no. Because she’s doing the photo prompts every morning and I haven’t taken a photo in days.

Yes, I know they look identical. But they’re not. Perhaps I should do some kind of Spot The Difference Competition? How many differences can you spot?

Updated to add….
I ended up doing a bit of both. I read in the garden ’til it got too hot ( ) then cooled off upstairs watching a film. Memento. One of those that I’m going to have to watch again because my sun addled brain kept drifting away.

Sort of.
But then I read Amanda’s comment which made me re-read that particular post.
I’ve gone over what I’d written and still stand by it, so I won’t be changing any of it. Although it does seem that I’m having a go at an 11 year old boy, which couldn’t be further from the truth.
I hadn’t used any names, but by choosing to allow him to do so, Lin made things public herself.
I can still look back on most of last year and think that we were friends at the time and had some really good laughs. I went out of my way to invite and include Lin and her boys in things we were doing. I very rarely open my house to people (only people I consider very good friends and that I trust implicitly), I invited them all in lots of times and, as an example, spent an absolute fortune on goodies we brought back from Spain for the kids so that they all could enjoy a Spanish themed day here.
If I talk about anything we did last year, it will only to be say we did it with friends.
It’s not often I get so angry that I let rip like that, but I feel very disappointed and incredibly let down that Lin didn’t place the same importance on our friendship.
Sorry if Amanda (or anyone else) thinks it’s out of order. But when my daughter is sobbing like she was because of it, I get a little defensive. Who in all honesty wouldn’t? I personally think it’s out of order that someone who so often went on about not mentioning children’s names then went and allowed it to happen. Hypocrisy is the word I think.

Anyway, I said that I’d calmed down. .

Soooo…..

This week then….

Olivia’s been in drama and very giddy with excitement she’s been too.
So Monday I came home after dropping her off and had an incredibly long and very bubbly bath.
Adam had been to the dentist. He’d had a front tooth knocked out a few years ago. He’d had a false one to replace it, but it kept falling out (footie ) so he gave up on it. However, he’s got a very important (to him!) job interview in London next month and wanted to get it sorted properly. He’d had a root canal done on the remaining front tooth last week. Which obviously meant I had to show him pictures and things on the internet.
But they all said that root canal nowadays is a doddle.
He had another appointment on Monday where the dentist did an impression….
“She did a great Michael Jackson….” so says my son, the comedian.
And he’ll have a new falsie in time for his interview.
He seems to have a very decent dentist as well, who is going out of her way to get everything done for him before he turns 19 and has to start paying for treatment.

Yesterday, I was indeed that lady who lunches and had a very lovely time in a friend’s garden, giggling and eating.
Today I’ve been a coffee morning lady with another friend. Except I had tea. Green tea to be precise. And cake.
Now I’m going to jump in the bath before I go to pick Olivia up again.
And Adam’s just got back from the gym and is desperate to get on the ‘puter.

….thank goodness Olivia’s been more regular (in a blogging sense), I’ve got something to jog my somewhat lacking memory.

Monday I was still mourning my little Kodak. No news, so it must be having a jolly old time at British Rail’s expense.
We met friends for lunch in Rougemont Gardens. Not strictly true, we got a phonecall whilst in Sainsbury’s, so Olivia went haring off to Primark to meet them and I eventually caught up with them. Then we went for a picnic.
Then we went deep into the bowels of the museum to experience the terrors of a WWII air raid. Some wonderful (and missed) photo ops of the girls dressed up as ARP’s. Curses.
They all came back here and suddenly it was 8pm.

Tuesday morning was spent hanging out of the window, all agog, as I waited oh so patiently for my new beastie to be delivered. Back into town to buy it a snug little bag to keep it safe and warm on all our adventures to come.
The rest of the day was spent taking mindnumbingly boring photos around the house. Well, the first one isn’t so boring, quite like it actually….

That’s enough of that, methinks.
I was up ’til four in the morning playing with it. Zooming in on corners in my bedroom. Zooming in well enough to highlight the general grottiness….

Wednesday was a friend’s birthday party, so cakes were made.

Which got demolished within seconds.
Back to Lisa’s after, and a late walk home meant we got some gratuitous shots of the sunset.

Thursday….
Made another birthday card for another little friend. Can’t for the life of me think what else we did. Do remember Olivia in fits of giggles because Adam exploded baked beans over himself and the kitchen. He’d microwaved them and the lid got stuck, so when he opened it….
I really don’t think one corner of the kitchen escaped a coating of baked beans.
I stayed in my room.

Friday we were up bright and early. Ish. We headed down to Cockington to have a look around the pretty little thatched village and Cockington Court. And the Drum Inn. Because it was designed by Lutyens. The fact that it also sells a very nice pint of shandy is completely irrelevant.

Still working out the settings. And shutter speeds. And aperture. I blame the weather. Such awful lighting….
We saw Romeo and Juliet on the cricket pitch in front of the house. Jolly good it was too. The girls grabbed a picnic blanket and got as close as possible to the action. No photos because it was dark and I couldn’t see the buttons and things on the beastie.
I did, however, get this one of a speeding train at the station on the way home. Slow shutter speed. Very pleased with myself. Although I felt quite uncannily (and quite scarily too) like a train spotter.

Saturday didn’t start ’til roughly lunch time.
We needed to catch up on some sleep. My excuse, and I’m sticking to it.
Olivia suddenly had the brilliant idea to make her friend’s birthday present. Out of clay. And her birthday was the day before. So the late present she was going to get, is going to be even later while we wait for the clay to dry.
Stiil, it’s looking good so far.
Olivia wanted to paint her gargoyle (from the Cathedral workshop), so she did. Then spent hours mixing paints to get the right skin colour, then mixing paints just for the heck of it. So there are reams of paper now covered in splodges of paint. Mostly browns and greys, but a few pinks and blues too.

Notice the Saturday-not-brushed-hair?

Adam went charging off early to play footie. When he got back, I noticed some red ‘marks’ on his neck. They looked suspiciously like nibbles of some sort. I queried them and he ripped off his T-shirt to show me more of the same marks on his chest.
“Um….dearie, you haven’t mentioned a new girlfriend lately….”
“It’s not that, I got burned!”
“When??”
“The baked beans the other day.”
I confess, I sniggered. Really didn’t mean to, just couldn’t help myself.
I asked him what his friends thought and had he told them what had happened.
“Did they laugh at you?”
“No, they did call me Heinz all match though….”
Snigger snigger. I defy you not to.
Then he scarpered off for a five aside game in the afternoon. He’s dedicated that boy.

So now we’re up to yesterday. Sunday. The day before today. The day before Olivia started drama. Which meant she got steadily more excited throughout the day. To the extent of making her own rolls for packed lunch about 4 o’clock. Which is good. I suppose.
I spent ages ringing round to remind people of raft building, one of the activities I organised. Then an early bath and bed. Because we had to be up early this morning and we’re not too good at that kind of thing.
It’s been chucking it down all morning. So I’ve had a few phonecalls.
“Is it (raftbuilding) still on? Even though it’s raining?”
“As far as I know. It’s supposed to be getting brighter this afternoon anyway. Try ringing the centre and see what they say.”
It’s an outdoor centre, they only cancel if there’s a chance of killing any of the clients. Bad publicity and all that.
What do I care though??
Olivia’s in drama, I’ve got the day off!!!
Time for a trashy gossip mag in a big huge bubbly bath!

Adam has just come home from work….
“Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you yesterday that a bloke from the council came round to measure up for a new kitchen.”
Wha????
“And you didn’t think that sufficiently important enough to text me right away??!!”
B****y men! No sense of priorities at all!!

And if he’s winding me up, he’ll be moving out a lot sooner than the end of September!

Teaspoon that is.
In Olivia’s room.
With a tin mug.
She’s still camping mad and it’s as close as she can get right now.
I’m saying nothing.

Seeing as Olivia’s managed to drag herself away from the ‘puter for five seconds it gives me a chance to catch up.
She’s blogging mad (that just sounds so awfully rude!) and Flickring mad (and that sounds worsererer). Emails whizzing through the air or wherever it is they go once send has been sended. I’m just making up my own vocabulary at the moment. You may possibly have noticed.

So Saturday. Birthday party. Not Olivia’s, a friend of hers with a paddling pool and, joy of joys, a water slide too! Glee city central!
Here’s pics….

I’ve had the dubious honour of blocking my first Flickr person. Some entity favouriting people in blindfolds. My daughter included (5 photos of her in all). Oh I think not matey!! So he’s been stomped on quite resoundly. And I’m keeping a close eye on the mud bath pic, which seems to have had more than it’s fair share of ‘views’. Maybe just changing the title will be sufficient. We’ll see.

Anyways, the party was great. Lots of fun and general waterplay. We made some choccy cupcakes to take with us. We always seem to dip out on cakes at parties, so I thought we’ll not be caught out. But even more vegan cakes had been made! And a vegan pizza! And homemade houmous! In fact the majority of the food was actually vegan! They’d even got soya milk in for cups of tea. Even though I drink it black! Jellies were vegan too! And they still felt bad that they hadn’t got any Swedish Glace for us! Oh our cups did runneth over! Metaphorically. Got home at 10 o’clock and went straight to bed.

I have no idea what we did on Sunday. Yes, I know it was only yesterday.
Olivia uploaded photos and Flickred with some new friends. And….um….I read….she wrote a book review for Swallows and Amazons….um….er….and kept a close eye on her growing pet, her prize for doing spiffingly well at Bang The Drum.

Adam came home this morning, showing us lots of pics of the christening on his phone. Bless.
We left him checking emails and toddled off to town. Olivia opened her first grown up bank account. Now that she’s reached the grand old age of 11, she gets a cash card too! How excited is she??
She also took lots of photos around town. Which meant that she then spent hours uploading them to Flickr, tagging them and everything, then to her blog. And back to Flickr again to comment on her comments received.
She’d got an optics science thingy in town and First News, so she’s been reading and building a periscope. Oh, and she did some algebra and some similes in the morning too. So home-ed wise she’s covered english, maths, science, ICT, history (A bit! Look at her photos on Flickr), PSHE (opening her own account must surely qualify)….um….geography and PE (we walked around town a lot for the photo session)….yes, a quite well-rounded educational day methinks.

I’ve made another trifle with some left over chocolate sponge. So I’ll be eating the biggest half again.

And some more bits seen on Shirl’s….

You Were a Fox

A good observer, you often watch others while remaining unseen. Cunning and courageous, you also have a gentle side.

Ooh, just call me Foxy from now on!

You Are a Soy Latte

Yeah, you’ve got a bit of that healthy hippie thing going on But you’re more Kate Hudson urban bohemian than Phish groupie You’re worldly and well traveled.. and you know where to get the best coffee in town. All your experience makes you a compassionate person - and a caring girlfriend.

Ooh….spooky….!