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….

Yay!!
I got my phone back last week and my broadband back yesterday!!!
I would have blogged yesterday, but I had 505 emails to trawl through, some grotty e-mails to send off to BT and a hundred and thirty something photos to upload to Flickr. Which was more important, because if I’m honest, I’ve missed being able to Flickr seductively a whole lot more than waffling on me blog….
I also caught up with reading blogs, but only skimming over them, and then it got to gone one in the morning, and I thought I probably wouldn’t be able to comment sensibly by that point, so I didn’t, will try to today….maybe….
So…..what have we been up to???? A whole 20 days to catch up with!
I’ve got to think back to the beginning of the month….

I rebooked windsurfing, which meant we had a walk along the river and said “Wow!” a lot as we marvelled at the river rushing along….

Fell in love with a tree (although Olivia wasn’t equally as smitten….)

Olivia had a Guides trip to Bicton where they did canoeing, den building and other stuff. Lisa’s girls came back here after, so I put on a few DVDs (Monster House and Over The Hedge) and made a big bowl of popcorn. Think the microwave did most of the work though.

Went to Totnes for an Historical Visit, which included a visit to the castle (duh!) and a Treasure Trail around the town….

A very lovely day out with friends. About halfway round the trail, there was only the two of us and Hannah’s family left, which meant we got time for a proper good chat and half a shandy down on the Plains. More photos here.

Spent another Saturday afternoon with friends, but the weather was oh so much better, so we went to the park and watched the kids bashing each other with tennis rackets….

Adam helped a friend celebrate his 18th birthday in Exmouth and spent quite some time in the bathroom when he got home. Almost gave me heart failure when I came down for a wee in the early hours to find him sitting on the edge of the bath.
He felt somewhat sorry for himself the next day, as he went to the shop, he said “If I’m not back in ten minutes, call an ambulance….” Hee hee. I can laugh because it’s by far from a regular occurrence. Once every three or four months? If that. Which I think for an 18 year old isn’t bad at all.

We had a group trip to The Rock Centre, a climbing/abseiling/caving/camping wonderland. The kids only did the first two though, with a bit of zip wire and Tyrolean thrown in for good measure.

So much fun! We’re definitely going back, Olivia wants to go camping there too. I’d be up for that, ’specially as it’s so cheap. Oodles more pics here.

We didn’t go to pottery because I had a flat tyre. Which I didn’t realise ’til about 15 minutes into the ride. So we had to come back, and find out we didn’t have a pump at all (well, only a football one), by which time it wouldn’t have been worth going over there. so we didn’t.

We did, however, go to Exeter’s Green fair in the Bishop’s Palace garden….

We saw lots of friends there and joined the Devon Wildlife Trust. We had a long chat with the woman on the DWT stand, who was very impressed with Olivia’s knowledge of natural history (I was too, she sounded quite intelligent on more than one occasion!). The woman was so impressed she was going to ask which school Olivia went to that she knew so much, found out she’s home-educated and said “Ahh! That explains it then!” One up for home-ed methinks.
Oh yeah…. pics here.

We both cooed a lot at the sky that evening and kept snatching the camera off each other….

Hard to believe they were all taken over twenty minutes or so. We’ll conveniently forget the fact that all the wonderful colours and effects are due (more than likely) to pollution.

I had a horribly bad stomachache for a few days which meant I had to lie down and cuddle my froggy hot water bottle loads. Adam took Olivia to play tennis while I was being wimpy. He said she did OK for her first proper tennis. And Adam knows about these sporty type things, him being a fully qualified fitness instructor person.

Olivia had a birthday. Just the one. She’s 11 now. Last Wednesday (the 18th). We met her Nan in town, had lunch in La Tasca and did plenty of girly shopping for lots of clothes and shoes. Met Adam in town, who gave Olivia her birthday pressie, a very pink MP3 player. Managed to persuade her that Build A Bear is a complete rip off, and if she was just going to buy a bear would she really want to pay that much? “Um….no.”
And have you really got room for anymore cuddlies? “Um….no.”
And wouldn’t Ted get a teensy tiny bit upset and jealous if you ‘adopted’ (Adopted?! For crying out loud people! Get a life!!! Don’t even get me started on Cabbage Patch Dolls!)another teddy? “Um….yes.”
And isn’t there plenty more stuff you’d much rather have instead? “Um….yes.”

The three of us went bowling in the evening. And the two of them played lots of arcade games.

Home for trifle and National Treasure on DVD.

A very yummy trifle indeed! All vegan too. It even passed the Adam-who-won’t-eat-vegan-food-if-his-life-depended-on-it test. “‘Salright….” he mumbled.
The next day, we had the rest for breakfast, like you do. Lisa’s girls came over in the afternoon. They made cards for Brown Owl who was leaving. Two of them did. Olivia made one for herself which she is also going to post to herself. Just to see how long it takes.
They watched the rest of Over The Hedge, with the required amount of popcorn dutifully supplied. They all disappeared off for a barbecue, with the veggie and vegan having to take their own pre-cooked (by yours truly) burgers. Lisa brought them all back again for chocolate cake and “Happy Birthday to you”.

She’ll be having a proper party when the weather is slightly more predictable (just in time for her fiftieth then), because she wants to invite everyone. And my house is too small so they’d all have to be banished outside. With any luck she’ll forget she wants a party at all. Hopefully. Fingers crossed.

Almost caught up now….yay!

Friday we went on a Natural History trip to Staverton to do a bit of pond and stream dipping. Ooh looky….photos….who’da thunk??

And ooh looky again….more here.

Whizzed back to Totnes to catch the train home, only to find out it had been delayed due to ‘adverse weather conditions in other parts of the country’. Then finding out on the train just how adverse the weather had truly been. Not nice.
That evening was spent at a cocktail party. Ahem. Which gave rise to a classic quote, “I love watching Supernatural when I’m drunk, ‘cos there’s three Jensen Ackles.” I won’t say who said it, just that it wasn’t me. And there’s no photographic evidence because I purposefully left my camera at home.

So….in between all that lot, Olivia has been doing tons of workbooks, finishing her last maths one the day before her birthday. Which meant we just had to buy another one on her birthday. Because I’m evil like that. And yes, I made her carry it home too!!
We’ve got through about half the library. Olivia finally discovering the joys of Swallows and Amazons.
Olivia finished her unicorn picture at Di’s.
We’ve both had haircuts, Olivia’s built a den out in the back garden (that’ll be Swallows and Amazons then), of which I have yet to take a photo. Bad mummy moment. Oh well.
We’ve been enjoying some of Olivia’s produce from the garden, sharing carrots with Lisa and the girls, a few broadbeans, onions and peas today. I’ve got a funny feeling we won’t actually be getting an entire meal all in one go, because Olivia is eating things as soon as they’re ready straight off the plant. Hmmm…..

Yesterday was obviously spent in gleeful enjoyment of broadband (and completely ignoring anything Harry related, sorry, the more the fuss and hype about something, the more I dig my heels in and resist, I’m perverse like that) and now I have to go. Olivia is desperate for Adam to show her how to put/download/upload (whatever!) music onto her MP3 player. It’s pink don’t you know.

….has been dominated by my ear….you’ll see.

We got to group at a reasonable hour on Wednesday, me with olive oil dripping out of my ear.
Olivia had taken her kite, but didn’t fly it at all….and then asked me to carry it for the rest of the day…. “Um….don’t think so luvvie!”
The rest of Wednesday went the way of most Wednesdays, with an additional trip to the library as well.
My ear protesting most of the time.

Thursday, we stayed in ( this is where it starts to get a bit foggy). Olivia did lots of workbook stuff with minimum complaint. I’d reported the problem with the phone to BT online and got a letter from them. Not so much a letter as a final bill.
Noooooo!!!! I don’t want to leave, I want the phone sorted!!! So I sent a complaint to them online. B****y BT!!!
Lisa picked Olivia up to take her to Guides. And brought her home again. And we both went straight to bed. Me and Olivia. Not me and Lisa.
That was the night I got a half hour of sleep. Because of my ear. Which was starting to really hurt. Which wasn’t good. Especially as I was going to be taking Lisa’s girls with us on a Natural History trip to Dawlish Warren. I phoned Lisa and said I didn’t think I’d survive the train trip with four girls, so we wouldn’t be going after all.
As they were all looking forward to it, I said they could come over in the afternoon anyway, which was the original, original plan (long story), because Lisa had things to do.
We played Cluedo, in which I made the wrong accusation because I crossed off revolver instead of lead pipe.
The youngest ended up winning. Then she and Olivia had a game of Yes/No at the top of the stairs, one of the others Hama-ed and the other one drew me a picture of a happy frog because I was ill.
Lisa picked them all up and Olivia stayed the night. That night, my earache got so bad that I actually resorted to painkillers.
But at least I got three hours of sleep.
Picked Olivia up in the morning to deposit her at the Arts Centre for her art club. Spent the two hours of art club nursing a cup of tea and a glass of water, feeling very clammy, very earachey and very sick because of the pain. So when Olivia emerged, I decided that it was really time to get medical opinion and we toddled off to the NHS walk-in centre. A lovely man looked in my ear and went “Ooh! Not nice”, and gave me eardrops, told me to keep on taking the painkillers and see my doctor on Monday if it wasn’t better.
Got home, discovered I only had two Ibuprofen left, cried, and made Adam feel suitably guilty that he went off to buy me some more. By the time he got back, I was in bed where I stayed for the rest of the day, evening and night. Olivia very nobly got on with some more workbook stuff. And read. And drew Beano cartoons. And played with Polly Pocket.
Oh yeah, and we watched Dr Who, because they’re doing something Dr Who related at art club next week. Which seems highly odd to me, in the gumpf about art club it said the kids would be doing artwork inspired by exhibitions at the arts centre. Now….I might be wrong….but to the best of my knowledge, they’ve never had a Dr Who art exhibition there. May have to question that choice, unfair really as Olivia hasn’t watched any of this series, or the last one. Think she might have watched an odd episode or two in Adam’s room though. I may be in the minority here, in fact, I know I am, but don’t think I’ve missed much judging by last night’s episode (actually, I read me book most of the time). I don’t think Olivia was all that impressed either because she hasn’t mentioned it since. And if she likes something, she does tend to go on about it. A lot.
(I’ve just asked her, she sort of shrugged, “Weelll….it was all riiiight….”, yeah, like I thought, not impressed.)

(I got about four hours sleep last night, as soon as the painkillers wear off, I wake up.)
I opened yesterday’s post, another letter from BT (the Debt Recovery Unit no less), demanding ‘immediate’ payment for the final bill. The bill that I recieved two days before. The bill that wasn’t actually necessary, because I’m not actually ending my contract with them. A contract that I am now considering ending. So I’ve sent another email complaint (because I can’t phone the helpline number they so thoughtfully provide),….watch this space….
And at the risk of repeating myself….b****y BT.
But I read something about Mercury Retrograde this morning….ahh….that explains it all then!

Olivia has spent the morning finishing off the red in her friend’s Hama design, and building a Lego Labyrinth, which meant she’s had to get out some of the Ancient Greece resources and have a read through of them (think she might have been just looking at the pictures though!)
Right, the painkillers are starting to wear off and I need to go lie down with the eardrops.
Before I go, I saw this over on Shirl’s….

Your Brain’s Pattern

You’re a simple thinker, and this is actually a very good thing. You don’t complicate matters when you don’t have to. You look for the simplest explanation or solution, and you go with that. As a result, your mind is uncluttered and free of stress.

Ummm….s’pose so….I do so like a simple, stress free life….

Oh, and our next camping trip is all sorted…. South Wales at the beginning of August. Yay!!

Ummm…..trying to think what we’ve been up to…..apart from not doing the photo prompts….
Saturday morning was art club for Olivia. She’d missed the first one because we were acquiring the subtle odour of basic camping the weekend before. Did I say how much fun we had? Must have….
Anderson had told me about a Refugee Week coffee morning, so I popped in there while Olivia was being arty. A bit of shopping, then collected Olivia to go to the Respect Playday in the park. We went last year and had a lot of fun, spent ages there and didn’t really want to leave. This year was wet. Very wet. And very muddy….

So I totally wimped out and begged to go home. On the bus. There was a lot of wet falling from the sky. Bumped into a friend who was going to meet another friend, so we tagged along too.
Spent a lovely afternoon chatting in a local pub, they had a family room so it was quite civilised. Olivia incredibly chuffed because she beat a 16 year old and an 18 year old at pool, and found another fiver in the garden.

The weather was somewhat brighter when we left to go home, amazing how a few hours in a pub can improve the weather so much!
Sunday was just general schooly type, workbooky type stuff of an English, maths and science nature. Checking on the garden in the rain, we’d rescued some poppies from the community garden (they were ambushing onions and had to be moved), so we had to see how they were settling in. Lots of reading (both of us), and writing book reviews (just Olivia).

Yesterday morning was supposed to be windsurfing. Notice I said “supposed to be”. One of the dad’s had phoned the centre to see if it was still going ahead.
“No,” they said. The river was too swollen and fast and dangerous. Apparently there was lots of frantic calling trying to get hold of me to let me know, I eventually got the call while we were dripping at the bus stop and all ready to go. I personally thought that as they were going to get wet anyway, a bit of rain wouldn’t hurt.
So….slight change of plan yesterday morning….
As we were all set for the rain, and Olivia didn’t fancy a morning of being stuck indoors with the jolly old workbooks for company, we headed down to the river anyway….

In the rain. Lots of it. And, ooh…. wasn’t the river high. And muddy. And actually quite scarily fast….
Hmmm….perhaps the professionals at the activity centre know what they’re talking about after all!
So we chatted with some swans and their fluffly wuffly babies (Sorry, I appear to have been possessed by some pink glittery girly type person for a second….). Then ran away quick when they hissed at a dog that they thought got too close.

I thought we just weren’t quite wet enough, so we walked up to the Cathedral and had a wander round in a bit more of the wet stuff. Taking photos of the trees that aren’t there anymore….

And a couple more pics as well….

We still weren’t quite wet enough, so we joined a 90 minute Redcoat tour of Medieval Exeter. Like you do. Whereupon, we did get wet enough, thank you very much.
Which obviously meant that afterwards we needed a big cup of hot chocolate (with lots of frothy soya milk!) at Caffe Nero’s. ‘Cos you do, don’t you?

And laughed at the pigeons all lined up neatly on a church roof…. until one went and flew off to spoil the line-up….

Finally got home well and truly drenched, Olivia jumped straight in the bath for an hour and a half, I messed about on Flickr for the duration. Suppose I could have used that time more profitably by catching up with the photo prompts…. but I didn’t. Shoot me.
We then spent what was left of the day cuddled up in bed watching ‘Ice Age 2′ and ‘Me, You and Dupree’.

I woke up late this morning. Because Adam very kindly phoned at two in the morning to ask me to make sure the chain wasn’t on the door. So he wouldn’t wake me when he came home. At half past two.

Another pleasant afternoon at Di’s making collage pictures of horses and unicorns out of grasses, flowers, leaves, crepe paper and nail varnish. We liberated the pretend chicken from Di’s fridge. (Yay! We can have lunch tomorrow!!) And got home about an hour ago. So now it’s dinner and a bath. Night night.

But I’ll get to that in a minute….
Sunday night, after our mega photo prompt catch-up, we snuggled up in bed to watch Pride and Prejudice. We’d bought it a while ago and Olivia has been desperate to watch it. But she had great difficulty in staying awake and had a headache as well, most unlike her.
I persuaded her to go to the loo as soon as it had finished, so she could go straight to bed.
I heard an almighty wailing…..”Muuummm!!!!”
“Whaaat??” (Apologies to Rick for excessive vowel usage…)
“Muuummm!!!!” (And consonants….)
I went down to find her hugging the toilet bowl….
Not good….I’m not very good with sick….
“Um….did you get it in the loo?”
“Yes!”
(Phew!!)
She felt very sorry for herself, lots of tears….so we had a late start in the morning.
Not doing very much at all yesterday as a result. We went on a fabric hunt around the house, so now we have a big pile of it in the front room. Awaiting inspiration to beat us over the head….

She’s still not feeling 100% today, so I cancelled our visit to Di, who’s also had a headache and upset stomach over the weekend….
We had a look at the prompt for today….Treat….
So that let us both off for the entire day.
Well, not much point having a treat, unless you go all out and make the most of it, is there??
So….cue art in the garden and a bit more faffing with fabric….

Treat
A little something to brighten up your day, week or year! Show us a treat in your space today.

My treat today was finally getting around to do the sunflower picture we saw at the Lyme Regis fossil festival. And as Olivia wasn’t feeling herself, I was allowed to join in….just to help out….a bit….not a lot….and I had to follow the rules….her rules….I’m not much good at rules….but as she’s ill….

Olivia’s treat was me cutting up a patchwork printed duvet and pillow cases so that she can sew them back together again to make a cushion cover….or something….

That’s been it today. Apart from Adam going to the walk-in centre at the hospital.
Apparently, at his girlfriend’s sister’s flat the other night, he’d tripped up the stairs and split his lip quite badly. Sounds highly dubious to me…. So of course, I raised an eyebrow, and he then went into great detail explaining what had happened. So of course, I then found it hard to keep a straight face. Which pleased him no end….
(Note to self….must work harder on sympathy for my children….)

Right….got to go….half a duvet still to cut up….dinner to cook….tears to wipe away….Olivia’s going downhill again, curled up on the sofa with teddy. See, sympathy’s already kicking in.

Right….we didn’t leave the house at 7am yesterday….are you as surprised as me?!
But we did leave at 7:50, which seems pretty good, until you realise that in pre-home-ed days we’d be leaving between 7:15 and 7:30am….
Never mind.

A choice of three wonderful telescopes was available, plus lots of information from the attendant RSPB people, and Chris who we’d met at the dormouse nesting box/pond-dipping thingy a few weeks ago.

I know this photo looks almost identical to the previous one, but it’s not quite. It’s cropped and I’ve added notes. Because I am slowly but surely getting better at this modern technology doodah. Torturously slowly at times….but I’m getting there.

(There is also a webcam that we’ve spent a lot of time looking at over the weekend too!)

There was a reporter from the local paper who interviewed Olivia, we got in the home-ed angle ( ) and it should be in there on Monday. But don’t hold your breath. I used to work for them, I know what they’re like.
We paid a flying visit to the community garden, obviously not needing to water it due to our wonderful spring weather….
Then the library reeled us in. I couldn’t remember how many books I had on my card, but picked out two just in case.
“Um….you already have 12, that’s a teacher’s limit.”
“Oh….so I can’t get any out….?”
“Go on then! We’re closed on Sunday and Monday, you’ll need something to keep you going!”
Yay!!
Olivia had been choosing loads more Enid Blyton’s. Then we found out she was already up to her limit as well.
“It’s OK,” said Liz, “I can override it….” So Olivia got an extra four books on her card. Even more “Yay!!”
Bearing in mind our overdue fines lately, I’m assuming they’re thinking they’ve got a windfall coming their way….

Olivia had her artclub to attend after that. I drank lots of tea….
Then we went to see our friends….
Ooh….It looks very much like they’ll be home-educating soon…. J is the same age as Olivia, they were in the same class at school. But my friend really doesn’t think he’s ready for high school in September, so she really really really wants to take him out for at least a year. Her parents were down last weekend and she’s forewarned them of her plans. Which didn’t go down too well apparently, so that might be a stumbling block. We talked lots about it all then went down to the quay…. because we thought the weather had improved….
The kids were on bikes, we walked.
Jackie had brought a loaf of bread to throw at ducks, we also bought three bags of birdseed. We didn’t actually see many ducks though….

Lots of swans, pigeons and seagulls on the other hand….

The rain did us in and we headed back to their flat for more tea. We remembered to return DVDs and videos that we’d borrowed, we got more in return, plus a fern and a bottle of wine.

I got pics of Olivia’s hair when we got home….

She got pics of the front garden….

I stayed up very late reading one of my library books. All about Roman Exeter. Very enjoyable….

This morning was spent breakfasting in bed with a few cups of tea and more reading for both of us. The rain finally stopped, so we ventured outside to cut back the Russian vine in the alley, and inside the garden too….

We also hacked at the hedge on the other side of the back garden. It has been raining a lot. The hedge was very wet. I got so wet in the hacking process, I might as well have done the job in the middle of the downpour.

We popped out to get some bread in the afternoon, on our way home we passed a little gang of little people about to set off somewhere. One of them shouted, “Last one there’s a rotten egg!”
Another one immediately retorted, “First one there eats it!”
Well, it made me grin in a way kids round here don’t usually….

Olivia has taken more photos today….

Sarah sent us the photos that Olivia had taken on her camera.
Looky look!
I got them uploaded to Flickr all by myself!

I think that’s about it. I’ve had a completely wax-free bath tonight. I shall now get myself a snack to read blogs to, and say goodnight.
Oh, how did England get on in the Eurovision thingy? I know Serbia won, I saw it on Yahoo….

We slightly overslept yesterday.
I woke Olivia and asked if she wanted to rush around madly to get the first bus…. or take our time, get ready at a more leisurely pace and get the next one…. Thankfully, she chose the latter. That’s my girl!
We were making our way to Lyme Regis. We kept meaning to make a visit last year, but never managed it. The Fossil Festival motivated us into going yesterday though. The bus journey was good, the Jurassic Coast Link bus. We had a good look at the timetable and there’s a few other places we really want to visit….Beer (that’s got quarry caves and Pecorama), Seaton (that’s got a tramway), Wareham (a Saxon town), first visit will be Abbotsbury though. Very soon I think, that’s got the Swannery and sub-tropical gardens.
Where was I? Oh yeah, the bus journey. We saw two deer! Hiding in a hedge! Loads of rabbits too, but two deer! Got ever so excited we did!

We got to Lyme Regis on time, the first thing we checked was where we had to get the bus home again. Just so that we could relax and not have a panic stricken few minutes at the end of the day you understand.
Then we went down onto the beach and stepped inside the first marquee….
I took my camera. I used it. There are photos. A lot. Here goes….

A bit of arts and crafts first.

Olivia didn’t do any of this painting, but I thought it looked great. I kept trying to persuade her to join in, but she was having none of it. She was there for fossils only.
“We’ll do one at home then.”
“Yes, mum,” she sighed….

Lots of exhibitors with their fossil collections. Very informative, all of them. One told us about Rockwatch, a geology club for young people, and gave us a free magazine as a taster. Olivia wants to join. Like, right now. “Next month. I have no money ’til then!”

The man on this stand gave Olivia a fossil and a loupe to peer at it intently, he asked her what she thought it could be…. I grinned, having a fair idea….

Fossilised crocodlie poo!
“Eeeewww!!!”

We left the marquee, and Olivia joined in with a ‘dinosaur dig’….

We ate some lunch as we walked along the beach towards The Cobb….

There was a research vessel from the National Oceanography Centre (University of Southampton), so we had a guided tour round that, very interesting….

Just because they made me go “Oooooh! Look!”….

Ate a bit more food on the way back along the beach. We had a quick look round the Lyme Fossil Shop. Olivia very bravely resisted spending any money.
It was opposite the Philpot Museum, so we went in there to have a look round. A very lovely building.

We were just going to have a quick look in the other marquees before seeing the Herbie Treehead show. Olivia really wanted to see it…. but then we entered the Natural History Museum Roadshow marquee…. Ooh my! Lots and lots of fun! Olivia couldn’t tear herself away ( We found out later that Herbie was ill and didn’t make it anyway!)….

The Festival ended, an announcement was made…. we were not the only ones to loiter longingly….
Olivia was very pleased that she got to keep the fossils and gems she found, and the slide of microorganisms that she had to identify. I liked it ‘cos it was all free!
We didn’t get to do nearly half of everything that was on offer. We wanted to do one of the fossil hunt walks, but those did cost money and restricted finances put an end to that idea.
We will definitely be going again next year, might even save up for a guided walk, maybe a boat trip too…. As it was, yesterday, the only money spent went on the bus fares.
We finally dragged ourselves away to the bus stop, remembering to get a photo of the museum….

We didn’t see any more deer on the way home, but lots more rabbits and quite a few pheasants as well.
We walked in the front door, I uploaded photos to Flickr, then it was dinner in bed watching…. can you guess? Yep, The French Lieutenant’s Woman.

Today has been spent in general pottering mode. Olivia has done some sort of educational workbook stuff, looked at her trophies from yesterday, read the Rockwatch mag from cover to cover, downstairs has been hoovered thoroughly, we’ve tidied….sort of…. which bit? Oh…. that bit over there. We do have what is probably a full square foot that is spotlessly tidy now.
I shall be retiring to the kitchen now…. hopefully to conjure up a wondrous feast, but will probably settle for something frozen thrown in the direction of the oven….

We got to group early on Wednesday!
Weeellll….not especially early but definitely in plenty of time for the meeting at 11am. There were quite a few new families, and some old faces. Very nice to see Sarah and Joe. Last time I saw Sarah, she gave me a lift in her car…. ahem…. moving swiftly on….
Because there were so many new faces, we did that circle thing, you know, that thing where you introduce yourself and say something ever so exciting about yourself. Really, really hate doing that, always have…. yes, moving swiftly on again….
Another new face turned up after the meeting. A trained yoga teacher who is willing to do a class first thing in the morning. The fact that he happens to be somewhat pleasing on the eye has absolutely nothing to do with the increased number of mums suddenly showing an interest in yoga….
I feel sorry for him already!
Lots more lovely chats with people. We got Olivia’s guide pack and letter thingy from her guider, who just happens to be in ‘our gang’….the home-ed gang….yay!
Olivia’s bed at the community garden is bloomin’ luvverly right now. Except for the peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes in the greenhouse. But we were half expecting that which is why we have some already ‘prepared’ at home. They will be transferred when they’re ready to survive in the big bad world all on their lonesome.
Drama in the evening again. Olivia very pleased that one of the bigger girls remembered a promise she’d made before Easter. She’d got Olivia some sort of fingerless gloves…. bright pink and black zip-up gloves…. hmmm, yeah….think the opportunities of wearing them out in public might be somewhat limited….
The rest of Wednesday evening was spent on the guide website and online store checking out all things guide-like. Olivia has her list of badges (or whatever they’re called) prioritised now. And the exact uniform she wants. She’s even found an ‘Olivia’ badge that is, apparently, a ‘must-have’. (Although we’ve since found out it’s a Rainbows badge.)
Thursday. What did we do on Thursday?? We didn’t go to pottery, that much I remember. A few pages of various workbooks got completed by Olivia. More garden pottering in the afternoon. Sweetpeas, sunflowers and a pumpkin got planted out. Not much happening on the pond front, although Olivia did want to start digging yesterday. But I said no….I thought it time we just had a quiet day, an easy day of not really doing very much. So that’s what we did.
Then it was time for Guides!!!
We got the bus. I’d taken a map and the very nice, helpful and happy driver showed us where we’d have to get off. I was quite glad he had such a pleasant disposition in the end…. First of all, I got the strap of my bag caught on the handle of the emergency exit just as he pulled away in the High Street. Any bus travellers will know that doing so sets off the alarm. And all the other passengers turn round to look at the idiot who set it off.
“Sorry! That was me! I got my bag caught up!!”
He stopped the bus, came back very cheerily to sort it out, “Can’t have you falling out of the bus, can we now?”
A bit further along the route, I turned to Olivia, “This is our stop.”
She dutifully pressed the bell….
“Um….actually, no, it’s not! Tell the driver you’re sorry!”
“No!”
“But you pressed the bell!”
“You told me to!”
“It’ll be alright! Just say it was an accident!”
“NO! You tell him!!”
“I can’t! I’ve already set the alarm off!”
“I’m not doing it!”
By this time, the bus had pulled up at the stop, “Um….sorry! Again! Me again!!!”
We got off at the next stop, and I assured the driver he’d have a peaceful journey from then on.
“Yes!” he grinned.
We got to the church a bit before the Guider and handed over all the consent forms for upcoming trips. A forest hike next week and camping at the end of June. Olivia is very excited about the camping and desperately wants to go. Oh believe me, even if she didn’t want to go, she’d be going! A Friday and a Saturday night off! I am ticking off the days already!!
Stopped to chat with Dawn for a bit and said I’d be willing to help out once a month.
“How about the Lush night?” she asked. Oh yes, news has spread! “I heard you quite like Lush….”
So after getting home from guides, the rest of the evening was spent on the ‘puter again. Last night we were looking at the Bristol Vegan Fayre website. We missed it last year. We will not be making such a hideous mistake again! We just can’t decide which day we want to go. Both have got great stuff we want to see. So then we spent ages looking at cheap hotels to stay overnight. Plus train fares. Still no further on than we were before….

So that brings me up to today. A repeat of yesterday really. Workbooks in the morning (No sun!!) We’ve been in the garden again in the afternoon, and the sun came out to play with us. The pumpkin didn’t survive the slugs. But we have spares.

As the rosemary has more or less finished with it’s flowers, the sage comes into full bloom….

Olivia decided to start making a fairy land in a corner of the garden. And all good fairy lands so obviously need a fairy swing. Which she duly made out of sticks and string. An A-frame kind of a swing….

But one of the sticks broke, so she gave up on that idea. She tied the sturdier seat to a branch in the undergrowth. “Cos that’s more natural, isn’t it. And fairies like that better.” Apparently.

She has since raised the swing and added a zipwire. I’ve yet to take photos of that. Despite Olivia’s insistence that I take it “right now….”
“It’ll still be there tomorrow. Unless the goblins come along and sabotage it all.”
“WHAAAT??!!”

So that’s been our last couple of days. A nice chat yesterday with a near neighbour, while we were out in the alley cutting back the Russian vine. We used to see her a lot on the school run, she couldn’t believe that it’s been almost three years now since Olivia left school. A very nice chat, meaning that a ten minute job was somehow, in a miraculous way, turned into an hour long job.
Another nice chat today, this time on the phone. A friend, from a Natural History group we belong to, phoned to say that they’d be willing to change the day of the monthly meeting just so’s we can go too. At the moment it clashes with something else we do, so we haven’t made it to any of the meetings yet. But they don’t like to think of us missing out.
There’s already some things booked up which it wouldn’t be fair to change, but after that they’ll change the day. For us! Well chuffed I am!!

I started this post in not much of a mood to blog, so it was going to be a short one. Sort of losing inspiration for the whole ‘blog’ thing. Only blogging now because if I didn’t do it today, I’d forget everything by the time I did get around to do it and then not wanting to waste all that time catching up. Anyway, I’m glad I have now. Although I’m remembering loads of things and conversations that I haven’t even hinted at….

Saw this on IndigoShirl earlier on….

The Movie Of Your Life Is A Cult Classic


Quirky, offbeat, and even a little campy - your life appeals to a select few.
But if someone’s obsessed with you, look out! Your fans are downright freaky.

Your best movie matches: Office Space, Showgirls, The Big Lebowski

I’ve only ever watched The Big Lebowski, which happens to be one of my faves. I love love love the Coen brothers.

This really can’t be May!
Although yesterday we did see a swallow dodging arrows at archery. And before I forget, Olivia spent most of her ‘waiting’ time at said venue wandering around with a piece of grass clamped between her teeth mumbling, “Ahm a hillbilly!”

This will only be a quickie, no particular reason why, just that I want to go to bed.
Olivia spent the morning slaving over maths and English. I was ‘putering, looking at the Lyme Regis Fossil Festival site (should be going on Friday or Sunday) and checking out bus times. Also made the discovery that someone had got to my post Maths and Beavers by googling ‘beavers’…. Ha ha!! No idea what they made of it, they didn’t leave a comment!

Bussed over to Di’s allotment, too traumatised by yesterday’s puncture to face getting my leg over (Calm down at the back please! Such filthy minds….) my bike.
Di had made some veggie burgers and bread which she’d brought along. Olivia went around the allotment seeking flowers and other edible wildflowers to add as salad in the burgers. So we had another picnic. Yay! Olivia planted some more seeds in her bit, sunflowers, fat hen and greater plantain. There were a lot of robins flitting about today. Olivia spent more time up the apple tree, eating apple blossom this time. We got showered on by cherry blossom, which made us all giggle for some reason….
Back to Di’s for Olivia to fill in her allotment diary. And eat cake and drink tea as well!
Got to the shops just before they closed to pick up two bags of compost. See, I knew there was a reason we didn’t cycle! I found out two bags are twice as heavy as one bag when you’re lugging them down the High Street to Tesco’s to get a bit of packed lunch fodder….
We got home and went straight up to bed to watch one of the latest gifts from Lovefilm, Stormbreaker. Olivia now has a new object to drool over in the shape of Alex Rider. She quite liked the baddie too, Damian Lewis I believe. But he doesn’t do a lot for me. Although I do usually go for the baddies….

A quick bath now, candle lit (I remembered to buy a lighter), ‘cos the light fitting is so old and brittle it snapped yesterday as I was changing the bulb.
The kitchen one did as well about a year and a half ago, but I plug in a little spotlight and cook ‘atmospherically’ most of the time now.
After me bath, I’ll be watching the second offering from Lovefilm, The Da Vinci Code (Did I really need to put in a link there?! Or for Stormbreaker?!!). I’ve read the book a few times now, but I’ve yet to see the film. Which will be tonight. As long as I don’t fall asleep. Which I probably will. Well….two bags of compost is heavy!!

I had a great breakthrough this morning. I actually persuaded Adam to have breakfast with us outdoors. On the patio. In ‘nature’.
He wasn’t happy. Not in the slightest.
“I hate eating outside. Flies keep getting me!”
“Nonsense!” I said, “There’s no flies about!”
“There are! Look!”
A few hover flies, but not much else. We sat outside. The only fly to land on anyone just had to land on Adam didn’t it?!
He flicked it off his arm…. and managed to squash it on his arm. He was not a happy bunny by any stretch of the imagination. But he did let me take a photo of him….very grudgingly mind….

I have no memory at all of what exactly Olivia was doing in the background. Best left unexplained methinks.
Adam disappeared then to go into town on a shopping expedition. He didn’t get such a habit from me. I hate shopping. He reappeared somewhat briefly to pick up his football kit to go off for a match at Offwell, near Honiton. (They won 3-0 by the way. Yay!!)
Olivia got on with some more workbooks in the garden. English, maths, science and some algebra. Factorising and expanding brackets. Yeah, you can imagine the fun she had with that.
“I don’t wanna do it! I can’t do it!”
It ended up with me reading out each question to her, then her answering, then me writing down the answer. Yeah, I can see that happening in school.
But she still has an enthusiasm for algebra and is looking forward to the next page. And yeah, I can see that happening in school too.
We made a little fairy tree out of bells….didn’t get a photo….that’ll come tomorrow.
We also made lots more plans for the pond, listing the plants that will be needed and everything else. While Olivia was busy with workbooks, I started making a compost bin.
We have lots of sticks and branches from cutting back the hedge last year. The plan was to stick the branches in the ground to form a fence for the compost heap. I stuck three or four sticks in….then got bored. I have a very low attention span. Think we’ll be buying a composter sometime soon….
Lisa came round with her dog, bringing avocadoes in exchange for the loan of a staple gun. Like you do….
A very leisurely and pleasant chat, except for Olivia being, well, Olivia really.
After Lisa had gone, we spent loads more time pondering our pond. Looking up stuff on the internet so we know exactly what we’ll be doing. We’ve even drawn up a plan now. Olivia is very excited. So excited that she is willing to forego on the huge great swimming/paddling pool we were going to get this year, just so she can have a wildlife pond instead.
Now I’ve had a look at the costing, I’m beginning to think that I’d rather have a pool. At least I’d be able to sit in it on the scorching midsummer days we have. Down here in Exeter.
I finally got around to watching Withnail And I tonight. I turned on the TV to put the DVD in and caught the last ten minutes or so of Porridge. I’d forgotten the huge crush I used to have on Richard Beckinsale.
I’d also forgotten how much Withnail And I makes me laugh. Hence the title of this post. It could very easily have been “We came on holiday by mistake….” or…. no, I’ll stop there, I’d be here all night, quoting and stuff. I’ll just say that thank goodness I had children, they’ve kept me on the straight and narrow….I could so very easily have ended up as Withnail. Or I.