Mud & Mischief

Grandma: “Myf, did you do any sums today?”
Myf: “No.”
Me: “Oh, I thought Mrs B always did maths first thing in the morning.”
Myf: “No, we just did about kilograms and millilitres and centimetres and stuff.”

Apparently, it was fine. She had a proper cooked school dinner (with rice and vegetables and everything!), chocolate cake and custard for pudding, and, oh, yes, they did some stuff about Romans and coloured in a soldier - “just like the one we did before xmas, mommy”. And mosaics and pictures and the like. lol

No tears, no worries, no problems. Day one over and done with. The smaller two weren’t impressed when we left Myf there this morning though -Piglet had spotted the sandpit and before I could grab her she’d shed her coat and dived right in. Tea was looking for a peg to hang her coat on too… bless.

We went to see Daddy once Myf was safely deposited (I didn’t even get a kiss! She ran off without a backward glance) and I abandoned the rest of my children in the shop so I could go see my physio. Damn but that hurt - he actually made me cry. I know you have to be a bit of a sadist to be a physio, but my language made him laugh, and the student that came into the room with us. There’s me, leaning over this raised bed thing, tshirt tucked into bra strap with them poking at various vertebrae muttering esoteric things like, “Hmm, might be MO5 or L4″ and “have you tried the flexure - does she hinge or curve?” and other absurdities. There was one particular vertebrae that when he touched it very gently, it felt like he’d stabbed a sharp pencil into my spine. Ho hum, the next few sessions aren’t going to be fun.

Right, off to bed. Going to see Dottyspots tomorrow, Bonkers and co will be joining us at some point. Might go for a wander to see that Beruit-ish allotment of hers.

Found myself wandering around IMDb after Jax posted something about Clive Owen. Ended up reading quotes from varous films - and now I have to watch “Closer” in which he stars with Julia Roberts, Jude Law and Natalie Portman.

Law’s character, Dan: “Everybody wants to be happy.”
Owen’s character, Larry: “Depressives don’t. They want to be unhappy to confirm they’re depressed. If they were happy they couldn’t be depressed anymore. They’d have to go out into the world and live. Which can be depressing.”

No, this hasn’t turned into a film review blog. School blog will be coming shortly… after dinner.

Tomorrow is School day. Myf is excited by the prospect, so it would be curmudgeonly of me to say the least if I didn’t at least try to appear delighted for her. I’ve spent today organising uniform (not much - just grey bottom half and white polo or shirt with logo’d sweatshirt or cardi on top - no ties necessary!) and she was most delighted to see them on the radiator airing.

Did dinner for when James returned from his day’s offroading. He went marshalling at the Jeep thing at Tong quarry and bent my truck, again. Dented the other side, scratched the roof rack and he’s broken my winch. I’m not impressed. Now he’s flicking through the Land Rover mags drooling over new winches. :::sigh:::

Have been playing with my website this weekend, spurred on by Jax talking of such esoteric things as CMS and backend drivability and css whatsits and all those other lovely things that I just nod and smile and say ’show me, don’t tell me’. Give me torque and flywheels and halfshafts and gear oil and winches any day (preferably ones that work, though). However, I think I may even be able to come up with something that might earn me a few pennies. Doubt I’ll be able to retire on it, but at least it should pay the hosting fees
Have done an absolute shed load of laundry though, vacuumed upstairs (can’t even remember when I did that last), emptied and sorted all the girls’ drawers of clothes, filled a charity bag to throw out on the drive tomorrow ready for collection, halfway tidied the dining kitchen (still keep calling it the kitchen, even though now it plainly isn’t; same with the dining room)

Well, whatever passes for normal around here.

Melrose was fab. The girls enjoyed it so much I hardly saw them. Tea would swing by for a cuddle once in a while, then take off at a rate of knots again, Myf I saw for food and bedtimes. Piglet met Leandra and that was about all I saw of her too. I took a few pictures, but nothing worth blogging really, not after Merry’s Flickr photostream said it all so eloquently. (Look out for Piglet in the yellow tutu…)

One picture that I did take is this one

Barbara’s E and Leandra with the Harris Hawk at the deer park.

The Kune Kune pig.

And then there was the view from the dining room.

And on the way home, I went over the Humber bridge.

There’s a small riot going on in my living room at present. I’ve spent most of the morning putting the finishing touches to Discourse, on the phone, uploading photos and chatting to Emma via MSN. Oh, but I have done three loads of washing. Off to run into town now with James lunch and shop for a few healthy options for tea. We’re going to Spain in April, so I need to shift a stone over the next 7 weeks. Ha! As if…

Anyone got any suggestions for healthy meals? Merry? (Or should that be Max?)

“Do not turn on the computer”

Whether I stick to it or not is another matter. Have had 7 auctions finish tonight, 4 of which have already been paypal’d which is good. Will package them up ready to take to Melrose with me - there has to be a post office of some description there. May even take the stuff that finishes late on Sunday night, in case I can log on. Won’t be able to print fancy packing slips, but can address envelopes with good old fashioned marker pen.

All clothes are sorted and packed, and the list on the counter is evolving into something a little more detailed and comprehensive. I have chargers for camera and phone, laptop is all packed up (thank you honey), travel cot and pushchair are by the door ready to go into truck. I popped to Asda this evening and picked up a few bits - chicken for lunch tomorrow as the Puddles are calling in for a bite to eat en route, sandwich stuff for travel picnic, and the wine. Which is already packed in the truck.

Going to pack wellies and kagouls, as AOL’s weather says it’s 5 days of solid rain from Sunday to Thursday. The BBC’s site says it’s rain Sunday, cloudy Mon, Tues & Wed, and sunny on Thursday. I think I’ll believe the BBC, but pack for the AOL forecast, just in case. -3 degrees on Wednesday night too… scarves and thermals in the bag.

Have a bag full of gardening books, a knitting bag and Myf is supposed to be packing her backpack in the morning. Will be interesting to see what she puts in it.

Eerily quiet round here atm - well, my sage feed is. I had to post a comment just to check it was working. I guess everyone is frantically packing, or en route to their journey-break stop-off. (unlike some nutcases who are actually driving in the wrong direction first…)

Have made James a selection of things to keep body and soul together whilst we’re away. There’s now a chili, a chicken casserole, a lasagne and a portion of stew and dumplings in the freezer, and a huge pan of soup on the hob. At least he won’t starve. I bet he’ll have at least one meal at the Turnpike.

I have a batch of eBay auctions finishing in a few hours, and another batch tomorrow night - which just so happens to be when I’m not here. Had a bit of a blonde moment there, didn’t I? Am taking laptop and wireless card, but it all depends on whether there’s a hotspot around Melrose. Got a Bluetooth dongle too, so I guess if push comes to shove I could at least check email for a couple of minutes via mobile. No idea if my phone is configured for that though.

Writing a list of stuff to take to Melrose. Have got as far as: travel cot, dress up clothes, cupcake tins, laptop, phone & charger, Piglet’s milk etc, pushchair, clothes - 6 day’s worth.

Comprehensive, eh? Will have to run around like a loon tomorrow and get it all together. Thing is, I also have to pack for next weekend as well, as I’m not coming home from Melrose directly - we’re veering off to the East Coast to near Skegness on the Friday lunchtime, as it’s a Discovery Owners’ Club weekend. James is meeting us there with the caravan. So I have to pack the truck for me and the girls for 5 days, and also, leave a huge pile of stuff for James to pack into the caravan on Friday morning. Under that Melrose list is another comprehensive list that reads: print caravan packing list, clothes - 2 days worth.

On the ball, aren’t I? And now, instead of doing something essential, like checking the stuff in the tumble drier, or writing a slightly more inclusive list, I’m building a CD of Arabian music as Myf wants me to show her more of the Arabian/belly dancing I’ve been doing. So will take the CD to Melrose and do an impromptu belly dancing workshop. Well, she’ll enjoy it. If she can tear herself away from Fran for long enough. She’s soooo excited about next week. Jax’s Big and Barbara’s E feature strongly in her plans too.

Right, back - just got a tad sidetracked in the kitchen and spent the last 15 minutes dancing around to Loreena McKennitt. What a voice! Must have been that last lemonade in the pub… we even went out for a bite to eat this evening. This having a babysitter lark is a good one, isn’t it? First time in 6 years we’ve been able to ring up the baby sitter have her come round the next evening. The only other babysitter we’ve had has been James’ mum, but she has a better social life than ours and we needed to plan ahead to make sure she wasn’t double booked.

Rambling now, which is fine. The last few months of blog posts have been of a very self-indulgently depressive nature. I think I’ve sorted all the crap in my head out now. Am sane, level and back to normal. (stop laughing at the back, I can hear you). Took Myf to her new school today and we spent a couple of hours there. When I told her it was time to go, she was gutted she wasn’t staying all day! However, her dour, Scottish, severe-looking teacher turns out to be an absoute gem with a real dry sense of humour. She’s fabulous and I think Myf is going to do very well under her supervision. I’m glad I spent a while there today - I’ve had more of an insight into that school in two hours than I had of her last school in the year and a bit she was there. Had a good long chat with the headmaster, and the Reception class teacher, as well as Myf’s Year 2 teacher. Going to persuade them to turn over a corner of the playing field into a little organic allotment. Yeah, I know, one track mind.

Oh - and would you believe I found three packets of seed in a cupboard today? Which takes my total up to a nice round 300. As long as you don’t count the medium homestead package (northern selection) I just bought today from the states… 365 packets of seed, anyone?

4 jobs I have had
Tractor driver
Barmaid
Agricultural research assistant
Desk top publisher

4 Movies I could watch over and over again
Gladiator
Fifth Element
Any James Bond
Disney’s Sword in the Stone

4 places I have been on vacation
Italy
Canada
Croatia
Morocco

4 websites I visit daily
eBay
blogring hub
James’ shop - to check for spelling mistakes
Any one of a dozen seed websites

4 of my fave foods
Jacket potatoes - done crispy in the oven
Chinese/Thai/Japanese/anything Asian
Mince & mash & peas
A full Sunday roast dinner

4 places I would rather be right now
Vancouver, Canada
In my greenhouse
Asleep
Driving

4 cars I have owned
Range Rover (a very old one)
Land Rover (was even older)
Mini
Vauxhall Viva

4 other bloggers to do this
Emma
Nikki
Hazel
Kirsty (when she reappears online)

Just put the last of my seeds into an Excel doc. Finally got into my seed fridge last night and dug everything out to see what exactly I’ve got.

Not counting the duplicates and the odd stray packet that’s lurking in my bedroom/on my desk/under to sofa - there are 297 different entries. And yet I still sit here with my obscenely enormous pile of seed catalogues (aka Horti-porn) thumbing through them wondering if there’s anything I haven’t got. Then again, I’m so sad, I want to buy three packets just to hit the 300 mark.

Oh - and for a bit of HE news, Myf sat and did two whole sheets of double digit addition and subtraction this morning. AND - she got every single one of them right. I had to use my new green pen and ‘mark them properly’ as she asked. Lots of nice green ticks all the way across the page and it looked so lovely. She was extraordinarily pleased with herself. And so she should be! I’ve been telling her all along she can do it - if you ignore the 20 minutes of whining it took to do the last 5 equations - and she did it perfectly. TBH, I would have let her leave the last few, except she started the ‘but I want’ routine, so I got grouchy and made her finish.

She’s already asked for the next lot. Subtraction with carrying… fun!

(And in case anyone is wondering how I can have nearly 300 varieties of veg seed, there are 45 different beans, 14 types of carrot, 13 kinds of corn, 21 peas, 24 various tomatoes and a combined total of 22 squash, both winter and summer - plus another however many of lesser known veg like amaranth and mizuna)

I’ve been clearing out old boxes and bags of stuff, and finding all kinds of crap kicking around.

However, today I pulled out an old spiral bound A4 notebook and flicked through it, trying to decide whether I should just bin it, or if there was enough plain paper in there to give it to Tea to ‘write’ all over. And I found this - written when Myf was small, maybe two years old, before Tea came along, and it’s dredged up a lot of old feelings I thought I’d conquered.

Momma bear growled at me today.
I was washing my paws in the sink.
The water was cold, shimmery and fun,
I was playing whale and sailors, I think.

I tried to say I’m sorry, although I wasn’t sure what for
Though I didn’t think that water really belonged on the floor.
Momma bear got crosser, and she made me go outside.
I took my whale and sailors into my den to hide.