To the Manor Born

Today started off very well with a soak in a bubble bath . It’s been ages since I’ve been able to have a bath – I do prefer them to showers but need significantly more time available to me. Got up at 7:30am especially to fit a soak in .

Having roused M, C got up and breakfasted then we drove into town to meet B&R so that we could have the pleasure of Ruby’s company for the day . Girls played universities for much of the day – researching writers and writing, geography and so on, then decided to open their own restaurant, devising menus and planning the launch.

I spread bay leaves on a rack to dry, blogged, made and cleared away lunch things, made lots of tea.  I then spent a lot of time trying to find local temp jobs and depressing myself.  Have decided to leave it now until I get back from France and just print off my cv and tout for work at agencies and selected businesses in person.  Jobs posted online are often out of date and searching leads you to sites with lists of sites with lists of sites of sites where you may find a job posted.

Distracted myself by looking up what has happened to bosses I have previously known.  My favourite boss (as he was enthusiastic and most importantly just trusted me to do my job, letting me just get on and do it – I can’t stand being micro managed (although I knew he did this by casually going through my files to check progress after I’d gone home in the evening – this was fine by me, far preferable to being interrogated every 5 minutes) ) is now a director of a football club (amongst other directorships) and his wife (who I never had the pleasure of working for although I would have loved to) is CEO of an agency we once used.

B then came to collect R and we had a chinwag in the kitchen.  Next term is going to be tough for them. 

C received a lovely email from her Maman day before yesterday and today received a most lovely welcoming email from her French sister.  She feels very much wanted and that they are very much looking forward to her coming to stay with them so has no concerns on that basis (especially after receiving today’s email), she is just concerned about missing me.  She said on Wednesday that she just wanted to get there and do the sad bit so she could be happy again.  I trust she will be happy again really quickly.

M was happy with me being home as he stresses with having workmen here when I’m not around as I get in at the end of the day and find issues. I accept that there will always be issues, generally solved by throwing more money at the problem, but he has this optimism that things will go to plan every time.

Bath is mostly done. I had painstakingly lifted and cleaned tiles but Neil found more to come off and be reset. Seems done now though I can see why it is more cost effective to rip out and replace with new as rip out and replace is far quicker.

Old shower and sink have come out revealing some rather fab wallpaper behind the shower walls. We are leaving the paper there and covering over again but wanted photos as it was such a lovely surprise to see flowers, birds and butterflies hidden in there.

New sink is too large so have ordered a newer smaller one which will allow the shower door to open more fully. The space is tight. I didn’t want concertina or bi-fold doors as think they are more difficult to clean. I am happy to have a smaller sink (which is still larger than the previous sink that I am hoping to have relocated to the downstairs toilet area) in order to have a one section full door.

Wiring has been fed into the shower area (we are having an electric shower installed such that in the summer I need not use the boiler at all and if the boiler breaks down (has been known . . .) we have a method of washing that doesn’t involve carrying pans of hot water upstairs from the kitchen). Wiring run to fuse box not yet done as that needs to be done by the electrician when he replaces that fuse box with a larger one.

The back wall has been fitted with acoustic plasterboard and skimmed over. I am not convinced the plasterboard is any different to regular plasterboard but they can put “acoustic” in front and charge more. Most of the wall is chimney breast but it does partly back onto Jake’s bedroom next door – can see him wanting a drum kit as he gets older. However, can also see his mum saying “No” so it’s possible we are going to this trouble for nothing. Hey ho. I guess we’ll know we have done what we can should next door get noisy and it may muffle the sound of C’s electric guitar a little .

Clo and I cut the box hedging with my new trimmer. She even helped clear away the trimmings! She then wanted to clean the terracotta tiles so I helped her with that (needs another go) and then she and I ended up having a water fight. She was getting M to help her by secretly filling buckets up.

Once we’d dried off we went through her en famille booklet. She is worried about missing us. We talked about what to do if she starts crying on the phone to us – she said I should just finish the call. She’s right as once she starts crying there’s nothing I am going to be able to do over a phone line other than make her cry more and cry longer. I am worried about the moment of parting. Leaving her at PGL was horrendous and although she said she was fine afterwards and just forgot about us, I still haven’t forgotten how horrendous that parting moment was. I suggested she just pretend she’s seeing me in a few days but she’s not convinced of her ability to pretend that well.

She did a craft kit and we had a delicious dinner (chicken curry with Bombay potato and cauliflower with rice and naan bread). She then decided she was tired and wanted to go to bed, not watching a “Yes, Prime Minister” episode. Typical Clo, once upstairs she needed to tell me all the planets and their distances in km from the sun. Eventually got her tucked in.

Not an official Latinetc as that had been last week when Helen and Merry had also been able to attend, but Zoe hadn’t been able to attend last week as they’d been ill and as Katy and I had said ages ago we’d spend the day together we ended up with Gina and Zoe to enjoy a reduced Latinetc day.

So, Clo’s last get together with Katy, Zoe and Gina’s families (or should it be “Katy’s, Zoe’s and Gina’s families”?).  Katy’s J had made an excellent cake for her with an Eiffel Tower that apparently took considerable time and patience:

She also received surprise gifts!  Skye had made C a brooch.  Zoe’s girls had picked out what they thought of as “Chloe Colours” for their gifts, they matched perfectly with her outfit .

Poppy was very ambitious having made a Chloe Doll.  It’s just like her too – with a big smile .

L had written a fab card – not another “Good Bye” would fit.  

She’s obviously been talking to C as L has put the umlaut is over the “o” as we put it on her birth certificate (having taken it from a book); “Chlöe”. I’ve had people tell me we’re wrong and some tell us it’s fine so in the end we don’t bother as a rule especially as most of the time I think I’m right no matter whether it dipthongs or not as I often don’t say the “e” sound, calling her “Clo” when talking to her (unless calling for her in which case all her four names may get brought into play ). It’s also difficult when the English keyboard doesn’t readily enable umlauts, dieresises or accents of any kind so you tend not to bother using any at all.

Lots of Chloe variants listed here.

She’ll be “Chloé” or “Cloé” for the next 6 months anyway.

Those who play recorder played them. The duets are rather lovely, the sound is somehow less parpy when playing duets outside:

She did lots of music theory, French (a game that went down well with all reviewing contents of the pencil case in the hope that she will know what to get out when instructed by her teacher), Latin, lunch and stitch and sew. Then as I’d cancelled yoga to give us more time with friends before she goes, she had time to do some playing, running around the field at the back, making a den in the tree area in the far corner (they always choose a far corner, never a near one!).

Gina had made a delicious fruit crumble. Loved her E saying proudly “Gina made it all by herself!” .

On the way home I struggled with a supermarket shop when the self service checkout didn’t print off my 5p off a litre of fuel receipt so had to get that sorted at the desk. This took a while and I became grumpy as they first tried to suggest it was because I bought baby formula which doesn’t count towards the £50 level required (no – I had no baby formula, just alcohol, some of which I was beginning to feel the need of sooner rather than later), then they tried and failed to find the receipt in the machine, then told me they would have to refund it all and run my trolley load through a till again. Unfortunately my grumpiness at the assistants spilled over into snapping at C a bit. She wisely decided to just stay away from the situation at the customer service till and look at the magazines instead. It eventually got sorted with a store manager authorising a store refund and a store credit for the total amount, thus triggering a discount voucher to be produced by the till.

I apologised to C once we’d got in the car. C was naturally upset at being unfairly snapped at in the store and when I said I was tired and it’s always difficult for me when she doesn’t want to leave places (she hadn’t wanted to go home when we were at Katy’s), she said she hadn’t wanted to leave as she was sad that she wouldn’t be seeing any of them again for a while. She said she was tired too. She needs a few decent night’s sleep to restore equilibrium, her emotions are always harder for her to check when she is tired (just like me – need to make sure I get a few decent night’s sleep too).

I nearly had ”Picking up Buoys” as this blogpost’s title but it turns out the “tosh” that gets picked up in “tosh the splosh” is actually a spacehopper, not a buoy.

Chloe had a marvellous time at the CMBA Annual Rally in Cardiff. They won “Tosh the Splosh” (a game where you have a course to complete, part way grabbing “Tosh” and waving it in the air for the amusement of the crowds, before returning it to the ring and completing the lap. Mum and Keith now have a rather impressive red Welsh Dragon statue on their mantlepiece .

Unfortunately, C was having far too much fun being part of a mob of small and not-so-small girls (plus one boy who kept calling for her (turned out he’s only 6yo )) to think about taking any pictures. The only pictures she took are on the journey back home to M&K’s:

As promised in An Irishman’s Diary, there should be a Northern Ireland CMBA rally next year (there’s a pic of Mum, Keith and Clo in his blog if you scroll down). As I have wanted to go to the Giant’s Causeway for many a year and think we should go whilst we have Rose with us (I am thinking of showing her “England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales” – 6 months is not long enough!), I think we should also attend, hopefully seeing some HE-ors over there whilst in the area .

It was mooted to have many of us mainland HE-ors camping in N.I. next year, maybe we could combine the two? Will hope to get provisional dates asap.

I used the time to have a massive sort out of Chloe’s bedroom. I had made an agreement with C that I could do this whilst she is in France, boxing up the things I decreed not essential in a 10yo’s life for her to sort on her return, but as I had time on my hands this weekend, I decided that there’s no time like the present and I could sort out whilst she was in Cardiff, such that she could agree yay or nay to casting out items before she goes to France, such that I wouldn’t need to box up for long term storage. Gratifyingly she has saved very little so it was a success. In the process I cleared two bookcases: The brown bookcase temporarily stored in her room (yet temporarily has proved long enough for her to find it a useful storage facility for her own possessions overflow) and the second green bookcase that will be exclusively for Rose’s use. I also freed up two baskets on Rose’s shelves for smaller items and 3 of the 6 pockets on the wall hanger for hairbrush and bits and any other little treasures she may have / acquire.

Got M to also sort through some of his books and the CD unit. Was good. I have a habit of buying books (our local HE group shares premises with the scout booksale table so it is far too tempting to keep coming home with books but just don’t have sufficient bookshelves!). Had a bootful of M’s and my stuff to drop off at the charity shop on the way to Mum’s on Monday morning .

Edited to add:  Was very pleased to have successfully installed Google Translate on the blog on Sunday night so now my words can be read all over the world .  Woke M up especially to tell him the good news but he didn’t seem that impressed.

I have installed it largely so that C’s French family may find it easier to read.  However, I think my writing style is too informal with excessive use of colloquialisms to translate particularly well.  I may need to consider grammar and sentence construction a little more carefully in the future.  Hoping it won’t mean blogging takes too long to write (which would mean fewer blogs) or that I lose my “voice” as a consequence iyswim.

Monday

We all set off first thing to visit the plumbing shop to look at shower wall colours, Neil had dropped off a sample and we weren’t sure about it.  So visited the shop, perused all the colours and changed our minds entirely

Monday was also the day set aside as the day to get C a proper bra fitting.  Not that she wants to wear a bra but I thought she may like to have them in her bag in France.  If they don’t get worn then fine, if she finds she wants to wear one she has them there with her.  I do think she could use something when playing sports such as tennis so this way she has the choice.  We also bought her a nightie as I have only permitted pyjamas at home due to sleeping in a high bed and I worry about her ability to negotiate the steps in anything too long.  Of course the nightie she chose is a short one so would probably be fine at home too, I had imagined a long nightgown such as I’d had when a child.  Great for tucking your feet up into on freezing nights.  I had a room where the ice formed on the inside of the windows and it was a perishing cold place to wake up in.  I had a little floor electric heater and stood over it every morning in the winter to defrost before getting dressed for school, nightgown billowing around me.  Sounds Victorian but I’m really not that old!  Didn’t see nightgowns like that in the store anyway.

We had lunch at a bakery we used to lunch in every Monday between her art session and guitar lesson.  We ordered exactly what we had used to order, corned beef hash.  Neither of us thought it was as good as it used to be.  Maybe the cook has changed.

Drove home and picked up the last bag of sweets Chloe’s Maman had brought us when they visited last month.  Walked to M’s up the road and Chloe had a fab time playing with the boys as usual.  M and I wandered to the end of their garden (I think it is my favourite garden of all my friends), saw the swans with their 5 cygnets (more teenage now really) and enjoyed that until the Daddy Swan seemed to be getting a bit worried about our presence so we made a tactical retreat.  The sweets were gorgeous (marzipan), shared all round and disappeared very quickly.  As usual, Chloe didn’t want to leave, so M got the boys’ tea ready which meant C had to come home with me for her dinner.

Tuesday

Updated CV and applied for a job.  Am very concerned about being older and the ten year gap.  Also as I only want something for whilst C isn’t here, I am looking for something temporary which tends to be low level.  I’m fine with the low level work but CV looks incongruous with the posts I’m applying for.  It’ll be a checkout job for sure .

Clo had attempted to do her hair herself, which led to tears as she said it wasn’t tight enough. I thought it looked fine – less severe than when I do it but she was later to be proved right about tighter being better as by lunchtime she looked a mess.

We had planned to meet up with Deb et al and other friends at the local museum for a Tudor Apothecary day but Beccy had sent a text yesterday saying the Education Officer had had a heavy shelf fall on her so was out of action and the day was cancelled.  So, arranged for C and I to go to Deb’s house where we stayed for lunch, wandering into town afterwards for Deb to treat us to pudding at a place in town that specialises in just desserts.

I wanted to book an eye test for C so popped in to find they could do it straight away. Her eyesight is fine so I can relax about the whole blackboard at school thing (do they still have blackboards in schools in France or have they moved to interactive whiteboards as in all the schools here?).

C then wanted to tick off another couple of books for the reading challenge at the library.  This took AGES.  The woman spent so long talking to C that two other families who’d already stood for ages gave up and left.  Wish I’d interrupted to let the woman know.  If I’d been waiting that long I would have politely asked myself if they would be much longer rather than hovering nearish, sighing heavily and then walking out complaining.

D had gone into a bespoke kitchen shop whilst waiting for us.  She needs to talk to T about upping the budget .

Regrouping for pudding, C had apple pie, I had waffles with maple syrup, A-L had knickerbocker glory, Tilda had chocolate brownie and Deb had chocolate and pecan waffles.  All very delicious.  We ended up staying there for ages as it started to rain heavily and we had hoped it would pass over.  No such luck.  Got soaked walking back to Deb’s house such that I left C there to stay and play, squelching home by myself to pick her up with the car later.  I was so wet that in the end I stopped avoiding puddles as it made no difference to how wet I got.  Drowned rats look more attractive than I did when I got home.  Had a long hot shower .

Wednesday

Had a rather wonderful Latinetc session.  Those who learn instruments had their lessons, whilst others did music theory, science or Latin, rotating around.  The sun shone, everyone was happy, ’twas good.

Taking information on what was done in science from Petits Haricots as erm, that seems easiest really:

“science was chemistry, using our ‘mystery’ chemical – obtained from watering our wood fire to put it out, and collecting and diluting that water… [and testing that it wasn't caustic!] we reminded ourselves on pH, what that meant, acids and bases/alkali. also using litmus papers pink and purple, and then mixing varying amounts of our acid [trusty acetic acid] and mystery alkali [almost certainly potassium hydroxide] ad showing that although our base was more alkali than our acid was acidic [pH13 vs pH3] that the acid neutralised the base such that most outcomes were neutral or acidic. and then, because i love chemistry, we added equal amounts of our base to a saturated solution of copper sulphate, this probably gave us copper hydroxide – it is certainly supposed to, but reading round the internet suggests that actually this doesn’t always do it! luckilly it did precipitate out and was rather cool all round. we then discussed solubility etc etc. lots of ‘real words’ bandied about, double displacement etc. i just want the terms to all seem familiar and normal really.”

Older Music Theory group did seem to show signs of “messin’” when they were supposed to be getting on with their work which will not be tolerated when C returns!  The boys were supposed to be helping C with starting her Grade 3 book – it was a bit daunting to open the book to the first page and seeing a sea of black lines and squiggles, normally the books start off easy.  In fairness, the questions I believe were easy but didn’t look it on first glance!

She got her certificate and marks breakdown for Grade 2 – Merit!  Just 2 marks off a distinction.  Given the absolute lack of any application to doing music theory anywhere other than once a fortnight in a group session with Gina, I do think this is a minor miracle.  If she would ever apply herself that girl could do great things.

Sadly she has too many of her parents’ traits of can’t be botheredness to ever really reach dizzy academic success.  Ah well.  So long as she’s happy and able to support herself to the manner in which she’d like to be supported that’s all that matters I guess . . .

She was delighted with her leaving present from SB, hours of work and love for C made out of Fimo;

Dashed home for yoga.  Lots of joint work that both C and I felt the effects of the following morning.

Thursday

A long day taking C to meet Mum and Keith so she could spend a long weekend with them boating.  She has been very excited about this for months.

Paused for a cuppa at The Portico which was lovely, seeing the middle two and L&S’s C.  Admired E’s Rubik Cube bedroom and B’s glittery one.  Struggled to get out of their town (is it ever easy?  I always seem to be stuck in heavy traffic leaving that town).  Didn’t experience the joys of driving at more than 5mph for more than about 15 minutes until an accident on the motorway closed two lanes, then the M25 was also hideous with roadworks and congestion caused from a tunnel closure.  I was at the point of being driven insane sat in my metal box for so long.  Nearly kissed the wheely bins when I pulled onto the drive in front of them.

Friday

It was raining hard.  It was cold and miserable.  These conditions manifested themselves in my psyche.

I applied for another job – one I really want so definitely won’t get.  I am surprised at how few jobs there are in my town.  Ideally I want temporary part time work walkable from home (I am having fantasies about Not Using the Car), I have now extended this to walkable from home or a very short drive and temporary full time or part time and still not found much.  Given that I’m not exactly looking for much (admin types roles are fine) I am surprised at how little there is.

After lunch M came to do the supermarket shopping whilst I ran a few errands in town, including going by a recruitment agency I knew of.  Except it has closed, all staff and vacancy information being moved to another office over half an hour away.

We had tacos for dinner and watched a film about Graeme Obree.  Have since spent a lot of time researching him.  Am really upset on his behalf that he gets NO royalties from the film so DO NOT BUY THE FILM but borrow our version.  I wanted to tell you to go buy his book “The Flying Scotsman”, but the new edition isn’t out until 1st October.  Register your interest and buy some copies then.  Christmas will be coming.

A review by a John Richards for the hardcover version says;

“Graeme Obree’s motivation to achieve the cycling one-hour world record must make him unique. His childhood left him feeling worthless, an emotion that has dogged him throughout his life as his personal barometer swings from high to low and back with alarming consequences. On high, he undertakes training schedules few could match, and combines his athleticism with an insight into bicycle design which is sensational, given that the machine has remain vitually unchanged for 100 years.

On low, he attempts sucicide, conflicts with those closest to him who are trying to help, and drinks to forget.

Reading this candid autobiography is compulsive, you just can’t put it down. As you finish the last page you hope that the tide has turned, and the Obree family will live happily ever after. If you buy this book you will be helping to ensure that they do.”

It’s that last paragraph that makes me want to buy copies for everyone.  Whether you like cycling or not, whether you read English or not .

I admire him for his battle against depression, his energy and determination to succeed in the things he wanted to, against all odds and I admire him for his stance against EPO drugs within the professional cycling circuit.

Next time I get to Edinburgh I am going to pay homage to the bike he built, Old Faithful, permanently stored at the Museum of Scotland.

Ruby enjoyed exploring her Djeco Draw A Fashion Show Art Kit but C was initially reluctant so I wondered if she would be inspired by the Kandinsky work done at Lecielrouge and Patch of Puddles, digging out our copy of “The Usborne Art Treasury”. C did a Kandinsky piece but wasn’t really interested in finishing it, so flicked through the book and instead was inspired to make a Picasso clown collage.

C went off to Badger camp. She came home shattered but had enjoyed herself very much so that’s good. She says the food is better at Badger Camp but the activities are better at PGL. She still had some fabulous activities; pedal cars, wall climbing, Lego challenge (she won a certificate for giving the clearest instructions) but particularly enjoyed Water Splash;

“With constant activity around Sapper Lake, we call it ‘Water Splash’ which includes our ‘Black hole’ water slide, canoe seal launch, water zip line, water roller, floating gladiators, water rocker, many inflatables, water canon bridge challenge and water skiing (Thriftwood style).”

She and Megan were the only Badgers that went from their Sett. As Meg’s dad works near Thriftwood he kindly did both the dropping off and collection .

M and I went out for lunch, enjoyed a coffee in the market square, I blogged and got some outstanding jobs ticked off. Was quite nice really.

After C got back on Wednesday night (very late), she and I had a Thursday morning Yoga session, then we collected Rubes (slight detour to take Beccy to PC World to collect a router and I needed to take some screws back to B&Q so did that too whilst in town). C had the speediest dental appointment ever and then we popped into the museum where B collected R. C and I then went into the library, bimbled around Waitrose and home.

Editing to add: C told me a lovely story of something that had happened on camp. There had been two girls who were fostered together up to the age of about 9. Then their foster parents decided to divorce and the girls were each found new homes but they weren’t able to stay together (as they weren’t siblings), so they never saw each other again. Then at camp (Badger camp was a part of the bigger Cadet camp that went on for longer) they recognised each other, they are now teenagers and have sworn to keep in touch from now on. I felt all weepy hearing it.

C was upset M hadn’t included her favourite dolphin shot in his blog post.

So I asked her to identify the photo she’d wanted included.

She selected eleven favourite shots!  She clearly has no idea how long it takes to upload individual photographs!

These are Chloe’s favourite pictures: