Did you ever have one of those days, boys, ever have one of those days?

And it started out so well. Mindful of all comments from yesterdays post, I gave Big half an hours notice of our leaving time, and clear instructions as to what she needed to do, and she was ready within 10 minutes – ended up having to wait for me (got held up feeding Small).

We made it to the park a little late (set off late, and then got held up by a funeral procession, led by a horse drawn hearse, wonder who that was?), to discover that the starting time had been put back half an hour so we were bang on time. Fair length walk to get to the play area, but that was OK, and it was a nice area too. Three dogs with the group today, so Big was very clingy and kept shrieking at them, which doesn’t really help too much, but she won’t listen to me when I explain. 🙁

Spent about an hour and a half with only various children for company as the rest of the adults set up camp in between the two play areas, and I couldn’t really leave Small. So I spent a lot of time picking up lots of small shards of glass, and assisting various children up and down climbing equipment. Didn’t really mind not having anyone to chat with – wasn’t feeling overly talkative.

Then it was getting hot, so we went down to the stream to paddle. Big wasn’t sure about this at all, but she had a little go, and I made a mental note to carry towels and water shoes in future. Sarah arrived with R but they didn’t have much time to socialise before we all had to pack up – the rain was coming. Remember that long walk I mentioned? We did the last part of it at a forced march, taking turns to carry miscellaneous extra small offspring, unnerved by the thunder reverberating around the hills. But we got back to the cars before the rain really started, so that was a bonus. Big’s behaviour wasn’t – she had got stroppy with an adult who asked her to stay away from the gap in the fence that I hadn’t noticed, sulked when I said we were going, got really cross because it was raining, and then stropped when it did! Sigh.

And on the way home, the day went seriously pear-shaped. There’s a big roundabout that I come to, and I was behind this one car. I watched him pull away, pulled forward, looked for my gap, pulled away and smack, somehow he was still in front of me! Aargh…first accident that is pretty much my fault, although I’m still puzzling about how he was there, when I watched him pull away…anyway, he pulled away onto the main road, and I followed to exchange details, assuming that he was just trying to clear the roundabout. Nope, he didn’t stop, and I lost him! So what do you do then? I pulled off and checked my car – no obvious damage, so I rang the local plod and asked what to do – I had to take all my documents to a police station. So there’s a nice way to spend your afternoon, looking for documents and then talking to the police.

The children got a bonus though, as I got Grandma to come and sit with them while I went. Big’s behaviour didn’t improve – I was talking to Grandma, and she wanted attention so she started with “are you deaf?” Aargh…

Went to make tea for the children to discover that dp had forgotten to take his chicken out of the oven last night, so I recooked it for him. 🙁 I could cry…no let’s save that for when Small decides to try to fish his poo out of the toilet while I’m sorting out his nappy! On top of all this the house is an absolute tip, and it took over an hout to get Small to sleep last night, so I didn’t get any work done then and I’m shattered. Plus the neighbourhood cats have found my vegetable patch, and they really like it….

I’ve had enough of today. Shame that Small hasn’t really.