Sisters

of which I have three, and we managed to meet up with two yesterday.

We hadn’t seen the youngest one for so long that Small didn’t recognise his cousins. L is 6 months older than him and starts school full time next week, and O is 10, going up to middle school this time. Apparently it’s cost nearly £200 for their combined uniforms! O was very interested to hear that Big and Small only go to school 3 days, he wants to go to their school too, but when I pointed out that instead of 28 kids in the class there are only 3, he rethought the idea rapidly. Gotta larf, haven’t you?

Anyway, we met up at Cannon Hall farm which I heartily recommend as a good day out if the weather’s up to it. The adventure playground has had a drastic revamp since the last time we were there, and is now positively enormous – slightly wearing if you’re trying to keep an eye on more than one child at any point, as they can disappear without trace in seconds. Small was fixated on a very large slide thing (I have pictures, but the media centre is rebooting so I can’t get at them just now) so at least I knew where he was, even if I was having kittens about him being there. Big decided it was too big for her and went to find somewhere safer to play!

We had a break for a picnic lunch, during which Small informed me he needed the toilet, and then part way there that we hadn’t made it fast enough. I wouldn’t mind except that he’d point blank refused to go when we’d walked past it a few minutes earlier. So we went on to the toilet then all the way back to the car to change. By the time we’d finished eating he’d decided that cousins are not such a bad invention, and they were having a great time together.

After lunch we walked back to the cars, then back to the farm and went round all the animals. There are a lot of animals – your usual goats, pigs, cows, sheep and then also llamas and alpacas that you can feed, as well as a lonely looking mara in a field. Even Small got into feeding them – not a bad wheeze charging extra for food so that your animals get fed for free as it were! Eventually they tired of animals, so we went and milked the fake cows some more and then they had time for a last 15 minutes sliding.

So a very active several hours, we said goodbye to Auntie K and climbed in the car to go and see Auntie K. (Yes, my parents gave my younger sisters the same initials, just like they did for us elder pair. The younger two got it worse though, as even their middle initials are the same.) This second Auntie K is the one who was in hospital a couple of weeks ago, and this was the first time I’d called to see her since. She looks better in that she’s upright now, but so far from her usual self as for it to be slightly scary. Apparently after the kidney infection that put her in hospital, she contracted a second infection (campillobacter I think she said) which caused such severe d&v that she ended up in her own room with ensuite as she couldn’t make it to the loos by herself. She needed to talk through it, so we sat and chatted for an hour or more, and then we left, without the usual feeding of children, as she wasn’t up to it.

This did cause a slight hitch in the proceedings, as by this time it was 18.30 and I had two tired and hungry children, 40 miles from home. So I called Tim and we worked out the most convenient Happy Meals (two nights running! The shame!) and I headed there via a garage to insert air and fuel into the relevant orifices of the car.

Got patronised by a very rude member of staff in the local coop garage – don’t you just wish that you could wind back time and say the things you think of over the next 5 miles of driving? Things like, I’m sorry to interrupt your conversation, but I’d quite like to pay now. And so the reason I can’t see the air pump is because you’ve moved it but not the sign? And, if they are really leaving you in charge over the next couple of weeks, I’m quite worried for the future of this establishment! But I didn’t, I was just meek and pathetic while I was in the shop and she sneered at me. Grr.

Got very lively children home with food by 19.45 and let Small out of the car to discover he’d wet himself for the second time that day, and this time without even telling me he needed to. So I got to end a hectic day by taking his car seat to bits – fun, fun, fun. But they seemed to have enjoyed themselves, so I guess that’s the important bit, and I’ve done my bit towards family relations for the next year. And delivered several very delayed birthday and christmas presents, in time to clear out room for the next stack coming.

Today I’ve spent mostly in here (the office upstairs) trying, and mainly failing, to get to grips with business and personal paperwork. I’ve dealt with incompetencies of all kinds, including my own, and now I’m about ready to clear off downstairs, drink tea, eat food, and follow it up with chocolate. To compound my changed appearance I’ve got a contact lens fitting tomorrow and I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve never been mousey brown with glasses inside, and now I’m sorting out that the rest of the world can see me too.