NotSheep

I think we were all a bit more shaken than we realised by George’s close shave on Monday. Certainly I didn’t sleep at all well on Monday night, and while George seemed to be fine overnight, yesterday was a different story. He was clearly on edge during the day, and when he had a minor argument with his friend from across the road (they’re eight and nine years old, so it was all “You’re never allowed to play in my house again!” etc), it led to the mother of all meltdowns It took me nearly an hour to bring him through it. Lots of “I’m terrible; I’m crap at everything; I hate everyone; I want to die” etc In true George style, two minutes after we got past all that, the world was just fine and dandy and he was smiling and talking like nothing had ever happened. His friend stayed for dinner, and they spent most of it writing their names in funny ways in the steam on the conservatory windows. Friend then played for a short while before going home, and was back here today, so clearly yesterday’s threats didn’t last long. What a surprise

Today we made a start on a jigsaw puzzle of Escher’s “Relativity” - hard work, I can tell you! Not sure how long this one will take us, and just glad we can pull the plastic cover on the table back over it rather than having to finish it in one session

Scratchy took the car to our mechanic this morning, but the mechanic wasn’t going to be able to finish the work today - again, not a surprise - so Scratchy came back by bike and train. I’d suggested he took the bike in the back of the car this morning; he hadn’t thought about it but I think he was glad he took my suggestion, because it probably saved him at least two hours of walking. Later, for a variety of reasons, I took Barney and George out for a ride - we went the whole way into town (slight downhill most of the way), heading for the cycle shop. Got there to find that it’s closed on Wednesdays! Coming back is, of course, slightly uphill most of the way, so that was a bit more of a challenge. I planned a route that involved a couple of short, steep hills and left the rest flat, but George was having issues with gear-changes - he coudn’t change gear because he wouldn’t keep pedalling while he moved the handlebar thingy, and he couldn’t/wouldn’t pedal because it was too hard in too high a gear… and as ever, George is definitely one to turn a crisis into a drama (or whatever it was that insurance company used to say in their ads), so there was lots of “I’m dying!” and “My legs are broken!” going on. We did eventually make it home, having ridden about eight miles. Despite the last 2-3 miles, I was quite impressed with how George handled it, to be honest. And quite impressed at how I managed too - it’s a lot of years since I used to cycle to work! Barney is really quite fit - he was taking hills without any problem at all. We managed a bit of road safety on the way too - things like crossing roads with a bike, and choosing the best routes. So overall, not a bad trip, though I could definitely have done without the drama of the last couple of miles.

Car should be back tomorrow, so I can probably go for a few more years before I get on a bike again