NotSheep

To explain some of the previous post: 2007 sees not just the Centenary of Scouting, but also the 21st World Jamboree, which will be held in Essex. It has long been tradition that Scouts attending a Jamboree in a country which is not their own travel via another country which is more local to it, staying a few days in that country beforehand, and they are hosted by volunteer families during that time. This is called Home Hospitality, or HoHo.

Swedish and Japanese Scouts will be arriving here this week; our District is one of those selected to host Scouts from Japan. Each participating family usually hosts two Scouts (or two Leaders), and we were going to be hosting two boys, aged 15 and 17 - until this week, when a parent in one of the other host families broke her leg. Since we have room and so many children that we no longer notice a few extras ;-), we offered to host a second pair. And so we have two 15-year-olds, and two 17-year-olds, coming to us from Tuesday to Friday.

(Asking if we could help, the District Commissioner said to me, “I’ve got a little problem.” “Are you sure,” I asked, “that it’s the kind of thing you want to discuss with me?” “Oh,” he replied, “I didn’t think anybody had noticed that.” LOL)

Barney will just miss them; he’s probably going to be returning next Sunday. We asked him yesterday if he wanted someone to go to collect him from France, or if he was happy to take the flight alone, and initially he very definitely said he didn’t want to fly alone, but this morning he told us he had thought about it some more, and that he just wanted to do whatever was easiest for his French family, and that would be for him to fly on his own. I know it’s not really what he wants, and I hope it’s not too difficult for him. I offered to send him a copy of HP7 so he could read it during the flight and make the time go faster, and he eagerly accepted the offer, so I’ll have to get one packaged and posted first thing on Monday.

I’ve now read most of it twice, having finished my first reading in the early hours of Wednesday George is nearly at the end too, he started at about 9 o’clock this morning. He didn’t even read all day - he, Freddy and Jack were off at a birthday party for the boy next door for most of the afternoon. It was very weird to be in the house with Toby fast asleep and the others all gone

Speaking of Toby, he had a hearing test yesterday; he doesn’t use any words consistently yet and the paediatrician wanted it done because it’s what they’d usually do for a child his age who wasn’t talking. I thought it was a waste of time; I knew his hearing was fine, and we already knew why his speech is delayed - but in the interests of appearing cooperative I agreed. He passed the test with flying colours; at least the paed had the grace to say “Well, Mum was right and I was wrong - as I knew she would be!” I do feel his speech needs some encouragement though, so I phoned the speech therapist this week and asked her to see him again soon (she was going to re-assess him next April); she’s sending out an appointment. She offered us a cancellation for next Wednesday, but I think I might be slightly busy then

After the test we went to visit the local butcher, as we do every Friday. My dogs are on a prey-model diet and he provides the food. He keeps a great big bucket with a lid in his walk-in refrigerator, and he puts anything he can’t sell into it: ststuff thatuff that didn’t sell, stuff that he’d never sell, stuff where the cutting went wrong, etc. We get everything from whole chickens to beef heart, and the dogs love it. Once a week I go in with another great big bucket with a lid, and he dumps everything from his into mine. Most weeks it’s about what the dogs eat in a week; sometimes it’s a bit more, sometimes a bit less, but it seems to balance out well, and if we’re ever short (which doesn’t happen often), I throw in whatever happens to be on sale at the supermarket. I take my bucket home and freeze the contents in portions of approximately what the dogs will eat in a day, then every evening I take out one container to thaw overnight. It’s a great diet for the dogs, with loads of benefits for them and us - not least of which is that it costs us nothing. I do usually buy something from the butcher when I go in to collect it, but everything he sells is so good that it’s not exactly a hardship

Yesterday Freddy asked if he could go in with me when I collected the dogs’ food “just to see what it’s like”. (Freddy and Scratchy are the reasons I’m not a vegetarian.) He had a look around and said, “Can I buy something? I’ve got my money with me.” I agreed, and eventually he settled on pork-and-chili sausages. The butcher says he doesn’t get many eight-year-old boys in asking for pork-and-chili sausages. He also gave Freddy lollipops for him and his brothers, so we got about nine days’ worth of food for the dogs, four lollipops and about ten prize-winning sausages, all for the low cost of £1.90, which Freddy paid anyway