NotSheep

Wednesday:
Despite his expired passport, Barney had no trouble getting on the plane. Or rather, he had no trouble once he got to the correct airport - Scratchy drove him to the wrong one and neither of them had the sense to notice it until they realised that there were no other Cadets around! They had a mad rush to the right place and just made it on time. Unfortunately when the Cadets arrived in Liverpool, the weather wasn’t suitable for taking them up for flying instruction (the cloud was too low), so he didn’t get a chance to fly a plane. But he got a day of wandering about the shops in Liverpool, and there will be other opportunities for flying, so he’s not too upset about it. I have a feeling that Toby was missing Barney while he was away; he was very, uh, challenging. It makes me think about how much little kids whose older siblings are always out at school must be missing out.

Thursday:
I went shopping, determined to finish off my Christmas gift-list. I didn’t quite make it - I have two gifts left to buy, both (I hope) in the same place, but rather than go there in the middle of the afternoon and then deal with a rush-hour journey home, I decided to just go home and leave it until another time. It wasn’t helping that I had all the children with me (which isn’t unusual) and that Barney was exhausted after being away all day on Wednesday and was thus quite the opposite of helpful (which is unusual). But overall, I’m feeling very pleased with how organised I am this year - all the cards are written, addressed, sealed and stamped, and with the exception of those I’ll deliver by hand, are sitting in a pile on the kitchen counter, ready to be posted tomorrow. I’ve also wrapped all the gifts I’ve purchased - there are a few that have been bought on-line which haven’t been delivered yet, but really, the bulk of it’s done. I can’t help thinking there must be some huge job that I’ve completely forgotten, and that is going to throw me completely off-course!

Friday:
It was my turn to be tired and grumpy - I woke stiff and headachy and hoping I wasn’t getting sick. I had a couple of people out to measure and quote for blinds for the bedrooms (the old verticals were well beyond the point of no return!) but otherwise there wasn’t much that needed done. After lunch I left Barney, George and Freddy at the barber’s, came home and put on a DVD for Jack and Toby, and snuggled with Louie on the sofa. My cunning plan to have the older three finished at the barber’s around the time that Scratchy would be on his way home didn’t quite work, as they were later than expected, but it did at least mean that I didn’t have to pack up the younger three into the car again to go and collect the others.

And then…Saturday:
In the morning we prepared for the arrival of various friends, and from early afternoon they started to drift in. Shortly before 4, those who were going to the movies left for the movies - the numbers worked out very nicely, as we’d 14 people going, so my friend K drove my car and Scratchy drove his and that let me stay at home with Louie and my friend J and cups of tea. The younger children attending went to see Madagascar 2, and the over-10s watched Ghost Town. The former finished half an hour before the latter, which gave just enough time for Scratchy to come home to collect Louie and me - what timing! At about 6.15, we all met up in the Pizza Hut just down the street from the movie-theatre and went about emptying their refrigerators. It’s quite amazing how fast such quantities of food can be inhaled when there are a handful of teens and pre-teens around the table!

Some of us were vegetarian, and when the second (or perhaps the third - I’d lost count) vegetarian pizza was served, it had something on it which looked suspiciously like sausage-meat. We pointed it out to the waiter, who was very apologetic. “I’ll go into the kitchen and make you a vegetarian one myself,” he said, “Honestly, that lot in the kitchen can’t understand simple instructions. They couldn’t manage an English GCSE between them!”

(We sort of disagree with him about the people in the kitchen though, because all the food was very good indeed!)

Barney’s birthday cake was presented and he set about blowing out 14 candles - except that there were 14 of those magic self-relighting candles on it, so it took quite a while!

Home afterwards for tea and talking around the kitchen table for the adults, and a riotous evening in front of various Nintendo-type consoles for the children. Some of them went home, some stayed over - and so I present - Sunday:

Everyone still here now is in bed, thoroughly tired out by a most excellent weekend. Thinking we might do a St-Nicholas-type thing next weekend, with chocolates in shoes followed by putting up the Christmas decorations