NotSheep

It’s been another one of those weeks in which the sum of everything I remember happening does not seem to correspond with the amount of time I had left over. That might be partially due to the three days I spent battling a headache, in the desperate hope that it would go away before I had to spend a day in the car going to and from the airport. It did finally ease enough that I was able to drive, and so on Thursday we set off with Cyril to put him on a plane back to France. I’m sorry he decided not to continue with the exchange, and I hope he stays in touch, not least for George’s sake. The drive to the airport involved crossing the city at rush-hour, which took almost as much time as the subsequent 100 miles to the airport. I had thought we might have a bit of time with Cyril before he had to go through to the departure lounge without us, but when we asked the check-in staff, they said he should go through straightaway, so goodbyes were brief – although that was probably a good thing anyway. George was in tears before we left the airport; he was okay on Friday and most of yesterday, although he’s a bit more wobbly today, so the fallout could still be on its way.

We spent Friday at the science centre with a couple of other families who are good friends and who home-ed. I very cleverly managed to forget my cameras – both my big one, which was lying on the sofa in my bedroom, and my small one, which usually lives in my bag in case I want to take photos when I’m out and haven’t got my big one – but for some reason it’s not there, and I have no idea of its current whereabouts. So you’ll be spared science-centre photos – for now, anyway. I might make up for it next time

There were some amusing moments during the day – we watched/participated in a demonstration of “slime” (non-newtonian liquids) which was quite difficult for the guy who was doing it, because his entire audience (all home-educated) knew the show inside-out, and he was struggling to keep up with them. “Poke your finger into it quickly…” he said, as they all did various other things that they knew came later on…poor bloke Jack got to go up to stir the slime, which meant he appeared on the television screen above the demonstration, and that produced great excitement from his friend M, who kept trying to get Jack to look around to see himself, and then, when Jack completed his task and returned to his seat, M called, “Bravo!” Then I watched a teacher who was there with a secondary school group attempt to figure out what to do with the laser-harp. I wasn’t sure if he’d prefer to look stupid in front of his pupils because he couldn’t work it out, or to look stupid in front of his pupils because the woman with the baby had come to his rescue and shown him what to do. In the end I left him to it – at least if he looked stupid under his own steam, he couldn’t blame me…

Another show a little later – this one about flight and forces, and again, the only attendees were home-educated kids, and again, they knew all the lines.

Lunch was the usual pizza-fest – about six of the children (mine and others) ran into Pizza Hut ahead of me, ran straight up to the little balcony area we almost always sit in, then Jack came back down the steps to retrieve menus from the stand where it says “please wait to be seated”…it’s a wonder they didn’t go into the kitchen and make their own pizzas. The staff were sensible enough not to try to influence these clearly-conversant-with-the-deal children, and just let them get on with it. They even offered to bring a bunch of pizzas just for us and leave them on a neighbouring table so the kids didn’t have to go down to the buffet – they could still go down if they wanted anything else, but having the pizzas right there meant they were mostly up around us, and it worked very well. We also got a 10% discount because we’d been in the science centre – I’m not sure that discount is meant to apply to the buffet, but they gave it anyway.

We went back into the science centre for the afternoon; the older kids went into one section and the parents and younger kids went into the under-8s area at the opposite end of that level – which is a fairly easy place to be on a term-time afternoon, as the other under-8s are either at school, doing school runs or have gone home for their naps!

Saturday morning brought GCSE practice papers for Barney and paperwork for me (as well as evidence of my body’s returning fertility – bah). I had intentions of getting some housework done, or some of my Spanish course, but didn’t get as far as either of those. During lunch some of Jack’s friends arrived (I’ve lost count of how many girls come to the door for him) and he, ignoring the fact that they’d seen him at Hallowe’en, told them about the costumes everyone had worn. I just hope they didn’t go home and repeat to their parents the information that Freddy “wasn’t just any Sith Lord…he was an S&M Sith Lord!”

After lunch I took Barney and George to GY (youth-club) and went off to try to find myself some clothes, because everything I own that fits me is falling to bits – literally: I’ve had to inspect my jeans each time I’ve worn them recently just to make sure I wasn’t actually arrest-able. The car-parks were full, the shops were busy and over-heated, and the clothes were all labelled with the wrong size – either that or I’m even more depressingly out of shape than I thought. Time to get back on that treadmill…well, a long way past time, really. I bought two pairs of jeans – one pair which only just goes around me, and one pair which fits but could probably use a belt. I hope not to wear out the latter pair before I lose enough weight to fit into the former.

Apart from all of that, there’s been Sea Cadets and ju-jitsu – no Beavers this week, and no fencing either, so the evenings have been a bit less busy than usual. Barney is revising some more, and now that I don’t have Louie in my arms for a while, I’m going to try to get stuck into my Spanish coursework. And if anyone reminds me how many days/weeks it is before Xmas, they’re in So Much Trouble…