NotSheep

Gah – over a week to remember. Must blog more frequently. I think I might have said that before. The problem is that to blog, I need two things: both hands free for typing, and a few functioning brain-cells. Each of these things is a tall order right now, and I need them to occur simultaneously…

So my last post was a week ago yesterday. When it finished, I was planning to take the boys swimming. Well, we packed our swimming-bags and got in the car and drove to the swimming-pool…and as I drove, I became increasingly frustrated and fed up with the bickering I could hear from the back of the car, and so when we got to the swimming-pool, I drove past and drove back home. The children were not impressed. Nor was I. We did some skool instead, and in the evening Jack and Freddy went to ju-jitsu and came home with the news that they will be grading next month.

On Saturday there was more revision, and more GCSE practice papers, for Barney. The others did a bit of skool too. Jack finished up when his friends started to call for him – the doorbell rang four times in ten minutes and it was someone for Jack every time. He and his friends (mostly girls) ended up sitting in the conservatory – playing schools

On Sunday – yet more practice papers for Barney, more skool for the others, and I did a bit of work on my OU Spanish course, including writing three-quarters of the first TMA.

I have no recollection of what happened on Monday, but I daresay it involved GCSE past papers. I do remember that the weather was wild and wet, but I only remember that because when we went out on Tuesday morning, so many people commented on how different it was. We went to the library, having first deposited Barney at the barber’s. He was beginning to look a bit like a manga character (which is still better than Scratchy, who has begun to bear some resemblance to Freddie Boswell). Grumpy Fusspot Librarian was on duty again – this time she was complaining about children running in the library. Apparently we aren’t the only ones who think she needs to get a grip, for one of the other library patrons muttered some amused comments to me about her. I suspect she’d prefer that people didn’t use the library at all. One day she’ll catch me in a bad mood and I’ll make a complaint about her instead of laughing it off.

Tuesday evening brought Beavers for Jack and Scouts for George, and Wednesday morning heralded the final GCSE practice papers for Barney – well, until he starts going through the next lot (which will be sooner than either he or I would like). When Scratchy finished work, he collected Barney and they left for our friends’ house, which, being much closer to the school than we are, is the base for Barney’s exams. I really didn’t like the idea of having to put Jack, Toby and Louie in the car to collect George and Freddy from Sea Cadets at 9 p.m., so I bribed them not to go (”What would it take for you to stay at home tonight and miss Sea Cadets? – bearing in mind that this is me being nice rather than just saying you can’t go…”) While we spent the evening in front of a screen, I discovered that Louie had cut another tooth – and then I discovered that he’d also cut two molars – doubling the tooth-count in one swoop.

On Thursday morning I woke up thinking about Barney. Meanwhile Scratchy took the boy himself to the school to sit his exams: four half-hour papers in the morning, followed by a lunch-break and two more half-hour papers in the afternoon. I arranged to go and visit a friend, but just as we all got into the car, she rang to say she was about to leave for the hospital with her seven-year-old, because a cuckoo-clock had fallen on his head (and I thought some of the things that happened in my family were bizarre… ) We couldn’t think of anything else to do in the high wind and heavy rain, so we stayed at home and messed about instead. Barney and Scratchy arrived at about six o’clock – Barney happy with how his exams went. I think the results are out in mid-January, by which time he’ll already be part-way through sitting the second lot of science papers and also his maths GCSE. Unsurprisingly, he was too tired to go to fencing in the evening, and George decided to give it a miss as well.

Yesterday morning we made our way to the swimming-pool, and this time we even made it in. Louie grinned and laughed and splashed. Toby clung to me initially, as though he hadn’t been swimming in months, rather than it only being a couple of weeks, but after a few minutes he allowed me to hold his hands and pull him around the pool while he kicked his legs. Then he let go of me about a metre from the side of the pool, and doggy-paddled his way to the side all on his own. And a minute later, he decided that actually he was perfectly fine without me, and from that point on, he propelled himself around the pool totally independently – except when he was demanding piggy-backs from Jack. I really hadn’t expected him to find his confidence quite so suddenly, but I’m not complaining! It’s certainly a lot easier to manage Louie if I’m beside Toby rather than actually holding onto him

After I got Jack, Toby and Louie dried and dressed – leaving the others to swim a bit longer – we went and waited in the cafeteria by the entrance. A few weeks ago when we were waiting in the same place, Toby had been a bit cranky, so I had sung him the song about the old lady who swallowed a fly. He asked me to sing it again the next time we were there, but that was quite a few weeks ago, so I was a bit surprised when, the instant he sat down yesterday, he demanded it again. I guess in his mind it’s linked to that location now. He also said he wanted food, and I said we’d be going home for lunch. Toby argued that the cafeteria sold lunch, to which I replied that for the cost of one sandwich in the cafeteria, I could buy two big bags of chocolate muffins – cue Toby’s eyes getting very wide and his agreement that we shouldn’t spend our money in the cafeteria. So there you are: PE, maths and economics, all in one outing

When the older kids arrived, one of them asked about going to the library which is in the same building, and I said we could either go straight home for lunch, or spend 20 minutes in the library first. George said, “But I don’t have my library books with me, and my library card is full, so what’s the point?” – and Barney responded in a what-a-stupid-question voice, “We could read!” “Oh,” said George, as though this had never occurred to him before, “okay then!”

After reading(!) in the library for a while, we left the building to walk out to the car – Toby exclaimed, “What about the muffins!” – and started the drive home. Traffic was bad, and between that and stopping to pick up a prescription for Jack’s inhalers, by the time we got home it was about 3.20 p.m. It seemed silly to make lunch, particularly when dinner was already simmering in the slow-cooker, and so I gave that a stir and threw in a bag of pasta to cook in the juices. By 4 p.m. everyone was happily stuffing their faces. Jack has ju-jitsu at 6 p.m. on a Friday, which usually means a great rush at dinner-time, and it doesn’t work to eat afterwards because George and Freddy have ju-jitsu from 7 to 8. Eating really early worked very well though – next time we swim on a Friday morning, I might just take along snacks (muffins, I think…) so that we do similar again – maybe we’ll even spend more time in the library

This morning I did some paperwork and started to sort through winter coats and gloves and hats. Barney, George and I left the house at noon; the plan was that I would leave them at GY before going to my OU Spanish tutorial, which was only five minutes from GY and which started at 1 p.m. But that best-laid plans thing kicked in – at 12.10 I had a phone-call: the GY members were going swimming today. At a pool in a town on the other side of the city. At 12.30 p.m. Huh.

I turned the car around, we drove back home, Barney and George raced inside and grabbed their swimming-bags (readied by Scratchy, as instructed five minutes earlier) and we left again. Ten minutes later, as we drove along a narrow road between high hedges, a big bit of wood – well, chipboard, but well over a metre square – suddenly flew out of the bushes onto the road. I swerved, managing to avoid hitting it straight on. It still hit the side of the car, but fortunately it was soaking wet and therefore softened, so there was no damage. I’m thinking I’ve really had enough on-the-road mishaps this year, thank you! We continued on our way, and made it to the swimming-pool at 12.55. We thought everyone else would already be there and in the pool, but as it turned out, Barney and George were the first to arrive – the main group didn’t get there until well after 1 p.m.

I missed the beginning of my tutorial, but I wasn’t as late as the student we found in the hall on our way out afterwards – he’d only arrived ten minutes before the end, and hadn’t had the nerve to enter the room. The tutorial was fine: the tutor is great, the other students friendly, and the material isn’t difficult – it is a beginners’ course, after all – although it’s ridiculous how intimidating it can be to have to say something in a foreign language in front of a group of people who might (won’t, but might) laugh at you for getting it wrong!

My tutorial finished at three o’clock, and I took a quick trip around the Asian supermarket while I waited for the swimmers to return to the GY building on the minibus – maybe that was partially responsible for how famished I felt by the time we got home

Finally, a favour: if I haven’t blogged again by, oh, about Wednesday – can somebody nag me? Please? I should have something to write about by then, because Tuesday is Barney’s birthday. The numbers say he’s 15, but I think I must have counted wrong…