Smallest drawing a picture for HB at the library
The boys won prizes at the library today, they got to pick what they wanted. Small chose a Tetris Puzzle and Smallest chose a Playmobile Car and Man. The swimming lady rang me and the boys get their extra swimming week next week (because I decided to book a holiday in the middle of their two week lessons thinking it was only a week! DOH!). On the way to the library, Smallest fell off his bike again. He was laying on the path with his bike on top of him. Small was ahead and jumped off his bike and ran to him shouting "Mummy quick!". I ran as fast as I could. An old lady stopped her car and got out to check on him too. The lady looked down as I was pulling him free of his bike and saw a bit of blood on his knee. She said "oh no, did you get a Boo-Boo?". He laughed and got up, showed her his other 'hurts' and cycled away. Boo-boo is the funniest thing we hear them say over here. 'Boo-boo' or 'Ouchy'. Whenever we are trying to wind up Smallest we always ask him if he got a boo-boo or an ouchy and he always karate chops us. When this lady said it again, it instantly made him better but also made him run away. As I am writing this, there is an advert on the TV for plasters and they said 'cover up your Boo-Boo'.
Boys waiting for me at the crossroads
We had to play Monopoly. We gave up in the end and decided the person with the most money won. It was me, I had $120 - wahooooo. We laughed as that is not a lot and normally the one who wins has thousands.
Now prepare yourself, that was the good part, now I'm feeling sorry for myself and having a moan! (SORRY).Life here seems hard just now. Everything is that little bit harder to do. We know it is because it is a new country and they do things differently, but even so, it's very wearing. Last night Huffle and I put the clarifier in the pool. Of course, we then had to vacuum it, then the bit that stops the water coming out is getting increasingly harder to put on every time we take it off. It was leaking but there was nothing we could do about it. Sure enough, this morning, the pool is green. Not blue, not clear, not sparkling clear like the clarifier suggested. I need to ring the pool people and ask them what now. We have spent a fortune on pool chemicals.
I still need to ring the umbrella people as it broke the day it was delivered. It broke two days after we bought it, the spokes fell off and the umbrella flew away! I rang them and they said they would send a new top part. Well this top part sheared right off the instant I attached it to the fabric!
My bike had a puncture after only twice ever being ridden. So I bought a new inner tube. Today I tried to put the new tube in. I couldn't get the new pump to work. Huffle bought this all-singing-all-dancing-fits-everything pump. It's great. It pumps up the Lilo, the football, the basketball but it doesn't pump up a tyre. It came with no instructions so I searched on the net. It seems very complicated and I don't understand it. I tried all sorts but in the end I left it for Huffle and I to look at when he came home.
The boys wanted to play football after we had cycled to the library, picked up our prizes, ate lunch at the cafe and cycled back. However, the grass was too long so I finally persuaded them to let me get the mower out. I mowed and they raked and collected the grass. Course we have run out of bags to collect the grass in so we have wheelbarrows full everywhere (to be fair, we only have one and two small ones that the boys have!). Anyway, the mower ran out of petrol so I filled it. Then it ran out of oil so I filled it. Then I was nearly finished and it ran out of petrol again! This time I couldn't fill it as there was only one lot left and I had no dea whether it was unleaded or not, so again I had to wait till Huffe came home.
Bless, they did a good job
Poor Huffle came home, the boys wanted to play football, the mower was sitting in the middle of the lawn with its bonnet up, my bike was upside down with tyre off and pump lying menacingly next to it, the umbrella sat in its box sulkily, but dinner was nearly ready! He sensed all was not well, though the boys told him they had a good day.
Once we fill the mower, finish the grass cutting, and the boys help clear up the grass that Huffle is raking, we all start a game of football.
The the boys go in to watch a bit of TV before bed while Huffle and I attempt to get the pump and my tyre sorted. That proves a long and arduous task, so long in fact that Small has to read Smallest's bedtime book and has to read to himself. He is a useful big brother sometimes.
We finally gave up. The inner tube and tyre are back on the bike but it is flat. I looked for a normal bike pump the other day but no-one seemed to sell them. Will have to try again. However, I did manage to buy a lovely basket for my bike and we put that on instantly, without any problems. It doesn't sit quite straight but it looks good and I'm sure it will be fine for what I need it for.
As D:ream said "things can only get better....................". Let's hope so.
Lovely Canna Lily that Mrs Royal gave us and we potted up. Beautiful.
Please don't use my photos without asking first. Posted with Blogsy
3 comments:
Tried to comment twice yesterday but it didn't work so gave up! Perhaps we all need a little of the Rabbie Burns thought process, if at first u don't succeed try, try and try again, or you could try Unc Pear's way, if at first you don't succeed, give up! Remember you wouldn't hv pool probs in UK as u wouldn't hv pool! In10 years you will know where to get everything and b helping someone who has relocated ... You could start a new blog for new settlers perhaps? Anyway, didn't our girl do well, so proud of her and I know you all r, she v happy with e.card. I am a lucky mum. Moving to the dark side, Degree work posted off and he left for Cornwall, good job as he would hv been lucky to hv made it through weekend. Keep your chin up, these bad days get less, which is good. Xx
We all need a good moan at times and us English are very good at it! I think the biggest thing here, and it took us a few months to realise this, is to take a step back and have a good look at everything. The one thing that caught us out the most was the language barrier because we just didn't expect it at all, after all, we speak the same language don't we? That's a big fat no! We'd ask for something in a shop and they'd look at us blankly but after walking round for ages we'd finally find what we wanted, and we figured out what they called it! Same in a restaurant, I'd often point at the menu rather than say the item, and I was always given French Dressing when I had asked for Ranch!! You actually have to remember that no matter how close it sounds to English, you're actually in a foreign country, and some leeway has to be given for that. If you went to France or Germany you'd expect to struggle with the language and making yourself understood, but you don't expect that to happen in an English speaking country, in some ways it feels harder and more frustrating because of that. It took a while, perhaps a year or two to feel totally comfortable doing just ordinary every day things without having to switch gears and really concentrate on what I was trying to do or say! These days I don't give a crap and say and do what I want!!! It's really funny at times. I do like Aunt Pear's advice, and I really like the bit about not having a pool in England!! Or if you did, you'd rarely have the weather to be able to use it! Keep your chin up, it's almost the weekend and Huffle will be home soon. If you want a good Chrimbo pressie for him look into getting a bagging set up thing for your ride on lawn mower, save all that raking!!
Hugs
Brenda
When we bought our house many moons ago we had an above ground pool too. It wasn't long before we got rid of it....too much work and money down the drain:(
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