In the hole!

Huffle took the day off today and we made the decision to go and play golf. We didn't rush, we had a nice slow breakfast, some TV, some tidying, some picking of tomatoes and depositing them next door (not Otto's obviously!). I think we finally got out of the house around 11:30am.

Two carts, three golf bags full of sticks ;), lots of balls to lose and a found bag of tees that I managed to get through very quickly by breaking one per hole! Poor Huffle has to work very hard when we play golf. He has to tell us all which clubs to use, find our balls when we hit the trees or bushes and correct our stance etc.

Smallest and I had one cart and swapped over a few times. He says I'm a terrible driver but he has some learning to do with steering and speed. Smallest and I soon got used to using a driver to tee off, an 8 or 6 if we needed to get it closer, a P for near the green and a putter to get it in the hole ;) I am an excellent putter but a useless driver (though I got better and then worse again). Small hit so many trees and bushes it was like watching a lumberjack. Smallest got very frustrated with his hits but did get better and had some lovely drives. Everyone was getting tired and it was quite windy.

We stopped for lunch, let some doddery old thing go in front and held up a father and son (who then brought back one of our clubs when we left it at the previous hole).

All in all it was a very good day. Last time it took us five hours to do 18 holes and this time (including a lunch stop) it took us 4.5 hours so we must be getting better. We lost as many balls as we found and were given a bag of tees from the tractor driver.

Back home we all made burgers and air fries for dinner. After dinner we watched the first Pirates of the Carribean film with the intention of watching them all one after the other including the new one that we didn't get to see at the cinema. I don't think I have ever watched them all the way through. To be honest, I nearly fell asleep at this one!

 

 

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Poo in the pool!

Huffle went off very early to take his car to The Tire. They fixed it there and then. It was a loose bolt and a piece of rust. All fixed now.

The boys had some tablet time while I made a chocolate Courgette cake for our afternoon visit to Angels house and pool. After breakfast we moved all the things we took out of Smallest's room and put them in the basement or loft. During the night, last night, Smallest came out of his room to use the bathroom and hit his toe quite badly on the box on the landing. It looked quite sore this morning, hence the movement of everything. We tried to take FaceTime Moo but our internet was playing up today.

We had a quick bite to eat around lunchtime before heading out and leaving Huffle working. We went to play in Angels new pool. There were supposed to be lots of the kids friends but only us lot turned up. The kids had a good play in the lovely pool. I got to have a nice relax and chat and then LittleAngel fell asleep on me so I got to have a snuggle for about an hour.

Back home late afternoon, we tried to do something with our pool (still green) and Smallest fell down the steps and hurt his bum AGAIN. He went in for a bath and I finished making a soup I started yesterday. Small helped me with tasting, getting bread and setting the table.

This evening we all played Carcassonne and I won again! Huffle and I went for a walk and left the kids playing. We also sorted a load of photos from the computer and had a reminisce about Disney.

My friend Suffolk has been in England for the last four weeks. Last night she was due to fly home but they wouldn't let her out of the country because her Permanent Resident card was out of date. I thought it was a ploy to stay there. Her hubby and kids had to fly without her.

 

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Cheese sauce makes everything taste better

First thing this morning, before I even had my hot water drink, I followed Huffle to The Tire to drop his car off and bring him home. They did his brakes around midday and we picked it up later.

The boys had an easy morning playing on their tablets plus Smallest and I played a game of Carcassonne. Not such a close game this time!! Say no more little man!

We had lunch and watched Catch Phrase with the kids as Vic and Bob were on there. This afternoon I took the boys swimming. Well they swam and I knitted. They had a lot of fun playing 'hide and seek' and 'let's annoy a couple of kids and a man'. We went home the wrong way so by the time we got home Huffle had already finished work and dinner was a later one though I get help.

After dinner we went and got Huffle's car and picked up a few essentials for the rest of the week. Huffle was supposed to have tomorrow off to spend it with us but I forgot and arranged something for the kids to do instead so he has now taken off Thursday, Friday and he gets the weekend and Monday off (Labour Day). Wahooo.

When we got home, Huffle wasn't happy with his newly fixed car as it made noises that weren't there before. He called The Tire and it has to go back in tomorrow morning. BOOOOOOO.

I made a Lemon Courgette Cake with tiny finely grated Courgette to take to a pool gathering tomorrow. Smallest's friend doesn't eat ANYTHING and his mum wondered if would know there is a vegetable in it. Huffle and I tried a slice whilst watching the new Great British Bake Off.

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The bit with gel in, I can't feel my hair!

A lie-in with nothing in particular to get up for. Ahhhh luxury. I forgot to post yesterday's blog again and the reason I did that is because I wrote it earlier and thought 'oh I'll add a bit at the end and post before I go to bed" only I didn't.

Small has very achey legs and arms and didn't want to do too much today. I sugggested a bath but he doesn't like baths and I considered a small walk but he was having none of it. So I left them on their tablets and went to get petrol and money. When I got home it was time to take them for their haircuts.

I had my fringe cut and the boys had a good cut. You should have seen how much hair was on the floor. Huffle would have been very jealous. The boys got to play hide and seek while the other ones hair was being cut so they got a bit of silly time. I took a photo of them with their smart smeller haircuts but somehow it disappeared when we swapped over the phones. Curious.

Back home we had lunch and then when Huffle went back to work, we played Cluedo (called Clue here for some reason) and I-Spy which is a bit like Pictureka! I made two Courgette loaves today. The first one turned into a lumpy mess which tasted okay but looked very weird. I ended making it into breadcrumbs which is not a waste because I do use them and they had sunflowers and pumpkin seeds in - nice. I made another one and watched it this time and added in extra water. It came out much better and tasted delicious. I made dinner and the boys did a chore and played.

This evening Huffle and I took Smallest to his practice while Small rested at home. We had a nice long walk and then sat and watched the practice. There was a lot of "well done Smallest". "Good shot" etc etc. He was happy to hear that and he got a handshake at the end from one of the coaches.

My new phone came today. It's exactly the same as my old one, same type and model just new with more memory (that'll be useful) so Small can have mine. Huffle sorted mine out this evening and we have to take Small's to the shop to get him a new sim and contract.

 

 

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Walk like a MrBean Indian

All the boys got up to watch the Stoke game and I snoozed for a little while longer and had a nice shower before coming downstairs and making pancakes for breakfast. The game was disappointing and boring (so the crowd said).

Just a few bloomers. The dahlia has been blooming all summer long

The football kits had to be handwashed yesterday because of the broken washer and so had to be dried on the clothes horse, then the sunshiney washing line and then finally a quick blast in the dryer, a mere minute before we left the house.

Off we all trudged to Smallest's academy practice where there were a lot of drills and we played Go Fish while we watched and laughed at the fact that Small couldn't say the word Thief. It kept coming out feith (even he was laughing), it reminded us of when he used to say rhinoferous for rhinoceros when he was little. Small and Huffle had their lunch at the practice and when it was over we rushed over to the tournament for Small's last game. We were playing for a Bronze medal and had to play on an AstroTurf pitch which wasn't good. The game before ours resulted in penalties because it was a 0-0 score and ours ended up the same way. Small took the first penalty and SCORED. They got no medals as they came fourth out of eight teams. Not bad.

GOAAAAAALLLLL

There was a BBQ afterwards which was terrible but we came away with a packet of crisps and a can of fizz. The boys all had a burger but threw it away, it was that bad. That's Small's football season over now and he wants to look into refereeing for the autumn/Winter season.

We came home for showers and a Skype with Grandma and Grandad before calling our favourite pizza place and putting in an order so it would be ready for us to eat when we got there. It worked, we only had to wait five minutes for our calzones. Yum yum.

At home, Huffle mowed the grass, the boys played on their tablets and I did some cutting back and weeding in the veg garden and the front garden. I picked another eight tomatoes and six carrots plus a couple of rogue beans.

 

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I thought you were going to say CatStevens

Weekend is here but no lie-ins for us today. Small had a football tournament with games at 10am, 1pm and 4pm. Huffle had been asked to step in as Coach as the usual useless full of excuses Coach could not make it. I made a picnic in case we had to be there all day and Small made breakfast for us all. We left the house at 9:30am. There was no room to practice or warm up or have a kick about really so Huffle took the boys aside and explained he was different to their other coach, that he would shout at them and tell them what to do and in no way did he want to come bottom because bottom meant they had their first game tomorrow at 9am. He wanted to see them come off the field tired and done because otherwise they wouldn't have worked hard enough. It seemed to work as they played hard. The first game they drew 1-1. Huffle was happy and the team were happy. One of the mums brought do-nuts for everyone afterwards. It was a very entertaining game despite the fact Smallest and I were laughing at the fumbling goalies on both sides. One of the dads came to give Huffle some advice (but obviously didn't offer to coach when asked previously).

We chose to come home instead of sitting around in the heat of the day waiting for the next game. Our journey was 20 minutes there and 20 minutes back so we got just under an hour at home. The boys played on tablets, had a cooling drink and some lunch and I bathed my swollen eye which has been running all morning (allergies I think). Huffle had a lie down as he is still feeling rough and then he had a bit of lunch too before we set off again for game no2.

This time they found a small space to kick around and everyone turned up on time apart from one who said he was going to his Grandmas cottage! This game was a 2-1 win. Everyone was very happy. We had a goal disallowed due to offside but considering the team said they were going to win 4-1 like they did last time, our team did very well. Once again we came home and had just over an hour. Small got hit on the leg and had a cooling shower and put his leg up to rest until we went off again for game no3. Huffle and Smallest played FIFA and I blogged. My eye was still running but not so sore.

Game No3 was dull and boring and all the players, both sides, were very tired. It ended 1-0. So we got a win, a lose and a draw and we ended up in the bronze playoffs which will be tomorrow at 1pm. Phew, at least we don't have to get up early. One of the players mums came and sat with Smallest and I for the last game and she did not shut up. She tried to get everyone doing a Mexican wave (beating mind there were about ten of us). She was whooping and hollering and shouting instructions (which made no sense) to the team. She hasn't been to any of the other games or practices because her son won't let her come because she is too vocal! She had complained about our proper coach and had altercations at her other sons tournament. Oh dear, I hope she doesn't sit next to us tomorrow.

Huffle had a last talk with the team about tomroow and we came home to let Small have another shower and get changed. Our washing machine has died so later I had to handwash both then boys football kits and MrBasement has the repairs in hand though he does have to order parts! We all went out for dinner to a local establishment.

Back home the boys watched TV and I went to bed for half an hour (sooo very tired). Smallest read to me when it was his bedtime. We are still reading Gerald Durrell. Such a lovely, funny book.

Beauties in our garden

More lovelies

Today's harvest

 

 

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Two holes in one and still lost!

Huffle ended up sleeping in the loft last night due to him making weird noises. I kept thinking he was talking to me but he was just snoring or snuffling. He is no better today.

I took Small to his last day of camp where they went off on a baseball day. One of his stories was he had to take ten kids to the toilet and they were all making a lot of noise so he told them to shut up (not an acceptable word here amongst younger kids apparently). They said "errrrr you said a bad word". He told them it wasn't bad and they all went out saying shut up shut up shut up!!! He had to participate in a game of Assistant Councillor against Councillor in Training where the CIT's (him included) got pelted with water. He had a great two weeks but is exhausted. He came away with a form signed for his community hours and a lovely letter saying thank you for the all effort, work and help and Good Luck in the future, plus a few mini chocolate bars.

Smallest and I went to the Crazy (Mini) golf today. We got there just before 10am which is classed as Early Bird and we got $1 off each. I made the mistake of telling Smalest I was going to win and he would cry BOO HOO like a baby when I beat him easily. Well that was silly because he beat me (by 1 point) and he didn't let me forget my words!

We had a great time and although we had a group of four in front of us and a couple behind us, it didn't spoil it at all. The group of four kept giving us hints of what to do or not when they made mistakes and the ones behind were cheering us on and asking for advice. It was nice.

The weather was splendid. Sunny but not too hot and we relaxed and took silly photos as we waited for our turn.

We finished the morning off with an ice cream. Well it was hard work, all 19 holes of craziness.

On the way home we popped to the supermarket, the one that sells wine and beer now, and picked up some stuff for the weekend. Small has a football tournament on the Saturday and Sunday so we bought some treats and snacks for that and a couple of cans of beer for ClownRose for being the boys' contact when we were out for the evening.

We came home for lunch with Huffle and then we FaceTimed Moo and had a long chat with her and a good catch up. We played Carcassonne (I won again but only by about ten points) but had to abandon it temporarily when I went to collect Small.

Dinner was made and eaten and Huffle and I took Smallest to his football practice. We had a walk around looking at Gardens and then sat in the last of the sunshine and watched the football.

This evening we watched Gardeners World. Lovely.

 

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The bathroom is full of wrestlers

Huffle is not well. He is full of cold and constantly sneezing and sniffling.

It was such a struggle, to get up this morning but I did and then took Small to camp. Today he played baseball, football, swimming, dodgeball and took charge of a game where he had to shout (his poor voice is very croaky, I made him a hot lemon too).

Back home I had breakfast and caught up on Trust Me (such a good BBC drama) and then Smallest and I played Carcassonne. It was a very close game and I won by five points. We decided to spend the rest of the morning cleaning and clearing Smallest's room. We went through the remaining 'stuff' boxes and put things away, got rid of things he no longer wanted and then dusted and vacuumed the end of the room we didn't get to before. It's all spick and Span now (OMG I had to write that sentance six times because my predictive text kept changing it and now I can't be sure it's even a correct term!). I heard Huffle laughing when I shouted "be careful if you go into the bathroom because it's full of wrestlers". Smallest has a huge amount of wrestling figures and I decided to wash them but to dry them I laid them all out on a towel. Actually they are still on there.

Lunch was had and then I left Huffle to work and Smallest watching TV while I went and gave two lovely little girls a crochet and knitting lesson. It was tough and I need to be better prepared next time as little hands find it tough to co-ordinate two hands at the same time and holding the wool was difficult. Still I enjoyed it and they said they wanted more.

Smallest and I went off to get Small and came home and started dinner. The boys played on tablets and Wii until dinner and then they made us pudding. They called it a Thursday (a sundae) and it had in it crumbled biscuit, mint chocolate Angel Delight (we like that one Grandma, Grandad and Moo), Neapolitan ice cream, strawberries, skor bits and chocolate. We sat and ate them on the porch. Yum yum.

Huffle and I walked around the Hamlet while the boys played badminton and football and then we all empried the dishwasher and watched TV.

Today has been very cool and autumnal.

 

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MrBrown's pet in Roshdale

It is truly amazing how the kids have started saying things in a different way. I don't mean all of a sudden they are speaking in a Canadian accent. I mean that they phrase things differently, like, I did good (ahhh I hate that one). Small has started calling football teams by weird names, 1 because he hasn't heard the word before and is just guessing incorrectly and 2 because he pronounces things strangely. For example, today he saw that Stoke were playing Rocdale and called it (phonetically) roshdale. The other day Smallest called Wolves, The Wolves and Small said that BrightonandHoveAlbion was BrightonandHomeAlbion. It's funny when it's regarding football teams but infuriating when it's everyday words. "I did it on accident" is another pet peeve of mine that Small says. There are many more but I can't think of them at the moment.

I slept well but just not long enough. Once again I had to get up early to make Small's lunch and get him to camp in time. I must have been on automatic pilot because I went in the wrong direction and had to turn around. Small didn't even notice. He did go to bed later than normal but he said he was fine and not at all tired. We'll see. The boys enjoyed their time on their own and were perfectly fine despite the fact Small emailed me five times asking if he should turn the lights off but as I was using the Stadium's wifi, I didn't get them until he had gone to bed. I did get an email thanking me for dinner and telling me he loves me. Awwwww.

Once I came back I had breakfast, cleared up the kitchen a bit and then Smallest and I went food shopping. We had lunch at home and attempted to play tennis. We were both quite bad today but we had fun and a lot of laughs and we found a tennis ball so that makes up for the one we lost last time.

Back home Smallest decided to clear some of the stuff we put in boxes when we cleaned his room (no more sneezing and coughing so maybe it was the dust) and he found a pack of make your own monsters. We made one together and I left him making another one while I fetched Small. This evening we made two more.

Small had a very busy day and had to deal with two different children who did not want to take part in any of the sports and were quite a handful (including running into the road) but Small seemed to deal with them. Him and another boy got to do one of their games today and that went well. The Counciller director said they did a good job today. We heard all about it during dinner.

This evening Small and Huffle went off to practice and drove to the wrong palace making them very late! Huffle complained it was windy and cool and he had to wear a fleece! Smallest and I stayed at home and emptied and filled the dishwasher, made a couple of monsters and played MarioKart before tucking him up in bed and him reading to me while I closed my eyes. Ahhhhhh

I can't believe how tired I am. I nearly fell asleep during dinner today!

 

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A room full of lights, and a big oozit

Thank you to my one reader for letting me know every time the blog isn't posted. I don't know what I would do without you.

Well today was rather miserable weather-wise. Typical as Small had an outside football theme going on today at camp and Smallest and I were at work. I took Small to camp where they decided they weren't allowed outside today because of the storms so although he heard about them from the leader, he didn't actually see or hear any. One of the campers was sitting in a corner playing with action men and reading and so Small took him to one side and played with him.

Smallest and I went to work with Jan and MrsM. Before we really got going, it rained and then Smallest got stung by a wasp. It was a bad one and really hurt him. MrsM immediately put Benadryl on it and then we wiped it off. Earlier today I had given him all his allergy medicines because he barked like a dog. I blame his room because he leaves stuff all over the place in piles and all it does is collect dust. I can't ever get in there to clean because of all the stuff. So having given him antihistamine already, we soon realised we shouldn't be giving it to him in a cream too. Instead he had ice on it and two pieces of cake, though the cake went on his tummy and not on his sing. It swelled and was painful so after an hours gardening, we gave up and came home, plus it started raining again. We also had storms.

Zinnia

Brugmasia

At home I made a paste of baking soda and applied that and after we did a good tidy, dust and vacuum of his room, he went in the bath. Today I got bitten by several mosquitoes and one next to my eye. So far it's not bothering me, who knows what it might look like tomorrow! We all had lunch before the big clean and then I made a soup while Smallest had a relaxing bath. Huffle worked hard and we didn't see a lot of him except when he made up boxes to put Smallest's stuff in.

Mid afternoon I picked up Small who was annoyed I was late picking him up although I was in fact early. He forgot to mention that I needed to be there at 3:15 because I am normally there early, just not today!

This evening I got everyone fed by 5pm so Huffle and I could go out for a Cold Play concert in Toronto. The boys looked after themselves with some additional backup from ClownRose. We also made sure Small had his email notifications switched on so we could email them from time to time. I really did not want to leave them but I knew they would be fine. Neither of them have issues being in the house without us (not like me, I hate being in the house alone).

Huffle and I decided to get the train which was nice and relaxing. We got into Toronto around 7pm. There were two acts on before ColdPlay. AlunaGeorge and IzzyBizu. We just saw a very small part of Izzy and all of AlunaGeorge who was very good and we recognised some of her stuff. We were in the Rogers Stadium which is where the Blue Jays play. HUGE! The stage was enormous and a part of it came out into the middle and then there was another tiny stage at the back.

I wonder how many photos I have of the CN Tower

We have seen ColdPlay before in Leicester and they were brilliant. Huffle and I have bought all of their albums apart from one. We like the older stuff better than the later stuff but they are incredible live.

We were given wristbands that lit up during certain songs. The whole place looked amazing. We were supposed to give them back but I wanted to keep mine. I want to make it work so I can dance in the kitchen with my lights flashing.

Truly amazing show. Thank you Huffle and thank you my lovely boys for being such good companions to each other.

Think we might be tired tomorrow.

 

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I could have trumped that ball in the net!

20 years ago yesterday, Huffle and I had our first date. In a little country pub. Who'd have thought then that we would be here in Canada, with two Small's, one of which is taller than us!

Extra early get up today due to Small needing to be at camp for 8:45. He had a good but very tiring day. One of his camp mates got bitten by a child! Small played football, dodgeball and swimming. None of them were allowed outside today due to the fact they didn't want to kids looking at the eclipse.

Smallest and I went and picked up our pottery from last week. We were very pleased with the results.

Next we went to The Tire to pick up some mulch for Suffolks garden as the soil is poor and I spend all my time digging it over to make it look nicer. Hopefully it will add to the soil texture eventually, stop the weeds and keep the moisture in. At Suffolks we put the mulch down, pulled a few weeds and checked the back garden before going off for a FrozenYoghurt nearby. It was nicely air conditioned in there so we sat in and played a game of Rush Hour.

It was very hot today (someone told us it was going to get to 38* but I think the highest was around 33*) and Smallest and I came home for lunch with Huffle before going off to the pool. Unfortunately the pool was green today due to the vacuuming not being done for a while so we vacuumed, backwashed and rinsed and decided it was too hot not to go in so we did. It was a lovely 25* and if we ignored the colour, it was almost perfect. We had to fill it with cold water so it got cooler but it didn't matter. We gave it a good chlorine before we left. Hoping it looks better in a few days.

Black and white today as the pool is green

Smallest had a bath (he has hurt his leg and we decided he would not play football tonight but rest) and I went to get Small.

I made dinner and we all went out to watch Small's football game. We have never been able to do this this season because one of us is normally with Smallest at his practice. The score was 2-2 and was very entertaining.

Anyone would think my boys like Fish and Chips!

 

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