Jam2MapleSyrup: MrPhillips' Lady Gloves

The weather started in plus temperatures at the start of the day with lovely blue but cold sky. We had rain and then freezing rain, fog and more freezing rain. The roads got slippier and slidier. We have lots of rain forecast tomorrow and a storm forecast for Friday through to Saturday with huge amounts of snow.

First thing today

The boys went off to school. Smallest was armed with his broken ukele, snowboard, boots, thermals etc and his bag. He went to see the Principal first thing as requested but she was on bus duty so he went back at first recess and she was on a phone call. He went back at lunchtime and she was in a meeting. His music teacher took the ukele off him and when he saw him again, Smallest asked if it was alright and he said NO! And that's the end of the ukele story today. He is going to try and see the principal tomorrow.

Moo and I went to exercise. We were both really hurting from Monday's session. Not sure if doing today will make it worse or better. Guessing worse!

We had nothing else to do today so Moo packed her case several times, trying to get one inside another so she had less to carry, forgetting to pack things, unpacking things, packing them again. At least this time she knew exactly where her passport was! I made two soups for dinner later. A chicken, chick pea, vegetable soup and a carrot, sweet potato Lentil soup.

We had lunch with Huffle and finished the whole Gavin and Stacey series whilst watching the council outside cut down trees in preparation for a potential ice storm which could affect the power lines. They just drove along the road, hoist their crane and cut the branches down that were anywhere near the lines, whether the tree belonged to people or not! Luckily none of our trees are near the edge of the road because they don't seem to make a pretty job of it!

At 2pm ish, I drove Moo to the airport. It was just starting to rain. The traffic wasn't too bad but it seemed much worse on the other side coming the opposite way. We made good time and Moo told me to drop her off instead of coming in. Glad I did because then the rain got bad and then it turned to ice. Those roads would have been treacherous despite the many gritters out today. I came home on the toll road when I realised the highway was gridlocked. The roads got so bad that a car on our road ended up in someone's garden down a huge steep slope. I'm not surprised, it was horrific. Goodbye Moo, see you in April.

Small was already home and doing homework when I arrived back. Smallest was at ski club. After dinner, we all decided to go along and see how Smallest was getting on. He had had his lesson privately as no one else was snowboarding in his level which is great. He learned a lot and put it into practice after his dinner of chicken fingers. He did have to eat alone which is sad but now he knows what everyone does and when, he will have others to eat with in future. Small and Huffle went on the slopes with him though Small broke his binding during the first run down. The rental department helped him and fixed it and told him what to check for next time. All three went up and down the biggest lift several times until Smallest was too tired and he sat in the car with me. I mainly took photos and talked to the teachers there and helped Smallest get a drink. We put some money in the vending machine and we were short by 5c so we pressed the key to get our money back and thought we were given an extra $2 so we tried again and realised we were still short by 5c so asked for the money back again but we lost it and had to get it back via the tills. Then we ordered it from the bar. He enjoyed ski-club. The other two undid their rustiness and I am still a big scaredy cat. They want me to board with them but they will have to wait for a nice sunny day when I will try very hard not to fall down and cry!