I'm going Hybrid!

All boys packaged off and I got to spend a lovely day with my friend Suffolk. She knocked on the door and ran away and I was greeted with this little fella....

Hello Mr Turtle and what are you doing standing at my door today?

It was my birthday present from her - he is a nodding solar light. I love him. She drove me to the Mall and we shopped like only girls could. I bought myself a most spectacular Fossil handbag with a 60% saving and used my birthday money from Moo (thank you Moo it is truly lovely). I picked up a small Christmas present for Smallest too but mainly we browsed and tried on and laughed.

We then went for a gorgeous meal and had a Veggie Burger made from brown rice, almonds, rocket and beans. It was very delicious and was served with avocado, cress, onion and tomato. Very very nice. After a bit more shopping we came home in time for the kids getting home.

I skyped Moo to show her what she had bought me and then made a start on dinner. The mower man came by and dropped off a loan mower so we could cut our grass. He showed me how to use it and said to call him when we had done with it as he needed to loan it to another person who was also waiting, he said our part for our mower had been ordered three times now. Two had gone missing and the other was waiting to be delivered - maybe Friday. I asked him if we might get it back before the snow came and he said "I hope so".

The boys came home and played on the Wii with Small's friend Log and then on the trampoline when the piano teacher turned up.

Smallest went first and did very well, we just have to train his fingers to bend in the right place. Small, it seems, is a natural and has a very good ear for music - he is progressing quite quickly.

After dinner we dropped Small off at Scouts where they made a catapult and then dropped Smallest off at Beavers where they had a trip to the Fire Hall. Smallest wasn't too pleased with this trip as he has been several times before (he is a Senior Beaver now) but he actually really enjoyed it.

Huffle and I played tennis but couldn't get the lights to come on and played in the dark. After much pressing of the Green Button, a telephone call and a walk to the community centre, we finally got it to come on. Then it rained and then it rained more heavily. When Huffle slipped slightly we gave in and went and picked Smallest up and took him home to bed while Huffle picked up Small.

 

 

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Vegging Out

After breakfast and all homework was finished, we all went into the garden and raked many many leaves from the drive and deposited them down into compost corner.

All the veggie beds were harvested and cleared. The compost bin was emptied, at which point we realised certain smallest members of the family were depositing plastic bags into the compost bin instead of emptying them!

My birthday plants were planted in the front garden and watered in. All this took up the whole morning. The boys played on the IPads because of their hard work and we Skyped Moo and gave her Help Desk support with her IPad.

After lunch and piano practice we went to the local tennis courts and played for ages. The weather has turned really cold today and I am struggling to keep warm. I put the heating on and everyone else is very warm. Tennis warmed me up a bit and the boys are starting to play some really good shots now.

Back home we started a game of Monopoly Deal. I was bankrupt first quite quickly and then Smallest, leaving Huffle and Small battling it out. We dealt all the property cards out to make it a shorter game as we wanted to go to out for dinner. Small ended up winning (as usual).

For dinner we drove to Whitby and had a fish and chip supper and came home and watched TV before bed.

Huffle and I are thoroughly enjoying watching Our Zoo (BBC) and have watched four episodes in a row, one more tonight and we have caught up. Definitely recommend.

 

 

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Plants, Pants, Books and Cake

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME and what a lovely start to my birthday. I got to sit and watch TV with the boys first thing while Huffle cleared the kitchen and made breakfast. I had a pile of cards to open, a load of messages on face book, text and email and then my presents. The boys each presented me with a plant representing themselves. Smallest gave me a lovely little yellow flowered Japanese Toad Lily. Small gave me a huge tall Indian Warrior Bluestem grass and Huffle gave me a lovely miniature Hosta called Baby Booties. I had some obligatory M&S Knickers (obligatory because Moo always gets them and that is a good thing because where would I get my knickers from over here?), a lovely recipe book holder in the shape of a cup cake (obviously), a cake box, a How to be British book, a trowel and a garden mug, some chocolate and note cards for me to write to my lovely friends. Huffle also owes me the new IPad (it's not out yet and yes of course we need another, we do have four people in this house you know!). He also bought me a print that he has been looking for for ten years. Finally he found it and it is on it's way and I know just where it is going to be placed, how exciting. I also got a cycling helmet (which I have been using already) and I am going to get a big cutting mat for my quilting with some money from Moo.

We had a Skype with Grandma (who sang, well I say sang!) and a look at their new driveway (very nice) and Huffle showed me the cake he made all by himself last night. Clever Huffle. I rarely have a cake for me because it is so close to Small's birthday that we are normally all-caked out. The rest of the morning was spent relaxing and playing. Lovely.

Later on we went out for dinner and ended up at Pie - a really good pizza place. The man who served us kept saying "there you guys are" which seemed all wrong and a bit yoda-like. We had lovely dinner and then went on to a flea market we haven't been to before. It was a curious place, with many stalls and booths filled with much electronic, clothing, food, jewellery and a sewerage bit with all antiques in. The strangest things we saw was a place where a woman stepped on people's backs, a dog clothing and accessory place, a mind reading booth and a stress testing device with Scientologists. We bought a couple of things but mainly the boys complained and said they wanted to leave. We did leave and came home for a slice of cake and a cup of tea.

We all finished off a film we started ages ago and had our tea.

I have had a lovely day. Thank you for all my lovely messages, cards and presents. I felt truly spoilt today.

 

 

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Lost in Mower Land

Small didn't wake up at his usual 7am but stayed in bed until 7:45am. Is this the start of a teenager (not quite) staying in his stinky pit till lunchtime (ahhh I remember it well). Huffle worked from home and I went to knitting. There were two new people and a newish one there today so I managed to get a whole rib done on some Thrummed Mittens for a Christmas present (starting early as I have much to do). I also managed to get a phone number for a Gas Fitter who I called as soon as I got home. He couldn't do the job but gave me a number of a man who lives just up the road from us. He popped round in the afternoon and ooh and ahhed at having to put the piping through our lovely new walls and ceiling in the basement and then came up with a solution to go from the outside instead. Much neater and a lot less work for us to get tidied up, plus because he lives very close, he can come after one of his out of town jobs. The downside is that we need to buy and fit (or he will) a new cooker hood that extracts to the outside instead of the one we have now that just fans it around the kitchen - CO2 oh yes I remember that problem with our faulty boiler in The Village UK. We do not want that again!

Although the weather was much cooler today, the sun did come out for part of the day. However by the afternoon it rained and carried on through the evening. We put the sofa on Kijiji (like EBay) under the free take away section and had lots of looks and a few passers by with trucks but in the end the dustbin men took it - just stuffed it in the back and drove away. So everything apart from the wire from the back garden is gone. We will put it back out on 'Garbage Day' in a couple of weeks and hopefully they will take it.

I skyped Moo and showed her my knitting and we had a giggle (Small had sent her some smiley faces from my phone unknown to me and she was replying but I had to give her a lesson on how to get the Emoji keyboard). I had several missed calls to Grandma and she had some missed ones to me - I found your glasses Grandma!

I managed to get a bit more knitting done whilst watching Diwnton Abbey (goodness I had forgotten about Downton and no-one had reminded me - naughty UK friends - are none of you Downton fans?.

When the boys got home there was a mad dash for swimming again, finding shorts and goggles and deciding who was going when and with whom. I took Smallest and sat and watched him swim, in the meantime Huffle took Small later and watched him while I took Smallest home and fed him and got everyone else dinner ready. Smallest fell at school again and re-scraped (for the third time) his yucky knee. The Supervisor at swimming put a couple of rubbish plasters over the top of my spray plaster (which is also rubbish and painful to spray on) for swimming it it was all hanging off and gooey by the time we got home.

Two new birthday presents arrived and the heavy rain

Huffle rang the mower man today and left a message saying in a resigned tone "hello am I ever going to get a mower? From Mr Hall who is lost among his lawn" (ok that last bit wasn't true). MrSnail rang back later saying that the part was still (yes still, four weeks later) missing and that the mower he was going to loan us to cut our lawn of four weeks growth had got a problem with the belt and he had to order one. The belt would be arriving (well let's hope the pixies that stole the relay switch from ours four weeks ago don't intercept the truck containing the belt) on Monday and then he could bring it to us. OMG! How does this man make ANY money? Our lawn is not looking too bad considering, though Grandad did strim it and we also borrowed Mr Royals once.

 

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Moving stuff

A frantic morning of looking for football kit (away game after school), not finding said kit, driving the kids and tuba to school, having a very quick breakfast and meeting NoCustard at the forest for a lovely calming walk, despite the fact that she had fallen previously and had so many 'hurts' that we only did the small walk. However, the small walk was beautiful. The leaves were turning an autumnal colour and falling to the ground and even though we had a slight bit of rain, it was still a fabulous place to be.

The last part of the morning was spent driving to school because Small had forgotten to call me to let me know if his footy kit was there, finding out his kit was there, driving to the supermarket to buy a new bin and taking every bin off the shelf in order to find one that actually worked! In the end I had to buy a more expensive one to get what I wanted which was in fact a lid that shut and an opening that opened. Not such an ask I thought! Stupid me. When I got home I realised there was nowhere to secure a bag in it as it had an inside bit that you take out and presumably empty (that could get pretty yucky without a bag) except that you can't fully open the lid to get the inside bit out, if you could get a bag in it, get the full bag of rubbish out. Bloody hell, this shouldn't be that difficult!

Back home I had lunch and watched a bit of don't tell the Bride and then I made today's and tomorrow's dinner, had a shower and sat down with a cup of tea. Then I realised I had to be at school to take Small, Smallest and one of their friends to the away football game which was 25 mins drive away. I rushed to school, learnt that Smallest had bumped his head and that Small was still getting changed.

We got to the game and met a rude Secretary who didn't really want to tell us where the football was. The football started and Smallest wanted the toilet. We tried to get inside but the doors were all locked (every school has to be locked down now). We saw two teachers talking and knocked on the door and they ignored us. We carried on knocking and they came slowly to the door. We said we needed the 'washroom' and they said they weren't allowed to let us in. YOU HAVE INVITED US TO YOUR SCHOOL TO PLAY FOOTBALL AND YOU WONT LET US USE THE WASHROOMS. "No, that's right" he said. DO YOU WANT US TO USE THE TREES? "Yes". He let us in reluctantly and I said RUDE SCHOOL! I told our teachers/coaches and they were appalled. Apparently we don't do that when others come to our school - good job too!

Small's team did well but lost 4-0. We came home and had dinner, did homework, looked for lost books, showered and practised piano. In the meantime, Huffle and I moved one of our cabinets onto the roadside and DonNoQuotey took it for a lady who 'happened to be walking' by with a torch looking at our things. We moved the living room furniture around and cleared out a cabinet and a cupboard and put some of the things back. The kids went to bed and eventually we sat down and watched some TV.

 

 

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The big one one

Everyone was up late this morning. I woke up at 7:30 and looked over at Huffle and asked him if he was going to work - he worked from home. Small came in and asked if he could open his present that was downstairs 'not that I've been downstairs yet' he said unconvincingly. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIG BEAR SMALL. He collected his cards (we always keep them behind the clock on the mantle and put his presents on the bed. Smallest got up and looked in and I asked him if he had something to say to Small. He looked at the presents and said 'oh Happy Birthday Small'. Cards were opened and read and kisses collected or saved for when the recipient was here, presents opened. Oooh and ahhhs from both of the kids. Then back to normality and breakfast and lunches were done.

One of my favourite photos of Small as a tiny person with his wooden numbers (no badges this year)

After the kids went to school, I went off to aerobics (not on my bike today as I am extremely tired, half deaf and it was raining just a little). The furniture arrived while I was gone and Huffle and I started taking off the wrappings, sticking felt pads to the feet and moving it all into place. There is no way Huffle's new chair will fit in!!!! We moved the old sofa, that was kindly given to us when we had nothing nearly three years ago, onto the roadside, moved the leather stuff into the Sun Room. We still need to move some bits around but it's looking nice.

I finished making Small's cake. This time it came out of the mould better but wasn't perfect as the cake this time was much lighter and moist so fell apart a little. I made the same Orio buttercream and sandwiched it together and then put loads of chocolate on the top. I was pleased with it though it isn't nearly as complicated as others I have done in the past. Maybe my oldest bear will be wanting more grown up cakes from now on.

Balloons were blown up and hung around the house, bunting was put up and pizza dough made. Then a really quick tidy up before I went to school to pick up Small and his enormous Tuba. Ten minutes of practice tonight before I have to take it back tomorrow!

Back home, Grandma and Grandad skyped just as Small was Tuba'ing, they listened and sang Happy Birthday and then they were packaged to their rooms to do homework (the boys not G&G).

Merriment began with pizza making and eating, watching a film and singing, blowing out candles and lighting sparklers which were supposed to be the number eleven but could really have been normal straight sparklers DOH (I didn't think about that one!).

Thank you for all the lovely messages, cards, presents for Small's birthday.

Huffle and I are looking forward to sitting down on our new furniture tonight, watching The Great British Bake Off and eating Small's birthday cake if we don't fall asleep before all that happens zzzzzzzzzzzz

 

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Serge's Monkey Dancing

What began as a crazy day turned into an 'alright' day after all. Huffle went to work and once I had packaged the boys off to school (complete with football kit and instructions not to come home on the bus for Smallest), I drove off to Toyota again to take my car back. I only got 1 minute up the road and the 'awful noise' started again. It was so bad I stopped to check that nothing was falling off or rolling around in the boot. God knows what it was because it didn't happen again, not even when the engineer and I went for a drive to recreate it. However, the engineer did think there was a burning smell coming from the brakes so did something about that for me.

Then I went food shopping and present shopping for Small. I managed to get him a few things and even bought a couple of Christmas presents. Because the queues were so bad I was told to go through the 12 items or less. I had a whole trolley full and was quite embarrassed but the check out lady didn't care. We were a good team. Driving home there was no loud noise so maybe it has gone away or whatever it was dropped off and disappeared.

Once I had put the shopping away I Skyped Grandma briefly. Huffle text me to say that Kasabian were on a local radio so I tuned in (Grandma told me to ring in and gave me some Leicester lessons to help me speak to them). It wasn't a phone in radio and Kasabian only played a couple of songs but it got me in the mood for the concert tonight. Huffle sent their agent a note to tell them we were at the concert and was there any chance of saying Hello back stage. We didn't get a reply but as least he tried.

I made another cake for Small using a very strange recipe which had hot water in it and was very sloppy. I am not going to take it out of the mould until tomorrow. So we will see!

I made dinner and had an answerphone message from Small in a very grumpy voice "football in cancelled because someone died". Oh dear. Then I had another call from the secretary to say that Smallest had fallen and his knee scab had come off. She didn't have anything to put on it other than bandages and gauze and she wanted to know what I wanted done with it. I told her to leave it open and I would look at it when he got home, as long as he was okay, He was! I also asked her about the death. She said it was one of the opposition coaches family members. She said she had so many calls to parents today about the cancelled football but Small's was the funniest.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY COUSINL - HOPE YOU HAD A FABULOUS DAY XX

Tomorrow is the day we get our new furniture delivered but the company rang today and said that Huffle's chair will not be ready until next Wednesday now! Typical.

The boys came home, Smallest with a horrible scraped unscabbed knee. Both did their piano practice and showed me how they know the notes. We had a hurried dinner when Huffle came home and the babysitter arrived and off we went to Toronto for a wonderful evening of live loud music.

The Sound Academy was on the edge of the lake, overlooking the Toronto skyline. We spoke to several security about trying to get a message to the band but none could help us. We tried the bar staff too but they don't go anywhere near the band either. The main security man wouldn't even look at us let alone speak to us and we gave up. The support band was called Bo Ningen, a Japanese Punk band. Four members with enough hair between them to stuff a King Size Quilt (with some left over). They were loud, screamy and absolutely awful. We had secured ourselves a nice spot centre stage (standing only) but had to move when the wailing became too much for us. We moved into the lounge bar where we were shielded slightly from the noise. We sat and messaged someone who was at the same concert who complained the support act was so bad.

Once we moved ourselves back into the throng, a huge man (twice as tall as me) came and stood right in front of me. Well, there was no way I was going to stand for that. I told him to move, he said no, I told him I couldn't see and he had to move and he told me I couldn't make him and to move somewhere else. I stepped right in front of him giving him no room whatsoever and he walked off. Silly long over-tall man. Eventually Kasabian came on. We had a great view, almost centre and very close. The band were absolutely fabulous. They put on a wonderful show, played some brilliant songs and everyone loved them. Huffle especially liked Serge's strange monkey dancing.

Huffle normally doesn't like to be in the thick of it but he stayed in the middle for me. Unfortunately it got to a point where I felt a bit ill, too squashed, too hot and I couldn't hear the music anymore because it was so loud. We moved to the side, had loads of room to dance and jump around and could easily get to the bar.

I thoroughly enjoyed the concert and Huffle did too. I didn't worry about the Boys one bit as I knew they were in safe hands and as soon as the concert was over we text the babysitter to say we were on the way and she told us to drive safely and everything was fine. We had a good journey home, paid the babysitter and then Huffle took her home. We sat and had a cup of tea and a bit of TV. Our ears are ringing and my feet are killing me from too much dancing.

 

 

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