Hot surprise

Lovely sleep for all - hurrah!

We had a morning of watching the Olympics and watching Leicester City v Man Puke, plus a bit of knitting and some Wii playing by the boys.

Huffle and I made a garden vegetable Quiche for lunch/dinner using tomatoes, courgettes and chilli from our garden. I thought the chilli was a sweet pepper and burnt my lips trying it. It was so hot, I had to suck on an ice cube for ages. The boys harvested our potatoes which e were growing in bags. We had white and red and they were delicious. They did a good job and the quiche was lovely. No soggy bottoms for us.

While the boys were waiting for thier dinner, they played in the pool. It was slighter cooler and breezier today and the air con has finally been turned off and windows opened.

After dinner we had a sundae and Facetimed Grandma and Grandad on the porch and then we all weeded the side garden. Small and I laid down a tarpaulin to stop the weeds growing and to make a new bit of garden and hoed and weeded. Smallest emptied the wheelbarrow into compost corner and ran around emptying our weed buckets for us. Huffle weeded and replanted some hostas. We all worked very hard and rewarded ourselves with an evening play in the pool (at 7pm!!). We had a lot of fun and played water hide and seek again.

This evening we tried to watch Robot Wars but we are now having trouble with BBC on our TV now. Annoying!! After Smallest went to bed, Small, Huffle and I started watching Interstellar.

 

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Around the world in a truck

Huffle had a poor nights sleep again where his back hurt. Too much kicking the ball before football? Too much running to get the balls back in the bag when it started to rain? Not sitting properly? Apparently I slept on soundly and very quietly.

This morning the boys all watched Stoke v Hamburgler the MacDonalds baddy. The baddy won. Huffle said it was a pre-season friendly that wasn't very friendly at the end.

Midday we went to the library to find it closed and went on to the bank to pick up Smallest's lost hat and add Huffle to the kids new Bank Accounts so he can add lots of money for them as apparently he owes them hundreds!!! Then we went back home, put on suncream (the weather forecast said cool and cloudy and it was actually little cloud with temperatures of 32*). Back to the library to take back books, get new ones, enter the ballot for the summer reading club and borrow a Wii game.

For lunch/dinner we went to the Food Truck Festival in The Esplanade Park in Pickering. It was much bigger that the one we went to earlier in the year and was in a park which was nicer than a car park. We started with a trip to Italy for Arancini Balls in a tomato sauce which we ate on the end of someone's table in the shade.

Next we sampled Texas potato Tornados. A spiralled potato fried, a cross between a chip (fries) and a crisp (chips).

Small wanted to try the deep fried Mac n Cheese (is that considered North American or South of Amercia?) but I couldn't have any as it had sausage in it. They liked it though I shall not be making it at home.

Smallest had a freshly made lemonade and I had a Mill Street Organic Beer and we had two different types of Enchilladas. I had an Equadorian Cheese in mine but it was fried and had sugar on the outside - not sure, it was different. The boys all tried beef and potato ones. Huffle had decided he wanted to try the Key Lime Pie in a jar and we helped him with it. It was excellent. I will definitely have a go at this one.

My favourite Pokemon Go player today

It was busy and hot and we chose to leave and have a cooling milkshake at Shake Rabble and Roll and then come home for a dip in the pool.

Huffle fell asleep while we were getting ready and the rest of us cleaned the pool and then played on our gadgets.

This evening we fed all our vegetables, and some of the poor looking flowers our Comfrey Tea. The smell carried on the wind and the boys complained a lot. I got them to feed and water their pumpkins. Mother weren't pleased and washed themselves off in the sprinkler. When we put Smallest to bed, he kicked me out of his bed for smelling too much like comfrey. Pah!

Netflix is still not working and the problem has been sent to the Senior Technical Team. I doubt we'll hear from them soon! IPlayer is still not working either and we are still having ongoing emails.

 

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Knit one, Mend Two, Clean Many

Huffle didn't sleep well because he had a terrible headache. Honestly it is so hot outside and when you have to sit in it for over an hour (watching a terrible football game) it's bad! He did have a hat on but it's so intense. I'm sure we've had Summers like this before but I can't remember it being quite so hot and humid for so long. It is supposed to break this evening with rain and storms and then get a little cooler.

The boys spent most of their morning watching TV and playing on their tablets (after their bedrooms were tidied) and I went off to Knitting to have ShopkeeperEl look at my sock. I think she has sorted me out but we'll see. It was nice to go today and I enjoyed my coffee and talk with her, despite the only other two in there being a bit boring. One talked about her cat endlessly even though I told her I didn't like cats and the others one was a know-it-all who just knows everything!!!!

On the way home I picked up some nice things for lunch. The boys watched more TV, made a mess in the living room and then proceeded to have a fight where one of them got marked quite badly. We were on our way to the pool to cool off and for Huffle and Small to dive down and fit the patch over the leak and I told them they would spend the afternoon doing chores to keep them out of trouble.

We had a quick play in the pool as the clouds were looking quite black and Big and Small mended (well we hope) the leak and we all cleared away while Huffle went back to work.

This involved putting glue on the patch, covering it with glue and folding it over, diving down and unfolding the patch and sticking it over the leak. Then they took it in turns diving down and making sir the patch was sealed. However, some of the corners kept coming up so they had to take the glue under water and try to glue the edges. NOT EASY

This afternoon I wrote a list of things I wanted doing around the house and they each chose what they wanted to do until the list was done. They cleaned the two bathroom mirrors and the sliding door. Wiped the surfaces in the bathrooms emptied the stair basket and cleared the top of the basement stairs and vacuumed their rooms and the computer room. They did a good job and they kept out of trouble. I swept and mopped (and knocked over my mop bucket all over the wooden floor!!) downstairs and tidied and Smallest then helped me with dinner. Small was very grumpy about the amount of work he did and wouldn't talk to me for ages. He says he is my friend now. I said that I hoped next time they thought about fighting they wouldn't becuase they knew they would have to do an afternoon of chores.

Huffle spent a good part of today without internet due to Bell coming to fix our telephone (he was not happy) and then part of the early evening trying to sort out Netflix. It hasn't been working properly for ages and they partly fixed it but it's not working again. He is not happy twice! I have been having trouble playing IPlayer from my IPad and have been sending emails to the BBC. I think it's working now. I'm happy.

We had dinner and then the boys and I played TopTrumps until Small and Huffle went off to football. There was no referee tonight and Huffle was unhappy that the game didn't feel official and a couple of the boys were acting immature. They still won. Smallest and I played Connect4 and he watched TV while I tried to sort out Netflix with the help of the online support. It's still not quite working correctly.

 

 

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Lady Fenyrose will see you now

Huffle went off to the office today for a meeting which was very productive and although the outcome means lots of data and strategy work he is happy - Data Geek!! Urrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

The boys and I had a lazy morning. They mainly played on their tablets and I did some washing, tidied a bit and listened to the radio. It was very very hot today with temperatures getting to 34* (almost feels like 40*) so it was good we stayed inside all morning. However, late lunch we went out looking for a Pool Patch Repair Kit. Yesterday I checked websites looking for who had it in stock and found a place in our local town, but when we got there we were told they didn't have it, their website did state in tiny tiny writing that the things in there might not necessarily be in stock which makes me wonder why put it on there in the first place. Of course, I couldn't leave and had to ask............ Don't know why because I didn't get anywhere. Next we looked for Steven Filters. Our little compost bin that sits on our kitchen worktop is called Steven (Steven Tin Tin Duffy - everytime we take the kid off we sing "kiss me with your mo-outh, your love is better than wine.......) anyway, apparently this shop doesn't sell the compost bin. OH YES YOU DO said I. I Was getting a little annoyed that no-one knew what their shop sold, not helped by the fact that the man who asked if he could help me was hard of hearing but he failed to tell me this until I had asked for my product four times! The filters are now on order (the filters sit in his hat or lid and stop the smells from escaping) and I have to pick them up next week when they call me!

We went for dinner at lunchtime as we had an early journey to Football later and the boys chose our favourite burger place. We sat outside in the shade though it was still hot. My burger at this place is made with vegetables and rice and beans and is very yummy. We decided to go to the bank while we were there and got the boys bank accounts (about time, we have been trying to do this for years but they have to be there to choose their PIN numbers and sign the documents). When they asked for ID, I gave them the kids Permanent Residency Cards and I joked with the boys that I would use their Swim Cards (for the Leisure Centre) and when she asked for a second ID, they giggled because I got their cards out. They chose their PIN numbers, signed their forms and came away with their own debit cards (I shall be looking after them then!). Really they are for putting money into the account, not buying things. The staff made a huge thing of us setting up accounts. Smallest left his beloved Blue Jays hat in there so we have to pick that up tomorrow. We finished our time out by finding a pool repair kit and buying some new goggles for the pool.

When we got home we had an ice cream (I promised and it was too warm to go to the ice cream shop) and we invited MissMo round to swim in the pool while ClownRose got LittleFin off to sleep. She stayed with us for about an hour and Huffle joined us when he got home.

Small stayed at home by himself this evening while the rest of us went to Smallest's football game. The name of the road sounded like someone out of Downton Abbey. Lady Fenyrose Avenue. The game was awful, our team lost terribly again and only got one goal. The opposition got about 10. We think the ref was German or Dutch as he was very efficient and loved to blow his whistle.

We had an email earlier today that said the game was starting at 7pm and we were to be there at 7pm. Huffle was not convinced it was correct and made us get there half an hour before the start time but when we arrived Coach looked at his watch and hurried Smallest along. He then did the same to any of the boys that turned up after Smallest and made several comments after the game. Smallest came to me and said "Coach said we have to be here half an hour before the games". Of course, once again, I couldn't not say something so I went back and told him his email said 7pm to be there. He didn't believe me until I showed him and said in his defence that at the beginning of the season he said to be here half an hour before. I walked away as I couldn't be bothered. His attitude is terrible just lately. He doesn't talk to us, he makes snidey comments. I can't stand by and ignore it like Huffle can. I shout at the Coach and he shouts at the refs. We all have our triggers.

Poor Smallest was down and extremely tired. By making the boys practice half an hour (sometimes more) before a game in searing heat which is played on a poorly maintained, bumpy lumpy pitch with NO NETS, against better more organised teams and then get little snipes from the coach about times. It is not good. There are going to be some serious questions asked before we pay for the next season with this club!

Small enjoyed his three hours to himself and used it to play on his tablet and watch TV. He was in heaven!

 

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I'm not geeky enough for a whole day of science!

As I sat eating my breakfast, I asked the boys what they wanted to do today, fully expecting them to say "a pool day" but Smallest surprised me and said "Science Centre". I shouldn't have been that surprised, as it was on their list. It was very hot and humid out and I thought well why not.

All ready by around 10ish, we filled the car up with petrol and went on our way, narrowly avoiding an accident! We were there by 11am with the car park not rammed but quite a few queuing up to get in. Disaster - I lost my purse (handbag is also called purse here, I didn't lose my handbag just my purse, my coin purse, my wallet). I left the boys happily looking at fish and went back to the car, where I found nothing. I was just starting to panic when I looked under my car and there it was. Who knows how it got under there but thankfully I found it; money, credit and debit cards, health cards, permanent residency cards. Phew, not only would we not have got in to the science Centre but replacing all that was in there would have been a Nightmare!

Anyway, we got in. Our first place to visit was Ripleys Believe it or Not. This exhibit was a collection of things that Robert Ripley bought in over 200 countries during 35+ years before he died. A lot of the things came from England that I saw. The boys sat in an enormous chair (not Daniel Lamberts) and we saw works of art including Einstein made out of pieces of toast, a huge snake made of washers, Bumblebee transformer made from car parts, another portrait made from computer keys, one from stamps and another from pennies.

Smallest proved he wasn't a giant after all by standing next to a very tall exhibit who was 6ft in Grade 3 (age 9). We made a light show, looked through microscopes, posed as astronauts, divers and with a turtle.

We discovered why there was an audio delay on old phones, how to get rid of noise through holey tunnels, looked through weird mirrors and learnt about magnets and noise.

One of my favourite displays was the air holding up a beach ball (not too sciencey geeky but fun). Smallest dared to climb high up and be suspended looking through a periscope and learning what life is like for a soaring bird. We saw skeletons, globes, and went through a rain forest where we found a turtle.

The boys made a film go quick, slower and back to front and stood over what looked like a huge drop under a glass floor (illusion). We sat in a diving chamber and listened to a lady talk about breathing and how far down you could dive. It was supposed to be an 'experience' and we should have 'felt' it but there was too much chatter inside there to fully appreciate it though Smallest nearly fell asleep.

To wake him up he tested his agility on a running machine and we had a trip through a virtual forest with lots of interesting facts about trees (not too geeky to love a good tree). We found a centre that was full of interactive stuff (not that the rest of it wasn't) and there was a huge machine that you put pieces of paper in (supposedly to see what shapes floated best) and they were all pumped out of the top. There was plenty to see in do and watch and play.

Smallest made a face with a tongue and the boys made a mini film using stop start motion. We all made paper aeroplanes and tried to hit the target (mine was the worst).

There was a place outside which we visited with trees (yay), strange structures, a tree slide and a musical tree with Michael Buble singing.

Inside we went to the planetarium four times to attempt to watch a presentation on the night sky. The planetarium only seats fifty people and the first three times we went we were number 53, 54, 51 and only on the forth visit (the shows were hourly) did Small stand in the queue while Smallest and I looked at the moon buggy and Smallest attempted to drive it and then we joined Small. Unfortunately it wasn't that great as there were lots of silly kids in there making silly noises instead of listening. It was nice sitting in the dark looking at the stars though and I closed my eyes a couple of times. If I had been more comfortable I would have fallen asleep. Smallest too!

After five hours we were done! Tired, achey legs and full of science facts we drove home. The traffic was bad but we made use of the 'two people or more lane' and looked smug as we drove past hundreds of cars. We popped to the supermarket on the way and picked up a few things.

Huffle had made dinner and it was nearly ready for us. Nice not to have to rush in and rush to get dinner made. After dinner we showed Huffle our photos and told him about our day. Huffle had worked out that our old patch we repaired in the pool was loose and we needed another one. That was a tough job getting that done last time. Both him and Small spent ages diving down as you have to put glue on it but cover it until you get to the bottom and then hold it on until it is stuck. They had to take it in turns diving down.

Small and Huffle went to football and Smallest and I stayed at home and rested. Smallest had a headache and was really tired.

This is Small and Huffles official football photo. What is Huffle doing?

 

 

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Achey Breaky

The whole house, except Small unbelievably (the lightest sleeper), was woken by a 7am train honk honking its way through the Hamlet and nearby villages again. I realise it is a weekday and people have to work today (including me) but 7am??????? Come on!!!!! I went back to sleep and felt like I had been asleep for only a few minutes when Smallest came in to wake me up. Today was back to work day.

The boys had had their breakfast and we managed to get away just after 9am for a morning of hard work in the searing heat at the Garden with MrsM. We harvested 3 different types of potatoes (not a great deal but enough for a few meals), lots of lovely big garlic, some kale which we bought home and made Kale Chips (or crisps) beans (runners and French - not as many as ours but again, enough for a few meals).

The boys were given a butterfly net to catch the butterflies intent on eating the cabbages. I think Small caught one but the others just got away or flew away too scared of the net. I didn't realise they were going to have to kill them. Small didn't find it a problem but I couldn't have done it, not sure about Smallest (Mr animal Lover). For coffee break we had Chocolate Brownies which were decadently yummy. After our break and a long discussion about Newfoundland where MrsM had just come back from, we dug out lots of geraniums of which I brought home a few, plus a couple of ferns and some Solomon Seal. It was very hot and still quite humid. The boys were exhausted but Small did catch a Pokemon.

We had lunch with Huffle and this afternoon we let him go back to work and went in the pool. Here we played several games of pool hide and seek (Smallest and I are useless at this game because we laugh and the whole point is to be as quiet as possible). Smallest and I also played Blokkus before coming in.

I made dinner (well I heated up leftovers from yesterday) and made Kale Chips which are just bite size pieces of kale without stalks baked in an oven for ten minutes. They aren't the tastiest thing ever but they are quite moreish. Smallest and Huffle liked them but Small didn't.

After dinner all the boys went off to Smallest's practice where it was taken by CoachOl. Apparently the most exciting thing that happened was that the Eagle who has a nest on top of one of the lights, brought its babies a fish. I stayed at home and painted my nails, sat on the porch, had a glass of wine (broke the glass. This morning I broke my most favourite plate that Small and Huffle painted for me many moons ago) and watched TV. Aaahhhhhhhhhhhhh.

 

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Chilled Civic Calzone

Happy Civic Day. Don't know what it means or what it's for but it was very welcome. We do know it is half way through the kids school holidays so it was nice that Huffle could spend it with us.

ExerciseNic and her family in their OLD car passing by like royalty

Another hot day though very cloudy. Still quite humid. Which is why we decided to spend it by the pool today. We had a very slow morning with a game of Niagara. Great game but it takes me a whole game to work out what I should be doing and by then someone has won and I'm wondering why I'm so far behind. Ha! That's the problem with having a husband and two boys who are very good at strategising. The boys spent some time on their tablets while Huffle and I went to clean the pool.

It wasn't too bad. A nice shade of pale blue, clearish but with nothing really to clean. So we got in instead and spent some quality time all by ourselves swimming and floating on lilo's and rings (some time ago I said I didn't know the word for lilo here - I have since found out it is Water Mattress!!!!). It was very relaxing and quiet so we spoiled it by telling the kids to come and join us.

We all played Pool Hide and Seek. The boys played Noodle Wars and then we had a break playing on our gadgets until Huffle Skyped Grandma and Grandad. I'm not sure if I have said before and if I haven't, well I am bragging, but we now have a faster wifi. It has gone from 6 to 25. Wahoooooo. It also now reaches (almost without interruption) up to the pool. Huffle is very happy, however we have now lost our landline phone, not that we are that bothered by it because we only ever get calls from people selling. We are thinking of getting rid of it and just using our mobiles (cell phones).

We had lunch at the pool, read, played a couple of games of Monopoly Millionaire, a bit more gadget time, some more swimming and a whirlpool made by Smallest and Huffle.

Early evening we went in a made Calzone. It worked perfectly. It was delicious and we have enough for dinner tomorrow. We watched Robot Wars whilst eating and then the boys watched their TV while Huffle and I sat on the porch and enjoyed the last of the evening sun.

 

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