Skip to main content

Back to school!

Back to school and back to normal, phew! Funnily enough it's like they've never left - they ran into school, worked out where they should be and that was it - gone. Izzy didn't even say goodbye. I guess I should be pleased - I'm certainly not worried that they aren't clinging to our legs, crying their eyes out.


They spent half the week cooking up a sleepover at Mia's on Friday night, what's new?! When push came to shove and I was heading home from Claire's Abi had a wobble and decided actually she was too tired to stay. So Izzy and Mia (who's in Abi's year but doesn't seem to matter) headed off giggling to the bath together and Abi headed home with us. Good job we hadn't managed to get a table booked at our local for dinner then. Abi was shattered after the week so went to bed early and we got up together on a very rainy Saturday morning to walk the dogs. By the time we got back Glenn had left for his track day and so with nothing else pressing given the weather, Abi and I snuggled up on the sofa together, me reading my book and her flipping from her Kindle to her game and back again. We had over an hour in peace and quite, occasionally chatting about something and just relaxing - lovely. Its so rare that I do that, and certainly not when I have both of them with me - too much fighting over exactly who's got the most comfortable / most important part of me or whatever - NOT relaxing!


Today the weather was much improved and was a mini-triathlon of exercise for me - long walk this morning in the sunshine with the dogs, watching the moisture steam off the grass, followed by a 22 mile bike ride and then a swim this afternoon with the girls. We decided to use the outdoor pool at the gym and had it all to ourselves until Izzy's friend Satari turned up and so immediately a game of mermaid catch ensued (don't ask - didn't understand the rules!). I do love the fact that we are now completely rooted here and everywhere we go we know people.


The other conversation this week, which mainly I'm having with myself at the moment, is school options for Year 7 and beyond. Do we remain wedded to the private system, with all the cost that entails, or explore other options? This has arisen for a number of reasons (mostly back to school discussions) but also because we have an excellent state secondary school on our doorstep which delivers academic results as good as the local independent option as well as a hugely varied set of extra curricular options and a pretty amazing learning environment. It would be mad not to seriously consider whether this would be a good option for the girls, not least the cost of secondary / 6th form private schooling for 2 is approx. £250k out of taxed income!! As Mum says, we'll never know whether we've made the right decision, but we should at least explore. I've asked the kids and their response is simple - "we want the one with boys". Hmm - maybe I'll not bother asking next time!






 'Back to School' photo #1!!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Diary management!

This part of the summer is definitely typified by me trying to remember who is supposed to be where and when. Abi likes to be off doing something with someone while Izzy is happier to know she's close to home and so for the last week they've gone their separate ways. Abi has been down in Somerset making the most of Ben and Laurie being about. From what I can tell she's having a lovely time. Apart from the covert phone call one evening to tell me she was 'starving'  (Mum was cooking for the hordes and so it had been delayed), I've barely heard from her. The few calls I have had have very quickly ended in "can I go now" like I'm making her speak to me! Today she switches from Mum and Dads to a night or two with Kerrie - not sure who is more excited! Izzy didn't want to be away for that long so she opted not to go. She's very conscious that Abi and Laurie are joined at the hip when together and Ben has his own things he wants to do so she ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Blame the jet stream...

Shed prep, with oversight from the dogs Apparently we have the jet stream to blame for the truly awful weather we are having right now. I blame our builder - if he had got his act together and sorted out Glenn's workshop roof as he promised, sods law the sun would be shining from dawn to dusk. Instead it's still pouring every half hour and Glenn is constantly worried about how much water is coming though the roof / walls / floor etc. Apparently he 'literally' just needs to put the ridge on the top and the gully down the side and it will all be fixed. We are literally at the point of wanting to do him some actual bodily harm. The moment he disappears the better. This week he was also literally going to clad the office ("done") and has failed everyday to turn up and do it (which in my book is literally not "done"). He was also going to have Gary come and finish the electrics (not done), whack down the paving slabs (not done), render the last of the bri...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ypres

Walking around the lake in Ypres while waiting for the rugby to finish! A wet Monday evening after a lovely long weekend away in Ypres - just the two of us and just what I needed after what has been a relatively stressful few months of decision making. The decision is now made however and on Monday I resigned my job in order to join a new company in January. This will be the same role, but a company that hopefully offers more long term stability than my current one. It's been hard going through the initial round of telling people.Despite only being there for 7 months I've made some good friends and very quickly become established and everybody who I've told has been happy for me but very sad that I'm going - it hasn't made it easy. I do feel like I've been through the mill a bit this year - what with leaving EY, ramping up to a big new role, finding out it probably didn't have the longevity I was looking for and then going through the process of finding ...
Post a Comment
Read more