Glenn set off to drive to Belgium (not France as I thought) to ride The Tour of Flanders with his 'bro's' (Abi's term, not mine for Simon, Simon, Jon and Peter) on Friday and my intent was to balance kids, dogs and a few bits and pieces before heading to Simon and Audrey's on Sunday for a big family get together. Instead we ended up with impromptu tea at Lucy's on Friday, followed by having Grace and Mia come visit on Saturday, along with Sean to start to try and make good the drive so it all felt a bit chaotic. With Izzy and Grace cooking up a sleepover on Saturday night (Grace hosting not us thank goodness), Abi and I headed over to Elizabeth's for another impromptu tea and yet more pudding. Sunday was simply a follow on - after all, it would have been silly to come off the sugar high only to get back on it by lunchtime. Diet starts tomorrow!
Simon and Audrey are now in their new job and so we all descended today for lunch, Alpaca visits and generally oohing and ahhing at what a lovely place it is. It's a typically beautiful Cotswold Stone property with a lovely vistas over rolling fields - very nice. They are in the guest accommodation for a few months until their house is ready but they are hardly slumming it. The guest cottage is a lovely, bright interior designed space just perfect for them. I'd have happily settled down for the weekend. It was lovely to see everyone and a good warm up for the wedding at the end of the month.
The kids are now finished for Easter and don't go back until May (eek!). I really can't see how they need so much time off at this time of the year - I'm sure it's only so all the teachers can go skiing at out of season prices. I'm waiting until the back end of the holidays to have some proper leave but it feels like I should be off tomorrow rather than going back to work - the weather has been lovely over the past few days and so being in the office feels such a waste, particularly now we have the lighter evenings again. I'd like to get into the garden but I have no enthusiasm while the oil leak is still being fixed - talk about stretching out a job - they've been with us for 7 weeks - surely its time they moved on?! This week should see the new oil tank in place and the boarding going up at which point hopefully the finishing touches can be put into place and we can get back to normal. Its been so depressing having all this upheaval and not to have something exciting at the end of it. £50k plus and all we will have at the end of it is a slightly bigger oil tank and less space. Oh and an encyclopaedic knowledge of what to do in the event of a domestic fuel disaster - hope not to be needing that again.
Luckily there are exciting projects for some members of the family still going on. Today was the day that the long awaited, much anticipated new beds came for the girls. We've had some loft beds, made with pull out desks and sofa / camp beds underneath and they have been so excited waiting for these to arrive. I'm pleased to say they've gone up without a hitch and apart from the fact that it meant I have had to rearrange all the furniture so that everything still has a home, it has gone very smoothly and they look great. More importantly the kids absolutely love them and Abi was immediately in there, curled up on her sofa with first her homework and then her book. Izzy was keen to put everything away herself but quickly gave up (with my prompting) as the tendency was to just throw everything into a cupboard and be done with it - her standard approach. Abi took more care so was allowed to continue - I just want it to look good for the first day or so! I've also had a workbench put into the spare room for my glass. Our house really is perfect for us - it will be a shame to leave it in due course but it will also be exciting to put our touches into another home - and who doesn't love a new set of projects?!?
This week coming at least is a short one, in fact the next 4 weeks are short ones so that's something to be pleased about. Work has been hard over the past few months with my secondment and a number of difficult changes underway. Last week I was away Sunday - Wednesday on the Partner Assessment Centre which was super busy and consumed my week. The week before was marred by the tragedy in London with 4 people killed and many injured. It was a stark reminder of how easy it is for everything to change in a moment and being so close to home - very near where I work. It made me feel quite vulnerable.
With all of this I'm really looking forward to some downtime with Glenn and the girls, with improving weather and a chance to fling open the doors and let the outside in. Just need to teach Freya where the boundaries are first - she's enjoying the chance to explore and unlike Bertie doesn't quite know where the limits are just yet. Electric collar #2 is beckoning I think.
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