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August hols - week 1, part 2


What a treat to come home from a lovely few days and for it only to be Wednesday and therefore to have half the week still to go with a bank holiday to look forward to as well! Having got home late afternoon we settled in and unpacked and I got to take the dogs out as well - happy to be back with my babies. Glenn was off to a funeral on Friday and then had his London to Paris 24 hour bike ride to do over the weekend, so with Abi still away, Izzy had the bright idea of seeing whether we could take one of the riding school ponies out for a hack. We were allowed to so off we went to spend a very happy couple of hours pretending this was her own pony - in your dreams!

Saturday was a round of pick ups and drops offs before Sharron arrived for a well overdue catch up. I had to drop Izzy at the stables, drive to Cranborne Chase to pick up a tired, smelly but not too disillusioned Abi before driving back, dropping her at the house for a huge dog love-in. I then headed back to the stables only to have Izzy say "not yet, later please" so back home and then back up again to finally extract her at 3.30pm. By the time I'd done all of this Abi's supposedly good mood had crashed and she had taken herself to her room where she wasn't speaking to anyone and certainly not me! It was definitely my fault she felt like this - I quote when I asked her how it makes me feel when she comes home in this mood after a week away: "well how do you think you make me feel Mummy... you obviously don't love me or you'd let me stay there...!"

Luckily her good humour started to be restored in the morning after a decent night's sleep and a big breakfast and by today she's back to her normal self - helped by the offer of another morning at the stables where she and Izzy this time got to pretend they owned the whole yard as we were the only people there. We had another lovely ride, the only downside of which is that they want to do it every day... will be cheaper to buy our own ponies at this rate!

It's been absolutely lovely having a week at home and we've had the most amazing bank holiday weather - wall to wall sunshine and 25 plus degrees - very uncharacteristic for an August BH! We even managed to sneak in an evening with the neighbours cooking home made pizzas in their outdoor pizza over.

This evening Glenn arrived back after a successful if slower than normal bike ride. They had easily done the 175 miles from London to Paris, only marred by the fact that they had to ride as a group and Simon broke his bike before they left the UK - 10 hours 40 minutes of cycling over 22 hours - not his preferred speed! He was a tad grumpy at the time but pleased to have ticked another challenge off the list when it was done. The kids were very excited to have him home and spent all afternoon planning a restaurant style meal of home made burger and chips with all the trimming. Abi looked up a Jamie Oliver recipe and made the burgers herself with a super sized one for Daddy after his ride. They tasted great and he was very chuffed with all the attention, even if he was expected to eat the moment he walked through the door!




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