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It’s oh so quiet ...

It’s a strange feeling to have the house empty of both dogs and children. We are off to London tomorrow for my Christmas treat of Rick Astley at the KoKo Club in Camden and so we left the girls in Taunton and came home alone. Given we had been away we’d also outsourced the dogs to their normal holiday home and so it was very weird this morning to wake up without hearing expectant tails downstairs, weird and a bit disappointing for me. It was such a beautiful morning that I went for a walk anyway but it’s not the same without my mad, bad dogs to keep me company. Once I got back we did have a very nice, relaxing hour or so sitting drinking tea in the kitchen, chatting about the day and generally not getting going too fast! Since then we’ve chopped logs, sorted the house, done about 10 loads of washing (where did it all come from??), visited friends and then wrapped all the Christmas presents - not a bad day.

Prior to all this peace we had the last day of term and then a wonderful couple of days in Taunton. On Wednesday we saw Abi do a beautiful reading in the carol concert - very brave of her as it’s her worst nightmare to stand up in front of over 100 people and speak but she did brilliantly, we were so proud. Izzy won an award for hockey (player of the season) as well - chuffed parents all round.  Add to this some amazing comments in their reports - kids doing well!

Glenn took the girls down to Taunton on Friday morning before heading off for his autumn mist reunion and I followed in the afternoon by train. We had a lovely meal on Friday night with everyone then Amanda and I went riding together on Saturday morning which was just lovely. The sun shone, it was a great temperature given the time of year and the horses behaved themselves (apart from Dillon being scared of cows that is!). We were hanging around for a dinner date with George and Deb but in the end decided a cup of tea was easier so ended up leaving a bit earlier. This was not before Emma and her boys turned up and Dad and I squeezed in a fab 2 hour walk - all the way to Bradford on Tone by the river, putting the world to rights as we went - a perfect end to a perfect visit.

So the kids are with Kerrie and Ryan for another day or so and tomorrow is a big night out - early bed I think!!

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