Working girl

Scrunchy Queen!

How quickly time passes and I have gone from wondering in years past how we will fill the long summer holidays to wondering whether I will actually see the kids. This weekend Abi has been down at Angies and rather than me paying for her to be there, she was working and got paid for her efforts. That wasn't the original plan, but the weather was scorchio and so she ended up doing very little actual riding and much more grafting around the stables. She was up at 5.15am both mornings (without complaint) to do the early feeds, turnouts and boxes by which time it was too hot to go out. This has obviously cemented the idea that was posed a few weeks ago that she would spend much of the summer there, working from Monday to Friday and home for the weekends, getting paid. We will no doubt get her home at the weekends tired and smelly but feeling a sense of achievement I hope.

In true horse people form we don't actually know what she will be paid. I have told her we need to find out, not for any reason at this stage other than it's a good life lesson not to be embarrassed to ask in advance what you will be paid so that you can decide if it's worth your effort. What's interesting is how excruciating she finds the notion of asking - how very British! Any, I have no such scruples - I've learnt the hard way not to assume fairness. That said, asking is one thing - getting an answer is another - so we still don't know. Hopefully it's not too much like slave labour - she came home with £40 for this weekend. I did smile at this - it's a small fortune in her eyes as a wage, but peanuts when she's asking me for money!

All this meant that when I collected her yesterday she was on top form and we had a brilliant journey home. Abi was in charge of the music and we picked out tracks we like and sang along at the top of our voices in between chatting about her weekend - very special.

Izzy in the meantime loves being home alone and makes the most of having us to herself, albeit she was as absent as Abi this weekend. Friday was the summer concert, which I couldn't go to as I was at a dinner in Oxford, and Glenn wouldn't go to because he would rather stick pins in his eyeballs. It's always a hot and long evening stuck on small chairs in the school hall which showcases in multiple ways the same small group of musically talented kids (ie not ours!). Izzy was brought home by a friend at just before 10pm.  Saturday was searingly hot (+30) and after a very sweaty yoga class Izzy and I chilled in the shade before she went off to Jessie's party and sleepover. Rather them than me to have 12 hot, sugar fulled kids in that heat! She then came home late Sunday morning, only to go off to Aran's 10 mins later, not arriving home until 5pm. It's a good job neither Glenn nor I are bothered about our kids being glued to our sides all weekend.

Of course with the girls heading to the end of term we would normally be packing up ready for our annual pilgrimage to France. Instead this year we have a week in Cornwall which I'm looking forward to but there is at least a part of me wishing we were going on a 'proper' holiday. There's no denying that it's not the same sense of anticipation when you are heading down the M4 instead of the A1 in France. The forecast looks OK, but all in all I'm not sure it will be the same sense of a break. If it turns outs to be good but not great I've basically blown it because I don't know that we will get anther week in given work commitments and the various things the kids have got planned in. The best I could probably hope for is a few more days in the UK which defeats the object, or possibly Normandy, which doesn't quite cut it either. Oh well, if nothing else a year off France may be enough to break the cycle of always going to the same place and we will know not to book in the UK next year! Who knows what lies ahead anyway. Work may yet prove to have some more twists and turns in the road and that could create some space later in the year. In the meantime I will try not to look at the photos from France which keep popping up on FB and elsewhere - I'm definitely having premptive withdrawal symptoms!