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Happy birthday Laurie!

The only hope of a photo with them all in it 
- get them with ice cream!
In a bid to try not to let this week slip by like the last one did! I'm trying to get this post written on a Monday morning on the train. Normally its a Sunday evening job, but yesterday was taken up by a day out for Laurie's birthday and by the time we got home and I got all the normal chores sorted it was bedtime.

We had a great day out so it was all worth it. Laurie had chosen Go-Karting and while of course the kids were all up for it, Amanda and I were a bit more hesitant - we break more easily! Amanda managed to persuade me that we should also have a go so it was the 6 of us that kitted up in suits with reluctant Velcro and single use balaclavas that looked like hospital pants. We sat through the briefing ("risk of injury or death...if you fail to observe the rules you will be taken in for 're-education'...") and then got inot our carts. Izzy was in a cadet kart and the rest of us in adult karts - this meant she was more bnippy but we were faster on the straights - and off we went. Unfortunately there were also another 6 people which included a competitive Dad and his very slow daughter. While she pottered around at half the speed of everyone else, he hammered around at top speed, slowing down only to shout at people who he thought were either in his way or too close to his daughter. Of the two of them, he was by far the more dangerous and irritating and managed to indirectly cause more than one crash, leaving others to then take the blame. I'm sure he was very proud of himself when he got the fastest lap time on both events - we marked him up as disqualified in our books! Despite not being sure we wanted to have a go, both Amanda and I enjoyed ourselves and I even managed to come top out of our team on the second go.

From here we went to Cribbs for lunch and shopping. Laurie chose Pizza Hut which turned out to be by far the best choice - they loved it and ate more than their fair share, it was reasonably priced, tasted good and there wasn't a massive wait - again proof we should not let our biases dictate our choices. The kids went one way, Alex the other and Amanda and I had a lovely hour on our own shopping. I wasn't the one that really wanted anything but spent at least twice what she did! It was just nice to spend a bit of time together.

When we got home none of us really wanted to eat so Glenn treated himself to fish and chips while we had crackers and cheese.  After homework was finished Abi and I made Mia's birthday present. She bought a photo album in Cribbs and had sorted out her favourite photos of them to put in it so I was tasked with the mammoth printing session necessary to get 30+ photos ready for insertion. It looks lovely and will be a beautiful present.

To round off a very relaxing day we lay on Izzy's bed and the 3 of us chatted about growing up, changing bodies and what it means to be a teenager. Izzy commented at one point "men don't talk like this". No, they don't - more's the pity. It's all we can do to get Glenn to admit his sciatica is painful, let alone get him to say much more. It does seems to be getting slightly better - fingers crossed its sorted soon as it has been 4 weeks of sleeplessness and agony for him.

So, another busy week but I'm really enjoying the new role. The person I'm taking over from has left now and so I'm on my own and starting to work out what I want to differently. The days are beginning to get a bit longer and there's a touch of very early Spring in the air. It's nice to feel so positive on a Monday morning!



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