So, back to last weekend and it felt like a rare dose of normality after so many weeks of locking ourselves away from the rest of the world. The government guidelines, now almost incomprehensible in their layered complexity, allows for 2 families to mix indoors and overnight, albeit I believe while maintaining social distancing (?!?!), so first Kerrie and Ryan dropped by on their way home from seeing Ryan's parents, and then Simon and Sharron came to stay. It was lovely to see Kerrie - she's looking so well and these days is so mature - we can even see the product of all those discussions we had over the days being repeated back to us which is reassuring - maybe its going into our two as well! They brought Gracie with them and after we'd had lunch and I nipped off for only my second haircut of the year, we took the dogs for a walk. What a difference from having Freya when this would have been out of the question. I still miss her, but I don't miss the many challenges she brought.
No sooner had they left, Simon and Sharron arrived. It is an indicator of the past 4 months that it felt very strange having them stay, almost like something we shouldn't be doing. It's also odd that they can stay in our house, eat our food and sleep under our roof, but we aren't allowed to hug them. Don't tell anybody but I did when no-one was looking. It was so lovely to have them here and the 24 hours passed way too quickly, we did manage to convince them to join us for a week while we are in France - only 2 weeks away now and counting!
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| Never too old for a dinsoaur trail |
This week brought more fun as we had booked a last minute mid-week trip to Port Lympne, a place we all love. I did wonder what it would be like with the Covid measures in place, but apart from seeing the guards in face coverings (to protect the animals rather than the customers!), lots of social distancing signs, one way golf buggy routes and fewer people being in the park at any one time, it was as we remembered it. We had two nights booked in the Treehouse Hotel and it was a lovely break, just what I needed. We saw rhino, gorillas, lion, tigers, tapirs, and so much more. The kids got to roast marshmallows and roar around in the golf buggy, and I got to do lots of walking when the park seemed almost empty - a perfect few days. All too soon we were heading home and I had to do one more day at work before the weekend - no wonder the days are passing too fast.
We now have 2 weeks of work for me before France. Between Covid and the fact that the kids don't seem to want me to plan anything for them, there is relatively little in the diary. Izzy is a world class lazer so is happy to just lounge, practise her skateboarding, chat to her friends online and see the odd one in person. Abi has more animals than a zoo and so has plenty to keep her busy, but this didn't stop her from telling me today that "Everyone else's Mum has taken loads of time off to take them out for day trips, it's just you who has to work..." Of course this is rubbish, not least I took 2.5 days off last week to do just that, as well as spending most of today driving her round the country picking up (more) new rats (another story) but that doesn't change her single minded view that somehow she is more hard done by than her friends. I do remember being told by Mum when we were this age that it's important to learn to be bored, and I find myself repeating this often these days, but she's not convinced. Despite this the answer is the same - I'm working, you'll have to amuse yourself. At least when they had school there was some expectation of them having tasks to do. Now its just a free for all and I have little sympathy - I'm under no illusions just how fortunate they are.
If nothing else boredom is focusing Izzy's attention - there are (she has a counter) - 49 days, 9 hours and 21 minutes left until school starts. She has asked me more than once to reassure her that it will happen, and has already started her back to school stationary purchases. If only she'd realised how much she missed it before term finished!
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| One of the 4 'Bachelor Boys' |
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