Ben returns from Berlin, the drinking of toilet water by Max, visit to Dad and Val's and Magic Janey has to wear a bridesmaid dress!

The half term holiday -

Ben returned from Berlin on Monday morning (approx 3am). I discovered him in his bed later on that morning when we all got up. Obviously Ben needed to stay in bed all day to recover from all the sightseeing and educational visits. A lot of the sightseeing was done in the many bars that Berlin has to offer and apparently "the beer is cheap out there mum" was the excuse used. Ben was not really away long enough for any of us to really miss him (he was only away for 4 days). Max and myself played several CBBC computer games (with the Shaun the sheep woolly jumper game being our favourite and very silly!!) on Ben's computer and I'd cleaned and cleared the room so we could breathe rather more decent air than normally is lurking in Ben's room. Max said, in fact, he didn't miss his brother as he got to go on CBBC web site more but that out of all the brothers in the whole world Ben would be the one he would choose. Ahh, very sweet, you may say. This did not last as, once Ben was in the land of the living, Max's assaults and annoying big bro' regime returned with gusto and usual family life was resumed!

To keep out of Ben's way, on Monday, Max and myself spent the day at his school on an 'Activity Day' which consisted of creative activities with Max in the morning and in the afternoon he participated in multi-sports and I went to a watercolour painting class where we both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves (not only because we got a break from each other) and we learned new skills.

On Tuesday Max had a friend round to play - all day. Both boys play really well together, Max being rather bossy and his pal being usually tolerant. They run around like a couple of nutters, play Lego, climb on the climbing frame, play pet shops with plastic animals and with Sparky until mummy intervened, make pancakes and eat several and, yes, drink water out of the toilet - nice normal 6 year old activities! Yes, apart from the last one. Max's friend fortunately informed me of the latter exploit and Max, after blatant denial, admitted it. Fortunately he came to no harm and his friend wasn't daft enough to try it!

On Wednesday myself and Max went to Lincoln to visit Dad and Valerie. We had Valerie's delicious home-made crinkle cut chips and sandwiches, the chips being Max's favourite I obviously had to eat some - it would have been rude not to! Me and Valerie had a trip into Lincoln for a bit of retail therapy leaving Max and Grandad together for a couple of hours with a Hornby train set, a trip to the sweet shop (Spar) and a matchstick firing canon; everyone a winner.

Thursday and Friday are a bit of a blur - food shopping, hoovering etc. the usual stuff and I then went out on Friday night to my friend Jane's where I met up with my other girl friends (my antenatal friends of 18 years now, yikes) and had 3 glasses of wine (whoopee)! We, of course, all righted the world in just one evening - marvellous!

On wed or thurs night my little sister rang up and we chatted for over 2 hours. Wedding dresses and matron of honour dresses (Hatty Jacques style for big sister then) with sweet heart neck lines on full length bridesmaid dresses were discussed.
Please can I wear my leggings underneath Caz?

Well its Saturday night now will hopefully publish photos next time round. Night, Night.

Electric blanket still on at bedtime!

Everyone I work with and nearly everyone I speak to either wants to have a duvet day or has had one. This terminology has only been used in the last 5 or so years by the media; as in the olden days it was just call 'skiving'. Being only a part-timer, I use this term loosely as any time I spend at home after going to work or college is spent working for nothing - what I mean by this is no financial payment. I obviously get great personal satisfaction from picking up socks, underpants and jeans from one bedroom floor and from the other clearing Lego so minute you need a magnifying glass to see it (I am getting old and need my glasses changing, in fact it might help if I sometimes wore the damn things). The weather is still foul but the sun did attempt to come out at 2.15pm on Friday then teased us only for about an hour before buggering off and raining/drizzling again. There could be more snow by next Wednesday, whoopee! With my mum's help I have finally cleared the back garden of wooden pallet carcasses, an old wicker chair and 3 tonnes of rotting leaves. The garden was starting to resemble the beginning of one of those 'life of grime' documentaries on t.v. that I may have on the odd occasion seen - yuk!

Max received a 'Superstar Award' at school this week for '"being kind and sharing a book with another child" we were all really pleased about this as last week he had been unkind to several people - particularly two. The first was to shout at the school crossing patrol lady that she looked like she'd eaten too much shepherds pie and later on that day insulted his best friends mum by telling her she looked like she could do with "dropping the weight." In these moments, apart from wanting the ground to swallow me up and then beating my youngest boy, what does one do? No amount of parental experience could have helped me in these situations - apart from obviously making him apologise and then beating him when we had got home! (the last bit I didn't do but really wanted to).

Ben is still working hard at school. (No letters from school for several months now!) Next week he goes, with the rest of the History A level students, to Berlin. Various places of interest will be visited - the Reich tag and a Concentration/work camp as well as several German bars etc. The latter being very important to soak up the cultural differences and tastes of Germany through lager and schnapps! Ben has also taken up cooking, mostly curry and mostly vegetable based. Nobody but myself has tried them but a glass of water was needed and fire extinguisher after just one mouthful. Yikes! On Thursday night he was out until 3am (Nottingham pubs then onto Rock City), got up at 7.30am off to school about 8am - Oh to be young! He looked after Max for us last night (Friday) as Nick and myself went out for a pre-valentine meal! He's out again tonight and we've no idea what time he'll be back! At least when they're little you can tuck them in! (Lamenting Mummy tone - sorry!)


Sorry no photos today. Love from (but not feeling particularly) Magic Janey.