Fri 2nd
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Pick up D & to H for C's b'day.
Fri 2nd
Vacs meeting. Lunch (briefly) fr with M: then she goes back to work, an interview dumped on her.
Drive to ma uneventful. D not asleep. Goes to bed & sleep happily on camp bed in ma's room, at his req.
Soir: talk with Ma by fire only interrupted by frasier & auction catalogue.
Sat 3rd
D gets up with ma then comes to wake me at 8.15.
To auction. Lots of stuff (sadly no tools). Phone M: 'err, there a table, err... ' but its impossible to describe. Buy a table (mahog, uncertain age). Home for lunch. Come back too late: they are moving faster than ma's 100/h estimate. I have missed 'my' beautiful oak box.
Ma & D visit at the sale but D not interested - perhaps confused.
Get oak table for £50 - est 100. Little bidding. In general things went for 20% ish under est. Thin time of year? Dotcom meltdown? ;-)
Walk by canal by reservoirs. Bleak as the ace of spades. Shell tracks in emptied section. Further up: replacing a set of lock gates. Interesting. Big bits of wood. Back. Reeds.
Ma's. She & D still out at Marions. Light fire. Coffee & p'nuts. Ma+D return (with 50p from m!). Dinner. D is full & tired: won't eat leek tart so no choc pud.
Bath. Proust still whinging about A. Survive long enough to be killed by a griffin. M phones at 10.30: has been at work since 12. Argh
Sun 4th
Up late. Ma to church.
D wants to watch video - prefers spot to bob!
Go fetch J+J. J arthritis. H there when I get back. Dinner: D stays in kitchen but comes in for pudding.
Apres lunch: take down lights on ginko. Next year I won't hang them so high. H & J disagree if wc1 was colonel. Ma finds 1799 almanac for Jam.
Home. D watches slides & spills some. Saying sorry is hard for 3 year olds. He is tired & after dinner is carried upstairs screaming 'i want to do more projecting now'.
SC greens in pear tree for texts. Roads flooded. But its worse up north.
Mon 5th
Iron is terror. D ratty going to p'g.
Soir. M to yoga. I try to make sense of pagemaker.
Tues 6th
Obliged to wake early. Grumpy. Swim 27.5x2, 28.5x2. Cb1. Ul: more H. Home. Stream at back high. Warm: sun: bees out!
G over near 3. Nearly disaster: she pushes D a little & D pushes her a lot, & again, & she falls against door & is sad. D consistently bad - & knows it - for first hour. Sent up to his room. Eventually D goes out to dig - he has too much energy - & G 'draws' a picture with stickers & glitter glue. Oh dear. But in the end play is happy. I think D needed to show it was his territory & was jealous.
Soir: win rogue! Its the katana, so much more effective than a blunt mace.
Weds 7th
pm to SA to pick up shelves then to j+k for L's b'day which extends till 5.30. D has fun: plays in garden with L, & with cat in hat game (a bit limited).
Soir: pub. Just a+c (& n).
Thurs 8th
M at meeting hence no lunch. Go hear jfbm instead - sadly its the intro talk. But with extra at end about using obs to produce err ests. T change to 2100 still large range.
Puncture. Argh. Buy new inner at bh & change.
Swim: 2x10 (crowded & lost fast lane to lessons) in 2x26 due to pacing. Cb1.
Soir: finish vexed.
Fri 9th
D has determinedly cycled into the mud & is now stuck.
Pm: c+h over but... doesn't go so well: D still not sharing. No peace.
Night: M & I talk about D. How should we behave?
Sat 10th
Swim: 27, 26, 27.5, 28.5. Good.
Sun 11th
Greyish. At 12 to rocking horse. D sad 'cos computer shop shut. Home. Becomes clear D is sick :-(.
Stay in. Start great drawer project.
Mon 12th
Rain rain till dark. Path even more flooded. D still sick. M does a.m., I come back at 2. Doctor has been: nothing serious. M elects to cont at home so go back pm. I tell D I am taking his potty u'stairs & his poo can have fun in the toilet. D says 'it can play with the others'.
Soir: evil hedges leaflet.
Tues 13th
D seems better. Swim 27, 27.5x2, 28.5.
Warm, still, sunny. About 13oC. Take my lunchtime coffee pot outside.
Later (3:30): still outside, but now on 'Count Belisarius'. Still gorgeous & so good to sit out in sun in peace. Bees are out in numbers from hive: I wonder where to? D is inside playing Maisie, his new game, bought with last of F's c'mas money.
Wed 14th
Another impossibly beautiful a'noon, & I have the good fortune to be able to sit out. D, sadly, cannot share this, being exhausted & in bed - tired by p'g'p perhaps, not yet fully recovered.
Bees out, so feed them a little honey. Meanwhile I alternate C.B, paper, mfog.
At 6, ask D if he would like to wake: no.
No pub soir. Profit to finish mfog review.
Finish Count B, & from this & else am in such ferment that find it hard to sleep. Amazing (to take the book at face value) how one good (etc) man can cause so much death & misery by stupid loyalty/honour.
Thurs 15th
Back via allot: in usual (dis)order. Rhubarb coming up: is this wise?
Lunch fr sans m - at meeting. Vague & discontented. Ox b'shop & home.
Soir: to gp toft. Foggy on way back: even cars slow. While I'm out, rn phone to congratulate us... hmm.
Fri 16th
Via pub for Jim Summers leaving. Pick up D who seems bouncy, & we make playdough & a cast of his hand. But then he goes to sleep.
Cricked neck in y'days yoga, & finger & r elbow hurt. Oh dear.
Sat 17th
Grumpy night. D comes in at some unearthly hour but m drops him.
Swim 27.5, 26.5, 28, 29. Cb1 briefly, arj, then home before 12. M+J are visiting today (would be P+S too but for poorly pickle). Meet at Duxford via the magic of mobiles, when turned on. Rather good, lots of planes + tanks + stuff & I am obliged to temp forget my pacificst cred.
M+J have brought D a cute hedgehog
Soir: cooking by M, washing by me, juggling by J. Eat in civilised fashion at our new table!
Sun 18th
Up with D, complicated 'cos he wants M. J+M later as befits those that can. Misty. To lammas after long b'fast. Small play but cold. Walk towards town & encounter bella pasta by punt pool so go in. Quite good & v friendly. Long meal, sun comes out during, so back to ll for longer. Back, tea, off.
Later, a+s round bringing their old stereo - they have bought dvd. Fit in (& finally screw 4-plug to wall). D bath. Hedgehog to bed, secondary to Mr Weasel who is definitely top dog now.
Feels odd to have music again: 'sound to hide the broken bone, the sunken ship'.
Mon 19th
A day as ever. Bring back D - he has slept. Quiet soir. Nearly at end of v5 - its been a slog.
Download Duxford pics. Want to select central circle/ellipse & brighten, but will f*ck*ing gimp let me do it? No it s*dd*ng wont. Argh.
Tues 20th
Swim 27, 28, 28.5, 29. Cb1. Now clear that one of johns buoys is in the sea.
Home: m+d out. Paper.
Soir: take D into town on bus via drive to p+r. On way back see p+r bus go on into coton. Does it do this often? Would be handy if it did.
Soir: manage my circle in photoshop.
Wed 21st
To london with D. Get 10.45. Trains are pretending to be normal but aren't: after I puff to get us there on time we're 15 mins waiting for a driver. And it seems to have taken 3/4 h to get to stevenage - should be in london.
Somewhat late to S. Ken but F is there of course. Steer her away from expensive restos to a cafe-bar (greenfields?) which is small & full but good food. Sadly no toilet so D must wee in the plants in a traffic island. Then to sci mus (2h q for t rex at nat his, it says. We q for perhaps 20 mins then we're in. Steam hall - excellent. Foolishly we head to basement (only model toilet with poo really appeals) for buttons for D to press, then to 3, then 2, but nothing is as good (for D) as what we first had. Hey ho. Cafe. More steam engines - models with handles to turn - then D (& F) are flagging, so off, via chaos of shop.
To d+a, but D still at work, so spend about an h with a, t (& e, who cries at the sight of me...)
Rush to kc for 7.15 which leaves at 7.45 - multiple cancellations due to some derailment. Hmm. But D bears up commendably. For last 1/2 h he sleeps, sweetly.
To pub: stretching it a bit with D perhaps. But he revives long enough to charm then sleeps in a corner.
Thurs 22nd
Work a bit apres yoga then Cb1, then fr with M for tea then home.
Fri 23rd
Work all day in comp. for wed. Uninspired.
Sat 24th
Up late. Sun but ice on pond. Fix drawer a bit more but not finally. Swim with M 27x3, 28.5. Cb1. Arj. Look in G for light for D. Then in rs (incidentally buy bar chair & new shower tube). Noodle bar (good) at M's instigation, on way look at more lights in Tohiti. Almost agree to buy beech kitchen unit.
Home. Tea-time. D decides to run a cafe. Fred the lion is the waitress, from inside the frog.
Soir: shadow of t' vampire (eh lad). Odd film. There is a ferret in it, not sure why. Meet JR (he is in row 2) & have drink after in bar which is good.
Sun 25th
Sun. Snow! D comes up to see us 'cos g'ma is smelly' why? 'she says smelly things' what? Won't say...
Later. D & I (&mfd) have had a play in the snow before it all melts. We throw s'balls at windows & at each other but D won't make his own. Inside. D discovers returning-circ pain, sadly.
Very warm inside in hot sun.
Long b'fast with coffee & papers.
Orchard.
M+J leave post tea.
Put D's bed on legs (phase 1).
Mon 26th
Bring D back through yukky cold wind rain.
Phone ma. She will come on friday. D would like a chocolate pudding with C inside & C covered.
Tues 27th
D gets up first. Come downstairs to find floury salty mess as D has tried to make playdough. Argh.
Swim 28.25, 29.5. Finally back to 20's. Cb1. Reading blueheart. Remote star names are evocative. Is there a book combining interesting society with relatavistic flight?
Home by 1 so M can go to meeting.
Take D to rs depot down mill rd for stool. Traffic in camb is as ever awful - I am silly to have forgotten. Should have got it delivered.
To b+q - they have a crap scroll saw, and a router with a '1/4 mm collet' - makes you doubt. Still they are v nice when D breaks a lamp (for which he is properly hang-dog).
Buy him a bounty. He says he will open it at c+h's. I say in that case you will have to share with c. So D decides to eat it in car.
To c+h by 3.30. Diane + Jack there to but leave early. Fun with flour. Read h's letter to cen re farming. Home 6. Feed D melon cook for M who is late & goes to bed eanly.
D insists M write out a sticky saying 'get better mummy' & put it on the bed.
Soir gp stuff.
Wed 28th
Work as ever... pick up D, and head off into town: cycle to park and ride, catch bus into town, catch number 8 to base of Mill road, and to swimming pool. This all took 30 mins (cycle to P+R was 10; I cared about this because I was wondering about the efficiency of this versus cycling in. But just cycling is less interesting for D, esp when (as today) the weather is awful). Swim, D very happily, swimming (with armbands but no arm motion) across the middle pool again and again and squaking with joy. Good. Cb1 for a while, then prise him out (it really would be nice if they sold, eg, satsumas there... maybe I'll just bring one next time) and head off in search of the mystical sour cream. Eventually forced to break my morality and visit Sainsburys which is little fun. Also a long walk - the downside of not biking in.
'wheres the bus?' says D as we wait at the P+R stop, and obliges me to write it down.
And so bus back, then bike (via BAS path to avoid terrible main road in darkness) arriving home at 7:15. Then spend next hour hovering, etc, to make allready for...
Shrove wednesday (I know....) when A+S and C+A+N turn up. Good time, lots of pancakes, and the sour cream was used to good effect by M with mushrooms.
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