Sat 4th
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See-also: http://www.wmc.care4free.net/diary/.
Wed 1st
M up with D but then me till 4.30. Mr wasp killer turns up & sprays in dubious Play at home till 11-odd then off to town via work. Read mail then interupt vacs session (oops) then look at ship models for some time. W/s at D's request: I won't buy him a ham sandwich but he understands. RS, looking for fishing net: fail. And elsewhere. Cb1. Time to go home: somehow its now 4:30.
To work: evp.
Back: M'fd, M & D at dinner. Shower & join them.
Thurs 2nd
More fd/evp fun. Progress, though. Work till 2, leave for town as rain starts. D is with Mfd at Duxford, M at home. Borders: tasg. Through rain to cb1.
Home: alone. Rest. Others (+J) back later.
Fri 3rd
Work till 3: frustration (familiar) with twaterx. Back: lunch/rest/paper. M+J bring D back mid-p.m. Soir: vnc, just, with ssh, under linux.
Sat 4th
M+J undertake to entertain D a.m.: M & I cycle to town then split; she to b'shops, I swim 40 in 30.125 (its much faster in total time with no rests). Cb1. Arjuna. Back, late. Lunch. M+J off home.To Milton c.p. for virata summer event.
Huge red dragonflies by swings. Face painting: pink+blue b'fly. Bouncy castle: D stays on for ages. Food+drink. But little talk. Odd big insect: photos. Walk a little after: find lakes, ducks.
Soir: finally get one shelf up: not totally satisfactory but ok. Wrestle with linux & pcmcia modem: connects every time but, bizarrely, drops the connection ftp'ing certain (text) files.
Sun 5th
M wakes with D as she is restless: those little kicks inside her. Lazy a.m. Lunch. Si phones. P.m. to pool, finally clothing D, via b+q (for rods for penguin). Both a bit tired so only a few lengths (27.5, 28). Dive a bit after.
Mon 6th
D tells me solemnly that he really wants a sister. I say we don't know.
Work. M+D off to sci museum. I'm back late but they are later: D had immense fun on the water bits, in the 'garden'.
My Ponte (Cooling) has arrived, hurrah! It is as expected.
Tues 7th
Swim 28.25, 29 & feel good. Cb1. Arj. RS - 2 new glass jars. Lib: return remain in light.
Pm with D at home, his choice. Read baby bear, & play on the bed; clean the shower glass (about time too); repair mr penguin (again). M comes back from midwifes & tesco, with food.
To rec c'tte meeting 7pm, because of bennys way. Rec is £14.9k (ex-vat, but can be reclaimed). Possible 2-body problem? PC may have £500 not needed for rec. Weirdness about bowls club. [later: N recommends 'awards for all'/sovereign].
Wed 8th
Work: models at bas & manchester, seaice season length, toms poster, disk space. Etc. Busy but useful.
Pm with D. Go visit Rick+J+E & return their bucket (& lend them 3 pyrenees books). Then to ansells for fish but get lost (or rather forget where they are; phone M) & arrive just at closing time :-(. Home, through many heavy showers.
Mr roofing man at 7: engage him for tomorrow. An expt in building-type bods, we both agree. Soir: build stool for D.
Thurs 9th
After yoga, work till 3: ice season length nearly there, & make lat-lon plots work in metdb.
Cb1: read Orrell, hard work. Also 'battle circle' by Piers A. Hungry: I'm on my 'low diet'.
D to bed, saying 'william daniel connolley' to himself.
Fri 10th
To noodle bar a bit late. D is a little bird, curled up in his egg, hatching. But he eats no worms (noodles).
Tohiti: tables. W/s: D is addicted to Mr Men books but I think they are cr*p. Along the river to J Green p'g'd. A pleasant a'noon: sun but cool.
Sat 11th
D up late enough that M gets up. Sunny morn (grey later). Slow: read; sand D's stool top to shape. Garden: herb tidy & border with Dot. D grinds me coffee for lunch.
Pm into town: all cycle together as far as bridge; D & I stop to watch punts, M off to whatever. XXOctopus: paints for stool (can't persuade D to wax). Fiqht him off pink at expense of day-glo yellow & orange.
Home. M arrives 10min later. Paint (undercoat) stool top. But since its auro it will require 36h to dry. D takes this well.
Sun 12th
Rain all day. Stay home. D quiet, possibly sick pm, definitely sick in l'room at 6. M showers him & I clean up. Up shelf tally to 2 1/2 by soilpipe. Get lego to do line-following, it does surprisingly well, when tuned.
Soir: a bit more Ponte. M&I cook. Look at playground catalogues.
Mon 13th
Up with D to start painting his stool.
Work: web, linux 4.5, etc.
Tues 14th
Finish 1st coat on D's stool.
Swim 20's: 28.75, 29. Cb1. Sally A. Arj. Pay in b'soc dividend cheques (some > 6mons old). Home (via allot: things ok; pick blackcurrants). Now sun+hot: started day in coat.
Wed 15th
2-3: stats talk but bas projector overheats: I'm overhot too! M has kindly covered D & has brought him into bas. He drags her in to see the ship models. We look longer, then to my office, then smoko: jck, phil join us. D hides under table. Hot.
D takes ages to decide what to do next: settle for town, w/s, to read mr men books. One day we must buy one. Back. Hot.
Now in parish c meeting: Bennys way.
Pub, Castle: just before 9. A comes in: its now 5 to. By the time service comes its 4 to. They then claim (in defiance of their own clocks) that its 1 to & won't take food order. Which annoys A. Fortunately they submit. S arrives & we go into garden. Later, a bonus: Tom.
Home late.
Thurs 16th
Work late, till 3, & decide to come straight home. Pass M in car on way to pool. Sit with coffee & book.
Fri 17th
Lovely cool sunny a.m. & quiet too. Work till 3 again, home & sit again. Lots to do. Bees to start: check they aren't short of space (they aren't) & remove 3 messy frames, & then the long business of straining.
Assemble D's stool, & it looks good. Less sure about the waxing. Empty & scrub D's pool.
M'a comes round re Bennys.
Sat 18th
Finish off honey & clean. Give the frames back ok. Wash up.
Last coat of day-glo orange on D's stool: good.
To station (turning back to pick up stuff) via G cafe: long q.
To Didcot before 3. Find D+Mfd & to cafe. Go on the 'main line' & look at the gauge crossover siding, D plays with flatcar for a long time. Indeed, have to drag him away. Visit the 'atmospheric caper' & photo D. Look at traverser & some of train shed & time to go.
Back: D eats, I bathe. I put D to bed.
Install stoatoshop.
Sun 19th
Up late. Play with photos & try to persuade M+J's new printer to stop dithering.
To Nina. Uncle Rob there, T asleep. D & L play happily. R & I take them out to p'g'd, fortunately with umbrellas. Back: candle & eat the early b'day cake we brought. Discuss skiing in march.
Home (via diversion, argh) at 8.30. D to bed. Eat a bit, read. Mail: send R dlt piccy.
Mon 20th
Deep frustration at work as um fails in temphist at close. WHY? But, gd with png now available so can draw piccies.
To Rosie, for tour. K b'sits. Takes 15 mins to drive there. [can buy week permit for £4. Button on lhs entrance door at night. Visit 8am-10pm. Others 2.30-4.30 7-8.30. D ok, others not. #217217.] Back via station to pick up my bike.
Tues 21st
Today I take D to sci mus. And poss nat hist too, if time. Cycling to st I see a weasel! Grey; it crosses the path & into the hedge near the cavendish. Catch 10.45 train. Read noggin the king, nogbad who is bad. Eat hula hoops (D does: he jealously guards them from me), apple & tea biccies. & that gets us to kc quite pleasantly. U'g'd to sarf ken, now in freshfields sandwich emporium where D has just bread & butter.
To sci mus. Toilets, up, along, watch triple expansion marine steam engine, & I partially understand Stepenson speed-&-reversing gear.
Water for about 1h, then to bean-bag, hoist & throw. D sticks his head in the tube & gets a bag on his head & giggles. Then rushes round to hoist with w'barrow. Later, harsh words when there is competition for b'bags. D defends his corner stoutly & perhaps selfishly. Then rushes round again. Such enthusiasm for pointless effort! As M said, probably a lesson for us all (esp skiers?).
After this to cafe at my insistence. Then D wants to push buttons & turn rods so we wander among the model steam engines. These are great fun but poorly organised for learning about valve gear, etc. Then up to upside-down car; materials, then 'farming', & D spends ages watching model tractors going round demoing ploughing, harrowing, etc.
And so out at closing time. Back to kc (despite piccadilly line out) for 6:45, & home just after 8.
Wed 22nd
The world is turned upside down these last few days. I get up with D. Allot: plant out 25 leeks in ex-asp bed. Swim 27.5, 28, 28.5, 29. I'm getting bored swimming, even once a week. Cb1. Arj.
CUP b'shop: look at t' skeptical environmentalist' following grauniad & economist articles. Work.
Soir to pub with D, M and Andrea. C at home looking after Niamh, who is difficult to settle out now. D by contrast is good; playful until about 10 and then goes to sleep nicely.
Thurs 23rd
Work; Yoga. Hack wmc-graph.pl into map-drawing shape with resizing. pm come home, read start of the Far side of the World as a wind-down. M is off in town, swimming in part. Read till 4; then get up and do something. But what... (I confess; I'm writing this on sunday morning)... oh yes: I cut back the evil leylandii in the front, to about my shoulder height. This took several hours, especially with clearing away the cutting afterwards, and it was hot. A break in the middle when M came home and we took tea together (though I had coffee).
Fri 24th
D says 'its alright to go on the cycle path now, because all my books are upstairs'. He has complained that the c path is dull, but now M has tidied up all his books to his room so he can have his favourite book as b'time story. How the two connect, I don't know.
Another D thing: he has objected to my calling him weasel and "silly names" so I suppose I shall stop. Perhaps this is just in time to recycle the name for number 2.
We are cycling into town to get a present for play-group-Lara, for tuesday. RS don't have anything I want to get, and ditto the G toyshop, and D somewhat annoys me by refusing to helpselect somthing and just butterfly-playing. Hey ho. Cb1, for coffee and apple juice and watch a bit of a game.
Home. Haggis and aubergine for dinner. Soir: resolve to set to finishing up the new shelves. Take off 2, snad them down, wax the top sides, and set them to dry.
Sat 25th
Up with D. Wax underside of shelves, rejecting D's help because he wanted to do it his special way and not my way. Paint in recess, most done there now and raw areas sealed in. Pack, and leave at 10:20 odd. Hot.
Stop at J+J for wood from cut tree Ma mentioned, but they are out. Find three though, quite small. Well we can pack it up tomorrow. They have a new passionflower vine growing.
To Ma's, N already there. L and D play, though not especially peacefully, as they both want to use the same bits. T asleep, to begin with. Lunch. To Mentmore playground, on Ma's promise of teas and a bookstall, but that is tomorrow, oops. Never mind, L and D play on p'g'd while M sits somewhat off with T. Picnic under shade.
Back to blue lego train track, baths (L and D together; L refused to go up to her bath until D came too; D took some persuading, perhaps possibly relishing the trouble L's refusal caused), bed, then our dinner outside by lamp, lantern and candle light; and sit outside with coffee (for some) until 10ish.
Sunday 26th
Up at 7 with D, which constitutes early nowadays. Down to brekkers, N there with T already and L up soon after. D and L breakfast together, having the same thing, quite happy, though L managed to spill hers once. T gurgles in his high chair.
Then D (and thus L) want to watch BtB.
Fairly early (8:30) N decides to take L and T off home, and then Ma goes off to church, so all is quiet. D watches more BtB, then Spot, and I read the paper. M comes down.
And now for some thoughts...