Today's surreal moment

Picture the scene: I'm parked on a double yellow line outside a train station with 2 kids in the car. It's the end of a hot day, and from the look on my face most people would assume that bothering me might not be the best idea. I'm clearly waiting for someone to come in on a train, so while I'm theoretically stationary on the double yellow, it's clear that I'm not going to be there long.

Enter stage right: a community support police officer. Smiling.

My instant reaction is to assume he's smiling because he's about to give me a ticket. He leans close to the open window, and says "would you like a pen and a pencil?"

"Is that slang for parking ticket?", thinks I.

But no, he really means it. He gives me a pen and a pencil bearing a British Transport Police logo. Then, he moves to the back window of the car and gives Isabel two packs of colouring pencils (suitably logo-ed).

He waves, gives us all a friendly smile, and goes on to foist his wares on the car parked behind me.

Bizarre......

Tapas

Nothing very exciting to report about today, so I'm going for a bullet point list:

• I was jealous of Isabel since after school she went round to some friends of my dad's, and they have a private pool.....
• I had to go to a meeting in Chiswick which involved 5 trains and 3 tube lines - the journey was so complicated that I had to write the details down in my notebook for fear of making a mistake and ending up in Uxbridge (heaven forbid)
• I had a very nice tapas lunch with a colleague. We ordered so many tapases (is that right?!) that we needed to ask the waitress to bring up an extra table. Now that's what I call a meal!
• Husbandio and I have been debating how many of Isabel's class to invite to the party. We decided to invite 20 out of 30 but then Isabel made a plea for 2 others, and inviting 22 out of 30 seemed very unfair to the 8 rejects, so I think we'll have to go for a full house. Gawd help us...
• I've been looking for a nice new Boden skirt but everything on the Boden site which I like is only ever available in an 8 or a 22. But I found a lovely Dorothy Perkins skirt today in the local British Heart Foundation charity shop. Total cost@ £3.30. Yay!
• Isabel's got a cough, and tonight she coughed so hard she retched, and also made her nose bleed. Niiiiice. And Emily's nappy was put on wonky by someone at the nursery, leading to an escape of poo into her babygro and down her trousers. Again, niiiiiice. The joys of small children. Sigh....
  

And that's been the day so far. With luck, nothing else will happen other than some tooth brushing and a few minutes with my book. I need a calm end to the day!

Another working from home benefit

You can actually enjoy the summer, instead of sweating away on the Tube, and then shivering in air conditioning all day. I moved out into the garden today, thanks to the judicious use of an extension cable, and the miracle of hands free phones. After a while (don't read this if you did get all hot and sweaty on the Tube today!) I even got a bit chilly because even though it was hot, it was breezy, so I ended up fetching a cardie and my crocs. My circulation isn't what it once was, clearly!

Isabel had her school trip today, to a local "environmental centre" - I think that means it's a shed in the middle of some woods and meadows. Anyway, it's only about 3 miles away, and the trip cost £16 each, which I thought was really expensive, considering they had to bring a packed lunch. She seemed to have a good day though, despite tripping over on the path on the way to the coach! Still, another child got stung on the neck by a bee so Isabel got away quite lightly, all things considered.

She also had a tricky moment when being dropped off at school. Apparently she missed me after I'd dropped her and burst into tears, so one of the teachers ran out to find me. I was out the gate by that point, and kind of wished she hadn't found me since I don't want Isabel thinking that I can be called back at her whim - she got kissed and dropped off as per usual, and had no reason for being upset, other than her own inner demons. Anyway, I calmed her down a little, and she went back to her classroom. Poor little thing - it happens quite often, and I have no idea what to do about it. Emily cries when being dropped off at nursery far less often than Isabel does at school. Sigh. Any ideas gratefully received.....

What's six weeks off between friends?

I've had a small handful (OK, three) people in the last week comment that they've noticed I've stopped blogging. And I have. Or had, since here I am, tapping away. See, flattery will get you everywhere - all I needed was a little recognition, and some ego massage. How pathetic.

So, what's happened in the last six weeks? England are out of the World Cup for one thing, which got me to wondering why anyone is surprised. We've played badly in almost every match, and finally got what we deserved. IMHO. And to be honest, I'm glad it's all over - the desperate expectation which you know will remain unfulfilled becomes just too painful to watch after a while.

In other news, Emily is now walking. She looks like a small drunken zombie - arms often stuck straight out in front of her, and with a distinct list to the left. Very cute anyhow. Isabel's only got 3 1/2 weeks left in Year One, which is surreal since I'm sure she only started Reception about a month ago. And she learnt to ride a bike this weekend. Now she just needs to master starting my herself, stopping, and turning!

Anyway, I shall try to be a better blogger. It's tricky to get up motivation some evenings, since all I do is spend all day tapping away at the laptop - sitting down in my free time with the same laptop can be depressing. But since I enjoy reading other people's blogs so much, I'll do my best. Wish me luck!

In the meantime, here's some photos which represent the last six weeks....

We ventured East, and saw the Thames Barrier

Safely back in the west, at Donkey Derby!

We celebrated Fathers Day with some high fives...

One of us moved from babyhood to toddler status
We all enjoyed the hot weather!