Diary July 2005

 WMC's diary pages, 2005.

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2005/07/01. Friday.

I do some useful work today, despite the nonsense about long trousers in interview, but rather tired when I get home. Lots of exciting building going on - they are starting in the front now. Burst water pipes and stuff...

Get P from sch 3:30: M brings E back from a leaving do at same time. Later, Gemma comes round, while DN are at B's. But I spend much of the afternoon asleep in bed, or half asleep, listening to the kids happy chatter. EG have a discussion of pink: I think it began by E saying all girls like pink; G replied that she was a girl and didn't (this is a lie...) and has friends who don't.

Cook dinner; hoover hall; de-gunk hoover.

Bed early.

Realise I'm not going to sleep without painkillers. 2 asprin is surprisingly effective.

2005/07/02. Saturday.

To rec: cut to shape and knock in wood ends for the ramp. Allot: pick broad beans: growing well, some blackfly developing.

Back: M still playing but has mostly packed. Fin packing; off about 12 in the end. To Ma's 1:20 and sit outside for lunch. My tooth is still painful in the jaw when I'm not painkilled.

Quiet pm. DE watch asterix conquers america cartoon. They speak with yorkshire accents. I'd probably watch, but I'm v tired - not just tooth. So retreat upstairs to sleep away the afternoon.

7: off to the ferret racing! Fun fun. In the village hall, we see the ferrets in their cages when we arrive and stop to look. They are like big weasels, many albino. Inside, the racetrack is pipes interrupted by wire mesh so you can see how they are getting on. Each race has four ferrets "owned" by someone paying 15 GBP. There is one spare in the first race so Ma buys it, and after some confusion D decides to call it "weasel". Fair enough. And... great excitment! Much shouting! It wins! Hurrah for weasel. So we get our money back, plus a bottle of champagne, suitable for M's party. The ferrets run slowly, exploringly, in fits and starts, so the race is far more fun than if they just ran to the end. And a twist is that the tail has to come out - in some later races one gets to the end, pokes its nose out; another does; they touch noses; a third gets to the end and comes out completely and wins. In yet another, a ferret comes out tail first to win.

At one point D jumps up so excited he bumps me on the chin with his head!

BTW, I forgot my camera this weekend, so no pics.

2005/07/03. Sunday.

Up 9. Ma off to church at a bit before 10; M still abed. Painkillers are keeping my tooch in check but I dare not have my cereals-with-excess-suger as I normally would. Drag DE away from the TV - they are having their occaisional sunday morning fix - to breakfast.

Proper cooked lunch, good as ever, with a new rule: you (the kids) are allowed to skip one thing. D skips brocolli. E isn't really sure what to skip but feels obliged to skip something.

Next door, the garage is slowly turning into a small house. The roof is off and being strengthened.

2:30: Ma takes D off to pitstone windmill. We pack and follow about 1/2 h later. I've never been to it before. The setting is idyllic - down a narrow track/lane in the cornfield, with a big tree to be under and a gate to lean on as you look at it. Its a beautiful old thing - huge lumps of shaped wood, very old, from 1627 some of the original bits. The centre post is 17' high and 3' thick at the bottom. Only stopped in 1902 when broken by a storm and it was obvously uneconomic to fix it.

Coming back: and image of D: running, skipping, perhaps even gambolling with joy, ahead down the track between the ripe fields of corn; ahead the gate and the trees; in the distance the sunlit slopes of Ivinghoe beacon; a piece of another happier life. Beauty. Peace.

2005/07/04. Monday.

D sch; E p/school, then M has a day off work with her.

Phone dentist for emergency appt: tomorrow. Good. Work misc; J still off. Junk about long trous in interviews. Sigh. Home 7. Foundations! How deep?

E: "goodness me!". M laughs.

Soir: webby stuff till past 11. Bad W.

2005/07/05. Tuesday. Rain and wind.

To smoko, to break up the morning, with E (M's still off).

To dentist, 2:20: nice Mr Cilliers is very kind and doesn't even mention that its all my fault for staying away so long. I get x-ray'd. He isn't sure quite what it is but I get anti-biotics to take and the check in 3 weeks time remains. Also looks like I need a filling in the top too. E gets looked at too, initially reluctant but then giggles charmingly in the chair. Her "long tooth" is loose: probably root being re-abs, and will fall out, but OK, says C.

Drive to tennis, since E is still asleep in the car. Get there early: its full of frenchies. E sleeps on. Light rain, so I go back to car, DB start tennis. After 1/2h, its raining too much, they stop. Than restart, but again it starts, so everyone inside for the last 15 mins doing wet-day playbooks. B "boring" but everyone else is happy so he joins in. Meanwhile E awakens and I bring her in.

Back: DB want D round to play so ask A; OK he says, so I get rest till 5:45 when I collect them. Dinner: pasta and eggs. E still loves pasta, D doesn't really like it. A recipe for harmony.

E: (while I am in the bath): look at me! I've got both legs in one trousers! And so she has. Doesn't that make it hard to walk? Yes! I hopped up the stairs on my hands! she says, pleased by her silliness.

2005/07/06. Wednesday.

A Miranda day, and a happy one. Since we went to smoko y'day skip today and stay longer at home. E plays Orly. To Germ, swim (E v chatty to the mother of a silent little boy: she is determined that we will play sharks, E is the mummy shark, I am the boy shark, that makes the woman the girl shark, at which point she laughs....). Cb1, lib. Down to only 2 books overdue! Sch. Its cherry picking time: the trees overflow. The naughtier children (D) climb up to pick cherries. Adults (me) can reach up and grab handfuls: lovely.

Soir: to informal gov meeting to play with the new Ofsted self-assessment software, or (put another way) us doing their job for them but not getting paid for it. Many of the questions of the sort where you struggle to decide which is the correct answer. Don't get there till past 8. Pub after with Andy.

2005/07/07. Thursday. Rain then sun.

Raining as we leave for school. Harry sits in his car, quietly smoking, waiting for it to end (its easing off). We're early, for once. Settle D in (he doesnt need any settling of course, but E likes to play there and I chat to Mrs S). E to p'group, we stop to stroke Molly-the-dog. Daisy has a toy lion.

Work: a bit rushed. Mags at 10 to explain Grib to her :-), smoko; talk Higem with JCK; rush to town to buy white T for D's sports day tomorrow; lunch with Alan Iwi and chat, since he is over.

Meanwhile, bombs in London, for unclear reasons. I reckon its the French, in revenge for not getting the Olympics.

School 2, to finalise Home Club notice with MG. Then home and a chance to relax. Harry and Les-the-generic-guy are digging. My "ice" by Fred Hoyle has arrived: its bilge. Order one of his refs: but this one is GBP 30. hey ho, with abebooks its so easy...

Pick up DE as usual; M'a complains about the new edging to the road as well she might: its doesn't do much except look tidy, and it restricts their parking.

Cook; M back late.

Soir: wiki etc; stoat: on the House of Lords.

2005/07/08. Friday.

Start off with sports day! Its grey but dry. Fun. The track is on the playgrounds, on the slope, with a long round track then a short straight track diagonally across this. Kids on one side (in 3 teams: RWB) and parents on the other. D is in White. They win the first race I think, but in the end come last of the three teams - a bit sad. D gets a silver - second - for one of his races, good. Cory wins his race and I shout for him, even though he is a blue. About 1/2 way through there is some rain, but not too bad. I take lots of pix and vid. Some of the tinies are still holding their teddies. There is a pre-school race and E runs (she said before "I will run very fast and then fall over") and comes 3rd and gets a green star for it. M is here too, but somehow we don't stay together - mostly cos I'm wandering around for pix.

The work, about 11:30, missing smoko :-(. Back 2:30, then collect DE, and also N, briefly, because her auntie-from-germany is around. E is sad because P can't come too. Home, little trouble, N does splosh and DE misc. M back 4:30 ish.

JB phones me up re home club.

2005/07/09. Saturday. Grey then sun.

Up 9:30, just as D (a bit belatedly: M and I have words with each other) heads off to be taken to f'ball by Andy. I tidy kitchen and breakfast and web; M takes E to w'rose.

Collect D a bit late, 10:35, just as its finishing. Leave him playing with Joel and get bbeans from allot and give some to the stall. Collect lots of cherries from the school trees - yum - with D's help up in the tree. ME come back just as we're there.

Lunch, nice fresh bread.

1:30: finally put down the pooter, gather up the infants, and drive (sorry, and perhaps a mistake) into town for a swim. We seem to have completely switched to Parkside: its better as a pool, and much better afterwards. E completes a milestone: her first go on the (blue) flume ride, with me of course. D has many goes on the far faster green ride. Fun.

Then cb1 for a bit, then head off for our 4pm appointment with ACBGS at Pop in the Park, on Parkers Piece. We don't find them, but we do find a mixture of music, funfair, car boot sale etc. And now the sun has come out and the sky is pure blue... I wish I had my camera. Its good - a bit like strawberry fair, but with fewer stalls, and perhaps a bit more mellow. Less drinking, as Andy says, when we do find him.

DE have a go on the bouncy castle, then the bouncy slide (there was a bigger slide, and D debated with himself, unsure; eventually went with E). Both good fun. Then look around, get some food (from Leon Lewis! very good) and some drink. Last DE have a go (or two goes, for 1 GBP) on a good old-fashioned helter-skelter. They would have done more but I've spent enough on them... just as we're heading off meet Billy, so stop for a bit, and E spills G's orange juice onto Clare...

Home, M takes over (she has been practicing and sleeping, in unknown ratio). I sit out with a bowl of cherries in the sunset with wireless.

Soir: all too much of it by the pooter. Stoat on london, poss unwisely.

2005/07/10. Sunday. Sunny.

But its comfy in bed. Get up a bit past 9, and come downstairs to do the tidying I should have done last night. Sigh. Then sit outside with coffee after M gets up about 10:30.

Billy comes round to show off his new bike with - 18! - gears bought yesterday. D is clearly envious, but not insanely so, and they take turns to try it out. Its a bit too big for either of them, and (of course) neither of them really understand about the gears. So I show them that changing it down to a low gear makes it a lot easier to ride. With E on her bike we go out to the green and I sit under a tree eating cherries, now slightly mushy.

Retreat inside... DB teach E to shout F*CK! which is funny, so I video her, then tell them all never to do it again, at least in my hearing.

Finally join wiki-en list, after reading a particularly egregious post by Ed about the pseudoscience cabal.

Cory comes round to play with DE. When D leaves at 3 with M for the childrens piano concert (Ilga) C stays to play with E. They are rather sweetly playing mummies and daddies, with various toys being ill, sick, or just looked after. They do play very nicely together... about the only pairing I've ever found who never argue. C invites E round to his house, and goes to check, but sadly she can't be accomodanted today, so they stay here. C is rather attached to E, and when two of his friends (of his age) come round to see if he wants to play, he elects to stay with E. I've printed out a pic of C running in his race (which he won, against Joel and Sam) for him.

2005/07/11. Warm. To Reading.

Up 7:15, to station (TV camera filming people getting into trains), to London (tv camera filming people getting off trains and into the underground...). Not quite sure what I'll find, given the bombs, but fairly sure that there will be more disruption from over-caution than from bombs. And indeed... metropolitan line is open, so go down, just to barriers... beepbeepbeep... "All out" shout the staff in a fairly resigned way... its another alert. NO ONE sprints for the exit, worried about bombs; instead we sigh and head out. People are wandering around wondering how to get to whereever it is we want to go; I walk to Euston, then (on advice there) to Euston Sq, then metro to Baker St and ch to Paddington, and get (I think) the train I was intending to get anyway. Taxi to uni; HiGEM meeting. I am sleepy, due to late bed and early rise: I fall asleep quietly (I hope) in the back.

Home time: share a taxi with TJ; then (with the 18:56 cancelled and the 19:03 late) a train with DS/IS. London: tube back to Bakerloo

2005/07/12. Tuesday. Hot again.

3:30: off to tennis in the hot hot sun. D and B are happy that this is the last session (but is it?). I ask D is he is bored with tennis and he says sort-of. Well. While they are waiting for the cones to be put out for the warm-up exercises, B starts chanting "boring".

2005/07/13. Wednesday.

Fairly usual wednesday. By the time we get into work, its rather hot, and we're gratefult for the "a/c" in the German Cafe... though curiously they have the blinds open so the sun streams in and the door is open too. But we're off to the pool anyway so can get cool. Meet Ruth and Eve there, and E has great fun playing with Eve while I talk to Ruth. Arj/Cb1. While I do the Sudoku, E chats and plays games with Jamie and the waitress and all 3 are happy. I've forgotten the library books and we're out of time so head back to sch, where we find M and D. Cherry time is now mostly over.

Soir: to pub with A+S. Have a good time, discuss Proust and Art Theory; hiring Z in August; A's patent; M's job; stuff.

2005/07/14. Thursday.

Work, then leave 2 for town. Firstly to Heffers for a nice sit in CN, with the paperback algebraist, which is still go out to 2/3 of the way through. Then time to buy M a present... get a little heart box from Arcadia which I like. Skip the card, realising that I can make one. Buy "paradox of choice" sandwich bags from Lakeland, and a crap sci-fi + New Maps of Hell from ox. Home... B*ll*cks. I've forgotten my keys... I know, they are at work. Rats. Head back there, find keys, drop in on Tom and JT discussing the Nature submission and sit in too, since JT shares the computers a/c. Then do a bit of work, timing it so I can pick up D then E.

Brief bath to cool down.

Over dinner, phone from Jill D: she has a swarm of bees. Are there many, I ask, always suspicious that its not a real swarm. But she says hundreds. So I go for a look, and indeed there are a fair number... on the top of one of her chimney stacks (Chris is in Morocco or somesuch). Hmmm. Well thats going to be tricky. GO up a ladder to look, but couldn't reach them. Hmm, well decide to leave them tomorrow and hope they go away and trouble someone else. I'm no longer keen to get new swarms!

Soir: update B-t-B.

2005/07/15. Friday.

Work; no builders today. Back 2. Put up the BT notices in the phone kiosks.

E from M'a to sch; leave with N. Go see Jill D's bees: happily, they have mostly gone, so I'm spared the effort of climbing amongst her chimney pots.

Make M's card... search around, decide that I want an early-ish picture, to remind her/us of some distant days; settle on a nice on with her and a young D in the mid-ground, and the Aigs d'ansabere in the background, beautiful. We will go there again one day...

Leave about 7:15. E initially a bit loud and annoying, as she sometimes can be, and of scourse she and D wind each other up. D asks a riddle: "Miranda, what is small and loud and annoying?". E answers, with no hint of insult, quite the reverse, she says proudly "Me!" because she is the answer. Coming into MK "Should I stay or should I go" comes on and I turn it up full blast and E says "Daddys favourite song" and we all clap/sing along. A bit later E sleeps.

There 9:30. DE to bed. Talk.

11:30: M gets D up; I drive us into Ox for the HPvi launch. Lots of people around - more than usual? Who knows, I'm no longer familiar with late night Oxford life. Anyway, Borders and Smiths and W/stones have q's; we have a "reserved" copy in w/s but this turns out to be meaningless... we just Q and there are plenty. Q is oddly slow, but its sort-of fun; D is v good, just shuffles forward with his head in the end of HPv. Back and bed, about 1.

2005/07/16. Saturday.

Don't get up till 9:30 - oddly, I feel a bit tired... E came in a few times to try to persuade us to get up but with little success, poor her, we wouldn't even get up to open her apple juice when F couldn't.

Mfd+J have a small paddling pool which we fill and all the children go in at some point, though E is the first to get naked. Much squealing and happiness and only a few tears and not too much spilt on me.

Breakfast, and just sitting out with coffee and Sudoku when D+A arrive. Oh good, looks like people will come... a little later P+S; then Ma; then RNLT. Mfd+J aree doing most of the work and have of course bought all of the food etc; so we have an easy day.

And a good time is had by all. Sitting out in the garden in the hot sun and the shade we chat in various groups. The children mix, after a little initial shyness. And perhaps we do, too... When LT arrive, DE pair off with them a bit, especially DL, but this is OK. D+A need to go around 1... Den only flew in from Hong Kong today, and had somewhere else to go this afternoon, before flying elsewhere on Monday. So he seems to be doing well. And ?Edward? their youngest appears to be growing well. P+S are in the process of buying a new house in Goring, from Helens headmaster.

P+S leave for the Goring regatte about 3; RNLT stay till about 5 and Ma somewhat later. Then its all rather quieter...

I do a "samurai sudoku" over dinner. Elaborate, but not really all that hard, I get it 9 mins short of the 58 they gave you. The interlinking doesn't really work too well... I think they would need to set them better to make them rather more than 4/5 that happen to share the same grid.

2005/07/17. Sunday. Sun in the garden.

Lazy day. We have no need to get home for any particular time (I feel no great enthusiasm for cutting the grass, though it needs to be done) so just sit around till about 7. Its warm and sunny so try to sit in the shade as much as possible.

11-ish Mfd went off to a dig in the north porch of a church, but D didnt go too (I expected him to want to). Mfd told to buy some poster paints on the way.

And as far as I can recall, there wasn't much more to it than that, we didn't leave the house till we left. J remembered the old double-sided easel that Ellis made for Si+M and I got it down out of the garage loft (which prompted a visit up there by D and E, always fascinated by lofts). And DE then painted enthusiastically for hours.

At some point J found some face paints which were rather good. I did E as a Sad Cat at her req; and D got one hand and arm painted as a snake. Both happy with their paintings. M played piano.

Mfd took F to the P+R to catch her bus home but they were all full so they had to go into town, poor them. F should have waited another day.

Beautiful weather for driving home...

2005/07/18. Monday.

Work all day... J still off sick, poor her.

Soir: to pub for HC committee. Annette invited and talks usefully, then we continue. Longer than I expected but actually *useful* which is the point.

2005/07/19. Tuesday.

7: to Mrs Browns retirement do - well done. Spend most of it talking to Sonja who is efficient and useful it seems. Excellent!

2005/07/20. Wednesday.

Fairly typical Weds; work, cafe, town, swim, cafe, back to school...

Soir: to pub (M would go but is busy with pre-school treasurer stuff). A+S and Andrea are there and we have a good evening. I've forgotten Andys plaque and S has forgotten the river book.

2005/07/21. Thursday.

What with one thing and another I've been busy recently, and am only just writing up Sunday onwards. Sigh. The Home Club stuff is taking up time.

So: today: work as ever, (TLC and JT are interviewing today: I'm not on the board due to R Hansons absurd trouser rules) then spend about 1-2 hours finalising the DC1 document and sending off. Well at least thats done. Various other HC emails to deal with. Finally, about 3:30, I get to leave for town. Spend quite a long time in Heffers with The Alegraist, which is heading for a finale. Ponder this vs HPvi: is it a better book?

After picking up DE, start dinner, M comes in, so I get to go and chat to Jackie and check she is OK for next year (she is). Good.

Suggest to D that he writes Mrs s a card; he gets enthused and does bees and bee jokes and also wraps up a jar of honey for her. E gets into it and does alove-you-heart card for Nicola and Linda in a fit of love.

Make up and put on new super. Start williams-bees blog.

Fill out the HC grant form (tide-over version).

Soir: stoat on Fu MSU and NOAA-12. M is busy on pre-school finances, poor her.

2005/07/22. Friday. Cooler.

Last day of school! Somehow, M and I oversleep, waking up finally at 8:50. Leap out of bed. D is quietly on the sofa reading HPvi; M is at home this morning so she can do E. I get D to school by 9 just on time. Whew! Then... some HC photcopying to do, and... might as well stay for the leavers assembly. So I do. And, as last year, it is rather touching, as they sing songs and generally say goodbye. Only just get to work in time for smoko... Amna is back, cursing Egypt Air who bumped her off for not greasing palms it seems. Get CM3 running under g95 on opteron. Till 2:30.

Brief lunch. When I get back, Paul is tidying up and generally emptying the room of builders gumpf. It isn't finsihed, but it is ours to use now. BtB turns up and chats (boy can he chat...) and incidentally asks for his cheque, so that saves a stamp out of ö5k.

School: Janes leaving presentation at HC; also Traceys. I show my face but in the background. I get some cake though... We're in no hurry to go. They seem to be making dust houses, Genevives tube of smarties has become Mr Invisible Owl living in one of them. EP and DN are playing, and I talk to them to, and Genevive, and P shows off his cartwheels so they all do. So I do a headstand. Which then leads to talking of yoga with Ruth, who seems to be Iyengar too and knows (of?) Janet. Stay for a bout 1h then home. Hoover up the room - Paul swept - and move in some chairs, beanbags and a rug. Meanwhile the children are playing inside and out and ignore this new thing entirely.

After dinner to pub with cjildren about 6+, to find A+C and Helen and then some already there. Children run off and play mostly (G hangs around a bit) as we drink a bit and so on (M has come so I can). Finally realise about 7:30 that I ought to phone N... so I do... she has been round to ours. Oops. Anyway, all is well, and Nelson is sent to collect NP about 8. Then stays himself.

Bedtime: DE sleep in the new room of course.

2005/07/23. Saturday.

D unkeen to go to football but then happy when he is there. I stop to chat with Bram - J/E are there playing - for rather longer than I intended to: the plan had been to go straight into town. Much to my surprise, B turns out to be a young-earth creationist, effectively, though he is a bit label resistant. Good heavens! I am delicate with him, of course. He is a nice chap and the first person I know at all - let alone a technical person - who believes this stuff. Might be interesting to talk at more length.

Then I do go to town and finish The Algebraist, which takes most of my time, followed by buying new light bulbs and a shower thingy from RS.

Back 2. I had intended to go swimming about immeadiately but JE are coming over to play so wait. They turn up at 2:30, or rather J and Martha do, E was apparently naughty (at least by there standards, he always seems pretty good to me). EM paint outside, tidily; D plays in sandpit while J reads the Asterix Omnibus; but then they get together. Some bubble blowing: finally playdo for all of them.

Then! Time to get going to pool or we will be too late: pick up N (P is off with Oliver) and drive in. No bands this late. Have a good time: DN do green flume a bit. E and I do blue, and I manage to tip boat over and slide down on our bots and the boat gets stuck inside! We were the last of the day, too. I leave E with DN and get in 2*3 lengths in - gasp - -15, -10 and -10 secs. Exhausted by that. Then CB1.

The new room has become the childrens standard bedroom now.

2005/07/24. Sunday. Cool/rain.

2: well its still raining but its time to take D to Sams pool party. Take him, and E, in the car in case I need to take him to Dry D. But, at the sch, Jeff and Penny are there. "Plan B" is to go bowling it seems, and happily they don't need me. Slightly unhappiuly they don't want to take E but that is fair enough. So we go off home, with me promising E that I'll ask if Katie can come over some time.

Misc - a bit of tidying up, some moving of stuff into the new room.

5:30. Take E to pick up D. But thye are running late - just back. E gets some time to play with K, though not always, K is a bit naughty but is also mindbogglinglu cute so gets away with it. Late food so don't leave till 7. M has cooked... happily E still hungry so eats fish and I get Nicks beetroot leaves (like spinach) and M gets the beetroot.

2005/07/25. Monday. Cool.

M is up early to get off to piano lesson: I'm not.

Home 4. Cleanup for M's party. Stop 7, bushed. Whew. NNNNP arrive first, 7:45, closely followed by CANK, a bit less closely by AS. I forced S to skip a dull ctte meeting by making it tonight, but she doesn't seem too miffed. Drink M's champage, amongst other beverages.

Children settle down to bed... oh, past 10. And Nelson eventually falls asleep in the l'room at 11.

2005/07/26. Tuesday. Grey/cool.

Up to make M's b'fast in bed, skipped y'day due to piano. D and P are playing on the pooter, entranced, so N does M a nice card and E does one too and N writes the words for her... her handwriting is good! No present but the two new cups (yellow flower and purple heart) that E and I bought, D slightly miffed because he didn't get to choose.

Do the washing up. To work in time for smoko, but I need a coffee anyway.

pm: new super on hive 1. Cut lawn.

Go to PC meeting at 7 but... it was at 6:30.

Soir: yadta on bslcene (runs FAST even under g95); stoat: on stupidity and polar amplication; try sage (from Sarah).

2005/07/27. Wednesday. Wet.

So much for summer. Its raining and its cold. But at least I can get up late.

In to work with DE; by car as we're going on to...

The dentists, as 11:30. I get a filling and a descaling and an appt with "the hygenist" in 3 months time. So E and D get to see someone having needles stuck in their mouths and not complaining. He has a quick look at D and spots a filling, so appt for next week.

Then... to pool. D would have liked to invite B but logistics don't fit. Swim happily, though pool is on the chill side. Thence arj/cb1 as ever. D wanted to go elseswhere but since it was raining I vetoed that. And I like cb1.

Back to Coton. Stop at B's but they are out. Home. Eventually, it works out that B comes over here at 5 till past 7 for dinner.

Cut grass.

I then feel rather tired (having done more MSU stuff).

Soir: HC meeting at 8:30-10+. Good.

2005/07/28. Thursday. Wet then sun.

M takes E to M'a. D goes off to B's to go with A to his school, for fun. I to work, feeling a bit slow.

Back at 12:30 to pick up D so sit down instead; A drops him off soon after. To Science Park (lost again! I hate it there) for Conexant closing bbq... well, OK I guess. I really shouldn't go to these things. M never comes to met curries, after all. Also unwisely drink a can of stella.

After: swap car for bike, cycle to town, browse Heffers but don't feel like sitting down. Home for 4; meet Mr Box.

Web; then gardening: trim at the front till the green bin is full.

Sometime (possibly today) we planted M's new cherry tree: at the back, on Dots side, just before the "hedge" by the soakaway.

Andy invites B over for sleepover: OK: he comes at 7. E is tired so I put her to bed early over her tears; she is just about asleep when DB go to bed, and they wake her up, and... well eventually she gets taken to sleep upstairs.

Ofsted have returned me the HC forms... argh... some petty slip, and the DC2 forms to fill in. I hate them I hate them.

2005/07/29. Friday. Sunny.

Back to passable weather at last.

DB up and shouting at each other (though they thought they were just taking) at 6: I sush them. E pads around later. M off 9 ish. I hang around feeling slow until 9:45 when Heather shows up for DE, and B goes off clutching his sleeping bag.

Work: much taken up with photocopying ofsted forms; talking to water folk; etc. But! The coupled model is running nicely and undrift-ily so far.

Home 3, via: Sheana; Ian; School.

Rest, peace: E is at M'a; D quiet (hot); M plays. Coffee, toast, honey.

E back; peace continues. D invites JE round and they play till nearly 6 when we have dinner. Then to pub... at Andys invite... but... where are they? Odd. Later, AB turn up: A had forgotten his dinner invite at Kates. Oops. But he stays for a pint or two.

Home before 8, E bed, D soon after (tidy new room), peace. An evening with the pooter, but not too long. M bath.

2005/07/30. Saturday. Pleasant.

A good day at home. Firstly cos I get to lie in past 9. Up a b'fast (toast). D goes off a bit late to football - he goes to B's, A will take them. ME off to w'rose (first I help remove various bits of Virata junk from the boot). I find a honey (for the stall) and my gloves (for the allot) and head off for the rec to arrive before 10:30 to see D play. Well, he is by no means the star, and when I arrive is loitering behind the net, more interested in something obscure than the game. Thats my boy! Talk briefly to A, Bram, Esther, Paul. I wanted to arrive earlier to talk more... Bram pulls bits of stuff out of the skip... Ross is being a bit throw-away ish. D plays with J/E... and so they invite him back to theirs. OK, I'll go allot. Try to get Snickert from N but she is out. Spend a happy (!) hour or more on the allot de-weeding the bit near the heap and the J arts, and unearthing potatoes, pink potatoes. Good. Also a few bbeans left, and the courgette plants are doing v well.

Home, sweaty (at corner, meet kids having icecream with Esther. Say I'll invite Martha over). ME are back - go get Ma (first into their garden to see their tree house over the brook). Ma/E seem happy together, E much more talkative, but as M says En is Ma's second language. Quick bath. Lunch for all (except Ma not v hungry). After, l'room peace till about 3. E goes off to play chez Ma. Then! Brave and bold: to the front garden to cut and trim. Our front "hedge" is really getting far too tall. So hack and cut until the green bin is full. Also sweep up out front. The pavement is falling to bits. Partly the weeds poking through, partly the builders driving on it...

This takes me past 5. Bram brings DE back all happy; I go to back to put clearer boards on the two main hives which goes OK. Another quick bath then dinner - M has cooked again, inc my pots.

Baths for DE who end up in bed a bit late, and downstairs again.

Deliver DC2 to Clare and Jackie; also chez Karen but she is on hols.

Soir: online as ever...

2005/07/31. Sunday.

A varied day. M gets up before me, past 9, I am finding it rather hard to get out of bed nowadays.

12+: MD go out to join Andy, Billy etc at the cinema for Charlie and the Chocolate Stoat. E is adjudged too young (M is keen to see it and doesn't want to take E out half way through) and left with me: she is a bit sad about this, naturally.

2: we go off to the orchard (she wanted the allot; then switched) and have hot choc (her) and apple juice (both). She has a whole big baked pot and I have courgette soup: v nice. After, as traditional, we buy M a plant to plant: some purple things.

At home we find MD back, and B and G here. E shows G the plants and we are enthusiastic to plant them. I get my boots on and we choose the space by the front door where a leylandii was ripped out, and I plant them (with help) in a neat purple line. Then I do more trimming out front - take the willow right down. Meanwhile DEBG play in the front excavation.

Put on the rhubarb from the allotment and the apples from the trees trimmed out front on to cook.

Soir: online again. Various promises of tidying up come to nothing...

Diary June 2005

 WMC's diary pages, 2005.

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2005/06/01. Wednesday. All afloat. Grey, rain later.

Wake at some undefined time with sun; when E wakes later its about 7:30 and become grey so we stay inside. Cars from the a1123 rumble outside: somewhat noisy but not too bad. D stays in bed with HP, E bumbles about being bright cheerful and chatty and I am up xferring photos, entertaining E and writing this.

8:30: M up, and starting breakfast: she has ambitions to scones. Which are fulfilled later in some pan-bread.

Start off something like 9:30 - we aren't in a hurry at all. Pass the Fish and Duck, views of Ely Cathedral become more frequent. It is really rather pleasant to approach a city where the biggest thing and the only thing viz from a distance *is* still the cathedral. A bit closer the railway station and other stuff comes into view, but the acres of housing estates are mercifully hidden from this view.

Even better, from river to cathedral can be done nearly view parks and cathedral grounds, bar one road to cross, so its rather lovely. And by the river there is a childs playarea that we are obliged to stop in of course. We explore the cathedral fairly thoroughly, though it looks like there is quite a lot of grounds with any number of mediaeval buildings still there. Inside the contrast with Wien is rather stark, as worshippers are thin on the ground but tour groups are not. About the only affecting thing is the chapel devoted to those fallen in wwI and II, which doesn't have enough room on its walls for the names so has fold-out doors to hold extra panels. But, of course, nonetheless the cathedral stone is interesting. I go round with D, M with E. Musc of the stonework is fine and lacy, but somewhat worn - odd since its inside. Or is this just time? Cath cafe for light lunch (its still run by little old ladies and hasn't yet succumbed to corporate catering). Upstairs to the stained glass museum, which has some stuff though not that much, mostly modern. Stained glass, or rather modern SG, is a bit of a puzzle to me, since its mostly just painting on glass, and often not teribly good painting at that. In The Old Days of course you actually made the picture up from different coloured bits of glass and you only had a few colours and it was hard to cut and hard to get the colours and stuff so it was a challenge.

Leave Ely about 2; then turns to rain :-( and stays grey for the rest of the day, though the rain comes and goes. We head up river then take the River Lark turn off (rather precipitately, as we were whizzing along with me inside and M noticed at the last minute and we swerved off). Also a bit windy for all of this so rather hard to keep station. Get to Prickwillow OK, and moor up well before, and head for the museum of drainage which has pumping engines which D is looking forward to. But! It is shut wed and thurs :-( (otherwise 11-4:30 daily). Disappointment. For the kids, this is assuaged by more Pink Panther DVD (later, E declares that she wants to be known as the PP, because she likes pink...).

After a while, with some shilly-shallying by me, decide to turn here and head for Littleport rather than continue up to Isleham lock. Partly cos there is a pub at Lp, partly because it isn't totally clear we can turn at Ih. And because it will be quicker to get back from Lp. And some of the river from Pw to to Ih looks a bit dull. In fact the river up from Ely is in general rather less interesting than the Old West River we did last time. So we turn on a rope, easily, the wind and current in our favour, and head down, me in the rain with an umbrella, M inside cooking, DE inside of course. Its rather... bleak? isolated? empty? around here, but that has its beauty too, a captain at the helm of a ship in uncharted waters. Ha. Rejoin Great Ouse and head up toward Lp, only other traffic a CU eight and accompanying coach, presumably having a long pull back down to Ely.

To Lp OK. Finish eating, do washing up, water spits, odd, funny noise from the front, eventually realise we're out of water. Oops. Should have filled at Ely. About to phone nearby marina to see if still open when realise that opposite is a poss water tap. Take D to look: yes its a water station. So swap to other side and fill up, slowly, as if you try to fast the hose comes off!

After that to pub for a quick drink. In theory no kids after 8:30 but they are OK.

9:45: just finished the childrens stories and bed...

2005/06/02. Thursday. Grey but dry.

Wake a bit later, but off somewhat earlier - about 8:30 - to get started back. Notice that the poo tank is nearly full, oops, so we'd better be continent or find a pump-out station.

Back to Ely about 9:45 and tie up near where we were before, having passed what looks like a pump-station higher up but after a failed half-turn (its windy and the river lined both sides with boats) we settle for a tie-up and look later. DE run off to the playground, while we finish tying up. The strong wind and my assumption that I now know what I'm doing has mean several dodgy approaches, as I take perhaps a bit less care than I should and we end up running from fore to aft pulling one rope then another. It would be a lot easier with less wind though.

Opposite us are Kings school and CU boathouses.

"The maltings" tea shop, which does a breakfast (continental for us) and toast but has to be prompted for the orange juice. V quiet this time of day. Pause to look round Ely riverfront - pleasant. Fairly unspoilt. I go up to look at the pump-out station: it is one. OK. Turn boat, up we go, read instructions, plug selves in, nothing happens. The station says the pump hose has a missing handle... well, there is a notice saying "broken", crossed out, and with "missing handle" written in. It takes us a while to realise that the handle is supposed to turn at the top, and when we do this where its broken off the poo is rapidly sucked out. Then we flush, suck, flush, suck. Fin. Not very messy.

Phone A+C: they will be off 2: we still don't know if we will get to Thetford today or tomorrow.

Stop at Fish and Duck for some lunch - drinks and chips! End up skipping the fuel top-up: we have more than 1/2 tank, the wind is still strong and we're not going down that channel.

A phones: when are we back? He has to go to work sometime. Well we won't be back till past 4... so maybe he doesn't need to be in?

2:30 Pass Tip Tree marina. M steering, I'm watching the bread sticks M made cooking in the microwave/oven, DE are back to PP. Still grey, occaisional sun, my face is feeling a bit weathered.

Get back around 5; hello Andy. Unpack etc; M takes car home and I cycle back home around 6. I then sit down to sift mail/wiki while M does some packing, then I come to help. Finally we finish packing 7:20 and off, picking up Adam, and some Calvados from Helen, then off. M is staying at home to work and be useful...

Fairish trip, I go A14 to BsE then up, and the up bit is slow, and we end up short of diesel, and then get lost when within a mile of the place (the local map is deceptive), and arrive at 9. I thought this might be late but no: everyone is still up.

We end up drinking (and indeed singing: Lea has a guitar) till midnight. DBA are sleeping together in a bubbletent of A+C's, E will sleep with G (and S) in a compartment of AC's huge tent (all the others have huge tents...).

2005/06/03. Friday. Hot sun then thunderstorms and downpour.

Woken at an unearthly hour - about 5:30 - by the 3 boys talking to each other in voices that would cross the campsite. And then arguing... forced to get up and hush them, which tones them down somewhat. Up before 8 anyway. Everyone else is rather slower up.

After kids breakfast it turns out to be std practice to cook sos, bacon etc on their gas stoves (the largish sort) for everyones (well except me of course) second breakfast, and this tends to occupy 10-12 ish.

Put up pergola for sunshade. Fortunately I've done one before.

It is boiling hot so head off for the pool, which is a small paddling pool and a little pool smaller than the schools. But: it is also rather cold, so after a brief jump in and swim across and back D shivers on the edge. E of course (being younger) is keener and stays in.

Lunch. Back to pool. Its still cold... Clare mentions the river. I find a map in the info hut and photo it. So we can walk there, its about 1km. D and I recce the path through the woods to the field to check we know how to start.

In the end, Clare, I, D and S are going - clearly this isn't the sort of group where walking it std. We set off about 4:30, after much wurble of course about exactly who. Fairly soon it becomes clear that S is not going to walk far, and ab out 1/2 way C gives up on him and heads home. D and I continue. Its a nice walk, and the countryside is lovely: through the shelter belt of trees (about 50 m), over a stile into a meadow / rough pasture, with trees around the distant edges, buttercups nearby, gentle undulations and a depression filled with water, trees and canada goslings. From the stile bear right of forwards to a fence; the path goes over then R through a path between two fences but this is nettly: better to keep to the field going R, which joins up with the path by hopping over a gate. Continuing in the same direction, skirting a farmyard only distantly seen, up to a low crest (rabbits running into the gorse) then down into trees and a mown patch of grass which turns out to be the far end of someones garden, through some more trees and you are at the river. The nearest bit of river disappoints: its a bit sluggish and, although fronted by a nice patch of meadow that looks (daisy covered) like a dappled river itself when seen through the trees, there is no way down to the water - nettly banks. But continue over a stile, along a road/track for a little bit, and we come to a little brick bridge over the river and here it flows faster and cleaner, and D can get down to the water. So we play for a bit. Further down is a weir thingy, or a water control feature, it has env agency written on it. And further down is a little muddy beach for D. Now its about time to turn back, and anyway the weather looks like turning and though still hot their are rumbles of thunder and D is a bit scared. Walking back, briskly, it takes us less than 20 mins.

About 6:30 the promised thunderstorms arrive and it pours with rain. Most retreat into tents apart from a few hardy adult who stay under the pergola, but after 1/2 hour of unrelenting downpour it becomes clear that the pergola really is only showerproof not rainproof. In retrospect, we should have retreated to the covered area near the pub *before* the rain, since it opens at 7. After a while, lea proposes driving the kids up, and thats what he does, so they stay dry and I and ?Andy? walk up under my umbrellas - always take an umbrella camping, I appear to be the only one to have appreciated this vital fact.

Contrary to expectations, the pub is *not* heaving - so many people have giant tents and/or caravans that they don't need the pub. So we get tables and served quite soon and my curry is quite decent indeed.

Around 8:30 the rain eases then stops and the kids go to bed and sleep rapidly. Adults stay up drinking and talking, but not too late.

2005/06/04. Saturday. Mixed.

2005/06/05. Sunday. Mixed.

Rounds. Rain. Leave about 1, back a bout 2 (via A+S to return env ag key).

M takes over (only fair, she has had her rest) and I relax/collapse. She has done a lot of house tidying!

Bed: late: 12.

2005/06/06. Monday. Sun, cool.

For me, a work day as usual (except: some of morning: do GP expenses stuff. Dull) but disk fails pm. Oops. For DE, home with M till 11-4 when they go to Oliver and Natashas.

Back 6 ish, all happy. Sit outside from stoop in sun for a bit.

2005/06/07. Tuesday. Sun.

E to M'a (where was E yesterday she says? Did M not phone I say? No. Oops), D to school, first day of last half term of this year... N is back and proudly shows me her german homework sheet - she went to school there for one day - and in her notebook a careully written list of sims and diffs between there and here (start 8; am only; pegs in classroom; hard floor; etc).

Work; disk still down and will be for some time. Accent meeting takes up after-coffee time.

Lunch with TLC/PSA, and then Ash. Talk about uni/college, then work.

Home 2. Lunch, again... Sit in sun. Pick up E, then to school. DB are waiting (to go to tennis) but: B has no bike. Argh! But he is game: he will run, he says. I'm dubious but off we go. Fortunately, meet Nikola along the way and agree B can borrow N's old bike, so get there OK, via the diverted way of course. When we get there I wonder if its the wrong day: quiet. When they start, only about 12 kids (was uncountable: maybe 50, before). I guess thats what happens when you have to pay...

Stop at Cavendish lake, then the rec, on the way back, till 6. B has to run from there of course but does. Home. M back, and cooks. I sit out in sun by front door: its nice there.

Soir: extensive onlining as usual; M does p/school accounts.

2005/06/08. Wednesday.

Std.wed. To smoko (stopping along the way at the rectory to check on a reputed swarm of bees: yes, its there: tell them I'll come back later); to germ; swim; arj/cb1; lib; school. Drop E with M; home; get bee-kit together. Offer D the option of coming (no) and head off. Turns out quite easy: put them into a green-kitchen-bin which I get from Dot; leave it for the stragglers to settle and go back home. I met Dorthe just before doing this so she and Nikolas watched, interested. Return at 7:30 to take it away (picking up N to watch) and give them to N in the box.

Soir: to pub with A and later S. S has been to an electoral-reform meeting (with the deposed AC). 3 pints and good talk.

2005/06/09. Thursday. Warm.

Wake up a bit woozy. Work: a bit thin, but then the disk is down anyway.

Into town at lunch, to Heffers, finish SS (disappointing), do 2 sudoku. Then various shopping: new vid tapes; new trousers (my shorts were a disgrace); new sandals (the velcro going on the old ones, which were otherwise fine).

Allot: stop and pluck a few weeds, and the first broad beans, and some more chard which is still going well. Hot.

Home: 4:30. Sit outside with food and drink and Helliconia Spring. Daniel Cousins (Mr Rectory) comes by with some eggs (they keep chickens) and a bottle of wine as a thank-you for sorting out the bees for him. How kind. No-one has done that before.

Get D then E (who has "little friends: ie lice: oh dear, we thought it was only D. We may have to go chemical). E has been face-painted as a butterfly and she is v proud of this; by Kirsty, who is practising for a fete. Have to be careful at E's bathtime not to wash it off, since she wants to show it at pre-school tomorrow.

Tidy a bit (never enough) and about to start cooking when M turns up so leave it to her and give E another comb-through (easy since M'a brushed her hair well) and get a few more. Also do D.

Lovely sunny calm evening.

Soir: misc computing.

2005/06/10. Friday.

Work, home 2, lunch.

3:30: get E; to sch: D is to multi-s. OK. He will then go on to B's to watch taped Dr Who and tea. E and I go home, E somewhat wistfully hopes for someone to come home with her, but we are OK: she plays on the pooter and I read to her a bit and comb her flowing locks. M home in fair time, but goes up to sleep, poor thing.

Later: M packs, and she and E head off at 7:30 to get D (D and B have been taken by Andy to the tennis club disco) and go off to F's for the weekend - its ages since we've been. But what do I mean we, white man? In exchange for last weekend (and the sudden moving forward of this one) I get to stay home and do useful things.

Like the washing up. And some cleaning, tomorrow...

2005/06/11. Saturday. Sun/cool.

A day all alone... the luxury. Which includes waking up to the sound of birdsong and lying in till 9. B'fast, slowly.

Print out some honey labels and apply to 2 jars. Take them to produce stall; then set to weeding the allot. Starting from the back I get the back patch well under control - it wasn't as bad as it looked - and work down from there, getting about 1/3 of the way. Quick 1/2 in the pub (and fail on a Samurai sudoku, but I didn't have long). Home, lunch, extended coffee by the fire.

Beryl phones re path #9: hmmm, OK, I've ben avoiding this, and today is a good day for it. So take spade and (at her suggestion) some cement, and go find the miscreant posts. Reset them (the one on the corner gets most of the cement and will be wobbly till the next rain). Then, succumbing, go into town, briefly. In token of "brief" have an espresso only in Heffers and read a bit of "rumfuddle", which is odd as far as I get.

Home. Set to planting out poppies (HKR) climbing beans (Ma, now sadly stringy, maybe its not too late) and another dahlia.

Inside. M phones just before 8, I say goodnight to kids, all is well except E couldn't have her hair cut due to lice (oh the shame!). Bath with Helliconia.

Soir: put up May. Wiki quiet.

2005/06/12. Sunday.

Last bit of quiet... predictably I get a bit less done than I might. Downstairs is tidy but not as it might be. Coffee in sun.

pm: go down FP6 to check on the wayposts I put in a week or so back. They are (sigh) down again. I think next time I'll just put the signs on the fence, since I rather suspect cows of rubbing the posts down. On the way there, where the track goes over the brook, encounter a car.. whats it doing there... closer: ah... tis a courting couple en deshabille. Sadly I only see the male half...

MED back around 5. Hello etc.

2005/06/13. Monday.

Work. Give blood (my first, it turns out, for nearly 3 years) at 10, takes till past 11. No yoga, so decide (for my recovery) to go to town and read some of "the algebraist": no algebra yet.

Work misc, home 6:30 ish.

Bed late, naughty: a bit past 12.

2005/06/14. Tuesday.

Plasterers turn up this morning so DE watch for a bit. They have new and exciting kit not seen before.

E to M'a; D sch: today he is off on a trip to the sealife centre near Hunstanton and so has a packed lunch and some excitement. Work; home for 2; all is OK with the plastering folk.

Pick up E; to sch; where is D? the coach is late. Hey ho, sit in sun. We're going to be late for tennis. Coach turns up just before 4 and I hustle them off, but they are not very fast at all, so after a few exhortations I realise that its pointless and just let them get on at their pace. So we arrive about 4:15 and in they go. E had been saying "I don't want to go to tennis, its boring just watching" but when we get there and I offer her a game she... just wants to watch D and B. So we do. Things are perhaps a bit more serious now... the warm-up is various stepping around cones and stuff, and there is resistance (boredom) from some of the kids. But the coach persists. All the kids are pretty poor at listening to what they are told (so whats new? I mention this to DB afterwards and they react with amazement). After, play around a bit.

Stop at rec on way back for a while - I check up on the kit as ever. DB would rather be at N's but no.

Home; start cooking. When M arrives I head off, as I have some report of bees to deal with. I'm pretty sure its going to be bumbles, and it is. Sigh. The kind people there (and at the council, who phoned me) don't want to kill them, so I play along and instead of just stamping on them I take them into a box and dump them at the end of our garden, where they will probably die anyway. While we're down the garden, we see that D's peas are coming along nicely.

Soir: M beds E, I play a bit of civ, D watches some of that and reads Hairy Pooter. Then monitor the RC:betting, etc.

Dose self with out-of-date anti-nit stuff.

2005/06/15. Wednesday. Rain.

Some early rain; its raining a bit when I take DE up to school. But I didn't really need to take E cos M is still at home, though she is preparing for an interview. She goes off about 10, then E and I head off to smoko in the rain. Its turns into a long smoko, cos E makes a "den" under the table, but this is as well as rain stops.

Germ; swim; arj; cb1. Suddenly look at watch: 3:10: oops: rush off home, since DE are due to host Matthew and Emma (as-in Heather). Zoom zoom, etc, arrive about 10-15 mins late, there is M, OK but no-one else. No sign of Heatherites, odd, have they heard about our nits? Hey ho, home we go.

Online, then go get honey extractor (clean it there using hosepipe), bring home and finish clean and wipe. Get super off hive OK (and set another to clearer-board) and leave in kids room and prepare. Meanwhile M cooks (cabbage and sos).

DE bath then down and "help" extract, I chase D off when he threatens to scratch his hair into the honey, but let him back later. One full super turns into just-at-the-top-of-the-taphole. Leave this to settle. Most of it was capped: putting cappings into oven to melt.

Put empty super back on.

Soir: online monitoring RC:bet; stoat:E Ant quickly; wiki mostly Tesla stuff. M makes her first edit (anonymously).

2005/06/16. Thurs.

Work, then to town, read more Algebraist, which I'm quite liking.

Home about 5 I think.

Soir: I forget: online: I'm writing this Sat (or sun, since its past midnight).

2005/06/17. Fri. Very hot.

To work, wearing coat. Come back, and its far far too hot to wear a coat.

Back 2, time to relax. Pick up E from M'a then to school. D is to multi-S, E and I get a cake from cake stall, and D wants one, so I end up owing the pre-school treasurer (ie, M) ú1. E home, and comb her hair, in prep for... take her to sch at 4:30 to be taken by Paula (along with D, and of course she has A, O and V too... poor P, and its such a hot day!). So... free again.

Take off the super I had boarded, this is again painless and quick. Leave it in the kids room.

Collect DE 6:30 plus a bit. AC had invited us to the pub, so we go, and it turns out to be quite a gathering and quite a regular one too. Kids can run off and all play together, adults can drink too much. So I do. Home 8:30. D really liked it: can we do it next weeek please? he sez.

Bed late.

2005/06/18. Sat. Sun, again hot, not quite so much.

Up past 9, oh the luxury of a lie in.

M takes DE to w/rose early. I get a quiet coffee, a brief tidy, a trip to the allot (leave 2* honey at stall, and pick broad beans and chard, and plant a cucumber I bought). See kids playing the football-lessons: meet B (and Andy) after - maybe D should join in? Ask him: he is almost keen.

Spin the super I took off yesterday: easy. DE help, they are still interested.

2: take kids off to Parkside, they really really wanted M to come to and said so but she had too many other things to do, including relaxing. But it works fine: now we know to park underground we find a space. Swim well for more than 1h, E has really found her water-baby state again and is becoming adventurous. D flumes twice, in company with a kid he met. After, cb1. Pharmacy is shut: oh dear: no derbac. No matter. Driving home past lammas: why not stop? do. Have an ice cream, then I sit while they play inc going in the paddling pool. Home past 7. M needs her hair doing with the remainder of our old derbac, but I have to leave that to M as I'm...

8: to JB to talk re pre school. JB has invited S too, and we have a long long talk, but useful.

Bed: past 12: silly.

2006/07/19. Sunday. Hot and sunny.

Today is fathers day so I get another lie in, which is nice, as I'm feeling very tired. This is either too many late nights or perhaps I'm ill. Anyway, MED bting me b'fast in bed in the cute small cups they bought for my birthday. DE have done me a sweet card, and D has written "Daddy I like your bonfires" and E has done an M and a D.

BTW, I'm writing this outside past 10 by the light of the screen, and discovering that I really can touch type, just about.

So after misc packing and stuff we manage to leave 11 for Ma's for Robs b'day. Its hot in the car till the a/c gets going and we have the traditional battle with DE to stop them opening the windows. LoTR on cd.

Arrive 12:15, hellos, Nina is outside in the shade, Ma is cooking, kids are in various places, so I join N. Tired still. People accret (sp?) and Rob opens his presents from us: the Great Pyramid (of Cheops?) - a Plan Toys thing I nearly bought for D a while back which is cute and perhaps an exec toy or maybe useless - who knows. Also a sucker gun.

Lunch inside (where its cool!) the the traditional by Ma collection of veg and stuffing and of course excellent. Almost without realising it, the kids are now old enough for us to expect them to sit up to table sensibly.

After, I pretend to Sudoku for a bit then fall asleep on the sofa for an hour or more.

To Northchurch common, scene of childhood parties and my 40th. Still hot, but there is shade, its v green, foxgloves in the shadows. Some cricket, then bread crumb trail - D insists on laying it with me, and we do, just running out of bread at the end. The others follow, walking not running, cos its too hot, and are slowed down by my "false trail" where I got lost for a bit. After, little picnic, more cricket, home.

Choccy cake and watch vid of early films transferred - hols in Swanage etc.

We all leave later than intended, RNLT first. D read HP4, Ma and I sit outside and discuss her possible house move "while she still can". And why not? Well, where would you live if you had free choice?

Leave 7:30, back before 9, E to bed, D sits in driveway on E's wooden chair reading... you guessed it. D to bed, M practices (after her last competition she has been resting mostly, now re-starting).

Bed 10:30: sensible W.

2005/06/20. Monday. Hot hot hot.

Yes, it was hot.

Work, MP1 forms for the new person. Argh. It is hot.

Fix D's bike: no puncture, jsut deflated. E insists I fix hers too.

8:30: to HM to talk about home club's future with her and JE. Beer was involved. Till 10:30. Back: M is piano-ing: good.

2005/06/21. Tuesday. Solstice! Hot.

Another hot day, though only hot, not hot-hot-hot. And in the morning, tolerably cool. D's bike turns out to be deflated again so it really *did* have a puncture... so he walks to school, I take E to M'a.

Work: get MP1 form to MP OK.

Home 2. Phone CCC edu person re home club: news is poor. But she will send me stuff and gives me ofsted number. Rest on front doorstep - its cooler out in the shade than in (it wasn't on sun/mon). Fix D's puncture.

Now its... 3:30... oops. Cycle off to get E, carrying D's bike. M'a has bought us some Derbac, thanks. Sch; pick up DB; to tennis, and not rushed this time, arrive just on time. Also the lesson is better this time: run by more "fun" people and they have fun and get into the tennis earlier. Perhaps last one was unfun cos they needed to do their certification.

After, stop by lake, then back at rec, but N won't come out (she had specifically asked us to stop on the way back when we met her at school) so DB go in and play in the brick house NNP built, while E watches "the incredibles" with NP inside (and objects when I have to remove her).

Back 6; some food and tidy so we're ready for Ian at 6:30. M just gets back in time and we go over the plans for phase 2 - the kitchen - and agree the price. Ie, agree BtB's price is OK. Its the same as for his rough quote, so thats fair enough. Quibbling: door or window? Some other misc. Meanwhile E is around being cute measuring things with Ians tape measure. How long is that, E? Its this long, says E, pointing to the tape laid against the object! Meanwhile D is outside reading HPIV in the front garden.

M off 8 to p/school ctte. I finish putting Derbac'd E to bed; do D.

Sit out on front doorstep webbing.

Honey: jar up 16 lbs from bucket, leaving perhaps 8 in it. Then set extractor to emptying into bucket. Its beginning to show signs of granulation, and I'm getting down to the waxy bits, so its slow. I'm typing this sitting on E's chair in the kitchen which I need to to stop the extractor falling over from its tipped-over position.

2005/06/22. Wednesday. Cool then hot.

To Hadley meeting in Reading. Trip down fine: cool. Meeting good. Trip back v hot, esp underground. Poor jck comes back to station to find his bike stolen!

Soir: Jofie babysits and M and I out to pub for anniv (only a day late) with A+S and even Clive.

2005/06/23. Thurday. Hot.

Work, then town. Heffers till 3, then arj (bread and washing powder) then cb1.

Pick some beans from allot on way home.

In bath to cool off, chatting to Mfd re J+H's wedding, when I casually ask the time and have to leap out and rush off to pick up D then E.

D knocks water onto my r100 keyboard and I rant at him until he cries. Hmm. Then I apologise for being over nasty.

Bed early, refreshed. But... I'm not used to this and find it hard to sleep when not exhausted!

2005/06/24. Friday. Hot then thunderstorms.

Check #3 (8.7k) to Gavin by hand.

At last, the long-promised thunderstorms arrive to clear the air and water the allotment and garden and cool us all dow. Whew!

DE sch then work, very bitty. Ask helpdesk about r100 who say: no chance. Get a new keyboard. Others say maybe, Phil says airing cupboard. Take keyboard out - looks OK - use HKRs hot air gun (cautiously). Helps a bit - the bit about PXE boot goes away. AJ is off to Jordan for her summer hols so clear up higem stuff. Home in gap in welcome rain (stop to check BW and talk to Mr Digger who says: tuesday, probably). Rest. Back hurts. Lunch.

Pick up E then sch to leave with N, but who is faffing around a bit, so don't finish till 4 (pause to chat to James E, and in general the swimming crowd. Must take DE swimming sometime).

Talk to Jenny re homeclub, briefly.

Home. Rest/relax.

Setup off past 6 to pick up DE and take them to pub, crossing with M on her way in. All seems fine chez N and end up taking N too. Kids run around while I chat mostly to Andy. Its rained, so we sit in the summer house. There is a curry later but I feel inclined to stay home, and Andy is unsure too (but will go). Plot sat/sun stuff.

Home. M is somewhat unwell - gets E ready for bed but I take her; then M goes up for a rest too. D is 1/2 way through HP4. I spend evening mostly on NGRIP core pic, fighting the nature site for supplementary info.

Put r100 into airing cupboard.

Bed after 12, but not much.

2005/06/25. Saturday. Threats of rain, but no rain.

Get up just in time to take D to football practice (his first) on rec. He loves it. Good. Leave at :30 to go back home, get E and car and stuff. Pick up DB and to Parkside to swim. Swim, good. DB both go down green flume for first time. After, arj/cb1 and B gets to taste the delights. All goes quite well, and I even forgive (but obviously don't forget) D kicking me in the throat in the pool. Back past 2. Drop DB at the rec so they can go to the fete, with GBP 2 between them. Then meet C+A etc, and leave E with them. Drive back home. M is still somewhat unwell and will stay at home, so I cycle over.

Fete: good. Find DE, D has spent most of his money, E doesn't ask why she doesn't get some. D agrees to be in the sponge-throwing-stocks in exchange for 20 p. Later again, while E throws at him. Fun! D wondered what emergency vehicle there would be this time: last time it was a fire engine so, he reasons, perhaps an ambulance this time, But no. However there is a formula 1 car. And a very good little roundabout, quite plain, with chairs that swing out. And misc other stuff as usual inc car boot sale. Meet Gordon Ramsay, and wife Susan, who is doing a bee stall: they are the new Coton beekeepers. Get some little cardboard box-units from Trisha. After, drift off to the play area; talk to PB while E plays with Viv, then Jodie; then to skateboard ramp and play improvised piggy-in-the-middle started by Andy, with people on each end who throw a ball over the people below. Fun. Finishes about 6+; home.

2005/06/26. Sunday. Pleasant.

E wakes us up, comes into bed, goes downstairs. I get up at 9. D is quietly on the sofa, reading HP4. Oblige him to eat too. Cory comes round, and I shoo them both outside, repeatedly.

10:30: gather up tools and DE (and C too) and head off to C+A to fix their flatpacks and watch Dr Who. Err, I mean, let the kids watch. C+A are at work on the packs and have anyway watched it last night, so I sit down. E curls up on my lap and is scared. Its... OK. Quite good, good effects, rather obvious gaps in the story though, but well done. Not as good as earlier ones of this series I saw. But I found myself flipping though a best-of-Viz that was around.

After that, abandon kids to whatever and go rescue C+A from their bed, which is nearly OK but just needed one hole redrilled - a cunning trick. After that, set to on the flat-pack desk. Its surprisingly decent wood. My approach is different from theirs: I know I'm going to get it out OK, I can fix any problems that arise. Theirs is: fear, and the certainty of being defeated. And... it does work OK. By lunchtime I have one drawer left to do, which goes soon after. Then help Clare do the shelves on top. Then fix (extra bonus) the catch on one of their bits of double glazing which fell off. Then Val and Dave turn up.

Well, now it 4: home. That was all good fun. Try to detach C and succeed for w while. Rest a bit: M's turn. Cut grass and generally tidy up in the back garden. Turn over the compost heap to a new location: bottom 1/2 is usable, rest goes back in. Cut back cardoons. M does kids dinner while I bath. E gets no bedtime story as penalty for drawing on the walls (again) and is miffed, but maybe she will learn. D is only one chapter from finishing HP4 when he has to go to bed.

Soir: wiki: arbcomm fin; hmpf.

M designs kitchen.

Try my r100: works, for a bit, OK, then keys start beeping again. Put back into the airing cupboard.

2005/06/27. Monday. Cool am, then hot.

Work as ever, as last week Janet is unwell so no yoga :-(. At about 5:30 I realise I'm too hot and tired to do anything useul, so go home, via:

the allotment, to plant the tomato and nasturtiums I bought at the fete, and to pick some braod beans, which are flourishing; Tracy, to deliver her honey supply; home club, to collect D.

Home: sit outside with Marcel in the green evening sun. Dinner.

Then get up and rescue some jacobs lillies from ?tomorrows? digger. There are lots and lots. Also some peonies, which interestingly have hollow spherical tubers. Plant some lillies out back and others in tubs. Hmm. Leave some at the front with a "take me" sign. There is another row to dig up. Tomorrow...

Little bath while M beds E slowly. Play with r100 again: after brief fear (stuck in hibernate cycle) the hair-dryer does the trick and it wakes up long enough for me to extract the .doc's I wrote for the sea ice job off to BAS. Then put it back in the airing cupboard. I think it will ultimately be OK.

Soir: wiki locked (1.5 upgrade) so misc. Phone around to try to arrange M's b'day bash on the 24th.

2005/06/28. Tuesday. Hot then thunder.

Odd day: M'a off, so I hang round with E till 10 when M back from piano; then I to work, back a bit early 1:30. M then off to work. Misc with E quite happily (M and E had been to orchard - E cycled all the way there and back - so e now wants to play on computer: OK). 3:30: sch, to pick up DB, and we're off to tennis, and its hot. Tennis OK (perhaps not as good as last week, but they aren't complaining) and E good, and I get to read the sch maths policy MG left me. Back via lake: we feed unwanted biscuits to the ducks and I try to persuade DEB not to chase them (with success only in D's case).

Stop at rec for play with NP and Rebecca who is around with N and who is as sweet as ever. Such a nice child.

Home; cook; M back late - 7 -some silly american to talk to.

Late: long-promised thunderstorms finally break with v impressive and lasting lightning. rain in torrents - poss the heaviest I've ever seen or heard here.

Bed: late :-(

2005/06/29. Wednesday. Muggy then thunder.

D sch, back with E, talk with builders, off for smoko. It feels cool, so (madly) I take my coat. By the time we come out its far too hot for coats, so leave it in my office. E happily "brushes" my hair. Town: Germ, then swim. E is now very confident in the water, transformed from a month or so back, happy to float with just a float and no armbands even if I'm not near. Also can propel herself in a desired direction.

Arj/cb1/library/back.

At sch (booksale: D gets on on "the world of the future" now sadly dated, and one on bones). Then I talk to MG for 1h+ on mostly maths-gov stuff, but also web sites and home club.

Home: D has tried an expt with putting a straw into a bottle, then heating/cooling it and trying to get air to bubble in/out by expansion. But it didn't work. Tell him that maybe it wasn't airtight. After dinner, try agian, and make it work, and its quite good. But it has to be airtight.

Soir: MSU TMT from Rss. But... can't quite get it as good as I want, so don't put it up. Change of mind. Check global trends and zonal mean and decide its good enough for now.

Rain in envening; later thunder and more impressive lighning.

2005/06/30. Thursday.

I have toothache, mildly. Book appt for far future with denist, being optimistic, but...

Anyway: DE sch; work. Siobhan is around and so I talk to her, then to town. Rest in Heffers 2-3, then head home. Stop at school at 3:30 for no particular reason: D is to HC and E is with M'a. Home, rest. I'm really feeling a bit tired.

Soir. Decode the S+C 5.2 data and stoat it.

 WMC's diary pages, 2005.

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2005/05/01. Sunday. Fine, indeed rather hot.

Misc quiet am.

Finally decide to go off to Thetford forest for the afternoon (D wants to go to Parkside, but I refuse to be inside on such a lovely afternoon). Just off down the garden for some reason and check on bees - lots of activity, nothing odd - and think: if there was a swarm, where would it be... and look around... and see a few bees... and spot the large swarm hanging from some brambles. Ah... so, next 3/4 h spent hiving that, MED watching, all goes well. But that just about blows going out, when... phone call from Geoff: his neighbour has bees. Oh just what I needed. And just off to do that when MRs #22 comes over. Fortunately she just has a few in her air vent, so a bit of fly spray clears that. #45 is harder: look around (its an airey, ie voids) and decide that they may be in there, but if so nothing I can do. I feel that this is a bit of a let down by me; otoh she asks if she owes me anything for the service!

After that: walk to the rec the back way (even M comes, when kids complain that she never does), picking up JE in the process, E reluctant to walk, meet Hannah and Kesia (and James) there. They (it later transpires) have gone there to meet N, who is away until a bit later, so as well we turned up. Esther turns up to collect JE (with a bike trailer, she can carry JE and Martha on a bike seat, 3 at once!), N arrives, we stay chatting to James. Back late, returning by back-of-the-church (Meseglise?) way.

2005/05/02. Monday. Again fine, but cooler.

To beach! Up 8, out before 9, pick up NP, to beach before 11 (stopping briefly by river/canal after 1h ish).

Forecast was marginal: I nearly cancelled: light rain predicted. Day was wonderful: warm and sunny, with a useful rainstorm at 5 to push us off.

At the beach, we head as usual for our favourite white beach hut and set up camp. Kids dig and play in the sand, roughly in the obvious pairings. I gunk them up, over their protests. After a bit we go to the cafe and buy new spades, nice metal ones, and have a drink. Back to digging. Light lunch we brought. All the while the weather remains good and I get in some quiet lying in the sun with my hat over my face and listening to their happy cries.

At 2 the unthinkable happens: someone comes to claim the beachhut! We move off of course, and they are nice about it, so we just move to the one next door.

Later we go down to the sea (just for once its in, so its not a long way). D would like a river to dam but settles for digging channels from the tide pond. N splashes and runs in it... but... gets a shell-cut to her foot which hurts a lot and knocks her out from swimming at all: a bit sad because she was the only one who really did want to swim. I alternate between helping with the diggings and standing back watching and taking the odd photo.

After this back to the cafe: buy ice creams for them, cake-and-coffee for me, and a pack of plasters for N's foot. Then back to our encampment for more fun. DN go off to explore, EP are more settled. Fun all round.

Start back a bit after 5: awful traffic in OH; turn round and go country; awful again heading for Kings Lynn; loose about 1h. Back nearly 8; drop NP; home; food; baths; bed for children.

Discover that the boiler pilot light has gone out and fail to relight it. Hmmm. Find this rather depressing: I could do without this just now.

Again, DE have gone to sleep in the spare bedroom.

2005/05/03. Tuesday. Later, rain.

So back to work after more than a week. Set to the task of reducing my emails, which have not been pruned for rather a long time: cut back to less than 100 by removing entirely some old faithfuls I'd almost got fond of...

Describe boiler troubles at smoko; Phil Anderson volunteers to come back at lunchtime and have a look (he is known for understanding domestic hot water and gas...). And so he does, and after staring at it for a while he *actually follows the instructions* and it lights. The bit I'd got wrong was that after sliding the button to the right and releasing, you then had to *press* it on the next step, and I missed that. Easy to do. Thanks Phil.

Sit by fire with paper and sudoku. Weather is grey: not promising for tennis unless it lets up. But... it does. Talk with Ian, then to sch. Pick up kids, who all seem eager; send off DB ahead and catch them up; pick up NP at N's and off we go, a b it faster this time as we arrive in good time. DNBP go off, E is sad not to be able to join in, so we watch. Talk to Heather. A few spots of rain; biscuits afterwards; kids ramp while I talk to someones grandmother who is selling her house in France. Slowly back: DNB ahead and we find them in the wood; P is slowing and wobbling. EP go in after; later E comes out and tries P's bike for a bit with my help. Then... turns, runs, falls, and grazes both knees, blood wells up, she is sad. Oh dear. Wail wail wail. Head home after that, and after a bit have to give P a lift and carry his bike. P is very quiet: his mode of becoming sad is not D's or E's or indeed almost anyone elses: he just is quiet.

Back to N's. DNB trampoline; P wants to be inside and have food and is close to tears/bed; E gets plastered. Then goes out to tramp, but that doesn't work. I go off to see if Rick is playing football: he is. I have my tea and talk to him while he is goalie, when the action is at the far end. Who is playing? I ask. BAs, he replies, surprised. And I recognise a few: Andy Clark; 2 women, Rob Arthern. But not most of them. Back to kids; Nick back, talk allots. Drag kids away as it starts to rain, and as we come down St P's it becomes heavy, DB complaining bitterly but not cycling any faster. Back and sit by fire with cocoa. Dinner, M back. E bed.

D reads quietly to himself (Asterix; Bob the Builder; from the big story book), so quietly that he gets to exceed his bedtime. Will he learn from that?

Soir: brief wiki; email; stoat:Oreskes again; Civ.

2005/05/04. Wednesday. Cloudy/wet.

Drive D to sch; then with E to Willingham (berrycroft) to buy some bee stuff: mostly brood foundation (3 packs in total, some for N), but also new gloves, another wired excluder, and a pack of spacers. Total £62. On the way there (and back) E bops along to the Clash, should I stay or should I go. Next step is smoko, and after that experiment with driving into town, to park at Parkside. This works, but I don't care for driving into town. We go to the pool, but very rapidly E reaslises this is a mistake, because her scraped knees hurt when wet. So after 5-10 mins we get out again. To arj/cb1, then collect the dry cleaning (which takes a while, as I turn out my pockets looking for the ticket, which turns out to be at home), then to car and to Seymour road health centre for E's eye check. This is like an adult one except E has a card to point to the letters, but she manages to say some of them too! E is OK; we are advised to re-check after n years, where n might be 2, 4 or even 8.

So, now its just past 2. What to do? Decide to try Lammas land playground (E flatly refuses to go for a nice walk along the river). And she plays around a bit, but the weather is poor and we are the only ones there! Its cold. Head off for Orchard: coffee and soup for me; hot choc for her. Then its time to pick up from school.

Don't do a lot with my free pm: civ a bit, then make up enough frames to fill the spare (#3) hive.

Soir: out to pub with A+S, have a good time, mostly politics but uncontroversially so, which is nice. Also only 2 1/2 pints, which is good for my head...

2005/05/05. Thursday. Cool.

Vote for me! And I do. Traffic is light.

Work, slightly thick-headed. Talk about the SH/Ant warming, are we going in circles or spirals? Send it off I say. Yoga. Quick snatch of lunch, then talk: genie stuff from some guy from Brit Columbia. The CO2-lifetime stuff was interesting but the rest rather dull. And it went on too long. Realise that I should be talking to MG re curriculum stuff: oops. After, to town: cb1, then buy pritsticks (my commission) and get money for M'a. I'm still feeling rather muzzy. Get a card for Ma and head back homewards. I have a bit of free time before picking up D so start on an open task: collecting Parish Plan questionnaires from Sadlers Close. Of 12 houses, I have 1 already; I get 2 more; 4 are out; 5 get a reminder to finish; everyone is kind. Realise that because its election day I am being mistaken for a canvasser...

Pick up D (help him tidy up k-nex); send him home; get happy E. Home ourselves. M is back, and a bit of new wood has turned up, but nothing else obvious: behind the scenes some electrics I gather. I'm feeling really rather wacked so rest while M cooks. Later, take old pooter apart with D, rescuing cd-rom, floppy, psu and one stick of memory; bit the rest.

Baths for DE. I stoat: twice: Peisner's abstracts and JA's bets. M is on p/sch stuff and work, poor her.

2005/05/06. Friday.

Listen to the news: Blur in again, but reduced (exit polls were exactly correct). We didn't retain our deposit :-( and I did OK (8-9%: 432 votes). HKR complains I let the tories in: I reply, tough, people vote Green not libdem for good reasons. Misc work, home 2, builders still there.

Pick up E from M's and P from sch: D is at multi-S and going on to A+C, in "payment" for tuesdays (we didn't ask, they offered). So we have a quiet time until DN turn up. N brings over NP's sleeping bags for the sleepover and leaves me to it. M is off to a concert tonight (so at NNN) by Ilga and a teenage protege, so I get to bed the infants but they are no trouble.

The trouble is I get hooked on another civ game and it eats my evening...

2005/05/07. Saturday. Sunny, cool, windy.

Well I ended up staying up till 1 am Civ'ing last night, which is silly, but I still find Civ rather addictive. Bad me.

Up 9: builders are here and doing stuff on the roof. I had wanted to do PP stuff today, but it seems I need to go into town: to get Ma a cake, and a present (photos, mostly from summer hols) and a new printer cartridge. So I do, and have a coffee in cb1 waiting for the 1h photos to be printed. Home. Lunch. With DE upstairs watching Bill the roofer flaming. Drag them away to pool, meeting BGSAC there, and we have a good swim (though D would still like to go to parkside). After, CB are off to London, and I take DEN to the sailing club, since its the open day. N is more interested than DE and keen to have a sail: they have some of the larger boats out so they both get a go. E puts on life jacket then wimps out at last moment so I stay with her on the bank. Its very windy. We all have tea-squash-cakes, play hide and seek, and head home.

Intend dropping N but NN are out: N(elson) says they are car buying, or looking, so hang around a bit (E bounces, I sit in warm greenhouse sudoku'ing) then leave a note and go home for dinner (pizza). N arrives for N at 6:45 and she goes; quietly thereafter: M reads/translates Lucky Luck Painful Gulch to D for bedtime.

Soir: misc webby stuff and... a bit of civ. M online too, writing her Claudius presentation.

I go to bed after civ'ing at midnight: M crawls in at what I later discover is quarter to 4!

2005/05/08. Sunday. Sun, cool, showers (hail).

Half expecting a roofer to wake us, but no. Noises off, up 9, quick b'fast then tidying in expectation of Ma. Sadly the l'room has gone a long way down so a lot of cleaning is required. Break 10 for coffee; stop at 11 to go off and collect some PP forms. Back to it, finally halted by Ma arriving a bit early: phew. Of course she is too kind to comment on the mess.

So: misc. Lunch is booked for 1:30 at the pub: we were the second booking when I did it on friday and I nearly didn't bother. But when we get there only our table is empty: they are doing well. Since it was showery, MED drove and Ma and I walked, mostly at her insitagation. Several hailstorms and showers earlier: its a convective day. Lunch good, children ditto, though Ma thought her lamb a bit tough. Going back E decides to walk with us and does. We stop to see the allot first, and pick spinach which is growing well. Home just before another storm. I do some backup of Ma's satellite, she has some odd intermittent boot problem so is worried, but who knows.

M has been sleepy all day and finally flakes out about 4 and crawls off to bed. We have a'noon b'day cake for Ma with 7 candles without her. Happy 71st to Ma: she is having no more b'days it seems. Talk about the extension and stuff. Later dinner (which M must have helped with, so have I got the order wrong here?... anyway, who cares exactly), E's bedtime is suddenly on us and Ma's going time just after.

D is upstairs with M, I'm downstairs with Civ, I go up to get him and discover E is there too: chase them both to bed. M wakes up, downstairs for some work, and now (11:20) is playing the piano, ahving been determined to go to bed early. I shall beat her...

E comes into our bed again in the middle of the night, which is cute but too frequent and not good for our sleeping.

2005/05/09. Monday. Rain.

Kids school. Mollie has had a hairdo and is glossy (she is a dog, of course).

Work: Sharp / Yoga / AJs thinclient; hadgem ppn. Home 6:30.

Misc. Soir: Civ; brief wiki; review tomorrows talk; mail; stoat; skype (test123 works; calling M doesn't). M pianos, works and does some "urgent" pre school stuff. Her talk that she spent so long preparing went well today. She gets to bed pre-11.

2005/05/10. Tuesday. Mixed.

To Hills Road Six Form College at 1 to re-give my "cafe scientifique" cl ch talk, at the invitation of Anna Hall (familiar feel of school from my days, except its mixed, so you gets students snogging in the corridors). It goes well: good questions. 18 present, and Anna says this is good for phys soc. Now its 2. What? to cb1. Then back to sch for 3:30: in theory N is taking E too to tennis (under some protest) but I want to ask E, who (to my surprise) says she would rather stay with me. OK: that makes it easy for N. Stay till 4, E playing. Home via BW, meeting SoBtB who says roofer on thurs (perhaps) and insul is walls.

Home, leave E inside and "do" bees: main hive OK, lots of new, not granulating at all yet, some but not much capped. New gloves feel lovely. Swarm hive is not so great: busy yes, new brood yes, but in the super. Oops. Put one super selected at random under the queen excluder and hope. Main hive: there was a birds nest under the eaves at the top! The cutest little white-with-red-spots eggs, about 8. Xfer them to a bird box and hope.

Get DEB at 5:30, talk with N misc.

Soir: out 7:30 to PP meeting at which we all bring in our questionnaires. Happily Diana Bray has agreed to data-entry them, so apart from a brief discussion of what to do with the text comments (do those after) there isn't a lot to say, so back home by 8:30.

Waste much of the rest of the evening on Civ, and some on wiki. Useful bit is stoat: on the talk today.

2005/05/11. Wednesday.

2005/05/12. Thursday.

2005/05/13. Friday.

Lunch at work with Todd/Tom/JCK/AJen. Misc work then home. Sparks is back at work fixing in a few sockets. He knocks off (forgetting to turn off his radio: shades of the penguin) just before I go to school. I don't need to: N will pick up E: but I'm free, its sunny and blowy so I can. Sit on the wall, watch the happy kids, pick up E from M'a and pass her along to N (DN in multi sports of course). Talk to Ian, who happens by: more roof expected this weekend; discuss Party Walls and Mrs B.

Home. A bit of bee-ing: check the hive: yesterdays clearer-board has not yet worked (I had hoped maybe to do it today) so put an empty super under all, clearer, 2 supers, clearer, super: and hope that will be OK when I get back to it. Small civ. Sit on front doorstep in sun with coffee and sudoku, twice. A bit of gardening. Some economist. A quiet afternoon. Even pack a bit. M back with kids 7; quick pack; off 8. Arrive 10; kids to bed, us to kitchen; D comes down for bread tehn

2005/05/14. Saturday.

Soir: finally finish Civ, free for a bit longer, so time to work back and fill in my missing days, from wednesady on. Oops. So...

Laze in bed late, since I can. DE up early - in to us around 7:30, want this and that and can we have the TV on? No, apart from anything else its in F's room.

Up past 10. Leisurely breakfast, D and I steal toast off each other. The plan for today is for us all to go out to leave M to practice, so just before 12 we do, all squeezing into our car (F in front, MJDE in back) and we wave bye to M. E is in her lovely new skirt and top, from F of course, and wellies.

We are to Cogges farm museum, near Whitney. I'm not quite sure why I want to go to a farm museum, but I don't mind, and the kids are quite delightful at the moment so I don't even try to stay back with M. There is some pain getting there - the marked route on the leaflet leads us through Whitney, which is v slow and unpleasant - and then the car park is gratuitously mis-signposted and leads us to drive up a non-road track for a bit before a local points out our error and we reverse. So I drop the others off and drive round the True Path. Once inside (not cheap: £4.40 for me) there are various things. They are watching a sheep-shearing, which I find fascinating, but then DE wander off to look at the spinning etc. I find that a bit odd - the spinning is interesting too but sheep-shearing, with the struggling sheep and the clippers and the fleece gently falling off, is more so. To me. But the spinning is done by some nice older ladies, and they explain to D how it is done, and the carding and stuff, and he is very interested, and comes back several times, and even has a go at helping - there is a special hand-machine (japanese) for winding spun wool into a nice ball. Then there is some egg-finding. It turns out (J asks them) that shearing sheep is a net cost: a fleece goes for about £0.60 p (if its in good shape) but it costs more than that to shear them. But you have to shear them or they get too hot. And thats how the modern world goes... Sit in bit of talk (slide show!) that JEF are in, about the history of the Cotswold sheep. When the lady giving it taps her stick on the ground, someone changes the slide, but E thinks its by magic.

Lunch: a bit odd, because food is rather limited, partly cos its 2:30 not 1:30 as my watch stopped. So, soup and sandwiches and not-so-good coffee. D doesn't really eat but plays outside in the playground while we eat, D drinking the can of Lilt I let him have.

D and I fin first so we head back. We have, just about, done most of the things, its not such a big place, though there are a few random bits of machinery, some ducklings etc to see. We go through the walled orchard (now picnic) down cute paths to the river Windrush, and walk along. They have done the paths to the river very well - meandering through meadows - but haven't cut a path down to the river - H+S probably, don't want to encourage, etc - which is a bit sad. D forges down anyway and gets a bit stung for his pains. Walk back in big circle and find others. Its nearly milking time: watch this: takes maybe 20 mins to empty the cow (which has a calf too). I've never seen this before, jetts of milk squirting out. What do they do with it? Leave it to settle, skim off the cream (and make butter from it) then give the skimmed milk to the pigs. But... of course they can't sell the butter (H+S tedium) so have to bin it :-(. Sad.

Now its 4:30: time to go: go back the other way (one track road) with CD3 of LoTR on, at Rivendell. I don't think it works as well, as a re-enactment, as it did in the Hobbit as a telling. Too bombastic: people can't really *say* many of the things written.

Back: M welcomes us in. Early baths for DE so we can have dinner in time to watch Doctor Who! Which D is v keen to. We all watch. Its one of the tedious go-back-in-time-to-save/kill-your-father type stories, with a twist that strange monsters are turning up to kill people on the wrong branch. Well.

Soir: finish Civ, write, bed.

2005/05/15. Sunday. M's piano. Lovely day.

Up late again, in fact by this time D is out with Mfd to the playground.

Sit outside with coffee - again its sunny, but today not windy and hence rather nice and warm.

About 12, everyone else off to town for lunch, meeting Si+B. M and I will drive in separately, M asking me to stay with her, so we get a quiet lunch at home. get in about 2:30, park in M'len college school just nearby, as we get out find others there. Into Hildas, which presents a particularly attractive appearence - v quiet (where are all the students?), green lawns down to the river, punts, cricket fields and M'len tower beyond. Find Ma drinking coffee on the lawns a bit further. With M, check we know where the building is (OK) and where we are in the schedule (ages to go) so we can relax. Kids run around, we chat, etc.

Back 10:30. Just time for webbing and RC post on dimming (forgetting title - argh - but Gavin fixes it for me). Bed past 12.

2005/05/16. Monday. Rain.

Work / Yoga / Directors talk / EWW: Cache talk / W. Home about 6. Out 7:30 to PC planning meeting, we all agree is near pointless, since the only action is to vote "no comment" on a planning application. Hey ho.

Home: wiki: good: rfa finally starting to resolve, and (better) articles starting to stabalise. Misc posts of OD.net. Stoat on sudoku and funding. Which brings me back to the directors talk. Slightly hard to interpret exactly, but the general gist was that budgets are going to get very tight. Oh great.

M to bed early, me to bed just before midnight...

2005/05/17. Tuesday. Sun, but cool out of it.

Work (feeling a bit sleepy), home 2. Go look at bees, decide to take off the 3 supers from main hive. Do so: top one OK, lower two a bit harder, all starting to granulate... not a moment too soon! Leave them inside for later.

Sch 3:30. Pick up DEPNB. P sad: in tears (I've never seen him thus): bicycle troubles. To N's: set DNB on ahead: P and E sit on my bike, off we go. Tennis: all goes well. I get to do a sudoku: Clare comes past with Stan to watch, and there is a small-kids informal play on an empty court, E with S. Nikola stops by too, both she and Clare are carefully cnsidering whether its worth doing the paid sessions after half-term. Whereas I consider its a good deal, but if NB drop out, D might be less keen? Hmmm.

Cycle back: N takes P as far as the woods, then leaves us. Kids head in at a nnew place, the corner, and get into the field beyond, now long grass, long enough for them to play hide-and-seek when they lie down in it. So thats lots of fun. Call them back around 5:30 - time to head back, sorry. Poor D is then dragged past an interesting combine harvester type thing about to start up (or not: they are standing around it talking): N is not interested at all, B a bit. Back to N's, stop to talk a bit, DNB on the rec. Go look at honey extractor: doesn't need a clean.

Home: past 6. M just back (from interview: Frontier Silicon). Leave kids with her and take car to collect extactor, this only takes a few mins. Back home, dinner turns into pan bread, ie slow, so after some cornfalkes for the kids, me hoovering up, then getting annoyed with D for asking me "when are we doing the extracting" when the answer is "when I've finished cleaning up your mess, like I have to do every day, its very boring, why don't you make less mess", we actually have fun doing the extracting. There is less granulation than I'd feared, and most comes out, and since there is little capping its really quite easy and unmessy. Get through the 3 supers in about 1 hour, with a bit of help from D, and even E gets up on a stool to help turn the handle. Leave it to settle o'night.

Soir: misc. Wiki my thoughts on experts, take 1 ish. Stoat on honey and RP.

2005/05/18. Wednesday. Warm and sunny.

D to sch; E and I burble a bit: I've brought a dahlia and leave it there, and cut back a bush putting it into Ians bin (having asked him... also quizzed him on progress). Back with E; misc the smoko then Germ/Swim/Arj/Cafe-de-Paris/Lib/M+S(underpants)/Back. So that was all very pleasant and as usual (except cb1 closed, so to CdP). And i don't often buy underpants... not often enough, some might say!

DE are to O/N's for the afternoon, and Joanna takes them, while I sit on the wall and enjoy the sun. Ian reports on plans-for-progess (next week). Home.

Tidy a bit, then setup honey to bottle, realise it needs a second filter so that slows stuff down a bit. MED back 6:30, but DE seem to be camping in the car!

After E's bed D helps with bottling a bit. 17 lbs so far.

Soir: misc computations, update EGP website, now for more bottling... past midnight... 30lbs total.

2005/05/19. Thursday. Rain, not too bad.

Work; talk (a bit long) by Ed Andreas on boundary layer stuff. Start up various fallen over runs. Then... rain. To town (and on the way I ***saw a weasel***, the first for ages. It was on the road to the Cavendish, where there is field to the right. It ran across the road (going from Madingley rd side to field), stopped on the edge, looked at me for a second, then went through the fence. I stopped, went back, stood in the field for a minute then saw it running away from me, in a bounding fashion through the grass), Heffers for lunch (singularity sky) then Borders (find a New Humanist). Home about 5. Read G2, nothing much.

Pick up D then E; cook (getting a bit carried away: pasta for them, pots and aub for us, except when it comes to it neither of us is v hungry. Sigh. And there is still mondays kedgeree left).

E a bit sad by bedtime, partly cos I'm tidying and M is in near-vid-game mode by the fire with a sudoku. D gets enthusistic and he stays up till 9 doing one with my help, while M baths. He can pretty well do it, if given suggestions as to which 3x3 to look at and what number, and can sometimes do some all by himself. I ask him about the one he took to school and he says, a bit wistfully, that the older friend he was going to do it with got bored.

Soir: webby stuff: create wiki:AWS and some others, else quiet. M plays piano, perhaps for pleasure, now pressure is off. Bed *early*, sort of, ie just after 11.

2005/05/20. Friday. Fine then rain late.

Wake early in sun. Builders at 8. Nearly late to sch but not quite - E late having b'fast so leave M to take her and go with D. Still take him to classroom though there is no need at all: sometime I'm going to have to stop doing this.

Work: another talk (tides and heinrich; perhaps a bit speculative).

Stop off on way back on FP to check where the new post needs to go and where the old one is: find this OK, say hello to cows and sheep, a nice walk.

Home, builders still at work (good!). Misc. Pick up E from M'a and P from sch. E wants to play out; P wants to play on the computer, so I let him. Quiet. Sudoku from todays paper: hmm, quite diff.

Get ND after multi sports. Wash up. Start cook. M back just before 6 so leave it to her and retreat to Sudoku, then come back and help later.

N collect 7, by which time its pouring with rain.

Soir misc online. Wikipeace, at least nearly.

2005/05/21. Saturday.

To town sans b'fast, get it at Heffers, where I nearly finish Singularity sky: quite good, but common IMB type problem: excess powers. This lasts till 12 when I really ought to go. Its raining. Wait 5 mins, OK, to Ox, then back, then it *really* rains an I get quite wet. Home, and towel self dry and spread coat to dry and find wet wallet. Etc.

D is on pooter; E misc, M tired. What to do? DE want to swim, Parkside? OK. Not cycle in (still raining) so risk car. Several car parks full but happy not Queen Anne (p'side) so OK. And its good, E even ends up doing a bit of "swimming". D gets to go on the flumes, twice, and really enjoys it; but is thwarted in his desire for #3 when they shut. E is just a bit too small to go with me on a double. After: cb1, where they are both good; briefly arj then germ toy shop. Woman looks a bit grumpy, perhaps, but custom is thin.

Back to car and back to home. Then out again: to springwell apiaries (ie, John Rayner) to collect jars, 2 gross. Get off M11 too early (not Dux mus jn, next one) then OK. Nice chap, good chat, his prices for foundation are good too. Then... nightmare on way back, since turn wrong way on M11 and end up going 16 miles to Standstead then back. Argh. Drop 1 gross with Simon, say hello to George and Maddie (but they don't say hello back...) then home just before 8, to cold-but-nice pizza etc.

2005/05/22. Sunday. Sun/rain.

Get a lie in, then up. Tidy, b'fast with DE. Coffee for a rest, then set out to tidy outside. Cut grass front and back, mostly. Stop for lunch. Jo brings SW round, chat.

Take a look into "spare" hive since it has an awaful lot of bees in/around it. Can't quite work out what is going on. most of those inside are at the top, and seem to be despoiting (not taking excess) honey. No sign of queen/brood. Hmm, I'm confused, so leave it.

Use cast-off roofing tar/felt to patch holes in two ex-water tanks that SE left me - this seems to work OK and isn't as hard as I expected. D watches. Lug them into the car, and the extractor, and the new waymark post. Persuade D along: he is lego-ing and needs some persuasion but also needs to get out somewhat.

First drop extractor with N: N has friends round so don't invite her. Put tanks at back of allot where roof will fill them (I hope) - really needs a gutter. Then to start of FP, near bin brook (all the while listening to LoTR, we're on the 2towers, edoras). D plays in stream a bit while I get stuff out, then off we go, me with post, him with spade. Push through herd of cows and a rather bold sheep, its very pleasant and green and spring, though with M11 noise. Find sopt; dig holes as best I can and put in post, hammer, and refill and hammer. GK has a "drift" I could have borrowed but lets see if this will do, if not I'll come back with said drift. As we head back rain slowly starts then winds up... to pub (I gave D choice of pub or orchard). Now its 4. Summer lightning for me, lime-and-soda for D, and peanuts (no twiglets :-(). M'a etc come in, so I get to ask Jodie if she can b'sit this weds. Yes. So we *can* go to the beer fest. As we're in the pub, rain hammers down, so after to the allot to check the water tanks... not a lot so far. It does need a gutter.

Home. M is cooking. Finish grass cutting (which is now v wet of course). Builders bits need a tidy: must speak to Ian. Food, then after baths for kids, the bl**dy pilot light went out again so water cool, this is getting a bit much.

D wants bonfire, so collect up some wood and take it down, and notice... a swarm of bees! Aha. Not huge, but OK, phone N, get Nick. He comes over, cool and unflappable, and collects it rather well, using a brush to brush them off the branch, and patiently waits (gentle rain starts) for the last few stragglers. Then I tape it up, and off he goes: good luck.

Inside. Wiki (grrr), mail. Fill in PP questionnaire (belatedly), realise I don't have elec expense forms, oops, mail for them.

2005/05/23. Monday.

W / Y / W, leave 6.

Having asked Mr-will-be-anonymous for advice, try to fix the pilot light that keeps blowing out on the boiler (its getting silly now and not lasting a day). Step 1 (always the hardest) is to get the cover off: it needs to be unscrewed, then pulled out a bit, then swung from the bottom a bit, then lifted. OK. Clean near light with toothbrush - awkward. Reassemble, its worse than ever. Argh. Thinks... try again, but this time remove the manifold/protection around the jet. Ah: now I can get to it, and see the gunk building up, and clean it. Reassemble: better: visibly larger flame, that actually touches the thermistor, and! it stays lit. Hurrah.

D has made some more rather nice "stained glass" stuff.

2005/05/24. Tuesday.

Work till time to pick up E: sea ice ancils again.

Get E, talk to Ian re house, D off with N to tennis. Back home, E quiet, sit ouside. E cuts finger, so inside for plaster and cuddles and story time. Eventually N finds us lying down by the fire, so I get up to talk about PC plotting. Cook pasta/broccoli, M back just after 6. I'm tired.

7: off to PC meeting, lasts till past 10, but it is the annual one. Ross prop GK for chair, no sec, falls. N prop me for vice, no sec, falls. So we're back to the same old faces. Apart from that, and being too long due to rambling, OK.

2005/05/25. Wednesday. Hot.

Since E has hurt her hand, skip swimming (she is sensitive about this since her knee). The builders are building (well, when we leave for smoko, they are having their tea break, but in principle they are working...). Town (finding the footpath closed, so diverting through the Cavendish. Stupidly, they have shut the end near we normally go through, so the diversion is longer than it has to be). Germ cafe, lib, arj/cb1 (nearly CdP but at last minute E agrees she likes CB1). Then Handle Shop in Drakes (recommended by Ian) and E has fun. What a lot there are. Then realise I've forgotten JQ... oops, phone, but he is out. Heffers for D's glass paints, which he is really keen on, and for some reason we're buying not him. £2/tube: black (leading) and brown.

Soir: Jodie arrives on time and we head off for the Beer Festival, arriving at about 8 just as A+S turn up. A jumps the q, being camra, and S stays with us. Inside buy glasses and find C+A and -gasp- Dinan, the father-to-be. And go get some cider. And it ends up a good evening, sitting outside and drinking. S & I talk some politics, general, organistaional. A has a new toy, a photo-displayer with 40G disk: doesn't seem that useful to me.

Back somewhat past 11; M takes J home.

2005/05/26. Thursday. Hot.

Again, building noises early. DE sch; work, setting off C20C/seaice type runs with CO2 forcing. After, to town, meeting JQ at 1 to get his expense form signed. Chat for an hour over coffee, which is maybe longer than it should be. After to Ox, then read SS at W'stones, but I'm skipping, its become generic.

Homewards. Stop at allot to pull up a few weeds - more needed. Then home, wiki (sane for the moment), sit out in sun with paper and RoG on Heinrich. Add a stub Heinrich events article.

Mr Box comes round, ok, but I cancel next weeks. Then its time to get D and E. Discuss HP with D on the way back: he is keen to read the books.

Penny phoned us: phone back: its about the bit-of-land-at-the-back over the stream: sold, apparently. To whom?

Cook: pots, aub, sos: good. M back 6:15. Me out 7:30 to gov finance meeting but nothing much: drags out to 45 mins though.

Soir: M out for a while getting cheques signed. I update school web (Mrs Leepers page) and PP (last 2 sets of mins from Stu).

2005/05/27. Friday. Very hot.

Note through the door: M'a sick (or does she just want a long weekend?). Sigh.

Work, briefly, then back by 12 to pick up E from p/school. Its hot hot hot!

Where to go? Home (via talk with G at BW). Misc. Decide to go to orchard pm to get some flowers for the front to beautify the foot of the plum tree: normally I wouldn't bother but it helps to balance the disastrous state of the rest, partly because of the building. Choose some yellow/orange marigolds, a joint decision but with consistency by me.

As we wend homewards, E sees the car, so it must be M, so we follow her home. A little while later I take E to school, since De are going to Adams from after multisports (D because Helen wants A to do something other than play football: either because D is considered more cerebral, or because he merely won't play football). E is happy to go play with Viv; and Paula takes them all.

Peace!

Stoat on the CCC climate document. Wiki: arbcomm case is now formally the cl ch dispute, which is good.

2005/05/28. Saturday. Sunny, cooler, windy.

Up late, just in time to talk to BtB, who has come round to smooth over the limestone (and skip) trubble.

11: off to allot to cut grass. Mower in car (lazy) at same time as ME go off to w'rose. Take 2 jars honey to fresh produce stall (first of the year) and D and Cory have cycled down. ME off, I take mower in. DC go off to N's (she is out, off to Germany, but N lets them use the trampoline) while I set to cutting the grass, which takes an hour. Hot in the strong sun. DC back, and to keep them occupied I let them bash up some old fencing (Ben and Sophie are having their back fencing renewed, by what turns out to be a Czech who can speak v little english: but yes, its junk, so turn them loose). They have fun with this while I plant out three courgettes I bought from the stall. then it turns out that one bit shouldn't have been bashed: oops. Never mind, B+S will get a new gate too!

Then to the pub for a drink, and DC play pool (or their version of). ME come back just as they are finishing, while I'm talking to Tim (and a chap called Richard). This is proper village pub stuff: going in without your mates but finding someone anyway. We go home, and I follow up by cutting the field at the back and some of the lawn. Then a quick bath, and get out at 14:25 because I realise its time to take E to Gemmas party. And I do (E requests me: she likes us both, she says, but I am the person who takes her to things). Meanwhile B comes round to us. E wears her best party frock, new from F.

M goes off to get present for Olivia tomorrow, and I have DB then DakC to try to keep happy. They split, after a bit, into DC and DakB, the former quiet, the latter not, and argue somewhat. I throw them outside, and threaten to send CDak home. In the end 4:30 intervenes and we set off to get E after G's party. All there happy, though a bit shattered as one usually is after such things. I hang around till about 6, sicne D has been invited over and E's status is unclear. I bowl for BDakC who want to play cricket, and even get D out for a bit. But at 6 Andy offers to keep them both for supper and Dr Who, and invites me to watch. So home, and hours peace (or it would have been only I stopped to talk over the bit-of-land-behind, with Tony, which turns out to have been sold to the CPS I think, and they thing maybe). Back for Dr Who, and to my surprise M comes too. It turns out to be part II (the empty child) and is reasonably good: not totally logically coherent, but nonetheless exciting, scary, well done and hangs together.

Fin 7:40 hence E back past her bedtime and wants to eat so bed late. I wash up and hoover while M beds E and D looks up Dr Who on the web.

Then... soir: sit out till past 9 reading Dialogue...: its lovely out, birds and greenery though a bit cool. Come in and wiki (little); then this then bed.

2005/05/29. Sunday.

My day to get up, which I do at 9. Quiet morning.

I strim quite a bit of the wilder portions of the back garden (getting bee stung once for my pains). This leaves me covered with bits of plant, strimming is a messy process.

pm: to pool, parkside again, and M comes this time. Difficult finding a space in Q.A.: their counter says 200+ but is clearly faulty. Have a good time; M and I both go down the flume with D. After, CB1: crowded. Its a go playing time: Phil Beck invites me but I decline, slightly cowardly, but we're off soon. And we are...

M to bed past 12, sudoku taking its toll on her, she sits on the loo in the bathroom to finish one. A bit annoying.

2005/05/30. Monday. Mostly sun, a bit of rain.

A day at home. C/Dak come round in the morning but are reasonably restrained: nonetheless I tell them not to come back till about 5 in the afternoon so we can get some peace. Make bread at D's req, and he plaits a loaf.

I find time to write abstract 2 (EVP) for NZ.

D is spending quite a bit of his time reading HP&tPS, and I won't tell him who gave him the invisibility cloak and stuff. He asks Dak, who knows the series I think.

More strimming, finishing the bits nearer the house, then a bit over the stream: the path there is nearly closing up, and will in a year or two. Rumours that the CPS have bought the land from the Silks.

JE run round with friends for D: they end up coming in for a bit. I then take E off to deliver G's present (not quite sure what it was, E not sure either, but M now says it was "zoobs"). BGS are off with their grandma but CA let us in to see G's newly pink-painted room. Its a bit vibrant. E, at least, doesn't strongly press for one like it. When I get back D is off to JEs house, which is OK by me.

Its developed into a calm warm mellow late-pm. Gold sunlight, green world. Our garden is very tree-ish at the moment, in fact perhaps too tree-ish, we must consider some drastic pruning of the willows at least (or bending them into the tunnel they were supposed to become).

When I next look, D is playing football (!) on S'dale green with JE, their two friends, C/Dak and Bram. Bram is losing. On the sidelines, young Martha and Anna are playing with leaves. All rather idyllic, so I watch and appreciate. Brams losses get too severe: I am called onto their team. But when the match ends (CDak need to leave at 6) we're still losing. D was goalie in the winning team. Home; dinner: M heats the pizza while I tidy outside.

Soir: online. Start on the NH article.

2005/05/31. Tuesday.

Lots of building work - see blog. Much consultation and progress.

M to work, E to M'a (latish) and I at home with D.

Head off to smoko before realising... its a priv day! Oops. There will be no-one there. Ahem. So... since we're still in the village, divert to N's to pick up the Pink Panther video which D has wheedled for the trip. Coffee at home instead. D is still reading HP intensively. We do the grauniad sudoku, which is an easy today, or rather I help D. with most filled I leave him but! There is some error. Take it onto the boat to fix. From 2 to 3:30 I pack and D plays with JE and two of their friends: Rebecca and another. All v well behaved upstairs, except I am afraid to say for D who is showing away somewhat, at least when I'm around. So I go back to packing.

4:10: M arrives, we finish stowing, a few minor Q's to Andrew, and we're off. So suddenly that I forget to check properly if the car is parked OK and, oh, something else. Anyway, we're off, chug chug quietly up the river. Sun. No eights. Andrew says that means the bumps may be starting tomorrow in which case we'll be coming back through them, ha ha. But the river continues quiet. Fairly soon DE disappear down to PP (M works out how to turn it and the generator on) and I get to do most of the steering which is fine. M brings me coffee and tortillas. Baits bite lock and everyone is turned onto deck. I stuff up the approach to the stage (its quite windy) and have to turn and return. Otherwise OK. D helps with the lock controls (I realise after that it says no-u16, ahem) and we agree that one that you can push by hand like at Ma's is more fun.

Dinner (pasta) at the stage just downstream of the Waterbeach lock. Then continue onwards, a bit faster now.

See a ?barn owl? hunting over a strip of coarse field. Clearly an owl, probably barn, the large face clearly visible. Slowly hunts down, then back up again, then down. Only disappears when I get the camera out!

Past 8: stop at the Fodder Fen goba mooring. The a1123 is just a bit further up, but its quiet now, and there is a beautiful view of the sunset which is fiery/bloody. Good photos, except for the phone wires in the way, and photoshop will solve that... There is one other boat here, Bluebell, and she is quiet.

Kids late to settle, of course. I sit out with a coffee and Weart. It is quiet, bar the occaisional car, and not a sniffle from Bluebell.