Will it rain today?

Tuesday, August 5

What a great weekend!

We dashed off after work and drove to Newbury to visit a friend of Mark’s. What a nice evening…wine soaked and ended in fantastic curry. Does life get any better than that? Then we packed it in and went for a camping overnight with some online friends and had such a wonderful time. The weather even co-operated with us. We woke up Saturday morning to grey skies and drizzle but by the time we got to the farm it had turned into a perfect day. Sunny and warm and glorious. I even got a touch of sunburn!

We stayed on a farm in the New Forest. There were about 50 of all together and, save one couple, we had not met any of them in “real life”. It was so difficult to switch from calling people by their screen nick names to their real name. We all had these little name tags on with our screen names on one side and our real names on the other. Still it was very hard to remember to call people by their given names. It was so neat to faces to all the names that we chat with. I mean, everyone has pics online but somehow most people looked little like their pictures. Some looked much, much better in person while others not so much. In fact there was one girl there that was down right scary. She was an older women…I think anyhow…she was the type that just looked like it’d been a long hard life. A life that left her a bit worse for the wear and, honestly, a bit of a nutter. She was that person who does everything possible to draw attention to herself. Things like sitting on the edge of the crowd hoping to draw someone away to ask her if everything was alright and to lead her back into the mix. Then at about 3 am she let everyone know what a terrific time she was having. (A very good time if you know what I mean) Sooo loud and for soooo long. Nearly an hour!

There was this other guy there who was also a bit of a nutter but in a much nicer way. He was the life of the party sort. Making jokes, falling out of chairs, walking on hot coals. Yeah, that last bit was a bit over the top and I actually missed the show but I heard all about it. We had a bonfire and late in the night he knocked it over, not sure if it was on purpose or not as he was doing the fire tending as well. Anyway, as some coals spilled out he had the brilliant idea that he was going to do a fire walk! He pushed the incinerator more and more until he had a little trail of burning coals and proceeded to dance down it. Silly sod. His feet were well burnt and he was well sorry come morning. I was surprised he could even walk as he must have been in utter misery. I do think though he sucked it up so to make light of it. His wife had went to bed hours ago as she was fed up with his clowning around and I bet he made it seem not so bad as not to incur any more wrath from her. 15 years they have been together. I’d have killed him in a week. Fun at a party yes but to live with that…ohh hell no!

Sunday we were going to try and tic off a pub out of the good beer guide but they didn’t open until noon so we just had a nice drive through the New Forest and headed home. We did see the ponies though. I was so excited. They were everywhere just roaming about. I got some pics and will post them as soon as I get them off my phone.

Labels: Holiday

Wednesday, November 1

May the force be with you

I have always loved Halloween. I mean who wouldn't? Free candy, dress up and be anyone I wanted to. I think I have passed that love on to my kids as J was sooooo excited to go out trick or treating. Until tonight that is.

Started out badly when I ppicked him up from childcare. He was already tired and whiney. Had a complete melt down at home because I asked him to wash his hands. His green hands. Why they let kids his age use markers is beyond me. What is wrong with crayons? Even the cuffs on the sleeves of his brand new white turtle neck are green! I digress....so I settle the screaming exhausted child and get him into his costume, load him into the car and drive a block away to his friends house whom we have arranged to trick or treat with. Yes, we drove a block, you'll see it was with very good reason!

J was in a very silly, possibly slap happy mood. What is it with boys and the word poop anyway? He and his friend must have said it a million times. Followed each time by his mother asking him clamly and sweetly to "save that talk for the bathroom". I was just getting frustrated and aggravated. Myabe I am a wee bit over tired too eh?

The boys did settle down a bit about a block into it, thankfully, and all was good for about a block and a half. Then J's exhaustion caught up with him and he started begging to go back to the car and to go home. He lasted about another half block and then I was stuck carrying him the rest of the way back. See why I drove now? My back would never have lasted the entire walk home.

He was so tired he didn't even dump out his candy bag to inspect the loot! He asked for his jammies and was fast alseep by 7:15pm. I'm thinking we should start taking walks every night!

Labels: Holiday, Jordan