T-Bird Anni Rides Again

Right, I think I have sorted out the colours on these so they are close to the right ones (on my monitor anyway!)  These are the kiddie sized socks that should have come to camp.  I’ve got faster at making them now so anyone else who wants some I can probably run them up significantly faster than I was working at the start of this project!  (the first 2 weeks being spent messing about working out the pattern rather than actually producing many usable items, the second 2 weeks being spent getting faster but still needing to look at the pattern every step and then I hit form and rattled Merry’s off with barely a backwards glance whilst watching TV!)

The small ones are about size 8s, medium is about a 10, large is round a size 12 and they all stretch about 1 or 2" (obviously the bigger ones stretch further)

Helen and Merry have first dibs on these as they had "pre-ordered". Provisionally the small and large purple varigated ones are for the Beans unless you decide otherwise Helen. 

The small adult ones are a much thinner yarn than the rest so have not come out quite the right size and are just a fraction too small for me (size 4s) so would fit a size 2 or 3 foot nicely. 

The pink stipes is a child large but I forgot to label that one properly, for the same reason I should probably point out that both hte rainbow ones are smalls as are the pastels.

Merry has threatened violence against me if I don’t sort out costings for these so I’m going with £2 for the small ones (because they really don’t take much time or yarn) then £4 for the other child sizes.  I have some posting bags lurking in a corner and postage will be at cost so I’ll have to tell you how much it is once I’ve sent them! 

taken a ridiculously long time to get here between foul weather, Friday traffic and inumerable stops but we are home and I am looking forward to sleeping in a bedroom that doesn’t flap like a demented albatros tonight.

watching Tracy Beaker when tired and a bit wobbly is such a bad idea.  I always end up blubbing which is nothing if not tricky to explain to a 6 year old.

Back to Oulton in just over an hour then off on our jollydays.  I’m not ready.  There is a mountain of stuff to do adn I just know Duke isn’t going to do it.  He’d have to be superhuman not to mention psychic cos I won’t see him for long enough to tell him it all.  But at least I only have 1 more sock to finish ( I think!)  Must remember to put those in the car….. 

no one is about to read this anyway but I may as well….

Got a fair bit done yesterday although I had to resort ot the tumble dryer (what gives??? it’s summer!) and there’s still a bit of washing left due to Duke excavating the floor on his side to find socks!  Ho hum.

Had one of those awful sick moments last night.  Just as we were about to settle down for the night the phone rang.  Para answered and there was this "oh dear, oh, right, hmmm, yeh, his size would have been against him on that one, how’s the driver, I was only talking to him the other day, b…dy h.ll, do you want to speak to Anni?" all in a somber tone whilst my stomach tied itself in knots wondering who the … had been in an RTA and were they still with us.  Turns out it was Harley on th phone to say DC, who is the centre organiser for our local RedX and who is in the ambulance service, had been in an RTA.  His collegue had lost control of hte ambi on a shout and stuffed it in a ditch, hitting a tree (which stopped it from rolling but made it stop all of a sudden which is not good)  DC managed to scrabble out through the drivers side but had severe chest pains.  He’s been kept in for obs but aparently it’s "just" bruising from the seatbelt and not his heart.

Had very little sleep last night adn odd dreams when I was asleep so today could be a long one!  I suppose that serves me right for having spicy food for supper then doesn’t it   It’s the church fair (which of course is why it’s forcast to rain :wall: ) and Adam (Vicar) has asked me to !st aid the event in return for hte promise that Aprilia will be looked after/entertained for me.  That works for me - given a choice between sitting at home tired and grumpy wiht an over excited child or sitting somewhere else tired and grumpy with someone else entertaining said child what would you do?  Then tonight it’s back to Oulton whilst Duke packs up the car.  May start packing up before hand or at least getting the car ready.

So today’s job list then

Finish socks - am half way down first one so only 1.5 to go

Clear out car

find 2nd adult sleeping bag

pack study books

check everything else is ready for packing 

watch world go by at church fair (offering up the odd prayer here and there for no injuries on pony rides or with the ***** troupe dancers….. now   THAT would be a miracle)

make final check on fridge etc for perrishables

prod Aprilia into finally deciding what she wants to take, then add in something practical like wellies!

Well, it’s 8:30, I need to log off and get on.  I’m just not ready for this.  I really don’t know if I’m coming or going but I figure as long as the tent is in anything else is a bonus. 

I can’t beleive it’s Thursyda night.  The assignment I wanted to have pretty much nailed down is barely started (so it’s coming on holiday with me )  I’ve yet to fold up the inner tent that never got put away properly last time.  I have no idea where we are up to getting stuff ready and I’ve just realised I forgot to order new wicks for the parafin lamps so we probably won’t have those to add a bit of light (but may bring a couple of candle lanterns instead - no where near as bright but probably a bit safer!)

I have made up the pancake mix though so at least breakfast is sorted   I’m going to make a shopping list for Duke to fill once we are set up at camp, no point hauling food when there’s Safeway up the road and Asda not much further away!  I’m going to miss my little firdge this year, and the twinkly lights, but it will be nice to be in with everyone (although last year’s "enclave" was lovely, Aprilia still fondly remembers me reding stories to the next tent and singing "I hear thunder" with them!)

Educationally I feel like it’s all got away from me too.  i know she gets a lot from class TV and from life but we used to have structure and routine and I think we are really suffereing for losing it but every time I think we are getting it back we have a week like this week and I’m back to squre 1.  My study is suffering from it too, I started 6 weeks ahead and now I’m just on the schedule and in danger of falling behind.  It’s not that it’s too hard etc, it’s just finding time to sit undesturbed and not distracted by the PC.  I should probably go no-mail on some of my groups, that would make a huge difference but then I’d just aimlessly wander about the net instread!

Anyway.  Plan for tomorrow…..

Repair RedX overall ready for night shift - the pocket got caught on a door handle and I’ve ripped huge acres of seam out.      done

Bake.  done but used the wrong sugar for the flapjack so it’s not my best and the choccie oaties didnt’ set so they aren’t coming with us (I can’t imagine how sticky the tent would be with that smeared everywhere!)

Clean kitchen and make sure there is nothing in the fridge that will go off.    pretty much done but pointless completing until after Duke has eaten tea….. so that can go on his job list then! - or of course, I could always do it Saturday morning as Duke doesn’t quite understandthe concept…..

Clean out guinea pigs and put in heaps of extra hay to keep them "fresh" for a full week.   done

Finish Helen’s muffatees (did you know that fingerless mits had a posh name???)   going to do this evening at OP - did it!

Make 1 more pair of mummy-sized socks (okay that one is really for Saturday/in the car on Sunday!)

Wash    done

Lay out clothes for camp    done

Clean car inside    it’s rained all day so not ideal car cleaning weather!  Will do in the morning probably or leave for Duke tomorrow night.

Get to Oulton for 7pm, in uniform, with overnight gear, knitting and cake for paramedic who is one of my favourite ones and deserves a treat for having fed me on duty a while ago!  yup, did that too!

Okay, so where can I order several extra hours from?   Or should I start now and skip going to bed…. who needs sleep anyway I always say…..

Well, its’ been hectic but then, what’s new there!  Over all it’s been a very good 2 days.  Aprilia has been crab fishing, sand castle building and visiting people with my mum and dad.  She’s had a riot by all accounts!  I’ve chatted, had a good dose of socialising (not socialisation though, they gave up trying to fit me in the mold years ago!) and felt like I’d done something useful.  The show was huge and I barely saw any of it but as most of the exhibitors had to trudge past us to get to where they needed to be I saw a fair bit!  The weather has been kind with only 1 short monsoon to soften up the ground and make it entertaining watching people drive off the field.

Typically, after spending 2 full days in RedX uniform and doing not 1 bit of first aid (okay, I was there to do radio comms but that’s never stopped me needing to muck in before!) I ended up having to look after a little girl at Rainbows less than an hour after clocking off duty! Strangely it seemed to stamp me as being okay and part of the team as far as the girls were concerned to see me doing the "lets jolly you along and stick the plaster on to make it better" routine.  I did vaguely wonder if it was becuase I actually validated her feelings rather than doing a oh I’m sure it doesn’t hurt really routine (which used to really offend me as a child - if I said it hurt then it did OK??)

The one thing though that has spoilt it all is that there was a child lost.  We had 2 school staff come to us all casual and not particularly worried at about 3pm to say that they had lost one of their children, a 12 year old boy.  Quipped that out of 40ish kids it wasn’t bad really that they had only lost one.  Then dropped the bombshell, they were from a special needs school.  So somewhere on a site covering several square miles there was a 12 year old child with special needs such that he had no idea of danger, time, direction etc but who looked "normal" so would not stand out physically from all the other 12 year old boys roaming round.  No ID tag on him.  No supervision.  No idea where he was until everyone else was on the bus for home and he wasn’t.   Having left that with us they wandered off to look for him again without leaving us with contact details of any kind.  At 7pm the police called off the search as the site was fairly empty and between them and security they had challenged every person leaving the site with a boy anything like the description.  The teachers were no where to be seen and never got back to us either to say he was found or to see if we had him with us.  I can only hope they were just thoughtless enough not to let anyone know that they had found him.

I’m not often up in time to see the delights that are BBC’s early morning news programmes (or rather, I usually choose to watch something less depressing that early if I am up!) but Duke had it on this morning and aparently Synthetic Phonics is being introduced to British schools.  There was this woman being shall we say less than complimentary about phonics and how it’s basically not as good as the current system of teaching reading in schools as children won’t be reading as quickly as if they did the look say business to start with adn paid lip service to phonics once they hvae learnt to do everything differnetly.  She was also saying how it’s worked for all these years hasn’t it?  I mean all our current teenagers were taught this way and they can all read (which is not what my SIL says about a good quarter of her pupils at age 11 when they move up to her class….)

  Hmph, now I’m not going to say that phonics is the be all and end all (cos I don’t think it is actually) but I do know that phonics is hte best way for the vast majority of children to learn to read and is, aparently, better for many children who have reading troubles of one kind or another.  It just takes longer than learning to recognise enough words to get through a Magic Key book. 

Funny really as if you look at the article on the BBC site, down the links to previous articles on similar topics "synthetic phonics" was introduced in 2005.  Was it a slow news day today chaps?  Or (whispers) has it taken this long for someone to realise that you can’t expect teachers who were taught look say to magically know how to do phonics….

Well, I’ll do the good bits first then you don’t need to read the rubbish to get ot it….

I got dry egg.  2 tubs of it (so Helen, would you like me to bring a tub to camp for you?)

That was about all really.  The rest was unremittingly dross   Between it raining so I couldn’t dry stuff outside, being flashed by a speed camera whilst I was overtaking a tractor and therefore not concentrating on sticking to the speed limit so much as getting out and back in safely, having Aprilia in my face most of hte day adn not getting half of what I need to get sorted actually done due to having to go into town, take Aprilia to the dentist (but no freezing this time so she hasn’t gnawed lumps out of her mouth at least) and being at Red Cross most of hte evening I just never seemed to get going.  Winge Winge moan etc.  Then I found out that the Cheshire show, being a "high profile duty" is shirt and tie not overalls duty.  Now would the prat who thinks that shirt and tie is suitable aparel for a muddy field please stand up…..

some "playful ed" games for printing out when I get a bit of time later in the week (ha ha) or after camp more like!

We were out in the car this afternoon and saw a buzzard being mobbed by a couple of blackbirds, it had a couple of half hearted swoops then settled down on top of a street lamp to look all indignant and it did really look indignant and I can’t prove it becuase my camera was at home.  Ah well.

Today is the start of a stupidly busy week for all of us.  Well, to be fair, it started yesterday with me at Oulton and Duke attackign the garden and it looks much better (apart from the part where he has piled up all the stray outdoor toyes etc on the patio so I can’t put the hammock out )   He got a petrol strimmer off Freecycle, billed as "will start but not keep running, free to anyone who thinks they can fix it"  and he did by (drum roll please….) turning the petrol tap to the "ON" postition…..   It’s very good at decimating all kinds of greenery!

Tomorrow Aprilia is at the dentist for a filling in a baby tooth then we are all off to class for the second week of yet another compulsary course at Red cross.  Its beginning to wear decidedly thin all this compulsary course business.  Normally either Duke or I go to class so then Aprilia gets to bed at a reasonable time but all these courses that we just *have* to pass means she has to come with us every week.  They go on late and for the most part send the adults into a terminal decline let alone a 6 year old.  To be fair though, this is all the practical bits of a 4 week course, the theory for which we rattled through in 1 evening last week.  So we won’t get sent to the head master’s office for being absent the week after

Tuesday morning I have to drop her off at my mum and dad’s at 8am (oh boy, that is not going to be funny!)  She’s with them for 2 days whilst Duke and I do the Cheshire Show.  Typically last Wednesday Dad got the phonecall from the hospital to say he had to go in this Wednesday for his pre-op consultation with mum so instead of playing with Grampa all day Wednesday she’s going to be in a hospital waiting room.  I offered to not do the show but Dad said it wasn’t right for me to drop out at this late stage which I thought was very decent of him.

So that brings us to Thursday.  Other than swimming in the afternoon I plan on doing NOTHING!  Other than maybe a bit of baking, oh and getting up to date with the washing.  Friday PM I am on nights, Saturday daytime I am doing 1st Aid cover and face painting at the church fete (or is that fate, hmmm), Saturday night I’m back on nights whilst Duke gets the fun of packing the car on his own (what is it they say about vengance is mine???) and then 7am Sunday morning I will fall into the car and allow my chaufeur to whisk me off to camp!  Which reminds me, I’d better start thinking about checking equipement, checking what I need to bring, counting up socks for people, finishing off any that I need to,  working out how much to charge for socks, making up pancake mix (so therefore need to go to Tesco for dry eggs)  Oh blimey!  If you odn’t hear from me don’t panic, I’ve just collapsed in a dithering heap somewhere.