Petits Haricots

Ok, so we go to the library, a veritable cornucopia of childerns books lei before her. So of course SB goes and chooses SIX  Mr Men books - I ask you. Possibly the most tedious childrens books ever. And now she will want me to read them to her……..

Well, as previously reported, they were all a bit lax in the getting up stakes today - good job we weren’t going anywhere this morning. I did have some plans to get into  few things, but that went by the board. By thetime breakfasting/brunching/dressing/packing bag was done it was time to be going out pretty much.

Off again to another CHEF  thing - this time get together at a local (as if anything HEdders do is local to us, except visiting us…) soft play centre.  Pretty standard climbing about soft play sort of place really - nice spiral tube slide though. But a nice enough place, a lot more space for parents to sit around, and babies to poddle about in though than most, which was nice, they even have  a few sofas. Reasonable food a drinks as well. THe groups gets a decent discount and a few tea/coffee thrown in
Of course you need to know who the HE children are so you can play with them. Once I managed to get SB introduced to a few then she was much happier charging about, though didn’t really liek the footbal bit much (there is a small football area, with soft ball. but she isn’t really much of  football girl, and the others were moslty bigger than her bya  few years) but as ever really hard to drag her away from the place while others were still there.

BB poddle about a fair bit, she did go in the toddler bit  couple of times, though I think she preferred the bigger kids place, managed after  bit of effort to clamber up the sort of solpey-step thing to the top of the little slide. I played with BB  and sat and drunk coffee and chatted with other HE parents so good to get to knew  a few more new faces. Shame I can never remember their names to start with.

Eventually dragged SB away to go home to find Helen resting with  a migraine. There was a present for SB form her godmother in the post, so she opened that. A rather nice Roman jigsaw. A bit on the hard side for her at the moment, but she did a lot of the edge and some of the middle before she subcontracted the rest out to me. BB wakign up part the way through didn’t help much with a jigsaw on the floor (must get the old table we ahve been offered from my parents to put in the playroom for a BB free zone.)  Plenty to look at talk about in the jigsaw though
Cooked tea for them - tofu and veg stir fry and noodles, at SB’s request - what a good girl !, a bit of play and then bed. SB took a little time to get to sleep, but probably not surprising.  Must hit sack soon as well.

Well, why not indeed!!

Basically, you choose 5 or 6 attributes from a set of about 30 [not determined by me!] that you think suits me. I’ve chose - rather self consciously it has to be said! - 6

So if you fancy doing it - yourcan fill it in here
Mine to see the results here

or, a nohari window - the negative bit.

works similarly, you can enter the 5-6 words that fit me here , and I can view it here

I think SB maybe have been overdoing it a bit, and not have caught up on her sleep. It’s 10.30 and she is stil asleep (though she was awake a 5.30, but then fell asleep when the aklarm clock went off at 6.30…) BB only woke up half an hour ago, and then she drunk 4oz of milk from bottle in one go, which is equally bizarre behaviour  for her. Time for her brekkie and then getting SB up I think .

We had a lovely weekend with lots of family, my mum, Dad, sister and family and little Nanny stayed overnight, chris’s parents and his brother went home.

E [my niece] spent a considerable portion of the night throwing up. Shades of Melrose! She had brought it with her and had got through all of her clothes on the journey here. BB has been sneaking her sippy cup, so awaiting the worst! Not that we spent an anyway good night, with both the beans in our bed, and BB on snack-attack mode.

So today pretty laid back. Much game playing of new games going on, and racing about with cousins. Us adults drank loads of tea and chatted.

Blasted pub is still pumping out high energy music, has been going on since lunchtime. It carried on till after 3 last night - I am sure it doesn’t have a license for that. BB awake again - must dash.

edited to add - half past 11 and still bloody beating!

will obviously be flickring at some point, but not today.

SB had a lovely day, and enjoyed playing with the family - noteably M! BB and E also had more intereactions. infact all 4 were quite lovely!!!!

SB got to open presents when Chris’s parents and brother arrived just after 3 - and no fuss about it either! Thankyou for the presents from her party earlier. Will get her to write thankyou letters tomorrow/Monday. She has already had great fun with the snakes and ladders 3D game [that IS cool] and found lots of things to stuff in a bag! We bought her buckaroo as part of a present, and she is suitably enchanted with the idea, and the angelina books did go down a storm. A fair number of different making projects to keep us nice and busy. FAB.

my mum’s barbie cake rather brill too, and we had a nice party tea.

Not sure where Chris and I are going to sleep, as BB and SB seem to be filiing a superking bed - how do they do that?

Five years ago I was back in the hospital awaiting your birth, now you are five years old, oh how that time seems to have flown. Last year, maybe even 6 months ago, you still seemed to retain a little bit of that ‘toddlerness’ about you. But that’s gone now. sometimes, in your language, and your behaviour you seem so grown up, and then you can flip back into a little girl again, just like that.

I love your energy, your excitement with things, your thought and explainations of how things work, even if they are totally wrong I love the way one minute you can be ‘princessing’ about, the next you are ‘killing’ things around the garden with your sword. I love your dancing, your little ’shows’, your love of climbing trees and your general derring-do.

I love you ’sticking and gluing’, how it’s always over the top, with as much stuck on as possible.

I love seeing you display your increase confidence you have, dealing with new situations and making news friends etc. This last year was a year of a lot of big changes for you, that you didn’t ask for. You found some of it difficult, but you have managed to deal with it and continue to flourish in our new situation. I am very proud of you.
I love the way you relate to your sister Butterbean, you are so loving, caring and thoughtful towards her, and you play with her so beautifully, you have a much stronger realtionship with her than I expected with her at this age.

You are on the cusp of really grasping some major new skills - reading and writing, which will open new windows into the world for you in exploring it, understanding it and expressing your self. We really believe that our decison to home educate is the right one, it is possibly the single most important decison regarding your future we might make, I hope we are right, we would hate to have let you down.

I love you Stringbean, with a strength of emotion that is almost scarey at times, you bring me happiness and delight, in innummerable ways every day. You really do light up my life, Happy Birthday, enjoy it.

i came to do a similar type post. Chris - the first up! has beaten me too it. And said it all so well. SB, you are deeply loved and adored by both your parents. We are looking forward to another fantastic year of loving you and watching you grow and develop. Hugs and kisses, Mummy.

i have alsways liked northumberland and berwick-upon tweed.

[think i’ve fixed it sarah ]

only 43!

I didn’t manage to say happy birthday as I dashed out of the house this morning, late for work. I think that summed up my da really. totally dreadful - though not as dreadful as some of the people I work with. Finished on a low note with the suggestion that I come in for a day on my annual leave, as although I requested everything I do on that day to be cancelled, it hasn’t been!

So grumped home - at least car worked. Watched the beans diving about. the pink cakes had been very well received at nursery, and SB very proud. However, in floods of tears about finishing nursery at the end of next month. Hmm, maybe announcement should have been next week?

So she weighed out and helped me make Sarah’s fudge cake recipe, to cheer us both up. Didn’t quite work, as a bit too crispy on top, and gooey underneath, so the 2 layers separating?! Still very nice.

BB had a desultory feed, and fell asleep with Chris whilst I settled SB, so i have done about half a feed all day. Obviously I’m not ready to wean her.

So, my rotten car didn’t start after work, so there I am in the car park awaiting the rescue people desperate for a wee… Despite text messages suggesting I did a Joyce [thankyou - voice heavy with sarcasm!] I instead nipped and found a loo. predictably it took another 30 mins for the rather nice man to arrive. He thinks our non-functioning immobiliser functioning again, hotwired the car and made me promise not to stall on the way home [rofl]. However, seems to be non-functioning now. Shall I drive punto to work and risk it doing the same?

on a very bright note, I received 2 cheques today - one £100 for an article I wrote - yippee! and another £100 deposit that has been owed me for over a year. They will be spent on debt management.

On a rather scary not, I had to spend an hour with a chappie from price waterhouse coopers establishing my efficiency, and what i thought contributed and what reduced. Having decided I must have been chosen for ultimately useless efficiency, I found that actually i am in the top centile - blow me down with a feather! Interview still mind blowingingly grown up and scary though. Aaagh [still worrying about it]

So, got home rather late. girls have been at nursery - chris handed in their notice today. SB also had ballet. She says she has been doing surprises all day at nursery - does that mean we are close to mothers day then?

When I got home, Chris brought down the cooker SB got from a neighbour at about 18 months. BB thought this was the ultimate in bees knees. They both played together beautifully for over an hour. Was lovely to see. I have gorgeous daughters.

they are both asleep - hooray! So I have made pink fairy cakes for SB to take into nursery tomorrow to mark her birthday there. Still cooking. Not sure that I will ice them. She will also take in some sweeties.

SB ‘mummy, don’t sing, I’m allergic to it’ [tough!]

Anyway, day started with total inability to get SB out of the house - I can’t remeber how much wailing went on! Daddy didn’t let her walk on the bath edge, I didn’t put her tights on [in the shower!], Daddy mustn’t help as I had said do it herself etc etc! So finally - way late - got in car and trotted off to Merry’s. we did, however [AVERT EYES CHRIS] do Daddy’s birthday card - and very nicely too.

I’d better say this early - Merry made a fantastic lunch, and all plates cleared! It was home edders Pasta Special - yummy yummy! Girls all played together, though SB not the only drama queen of the day. Probably Melrose come down syndrome! luckilly Merry had a plan B and we did PVA/tissue paper suncatchers and bowls. They’re still all wet so cluttering Merry’s house - rofl!

We did manage to have a good gossip though in between wailing children, and also used the new-to-us camera. So a really nice day, in spite of probable overtired children! BB and Josie had fun playing with, beside and arguing over various toys. What also made me laugh was at the end with the shiny ball, Fran was quite determined josie should be the winner, and popped it out of BB’s hand for Josie to get, and SB was equally determined that BB should have it, so did the same to Josie. Luckilly it seemed more of a game than a fight to the death!

on the way back, SB started counting in the back of the car, and we gradually realised she was working out the 2 times table. She did it very well [apart from 2×7=13! So I dotted about the 2 and 3 times table for her. Some she was obviously counting up, and some she just came out with the answer. She also said with a voice of wonder that six could be 2 lots of 3, or 3 lots of 2. And we worked out that as 2 lots of 6 were 12 [one of those she could just do] and 2 lots of 3 were 6, then 4 lots of 3 should be…12! So a full scale mental maths lesson on the way home of adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. She was surprisingly agile.

At home, SB was in full crash and burn mode, so read 4 of the usborne stories from around the world, and then settled her with cbeebies, a quick tea, and the a soooo protracted going to sleep, as she was a night owl again, so got cuddled to sleep. By this time BB woken up, so thats our evening sorted. [Chris has got her again].

I did watch the apprentice - someone give that girl a tranquiliser! haven’t started tagging the Melrose pics, and can’t put todays up out of sync [rofl at my listmaking tendencies!] Will start now, though actually should be sorting a number of more urgent work related tasks instead.

Ah, that’s better

Which was a couple of 11-12 yo girls at the HE group exclaimed when Butterbean was being her best cute self - of course they were right and we know that  - but it’s nice to hear others say it

Anyway, yesterday, as part of our get out and meet more local home edders and try out some more group things me and the girls went to anothe CHEF group. This time one of the monthly group gatherings  - basically like Mudpud but slighty more organised, and some with bigger children. SB slept in like the proverbial log, I had to pretty much drag her out of bed at 9 am so as to have  chance of leaving on time. Just about managed it.Theme was on the heart, and so there were a number of heart related activities, which we did some of. Made heart biscuits, measured heart rate before and after exercise, some heart shaped little basket things, and of course  a fair bit of milling about by children. M, one of the girsl on or Botanic gardens trip recently who is almost exactly the same age as SB, and who  played together all the time pretty much  was there, so they did some more bonding. There was a bring and share lunch which was nice, and i managed to over some my normal reticence at such things and actually talk to a few grownups.  BB is  a little bit of hard work at times as she heads off in al directions, and has  habit of dashing through doors once they are opened, but moslty poddle about draggin one or two large hoops with her. There was a plan to go with M and coupleof others to the park afterwards, but it was rather cold and rainy, so we poped round M’s house. Within about 2 minutes they were in the princess/ballerina outfits - a kindred spirit here it seems. Grownups drank tea and chatted of course, BB poddled happily. Sadly due to some sort of problem with our mobile network me and Helen didn’t manage to snyc.

Can’t really remember much else after we headed home.Girls spent some time playing with Helen while I got tea etc. ISTR SB spent ages on a Jump Ahead CD on the ‘pute. Other than SB took ages to get to sleep (10.30 or later) - which she doesn’t actually seem to like.’ I don’t like being  nightowl’ she wailed at me at one point.

So of course, seeing as we had no hurry this morning, she was awake at 6 am, though managed to avoided getting up until almost the normal time (about 6.45) so instead of a little time to drink a cup of tea in peace, I was playing a game with SB. Been a bit of  strained day at times really, SB got tired later, I was very tired as well, so patches of grumpiness, and with helen not home until turned 6pm, a long day. Breakfast was a plaver - didn’t want an offred boiled egg until I had cooked BB one, when suddenly it was desirable. When i’d done here one, she picked up plate, egg cup is  bit wobbly, and egg end up splat on the floor. so by the time I’d done another one it seemed to have been boiling eggs all morning. Tiem between then and goign out to library disppeared in hanging up washing, sorting out  some clothes, getting dressed, finding books etc.  as ever, being round the corner we always get there just  a bit late… So story time, bit of colouring and sticking etc. then home for a slightly early lunch to catch BB before she fell asleep in her highchair. Much reading of library books, including SB doing some of it. Watched  bit of video she bought second hand from the library (costs the same as renting one and we don’t get fined when we forget it’s only  a weeks loan….) It was Paddington Bear, but not the TV series ones, something else, and not so good. Odd mix of characters with UK and US accents. Though it seemed to be  set in the UK.

Went outside in the garden for  bit even though bit cold and damp. BB bundled up in her waterproof suit seemed happy  pottering about- realised she was foraging bits of bread for the bits from the lawn and eating them. SB wasn’t really dressed warm enough and didn’t last so long. Once back inside she was flaggin and rather wailey. so we sat down with hot chocolate and biccies. both of us were a biot grumpy at this point and so wasn’t a warm and cuddly as it might have been. We did get out Explode the code and Miquon maths but it didn’t happen some how, what with one thing and another for some of the time we just snuggled up for a nice cuddle..

Then before we knew it was time to get ready for her swimming lesson. We can now watch them if we want. Which is good, but not as relaxing as it might be as BB needs attending - not the sort of area where she can poddle about so much, so I plied her with flapjack. But nice to SB doing her stuff.  Various exercises aimed at them learning breast stoke it would seem, or as SB calls it ‘Big’s Stroke’ (of Making it Up fame) from when she saw her doing it at Muddlepuddle Camp at Kessingland last year.

Came home to a chip supper, while I foraged at the local chip emporium SB turned into  pirate (though at one point in a bus???) . When we went up for the bath we had to leave the lights off and she peered into the distance with her cardboard roll telescope. SB went to sleep fine, but SB had been sleep in the car on the way back and so was resistant until past 10 pm.

I was goign to go bed early (as in before 11) but I haven’t  - surprise - but I am going now. A text from Merry is offering us the opportunity to get messing with some PVA tomorrow - intriguing
Shutter fingers are getting twitchy here, but I’ve bought  secondhand one from Ebay, so normal service should be resumed soon

Carrot cake

225g carrots grated[2 med] 110g soft brown sugar [1/2 cups], 110g golden syrup [1/2cups] 110ml oil, 225g flour [ 2 cups].1 tbsp baking powder, 1tsp bicarb of soda, 1 tbsp cinnamon, 1 tbsp mixed spice, 1 tsp nutmeg.

Mix altogether and cook at gasmark 3. 60-80 mins

Morroccan Stew for approx 20 adults and 20 children
6 onions, 2 kg carrots, 2 kg parsnips, 2 butternut squash, 4 tins chickpeas [450g tins for all] 5 tins sweetcorn, 8 tins chopped toms, tube garlic, tube tomato puree, cinnamon, ginger, coriander, cumin, turmeric, pot harrissa. 1kg dried apricots and 500g sultanas pureed [in advance and frozen]
fry off onions with half of each of the spice packets [? about 3 or 4 tbsp each] and half jar of harrissa. when fired sweat with a couple glasses red wine. The add all chunky chopped veg and all other ingredients, including good squirt of the tomato puree and the premade fruit puree. Cook for approx 1 hour, adding water to make right consistency. Bit of chopped coriander on top at the end. It took 2 big youth hostel pans, so I had harrissa in only one fo them.
couscous was approx 3kg, but there was spare, though we did do 1kg rice [too much - next time for same number prob 2.5kg couscous and 500g rice. Approx price per head was 1.50 adults and £1 child [though actually a bit cheaper than that so extra money went into kitty, prob 1.25 adult and 75p child]

i have to mention that I cried going past Leeds in both directions. SO still homesick then! the bit of the A1 round there I know like back of hand, so even though they had changed the road!!! I still felt the tug at the signs. particularly the A64 [which for a year i trotted up and down commuting to York]

Hmm!

On the way home we stopped at Aunty Margarets, which was wonderful. As old readers of this blog may remember, she used to come round on a fortnightly basis when we were in Leeds, and i have missed her. So we spent the weekend there. Bit of a later arrival than expected due to the pernicketyness of the youth hostel manager.

SO nice evening, with BB showing off her walking and talking and general being adorable skills [she was under the weather at christmas]. SB got out Aunty Margarets collection of books and made her read loads. She also liked Aunty M’s rather ancient maths shape things [now called polyhedrons in the brightminds catalogue]. She was very good at manipulating them and making shapes. good, as we have bought some! We got to drink wine[surprise] and chill! As we were all sharing a room, the amount of sleep we got was silmilar to at Melrose - approaching 0!

Saturday was a beautiful weather day. Just absolutely perfect for taking great shots at the West Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Or would have been if we had a camera - aaarghh!!! The light was perfect, as was the landscape. Oh well, Alison linked to some rather nice ones on flickr in the comments below! We are just not made for lack of camera. SB decided to work out which was her favourite. She was taken by the various Henry moore statues , the access sculpture trail, and in fact lots of the sculptures. She was also rather taken by the tree climbing opportunities. She got quite high in one tree, and was persuaded to come down as I was getting nervous. on the ground she tripped over a tree root… BB also enjoyed poddling about the place - taking ages obviously! Both of them had a good walk in the beautiful sun. Maybe Aunty Margaret will have a few photos for us!

in the evening, fed up with Aunty Margaret’s toys, she was allowed to open a birthday present early, as Merry had given it to us. She loved the pink geomags - thankyou Merry! [can’t think why you chose pink - rofl] and immediately managed to make a pyramid, cube and diamond and then various shapes I am going to have to look up! So the lollipop phase is over then.

Another night of less sleep than required and we were off home. An uneventful journey, except stopping at the most unfortunate travel stop in the world! There was not veggie food in the moto cafe bit as they stop serving lunch at 3 and bring out differnt stuff, and it was quarter past 2 so she didn’t want to cook and waste any!, and at the little chef the oven didn’t work, so basically only breakfast. So thats what we had!

At home we unpacked, looked at a couple of blogs, SB played a lot of the year 1 jump ahead and BB just pottered about. SB is calling her chickpea at the moment, but I guess it is too late to change her name!
End of a lovely week!

after reading others blogs, it is difficult to know what to write!

We did have a lovely time, and I think between us talked to everyone. SB had a ball, and played with all age ranges. She was loving and kind to the littlies, and the oldies were loving and kind to her. I never heard Kennedy and Hannah’s placing for her, but think it might have been bossy…

It was much more comfortable this Melrose knowing most of the people.

Things: well, luckilly the Morrocan stew seemed to go OK, and it was all eaten up. So i think I might do that again. Perhaps with rice rather than couscous, as although the cous cous was far easier [once Alison and sorted it out from exploding out of the saucepans - it was a right PItA for sweeping up from the floor!! Good sous chefs and conversationalists in Alison and Karen for the veg chopping, and Jax was in charge of rice.

Trips:The little roman trimonutium museum in town is lovely. SB really got a lot out of it, and we were in there for some time. She particularly liked the roman game, the pictures, and getting dressed up with the clobber and sitting on the horse! Apologies to Jonathan and Jan for her inclusiveness when they were probably looking for some family time!

We went round the abbey this time, just before closing. the warden was great, and allowed SB to lock all the big doors. we talked about home-ed - which his sister is doing! It was a little bit chilly…

A hooray for leandra organising the Jed Forest outing. Yes, I know it was totally brass monkeys weather, but unless leandra really is a goddess, I can’t see how that could be avoided… SB loved being able to have the hawk land on her. She also asked some sensible questions!!!! The chicken moment was the best really. Its not often you get to really see how good they are as birds of prey! The chappie doing the demonstration was cute, and although the farmer not cute, he did talk to SB about the deer and ponies in the sheds.

We also managed to get to the swimming pool without getting lost - hooray! SB did some swimming, but mostly tried to cling onto Joanna [already laden with 2 of her own] or Jonathan, who also was dragging 2 around! BB loved the pool.

Other People: well, there were very noticeable changes in some of the children - ‘Little Chick’ who does indeed now talk, and talked to me for a bit. also Small, who in adding talking to his repertoire seems way older! Some of the older girls are definitely proto-teenagers - somewhat scary! Manny thanks to Violet for her organising SB, and allowing her to be in the play at the last minute. A born Head Prefect that girl! [maybe we should make some prefect badges for next year - give them the task of keeping the middle ones happy??] SB played with loads of different people, and had an absolute ball. Some predictable falling outs with equally strong-willed girls, but quickly resolved. i had lovely evenings of chatting, though didn’t actually drink much [shame!] with as many people as possible.

US: well, SB had a great time, playing with all sorts really. i thought all the children goit on really well. The age ranges of the people playing were fluid, and that is one of the things I erally like about home-ed. Port and Starboard seemed to be quite a favourite, and other wierd counting games involving the staircase that I never quite sorted out. I actually missed SB a lot, as in my hols i do like full-on parenting mode, but she had a riot! BB enjoyed poddlilng about. As predicted, she did have rather a thing for the saucepan lids… She did seem to play with rather than just alongside the other triplets and R, J and L. Chase was her favourit game. BB also seemed to love the disco - doing her groovy dance moves [rofl]

things I missed: well, actually the resource table to look at. Also everyone who went home early! I didn’t realise some where leaving, so never said goodbye.
Hmm, may add more to this blog later! Anyway, thankyou Merry for doing a great organisational job.

oh, and although all my photos already on flickr via Mery [as she kindly lent us her camera as I was going to suffer major withdrawal otherwise!], I will put them up again i our bit and then add them from there.

Arrived home a little while ago from Muddlemuddle Camp at Melrose, via a couple of days stopover at Helen’s Aunt and Uncle’s house. Lovely time, only marred by the decision of our camera to stop working on the first day . So now got the twitches as don’t get to download ooodles of piccies to the ‘puter on arrival home. Ok I know Merry sub contracted out her photo taking to us at Melrose, and that we got to see lots of them atheir anyway, but it just aint the same. Beside’s we missed lots of nice photo taking opportunities yesterday when we went to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

Proper blog to follow no doubt , time to try an ignore children so I can catch up on some blogs

Had a good joint birthday party for SB with Maddy (of Patch of puddles) at Activity World, of those in attendance who might blog it are alos busy prepapring for Melrose Muddlepuddle camp. so ‘a good tiem was had by all’ is about all you’ll likley get here. SB wa spleased to ahve some of here good friends come and pleased as well that soem of them are staying over here tonight, none seem to ahve got to the sleeping stage yet though. Plenty piccies, but flickr will have to wait. Edited to add flickr photos - the last our camera will ever take, as didnt work the next day - who knows why!

To finish off a nice day the car is pretty much packed for tomorrow, and what isn’t is on the list on the fridge, so no real, excuse for not getting away on time tomorrow. Really looking forward to it.

Merry took some really nice piccies

Well, one of my New Years resolutions was to integrate with both the home ed communities that we are roughly equidistant between [ie not near either!!]

So we went to the botanical gardens and met up with a number of other home families of under 8’s, SB immediately clicked with another nearly 5 year old, and ran about having great fun. We also investigated the glasshouses - I always love the tropical. there were coffee plants, banana, cotton, papaya and pineapple in a section - which SB thought was cool!! A nice cafe attatched too - very important! SO, lots of nice friendly people, not intimidating at all, and enjoyed by all of us. So even I should imagine I’ll go again!

It was, unfortunately, very expenisve, as we picked up a parking ticket… Anyway, chris has also taken some lovely close up flower pics, and I’ll let him sort them out and flickr. I liked this one of the jade flower though. What a colour on a plant!

SB has played quite a bit on BBC Jam since we got home, BB has poddled about. Chris now reading brer rabbit stories, which are going down a treat.

I have packed SB’s stuff. realised have no clothes I like, and nothing to pack, and no money to buy any new ones. well, I have 2 pairs of trousers - one held together with a safety pin, and lots of tops that are too short for a rather over-endowed figure - please can thigh length tops come back into fashion!

Hmm, must finish packing as much as poss tonight, as very busy day tomorrow! Feeling vastly disorganised.