Kamikaze cat!

Our little cat is a total cutie pie. She has just turned 1yr old and has trained us to get exactly what she wants on her terms! We just can't resist the angel face.


However, we cannot work out whether she is incredibly brave or just bloody stupid. She manages to scare next door's cats ( who are trained killers themselves) out of their own garden! And then will lay basking in the sun on their doorstep whilst they can only look on from afar.

But she has completely outdone herself this time when my neighbour called, slightly panicked, saying she was on the roof. Initially I was thinking 'big deal she always sits on the kitchen extension roof- so what', but no she meant the real roof ( and we have a loft extension which meant 3 storey's up). Apparently she clambered up via the neighbour's pebble dashed chimney stack!!
LIKE I SAY INCREDIBLY BRAVE OR BLOODY STUPID.......I suspect now it's the latter.

She is back safe and sound but the experience has changed her due to the fact that when she was on the fore mentioned roof she realised there was a whole other world out the front door!

So getting out has become a well organised, executed with military precision, life or death mission.

I think I preferred it when she was just terrorising the neighbours pets!!

'Do gooders' welcome to the real world!

I'm sick to death of listening to 'do gooder's' whinging on about how either the Police aren't doing their jobs properly or that they are too heavy handed ( normally the latter). I live on the borders of Kent and London and so watched endless news reports and listened to subsequent radio discussions of the events of the huge march/ protest that took place in London on Saturday. I'm in full support of the reasons behind the protests and feel that the government may literally be on the brink of taxing the fresh air that we breathe ( as let's face it the isn't much left to tax or cut spending on)!

However, I'm here to defend the actions of the Police. Some have said was there enough officers in attendance? Get real there were approximately 4500 on duty for the protest ( which is more officers than some county forces have in total)!!

These officers ( my OH included) were on duty from 7am Saturday morning. My OH did not return home until 3.30am Sunday morning!! He had no break or food from midday on Saturday!! He was in normal uniform ( no protection whatsoever- except his Met vest under his jumper). His high visibility jacket is made from flammable material ( which comes in handy when 'break away' protesters are throwing flammable objects towards you).

Unable to intervene 'break away protesters' all dressed in black with either hoodies or balaclavas were able to cause damage to shops whilst Police officers ( with no protection) had to intervene and try and keep control!!

This all watched by my son's who I had taken to the barbers for a haircut, and they managed to watch all of it as we were waiting and left to answer questions such as:
Is Dad in that street?
How close to that street would Dad be?
Are those people going towards where Dad is?

.......................You get the picture.

My husband fully supports the cause of the protest as their jobs are also under scrutiny and said that the main march had been family orientated and well organised, and yet apparently 57 officers were hurt that day. When are the police ever going to be praised for doing a good job under sometimes very difficult and potentially volatile circumstances.

Both my two boys and myself were relieved to find he wasn't involved in the 'scuffle' that had been reported.
That was how he spent what should have been one of his 'off duty' days!! And no he wasn't paid extortionate amounts of overtime either- normal time only even after his original 8hr shift should have finished.

So ' do googers' get real would you like to be confronted with a black clad mob wielding light bulbs filled with ammonia, sticks, paint bombs, flares and fireworks, with only your handbag and mobile phone for protection??
DIDN'T THINK SO!!



Rant over.............................normal service will resume!!!

Forgive me for I have sinned!

CONFESSION:

I feel ashamed to admit it but I have sinned. I have broken my pledge to embarrass my kids whenever the opportunity arises and I truly feel remorse!!

My youngest is a true thespian and will be acting in a local 'am dram' production of  Shadowlands ( story of CS Lewis) in May, and he attends rehearsals 3 times a week at the moment.

 Last night the lady playing a lead role had not yet turned up,and as the director looked around her gaze fell upon me and she casually asked would I like to read in for her!!

Well I thought to myself this could be my big moment, I could discover a talent I didn't know I had, I could do this and they might think I'm fab and ask me to stay and take the role! I was thinking Oscars ( or probably Razzies!) working with the big names.......Hollywood here I come.

That was until I glanced around excitedly towards my son who's look said it all!!!! If eyes could talk he was shouting ' OMG DON'T YOU BLOODY DARE OR I WILL KILL YOU'!! ( or words to that affect as he is only 10 but give him time).


So I relented on my pledge and quietly declined the invitation, much to his relief.

I must not give in so easily........I must stay resilient to my cause...........I will be stronger next time......!!!

Parents eve or Speed dating? Can you tell the difference?

Ok admittedly I've never been speed dating ( been married almost 17 yrs in April!) but from what I gather or have been told I had a 'near as damn it' introduction to it last night!

I've had both my childrens parent's evenings this week, primary school child on Tuesday and secondary school child on Wednesday.

Tuesday was great as we have known the teacher for a while ( via my older son) and she is a great 'tell it like it is' type. She knows my son very well and has his character sussed out. He gets on well with her as they very much share the same sense of humour and he probably gets away with more than he should! Reports were great but surprise surprise he can be a bit cheeky............no shock there.

Wednesday was a whole different experience!! Two huge halls all lined with desks and teacher names all the way round. 4 minutes per teacher  with a 4 minute reprieve in between complete with a 'run the gauntlet' style dash to the next hall and next teacher!

Precious seconds of your time are taken up with the teacher looking for your childs details and even worse getting them mixed up with another child.........' sorry I have 2 kids with the same name in that particular class' being prominent in our 3 1/2 minutes left.

This marathon was endured for 2 1/2 hours without a break or the necessity luxury of alcohol which I'm sure is a pre-requisite on a speed dating night. I was exhausted afterwards and didn't even come away with any numbers of the decent looking ones...........I'm sure that's a necessity on a speed dating night!

Again my little baby soon to be teenager was doing well but unfortunately problems have been recognised by several of his teachers with focus, his appauling handwriting, his inability to be in anyway organised and his lack of pen to paper. So he can ignore it no longer and we have been advised to contact the SEN co ordinator to see if we can get to the route of the problem ( very very mild Aspergers) and get the support he needs!! He hates to be singled out in any way and has never wanted to do anything about his 'little ways' but the teachers have made him realise he just needs supporting in a different way. So hopefully things will get a bit easier for him before the very daunting year9!

If anyone has any experience of this, or any advice I would love to hear from you.

Inside or outside....that is the question??

I don't get it.

It's Sunday, it's a beautiful day ( for a change). OH is in garden cutting the grass, and we can hear a few of the neighbours doing the same. The washing is out drying in the sun and I can even hear the faint tune of the ice cream van in nearby streets!!

Really a great day to be enjoying the outdoors......right?

That is unless you are a boy living in my house, aged either 10 or 12 ( weeks away from 13 as I keep being reminded)!


They have bikes, remote control gadgets of various kinds, footballs and goals, kites, tennis sets, Frisbees ( yes they are still going! ) and not to mention the obligatory trampoline at the end of the garden.

But where are they?

In separate rooms, hidden away in case they have a life threatening reaction to the sunlight!! Whinging because they want to play on their game stations ( the total bane of my life) or lounging around using phrases like 'I'm bored' or 'there's nothing to do' !!!!! AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH

Again I DON'T GET IT.

It's almost as though the kids of today ( I know I sound like an OAP here but indulge me) cannot physically entertain themselves anymore. It seems that the simple pleasures of playing outside with their friends just isn't stimulating enough. The computer games are so fast and furious, graphic and explosive that they have almost been desensitised and anything else has become too boring to contemplate or just too much effort on their part.

Please tell me it's not just my kids as I will feel like a total failure otherwise.

We try to give them an appreciation of good ol' fashioned playing outside, trips to the seaside/ parks/ camping etc with a balance of modern technology ie: bloody game stations and TV.

What are we doing wrong???

Answers on a postcard please............

When Irish eyes are smiling...

Mine were definitely smiling after a few mini Guinness shots!!!!

Thankfully I had eaten a hearty Irish style dinner beforehand.......
Yum... Beef in Guinness pie, Champ, cabbage with bacon
and lashings of gravy!!!!












With apple pie and 'green' cream for afters....

And a great time had by all....... including the cat!!!















Or was she hiding???

Here's looking forward to next year........with a few mini Guinness shots in between ( I would hate for the Tia Maria and Baileys to go off now they are open) !!!!

I hate Mondays!

I know , I know ,doesn't everyone?

Not for the fact it's another week of war zone scenes just trying to get the kids out to school. Or the mundane ritual of packed lunches, swim kits, PE kits and homework's on certain days. Or even the impending doom of the extra curricular kids clubs they need chauffeured to, for me that's 1 cubs/ scouts, 1 dance class, 1 drama class and 1 youth club, not to mention rehearsals 3 times a week for a local play my youngest is in ( a true wannabee thespian).
I'm not even going to take into account the normal levels of washing/ ironing, or the fact that my house looks as though I have several unwanted lodgers, or that my gorgeous little kitty needs her nails clipped at the vets before she manages to rip someones eye out! And don't get me started on the food shop.....we are living off fresh air at the moment until I get there!

No, it's more that I now have a whole 5 days to wait until my lovely Saturday morning lay in...................
SELFISH? ...........yes definitely!
JUSTIFIED?........ Oh I think so....

Injury Day

I have 2 boys aged 10 and 12 so needless to say I'm used to a few accidents. We've had the obligatory black eyes, cut knees, grazed heads, bruises, sprains and broken bones along the way, but generally speaking it tends to only be one child at a time.......until yesterday.

When I went to pick up my youngest from school he took great delight in telling me that he'd had the ' biggest nose bleed ever' and his blood stained school shirt could have told the story by itself. However the story goes on to say he had been 'stacked' ( or tripped over to you and me) in the quiet area of the playground and managed to expertly land his nose directly on the corner seat of a lovely green picnic bench! And in pure showing off mode he pointed out the huge blood stains (partly washed away) he had left on the playground - must be a boy thing. He had a fantastic bruise on the side of his nose and I'm very sure some black eyes will follow.

Ok he seemed fine and even quite proud of himself so I decided just to monitor him for the normal headaches and nausea etc that would cause more concern.

On my return home I then got the story of my oldest son who had managed to sew through his finger and nail with a school sewing machine!! However, he was more disgruntled that his teacher seemed more concerned about the broken needle on the machine than the fact he almost passed out. On top of that his French teacher was not impressed he couldn't write in class due to his so called injury.

But again I checked it out and it looks ok and hopefully will heal over in a few days unless we end up in A&E with an infection ( I have banned the picking of noses and any hands down trousers to be on the safe side).

What amazes me is that neither of the schools saw fit to phone or inform me in any way in the event that any of them had to go to hospital! Yet  if either of the boys had mentioned a mere tummy ache there would have been a full scale alert and they would have had to go home immediately!!!!

Priorities?  Sorry can't answer that one.........

Post Pancake day!

In the past few days leading up to Shrove Tuesday I have been completely 'pancaked' out.
In fact, with that in mind and all the 'giving up for Lent' talk I've decided to give up pancakes for Lent, as it should take at least that amount of time before the mere mention of the word 'pancake' does not immediately make me nauseous!!
How do the kids do it?
My boys have made pancakes every day since last Saturday and twice on Tuesday itself ( breakfast and after dinner). Yet if I was to suggest making some today they would jump at the chance!! Possibly something to do with the copious amounts of sugar they throw on top.Why is it we can have them any day of the year ( bit like Christmas dinner's)  but we wait to overindulge for a few days running up to Shrove Tuesday?

YUK..........visual thought and nausea rising
must go

Tricked by a 12yr old!!

My oldest is 12 years old. On the face of it he's normally an honest boy so generally I trust him to tell me the truth. Before the half term holiday he casually mentioned that he had a test coming up for one of his subjects and he would have to revise. This opened a whole new discussion to the fact that revision IS actually homework!! Which generally came as a complete shock to him.

Anyway he set himself a revision target for a certain amount of time each day, which I thought stupidly was very commendable. He generally is very lazy when it comes to schoolwork so I was suitably impressed at the time. Low and behold each day over the holidays he stuck to his word and revised without too much protesting.

However, last night when I popped in to put him to bed and have a chat I noticed his school book on the bedside table. Knowing what he's like at forgetting things I casually picked up the book and asked if he needed it for the next day.That's when the bubble burst! I had been so impressed by his unusual commitment and organisation that I was completely blinded by the fact that he is still a 12 yr old boy. So it was only when I picked up the exercise book and a copy of Horrible Histories- Blackout in the Blitz fell out I realised I had been duped with the oldest trick in the bloody book (no pun intended).

He denied it of course and only time will tell when he takes the test today. If he answers questions on different cultural beliefs with The Blitz most memorable facts I will know the truth!!

Note to self: do not underestimate the little angel face!