Friday 17 August 2007

Chinese Fairies

Today has been lovely.
The children have been good, no moaning or whinging of any kind.
We have been to Usk Castle for a Fairy Playtime.
The eldest (12 years)went dressed as a pirate (don't ask), the middle one (8 years)went in a pale blue Per Una sequined woollen hat, and a pink fairy dress over: a Monsoon hippy chic top, Italian designer boots and Designer soft Denium Trousers. My goodness, she looked a sight. Individually her clothes are very beautiful, but they just weren't meant to go together. The little one (almost 4 years) wore a perfect pink fairy dress, pink sandals and a Tiara and carried a silver jewelled wand.
It was a really great morning. I did have one bottle of Party Bubbles stolen by a sneaky little madam, whose mother seemed blissfully ignorant that she had them, even thought she opened the bottle with her teeth for her daughter!
We wandered back through Monmouth and purchased a fine book called "The Great Big Glorious Book for Girls" by Rosemary Davidson & Sarah Vine. We all love it!
But, aha, the best for last..
After being out for the whole day and running my business from home, I came in and naturally checked all my emails. I often get emails from toy manufacturers with slightly dodgy English, but this is absolutely the best yet:

Hello !

At present, we are supplying valentine items.

If you are free now, please attend the enclosed images of some of our new valentine gifts.
They can bring much soulful and romantic feeling for lovers, so they must be selling well when the time is coming.

If you are interested in them, please kindly let us know.
More than 100 kinds of newest valentine items are waiting for you to choose.

Wishing all the lovers are in honey.

Best Regards,
Grant Lee

Tuesday 14 August 2007

Camping (and clothing)

The first time I went camping was with one of my sister's in law - I have three.
We put up her tent, put up a smaller one for our friend next to us, and then they left to find supper...left me in charge of a tent and 8 children under 9. I'm still scarred by the experience.
There was a book running on whether I'd actually sleep in the tent or book into the nearest decent hotel, but I stuck it out, I was very brave.
On the first morning my sister in law rushed into the tent declaring very loudly that I should have pointed out that her skirt was on inside out. Well, I might have done but I was too busy laughing. She then confessed to attending a school governors meeting in her official capacity as Chairman of the PTFA, in a very smart blouse..inside out, labels flapping! Of course she had no idea until she went home and took her coat off. Her partner couldn't speak, but only point at her mistake. She was horrified, poor thing.
Another of my sister's in law is a well respected, bigwig tax accountant, with a love of unusual hats ( and some interesting clients). She walked all the way home from entertaining clients at Bath Rugby ground, stopping to speak to people she knew in the street and finally walking into her beautiful apartment, where we were waiting for her. My subtle husband laughed extremely loudly at his sister, telling her how ridiculous she looked. I was in tears laughing, though not making the awfully rude noises my husband was.
My sister in law had walked right through Bath City Centre with the white, 3 inch label sticking out of the top of her hat, because she was wearing it inside out. She did find it funny, but then worried because she couldn't remember whether she'd put her hat on before or after she'd said goodbye to the prospective clients.

My Brother-in-law is a Haulage contractor, of very generous proportions. He often gets up in the middle of the night to do some work with his lorries. He's just so lovely and smiley, a fabulous gentle and indulgent uncle to my children and indeed his own.
I mentioned to him one evening how Sophie (she is only three) will put her pants on sideways if there's no bow on the front. He said he knew exactly the problem, getting dressed in the dark, he'd wriggled around in the drivers seat of his truck for a very long stretch (and not just metaphorically) wondering just why his undergarments were so ill-fitting that night. It wasn't until he got home and undressed that he realised he too, had his pants on sideways!
I of course, will not admit to any problems whatsoever with my own clothing!

Monday 13 August 2007

Diet Days

Well, I've blown the diet already, I think!
Saturday started well, we went camping.
I'm sure lugging our tiny tent in and out of storage and in and out of the car, not to mention the mental activity required to get the outside layer the same way round as the inside layer.
Then of course was the frantic waving away of gnats required.
We camped near a reservoir, just half an hours drive from home, right next to the river.
There was our family of five plus my husbands' sister and two of her little girls. We all slept in our tent, though sleep is probably an exaggeration. The spot was idyllic. There were two young girls nearby with two tents for them and a tiny tent for dogs (I want one for Fruitcake). Lovely! we thought, ah but then their boyfriends turned up in car after car, all through the night. Beeping horns and shouting, dogs barking. All this, after the four hours of giggling stopped inside our tent. I remember everything falling silent and I felt lovely and warm and snugly in our double sleeping bag, and feeling this wasn't so bad after all, when my eldest niece woke up and started chatting. Slowly but surely, the five girls woke up and carried on five different conversations at once. We all got up and my husband lit the fire and cooked us all breakfast and made steaming mugs of tea (amber nectar), I snuck back into bed with a book.
We cleared up, put the tent away and repacked the cars, which took a considerable amount of time. And what was the time? Only 9.30am!! Needless to say we were shattered. The girls moaned for the rest of the day and I tried very hard to keep my eyes open.
Confession: I drank too much sugary tea and ate far too much shortbread to lose any weight this weekend! Starting again today.