We had a fairly pleasant family weekend, mostly involving large quantities of house cleaning, while Max kept the children out of my way. Amazing how much you can do when you aren’t perpetually interupted and children don’t immediately undo your work. By the time Jan and Jonathan arrived on Sunday afternoon, i was feeling almost houseproud And when they did, everyone dropped instantly into playing/reading/tea drinking/gossiping – and in Jan’s case, shopping Unfortunately, Monday managed to string a simple few jobs on BM out into an all day event thanks to my internet connextion/rubbish IT system but Jonathan assisted ably. They left, we didn’t get away till 4 and left in a heave of hail too, but the journey was short, sweet and simple. I still managed to take a wrong turning though despite knowing the journey like the back of my hand. Arrived to find everyone else in situ, lots of lovely husbands to help me carry my stuff up to the Sycamore room (i was quoting bits of Romeo and Juliet in my head all week thanks to that!) and instant tea/dinner/wine etc etc. Children disappeared and actually, i can’t remeber anything else about Monday except that i think i got laughed at a lot in the evening

Tuesday we loafed, watched the children racing about in the garden in the hail drank tea, ate our body weight in cake, i cooked macaroni cheese, i took a quick walk out to the chemist with Fran and Joey and Joey nearly got blown away. It was INCREDIBLY windy At one point Fran and i lost hold of her hand in a gust and she got blown off the pavement and into the road.

Wednesday we visited the sealife centre; i really don’t rate it much as an attraction if you pay full price, it’s very small and not good value, but Nic had organised a group rate for us and at that price it was considerably better. Kids really enjoyed it, Joey adored the fish and the seals and the older ones loved the touch pools, the penguins, the hospital and the rays.

Thursday involved considerably more loafing and a lovely walk out with the SOTP’s and the Beans. Kids had a ball on the beach, adored the rock pools and generally blew out some cobwebs. We’ll gloss over Josie walking up to an interested group looking at a jellyfish and determinedly stomping on it. What a vandal, i was horrified!

Really enjoyed the snippets of time i got with my kids, Fran and i made a sew together ballerina, they did loads of colouring, weren’t involved in the love notes except as messengers so far as i know   danced a lot, sung a lot and adored having their hair braided. I think Fran was a bit lost without a good friend, she’d really looked forward to Gwenny coming with us but the plans went wrong for that But she was mostly okay; i’m always surprised that she and Maddy spend so little time together when we are away and when we taught her Landlock, she was very happy indeed!

So; a good week, nice to be near home for a change. Thoroughly enjoyed the company, so thank you to all, especially Nic for organising it and the various people who gave me a hand as ever (particularly Ady who reprised his wonder husband role) and even more particularly for me, Chris and Helen, who really are spectacularly lovely friends to me and always practically absorb me into their marriage for the week   You really are lovely friends and spending a week with you is just great. From the endless cups of tea, to the special cake cooking for my daughter, to the moral support and the dispensation to allow me to tease Chris and do a bit of nagging to let off steam, you just couldn’t be better