Wednesday 28 June 2017

Rest of June Round Up

My last post was just over a fortnight ago.
That wasn't part of my plan for June.
Then again when do things go to plan?
Everyone's ok but I'd be fibbing if I were to say that the last two weeks chez Jumble and Jelly have been plain sailing!
Enough of all that though, let's take a peek at some other news.

After a little discussion me, G and S have booked to go away to Amsterdam for 4 nights in early August.
Excited? 
You bet.
Amsterdam has been on my wish list for ages.
I went to the library and took out some books.
One is on self guided walks around the city and also for places such as Delft and Haarlem. We're not quite sure yet where else we will visit but Haarlem is definitely high on the list.
We need to go places and do things of interest to all 3 of us.


Last week I took S to Cambridge for her annual eye check up. The day was a hot, long one made all the more tolerable for S for our stop off at Five Guys so she could have one of their milkshakes.
The check up showed a minuscule cataract in S's left eye. It's something which can happen at an early age because of the condition she has, but it's nothing to worry about and is not likely to grow or require surgery for years and years.




My 90 day chuck out challenge failed after I reached 30 days. It started well enough when I had a really good clear out from our bedroom drawers and then went through the kitchen cupboards. I'm not too bothered as I regularly send items off to the charity shop. We may get a little cluttered at times but I'm not a hoarder.


A few weeks ago one of my school friends posted details on Facebook of an open evening at our old secondary school.
The reason for this special event is our school will soon be no more.
It's going to be demolished, it needed too much money to maintain the poor state it was in and so it was cheaper to construct a new one, which has been built on the school sports field.
The site the current school is standing on will then be converted into a sports area. 
Eventually.
The thing was the event was being held between 4 and 6.
How disappointing, many wanted to go but those hours are when lots are at work or travelling home from work.
Then just a few days beforehand they extended it by an hour until 7pm.
Hurrah.
I didn't want to pass up the opportunity of one last wander down those corridors and luckily neither did R, so he and I went together.
This is the door to my English classroom.
Our teacher used to have the girls and boys line up separately along here before going into class.
So many memories from just this one spot.
I left in 1984 and as you would expect during that time things have changed, but not as much as you may think.
Words can not describe how familiar it felt to once again be walking down the staircase (in what was known back then as the 'new block') as if I had just finished my maths lesson.
I will never forget that feeling.
Somewhere I hadn't set foot for over 30 years and yet it felt like I'd been there only yesterday.
We saw half a dozen others from our year group, the last time we had seen each other was the reunion last September.
We reminisced some more, took more photos and marveled over the fact our former headteacher was also visiting that evening and looking extremely sprightly at 86.


We had an entertaining afternoon out one Saturday in Eastleigh at their annual arts day.
The group of four acrobatic dancers showed such controlled strength as they threw themselves around this cage during their performance.
I loved watching the group of women all dressed in grey perform together. They are called Ceyda Tanc Dance and you can read about them and watch videos here. It was so inclusive, women of all ages and physical ability joined together in one rhythmic gathering, it was entrancing to watch.
Our favourite was definitely the couple on the left from Glasshouse dance who performed a classic boy meets girl tale with a twist or two along the way.
At the end they encouraged the audience to join them and dance along to Love Train. 
Some resolutely refused to get up and dance, I have to say that when the female performer approached me I jumped up and was happy to bop away with them. It seemed like the polite thing to do seeing they had entertained us so well.


I'm still settling into being at work for four days.
I have been trying to get a better handle on shopping and meal planning.
When the children were little it was so much easier.
Now with T sometimes being in for meal times and sometimes not, which can mean an hour before dishing up he'll say 'yes I'll be here to eat with you' and then suddenly his plans have changed, or saying he won't be in and then turning up, it seems I need to have an unending supply of meals which can instantly be adapted to suit.
And do you know what, I don't a limitless supply of food, time, money or patience to cater for each scenario and I've been finding it quite frustrating.
I am cooking from scratch so much less these days and I don't like that either as I have always tried to provide my family with a variety of foods. Then again I suppose this is just another change that our family is going through as the children are growing and doing more outside the home.

Only a couple of days left in June now but just enough so I can finish my posts for the month. If things go to plan of course.

Monday 12 June 2017

Summer Lovin'

.... had me a blast
Summer Loving happened so fast
I met a girl crazy for me
Met a boy cute as can be
Summer days drifting away to oh oh the summer nights.......

*****I love the movie Grease*****

That song was going round and round my head for ages after I had wrapped up this birthday gift for a friend recently.
The photos don't have anything to do with the words on this post, but they are all so bright and cheery I had to use them.


So what is this post about then if not love and lollies?
It's one of those I need to do every so often in order to record a couple of things which have happened and affect our family.
First up is a change to my work pattern. A month or so ago I increased the number of days I work from 3 to 4. It may not sound like a big deal but I spent ages wondering whether or not I should, we had a change 2 months ago in G's job when he began working shifts once again and as someone who likes structure and routine I wasn't sure about another change so soon.

It was the Easter holidays which had set me off thinking. 
It really came home to me how much more independent S has become and although over the past couple of school holidays I haven't been needed so much this one really showed me how much less.
All this happened to coincide with my place of work looking to recruit a new member of staff and so I asked, if it fitted in with their requirements, would they consider giving me an extra day.
Although in an ideal world I would have liked to have started working that extra day after the school summer break when they agreed to my request I considered myself lucky that I had been given the opportunity more or less as I needed it.
One day less at home means I need to try and be more organised with all the things I do at home and extras like when to do the shopping, especially as like I've already said, G is on a new shift pattern and that's got to be taken into consideration too.


As a consequence I have been feeling a bit more tired by the end of each week. Would you believe the first week I did the extra hours I overslept on the Saturday morning and missed an appointment at my hairdressers.
I was so embarrassed!

Then last week something happened with S which was emotionally tiring.
I don't mean to sound deliberately cryptic.
She is absolutely fine. We are all fine.
It's just a personal matter, an issue around adoption and as such it's not something suitable for discussion here.
As I've said before, this blog is my on-line diary and so I need to use it to record all the things which happen to us as a family.

We had a fairly quiet weekend.
T worked and was in and out in between, S had a sleepover and on Saturday evening we had friends over for wine and pizza. Sometimes low key, moochy weekends are exactly what's needed.


Monday 5 June 2017

Songs in Southsea

Sunday afternoon found us in Southsea, bathed in sunshine by the bandstand 



we listened to songs sung by The Three Belles. The trio sing in the style of The Andrews Sisters and certainly look the part too.


As the first few bars of music started people got up to dance and they carried on right until the end of the girl's performance.


Not only did they lindy hop and stroll superbly but they looked fantastic too in their capri pants and full skirted dresses.


You couldn't help but smile as you listened to the music and watched people doing something they enjoy. 

Friday 2 June 2017

Sparrow's Breakfast

I love our two cats, Melvin and Malcolm.
They each have their own lovable personality, they provide us with lots of entertainment as we watch them madly dash around the house when they play chase with each other and it's probably because of them we don't often have birds in our garden.
Which is why when on Sunday morning and we saw some sparrows repeatedly flying in and out of our garden I got very excited.
It was this rambling honeysuckle they were attracted to.


I went inside and grabbed my camera, moved the garden chair closer to where they were going and sat and waited. It wasn't long before they flew back.





They were nibbling away at the cuckoo spit (at least I think that's what it's called) which had formed behind the heads of the honeysuckle flowers. They were flitting around so quickly it was hard to catch them at it and this was the closest I got.



Not quite as easy on the eye as the birds but this snail seemed content enough to explore G's hand.
 I'm sure he was much happier than the one I found next to him on the grass which I managed to stand on as I was pegging out the washing!