A Lot of Not a Lot

Was sent a link to the following article in The Mother Magazine (Sept/Oct '09). Not heard of the magazine before but the article is good.

We've done a lot of not a lot;

Laundry

Maintaining some semblance of order in the house

Japanese wooden doll painting

Reading

Hama beading

I have given up one of the drawers in the sideboard for C to have as a fossil/rock drawer. (note to self: I must email S's friend)

Watching Shackleton (C got very upset over the Mrs Chippy death - such that several hours had to pass before we could resume watching after dinner. At the end she declared "that was good!". I should also point out she did not watch the dog shooting not the toe amputations. A bit of bad language thrown in and I am now able to see why the first film was rated PG and the second 15).

Sorting through C's wardrobe to gather 2 bags of too small clothes.

Parcelling up mil's Christmas parcel.

Parcelling up another couple of parcels as may as well do as many as I can think of if I have to go to a post office anyway.

Gathering petition and supplementary evidence for my MP. Have printed off Paula Rothermel's research, some of the submissions to the inquiry, the Hansard report of Lord Lucas' speech and the Mother magazine article mentioned above. That all padded out the envelope rather satisfyingly :-).

Trying to avoid letting C go out so her cold doesn't develop into anything more serious. She is not happy about this. More grumbling this morning as she wanted to scour the courtyard for elastic bands the postmen drop as she wants them for her rubber band ball.

Marcus has hooked up some new gadget for the tv. C is pleased with it. It's a BT Vision box.

We had someone come around to look at and measure and make mdf templates for our back windows :-), :-). He is the carpenter used by the builder who will install them so real progress :-). He will now go away and make the actual windows :-). (Can you tell I'm a bit happy?).

C has done some Nezert maths.

C went to Badgers on Friday night and has been made a Follow Me Badger. She is delighted.

We've had a couple of french dishes (such as Coq au vin with potato boulangere) but work commitments is making it difficult for M to get the cooking time necessary so I think France will be a long stay on the Global Cuisine project.

Chloe has watched, in one sitting, all the Victorian Farm episodes and now wants to go visit and maybe stay in the campsite there.

Lots of viewing Red Dwarf clips on You Tube to try and explain the premise of the series to C.

Some pruning in the garden.

M has had an excellent and enjoyable if bittersweet night out with his old team, most of whom no longer work for the same company. It was a team reunion organised for Ros Marsh, who used to work for M. She has just won the Prima Woman of Courage award for 2009 and is a truly inspirational person. She is currently battling stage 4 bone cancer. She told the team that she wants them all to meet up again in the new year. She'll make it if she can. I think M finds it very hard. They worked very closely and this particular team worked very well together and had a lot of fun. It's hard for him to imagine her not being here any more. She continues to live life to the full.