Tuesday 11 June

 

I had a bit of a grumpy weekend. Actually, the weekend wasn't grumpy as such, but it left me feeling grumpy. It started off okay, with a pre-run meeting for the ladies tractor road run in July on Friday night - I'm getting to be a bit of an old hand at it, this year being my fourth run, but it's always good fun to meet fellow tractor drivers and to get into the spirit for the event.
Saturday was a lot of ferrying around of children. All parents know they will reach this phase at some point and I'm happy that my children have a busy social life, but when you have a day off, the last thing you want to be doing is constantly keeping an eye on the time and jumping in the car to take/fetch yet another child to yet another social engagement.
On Saturday night, at B's, I discovered I'd left my camera at home. My camera is such an important part of my bike rides, that I thought there and then 'why go for a bike ride at all?' but I told myself not to be silly. Come Sunday morning, all dressed and ready to set out, I have a puncture. Years ago B. put on some extra tough tires and I rarely have punctures, pretty amazing considering the number of miles I do - I think this was the third one. He offered to fix it for me but then we found we had a mixture of different puncture repair kits, but none with a tube of glue. As the weather was gloomy, in contrast to what had been predicted, it just seemed everything was set against going on a bike ride. So I gave up on that idea, but never managed to settle down to something else. Before I knew it, the afternoon had gone and it was time to go and pick up the children, and I had nothing to show for my weekend.
To blow a few cobwebs away I dragged 11yo and parttime dog off to the beach at Felixstowe which helped a lot, but come Monday morning and I was still grumpy about my unproductivity. I emailed a friend about feeling grumpy and she told me to make a list of 10 things that had made me happy that weekend. At first, my grumpiness made me struggle a little, but then I got going and as I emailed it to her, I thought 'this is a good one for the blog'. So here goes, ten things that made me happy this weekend.

1. A lovely meal this weekend: Jamie Oliver's Panzanella Salad and Broccoli Risotto (from his Italy book). That's when I discovered my camera was still at home - no photos! but oh so good, specially the salad. Followed by an Italian style fruit cake, full of dried fig and dates. Yum.

2. On Sunday morning I didn't wake up till 8.30am. I'm usually awake around 6.30am and although I don't mind that, waking up a little later was a pleasant surprise.

3. A clean car. 11yo wanted me to buy him a hoodie at M&S on Saturday and made a bargain that he'd clean my car in return. He has yet to do the outside, but the inside looks a lot better.

4. I enjoyed watching parttime dog who momentarily forgot he's rapidly heading towards old age and ran around like a dog possessed on the beach.

It's just so nice to see that by doing something so simple, you can give him so much pleasure. Apparently he sits behind the front door every afternoon from about 5 onwards, waiting for us to fetch him for a walk.

5. Pretty stones on the beach

 6. On Friday night I received a compliment from someone who knows about these things, that he was impressed with the tractor I'll be driving at the ladies tractor road run, as it is a difficult one to drive.

7. I enjoyed spending a few hours with just my little man on Sunday night. Both of them seem like a different child when they're on their own and enjoy having undivided attention.

8. On Sunday night, 14yo wasn't asleep yet when I went to bed, so we both kept our bedroom door open and chatted to each other for a bit before falling asleep.

9. At the weekend, B. told me that the duck who we thought already had a brood, had a new brood of very small ducklings. They seem to have settled on the pond behind his house and watching them swim around, paddling furiously with their tiny little feet and almost running on the water to catch insects, never fails to raise a smile. Neither did the 'quack' by mother duck to gather them, followed by a louder 'quack' when they didn't all listen, followed by a very loud and stern 'quack!' after which they all immediately turned up to mother's side...

10. B's dad has two cats who are mother and half-brother to the two we have. Oddly enough they are very similar in colouring too, sometimes we all have trouble telling them apart. When I went to say hello to B's dad over the weekend, both his cats were curled up and fast asleep in a flower pot next to his front door. Silly cats.

Life isn't so bad after all!