Lovely Days and Crummy Days
2009-02-21, 7:42 p.m.
Well! What a spiffing couple of days off I�ve had!Thursday morning, despite oversleeping by well over an hour, I was still more or less bright eyed and bushy tailed and off on the way to visit annanotbob, with the car loaded up with kids and costs and handbags and packed lunches and all manner of stuff, including a SatNav which resolutely refused to work.
As I�ve only been to Anna�s house once it might have been prudent to pack a map, too but hey, whatever. We phoned fro directions when we reached the outskirts of the town and Jooj wrote down what Anna told her so we would be able to find the way.
Unfortunately, it appears Anna may have said �blah blah left right blah blah traffic lights blah blah something-or-other road (possible south something�or it may have been north�Oh! I dunno) blah blah bollocks� as that�s about how useful Jooj�s �direction taking skills� were. She�s fine fine actress, tho, I must say, as she gave EVERY impression of having listened carefully and written down every word.
*shakes head*
Luckily for us, after about the 20th wrong turn and Jooj adding helpful suggestions such as �I think she said something about a church that isn�t a church any more,� and �if we don�t count these ones OR the last ones, then that IS three sets of traffic lights, mum!�, we finally turned on to a street that looked eerily familiar and I recognised it as one where I had got stuck in traffic for what seemed like eternity on the last time Id been to Anna�s as there was a bike race on and all the streets were blocked to all except lentil-knitters on treaders. A couple of judicious Starsky and Hutch turns (when we almost missed turnings and had to screech round on two wheels at the very last second) and we were there! Yay!
Fortified by luncheon and a couple of silly kids guessing games it was off to town for a mooch around the shops. Jooj has truly found her spiritual home amongst the freaks and Goths and hippies and generally slightly odd people and was just desperate to buy EVERYTHING. Managed to avert a severe case of staring overload by distracting both girls at the precise moment a chap came around the corner, interestingly dressed in some flesh coloured spandex dancer�s tights, Sikh topknot (he was white), wispy beard, specs and anorak. It was an arresting sight, to be sure, and fortuitously reminded me I had to pop into the shops on the way home and get a couple of pounds of luncheon meat.
Once we�d loaded the kids up with sweets and fudge and new t-shirts and had spent and extraordinary amount of time in the bead shop, ooh-ing and aaah-ing over the beads, it was off to the jolly old pier for a little R & R.
When you see those silly seaside photo thingies, you just HAVE to stick your head in, dontcha? Well, me and Anna did:
And so did Jooj and Treac:
Then we went in the arcade and lost a load of money on those slidey machines when you roll your 2p down a chute and it sort of��Oh, its just too difficult to describe! One of these!:
(I don�t know that bloke, BTW. Dr Google gave me that picture. He looks slightly sinister, doesn�t he. If I had seen him on Thursday, I would have moved the children smartly away with a firm �Move along darlings! He�s probably a scoundrel. If he speaks to us I shall call for a constable� before he�d even had a chance to ask if we wanted to see some puppies.)
Anyway, once the kids had cleaned me out of 2p pieces (which took ages cos they had �2 worth!) it was time for the fun fair, and for them to see if they could revisit all the fudge and rock and sweets and lunch they�d eaten. Jooj generously played the part of Responsible Adult, meaning that Anna and I didn�t have to go on anything.
Jooj also took Tony on the dodgems but they were whizzing by so quickly I couldn�t get a picture so you can look at this one I took of Treac instead, cos she went on the trampolines while the speed freaks were dodgin� �em.
Before we knew it, it was going home time and we hadn�t even done the group shot, so we went back to Anna�s and Sara obliged.
Deffo gonna go down again when the weather warms up a bit. Jooj is desperate to go in EVERY shop in the whole town and even I would have liked a bit more time for retailing. I want an African carving for my TV room (to match some wall hanging that my parents bought in South Africa) and there�d some nice ones in the shop where Anna bought her big metal fish. (don�t know what I�m talking about? Well you�d best go take a look out of Anna�s kitchen window!). Ah, happy days!
In other news, my mother had a mini-stroke on Monday. Her face went a bit funny for a day or so but she�s OK now. She had a �proper� stroke about 10 years ago so its obviously a bit worrying but, as is the norm in our family, she�s resolutely refusing to let it bother her and that means that we aren�t allowed to let it bother us either. I only had one little blub and I did it later, at home when nobody was looking.
In case anyone has been without telly at all this week and so hasn�t had their weekly fix of trauma from Coronation Enders or whatever Emmerdale Farm is called these days, the latest instalment of relationship meltdown from the South Coast is that Anne Marie is still living with us, but she has found a house to rent back in Reading and she�ll be moving out next weekend or the weekend after.
There�s been an awful lot of weeping and wailing (not least because it was the poor cow�s birthday today � awfully difficult to spoil the birthday girl when all she wants to do is run over a few more variations of �Why Lee left me and what I can read into it�.) and some rather nasty name calling and spitefulness by Lee which left L reeling a bit as he was on the pointy end of some of it. Lee seems unable to recognise any wrong doing on his own part and is blaming Anne Marie for even having the temerity to exist, it seems.
Its all a bit shit.
In an effort to salvage some thing out of our weekend, L has gone out. I�m in the conservatory doing this and Anne Marie�s in the TV room, reading a book and sighing. I cant really go out and leave her on her own on her birthday and she doesn�t feel quite ready to face the world yet, having had something of a �moment� in John Lewis� whilst attempting to buy a pair of jeans yesterday. Not being able to find what she wanted, she stood in the middle of Ladieswear, blinking until a little shiny faced polyester teenager came and asked if she needed any help. She managed to say �I cant find jeans that fit� before bursting into tears.
Bless the wee assistant, she assumed that rather than severe emotional trauma brought on by cuntish (ex)boyfriend, that poor Anne Marie was just having a REALLY REALLY bad retailing experience. Lets face it, girls, buying jeans CAN be horrid, cant it. Nearly as bad as buying a swimsuit!
She bustled about, scooping up armfuls of denim, with Anne Marie trailing in her wake and trying to make teeny tiny decisions: �How about Levi�s? Miss Sixty? Bootcut? Dark denim? How about Lee?� �NO. NOT LEE!!!!� �Okaaaaaaaaay, (*scared smile*) we can just pop those back on the rail, cant we?�
�150 worth of Seven for All Mankind later and all�s right with the world. Or, at least, Anne Marie has some new jeans. I nearly died at the price, but then, I�m not Anne Marie.
She tells me she is going up to see her mum tomorrow so maybe L and I will be able to get a bit of respite and maybe go out and have a chat and a nice time by ourselves. If not then I think I�ll go out and ride my bike.
Its come to that, dear readers, Id rather do exercise than deal with trauma. I know I�m a bitch, don�t bother to tell me. I have a severe case of compassion fatigue and I�m sorry. Here! Have this stick and beat me with it.
What�s the world coming to?
S
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