Tidying Up

In a week we’ll have two of the in-laws over from Australia. They’re currently in Rome having an amazing time, slowly making their way to London (and making the most of the warm weather too, I expect). This has resulted in operation ‘put some toys in the loft’ (aka we need some space). So the easy way to do it; get the two toy tubs and ask H which she wants to keep, which go away and which are a maybe.

It didn’t go so well.Too Many Toys

That was the ‘keep’ pile.

Also, what is it with Kids TV themes? For the last few days H has been singing the ‘Fireman Sam’ theme and I’ve blissfully blocked it from my brain, feeling all smug that I haven’t picked it up, until today I realised it was in fact lodged in my head and there’s no escape. It hasn’t left my head all afternoon and it’s driving me Up The Wall.

H got a medal in her party bag yesterday which she has treasured and barely taken off – and earlier today she became a ‘winner’, so needed her ‘Olympic Glasses’ (my sunglasses) then paraded around the front room, a proper little poser.

Olympic Poser

We did eventually get the tidying done, though it still took most of the afternoon. Also, our house smells of lavender – I bought three bunches of the smelliest yesterday, and oooh it’s great.

One Other Thing

This afternoon I was told to stop being so “Trevor Nelson” by Shaun, as apparently I was stating the obvious.

I’m wondering if after last night this might catch on?

The Olympics

So, last night. There was a lot going on, wasn’t there? I missed the first five or ten minutes as we were settling H, so only realised it was Kenneth Branagh quite late on.

Anyway, I enjoyed it. I thought that Paul McCartney wasn’t annoying, and I had much wine but it didn’t cloud my judgement.

We recorded it on our V+ Box, so H could watch edited highlights. So now she’s full of pride at being British thanks to Danny Boyle. Reasons?

• The Queen is cool as she went to the Olympics Stadium in a helicopter, and got in with her parachute
• Dizzee Rascal is fun because he has a fun name. (that song will still make me think of Satan from work drumming on Jools Holland every time I hear it)
• As far as H is concerned, the Olympic Rings are great as they have fireworks on them.
• Oooh! Sheep!
• The children had really bouncy beds
• The Arctic Monkeys were a bit loud
• Rowan Atkinson was a bit mean to push over the man and win the race and should keep tissues handy at all times.
• I believe when Paul McCartney sung she said “Who is this lady?”
• H loves Queen Elizabeth

That’s all that I remember. We skipped the children’s book section (I figured Voldemort scaring everyone might be too much for her, and she hasn’t seen Mary Poppins yet so that might scare her too), and fast forwarded through the countries bar Team GB and Australia (got to show both her nationalities there), until we got to the torch. She was quite impressed that a football man (Beckham) and a football lady (argh, can’t remember her name) had the flame, and liked the last lighting of the torch – even though our recording cut out at that point.

This has led to us watching sport on tv today. There’s been no complaining or requests to watch Peppa Pig as she’s bored – she’s really taking it all in.

Actually, what made it for me last night was a massive night of Twitter which is most unlike me. I found (via Rachel) this, which cracked me up continuously. The book is now on my Amazon wishlist. One day it will be mine….

Recap

Okay, so. Saturday was the Dramabuds party which was lots of fun. Afterwards we made jelly worms and didn’t actually bother to look for the recipe, just went on the picture which is obviously utterly foolish, especially as there’s more to it than just pouring jelly down some straws. As we found out.

There’s currently more jelly in straws in the freezer which will be solid. This is looking more like jelly worms who froze to death, than squirmy worms on a plate. Oh, and when I’d got a couple of them out vaguely successfully by running them under the hot tap, the bowl I had them in fell off the edge of the sink, landing in the washing up bowl water. I fail.

Hastings Pirate Day Twins

Hastings Pirate Day Twins – although we’re not quite pirates yet – photo by jos

Yesterday we headed to Hastings for the Hastings Pirate Day, an attempt to break the world record for the most pirates – which Penzance held at that point in time. All they had to do was beat 8,000. It was a beautiful blazing hot day and Hastings managed 14,000! We only stayed for a short while as after a while it was obvious things were going to happen, but not quite then and we had no shade and only H’s water. Poor planning on my part there, I believe.

Pirates!

arrr that’s better! Photo by jos

Afterwards we headed to Jos’s mum and dad’s house which is lovely and was lovely, and sat in the garden drinking wine, relaxing and eating nice food and tricking H with ‘Freddy’ the frog who kept disappearing which kept her amused all day. The Red Arrows came into view at 5pm for the finale, and we got to see them, plus the top of a loop the loop they did.

Today was Olympic Torch day in Carshalton, and after getting a photo of the swan on the lake (which looks a bit odd, it has to be said) where bands are currently playing and wafting into this room with their drumbeats, we stood in a shady area and caught them going past from afar. There was a bit more going on this time around, and I loved having the afternoon off to do it, though it was over so quickly and again so hot that we didn’t stick around for too long before heading home for shelter.

Olympic Torch in Carshalton

Olympics

Well it’s almost time. Next week the torch arrives in Carshalton on its way to Wandsworth and Tim Henman (who – and here’s an educated guess – will probably be somewhere near Wimbledon), the signs are up and the special Olympic lanes are active. Oh, and there’s loads more traffic on the roads too.

London is NO fun at the moment.

See, I’d be driving into work now. They’ve finished the roadworks in Wandsworth, and I was looking forward to my six weeks holiday drive as everything is so much quicker (and cheaper too) – but no, we got the Olympics and now it’s time. One of the Olympic routes is right next to work, and it has successfully slowed everything down in the morning. We have a bus lane outside the college – an ‘At Any Time’ one – and now next to that is an Olympic lane – so what was four lanes of fairly decent flowing traffic on the Wandsworth Gyratory is now traffic jams and at least an extra fifteen minutes onto your journey.

On the plus side the journey back to Clapham Junction is really quick.

I remember way back when the Olympic Torch made an appearance in New Cross when we lived there. We stood and watched a random person carry it, having no idea who they were. But now it’s practically on our doorstep, and up until about an hour ago I wasn’t bothered in the slightest. I’ll be at work so will miss it anyway. H will be at nursery so she’ll miss it too. BUT OH. Should I take the day off and just take her out of nursery at lunchtime? Is this a once in a lifetime opportunity that she’ll miss? Carshalton has a load of things on, there’ll be kids there as school finishes on Friday. Am I making a terrible mistake not going?

Help!