Archives: eve

Mmm – the weekend’s ‘Agricultural Show’.
Well, last week was pretty wet, but it seemed to be getting better toward the end of the week. The Show was getting ready on Thursday & on Friday the fair set themselves up. Unfortunately there was then a cloudburst on Friday evening – a thunderstorm – a downpour. It was quite impressive really. Jack went from front window to back window to catch the rain pelting (or “hitting” as he puts it) down. Not good for ‘The Show’ though.
We dallied on Saturday morning – there was some football on the telly to watch, but eventually we made our way down to the park to ‘The Show’. People were coming out with shoes & trousers plastered in mud; pushchairs with caked wheels – didn’t look good… Once through the gates you could see the deep furrows the horse trailers & lorries had left over the grassed areas that’re supposed to be the footy pitch… A major annoyance was that as people were reluctant to park their cars on the grass, some fool deemed it OK for them to park on the children’s playground. One suspects the decision maker did not have children of their own. I dislike cars at the best of times, & was not able to just pull back a swing & let it smash into a car because there were actually people sat in some of them… darn.
We went around the paved walkway circling the park (& the show) to survey the prospects of an easy access. Disappointed that the livestock were not here last year. Apparently latent Foot & Mouth fears persist. In a way, it’s just as well as Eve does not like animals really. She was quite scared of all the horses that were around & needed to be carried everywhere. Could not risk putting her down once the decision was made as she would have got muddy feet & thus I would be muddied. We ended up back at the playground & managed to find a little room between the impromptu car park to play. There was even nearly enough room for Eve to have a swing. Shame she had to kick a car while she did it, shame I didn’t let her get her bots muddy & shame some unsporting official asked us to move while another car moved out of the way (further onto the playground…).

Feeling better? Marginally. I conceded to feeling awful yesterday, & went to bed early, in the hope that I was just run down. Had a good nights sleep & …well, I feel better, but not great, by any means.

Jack slept a bit better last night. He woke at 3:00 & 3:30. I think dreaming is disturbing him at the moment, but he’s not specific about it. He certainly would like me to sleep in his bed, but I tell him I’d be too noisy at the moment (I would – coughing & snorting). I think he settled off OK again, but he must have stirred again as when I got up this morning he was sleeping against his bed like he had been sitting on the floor next to it to watch down the corridor; this was what he was doing when I first went to see him at 3:00. Oh, I put Eve back in bed properly then as well, as she looked to be straying to the point where she might fall out of bed. Unlike Jack, her bed is off the floor.

Eve has a spot of Impetigo at the moment, poor girl. She cannot go to playgroup or college. She is mixing with the kids on the street, much to my general concern, but you can’t stop that. She’s started saying to Louise, when she is told that she can’t do something that she will be able to, “when me chin gets better” (accompanied by vigererous head nod). She still uses ‘me’ for ‘I’, but on the whole she’s very acute with her language nowadays. You take such things for granted. She’s full of life is Eve, running, jumping & all that. She does not like animals so much though; anything larger than a medium sized dog or a cat freaks her out a bit. In a way, it was a good thing that there were not hoardes of animals at the Agricultural show this weekend.

Weird – it’s 2 weeks since our 1st day of holiday in Somerset already. I say weird, but I’m always playing catchup – so I can’t really be surprised, now, can I?

Mum took us to Weston-Super-Mare that day & I bought a new modem for my parent’s computer. I was to regret this, but how was I to know? Jack was really, really wanting to go to the beach, but the weather was undecided; showery and also windy. I think we resisted Jack’s will that day & avoided the beach.
Later, I tried to install the modem & it wouldn’t have it. Didn’t want to sit on the comm port, basically. The computer did have a 28K modem, but that was doing the same – so that modem was probably OK. Still – that was a bit of a -um- nuisance. I spent a good long while at night when the kids were asleep fixing the darn thing – or rather failing to fix it. Fortunately my parents have 2 computers – both inherited from people upgrading, so that gave me more options. One was failing to boot up in the end, but I managed to get the name of the corrupted file off the faulty one & grab a replacement off the one that was working. I found the reason while the applications kept performing ‘illegal operations’ on that one as well – the date kept straying to 2097. Suspect battery problems. Old computers get cranky as part cease to work as they should.
Still – at least we got to the position where both computers were working properly, & my parents can get on the Internet; I’m quite pleased about that.

The Wednesday we succumbed to the pleas to go to the beach. It was a brief visit – Louise had to retreat with Jude as he does not like the wind, & it was very windy. Jack bought his scooter along & found that it did not work on the sand; too soft – the wheels sunk. Still he could go along the sea wall at a pace – the sea wall at Burnham has large steps up to the curved wall that deflects the waves – presumably to ‘disrupt’ a storm wave as it comes in. Perfect for scooting along – but Jack was not so keen as the sand was more fun. He wanted to run off & have a laff & gad about, but we had to cut short & retire home as Eve needed changing.
Friday was a better day in general. We spent a good long time on the beach then. The wind had abated, the sun was out – the tourists were out. Weird – Burnham gets a high Brum quota to its holidaymakers. It’s more prevalent than the south west accent during the ‘on season’.

We got to my parents at about 1 or 2 in the morning (I forget). We’ve never been to this house before as they moved last year. When we went in, dad said that our bedroom was to the back. It’s one of these houses that keep going back, & so it gave a good impression of space going to the back bedroom. We got the kids into bed OK. Jack was on the top bunk of a bunk bed. He was up the latest, so he was hardly disturbed by being transported in. Eve woke up & was quite pleased to be put into bed. She had been laying sideways on the back seat & thus pushing into Jack & kicking at Louise. She lay there for quite a while, probably wondering what the heck was gong on, & seemingly quite pleased to have the top bunk above her for some reason.

Up early the next day as usual. Jack claimed he got up in the night to go to the toilet – which is most likely true. He did well; in that case, as he would not have been aware he was in a “bunker bed” (as he called it) or where on earth the toilet might be in a strange new house. He did know that he would be at grandma & grandpa’s tho – so he could not have been unduly worried. Heck he would have let us know if he was worried.

UM… I will continue in less detailed mode about the holiday. Two reasons really; it would take too long, & my brain gets blury about such things anyway.

Arriva Trains Northern strike morning, so the ‘turnaround’ run by First Northwestern is here. No table to type on, so I am doing a little typing on my lap before we start to move – whence I will just have to read. I don’t wanna be feeling rubbish through typing on my lap on the move.

Holidays. Yes – they were very good holidays.
My parents have a new house.
We set off Monday night in the car & Jude & Eve were already out for the count. Placed in the car already in slumber. Jack on the other hand was rather excited. After all – Grandpa was here & we were going on holiday & we were going in the car & we were going on the motorway. How glamorous!
He sat upright in the car for a good long while. He was behind dad who was driving, & managed to position himself eventually to a point where he was looking over dad’s shoulder. It was a pleasant sunset & the light lingered on the horizon long after the sun had gone, showing us where the small clouds were stranded in the sky. Stars eventually came out, & Jack eventually gave up trying to look at everything at about 10, or was it 11:50?
Oh well – this train starts to move.

Tipsy
Glass of beer.

This is not really like a diary is it? I hardly keep a daily routine. It’s a journal, I guess. Yeh, I try to think of it more like that…
Itchy ears from sunburn.

Been fun these days.

The comic convention in Bristol was a bit of a let down. Saw some familiar faces, (and was good to see them) but it was more like a glorified comics mart rather than a convention. For a convention that last year prided itself on being family friendly – this was a big hot hall full of traders selling comics.
There were a bunch of small pressers there, but the lack of any real social areas was the missing ingredient that made the whole thing fail.
Shame really.

Another torturous journey back home from picking Jack up. A lot of, “No, don’t do that!” & “Stop that!” He refuses to listen to instruction at the moment & the last straw was his messing about with the rock-salt/grit in the salt bin at the top of the stairs from Harley to Ryod Street. I grabbed him by the back collar & frog marched him home. He was forced to sit inside for 10 minutes. Eve pottered along behind us like there was nothing unusual about me forcing a crying older brother home.
He gets over things very quickly. Oh, & we had another run in later on. He drew on Eve’s hand with a felt tip pen & then denied it. It was plainly obvious that he had. He looked me in the eye & said that he had not, but he was lying, he smirked & leant forward as he looked me in the eye. I took the pen off him for lying, not for drawing on Eve’s hand… He burst into tears. Louise was a bit mad at me for that as she says she would have let that slip, as she thinks he knows that we know he is lying. I do not like lying at all (probably because I’ve never been any good at it). I am not completely convinced this level of complicity exists, but it is the first time he has lied to me like that, & I wanted to ensure that I make it clear that I do not accept such things. I guess I’m much more absolute than Louise. He got the pen back quite quickly as he said that he would be good. He managed to write a nice list of names of name of people to invite to his birthday party.
The kids went off to sleep at a proper time. It’s funny how when they do that you feel so much more enthusiastic about the evening. I managed to get a bit of painting done in the attic & some important clearing up. Small but useful progress.

Was going to do some attic painting last night – but it was 9:30 before I surfaced from the kids room (urg). They were not for sleeping last night. Eve ended up in Jack’s bed & Jack ended up in Eve’s bed. It might have been a coming storm that did it. As I Louise nudged me awake (I’d fallen asleep with them as usual) it was bucketing down outside. You could hear the water sloshing down the back street. It’s difficult to be really certain, but it seems like the attic wall is not getting any wetter – the leak may be cured! I just wish it would actually dry out – then we’d be sure.
Jack called just the once in the night, but I think that was more because he had kicked off the cover & needed it back. He went straight back to sleep.
A week today we’ll hopefully be headed off on holiday.

I forgot to mention last week how well Jack has been sleeping of recent. He went 4 days last week without waking in the night; 5, if you count Saturday. Unfortunately he was reluctant to go to sleep on Saturday night. Not really sure why. He might have rested on the train back from Elaine’s… or something, I dunno. I read to him until I had to take a crying Jude from the room. Jude calmed down, but Jack protested as I calmed him, so Louise came up & read to Jack for a bit. Louise left him just about asleep, but he was not, so he called out again. I went up & stayed with him a bit. He drowsed, & then checked to see if I was there, drowsed some more etc. I eventually fell asleep, so he found there was no need to check on me. I think it was after 10 before I returned from my doze. I often do this falling asleep with him thing. Next day Jack was … challenging. He gave me such a stare when I told him not to do something. A real, ‘how dare you?’ look, to which I replied, “how dare you?”
He was in for playing up, being silly & antagonistic when he was with us. He spent a great deal of the morning out & about playing with Jessie & his big brother Frank. Plants & ants & bikes & trucks. Eve was tagging along merrily as well. On the way back from the supermarket Jack managed to antagonise us enough to get himself ‘grounded’. You are not playing out for the rest of the day – you have to stay inside. And thus the conversation ran, most of the way home:
“Am not.”
“You are.”
“Am not.”
“You are.”
“Am not.”
“You are.”
“Am not.”
“You are.”
etc.
Eventually he realised it was not a game & started crying.
You then feel like a heel, but he would not be in this position if he paid attention to what we said. Due warning was given many times. He asked later in the evening “Why was I grounded?”

Jude is very nearly rolling himself over. He’s rolling himself onto his side, so it’s only a matter of time now. He’s quite a happy vocal boy. He will smile at anyone who smiles at him, usually letting out a little ‘James Brown’ squeal/scream of delight. Another slightly odd thing is that he has on just a couple occasions seemed to ‘parrot’ a word or sound. It’s a bit early for this sort of thing, but Louise & I have noticed it on different occasions, in that you say something & he repeats it. Probably just coincidence, but they are different noises to his usual squeals.