TalkRhubarb

“Nothing remarkable about that”, I hear you cry. Well perhaps not, but Bill Merriweather is my Great Uncle in Australia, and he’s 90 years old.

He’s still got a way to go to beat 107 year old Olive Riley as the oldest blogger in the world, but he’s still an inspiration.

I see technology as a great aid to more effective communication and a tool to ease the task of making and keeping connections with each other. Age shouldn’t be a barrier to that, and many a Silver Surfer , Bill included, would testify that it isn’t.

You can find Bill’a blog here. Why not pay him a visit?

Our eldest is in 1st year at high school and got her report card this week. I was particularly intrigued by a comment made by her Religious Studies teacher about Faith being able to “reach well constructed personal onions”.
I wonder if she should be considering a career in horticulture.

We’ve moved and our new house is totally boxtastic. I’m hoping all the boxes everywhere will provide an extra layer of insulation.
I’m asking myself several questions:
1) Where did we keep all this stuff in the flat?
2) Why did we bring so much of it with us?
3) Why didn’t I get the removers to put more of it in the garage?

I’ve spent the last 10 days painting, laying carpets, plumbing in washing machine and dishwasher and getting stitched up at the local casualty department. The latter being the result of stabbing myself with a screwdriver. So we’re settling in nicely.

Today is our 14th Wedding Anniversary. And though we’ve had our ups and downs I can honestly say that I love my wife more today than I did 14 years ago.

Well that’s it. Pip started school today. She’s been lookng forward to it for ages and has burst into tears when told that to begin with, she’s starting later and finishing earlier than her big sisters. Our friend’s kid commented: “I don’t know why you’re so excited. School’s boring”. But our littlest remained undaunted, and has recovered from only doing a couple of hours today. Her teacher remembers holding her as a baby because Faith was in her class when Pip was born.
Faith also started school today - secondary school that is. She didn’t have her wee sister’s excitement at the prospect, but that’s impending adolescence for you!
As a parent I think how true it is that time flies when you’re having fun. I’m beginning to sound old so I’ll stop there…

The great thing about kids is that they keep asking questions. I’m often surprised by how insightful and interesting the perspective of a little one is. For instance, I was taking Joy and Pip to the park today and the weather was surprisingly blustery. Joy(6) asked me “Daddy, what’s the wind for?” She knew what the wind did but hadn’t figured out why. I said something about the wind bringing other kinds of weather like clouds and rain and snow. I didn’t mention that it was so kites could fly. Does anyone have a better/wittier/funnier answer?

We were away for the weekend last month with the partners and families of Fiona’s practice. After dinner the kids were colouring in and one of the GP’s joined in. He asked Joy (6) what she thought of his creation and was met with a dismissive silence. With some cajoling to say what she really thought, she eventually retorted with a twinkle in her eye: “Mummy says if I can’t say anything nice I’m not to say anything at all!”. Ouch!

Working as I do over an hour’s drive away from home, unless it’s midsummer I generally have to leave for work in the dark. Now I know that’s my choice so I’m not looking for any sympathy. Particularly since my work have finally acceded to my demand to let me work part-time . The improvement to my work/life balance should be the topic of another post so I shan’t digress any further just now - except to rant that when I started my current job 7 yrs ago the drive was nearer 40 minutes and what are all these nouveaux conducteurs doing on the road at 7:30 in the morning nowadays? Don’t they know I was driving that road first?
Anyway the point of this post was this; the other morning I fished around in the dark and pulled on a pair of black socks as usual. At that time in the morning all my socks are black - even the white sports socks which have languished in the drawer for the last ten years or more, shaking their heels at my sedentary lifestyle, aware that if they do see the light of day it’s because I’ve gone too long without doing a washing and not because they’re going to see any physical exertion. When I returned home I discovered that these black socks had a rather fetching sequinned butterfly motif on the side. I don’t know how my wife’s socks ended up in my sock drawer. Neither do I see what everyone else in the house finds so amusing about the incident. From now on, I’m putting the light on to get dressed. No more Mr Considerate.

Which reminds me of one of my father’s favourite jokes:
Q: Do you wake up grumpy in the morning?
A: No, I let her sleep on.

It was Pip’s fourth birthday yesterday. Faith had the idea of a teddy bear party in the house, and I, in a moment of madness, said we could have the party yesterday too, as it was my day off. I thought that keeping fourteen 4 and 5 yr olds amused for a couple of hours might be a bit tricky to say the least, but it seemed to go really well. The teddy theme really helped, as many traditional party games can be “tweaked” quite easily to fit in. “Put the nose on the teddy”, rather than “pin the tail on the donkey”, for instance. And “musical statues” turned into “dancing with teddys”. I got a pad of teddy bear shaped post-it notes and the girls stuck them all over the house. They made for a great teddy bear hunt that was easy to set up. As each guest arrived, their teddy was given a sticker with the teddy’s name and “I went to Pip’s party” written underneath. After the games, we watched a teddy bear video for a few minutes to calm them down. We had something to eat, and there was barely time to bring in the cake and sing “Happy Birthday” before it was time for everyone to go home.

Maybe I should get a new job as a children’s entertainer. On the other hand, it’ll be well into next week before I recover. I’m shattered! An office job is much less stressful.

My brother’s wife had twins last night about 9pm, Andy and Paul Merriweather. My mum and aunt are also twins and, amazingly enough, were also born on 23rd June. They could have a joint 21st and 80th Birthday Party. Better start planning now…