The Fabric Cupboard.

In the quest to be ready for forty by forty the fabric cupboard got it.
It didn't really need it as it's remained untouched from it's last sort.
It's being moved to the back room and it's too rickety to move full of cloth.

All out and new rules.

If it is big enough to be made into a garment then sort into one pile, the remaining remnants stay in colour coded mini piles on the shelf.

This is a much darker purple and it also comes in a green, you can see Jim Carey wearing it in the Grinch. Despite its rag like appearance it's an Irish linen and it cost £24 per meter and I bought it in Soho back in the 90's when my body shape was younger, fitter and firmer.

A likely problem with all the fabric lengths I am sure, there will not be quite enough to go round either way I fear I am going to look incredibly home made, once I've decided what shapes fit my current shape.

So this is the pile to be made into clothes, mmmm, orange?

The small pieces could be made into patchwork or toys, I've got rid of the stuff I hate looking at, will donate that to the school art room and now I have two shelves spare so I might move every needle, bias, button and thread into the one place.


With P in preschool I abandoned the task mid morning in favour of a pre summer beauty appt. Rather than drive I decided to walk across the valley and back, fit for forty and all that. I dug out the cross trainers, before my eyes could say lesbian shoes my ankle screamed NO! NOT THOSE THINGS AGAIN!

A good hours walk with no time to rest and the weather was lovely.
P is home with me today and my hips are stiff I feel like I am pushing through concrete. So slow. So painful but the ankle has held up.
Decided to sort the knitting box out.

Still do much to do!

P gave this to me as I am typing.
It's a lollipop.
Yummy.

CM

Science Museum

We did really well on our trip to London, the girls ate breakfast and then water, brioche and chocolate discs on the train. Which meant that their tummies were full until lunch and if there were any grumbles I shoved another disc in their mouth which hardly happened.

We wanted to see the under water film at the iMAX cinema in the Science Museum and luckily when we got there, no queue to get in just to buy tickets for the film with the advice to arrive 10 minutes before the screening which left half and hour to buy lunch and go to the toilet.

TIGHT.

Lunch was good but stressful.

My girls are not used to eating a variety of food out and about, I have made that mistake of getting them to order sausage and chips or pasta because I know that's what they will eat but in this case the Science Museum's posh cafeteria didn't sell those items and my girls don't eat pizza.
We got a mixed tray of sandwiches, wedges and pizza, along with a couple of slices of cake to divide up.

My children will eat if hungry but I now realise from another recent trip out, not as soon as the plate touches the table. They need time.

This was a monumental rushed lunch.

By the time we got to the cinema we were the last in a very short queue and P told the ticket attendant that she needed a poo.

It's fun to see them trying to catch floating jelly fish. It was a packed screening.

We took them to the children's play area and watched the bubble show with a sneaky cuppa by mid afternoon I don't think that lunch had even reached my stomach.
Lots of blurry photos.

Really good recipe for bubble mix.
P was in the show and they put her in a giant bubble. The video is too long to post, I didn't get pictures.

With the wide open space the girls just ran and ran which might have upset daddy a little bit ultimately they were well behaved for the rest of the day.

This was the clock G had plans to build a few years ago, I wasn't too keen on this one. He started talking about nuclear power? and it ticks once a year and bongs once a millennium. Too much for me.

Then about 7 we took them on the tube and headed for home.

Such pretty children.

Years ago my friend Ewan and I were talking about living in London. I must have been eighteen and I said that I wanted to be one of those people that you saw in the streets and they had that look that made you want to know more about their lifestyle. Where did they live, who were their friends, where did they get their clothes from.
Must have been a year or so later and he said,
'you remember that conversation we had about London people?'
Yes?
'I saw you coming back from Christmas on Victoria Station and you looked like one of THOSE London people!"

I remember, short blond crop, sludgy green slim double breasted men's suit jacket, long black skirt in utility fabric, high heeled clog studded boot, two black courier bags across the body and held in my hand a meter tall Chinese wooded bird cage with no bird.
Gotta love the 90's.

Skip forward to Easter holidays 2013, knackered, in Victoria Station McDonald's, lime green paint, loud unreasonable music, getting some dinner before the 8pm train wearing a sensible rain mac and uncomfortable clothes and carrying a rucksack.
Not even the veggie wrap could save me.

Oh well! There are other things in life now.
The sun is coming out just waiting for the heat.

CM

Natural History Museum

So.
Easter holidays, a three week break.
G was having the second week off but due to work commitments that got bumped to the third week which then turned out to be a day and a half.

We had planned an over night stay in London with a whip round the eye but then decided just to go for a day and do the Zoo another time as we thought no animals wouldn't be sitting out in the weather available.

On this day T&P took a Barbie for company and just before our arrival time T asked if she could play 'paint my wings' on G's phone, he let her I probably wouldn't and in no way do I blame him for what happen next.

The girls paint butterfly wings on an iPhone app and take it turns but as we crossed the river and pulled into Victoria G put the phone away.

Lets GO!

But I haven't had my turn yet.
But we are in London. Look at the size of the platforms. Everything is bigger.
But I haven't had my turn yet.
I came all the way from Sunny South Africa when I was your age and my mother left me on the platform chatting with a porter whilst she went off in the rain to find a trolley to hold our cases. This is your first time in the capital and I am supposed to look at you and shed a tear at how tiny you are in the big smoke. Don't be a brat.

No one get the bus to South Kensington because its single decker and you'll have to wait for two to go past before you can get on and that's a shove.
When did the Route Master go? My girls would have loved hanging off the back of one of those.


This is what the Natural History Museum looks like from the outside.

This is the side entrance with the shorter of the queues, very well organised we didn't wait more than 15 mins or so. Neither G or I have ever stood in the line here before, how times change when you have dependents.

It looks like this on the inside. I think these are the new loos, this wasn't here last time I was in town.

This is the view from up near the library, not many people up here. This is where I decided to 'step' the children and send G off to go look at something interesting.
They were the most miserable faced girls you have ever seen and I was so disappointed in their behaviour we had not even been in town for more than an hour and I told them that they would sit there all day and would only move if I liked them again.
So they sat there quietly.
G joined the queue for the dinosaurs.

After about 20 minutes they were taken by the hand downstairs to join him in line.
And yes I looked pissed.

This is Charles Darwin. I think he is good looking like my Uncle Adrian but with more beard.

The mood improved.

But that is probably because they got to run around in the dark.

It was crowded and there was no opportunity to take a photo of the iconic entrance with the big black dino without a few hundred people in the shot.

The stone work in the building is amazing.

As it is your birthday FMH, these birds are for you.


We just stayed for this exhibit then swung past the gift shop and headed out to the Butterfly House.

It's hot and it smells of Jasmin flowers in here and there are hundreds of butterflies just flying about.

If you stand still long enough they land on you.
We have some great shots of G with wings on his eyebrows and they will stay there until they are ready to leave which could be some time.
You are encouraged not to touch them.

And that took us just about till lunch.

CM

Brighton Marathon 2013

So we went to watch the Marathon a first for us all.

In my head the runners started in the big city park headed toward the beach turned right ran past us back along a bit and then finished.

Not so much like that at all!

This is a really good morning out.

We have a friend that lives en route and we thought we would get him out on the pavement and we could all watch it together. Unfortunately with the good weather he took some available work but left us the key under the mat to make tea and use the loo.

We parked away from the route, freeing up the car and walked to our spot, having arrived a little later than planned we just got there as the fanfare passed and in the excitement I only got this terrible photo on their return.

Bikers, Minis and sponsor cars.

Shortly after in the distance is a lone police biker and what looks like a private ambulance and following these are the professional marathon runners who run not jog.

So they run past us on this side of the tape before turning round a mile or so down the road and then coming back on the other side.

There are some other lead runners and then comes the peloton.
Probably a proper word for it like pack.

There are thousands of them.
Two of them we know and it becomes apparent as time ticks by that they are not going to be easy to spot.
Do you know that they chip the runners like dogs and you can then download an app that shows you on the telephone map where your runner is and you can track their approach to where you are standing. You still have to look out for them in a crowd that are moving pretty fast.

We waited for our first runner. He bounced past us. Our cheering was over in seconds and no pictures.

Runner two was more of a worry.
His chip had gone off radar and neither his family, further along the course, or us could pick up his signal.
The men in the group were positive it was a faulty device, his wife the nurse and I spoke on the phone and with our raised medical anxiety had other ideas.

But a few minutes later with signal operational runner two floated coolly past in excellent pallor.

Now I got a bit teary especially as the eyes were getting a work out.
 

Lots of people are running for charity.

I am familiar seeing Greenpeace, NSPCC, British Heart Foundation, Save the Rhino etc on the television and they are famous charities from my youth and lots of people here were running for them today.
The runners have a charity vests and their name's ironed on the front and you can shout their name and give encouragement or cheer their charity.
They smile and say thank you its a really nice feeling.
P kept yelling for SCOPE who were in purple vests, G went for the Life Boats and my memory was jogged with all those organisations you see when you work in the Children's Hospital for five years.

One lady in the crowd had a black T Shirt on that said SOBER SARAH and on the back it said
ONE DAY AT A TIME.
I fought back the tears called out her name and she waved her hand in the air.


The girls by this point had other ideas for entertainment.

 Too many water bottles to squish with your feet.

 I didn't care what state P got into she was safe enough.

As it starts to slow down the runners appear to be in more pain than necessary and they are kinda jogging. Soon it is one person passing every 10 seconds or so but you want to stay and give them encouragement.
At this time they have run out of Brighton, east to Rottingdean and then back toward Shoreham, around the power station before head back to the finish.
I never do any of this except in the car.

If you want to know where people are who are effected or have benefited by Cancer Care, Mental Health Issues, Prem Birth, Respite Care, Research Projects they are here running the Brighton Marathon.
It's really moving.

G and I had discussions about weather a marathon would ever be something we would want to achieve. I walked 13 miles for St. Baranabas with mum and it nearly finished me, so my answer to G was only if I could run it. I don't want to be walking miles.

It was decided that next year we will try to volunteer. Those water bottles won't pick themselves up and there are plenty of pensioners out there running so we've got time to think about it again another time.

Great morning

CM

The Baby Is Growing Up and I Don't Like It.

I didn't really want to write this post now, it's 9:15 and I just want to go to bed.

I will write it quickly and then go.
These pictures are just some that I've pulled in no date order.

So I have been watching P these last few weeks reflecting on the last 12 months.

This time last year her body was no longer a toddler and she wasn't that preschool girl shape either.
She had completely ditched her buggy in favour of walking (or sitting on my shoulders if tired) at around 16 months which I think is pretty early. She would walk for miles and so she had formed muscles as a result but she was still just mini in stature, not a shape inherited from either me or her sister.

Then of course there was that Donald Duck hair.

She went to preschool for the summer term so that she could have the same experience as T before they sadly closed their doors (thank you for the lovely email this week JC - lovely) and then we had a very lovely long active summer.
Lots of out and about.

She has just been a riot, she is so cool to hang out with and consumes my time like a hoover.
 
She is due at her new preschool in a couple of weeks, I feel like I've to say goodbye to three days of her demanding company but also before my eyes her very little body is also disappearing too.

What ever form she grew into last year she is on the cusp of leaving now and I am struggling at the thought of loosing it.

I don't feel the same way with T she has been strong and sturdy since the day she was born and she has kept that with her as she has grown and she is still my cuddly girl.

For the last few months P has had chores, she brings in the milk, opening the front door by herself, I watch from the distance of the kitchen and she sticks it in the fridge. She also takes out the empties and if it's a run of hot weather she fills one of the bottles and waters the shrub bashing the glass on the concrete planter while I wince.
She also tells me if the cat needs a wee.
So really I take full responsibility for her development and should be pleased that she is moving forward with all her functions.

But I am not.
She is growing.

This was taken yesterday.
What is it with the hair?

I suppose that is all there is to say. I can't see what happens next but I feel that all I dread will happen before this new month is out. I just feel I am clutching sand with her at the moment and it is a little sad.
And I say that even though she has been fueled on sugar today and a general pain in the arse.

But there you go.
Off to bed with water to drink.

Yes!! April Showers!

CM