I went to East London for a lunch meeting on Friday. It was idyllic: 28 degrees, blue skies, gentle breeze coming in off the sea. Acceptable lunch 😐
What a great place to visit. Sorry I couldn’t visit anyone this time.
We have a connection at home after just four months wait! Michelle had to manage a farcical series of engineer (I use the sense of the word that real engineers deeply disaprove of) visits yesterday at the end of which they had squeezed just enough line quality out to hold a link more or less consistently.
MGW will probably start making more regular appearances online now.
Meanwhile I was visiting parts of Pretoria I didn’t want to know existed: Acetylene Road, Petroleum Street … reminiscent of the functional thinking that had schools in some areas numbered instead of named.
Construction now suspended until the next sunny weekend.
We went out for lunch today and to start Sophie had two giant-sized capuccinos and two berry smoothies poured over her head when she bumped the waitress’s tray. Miraculously she’s not burned – just a slight redness on forehead and thigh. Perhaps a smoothie landed first. She spent the rest of the day looking like she had dreadlocks, though, and needed a hairwash at bathtime.
In other news this morning we decided the treehouse would be better rotated about 80 degrees clockwise. The position at closing today looks similar to the position at closing yesterday. But 80 degrees clockwise. As I’ve said.
I’m reading the Lord of the Rings, as I do at this time of year when I start feeling like wandering the countryside but typically can’t.
As I neared the end of The Fellowship of the Ring I thought I’d re-watch the movies and discovered an interesting thing. In imagining Middle Earth as I read, my mind has incorporated the richness of the film and embellished it. For the first time the film seemed dull. I think I’ve understood something new about progress.
I shall read the book in Middle Earth’s autumn and watch the movies in winter.
Good progress on the treehouse (tree stump house really) today. Pics in the gallery.
I am an exceptionally poor poker player. Last time I played was the day of my brother’s wedding and I was out by about the fourth hand. Perhaps unsurprisingly then, I decided to go for broke last night – no putting Josie on the potty before I went to bed, no putting her on the potty when Sophie woke in the night. Potty training and sleep training at once. Might as well go for it while I’m fresh …
Here follows the chronicle of the night:
11pm: git next door revs motorbike; wakes Dad; triggers security lights; all quiet in The Den
3am: Dad wakes, as men approaching middle age are wont to do, and creeps off to use the facilities; battles to go back to sleep convinced he’s missed Sophie crying
5.40am: Josie yells for Dad at the top of her voice having dreamed about a “very long wee”, slightly wet her bed in her dream, but fought it so hard she fell out of bed, having thrown her duvet out first. Wee finished on potty. Sophie now wide awake. “Sleepy time girls!” Hold breath. Walk out. Listen to Sophie telling herself stories in bed. All quiet.
I think they’ve gone back to sleep.
6.10am: Josie: “Sophie, should we go and see Daddy?” “Yes” “OK, climb out of bed onto the chair … now climb down onto the floor. That’s right.” … pitter patter … “Hello Daddy!”
“Good morning girls!”
All in all a remarkably uneventful night.
Sophie, do you know, we’re going to start building a t-r-e-e-h-o-u-s-e today!
It’s a four-day-weekend in the Adlard household and the most is being made. I boarded a section of the loft so that we can create a little space to move around the house (I suspect the camping kit will be up there until the weather’s a little warmer and memories have faded).
The girls and I went and bought the timber to start their treehouse (finally!). Josie’s looking forward to helping me with that tomorrow. She assures me she’s happy to sit and watch the boring bits where I draw lines on bits of wood and stuff as long as she can help paint … I don’t think she quite appreciates the scale of the project yet. I don’t think anyone does 🙂
Tonight MGW is house-sitting and – I hope – enjoying a well-earned rest and a couple of good nights’ sleep. She hasn’t had one of those in a very long time. I anticipate experiencing her average night tonight, a thought that brings with it more than a spot of trepidation. I must admit that tonight I’m more concerned that I might not wake at all when Sophie cries than that I might be woken often. Perhaps tomorrow night that view will have changed. Perhaps I should stop blogging now and try to get some sleep.
It was the warmest of times, it was the coldest of times … pre-dawn in the valley was cold enough to rival most cold experiences we’ve had. As soon as the sun broke through we had to be ready to peel off five or six layers of clothing as the temperature rushed to the mid-twenties in a couple of minutes.
Jo didn’t seem to feel the cold; Sophie felt it in her hands; Grandpa very nearly wound up lying in state in his state room (pic in gallery) but chose instead to play buffalo to the girls’ hunting endeavours (pic also in gallery).
We had a great time – and remarkably the change of scene or something made Soph forget her need for midnight bottles! We’re hopeful that’ll continue.
Two sets of pics in the gallery: Day 1 and Day 2.
“How’s camping Jo?”
[whispers] “Dad it’s great.”
Three days of camping with a four-year-old and a two-year-old. Not to mention Grandpa.
Think of us …
WHY?! WHAT DID YOU THINK WOULD HAPPEN!!
Ummm … well … you see I didn’t know what would happen.
Ah. OK, fair enough. Want to learn how to clean a remote?