Saturday
The radio alarm clock went off at 7am this morning. On a Saturday. I woke up, switched the radio off, and promptly fell back asleep, waking up again at 9am.
Knowing we would be heading to my in-laws for lunch, I jumped in the shower, put on some clean clothes, made a coffee, and then set about clearing washing up from the night before. I swear we have house elves that have tea parties in the middle of the night – there’s no other explanation for the washing up that appears overnight.
We finally left mid-morning and set out on the drive to my other half’s Mum’s house. It takes about three quarters of an hour, and was accompanied this morning by a never-ending stream of conversation from Miss 14. We told her to shut up more than once, which seemed to cause her to burst into song rather than talk non-stop.
My mother in law fell over while running a few weeks ago, doing quite a bit of damage to the tendons in her leg. She’s in a full-length leg brace for six weeks, and I imagine is going out of her mind with boredom. She had invited us over, which meant my brother in law would be cooking – for the five of us, and the two of them. I bought him beer on the way, and stood in the kitchen helping him drink it while he got on with the cooking.
I learned a long time ago that when somebody else knows what they are doing next in a kitchen, you’re actually a massive hindrance, rather than a help. That’s what I told myself as I chugged my way through two pints of cider anyway.
Lunch was really good – roast dinner with meat, roast potatoes, carrots, broccoli, and gravy. After we all finished I helped wash up in the kitchen, and then took the children into town to spend the pocket money their Nan had just given them.
After we returned – complete with colouring books, pencils, stationary sets, and whatever else teenage girls gravitate towards when pocket money is burning a hole in their pocket – I struggled to stay awake. Every time my head nodded down as I sat with the girls at the dining table, watching them colour, they shouted at me, and I opened my eyes again – smiling.
We rounded out the day by keeping my mother in law company – sitting with her watching Winter Olympics highlights – before getting back in the car to retrace our morning journey.
Several hours later, the house is silent. The girls are in bed, their older sister is at a sleepover, and I’m sitting in the junk room typing this into the old computer. After posting this to the blog I may well go collapse into bed, ready to do battle with the washing machine in the morning.