We managed to get the kids up without too many problems; thank the Lord for Cattle Prods.
Nat's got extra lessons on a Saturday morning during the run up to his S.A.T.S. and this morning we also had to get Han to Saffron Lane Sports Ground in order for her to get her Cuds Sports Badge. Before we left, I loaded a few tracks onto the Sansa's hard drive and also took the SDHC 8Gb card out of my phone and put it in the card slot in the side of the player. I thought I would take the opportunity to see what the Sansa was like whilst I was watching Han. The sound quality was excellent and it picked up everything off my card without a problem. However, the audio books I'd loaded onto the internal hard drive did not arranged themselves properly and I resolved to investigate this further that evening.
We got to Saffron Lane with time to spare, Deb dropped Han and I off at approx 9.30 and immediately raced off in order to get Nat to his lesson on time. We walked into the stadium with the other cubs and parents, the Evil Julie
(Donna's former best mate, since they were little girls, who ran off with her husband) had brought Josh (Donna's Son) and as usual she was busy on her phone. It seems to act as her comfort blanket and it allows her to avoid making eye contact with people and gives her an excuse not have to speak (not that anyone is speaking to her, even after 2 and a half years) to anyone. Whenever I see her she's either talking or texting.
Han did her sports without a problem, came second in the sprint, the only girl runner, and pretty much excelled at everything else. She was one of the few in her troop to clear the high jump first go. I'm going to have her "speed" legs transplanted onto Nat whenever he plays rugby.
Can we get to Nat in Time?
I rang Deb to let her know that we'd finished and that she could come pick us up whenever she was ready. We met her in the car park about 10 Min's later. I hadn't time to belt up before she roared off, Nat was due to finish his lesson, on the other side of Leicester, in approx 6 Min's. It now appears that Einstein was wrong, when he stated in his Special Theory of Relativity (1905) that the speed of light is the ultimate barrier which cannot be exceeded. We arrived in time to pick up Nat roughly 5 Min's before we set off to fetch him, boy Deb sure can drive FAST when she sets her mind to it!!!!!!
Shifting out of warp drive we drove off at a slightly more leisurely pace to drop Han off at Ballet for Mid-day. Leaving Han there we prepared to face the greatest test ever undertaken by man... we were going to build the Shed!!!!
Deb, Nat and I drove to the allotment to get started whilst Han was at ballet (she does 3 hours on a Saturday). We figured this would be enough time to make a good start and that we could get it finished on Monday afternoon.
As we were driving in we bumped into George and Margaret, they run the allotment, who wanted to ask me how I had managed to uploaded photo's of the allotment to Google Earth. Deb and Nat continued on as I gave them a brief and truncated lesson in posting items online. I agreed that I would call at their home, when it was convenient, and show them how to do it. This all took about 10 Min's during which time Deb and Nat made a start. By the time I'd walked to them they'd managed to get the base down onto the slabs and were trying to get one of the sides and back attached to this and each other.
Armed with 2 small screwdrivers a toffee hammer and an absolutely useless electric screwdriver which would , I swear, have had difficulty screwing screws into the walls of a house made of hard paper, we got down to work. Despite the fact that we had such crappy tools, Deb bought the electric screwdriver bye the way, we did, I think, pretty well for the time we had available.
In the end we gave up trying to screw things together, Deb had left Nat and I for awhile to fetch some refreshments, during this time, using the toffee hammer (I kid you not) he and I had started to nail things together just so they'd stay in place long enough to screw. The screw drivers proved to be too much, sod this, whats wrong with nails anyway. 3 walls and a door later we called it quits and went to collect Han.
Han had had a good 3 hours and was by now, after all the exercise, pretty exhausted. We headed for home for a well deserved rest and, for me, a few even more deserved beers. Obviously, the kids didn't have a beer, as always they both preferred to have a very dry vodka martini. Deb, as usual, stayed loyal to her preferred tipple, a pint of absinthe with a dash of coke, ice and a slice.
When the kids and Deb regained consciousness we had dinner (can't recall what) and I decide to see what I could do with the Sansa. I removed my card and put it back in my N95. Next I tried to install the Sandisk CD on the downstairs PC. The disk displayed but would not load anything. I thought I'd try it on Nat's PC upstairs and see if I had better luck - this was at approximately 5:30pm. I had no success loading the software but eventually managed to get things to load onto the player in the way I wanted. I ended up loading the audio books into Microsoft Media Player, then reordered them in a play list then transferred the play list to the Sansa.... Sorted. Nat knocked the door to tell me it was now 9:00pm and could he play on his computer if I'd finished...PLEASE!
Downstairs to watch a bita telly, fell asleep and yet again woke up on the settee at approx 3:00am. Off to bed, altogether not a bad day.
Sunday
Up early as it's Rugby today and The Vipers under 11's are playing Rugby in Rugby against Rugby, so we've got to go all the way to Rugby.
"Deb, do you want me to put the address into my N95 in case we need the GPS?"
"No I've written down directions, it's ever so straight forward so there's no need."
"Are you sure? OK then I won't bother."
8:50 am off we go.
9:30 "I think we're lost."
"See if you can pull over and I'll get a GPS fix and work out how to get where we want to be."
09:40
"Here we are, at last, Rugby Rugby Club."
"We love you Nokia N95."
"You know what, there's something wrong here, I can see our people but where are the other team."
"Oh dear, they appears to have been a mix-up."
It appears that someone forgot to check that the fixture was a go and of course it turned out that there had been a communications cock-up earlier on in the Season and Rugby weren't aware that we thought we were supposed to be playing them today. Oh well, it's not the end of the World, back to the Vipers ground and lets see if we can scrounge together a game with someone. we were back within 30 Min's and it was decided that the under 11's would play the under 12's again. Not a bad match but the 11's weren't listening to the instructions that Neil was giving them. At one point, quite understandably, he lost it with them big time and told them, in no uncertain terms, to pay attention if they wanted to become a better team. I spent some time chatting with Jacob's Dad Bruce and alternating between watching the under 11's and the under 15's - who are scarily good!
Because we had come back from Rugby and because there was only the one game we were finished much earlier that expected and left The Vipers ground around 12:30pm. Deb hadn't left anything cooking because she wasn't sure what time we would be home. We decided to call into Sainsburys to buy a chicken and some fresh bread for lunch. Nat stayed in the car, because he still had his boots on, when we went in. Wait a moment!! What's this!! Sainsburys are giving away FREE cream eggs to any child who goes up to the customer services desk and wishes them a Happy Easter. Han and I went to Customer Services and got her an egg. Back at the car we told Nat about the off, despite his boots, Nat and I went to Customer Services.
When we got home I ripped the chicken to pieces and cut and buttered thick chunks of fresh bread. We had decided on the way back from Vipers that as it was still so earlier perhaps we should finish building the shed today. After lunch, which we all enjoyed, we decamped to the allotment to see what could be done. This time we ensured that we took better tools, including a proper hammer, than we did yesterday.
As you will see below, we got the shed finished but it's not the best job in the world. We really could have done with getting some sand to put under the base slabs so they were level. It's hard getting a good right angle when the floors a bit on the piss.
Home, Beer, 2 martinis & an absinthe coke ice and a slice.
Nat dissappeared upstairs to play on his PC, Han sat next to me for a big cuddle and we watched some TV. Can't remeber what we watched as Han was too busy punching the karate pad she made me hold. She's got a hell of a punch for an 8 year old!
Finally, the kids went to bed, Deb went to bed, alone at long last - started writing aide memoir heading for this blog entry.
The End..... Or Is It?
Monday
First day of the Easter Hols, we didn't do a great deal. The kids slept in until mid-morning and when they got up it was quite a blustery day so we stayed in. Nat and Han and I watched TV, they did some school work and played on the computers. About midday I decide that the house was a complete shit hole and it was time for a spring clean. Between us we did, downstairs, Deb and my bedroom and Nat's room, Han's wasn't to bad to start with. When Deb got home she was somewhat gobsmacked to put it mildly. I made a huge mistake, I didn't take any photo's. The house is once again a mess and I've nothing to remind me of how clean and tidy it once, very briefly, was!
Spent the evening doing NotaLot, Deb took Han to Cubs then she and Nat messed about whilst I did some work on the PC. I hadn't realised that Deb had left to fetch Han and that it was, in fact, after 8:00pm. I missed the beginning of the Gadget Show. I love that program and was most upset by this turn of events, fortunately the prod was still fully charged and so I was able to take my frustration out on Nat.
Kids off to bed without too much fuss approx 9.30pm. Fell asleep on the settee: to bed 3:00am AGAIN!!!
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