05 May 2006

And now for some real news...

In as much as anything I blog can be called real news... I think if there is actually a God up there watching, he wasn't paying much attention yesterday, as although the kids had the day off school (polling) and Geoff had arranged to take the day off, it was absolutely amazingly gorgeous - mid 20's and sunny all day. We went to Bekonscot Model Village in the morning (I had tickets won from the Christmas Fair) and in the afternoon, after a brief encounter with some ugly traffic (remind me never to listen to Geoff when he and I differ about which road route to take - he is, poor thing, invariably wrong), we hung out in Richmond Park, mostly in the Isabella Plantation, which, being full of azaleas, was pretty nice at the moment. The kids spent an hour or two playing the water with other half-dressed children - kids do love that sort of thing, and it was so nice out, we growups were content to just sit and soak up the sun and keep half an eye on the littles to make sure they weren't going all Lord of the Flies on us. Usually when there's a day off school it pours rain, so we were all well pleased.

And to top that off, it was lovely today, as well - a little cooler, but still gorgeous, and after school, the kids all went off to play together in the front gardens and on the pavements. I went out around quarter to six to have a quick word with a couple of neighbouring mums - Lorayne and Karen - to thank them for keeping an eye on my girls, and found three of them out front drinking wine and chatting. Well, I couldn't let that pass my by, so went back and got MY wine glass (already full, of course!). Lana & Rod peeked out a bit later and suddenly appeared with two glasses and another bottle, and gradually, impromptu street party, with most of 5 couples (the men kept disappearing and re-appearing) and Sophie, who isn't a couple... And a couple dozen kids - well, between us we have 14, plus there were at least 2 or 3 others, whose parents weren't out... It's one of the reasons I love this street - so many places, you barely know your neighbours, let alone, want to socialise with them. When most of us dispersed around quarter to eight (it was getting kind of cold, plus all us grownups were starving!) the kids all complained we "never let them play outside and always made them go to bed early".

If I wanted to sound like an old fart, this is the point where I'd say "Honestly, kids these days..."

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