For Lois and me this is our third full day staying at our daughter Alison's house in Headley, Hampshire. They're a truly modern family, which means that Ali, husband Ed, and teenage children Josie (16), Rosalind (15) and Isaac (12) are all doing various things going hither and thither - it's the usual madness!
flashback to Monday evening: (left to right) Alison,
Josie, Rosalind, Ed, Isaac and Lois
Ali's going to work as usual - she's a part-time classroom assistant at a primary school near Haslemere, Surrey. And Ed is going to work as usual, in London - he's a legal adviser to a railway company. Rosalind is travelling to London today also, to start a 4-day work experience at a law firm in the city. Isaac is going to school, but not to do his usual lessons - there's a full dress rehearsal today for his school's production of Peter Pan the Musical, where Isaac is playing one of the big parts, as John, one of the children of the Darling family.
Only Josie will be around to keep Lois and me company, but she does a very good job of it. And in gratitude we take her in the car the 6 miles over to Frensham Little Pond for a little walk around, followed by lunch in the local Frensham garden centre, Squires - and we're hoping Alison will join us there after her morning's work at the nearby primary school.
we park at Frensham Little Pond
13:00 We arrive at the garden centre, where staff have put on a lovely display at the entrance in honour of King Charles illustrating some of his wise sayings about the environment, which is nice! And then Ali turns up, and we find the café.
a floral display in honour of King Charles,
illustrated by some of his wise sayings about the environment,
which is nice!!!!
Ali turns up on cue, and we make for the centre's café bar
13:15 We have lunch in the café bar.
15:00 When we get home, Lois and I go upstairs to bed again - oh dear!
And when we finally emerge about 4:30 pm we find that the whole house is empty apart from us. The ever-busy Ali has picked up Isaac from his Peter Pan dress rehearsals at the Bedales Theatre near Petersfield, and taken him and Josie to some extended piano lessons with their teacher Jessica Gale at Liphook, so we have this big old house to ourselves for another couple of hours.
20:00 A quiet evening in front of the TV. Ed and Rosalind are staying at a Travel Lodge motel in London, tonight. Isaac is in his room, a bit tired after the Peter Pan rehearsal. So just Ali, Josie and us watch some episodes of Malory Towers on TV, the series about the private boarding school in Cornwall.
Josie is keen to watch a couple of episodes of this long-running series on BBC iPlayer.
She'll be starting at a private boarding school, St Catherine's, at Bramley near Guildford in September. She won't be a boarder, she'll be a "day girl", but she's anxious to learn the boarding school "lingo", like calling homework "prep", and talking about the "san", i.e. the sanatorium, where girls can get rudimentary medical support, and where "Matron" lives. And to learn about the St Cat's big day, the "Patronal Day" whatever that means !!!!
flashback to November 2018: the Patronal Day concert
at St Catherine's, in the presence of the High Sheriff of Surrey
I think it's fair to say that our 3 grandchildren are all a bit nervous and quiet this week. Big things are going on for them all. Josie is conscious that she's leaving Woolmer Hill School, a conventional neighbourhood school and starting at the Sixth Form of a prestigious private boarding school in September - she attended an "Introduction Day" there on Monday. Rosalind is doing work experience at a high-powered law firm in London this week, and for Isaac, the school production of Peter Pan the Musical has its opening night on Wednesday.
So it's "Yikes!" all round !!!!!! Oh dear!!!!
However, I'm sure they'll cope - they always do. For Lois and me, nevertheless, sometimes it's nice not to be young any more and not to have these "big things" going on. We quite like the quiet life, all in all. Call us old stick-in-the-muds if you like!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!!
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