A Perfect Picnic

I don’t know, as I get older I tend to wonder if when I leave the house I leave my brain behind.

My mom very kindly took the children and myself for a picnic. All I had to do was get the children up, dressed, breakfasted and ready for her arrival.

She made the picnic, supplied the drinks and drove us. The weather had been appalling all through the night, but we made the decision to go as a picnic in the car somewhere different is better than being stuck in the house all day.

We decided to go to a place just outside of Upton (Worcester) and parked up on some common land for a run around and a picnic. It was great especially as my eldest son found a swing that had been set up on a lovely old tree and he was big enough to use it. He had great fun.

My first bout of daftness came when I realised that I hadn’t bought any nappies for my daughter and as we were running around, so were her trousers with the weight of the nappy. Builders bum on a toddler is not a thing to encourage but, thankfully, we found a shop and rectified that little problem.

My second bout of daftness came when I offered to drive us home from our second destination at Welland. I picked the right journey as the grey clouds had started to amass, and we had heard thunder on both sides of the Malvern Hills.

As expected, the Heavens opened and as we approached Worcester we could see that they had already had their fair share of rain.

Now I don’t know about you but I still can’t resist big puddles on the road, providing there are no pedestrians about. I saw ahead of us on the road a large collection of water and I said to my mom ‘I’m going for that’.

I headed straight for it with a little bit extra speed (as I’d been going really slow with the traffic build up) and made a fantastic big splash through the water.

I then heard my mom go ‘Ohhh’. I had only forgotten to tell her to close her window! As she was on the side of the water, she copped the lot through the window. It wet her hair, her clothes, it ran down the inside of the window and into the well of the door, wetting all the bits and pieces in there.

Did I stop the car to assist in her drying out or cleaning the window and door like a good daughter would?

No . . . . I unashamedly burst out laughing and quite frankly I couldn’t stop. Thankfully I have a very loving mother who also saw the funny side of it, but I do wonder if she’ll ever let me drive the car again in the rain.

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22

"Never lose sight of the fact that the most important yardstick of your success will be how you treat other people - your family, friends, and co-workers, and even strangers you meet along the way."

Barbara Bush

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Just When You Least Expect It

Have been a little preoccupied lately, so haven’t had chance to update the blog.  After having one child with a tummy upset last week, my body decided that I should also have my share of sitting on the toilet!

It also resulted in me passing out on our landing, which was very civilised as I knew it was coming. The only trouble was trying to alert my husband who was in a room downstairs without waking the children.

I eventually managed to attract his attention after I had come to!  Luckily (or not) I have passed out several times in the past, so the family know by now that if it does happen to leave me lying on the floor. 

Whenever I come round it’s always quite a cosy feeling, as though I’ve been in quite a deep sleep.  Not that I want this to happen, as I don’t like the feeling that accompanies it beforehand.

So I have a bit of catching up to do.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed that nobody else gets it.  Mind you we must have the cleanest toilet around!

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21

 "The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do."

Walter Bagehot

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20

"Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labour does the body"

Seneca

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19

"A friend is a gift you give yourself."

Robert Louis Stevenson

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18

"Until you value yourself, you will not value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it."

M Scott Peck

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17

 "If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got."

Ed Foreman

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Well Woman

I decided to go for one of these Well Women Assessments. Not because I thought I had anything radically wrong with me, but I’ve reached that age where things don’t work as well as they used to.

I have tried to deny it’s because I’m getting older, but with my husband constantly telling me it is, I have given in and accepted it. Its because of things like back ache, tiredness and sometimes not feeling 100%, but not feeling actually poorly.

The assessment covered ‘women things’, blood tests, height, weight, blood pressure, body mass index, body fat and also a mammogram.

The people at the hospital were lovely and made me feel like I was a special customer (which is how all customer service should be, but don’t get me started on that).

It was all going really well until I had to do a sample. Straight forward you would think especially as they gave me a styrofoam cup so plenty of width to not be able to miss.

I did my sample and was holding it in one hand while sorting myself out with the other and took my eye off the ball, so to speak.

I looked up in horror to realise I had the sample at a precarious angle and yes, you’ve guessed it, it was pouring all over the floor.

I started mopping and washing the floor while trying to decide if I had anything left in me to give the nurse.

So there I was when I heard some people outside the door trying to get in. They were talking about how people can get themselves locked in - yikes were they going to crash the door down to rescue me? (That would have been a scene they wouldn’t have forgotten.)

I managed another drop, checked my clothes to make sure I was all dry, checked the floor to see I hadn’t missed anything, checked my foot where some had splashed (yuk) and with one glance around I saw that I had left everything clean.

Hurray, I took my tiny sample and went and sat back down in the reception area. I put the sample out of danger by my bag, pulled out my magazine and to my (second) horror I realised my sandal was wet from you know what down the side.

I knew the toilets were already engaged so surreptitiously I had to get a tissue out of my bag and mop up without alerting any of the people who were already sitting near me.

Oh the stress of it all. Surprisingly my blood pressure was normal!

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16

 "You can’t stay in your corner waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes."

Winnie the Pooh

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