(no subject)

• Make spare bed with fresh bedding and cover with dustsheet Rob did it!


• Move baby clothes from attic to chest of drawers


• Clear kitchen About 3/4 done


• Make concrete plan for planting food in small allotment


• Write about local NCT stuff


• Coordinate Google calendar, household wall calendar, and filofax


• Clean stove


• Write about today in town with Linnea


• Grocery shopping


• Order a new kitchen bin


• Race for Life


• Write to paper about recycling collections

Local NCT Stuff

I used to have a coffee morning for mothers with toddlers every Thursday, for several months, ending in December 2005 when I was pregnant and anyway we went to Malta. I never started it up again, because the exploratory email I sent out didn't get even one teeny tiny response.

Then the Neighbourhood Contact, the person who arranges all the groups and new member greetings and so on in the area, moved to another area - and the backup Neighbourhood Contact had twins, and on top of a toddler and a home-run business that was a bit too much.

Then I came under pressure to become the new Neighbourhood Contact.

Um, no. I felt terribly guilty about it but no.

The other day, we got a hand-delivered pack from the new NC! Local NCT newsletter, and an info sheet all about her. I have no idea who she is, presumably because her baby is 10 months younger than Linnea so we never overlapped (I stopped going to baby coffees once Linnea was walking much). She did give a little potted CV and has arranged a bunch of meetings, none of which are at the old times so I can't go (why yes, my schedule is that rigid; I have a mental space for things in the 10-12 am slot and none in the Linnea's Getting Tired It's Time to Sort Dinner 2-4 pm slot).

So I've offered to do my coffees again. She's a bit put out that I can't and won't come to the afternoon things, but frankly, I don't need another organisation, and I really can't be bothered spending two hours a week fending and defending Linnea as she tries to do her thing in a room full of tiny babies. And I'm a little peeved that the local NCT newsletter has never once published anything I've written. I assume I'm too hippie and opinionated. Most of the stuff they print is very very mainstream, to the point of avoiding mention of breastfeeding much of the time. They certainly never discuss it as a thingy, political issue.

Reading Children's Festival: Town Centre Day

We up and left the house by trike on Friday morning, all three, at about 8:30, and headed for the hospital so that I could have my jab because of being Rhesus-. And then we headed back into town to buy Rob a new shirt (the one he'd worn to hospital was too sweaty to wear to work) and have a de-stressing cup of tea before he went back to work. I always need a destressing cup of something after going to the hospital, though this time I had no - not one - ZERO - panic attacks.

Rob went to work, and I realised that there was Something Happening in the town centre. It was Town Centre Day, and there local radio station had cars pumping out music, they were handing out balloons and stickers, there were stiltwalkers being ostriches, jugglers, face-painting (we did not indulge), pavement chalking (we indulged mightily and Linnea drew a triangle and a circle, and found some tiny ants), icecream (we had to go get sorbet), a little sunstroke, pigeons, and... I forget. Oh, a carousel where Linnea got to drive a bus, and we got a "one ride free" ticket when we bought her ride.

The Oxfam bookshop had a microscope set up showing wiggly things in water, and Lush were doing Dolly Pampering sessions, and practically everywhere was giving out free balloons and sweets. Most of the activities were aimed at primary school children on their mid-term break, but Linnea had a fantastic time, especially pavement chalking, and later gluing spangles onto a paper fish shape. The various stalls and street artists were very exciting. We didn't even go into Waterstones to get the free book because there was too much going on.

To top it all off, Rob got out of work early, so we all went to dinner by the riverside, with the trike parked right by our table. Then we triked home, Linnea went to bed, and Rob went to work in London from 9 pm to 4:30 am. Poor ole Rob.