Stress

Yesterday was not a good day. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

Colin has had several huge stamp orders recently, and I got up reasonably early yesterday (I was awake at 5.30 am, but didn't drag myself out of bed until around 8.00 am) to find that Sean, bless him, had stayed up late to mount most of the outstanding stuff (around 50 stamps - a lot of work). So, it all had to be packed up and finished and postage printed off etc, so finally Colin drags himself downstairs and proceeds to bitch at me about this, that and the other (stamp related) - I mean, I only gave up almost two entire days of my holiday this week to do the stamps for him, and if I took an executive decision to do something then it was my decision to make, right? So we're frantically trying to get everything finished, as we (me and the kids) had to leave at 9.45 as we were going to the hairdressers. By the time the stamps were ready to go, it was 10.00 am, plus Ethan was being a real pain in the bum - he wouldn't look for his trainers, wouldn't put his socks on etc.

So it was 10.20 am by the time we got to the hairdressers, and I absolutely hate being late for anything. Ethan was a pain all the way there, despite me telling him that if he misbehaved in the hairdressers, he would be in big trouble. Anyway ... Sean went straight into the Post Office (next door to the hairdressers) to post the stamps, and I gave him some money to get a drink for us. By the time he came back, I was in the chair having my highlights started. I was so wound up as it was, that I just wanted to burst into tears, having your hair yanked through tiny holes in a plastic cap is just so not fun! He hands me my drink ... Volvic flavoured water ... the one with sugar in it (is it just me?? Why the hell do they need to put sugar in it?) ... which I won't touch with a bargepole, because besides the fact that I don't need the sugar, it tastes revolting.

During the two hours that we were there, Ethan was completely vile. Did that help my stress levels? No. No doubt I'm not the only parent who feels that if their child is badly behaved it reflects on their parenting skills, and by the time we left I felt so awful I wanted to cry all the way home. But at least my hair was looking fabulous!

So the plan was, after the hairdressers, we were picking up Colin and going to Solihull to finish the school uniform shopping and get a few more bits for our holidays. Except Colin played his face because he didn't want to go shopping. So I played my face a bit too, had a cry, and then went to bed for an hour because a huge wave of tiredness came over me and it was all too much. When I woke up, Colin had decided that yes, we could go shopping ... so off we went.

First stop, John Lewis. Ethan was still being a real pain, but managed to get him to try on some school trousers. Next stop was the shoe department. He had his feet measured, and the lady brought him out a few pairs to try on, but he was a little sod and wouldn't behave. He'd get his foot halfway in a shoe and go 'ow, they hurt' and kick them off. We finally left the shoe department with me about to have an apopleptic fit. Fortunately, the rest of our shopping in John Lewis wasn't too stressful - we picked up a couple of wedding cards for our trip to Germany, and I treated myself to Rowan 43, which is full of gorgeous knitting patterns. I won't dwell on the fact that none of them go bigger than a size 20-22 - obviously if you're any bigger than that you wouldn't want to wear nice knitwear, naturally. Because the chances of me slimming down to a size 20 in the near or even fairly distant future are slim (or even fat!) I am determined to work out how to size the patterns up to my size. As it goes, I can't afford the Rowan gorgeousness needed to knit any of the patterns anyway, as their yarns are so expensive (not expensive per se, but if a ball of yarn is a fiver and you need 20 balls to make the jumper ... get the point?), so I shall wait for the sales at the end of the year, by which time I might be a bit smaller anyway.

They had a load of Rowan Cashsoft DK on sale at £1.15 a ball (reduced from £4.75). I was quite tempted to buy some, but I've heard that it pills, and I don't know whether it's worth spending the money on something that's a bargain if it then means that whatever I knit will be pilling all over the place.

Anyway. On to Sports Soccer for trainers. Here is where my day got marginally better. We managed to find a pair of trainers that Colin liked (miracle!) that fitted (size 14, would you believe?!), Sean wandered off and came back with the trainers he wanted, and then we went upstairs to find trainers for Ethan. Not only did we find trainers, but they also had shoes there too, and we managed to find some that were a good fit. That little sojourn cost me £72!

To finish off, the boys took a seat on a nearby bench while I went into Superdrug to pick up a few more bits for the holiday; then off I went to Boots to get a new mascara - I like to stick with No 7 make-up, but spending £9.50 on a mascara seemed a bit daft. I wandered over to the No 17 stand and found a nice looking mascara for just £5.25, plus if you spent £3 you got a free metallic eyeshadow (I can't resist FREE), so I got that and a cheaper brand of vanilla-coloured eyeshadow, then headed back to my boys.

Ethan had calmed down somewhat (good job too, as he was heading for a very red and sore bottom - normally I don't hold with smacking the kids, but he was pushing his luck too far yesterday), so after dumping the shopping in the car we headed round the corner to Jimmy Spices for dinner. Ethan behaved much better, apart from accidentally knocking his drink over and soaking the entire table.

After coming home I did some more knitting. I decided to magic loop the sleeves on my cardi - I hadn't done that before, but it is relatively easy. The only thing is, I seem to have gone wrong somewhere, as I seem to have ended the lace pattern repeat in the middle of the row rather than at the end. I can't see where I've gone wrong, and the thought of ripping it back and starting the sleeve again is just too depressing. Now that I've had a reasonably good night's sleep, I'm going to have another look to see where I think I might have gone wrong (yes, it would have been a good idea for me to mark the start of the row, but I'm stupid!).

I think I might take myself off out for a spot of retail therapy later, to see if I can find anything to wear for the wedding next week - it happens over two days, with one bit on Friday (I have something to wear for that), but for Saturday I was going to wear my new cardi (if I finish it). But I was thinking, what if it's really warm? I won't want to be all hot and sweaty in a cardigan (I would wear a vest top underneath), so I am going to see what there is in the shops.

For now though, back to my errant sleeve!