A Week In Review ...

Monday would have been Uncle Jimmy's birthday. He would have been 81. Here we are one Christmas, probably 1988-1989 (blimey, 20 years ago!) I bought him that jumper he's wearing (can't remember if it was that year though, or a previous year). For those that don't know, Jimmy was my Dad's older brother (they are just two of the twenty million - okay, around 14 - children in the family) - and he was such a character. He struggled with a drink problem for years (actually, maybe that's not accurate - he was quite happy with his drink problem I think), but he was the sweetest, loveliest man you could wish to meet (despite being a bit aggressive when he'd had too much to drink). If things had been different in his life ... we (me and my siblings) were his kids, his family (he had a son that he was denied access to) - he loved us all and we (I think I can speak for all five of us) loved him. I can clearly remember him sitting on the floor playing with Sean when he was a baby - he totally adored kids and he loved to spend time with us. It's sad. It makes me sad. I wish he'd had the chance to know his own son. It's a tragic story, but not one that I am at liberty to tell here. The Martin family, keeping it close to their chests as usual.

Monday night we had the bright idea of going up the park with the bikes - we had to pick Sean's up from the bike shop cos he'd left it in to have a gear cable replaced. We got to the park at around 5.45 pm, and it was pitch black! The park is not lit at night, apart from the light that hits the car park from the flats opposite, though the access road leading to the car park is quite well lit. We took Ethan with us with his scooter, but as it was so dark we decided that Sean would go off and have a ride while I stayed with Ethan, and then we'd swap. So while Sean had his ride, Ethan scooted around the car park while I watched. When Seanie came back, off I went, but I only got about 200 yards up the path before I decided that this was not good - it was absolutely pitch black and I didn't think it was a good idea to be riding there on my own, so I turned back and we ended up biking/scooting around the car park and the access road for a bit. Sean went off for another ride while I got my bike lashed back onto the cycle carrier, after which I discovered that he'd gone off with the car keys, so we couldn't even sit in the car. He was gone ages, and every now and then we'd see his lights somewhere deep in the park. When he got back he was covered in mud, it seems he'd been through lots of big deep puddles and mud. Charming.



On Tuesday I went to Ethan's year 2 assembly. Oh, it was so cute, they did a little play about friends, and Ethan played a bank manager who asked an old lady did she want her money now or later - he was just so cute, and so excited and pleased with himself. He also had a bidding prayer to say, bless him. It was lovely.



I've been feeling unwell this week, I don't think biking in the subzero Birmingham climate is doing me much good! I've been feeling distinctly off since Wednesday, with a migraine that started off as a headache yesterday but then kept me awake most of last night. I still struggled into work today, but I came home early this afternoon as I'd had enough. It's been a really busy week, what with trying to sort out our tax return and stuff (tonight I've spent about five hours doing stamp artwork - gggrrr, I had much better things to do). Really what I wanted to do tonight was play some more with my drop spindle - I haven't had the chance since I had my first go. I treated myself this week to some scrumptious roving that I want to have a go with - but not until I've finished spinning the cream stuff that came with the spindle.







As you can see, it's not fabulous, but for my first go I'm not going to complain. I have pink to play with as well, so when I've spun them both as singles I'm going to ply them together and have barber pole pink and white (yes I know barber poles are red and white but I don't care).






I was delighted when I got home last night to discover that the postie had tried to deliver my Winter Warmers swap parcel from my upstream swap pal - despite having a splitting headache and wanting my bed I hot footed it straight back out to the car and drove up to the delivery and collection office to fetch it. It was so exciting to not only open the parcel and find lots of lovely goodies, but also to discover who it was from - it was from Cathy (Gladcat), and it was full of wondrous goodness.



I got a pattern for Woolly Wormhead's 'Meret' (a lovely beret), a set of dpn's, two balls of Rowan Aran in a burgundy red colour, a ball of Sirdar Blur in white (it's mohairy), some scented tealights, a couple of yummy coffee drinks, a tin of organic cocoa powder, a coaster showing a Norfolk scene (Cathy lives in Norfolk), a packet of pretty flowery tissues, some lavender bath salts and a big bag of marshmallows (for dunking in my cocoa, yum). I'm absolutely delighted with everything, and I hope my downstream swap partner likes everything I got for her too. I can't wait to get knitting my Meret!

Hhhmmm, it's 1.30 am and I was going to go to bed hours ago. I want to be up early to go to the park with the kids, we've got a busy day ahead tomorrow!