School Holidays

 

Hello everyone. I hope that you are well. We are ok. The back is well now - or as well as it is going to be when it is attached to an old biddy. 

I was a last-minute filler-in, serving tea and coffee this morning at church. I couldn't remember how to work half the stuff, so the other lady was carrying most of the load. She was very nice about it - even when I got involved in a long chat with someone who wanted to talk about her husband's dementia with me. I would just like to state my thanks here, and I am sure that whatever I did to the water boiler - it will almost certainly work properly next time it's switched on. As I think I said last week, there is no service next Sunday morning. What will I do? Sleep like a baby, I expect. No regrets. 

Is it still warm where you are? It is still warm here - possibly the last full week, apparently. I'll be honest, I don't like being cold, but this is beginning to get on my nerves. Everyone has their windows open and feels the need to have normal conversations at the top of their voices. It's doing my head in, and I will feel happier when we all retreat behind our front doors a bit. However, It's nice for people who have come down to the South West with their families to get such lovely weather to go with the beaches. I remember going to the South West for our holidays when we were young.  My family would drive down overnight to Torquay (no motorways to speak of then). My dad would doze in the car on Brixham harbour until the hotel opened, and then we would have a fortnight there. Always the same hotel, The Glendower - yes, really. My parents knew the owners, and they were ready-made babysitters because they had a daughter my age. HOH and I were talking about how you would go to the beach and get a pot of tea - with proper cups, mind you, and you would take it back to the kiosk afterwards. Does anyone else remember that? We knew how to live. 

I suppose we are slap bang in the middle of the holiday season now. School is out. (Our teacher son is ecstatic, but he does have to go in next week to do some prep - still - no pesky kids) However, how summer is portrayed is one of the things that has annoyed me about Social Media this week. All you can see online is people having idyllic times. Some are abroad, some in this country, but it isn't really like that for everyone. For many people, August just involves getting parents to look after children while they work or staying at home all day because they can't afford to do much else. There are lots of things to do on the cheap or free. I just don't like the idea of parents feeling they are falling short because they can't give what Social Media demands. There is a lot of pressure these days. When my brother was little, many years ago, he would be happy to spend the holidays sharpening lolly sticks on the kerb and vandalising the neighbour's garden. (It's a long story. A lot of people on our street said that she had it coming and the police let him off because he was only six.) When mine were babies, sometimes it was all I could do to walk up to a house on our road and sit in a living room with two other mums, drinking tea and collectively wondering if we would ever sleep again. 

The next thing that has annoyed me is that my Facebook and bits of this Blog didn't work properly this week. Is it the heat? I lost all my lists of blogs that I read, my comments didn't come through properly, and when they did, they popped through without me getting involved. So, can I issue a blanket apology to anyone that I have ignored this week? I am quite slow on the uptake, but I don't think this level of ignorance was actually my fault. 

Thirdly. Aren't some people on the Internet rude? HOH has an account on Facebook. It's a Northern Soul account, and he puts up clips from his favourite records and people reminisce and comment on them. It's popular with a good few thousand people having a listen and a remember. This week, however, someone popped up complaining about people who live in the past and won't listen to new music, etc. and just put their record collections up. Also, it was full of expletives as well. HOH was a bit upset. I would just like to say. I know next to nothing about Northern Soul - certainly when compared to HOH. I wasn't at the first night at Wigan Casino. In fact, if everyone who said they were at the First Night at Wigan Casino were actually there, it would have to be the size of the Taj Mahal. But the point is - it's not for me. It's none of my business, and we all don't have to have an opinion on everything. To be frank, nobody cares what you think. HOH talked me out of going on there and giving this chap a piece of my mind. But fortunately, a lot of nice people seem to have ignored him and carried on listening and sharing. 

Our bookshelf arrived this week. We have created a little Nook - a Book Nook if you will, to read in. I walked in the other morning to find HOH in his dressing gown, sat having a read. There was very much a sort of Jason King vibe about the whole thing, and I liked it. I mean, it was only a towelling dressing gown, and, disappointingly, he wasn't wearing a cravat, but there you are. (Jason King - one for the Nanas there). 

I have mainly read Barbara Pym again this week, but I did spend some of my time dipping in and out of the poetry book our daughter bought HOH for his birthday. (Apparently, it is unacceptable to borrow someone's birthday present when they are only halfway through it. You are mixing me up with someone who is bothered). Tender is a book of poems covering the first 100 days of Parenthood. It is absolutely lovely. A great present for new parents, but I loved it too, and mine are 32 and 30. Highly recommended. 

Also lovely is the film version of Remarkably Bright Creatures. If you have Netflix, it's worth your time. Sally Field is fantastic - well, everyone is. It may make you cry a bit - but in a good way. We really liked it, and good to have something to watch on a Saturday night. (For a flipping change). Have a great week.