March

The pace of life is so fast at all times and there are too many distractions.  When we are on holiday I keep a diary with great ease.  There is time; not only time, but no responsibilities or chores to fill it.  There is time to read and time to write and I can choose what I want to do rather than what I do first.

Unfortunately, we had no holidays in March!  So I am writing this diary entry in April and will be in danger of missing things out.

The first week of March was incredibly busy for me.  I had an exam meeting in Coventry on the 1st and took students out from college, to visit a local company, on each of the following three days.  This meant that I had to drive to work and park for the first time in the car park during term time.  I was really grateful to be able to get back on the bus by Friday.  It isn't a bad journey to work and only take 20 minutes but you don't know where the traffic jams will be or how bad they are and so you need to leave at least 30 minutes for the journey, which is the same as the time it takes by bus, door to door.  Then, when you arrive at the college by car, there is no guarantee that you will be able to get a parking space.  If you can't then it costs as much as the bus fare to park in the street and you can't park any closer than the bus stop.  So apart from the 3 minute walk to the bus stop to and from the house, and the wait for the bus (which is invariably on time, even when I am not), there is no advantage at all in driving.  In fact, it means that I can't read during the journey or prepare my mind for the day during the walking part.

Beccy had been rehearsing hard for the school production.  She started out on the sound team but there wasn't a great deal to do once they had got the equipment set up and so she volunteered to operate the space monster.  This meant that she was on stage but not seen or heard, which suited her.  Nearer the production time, however, she was persuaded to become a backing singer.  She still didn't appear on stage but we could hear her sing.

I went to the performance on the final night and heard her sing well.  Katie, our next door neighbour, took her two boys Austin and Rory to see Beccy in the production.  They, amazing for their age, sat through the entire production (about 2 hours) and then clapped and waved like mad when Beccy came on stage.  They really love her and she spends quite a bit of time looking after them.

The end of the week settled into the normal tennis and football activities with not much else.

On the 8th March, Beccy and I attended a football seminar where she found out about the ways in which she can become involved in coaching and refereeing, both as paid and as voluntary work.  She gave up her paper round with the idea that she would try to earn money working in football.  If she does some coaching, it will be voluntarily, but refereeing is paid and she enrolled on a referee course.  She wants to coach as well but would like to earn money in the meantime.

  

On 13th March, Ben and Dan ran the Miles for Missing People 10k in Hyde Park.  We all travelled up on the train with him and met Dan and Alexander in the park.  They both ran really well.  At one point we thought Ben was in the lead but we had missed a few people in front of him.  He finished a very respectable 8th place overall, 7th in the men's race and 1st in the under 20s.  His time was 41 minutes and 38 seconds, his fastest so far.

Dan also came a very respectable 52nd with a time of 49 minutes and 6 seconds.  This was an excellent time for both of them.  The course wasn't especially easy as there were people in the way at many points.  Alexander helped us cheer his dad and his uncle on.

After the race, as it was Mother's Day on the Sunday, Dan, Alexander and I went to lunch at Canteen in Spitalfields and had a lovely lunch.  Alexander had Welsh Rarebit, which he devoured, only stopping to give his best smiles to the waitress every time she came to the table.  He is a real charmer.  Helen was attending a first aid course on her incredibly long journey to register as a childminder.  If you need to get a childminder today and she (I am assuming that most will be female) is properly registered, you can be assured that she has gone through extensive training, assessment and inspection in order to become registered and, hopefully, this means that she will be incredibly committed to the job.  I know that Helen will do it well, as long as the house passes the inspection.  Their house is a beautiful little listed terraced cottage, which means that it probably isn't as child friendly as it could be.

On Sunday, Mother's Day, we went for a walk along the beach at Whitstable.  I had suggested that we went to the Harbour Village market, had some food that we could eat outside, then went for a walk along the beach.  Unfortunately, Sue and Nat had brought their dogs and dog walking was the top priority.  Nat parked miles away, and we spent the first 30-40 minutes trying to find her, then we met up with Sarah, Ian and their children before walking miles along the beach.  We didn't get anything to eat or visit the market stalls but the dogs had balls thrown for them and walked, which seemed to be more important.  Mum apologised the next day for the plans being spoiled.  I think that maybe some of us had forgotten it was Mother's Day and thought it was yet another dog walking day!

From the 16th to the 19th, Ben undertook a 'quadrathlon' to raise money for Sport Relief.  He rowed 10k, swam 1.5k, ran 15k and cycled 50k, doing one activity each day at the end of school.  He managed each leg in well under an hour, except the cycling, which he had to do in two legs in the end because of a puncture and then it getting too dark for a bike with no lights.  It was a great achievement and he raised £215 for the event.  On the 17th, I ran four laps of the brand new athletics track at Medway Park, dressed as a pirate.  I took two groups of students over to do the mile, one group did the mile as a three legged event but there were six of them.  It took them an hour to do the mile but they completed it!

On the 17th, Beccy went on a short school trip to DisneyLand and Paris.  They left from school mid morning on the 17th and returned at around 8.15pm on the 19th.  They spent the first day travelling on coach and ferry, arriving at their hotel at around 10pm, the second day was spent in the Disneyland park and the third day was spend with a driving tour around Paris (on the coach) and then the journey home.  She really enjoyed it and said that she got on well with all the other students.  This made the trip worthwhile.  Otherwise, one day in the park and two days on a coach is not good value for £200, especially as the only meal included was breakfast and I had to give her enough Euros to feed herself!

Other events


20th March - Brian, Ben and I went to the scouts' Quiz Evening.  Brian and I joined a table of other adults involved in the group and Ben was part of the Explorers team.  Our table did quite well, coming third overall.  Unfortunately, the questions required you to be at least 40 years old and so the Explorers had very little chance of getting anything than a really low score.  They got the booby prize!

25th March - Beccy took part in the Medway Schools Biathlon.  She ran 1000m and swam 100m.  She finished 3rd overall and qualified for next stage of the competition.

27th March - there was a meeting for scouts who want to go on the next trip to South Africa.  they will have the chance to do some more work at the school.  Last time, they dug a vegetable garden and a bore hole to provide fresh water and fresh vegetables for the school and the community.  They also attended a jamboree camp and built a small play area at an orphanage run by by Patrick Ben is keen to go again.  He got such a lot from the last trip but this time wants to go with his close friends.  Unfortunately, the trip will not take place until 2011, when a number of them will have done a year at university.  It is difficult to know whether they will still be involved with the group by then.

Flat purchase - this is now going through.  The mortgage offer is through and we now need to wait for a completion date.  I have already chosen curtains and nets and can't wait to get it all sorted and ready to rent out.