Balls, Beavers and Boris

Helen’s flat has been invaded by a spider. As usual, his name is Boris, in honour of the pet arachnid that was once resident in our bathroom in Chessington. We look forward to meeting the new Boris when we visit Helen real soon now.

Nearer home, the River Mersey continues to flow fast and high, concealing most of the island.

Not surprisingly really because, all together now: “it’s been raining a lot”. Including all day Tuesday when we collected the children from school. We took them to the softplay place, Head Over Heels, where they burnt off many Caolories. I don’t think they’d been out into the playground at school at all today.

It’s not my favourite idea of fun, but William loves hiding in the ball pond. His sister was there with a camera, a trainee paparazza perhaps.

After a snack, we took them home, hoping they’d eat some of the food that we’d prepared for them all. We didn’t all eat together because Jenny and Liam were a bit mouldy, colds, we think. Plus, my chronic cough still won’t quite let go. But the good news is, my recent blood tests and ECG all came back with good results.

Liesel and I joined Sue and nearly twenty others for a walk beginning at Romiley, another place we’ve been close to in the past, but never actually visited. We enjoyed the walk, and I didn’t find the hills too onerous. A bit muddy here and there, and there were two stiles to climb over. The views were pretty good though, and some horses came over to say hello. Well, not literally say hello, but to see if we had any spare apples or carrots, I think.

We followed some bridle paths, and I was amused by the signs warning people not to follow their Sat Nav. Needless to say, us pedestrians had to dive into the bushes for safety as a white van came along the restricted road, only to return a few minutes later.

It’s always exciting to come across and walk across yet another golf course, and this one was no exception. Here too, we saw some warning signs, telling the golfers to look out for pedestrians.

And it’s even more exciting to see early signs of Spring, a small but welcome splash of colour.

As if they don’t have enough after-school activities, Martha and William continue to sign up to everything. Football,Spanish, cricket, dance, theatre, Rainbows, Brownies, swimming, the list goes on. This week, William was very proudly investitured (?) into the Beavers, where he’s making friends with people he doesn’t know from school.

And then there’s the martial arts of course.

It’s very sad that William now pronounces ‘Ninja’ correctly, it was much more entertaining when he began the word with an ‘m’ sound instead! As we’ll remind him when he’s 18.

If you want another two hours of absolute nonsense, listen to Mick’s Music Mix on Wythenshawe Radio via Mixcloud.