When I got to Eastleigh, CGF was already out, taking Sprog 2 to a scout camp. Soon after she got home he phoned to say that he had forgotten something quite important (no, not his tent – he’s not that forgetful) so our after-dinner activities started with a trip to the scout camp to deliver it. Luckily the scout camp was only a few miles away – but the opposite direction to our next trip, which was to take CGF Sprog 1 to her sporting event.

From there we went back through and beyond a third side of Eastleigh to look in at the School prom for a while (there was no punch line). Then back to collect CGF Sprog 1. And home.

Stepfie was playing a gig in the pub just round the corner from CGF’s. I’d thought this was on Saturday, when we already had a commitment (see below), but CGF suggested we might have time to pop down after that event. I logged on to Farcebook to ask Stepfie what time the gig would end, and discovered “oh it’s not tomorrow – it’s now”. So with a friendly call of “we’re off to the pub –see you later” down we popped.

We got there between sets, so were able to have a beer and chat with Stepfie and L. Unfortunately, we only got to hear three songs – which were really good - as CGF got a text to say that CGF Sprog 3’s coach was due back earlier than expected. We’d been banking on its being delayed at the Channel Crossing and not getting home for a few hours.

CGF Sprog 3 had been on a day trip to the Belgian battlefields – leave at 0430, get back at 1130. She loved it and was full of information – and her camera was full of photos. She also brought back lots of chocolate (which, after a brief viewing, was secreted in her bedroom until Sunday evening when she spent several minutes working out which order to eat them in, from “worst” to “best”. When I realised how she was ranking it I tried to convince her that a bar that I wanted to try was worse than the others so we would eat it earlier. She soon saw through that trick).

Saturday we parkrunned in the morning then decided to reward ourselves with a ‘Spoons brunch. “You can’t have beer; it’s not 12:00”, “yes I can – 11:00 is drinking time – that’s when pubs used to open”. We wanted to catch up with Editor Lady over the weekend, before she goes on holiday. Luckily we ran into her in the precinct (which is a rather grand description for the pedestrianised area in front of what-used-to-be-Woolworths) so she joined us for a coffee and we killed two birds with one stone.

In the evening we went to see a School production of The Sound of Music. It was really, really good – very professional, and with a quality that belied the age of the performers.

The Sound of Music was the first film that I went to unaccompanied by an adult (no, not the first time the film came round). When I was nine or ten Big Sis and I went with friends of ours – also siblings. The event also required us to stay overnight at the friends’ house (which today would be called a sleepover, but wasn’t back then) on account of the fact that they lived quite far away. They used to live in the same road as we did, but after an earthquake and major movement of the continental plates our houses drifted 50 miles apart. Either that or we moved house to another part of the country. I’ll leave you to decide which is the more plausible explanation. These were also the friends who, a couple of years later and after another earthquake and/or house move, we cycled ten miles to visit without bothering to tell anyone where we were going.

Sunday was a relaxing day for me – in theory. I was first aiding at an athletics meeting, and as athletics is a non-contact sport this would be an easy day, wouldn’t it? Hmm, might have to revise that description. I don’t think more than 30 minutes passed in which we didn’t have a casualty. Twelve in total – and over half were wounds – and one casualty kindly fulfilled my love of blood by presenting with three separate wounds.

The weekend before last we saw another school production – this time Little Shop of Horrors. This was also good – particularly as I’ve never seen the film, so didn’t know what to expect. Yes, there’s nothing wrong with not having seen a film that’s been out since the mid-1980s. I’ve not seen Star Wars either, and that’s been around for even longer.

We’ve been raspberry picking too. We took CGF Sprog 3 and her friend. I picked raspberries about three times faster than they did. This was explained as being because I had bigger hands, wasn’t as selective (they were only picking the best fruit), and wasn’t easting as many.

Almost summer holidays. Schools broke up today – I’ve still got a week and a bit to go. I get back to work at the start of the new nine-day fortnight working pattern. Annual leave is going to be calculated in hours rather than days and details of how this will work have been published – it seems to be based on a desire to confuse as many people as much as possible. Different examples give different calculations as to how long a “day” should be. And in an extreme case it seems to be possible to take a whole day for the cost of only four hours.

This weekend we are going to an 80s-theme party. Any ideas what I could wear? Other than “pretty much any of my clothes as most of them seem to date back that far.”