Yes, today I celebrate the beginning of my 45th revolution around the Sun, meaning I celebrate my 44th Birthday!
How am I celebrating?
Well, I’m at school, or rather, I’ll be doing home visits for some of the new children in my class.
Followed by a staff meeting. Glorious!
And for the pleasure of my dear colleagues, I have ordered some samosas, and have cakes for those who can’t deal with spice. (You know you wanna work with me!)
I sure know how to live, don’t I??!!
But, jokes aside, I am very lucky, as I have been gifted, by my darling Hubby Dearest, a brand new Macbook AIR in gold!
And it’s all pretty and gold, and I am actually typing this post up on it right now!
Oh, it’s so pretty! But so different to my Microsoft Surface! I am having great fun learning all about the functionality differences and working out what I need to relearn, and what I can still do on it by downloading various things. So exciting!
We won’t do anything else. It’s a Tuesday. A rather meh day to have a birthday, what with school the next day, so I am sure a dinner will follow on the weekend, but regardless, I am so happy with my present, I’d forego dinner!
So, I’m off to enjoy the day that is my birthday, and I look forward to using my special new toy for many years to come!!!!
It wasn’t quite the evening I had envisaged. I had been busy filling in my new school diary ready for next year. The kids were busy with their friends outside and Hubby Dearest was chilling with a beer and the TV on.
I’d just packed my school bits away, and got the kids inside, ready to get showered, when the phone rang. Usually my Mum-In-Law waits for us to call her, but it was her number on the display, so I answered it, worrying that something was wrong.
Well… it was.
Apparently one of the kids (naming no names, Lil Princess…) had opened Mum-In-Law’s bedroom window rather wide, and left it open, so a gust of much needed wind had swept into the room and slammed her door shut.
Such a hard slam that the door refused to open!
Oo-er!
So the request was made.
“Could you come over and climb up a ladder, get on the flat roof and shimmy into the bedroom to try and open the door from the inside? Or bring Lil Man, he’s skinny and nimble…” (Cheek! I know I put on weight, but not that much!)
Well, Lil Man was in the shower, and I wouldn’t have wanted to risk him getting stuck or hurt, so Spider Woman here (or Idiot Girl, some might say) huffed over there.
Yup. I huffed.
Because there are others who may have been able to do this daring rescue mission… except, Dad-In-Law is too old, Mum-In-Law has too many health issues, Bro-In-Law wouldn’t have fit through the window, Sis-In-Law had only just got in from a crazy day at work, and Hubby Dearest, well, he’s only just recovering from his own injury!
So, actually there wasn’t anyone else.
I still huffed, mumbling during my exit, “Here’s hoping I don’t end up doing an injury to myself too, climbing through bl***y windows!”
Hubby Dearest told me to leave it, but I couldn’t. The window was wide open, and near a flat roof… too much temptation for someone who wanted to break and enter, without breaking…
I arrived.
Found ladder with Sis-In-Law.
Mum -In-Law tried to tell me to leave it, as whilst I’d been driving over, Hubby Dearest had called his mum and told her that it was very silly to expect me to climb up a ladder and possibly hurt myself (Oh, ye of little faith…) but if you know me, you know I am determined, and if I have set my mind to a task, I will achieve it, however silly!
I reminded her about the fact that she has her important ‘stuff’ in her room, and that open window would jsut be too easy a target… she stepped back and allowed me to begin.
Climbed up, with an audience. Mum-Im-Law, Bro-In-Law and Sis-In-Law. Mum-In-Law thrust a screwdriver in my hand as I ascended. “When you get it open, just take the damn barrel out!”
I tried to get in but the window was a tad too high, and nimble as I am, I wasn’t that flexible to jump through the opening, so went down again, got a stool and headed back up again.
Ritu’s Mission Impossible!
Successful shimmy, (thought my chest might just be a little battered from dragging myself in!) and I entered the house in a way I never dreamed I would have to do.
But the door was stuck fast.
The barrel had totally gone. The handle just turned in my hand. I was thankful for the screwdriver then. I had to wedge it gently through and manually push the barrel to open.
Once that was done, I wasted no time in removing this ancient lock and barrel from the door, handed all the bits and pieces to Mum-In-Law (not before I had to get her to hold my legs as I hung back out of the window to rescue the abandoned stool – that must have been a sight!) and pootled off home.
So there.
That is the story of when I broke into my In-Laws house.
Yup. that’s how I looked on the roof! (Im my dreams!)
You’re welcome.
Moral of story – When Ritu tells you something seems a bit faulty, check it out instead of waiting for clamity to strike. About a month ago I mentioned that said door was sticking sometimes and when closed, could only be opened from the inside… because the barrel wasn’t turning fully… See! Listen to The Ritu!
Okay… I have to admit it… I don’t always know everything…
Google Image
A couple of weeks back, I had to head into London for the first of a two day training course for work. It was a pretty straightforward journey, though the walk from the station to the venue was fun, with my phone map taking me on a merry ride!
I do like having the day out to learn new things with other like-minded professionals, and was excited at the prospect of the second day out, which was yesterday.
Then I got an email to say the venue had changed.
It was still London, but East London, and that meant I had to find a different way of getting there.
All the route planner apps gave me long winded ways to arrive, insisting that I had to leave at the crack of dawn and take 6,000 different tube trains, to get there for 8.30am (yes, 6,000 is a bit of an exaggeration, but what’s a little retelling without a bit of embellishment?) ready for registration.
I sat and chatted with my Bro in Law (BIL) and Hubby Dearest about the best way to get there, as nothing was making sense to me.
Giphy.com
Even my BIL was confusing me, with routes that would need 2-3 changes.
Hubby Dearest calmly said, “It’s fine, you just need the fast speed train then one tube…”
But was I listening?
No.
I sat studying a map for ages, my BIL getting more and more excited about how I could get there, and if I wanted to take a train at half past very early, I could join him, as that is when he usually goes.
But I was trying to avoid the overly early start…
I thought the train station would be the best place to go. They would give me the best route and train times in the kiosk.
Hubby tried to stop me going, but it was pointless, after all, I know best.
So Lil Princess and I went and spoke to the first ticket lady, who didn’t know where either Shadwell station, or Whitechapel were! She then pulled up the train app on her phone (which I had already looked at) and gave me a great route that included about 5 changes!
Lots of help.
Oh, and the advice I get a train to a specific station and take a 5 min walk to Bank tube station… when the actual station that is near where I would disembark was EmBANKment! That would have been fun if I’d listened to her!
I decided to try the actual ticket office, and the guy there was very helpful and friendly, but the same as the first woman I had spoken to. No clue as to how to properly advise me.
So, I turned back home, disappointed that I was in no better a position.
Hubby sat there, with his foot up (still being partially hoppalong at this moment) and said “So, have you found a good route?”
Sheepish Ritu
I admitted that I was nowhere nearer to knowing where I was going than when I left.
Then he calmly pulled out his phone and showed me a tube map. “Here. You get the fast speed train, like I said, then the pink line there, do you see, the Hammersmith & City line, and it takes you straight to Whitechapel. One change, and you’re done. And it’s fast speed so you don’t have to be up too early.”
He had been right all along… But I just wouldn’t listen, would I?
The journey was great, in the end. I caught a train at 7.21am and was at the venue dead on 8.30am! And home by 5pm.
Perfect.
I may just listen to him a little more, once in a while…
We all spend time moaning about our kids and their behaviour. It’s a parent’s prerogative, isn’t it?
I have to look out for them…
Then we complain about how they never go out, and spend the whole time on phones and screens (devices we have given them…)
But we are too worried to send them out, like we used to go out. The world is a big, bad place, after all. Social Media and the internet tell us of all these awful things that happen out there. We wrap them up in a certain amount of cotton wool, because we all want to protect our pecious offspring.
A bit too much helicopter parenting, making sure you know exactly what your child is doing at all times, and with whom. Running yourself ragged to get them to all the places you have booked them into to keep them busy, getting frustrated at the cries of “I’m bored!” throughout the weekend and, oh, don’t talk to me about the longer holidays!
It is sad that many of us don’t have the confidence to send our kids out with a little slack on the leash we tend to keep them on.
I hold my hands up. I am guilty of this overprotectiveness.
I NEED to know waht they are doing ALL the time…
But I am also aware of the fact that they have to grow up some time, and they do need to assert their independence. They are going to need to know how to deal with the world, after all.
I’ve hesitantly allowed Lil Man to go to the park with his friends, not long after an assault happened there, (dropping him off, and making sure he was with the right mates, before leaving), I have given Lil Princess the opportunity to walk home alone now, as she has to get ready for Secondary School next year. I’ve left them alone for a short while, as I do grocery shopping. They’ve walked to the shops alone.
Listing these things makes me wonder why I feel they are petty things that all kids should be doing anyway, but it has been hard letting go, believe me. And even if I feel they are ready, and capable of dealing with things, their dad is even more over protective of his children… so I do feel for them sometimes, battling against both of us, just so they can be kids… and experience everything we did.
However, today, we managed to overcome a big step.
I let them go!
The kids.
Out.
All afternoon.
On their bikes!
Ordinary, isn’t it? Something I remember my brother doing every day in the holidays. Disappearing after breakfast on his bike with his little gang of friends, appearing to eat lunch then disappearing again. If I had been the active, outdoory type, I’d have been allowed to do the same, but I preferred my book time, or a walk to the local shops, running errands for my mym (and buying teen magazines or cheap makeup from the chemist!)
Anyway, today the kids enjoyed a proper Old Skool kids afternoon, and they loved it!
I let them be kids!
We live in a cul de sac, and there are a few other children, but no one we knew. Then, a few months ago a new family moved in and they have a boy a similar age to Lil Man, and two girls, younger than Lil Princess. We fed them samosas on Diwali as we all stood out in the street at night, watching the Gurdwara fireworks display, and the bonding started.
The boy has come round a few times, playing Playstation or football in our garden, and Lil Man has been over to his house too.
As the days are better and evenings longer, we get back from school and they have been out, on bikes and scooters, in the safety of our road, and my two have joined them for short whiles. But their bikes were at the in-laws.
Today, we got back from Lil Man’s match, after picking their bikes up, and once they had eaten lunch, they went out… at 2pm… and I didn’t see them until nearly 6pm!
That was a biggie for me. But I read a little and snoozed on the sofa, knowing they were only outside.
Relaxed mum…
When they got back, they were relaxed and happy, having made even more friends, as children from other familes that live on the road joined them too, and they rode bikes, played football, ran races, played games and chatted. All normal kids stuff, that didn’t involve screens at all!
They have now got a little gang of friends together that live here, who can safely get together, of different ages, and different backgrounds too (English, Indian, Polish, Arabic, African) and just one afternoon out together has made the atmosphere in our house totally different.
No arguing and angsty behaviour, just happy children who have exhaustend themselves in the most natural, child-like way.
There’s a lot to be said for fresh air, and just playing.
Here’s to many more afternoons where finally, my kids can be kids, the way I remember childhood.
What do you remember about your childhood that seems to be missing in our kids lives nowadays?
