Bread and circuses

Gosh – lots to catch up, so this will be edited highlights.

Sunday 30th October – Operatunity rehearsal, which coincided with a Hallowe’en party thrown by friends. Since L had missed the previous rehearsal, but K hadn’t, they decided to swap round this time, L missing much of the party for the rehearsal while K relied on her keeping him up to date with developments and new songs.

The week which followed was the normal busy round of nothing much, but enlivened by a K’Nex extravanganza on Thursday 3rd November 😀 Another Operatunity rehearsal for K and L at the weekend, then Bob was off to Germany for a few days, leaving the rest of us to prepare activities on Brazil for Geography on Wednesday: sugar skulls for the Day of the Dead. Thursday was multisport, which the children are enjoying far more with the new team running it, and Friday our day at home to replace the Tuesday we missed through Bob being away. School and music school on Saturday, Remembrance parade and then Operatunity on Sunday and another week had gone by…

Wednesday 16th November was Historyetc which has been blogged so well elsewhere that I’ll just cheat :frog: The afternoon was spent hastily cobbling together a costume for J to wear to school the next day, when he was to represent Uganda in a UN society debate, and in the evening A, J and I had a babysitting sleepover at Gina’s, leaving Bob to take K and L to yet another Operatunity rehearsal.

The weekend had the usual whirl of music and school, but with added ceilidh on Sunday afternoon (thanks, Gina, for organising – it was lots of fun) which made a nice change from Operatunity – no rehearsal for once, but lots to come…

On Tuesday (22nd November) K, L and A spent a lovely morning going round Wood Green, especially A, who got to answer lots of questions 🙂 and then we had a long chatty lunch with friends and a quick scout round the thift shop before heading to violin, ‘cello, swimming and, eventually, Brownies.

Lots of extra rehearsals that week led up to a full run-through on Saturday afternoon, at which we were joined by Hannah, an old friend and K’s godmother, and then PIL for a quick tea out and, at last, the grand performance. It was very good, an adaptation of Jill Tomlinson’s story The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark done to help children to become accustomed to opera and operatic style. K’s comment on Mother Owl (a professional opera singer) was that she had a very loud voice, especially considering her size – “it’s amazing how much voice comes out of such a small person!” – and that her voice was “rather wobbly”; she certainly put plenty of vibrato into her performance!

The following day we delivered J to a brass day which he says was excellent (certainly the concert at the end was very good) and then the rest of us went to Audley End, there to meet up with Bob’s parents ready for a day spent enjoying a Victorian Christmas celebration. We saw elaborate food preparations in the kitchen, were fleeced by the rather dodgy fairground stallholders, watched a potted Christmas Carol, met Father Christmas’s reindeer (but couldn’t face the immense queue to see the man himself), admired the horsemanship of the lancers and the Hunt, watched the lady of the house getting dressed in her numerous layers, listened to a talk about Victorian Christmas traditions, did Christmas craft, found numerous small reindeer hidden in the rooms of the house and thereby earned prizes for the children (popping candy chocolate; A wasn’t at all sure, but K and L liked theirs very much), ate a picnic in the sun (ridiculous for the end of November!), queued for aaaaaaages for a cup of tea (Bob did that bit while his parents admired the kitchen gardens and I watched the children who were busy in the playground) and eventually decided A and L were so tired that they and Bob should catch a lift with PIL and get an early night while K and I went to join J for the end of day concert. I think K would have liked to have gone home too, but there wasn’t enough room in the car; he enjoyed the concert once we got there, anyway 😉

A Viking History session on Monday kept everyone busy and awake, then Tuesday was a nice relaxed morning and a less than usually busy afternoon, as violin had been cancelled so I decided to cancel ‘cello too. We found out that J’s school was to be closed on Wednesday (not entirely closed, but for his year group at least as enough teachers were striking to mean only essential classes took place) which was good news for us as it meant he could come along and join in with a busy day and we didn’t have to worry about the school run at either end. In the end he didn’t get homework done on Tuesday evening so spent Wednesday morning doing it while K and L took part in a Victorian morning, mostly doing seasonal crafts but with some music and dancing thrown in for good measure 😀 Then we doubled back on ourselves and headed out in the opposite direction to a soft play party, celebrating a double birthday with lots of friends from all over the place – and a very impressive cake! L decided to miss ballet for once, which gave us time to pop in for tea and chat at the home of one of the birthday girl afterwards, but there were lots of other people I’d have liked to have seen for longer… at least knowing we had Christmas camp to look forward to made it easier 😉

On Thursday L’s gym had a Christmas special session, with performances by representatives of each group they work with, from the littlest recreational gymnasts right through to Olympic medal-winners. The children each found different things to like best and L was very happy to have been part of it. Considering how much they were trying to pull together, I thought it was very impressive 😀

Saturday morning was music school open day, which meant I got to listen to all the things they’ve been working on 🙂 and then the afternoon found us at Christmas drinks with a friend – the one who organises lots of activities, some of which we attend, so it seemed only fair to make the effort to go along. It was a good chance to chat to people we didn’t know very well, something I find stressful and rewarding in equal parts 😕
Sunday 4th I had earmarked as a day to finish and finetune the talk I was to give on Tudor Christmas customs for EWS and her group of ladies, but at quite short notice it was swept away from me by the visit of an old school-friend and her husband, L’s godparents and our children’s guardians should anything happen to us (the children were disconcertingly pleased when we told them that!), who came in time for breakfast, a game of chess with K and then church, followed by a lovely meal at a cafe near church which we’d walked past but never been into before. Luckily once home Michelle didn’t mind me cooking while we chatted, so I was able to get some of that side of the preparation done (and had already prepared the talky bits), L and K showed off their skill at Tudor boardgames and then A decided that Chris needed educating in the art of caring for dolls so took him off to show him what to do, which kept them both busy for much of the afternoon 😆

Monday 5th December should have been K’s Cubs Christmas party – well, I guess it still was, but he wasn’t there because our plans to meet at EWS’ so that Bob could take the children home and I could stay and talk were changed by discovering that there was an impromptu party going on, to which the children were invited. It made sense for them to go while they waited for Bob but somehow once they were there it was so much fun that they decided to just carry on staying and not go to Cubs at all… Eventually, Bob took them home and I stayed and set up my stuff, changed into Tudor garb (minus coif, so that I could still talk normally) and met the ladies to whom I was to be speaking. It was a very enjoyable evening, ending with carols and then companionable washing up 🙂 I’ve never before been asked if I’m a hand model or a dancer, so that was a new experience 😉

Wednesday found us juggling schedules again, as K had a recorder exam to get to at about the time I should have been collecting J. In the end we decided J should get the train a few stops further than usual, while Gina very kindly took L to ballet – which was just as well as a few stops further meant going right into town to the main station and the traffic was awful 🙁 It was a watching week at ballet and we made it for most, but it was a relief to know L was alredy there!

Thursday was multisport again, but with added talk beforehand as Ruth came to tell us about otters – very interesting 🙂 Then on Friday we went to a German Christmas market, kind of :p There were stalls and activities, food and songs and lots of opportunities to use the language, mostly run by HE parents, with a little help from a German teacher and various friends. Lots of fun, if somewhat chaotic! J was finishing at lunchtime so we expected to have to leave early, but Bob picked him up from the station and took him back to work, then we collected him from there, so gained a little extra time. We had a very quiet afternoon, mostly because Bob and I had Evening Out plans 😉 Big Alice came and babysat and we went and had a posh dinner at a posh hotel with lots of Bob’s work colleagues – which is where it gets a bit less exciting 😉 It was good to have an evening out together though; I can’t remember the last time that happened!

Saturday = packing day, ready for Christmas camp on Sunday….and we’re not even up to the circuses yet, but it’s a new day and a new year and I’m going to stop now and get myself a celebratory drink :champers:
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Happy new year :cheer:

:present: May 2012 bring joy, love and peace to all those friends I’ve known and loved for years, those I’ve been privileged to spend time with this year, those I’ve sadly not seen or spoken to for too long and those I’ve yet to meet.