Busy times! in Hello.

The girls went back to school this week, Eleanor into juniors and Bel starting secondary school! They are both enjoying being back, just a bit emotional through tiredness and starting a new routine after being used to sleeping in till 10. My mornings are slightly easier as I don’t need to make packed lunches anymore. Bel’s school has a system where I top up her account at home (or she can take change in and top it up herself) and she pays for her food with her finger print. So much easier than her having to worry about carrying cash around with her, like I used to have to do. Eleanor’s school have had a kitchen installed over the summer, so she’s decided she wants school meals too. Sadly she’s just missed the brand new free school meals for the KS1 kids.
Bel is settling in great, she’s loving doing the languages (they do French and German! I only did French until we got to year 9 (third year) and then we could choose to do German or stick with French) and she’s looking forward to doing Drama. Their timetable is on a two week rotation, which I’ve never seen in a secondary school before, but it obviously works for them!
Speaking of drama, she’s decided she wants to join a youth theatre group. It’s once a week and she’s been going on and on for ages about wanting to do something like this. As soon as I got the confirmation email I told her it was £3.50 a week or £40 a term and immediately she said I could sign her up for a term! And that was even before she’d asked her friend if she was going as well, so she’s obviously confident enough. Her friend IS going, which is great. So happy for her! She’s also signed up for extra curricula netball. I HATED netball at school, lol!
Rob has been busy too, working at the hotel and going to his sailing meetings. His sailing trip isn’t far off, he’s looking forward to it.
I’m quite proud of the fact he’d committed to his job. His colleagues are forever having “sick” days and asking Rob to cover for them. Rob does it because he’s glad of the extra cash, but he grumbles about how crap it is that they’re so complacent about the job! He’s put his name down to work over Christmas and New Year, including Christmas day, because he gets triple pay! A bit sad he won’t be spending Christmas with us, but he’d probably just sit in his room anyway.
He’s busy looking at Universities right now. College is connected with Middlesbrough somehow, so they’ve been persuading them to apply there. So of course Rob thought it was going to be his only option! But last week he got his results, which were really good, so we’ve been telling him to do his own research into it. He likes the look of Middlesex and Leeds right now, because they both offer a year overseas as part of the course. I think Leeds is the current favourite, but he’s going to make an appointment with his careers advisor when he goes back to college next week.
I’ve been busy with my outdoorsy things. I have to shadow 5 guided walks before I can be assessed, but it’s difficult working it around when dad is free. We did our second one on Tuesday, Keswick to Ashness Bridge, up Walla Crag and back to Keswick. We’re hoping to do one up Castle Crag next Friday. I had a bit of a wibble on Tuesday’s walk as we had a man with us who was very wobbly on his feet and seemed a bit confused about where the walk was going. The terrain underfoot was rocky and slightly unstable and we had to keep catching him as he wobbled down steps. He didn’t have any walking poles with him and ended up having to borrow one from someone else. The established guides made the decision to remove him from the walk, take him down to the road and put him on a bus back to Keswick. But he dug his heels in for ages, saying he was fine, but the guide was insistent, saying the walk couldn’t continue with him in it and if he was going to do it, he couldn’t do it with us and he’d have to sign himself off the register. Thankfully he gave in in the end, but it did make me a bit nervous about being in a similar situation!
Monday I have a work party, we’re doing landscaping.
Today I was in the charity shop with the girls, the shop where I was interviewed for the assistant manager’s role and it turned out to be an internal candidate who got it. The manager was on the till and she told me the role was going to be advertised again soon, as the current assistant manager is transferring to another shop. She told me I should keep an eye on the website and apply for it when it’s up, which made me think she must have liked me! I think I will, the shop is only about 200 yards from my house and the hours are 9-5. The reason I had to jack my job in in Keswick was because of the commute, I’d often leave the house at 8 am and be back at 7 pm, no good for working around the kids!

Last updated September 06, 2014