Well that was eventful!

Crikey a lot has happened since I last posted.

You'll have noticed by the steaming exhausted fury from my last post that I was ready for a bit of a break. So I had one, just three days, but very much needed. My idea was to have some general R&R, but as ever this didn't happen. Here's what did happen.

Day 1 of break - Wednesday: I actually did a reasonably good job of relaxing, curled up on the sofa listening to LBC via Alexa. Though not listening too hard as things have moved on from constant COVID to constant Russia/threat of European war. I decided to take the same approach I did at the beginning of COVID and just give up on live radio. So I started to listen to podcasts from about a year ago. Much more restful as I knew the outcome of the conversations!

I also started to spade out my son's bedroom. A room that is so full of stuff it would make your eyes water! On the Wednesday I did the first batch of clothes covering his entire bed stacked high with all the clothes in his cupboard. The output of this was 8 bin bags of clothes he'd grown out of to go to the clothes bank and 1 bag of pants and socks for the bin (nobody wants secondhand pants and socks!).

Day 2 of break - Thursday: Son is on half term at the moment and I was keen to do something with him. As we're both pretty geeky I decided to keep things very VR (virtual reality - should you have been living on moon). We went into Brighton where I'd booked ourselves into a VR gaming centre. It's where I took son and his friends for son's birthday. I was very jealous and wanted to play myself. 

The first thing we did was a horror rollercoaster. I absolutely LOVED it. About 20+ years ago there used to be something similar at the end of the pier. A simulator that you sat in with about 20 other people (funny how ones mind has changed since 2020. Seems very odd to pack 20 people in a pod together). Anyway... the simulator then took you around a rollercoaster ride in Mars. You all watched a screen at the front and your seats moved around. I totally loved it and used to do at least 4 times a year. I was gutted when it went.

This rollercoaster ride was similar, but better as you had a 360 view and it was a more personal experience. Straight after that we did another one where we were a ship in a star wars battle. Totally amazing, though a bit much for my brain as I suddenly started to get completely car sick. Half way through (just as we were going through a meteor storm) I had to take my goggles off or I was going to throw up.

We then took a more gentle approach and went for a swim with some sharks - all very edumacational! Then finished off our session doing some stand up gaming where I was chopping up fruit like a ninja and son was doing a shootemup (I'd have liked to do the shooting, but the youths in the shop decided as I was a geriatric woman I'd like to chop fruit - and I was feeling too car sick to care!).

After this we had a bite to eat and I dropped the no carbs and had noodles (actually dropped no carbs HEAVILY over this break and today am sitting here 3 pounds heavier feeling like I have a small pony in my stomach).

Then we finished off our session going to the Rampion Wind Farm exhibition that had been recommended to us. Really interesting to learn how the wind gets turned to energy and there were also VR headsets that meant you could go up inside a turbine. All for free, which was even better!

We then headed home feeling we'd had a great day out - thing is when we worked out how long it had been we did ALL THAT in about 2 3/4 hours! Turns out son has as short an attention span as me - we were both very satisfied.

After this I went back into sons pit of a bedroom and continued sorting things out.

Day 3 of Break - Friday - BEDLAM

Earlier in the week there was a storm (Dudley) it didn't really effect us too much. Our area was then put on red alert for a storm called Eunice. The alert was for 10.00am to 3.00pm. So I got up really early in the morning to take the dog out for its main walk. Turns out the rest of the world had the same idea. I also decided not to take dog up to the hill because the wind was already quite high so took it to the local recreation ground. Turns out everybody else had same idea there as well.

It was like doggy Clapham Junction - literally hundreds of dogs. Though the dogs loved it and all went totally feral with each other. Which was good for the humans as we could just stand there watching the dogs entertain and exhaust themselves.

I dropped dog back home and then went to our mini supermarket to pick up food for the Saturday (more later). 

Then bang on 10.00am the wind picked up, then picked up some more, then some more. Husband was in study and son was gaming with headset on. I spent the entire day leaping up and rushing out to tie fences down, chase bins, pick up bags of poo flying down the road and generally holding the house together. At one point a gust of wind was so strong it forced the attic hatch open, which sent a storm gust through the house. This broke the catch on one of our bedroom windows blowing it out and leaving it hanging by bits of hinge. This is now tied to the radiator to keep it shut. Add to this the fact that every now and then I needed to take dog out (whether it wanted it or not) in case it wanted to wee! It was a somewhat tense day. 

In retrospect there was loads I could have done around the house to keep myself occupied, but with all the chaos we've been through my brain couldn't compute and I literally just focussed on keeping the house together.

At 3.00pm - almost bang on the wind dropped (amazing how close they were with the times). Son and I walked down the road and around to our back fence to survey the damage.

As we walked down the road at the front of the house we realised we'd been lucky. Don't get me wrong - most of where I live was fine - it was just a row of 10 houses (one of them ours) that is towards the top of the hill). It seems we took the brunt. As far as our roof was concerned, so far we just had one tile dislodged - in a spot we could fix it back in place. We also lost some vents which we later found around the side of the house and refixed to the roof. 

However, some of our neighbours had much more damage. One in particular had a tile landslide - where half their roof had slipped down and was hanging from the gutter (later removed by fire brigade). Others had some really severe damage to the eaves etc. I feel so sorry for them (and relieved for me). As we walked around to the back of our house we saw fence after fence down. There was a broken shed on the bath and dog was spoilt for choice with sticks.

We got to our fence and it was leaning backwards onto the pavement at a 45 degree angle. It's quite a big thing to lose the back fence as we back onto a main route into Brighton and the road is raised. Basically meaning people are not only looking at your garden, but down towards your house. 

Whilst the wind had dropped it was still high, so we were limited with what we could do on the Friday - so just prepared things for next day.

Day 4 - Saturday - I got up super early do do things I hadn't done the day before like dye my hair and change sheets (both of things I could have done day before!). Also took dog down to seafront to survey the damage more widely and see if anything cool had been moved up the beach.

Turns out it was literally just my row of houses - I could see no damage anywhere. It was like nothing had happened! Totally bizarre. Even down on the seafront the only sign was that half of the beach had been moved up the promenade where people were scraping things back onto the beach.

At lunchtime we picked up one of sons friends. It was supposed to be take 2 of the panto thing that was cancelled a few weeks ago, where 4 of his friends stayed over. If you recall the Panto was cancelled due to COVID. Sadly the new date was set for half term and most of his friends were skiing. Though it worked out quite well as the friend that did stay has only been clear of COVID for 4 days and so he's hardly been out and he and son haven't seen much of each other.

The local panto is always the the best thing ever. Totally better than any professional panto I ever go to. It's rip roaring fun and the two people in the photo play the Dame and the hero every year. They are actually amazing and hold the whole thing together. Though it was Goldilocks this year and baby bear was definitely amazing - I wonder if he was a dancer that was out of work due to COVID. I hope not because if he is he'll not be in it next year (because he's talented and will definitely be working professionally).

One of the things I love about local Panto is that it's so... local. The person that plays the hero also drives the number 4 bus! Fav part of the panto this year was this.... they always have the classic where they put a prop on the side and if somebody comes to take it the audience have to scream out the name of the hero. This year it was some juggling balls (you can see where this is going) and if anybody went near them the audience had to scream 'Billy, your balls'. Billy would then rush on and thank everybody and keep the juggling balls safe (gosh I love panto!!!). [If you're reading this and you're not British, you'll just have to google what this is, I don't think it happens outside of UK].

At one point Goldilocks was in trouble - 'I need help', she said 'how can I get help'.... Then the dream of anybody putting on a panto happened. The whole setup worked and the elderly lady sitting behind me screamed out 'Touch Billy's balls'. 

Funnily enough it doesn't seem so funny when you're not there, but needless to say the whole audience collapsed with laughter and I dare say the director danced a jig behind the scenes as the dream setup had worked.

After panto we went home and boys went back to gaming. The friend that stayed has been good friends with son since they were 5 and they've just followed each other to the same schools. As a result it's very relaxed when he stays because we know him so well. I also banned them from nerf battles this weekend as I'd spent so much time tidying and couldn't cope with the house being broken apart by boys.

When we got home a load of storage had been delivered. So I went back up to sons room and started to pack all his bits and bobs away into storage. I'm thrilled to say that by the time I'd finished his room looked about 70% better. 100% will not happen until he suddenly decides we can throw away some of his childhood. Though I'm told with boys sometimes this never happens (hence the Toy Story 3 storyline).

Day 5 - Sunday - After all the excitement I was determined to keep things calm so I at least felt a little relaxed before starting the week. As a result I did very little apart from take clothes to the clothes bank, cook breakfast and lunch (and 'directed' son as he cooked supper). I also made lunch for the week (sausage rolls etc.) so I didn't get bothered Monday to Friday. Then just caught up on the Apprentice and other trashy tv that's been piling up as I watch telly so rarely these days.

Fabulous husband also went to DIY shop for rope and then came home to tie fence up. We'll get onto insurance company later this week. Hopefully, we can get all sorted without too much trouble. Husband has back fence project and I have window project. Doubtless I'll bore you with more in another post.

And that was it - my so called relaxing time off. Though I feel a lot better for it.