Brrrrrrrrr

 I can't believe it's nearly July! Also can't believe that son has only 3 weeks left of year 8. 

I remember when son was younger people were always saying - 'enjoy it, it goes so quickly'. Back in those days I was commuting with son - a 3 hour round trip. It certainly didn't feel like it was going quickly. Juggling child and work was a huge amount of effort and I looked forward to him starting school.

Now he's older and he requires (and wants) less input from me it feels like it's flying past at a rate of knots! It occurred to me earlier that in 4 years (if he doesn't got to university) he will be potentially leaving school to start work. HOW DID THAT HAPPEN!

Though we did have a moment of serenity this weekend.

Brother had a party on Saturday. Not just a normal party - a black tie party. This caused huge amounts of stress at our house. Husband flatly refused to wear black tie, agreeing to wear what he wore for mum's birthday trip on the boat. I also hate dressing up - certainly wouldn't wear a dress - I didn't even get married in a dress!

I managed to find a very groovy jacket on Amazon (see picture) - ankle length, sheer and covered in sequins. I loved it - it's about as close as you can get to dressing as a pirate without wearing a pirate hat.

I was worried it wouldn't turn up in time, but it did fortunately. Due to length of delivery I assume it came on a slow boat from China. I try not to buy from China as I know they use a lot of dodgy labour. But let's face it - it's practically impossible not to buy from China these days. Even when you buy from a British company when it turns up there will be some sort of label or piece of paper in it written in Chinese.

I'm going to rant a bit about that now. I hope that China gets less of a stronghold on goods soon - as no matter how much you spend it feels to me that if it comes from China the goods are not as well put together as they 'used to be'. Now I appreciate that this is a 'price of beef' conversation. But honestly I'm at an age that I have items that have been going strong for over 30 years. Yet when I buy something new now it seems to last 3 years maximum - if that.

I'm convinced that this is for 2 reasons. One being that the items that comprise the item are cheaper (though the price isn't - so it's all about profit for somebody) and the other being to force you to buy new items.

Take our cooker for instance - it's a double oven range. When we moved in 14 years ago we purchased the oven with the house. It was about 20 years old, but still going strong. Eventually about 4 years ago the cooker died. We replaced it like for like. Instead of metal knobs it had plastic ones that constantly snapped. The pictures showing the hob positions and the numbers you turn the oven to have rubbed off completely so you have to guess. This is not because we scratched them off or anything - it's simply from a once a week wipe down to clean the cooker.

The thing is - we purchased a high end brand. It was really expensive, but we felt it was an investment. I think it will last about another year and then we'll have to replace it again. This time I'm going for the cheapest version I can get my hands on. We had the same with our fridge freezer. Originally going for a high end brand that died after 3 years. When we replaced it we bought the cheapest fridge freezer we could. Essentially it will probably have the same life span.

Eventually the high end companies will realise that their strategy to get people to replace items every 3 years is backfiring. Watch this space.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyway - that was quite the diversion wasn't it. Back to party. Brother has amazing house by the sea - not 'by the sea' like me. His is literally on the seafront. He's very lucky to have such a nice position. But perhaps not this weekend. 

Having had weeks of amazing weather with warm nights. Saturday was literally freezing. As it was black tie the boys were OK in their DJ's but all the women (including me) were in light, sheer or sleeveless outfits. It was FREEZING. We ended up huddled in a group all together - trying to share body heat.

It was a great party though. It was nice to catch up with a few people I haven't spoken to for years.

Apart from the party other 'stuff' this week included gardening.

Oh (random brain today), I mentioned that we had a moment of serenity. In order to go to the party we needed to arrange son and dog cover. Dog went to a friend for the night as did son. Son had an amazing time as his friend (who he stayed with) has an eventful life. Literally. Friend's dad has the most awesome job - basically in charge of everything that happens at Glynde (google it if you don't know). 

There's a jazz festival next weekend and they had a rehearsal that son went to along with rest of family. Followed by a meal. I didn't know this was happening. Apparently everybody was very smartly dressed apart from son. Sadly I'd packed him off wearing jogging bottoms and a sweatshirt with the legend 'gamers don't die - they respawn'. He was quite mortified. Hopefully he'll look back on it and laugh.

On Sunday morning husband and I had a brief moment of emptiness. No son, no dog - just silence in the house. It totally freaked me out. What do you do to fill your time. I literally can't remember. I recall filling my time with stuff prior to son's birth - I just can't remember what!

It was brief though as by 9.00am the house was refilled with dog and son. Life back to normal.