A note of Thanks

we are homeward bound this morning and by teatime the children  Sorry, animals will be collected and collated back home.
We can find out more about George's affliction, prise Winnie from her foster mother and pay a kings ransom to the kennels housing the Welsh terriers, who will, no doubt, sleep for the next 24 hours.

I've enjoyed my time in Kent. Thanks to Sorrel for her hospitality and for her never ending effort to go the last mile. Thanks to Jon and Charlotte for hosting some delicious meals and thanks to Duncan and Izzy for the use of the beach hut even though it took us an age to work out what went where!

Richard was a brick chauffeuring us around the Dover cliffs and Leo was very sweet quizzing me to distraction about soddin Star Wars. 

So a big thank you to "The family Prof."...

The Art Of Not Noticing

Sometimes it a bonus being totally unaware of what is going on around you.
Some people just seem to have this skill.
Nothing seems to affects them !
I ENVY THOSE PEOPLE
I am reminded of an elderly enrolled nurse, I once worked with in psychiatry called Donald O'Hara
( enrolled nurses were affectionately known as greenies btw as they often wore green uniforms ) anyhow.... he was Irish, a bit dim, but rather sweet and  had the unerring talent not to be involved or notice any conflict or violent incident when it occurred on the ward, a ward which catered for 30 odd long term mentally ill men.
One lunchtime, I was supervising " dinners" with two other student nurses when one particularly florid schizophrenic patient kicked off  with a fellow patient. Within seconds the two patients had hit each other with full plates of cottage pie and as we students jumped in to separate the men another patient waded into the scuffle by throwing a full jug of juice into the array.
The fight progressed to the heated dinner trolley, where a metal container of baked beans was launched into the mix and as I ( bravely) hung onto the instigator ( who was then screaming that he was original King of Spain) I was spun  into a bamboo planter full of spider plants and knocked the entire collection onto the floor.
To add to the confusion a particularly degraded patient who had the unfortunate nickname of " The animal" crawled into the mess happily eating all of the trampled pastry and mashed potato which had been flung onto the floor.
Of course we students didn't have the gravitas to stop the whole melee, but stop it did when the charge nurse thundered down from his office and bellowed a sharp and aggressive shout of
" DESIST THIS FOOLERY THIS  INSTANT  !"  from the dining room doorway
He looked at us student nurses and baked bean covered patients with a sneering disgust and walked back to his office shaking his head.
Only then did Donald appear. He had been reading the Racing Post in one of the buxton chairs adjacent to the dining room and as he tucked it into his uniform pocket he gave me,  the other food stained student nurses,  and the cowed patients a brief sympathetic  look.

" what's for pudding?" He asked without cracking a smile.

Margate

We went to Margate today

Curved Ball

I should have known better.
In the last post I mentioned that I've not been worried about the animals
And a few hours later my sister rings with the news that George has something wrong with his jaw.
A sudden foul smelling mass which looks suspect according to the vet who examined him
The Prof and I tried so very hard to smile through a family dinner tonight
But I suspect we failed miserably. 

Juggling

I thought I would repeat the holiday selfie 

The Prof ( note both Roger Moore Eyebrows are pinched) the Dowager Sorrel and me 

Today is father's day
Having divorced parents means separate days and separate visits when on holiday, so today we are off to the Kent countryside for a mooch and a pub meal with Richard doing the driving.
We've picked the pub.....it has lamb scotch eggs on the menu...
Result!

The weather is just about to break and there is rain in the air. Unfortunately part of my shinbone resembles corned beef, from too much sun yesterday.
But I thought that at least I fitted in with the great blobs of burnt East End flesh on show on the sand.
I've just realised that  Londoners don't seem to " do" full sunshine very well.

Yesterday Laura from somewhere in the midwest asked me if I was missing the animals and I must say that I have not.
I havent because, like the mother of five toddlers who has got an unexpected pass out to a local bar for the first time,  it's just wonderful to be able to rest your mind and energy  and not worry about something four legged or feathered.
The animals are all in good hands.

Over the last few days I have watched overwrought parents trying to cater for demanding scraps of children 24/7.
It looks a thankless task.
Tantrums and tears, worries over drowning, sunburn, accidents, bad behaviour, and "I've told you before get off that friggin harbour wall" looks and feel exhausting!
I didn't envy many of those  harassed and tired faces, so in need of a quiet child free holiday of their own.

I have the right idea.....farm your kids out to kind neighbours, loving friends, supportive family and failing that bung em in a high security home for the bewildered for 20 quid a night!
You can always keep up to date on what's happening over facebook!
Over a perfectly relaxing cup of coffee!

Winnie in her pristine holiday home! 

White furniture and floor with bulldogs? 

Holiday Selfie

Families

No it's not the Blue's Brothers but a rare-as-hens teeth screen shot of the Prof with his nephew on the rides at Broadstairs Water Gala.
The Prof has a small family compared to mine and one which is run on very different lines as you would expect. it's dynamics are interesting to watch and invariably this leads me to think of my own family and parenting, even though, I am now technically an orphan.
The Prof's family are more sedate than mine, I shared this fact a day or so ago
Mine can ( and were) quite raucous after a small sherry or three and The Prof reminded me of this fact as he recalled our wedding reception.
I think he enjoys my family's silliness

Anyhow,it looks like another warm day here on the Kent Coast and I am going to a second hand bookshop to buy something I can really get my teeth in as the beach hut calls us yet again
I shall leave you with an emailed photo from teenage boffin Cameron who has been overseeing the field. Daryl, Abe and Glen are looking mighty fine!

Health & Safety

It's water gala day here in Broadstairs today which historically, from what I can gather was always a good natured It's a knockout! 

Water Gala Day used to mean Millers and Sweeps fighting on the beach with soot and flour. burly men pulling at each other in  tugs of war...and good looking blokes swinging at each other over a greasy poles! 

Yes all good clean English fun! 

Now Health and Safety has moved in even Neptune ( who used to wade into the bay, all glorious and wet) now has to be ferried onto land by rubber dingy, presumably hiding a life jacket under his seaweed!