5389/18309
After a visit to the new house, where an awful lot is still left to be done, it seems, we had lunch in a garden centre. I wondered what had become of us. Who could have predicted this? I mean obviously I am still super cool and relevant… but so soon we have been assimilated. At least, for the first time in a month, I felt young in comparison to the people I was hanging around with.
We came back to my in-laws house and headed off to the bank holiday fete on the green. Unsurprisingly Catie and I were pretty blasted, but Phoebe was full of energy and we tried to keep up. She climbed up the bouncy slide - the steps of which seemed impossibly steep, but then hesitated when it was time to come down and the man running the attraction went up to retrieve her. So she went on the bouncy castle instead, which she was happier on. Then when the time was up, she didn’t want to leave, so we promised her an ice lolly (which is for her now even higher currency than a biscuit). The green was baking hot and there was a queue about 50 people long for the ice cream van. Phoebe did not understand why we had to wait. She refused to queue. And came and stood near the front. I told her that that wouldn’t work and she had to wait her turn, but she wanted an ice lolly and didn’t want to wait. I tried to carry her back to where her mum was waiting, but she didn’t want to stand in a queue. She wanted ice cream. Who can blame her? She then had the bright idea of going round to the other side of the ice cream van, where there was still a window, but no one was queuing. I would have loved it if this lateral thinking had worked. But alas she hadn’t found a flaw in the system. The ice cream man enjoyed his annual payday and stayed with the queuing customers.
Phoebe’s nanna had come over from the burger stall where she was on duty to see how we were getting on. She told us that there was a man selling ice cream there and that there was no queue at all. She took Phoebe off and they quickly returned with three Smarties ice creams. Somehow my daughter had still managed to cheat the system. She hadn’t learned a thing.
A spin on the roundabout, followed by a melt down because she had to then get off and we accepted defeat and headed home. Catie had a rest whilst I tried to stay awake enough to look after my child (and rewarded myself with a beer or two). Phoebe wanted to water the garden which meant I could at least stay on the ground near the water butt and refill the watering can every time it was emptied. A Spitfire flew over which did not entertain me as I just imagined the scene where it lost control and spun into our house. But different people get different things out of stuff. I imagine everyone else is enjoying it because they think there’s more chance of it hitting someone else’s house which they would enjoy.
I managed to then keep Phoebe entertained with terrible Netflix kids TV before her grandparents got home and I fell asleep.
The Fringe, followed by the epic drive, followed by a bottle and a half of beer.
We tried to watch Game of Thrones, but it was too hot and I was too tired and I gave in and passed out for good (for the day).
Or if you prefer to ingest your video in audio only (and can’t be bothered to close your eyes)
head hereWe'll be putting them up on Mondays for the next five weeks.
It’s been nearly a year in getting this to you (even longer if you go from the original kickstarter) and we learned a lot as we went along. We only spent £15,000 per episode, so what we’ve achieved is in many ways astonishing (even if occasionally it might be slightly shoddy - but that’s AIOTM anyway, right?). I am very proud of what we’ve achieved, so thanks to the many, many people who made this possible - especially those who kickstarted it
