A Humdrum Mum

I promised more on this from my Facebook teaser earlier. Can I firstly just say I'm not proud of myself. I know I wasn't wrong, but I'm not proud of what I did. Let me explain. I was driving home from a Waitrose shopping trip, I'd ambled around the precinct, talking to some old lady who I didn't know, chatting to a shop assistant in John Lewis who I only knew from popping in there since Elf was born. (We have a 7 year relationship and discuss quite personal things, but we only ever see each other in the shop.) The free Waitrose cup of tea had mellowed me and as I drove home, I admit I was driving nearer 25 mph than 30 through the city, but that was my only crime. So far... A black Audi was driving right up my backside all the way home. Admittedly I could have sped up, but tailgaiting me was not going to get that kind of response. I continued, singing along to The Charlatans, Can't Get Out Of Bed. I wanted to pop into the local shops to get my blood pr...

I have reached the end of my tether with Blogger - I cannot get my comments to work on either my private or my public blog. They are just f-ed up! I have tried everything and I mean everything, uninstallling, reinstalling IntenseDebate, uninstalling again, then reverting back to Blogger comments and messing with the html. I now have to set the Reader Comments manually to Allow for each post, which takes away the ability to post on the go (as it has to be done on a pc not my iphone or ipad). I am so grumpy about this and am wondering whether to Wordpress it.... Can anyone help or let me know if it is just me?! - Grumpy not Humdrum Mum

The boy Elf is back after holidays with both sets of grandparents in the West Country. My week of peace and quiet is over. But my social life is back!

It didn't come completely cost-free though. It cost some of my pride. I was waiting in a cafe for a friend on an outside bench when the bench collapsed. I fell in and I ended up with my legs and head sticking out the top! I managed to extricate myself from it but had to ask my friend who was queuing for help! I'm sure loads of people in cars saw me. The staff came over and checked I was ok and removed the whole broken bench. They said Would you like a drink? I replied Well I was thinking about having an ice cream - and promptly got one. I recommend The Garage's Eton Mess ice cream but I don't recommend the way I got it.

Mags - I thought I'd grown out of magazines. At 42 (ahem), the only Cosmopolitan I'm interested in is the liquid variety. A look online gives me these headlines: official 50 Shades of Grey lingerie launched (I have one style of pants, the same as my mum!); the new fringe style (made that mistake too many times to repeat; have these people got shares in fringes?); careers masterclass (having swapped the rat race of marketing for a teaching assistant role, this is irrelevant); and Fearne Cotton models some clothes or other. I don't mean to be rude, but she holds no relevance for me. Strangely I'm interested in reading how Gwynneth admits how a liquid diet left her hallucinating ... but let's get on. Other magazines like Red, Living, Glamour etc don't hit the mark. I do like Woman and Home, and She - this just shows my age! However today I've discovered Psychologies. When it first came out, I pooh-poohed it - I have a degree in psychology, I told myself, I ...

Today is the start of my holiday. Elf is away with the grandparents, Mr Humdrum is working. I have one whole week to myself. As I work in school, when people go on at me for having loads of holidays, I remind them that, lovely as it is, I don't get time off sans enfant! I have a few plans: I must clean the house, tidy a few hot spot mess areas, clear out infant school paperwork ready for junior, get school uniform ... But I also have nice things to do: see World's End in the cinema, write some letters, experiment with some recipes (hence the scones), meet a few friends for coffee, read a few books, give myself a manicure ... Recently I decided to take up a new mini-hobby - Mr Hundrum gave me a sketch book for my birthday so I might use it. I also want to get back to learning something and have decided to pick up my Teach Yourself Latin book again. So those are my plans. Let's see by Friday how I've done! Off with the baking apron and on with the rubber gloves. ...

Last weekend we went for The Longest Day Beer Festival at a village near us. It was a group effort, five families with eight kids - boys 3-8 and girls 6-9. It was our first family festival and our first beer festival - usually the dads just go on them! The weather wasn't being kind to us, it was raining and blowing a hoolie but hey. We were trampers this weekend if not glampers! We arrived at 2pm ish and once the camp was up, the boys went off to play footie and I set about making Pimms for the ladies (compete with lemons, limes, grapes and cucumber but I forgot the mint!) while the men went off to suss out the beer tent and list. A first for us - we allowed the older boys to roam freely between the camping field and the beer tents and pub garden. There were security all around, and it was only a two minute walk from the tent to the beer tent. At different points, the oldest boy was found reading to himself in the gazebo and at another, two other boys were sat at the side ...