Tarrant & Andrews Family Diary
tarrant.org.uk
When I was at Meeting yesterday I picked up a letter that was waiting for me in the pigeon holes.
It was from Oxfam and said that £872.01 had been donated at Cindy’s funeral. I’ve also had a few other letters from their central office telling me that other people had donated money in memory of Cindy. So the grand total must be nearly £1000.
We’ve had a busy week, which is one reason I haven’t written about it, and the other is that we were away from computers for half of it.
From Saturday morning to Tuesday evening the four of us went to Hunstanton. We stayed in the youth hostel, ate a couple of meals in an excellent pub, lots more nice meals elsewhere, went on a boat trip to see seals, ten pin bowled, went swimming, walked along the beach, watched paragliders, went to the cinema, saw butterflies, birds and llamas at a wildlife centre and generally had a good time.
Once we had got home, Rose in particular had a busy time. She went to Young Embroiderers with Nok on two mornings, and to a wood working thing on another with Lily.
John and Toby went to the Apple Mac show in London with Lance on Friday – and came home with an iPod nano each, and one for Rose. What an extravagent grandfather they have. They arrived home at about 11:30pm, and couldn’t go to bed till they had got music onto one of them, and had a listen. Saturday was therefore spent putting music onto these amazing little things (and story books in Rose’s case). No one need fight over the car radio again – or even talk to each other in the car!
Friday evening Kath came round for a meal. She had been going to bring Louis too, but with the boys being off and Louis having a party, it was just her. Very good to sit and chat to her. Nice meal too.
We saw Jane and her friend Merrial on Saturday. They took Rose to have her hair cut at Glen & Julio’s – which was an experience apparently. Toby went to watch Huddersfield with Keith. We had supper at Lance and Mary’s.
Today we went to Meeting for the first time since Cindy’s funeral. I knew I would find it very difficult and I did. Lasted about 20 minutes and then sat in the library with Cathy.
In the afternoon we went swimming (took Lily too), then John and Rose went out to a Halloween Party at Lottie and Polly’s. I made a lovely lamb and spinach curry for tea.
I went over to Will and Sarah’s today to take Sarah to hospital. She’s got a bad case of conjunctivitis which had been agravated by eye drops she had been given. Her sight wasn’t up to driving, and she wanted someone to look after Jack and Grace while she was seeing the doctor. She got another appointment for next week, but the doctor reckoned she should be ok.
I had coffee with Michelle this morning at the Blakehead Bookshop and Café – oh yeah and a huge plate of mushrooms on toast. Long chat. She had Dominic with her – what a charming child, smiley and cheerful.
Then in the afternoon it was John and Rose’s Harvest festival. Excellent as all Scarcroft things seem to be at the moment. Rose’s class sang several WWII songs – not really a harvest link, but… John’s class didn’t do a huge amount – 1 poem – but I expect that all their effort went into last Friday’s superb Good Work Assembly.
John has no gym this week or next, and Rose was taken by Jenny and picked up by Mark, so not a busy evening. Early to bed.
Cindy & I had organised this term’s worth of big deal tickets. I decided that I didn’t want to go without her, so I’ve given them away to family and friends.
Sam and Steve went to see Twelfth Night (review).
Mary and her sister Anne went to see My Mother Said I Never Should (Anne said it was interesting!).
Judy and Keith are going to see Jerusalem.
And Jo and Bill are going to see Dead Funny.
Just had a film from Rose’s camera developed. It starts with photos of last year’s Christmas tree, so it’s been in there a while. There are a couple of lovely photos of Rose, Cindy and Mary.
John, Rose and I cycled this morning along the cycle track to Naburn on the Scarcroft HSP cycle ride. Nice leisurely ride that we all managed easily with lunch at Naburn.
Then this afternoon we went to see Wallace and Gromit. Excellent film really enjoyed by all.
After a lovely tea of lamb chops for John and I and spinach and feta pie for Rose, we went to pick up Toby from the station. He’s had a lovely time with Jane and Andy – really enjoyed himself and has come home full of the joys of the big city! Lovely to have him back.
Rose’s dance show has been taking up a lot of time the last few weekends and I finally got to see the finished thing tonight. I was amazed. It was very good indeed and Rose looked very grown up in her various costumes (flower, sailor and spoon!)
Rose has got exhausted with the dress rehearsal last night, and then two performances today, so I hope she’ll have a bit of a lie in tomorrow.
Rose and I went to the station to wave off Toby. He is spending this weekend in London with Jane and Andy. It’s the first time he’s gone on a train journey by himself, and although I was sure he would be ok, it still felt very strange watching the train pull out with him in it.
He was met by Jane at Kings Cross so all was well. On his journey, he texted me several times, so it’s not even as though I didn’t know where he was!
Rose went off to a dress rehearsal for her dance show Alice in Wonderland. So it was just John and I at home – very quiet indeed.
I went for a walk in the Yorkshire Wolds today with David Campbell. We left after dropping children at schools and drove to Kirby Underdale. It was about 8½ miles round trip from there to Thixendale and back. The weather was a bit grey and misty, but it didn’t actually rain! In Thixendale we looked at the building that used to be a youth hostel, that I stayed at with Will about 7 years ago. It’s now heavily renovated, looking much better and is used as a village hall.
This evening John and Rose have been out to Stomp, a very exciting percussion/dance show with all the Emericks. They came home at about 9:45 very excited and hyper. I have been out to the Scarcroft pub quiz for a bit – with Kjartan comparing the quiz. Shame I won’t find out the answers!