Category: Uncategorised

why are you wasting money on that?

With The Wife’s new found love of gardening, our propagation facilities were deemed inadequate. And I had just finished my “to do” list that I had been given over the Spring.

So, with Summer coming, and not wanting me to be idle or relax in the hammock on a warm summer’s day, the need for “something to grow the plants” was required. Apparently.

After several Sunday afternoons in various Garden Centres looking at green houses, and an extensive search of Pinterest® it was decided that we needed a Victorian Potting shed. Plus it would be fancier than anything the neighbours had.

Generously I was given 4 weekends to complete the task.

 

I had just finished installing the last pane of glass, and was sitting back admiring the feat of modern engineering, when number 2 joined me.

“why are we wasting our money on that?” number 2 congratulated me in her veiled complimentary way.

“well, because mummy needs a place to grow her plants” I offered the party line on its justification.

“it is a complete waste of money. We should be spending our money on more useful things” number 2 wasn’t having any of it. and she had also appropriated “our money” as her money.

“we should be spending our money on my Christmas presents!”

Hopefully the plants will flourish and make it all worthwhile.

Glamorous Gardening

Since we moved out of the big city to a home with a garden, The Wife has discovered her green fingers.

This came a bit slowly but has been gathering pace and growing in confidence. so much so that no opportunity to wield a pair of secateurs is missed.

even though we have had  our garden for a few years, The wife can’t let go of some of the big city habits.

Gardening has to be done in the correct attire, and you can’t look too scruffy. just in case someone might pop round and see you.

but sometimes the shoes have to be a bit more sensible…

labels on the Tupperware – it’s not OCD, it’s just easier…

we are going through a bit of a baking and pudding making phase at the moment. this is all very wholesome and healthy, but it has started to have some unintended consequences.

The kitchen larder is starting to get overcrowded with the various cake making ingredients. Plain flour, wholemeal flour, bread flour, self-raising flour, baking powder, yeast, regular sugar, caster sugar, jam sugar and so on.

This came to a head at the weekend and The Wife had to take drastic action.

To avoid confusion and help with easily identifying the various ingredients she let her supressed OCD-ness take over…

 

Unfortunately, the labelling machine ran out of labels, so The Wife had to improvise.

In a feeble attempt to divert attention away from her OCD-ness she tried to joke that the mishmash of labels with their; misalignment, non-standard colour groupings and mixture of fonts would really annoy me. like we noticed all of that.

We all agreed very politely. and thought that it would make things much easier. for all of us.

 

off to the theatre…

So, number 2 is back in hospital. It had been a while since we had visited. It was strange to be back after what seemed to be a long break.

Fairly serious this time and it required an operation.

The family had gathered for the day of the operation, The Wife, me and number 1 were in support of number 2.

The doctors came in a said she would be off to the theatre in the early afternoon.

Number 1 in a bit of a surprise spurted out “why is she going to do some acting?”

The surgeons were a bit speechless…

off to the theatre

 

when they recovered their composure, they asked “if we had anymore questions?”

number 1 looked thoughtful, “when you operate can you find out why she is so annoying?”

a bit more speechlessness from the surgeons…

PeaGate

Number 2 was having one of these impromptu gatherings when Tabitha piped up “Wow, these are huge Peas”.

This surprised us. As after our last attempt at a Pea harvest, we decided Pea growing was not for us. And had changed things in the vegetable section of the garden. Probably the wrong soil for peas. (see a previous post)

And anyway she was in the wrong area, even if a rogue pea plant had escaped our replanting efforts.

Being curious we approached Tabitha and asked to see the specimens.

 Tabitha is a nice well brought up girl, but flora and fauna might not be her strength. The peas she found under the plum tree. Were not peas.

 

Maybe number 2 is not the only muppet out there.

 

the middle child

We were having a pleasant family diner. The four of us chomping away and generally having an attempt at a topical discussion. Apparently, experts think this is good for a healthy family. The wife likes to call it “family bonding time”.

We were happy chatting away when #2 diverts off on a tangent.

“I hate being the middle child” #2 stated quite firmly. With a hint of sadness.

The Wife, #1 and myself looked at each other wondering where this was going to go.

Now as far as the rest of us were concerned we thought that there were only 4 of us in the family. And if #2 was the youngest… It is a bit confusing to see where child #3 is.

“I’m always forgotten”

“you give #1 more time than me as she was first.”

“and the youngest is always getting more attention as she’s the baby of the family”

“I’m just squashed in the middle. I hate it”

Now we were really confused as how did our youngest, #2, think that there was another younger sibling in the house?

Number 1 asked “where is this other younger child?” we were thinking the same thing.

“it’s not fair” lamented #2. “I wish I wasn’t the middle child”.

#2 went on for a bit but we just ignored it.

on the spectrum

it’s funny how the kids pick up new phrases and words. I suppose it is part of a wider learning experience and peer group socialising that broadens their horizons. and the internet that exposes them to more stuff even earlier…

at the dinner table we often have a discussion over the evening meal. and with the kids it can cover quiet varied topics.

on one of these occasions all of a sudden number 1 pipes up

“Dad’s on the spectrum”

“so true” number 2 was in full agreement

“what spectrum is that?” I was curious to find out, if it was about an early computer they were talking about. even though I haven’t owned one of those for many, many years. www.wikipedia.org/ZX_Spectrum

“the spectrum, duh. don’t you know what that is!” was number 2’s statement.

using my best self-control I only asked, in my head, that if I did know I wouldn’t have asked the question…

“autistic. you are definitely well on the spectrum.” number 1 clarified.

“yeah. le-git on the spectrum.” number 2 confirmed.

“you love numbers” was the first piece of evidence offered up by number 1.

“you are always doing Sudoku”

just passing time in the train to work…

“and, just look at the Tupperware cupboard” number 2 pulled open a kitchen draw.

“you always keep your keys in your right hand side trouser pocket”

“and what about trying to arrange the herb and spice jars in alphabetical order?”

“you are even try to hide it” number 1 was on a roll.

“but we know what you are doing”

“you make us change places at the dinner table every day”

“so that you make us think that you are not worried about not sitting in the same place every time”.

“but we know that you are trying to hide it” number 1 was very sure of her logic.

I think this is very unfair on people who are genuinely autistic, where ever they are on the spectrum. as I am obviously not on the spectrum.

 

 

 

Gen Z, Millennials move over…

We recently had some friends staying over during the school half-term. With them came their teenage sons. 2 prime Gen Zs, or whichever nomenclature they go by today; Post-Millennial, iGeneration, Gen Tech, Gen Wii, Net Gen, Digital Natives, or Plurals.

As we live very close to the town centre, we asked the eldest, Timmy, if he fancied going into town. On his own. Perhaps not to be encumbered by being near un-cool parents. And this would have the benefit of getting rid of him for a while.

When we suggested this to Timmy he looked at us with wild disbelief, “what! I won’t be able to do that!”

I was curious to understand why it might be a problem;

“it is quite simple to get to the town centre. It’s basically straight from our front door.”

“you just have to walk in a straight line for 20 mins”

Timmy replied “but I won’t have 4G !”

I’m still trying to understand the implications of this.

But at least our previous Millennial guest Charlotte managed to get into town without wifi / 3G / 4G.

maybe we shouldn’t be so worried about Millennials…?

 

breakfast cereal wars – revenge – part 2

well, we thought that the 2 kids had outgrown their cereal turf war (see Breakfast cereal wars & Breakfast cereal wars – revenge).

nearly 3 years later they are still at it.

number 2 has just gone away with the school for a week. the house was a bit uncharacteristically quiet.

we opened one of the lesser used cupboard doors to get something or other, and hey presto…

another cunning hiding place for the cereals

number 2 was hiding a secret reserve stash of cereals for when she comes back.