Taking a grandchild on holiday - Lesson One

I know it looks as though I have her on a pink lead but it is just the fishing net. We were discussing the tide coming in. She drew a line in the sand because she didn't believe the water was creeping up the beach and she was totally in awe of the fact that as the series of waves got a little bigger each time the water came a little further and didn't go back as far. I told her to ask her mother about the seventh wave being a big one.

Lesson one begins with the words Do Not Take a Grandchild Away Without Its Parent.
You can guarantee that homesickness and missing Mummy will happen at bedtime every night. We had the most glorious weather, really enjoyed the places we saw and are really, really glad to be home and sleeping in our own bed.
Actually I kind of amazed myself because I managed to keep the homesickness at bay until Thursday, when usually I can only manage three days before I just want to go home. I will put up some more pictures as soon as I have sorted them . I will be doing an album for the holiday so I might put pictures of the pages up.

Simply a moment - July

I am just about to play Farm Heroes Saga on Facebook when I notice that I have a message. I click on the icon and begin to read

I haven't made a friends request as I wanted to send this message first. When I left Wales all those years ago I was a very angry and bitter person and said and did things which, in time, I came to regret - foremost amongst these was falling out with your good self.

I realise that this is from someone who really hurt me, someone I haven't thought of in nearly 20 years, someone I had vowed never to speak to again. He was one of the guys that regularly played in the Role Playing games sessions that took place in our house.

I read the rest of the message and there is just something about the words and the way he uses them that makes me believe that he is being sincere. I show it to Mr M without commenting and he stays silent for a minute. "Sounds like he's finally getting those chips off his shoulders", he says, turning back to try and complete another level on Candy Crush Saga. This confirms my reaction to the message. I begin to type

"So where's this friend request?" I ask "I can't accept you if you don't send it can I?" I click reply and within seconds I get an answer.
I am so glad to have him back on the Christmas card list

This post is brought to you through Alexa at SimplyAlexa when we all take a moment to describe a moment in our lives. Why not pop over there and take a look at some of the other simple moments - I will.

The one about the book of maps

I read Mitra's blog and it immediately reminded me of a trip we made to Nottingham way, way back in the 1980s.....................probably around 1986.
That was when I had my shop. You didn't know? oh sorry, well, I had a shop called Armchair Adventurers and it sold role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons(tm) and Runequest, Call of Cthulhu and stuff like that. We also sold 15mm and 25mm wargaming figures and the fantasy wargaming figures as well.

I needed some dwarves and I needed them urgently. Mr M suggested that we could go to Nottingham where Asgard Miniatures had their workshop. We could go by train, pick up the figures, spend a while having a look at Nottingham and then come home. It looked like it would be the closest thing to a holiday that year . So that's what we did. We bought a book of maps of the city and discovered that the workshop was the other side of the city from the station so that meant a bus ride. We collected the dwarves - made of white metal so an army was pretty heavy - and made our way back to the city centre. We were hungry, so we went into Ronnie McD's - OK this was the 1980s ok and it was new and strange. We had a quarter pounder and a drink. I needed the Loo (bathroom for my overseas cousins) so I gave my handbag to Mr M and shoved the book of maps into the pocket of my waistcoat - it was a big pocket.
The toilets in McD's are checked every hour and cleaned very frequently. There were three cubicles and only the one in the middle was open so I went in, glanced into the toilet - as you do - it was shiny and clean and smelled of pine. I flicked up my waistcoat to pull down my jeans and that's when it happened.

The book of maps flew out of my pocket and - in slow motion - turning slowly it executed a perfect two and a half turns before plunging into the clean shiny toilet bowl.

I instinctively let go the trousis and grabbed the book, lifting it and shaking it vigorously to make it dry. This sent water spraying everywhere, including the cubicles either side of me. The sound of doors being unbolted and footsteps exiting followed by silence.
I stood in the cubicle dripping wet,with my trousis round my knees, the book flopping soggily in my hand and watched the droplets of water coursing down the walls.
Quickly I wiped the seat with some toilet tissue, did what I came in to do and went out of the cubicle.
Now I had a soggy book to deal with and we still needed it to find our way around. Oh Look they have hot air hand dryers!! I was busily drying the pages of the book when a lady came in through the door. She glanced at me and did a double take. I smiled. She went into the middle cubicle and quickly came out again. It was REALLY wet in there. She chose another cubicle and I continued to dry the pages as though it was the most natural thing in the world.
When I eventually got out to Mr M he was beginning to wonder what had happened. I didn't dare tell him in the shop so he had to wait until we were out in the street and I could show him the crinkly book and explain.
He said it was typical! I can't think what he meant.

The ForNow Book(s) - Story telling Sunday

Pick Your Precious - Story Telling Sunday-3  is about celebrating the little things you love: those souvenirs, bits and pieces, things from your past you can't bear to throw out. You know, the special little something you have tucked away in a drawer or up on a shelf? Or the thing you love most in a room? Or the object you would save if you knew you had to leave the country? Your favourite things.Invented by Sian over at FromHighintheSky why not pop over there after you have read my story?

Ready to begin?

The ForNow Book(s)

 I thought everyone had ForNow things. Boxes, bags, albums and in our case rooms. I thought everyone understood why they were called ForNow places. It appears not. This was brought home to me the other day when I had cause to send Favourite-Son-in-Law upstairs to fetch something for a friend who was visiting.
"It's in Andrea's Room not the ForNow room," I said and off went FSiL to rummage while my friend gave me one of those looks. "What?" I asked.
"What on earth is the ForNow room?" asked my poor deluded friend. "That's where everything goes when it doesn't have a home," I replied "Everyone says 'Oh stick it in there for now' and we have a room full of stuff that has been put 'In There ForNow' so it has to be the ForNow room."

So there you are. But I also have a couple of ForNow boxes and several ForNow Books where I put the pages I have scrapbooked until they can find a permanent home. I said to Mr M this morning "One day I am going to have to take all these pages out of these albums and sort them into their proper places." He nodded and then truned his face slightly to try and stop the grin spreading across it. Too late! I saw it and had to laugh too.

What I really want to tell you about is one of my pages in the ForNow book. It will eventually go into the album about me - the milestones album that I haven't started yet but I have several pages already. This one is the best Christmas present EVER.

This is the receipt for payment from my Dad to Cwmbran School of Motoring for ten driving lessons. The journalling reads:

"This has to be the best Christmas present EVER! The year is 1967 Michael is four months old and my father gave me 10 driving lessons for my Christmas present. It was not universally popular but my then husband would not openly go against my Dad."

I passed my test in freezing fog with ice on the roads and snow frozen into ruts. It was the thing that saved my sanity because I could bundle the children into the car and escape to White Castle or the Forest of Dean where they could run and shout without fear. Finding that receipt in my Dad's box of momentoes was a real blast from the past so it is now secured on its own page in the ForNow book, awaiting transfer..... oneday