Level 2 Chi Kung.
Distracted from getting on with the long list of things I needed to get done during the children’s last half day of school, by the arrival of the builders to erect the new log cabin. A large parcel of timber had been delivered by HIAB last Monday and we had been informed that it would be put together like Lego. The guys arrived as I was about to leave to take Katie to school and introduced themselves thus: ‘Hi, I’m James, and this is my brother Jay.’ I’m not sure what possessed me to reply ‘Goodness, your parents didn’t have much imagination!’ but I’m afraid I did.
As I left, I was on the point of asking Nick to photograph progress, but then I thought that they would hardly have time to carry the timber down the back before I got back. However by the time I got home – about 9:30 – it looked like the first picture. Another half hour or so and it looked like the second picture, and by 1pm, it was finished.
I was further distracted by another, rather wonderful, early Christmas present: an email from my boss, saying Merry Christmas and attaching confirmation that our directorate will indeed be offering voluntary redundancy! Yippee! It won’t be nearly as much cash as I would have got if they had let me go back in 2007 when they were supposed to, but hey, given that I don’t want to go back anyway, it’s better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.
Given the distractions, it is a miracle that I managed to get all but two of the remaining presents wrapped. One (for Nick) I have lost (he was about to come in when I was trying to wrap it a few days ago and I tucked it away somewhere safe… except now it isn’t in the safe place, or anywhere else I’ve looked. The other merely requires bubble wrap – which I didn’t have to hand at the time.
Went to pick up Katie from school and was surprised to find her utterly miserable – very downhearted now that Elias has departed for Finland! She cheered up a bit while telling me how the teachers had performed a panto for the children. Mr Roach, the short, plump and rather camp head teacher, apparently played Widow Twanky dressed in a pink wig, a frilly pink dress with sequins and a jewelled tiara. I would have payed money to see that!