The hills are alive…with the sound of Blaze & The Monster Machines

Today I feel a bit more human. It was really frosty this morning, I walked our boy to pre school and we blew dragon breath in the air and skipped around copious amounts of dog poo. Despite the potential horrors under foot (and hiding under leaves), I love walking with him in the morning. He is chatty and bright, not over wound, just talkative and inquisitive. Sometimes he is a grump when I collect him, I suspect he is tired after a busy morning and the prospect of walking up a big hill is only mildly improved by the thought of fruit pastilles. So the mornings walks are good. When I drop him off I always feel a bit awkward though, I never feel like I fit in as a Mummy, they all seem very grown up and organised…that’s just the kids. I often manage to make myself feel a bit annoyed for managing to say or do something stupid in the brief time I am in there, either to another parent or member of staff, so I endeavour to get in and out as swiftly as possible. I never like leaving him but he always seems to confidently stride off and get on with things. I hope he will always keep his confidence and his kind of quirky little spark. Occasionally he will ask me to stay for a bit but I know they don’t really like that, so I give him a kiss and tell him I will see him at lunch before I head back out. Once I am in the morning air, I take a deep breath (well not too deep… traffic fumes) and head off. Sometimes I take a walk down to the sea and take some photos, it’s nice to get down there at that time of day, most commuters have gone, kids are either in bed or dropped at various schools or child care things and the shops are only just opening their shutters. It’s a bit like the town is opening its sleepy eyes.

This morning I took myself round the shops to buy some essential items and some not so essential; did you know you can buy a spread made out of biscuits? I am not sure this was a much needed purchase but I took a gamble and and got that along with some fancy mayonnaise concoctions that we didn’t need. I feel both my Mr and me need a little bit of a boost, strange spreads and fancy mayonnaise seems a relatively harmless way to do it! I realised on the way home that I had forgotten to get a few bits but we can live without them and I was weighed down with too many bags as it was. I do wish I could drive these days. I was never bothered about it before but now our boy is getting older I am beginning to feel it would be useful- to get him to school when the weather is terrible instead of trudging through the downpours in soggy clothes, getting further soaked by passing cars who have their radios on loud and the heated seats in their Chelsea tractors keeping their designer clad bums warm. Sploosh.

Today though the driving would have been useful for me. I could get the bus but often by the time I have made it to a stop I might as well just carry on walking. After the frost disappeared, it actually became pretty warm in the sunshine, bright clear blue skies…me in a very warm winter parka, carrying more shopping than I meant to get…up a big hill…in a limited time frame. I caught a few people glancing my way as I wobbled along, red faced and laden with biscuit spread and loo roll. I really need to fill out that application for a provisional licence. I can still walk our boy to and from pre school, but use a car for my surreptitious shopping sprees.