This morning I 'slept in' (until 7.50am) accidentally, having set my alarm for 5 to, in theory go for a run down to the river (pfft...like that was ever going to happen). I got up feeling mildly guilty, and hoping Cherie wouldn't be too annoyed, only to find, when I first saw Cherie, that the two cars had been 'broken into' whilst on the driveway. I say broken into, but both had actually been accidentally left unlocked as things have been pretty hectic here recently, organisation-wise (that and this is a 'safe neighbourhood', and they have security gates, so the risk seems minimal anyway). Nothing was taken, thankfully (despite Cherie and the kids' passports being left in one car, and rifled through!), and, thanks to their incomprehensible-to-outsiders immobilisation systems, neither car was actually stolen. This was pretty disconcerting anyway though, as I'd been left as the sole adult in the house last night, because Paul and Cherie went out on their last date night before Paul leaves for the UK. I had felt unusually spooked being in the house on my own - despite having been left there with just the kids before - and weirdly enough, I'd actually gone out to put the buggys down by the side of the house, seen one of the cars unlocked, and with a window down, and attempted to start it to put the windows up. Ironically though, thanks to aforesaid immobilisation system, I'd failed to do so. I wish now that I'd had the foresight to text Paul or Cherie and ask them how to do it, but I didn't want to seem too intrusive, and kind of assumed they might lock both cars when they came back in the other one. The other thing that spooked me the next morning was the fact that there had been a car with its headlights on just across the road, waiting there for an oddly long time (I was trying to fold one of the buggys up, so I know it was at least 10 minutes-worth of incompetent catch-fumbling...), which had then driven off not long after I'd come out. Cherie also told me that whoever they were had been around the side gate, and into the courtyard, despite the fact that Paul had been up until about 3am (attempting to adjust his body clock to UK time). If a big trained military man doesn't deter people from scoping out a house, then it made me wonder what chance Cherie and I have :S. Eh well, if something happens it happens, and Cherie has repeatedly assured me that people can't get into the house, and we (by which she hopefully really means they - I've got into the habit of closing and locking things after me mostly to keep the children out of harm's way) just need to be more vigilant, putting the blinds down (whilst great when the sun is shining, the large windows everywhere do make you feel a bit exposed), and setting the burglar alarm etc.
Anyway, aside from a bit of early morning scare-mongering (Cherie now wants Annie and Michael to be moved into the back nappy-changing room too, to be closer to her and me at night) today was a pretty good day. Whilst Paul went into the city to complete various remaining tasks, Cherie and I took Annie and Michael to 'Braille Nest', which is basically another form of Kindy, again with specific emphasis on extra support for visually-impared children. The facilities were fantastic - it's basically a nursery attached to a Primary School, and they had all manner of outdoor play things (Michael had a whale of a time climbing stuff, pushing carts around, and throwing a giant ball about) - whilst indoors they had the same fluorescent books with braille and sewn on 3D pictures (things like little rubber frogs, teddies etc) as well as all the things you'd find in an everyday nursery ('home corner', craft areas, teeny chairs and sinks and so on). Unfortunately, the day's activity was 'making playdough' (seriously, for someone with a playdough phobia, Annie has to deal with a pretty indecent amount of exposure to it) but Annie was fine until it got to the mixing stage, and the mixture actually started to resemble playdough, at which point she promptyl refused to join in, and looked at books for the remaining time. We stayed all morning, though Cherie hadn't intended to, as Annie hadn't been in a while, so we were supposed to be helping her settle. This resulted in a major 'tanty' when we left though, and I attempted to carry a screaming, squirming Annie out of the gate (she can be heinously stubborn/immovable when she doesn't want to do something).
After this, things got considerably better though, and we returned home for prolonged naps (I had a bit of a zone-out in my room after ensuring there was nothing more around the house I could feasibly do) then I took Annie and Michael down to the playground right by the river, which was really picturesque, we had 'bathtime' - which turned into 'shower-time', as Cherie has apparently been informed by the kids' swimming teacher that showers might help Annie's developing water familiarity. What with that, the change of bedroom, and the impending absence of Paul, it seems a lot of change for them both to cope with. Paul also warned me that Cherie was likely to be upset for a while at his leaving...(well duh! I know there's the British stiff upper lip stereotype and all that, but we can still empathise!). So how everyone fares over the next few days remains to be seen...
A xx
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