My Diary Saturday 22nd September 2012 by Fran Reeves

I woke up twice during the night the first time by my teenagers coming upstairs to bed and leaving the landing light on – I don’t know if that is just a parent thing or a condition inherited from my own parents creating a strong desire to waste not want not, or it may be because I don’t want the direct debit for the electricity to be increased this year. The second time was because I have a dreadful cold and I woke up coughing (sympathy please) I took a couple of Lemsip Max- the new ones that are really horrible to swallow with a sore throat and then snuggled back under the duvet. I remember when I was young Dad always swore by whisky and hot lemon for a cold, as we got older he would make it for us I hated it and to this day I still can’t abide the smell let alone the taste of whisky sorry Dad x. When I eventually surfaced from my bedroom the sun was shining and Jack dog was ready and waiting for his morning walk, today I made him wait a little longer and had Sugar puffs and a cup of tea before venturing out, he wasn’t very impressed with the change in routine but cheered up when we eventually headed up the road to the woods. I love our walk it can be so peaceful with just the birds singing and squirrels in the trees warning each other that we are about, Jack has a “thing” for squirrels but they always manage to evade him.

When we got home both the boys were downstairs and had made themselves omelettes and left a trail of devastation through the kitchen and a smell of burning oil pervaded the house, fortunately they had opened the windows. They both disappeared quickly when I voiced my opinion of the mess they had made.

I only ventured out once more and that was to Morrisons to get the weekly shop, it’s a 6 mile drive, there is one locally but it doesn’t have the same choices or a petrol station so it’s worth the drive, today the roads were clear and the sun was shining so it was a pleasant journey, although I don’t consider food shopping to be a pleasantry in any shape or form. It’s only September and they are already pushing Christmas. Mum used to shop in the local co-op on Newnham Road and we used to carry the shopping back in two large bags, they were heavy! She used to treat us all to a bar of chocolate every week, when she began her nursing training I was 13 and it became my job to do the shopping when she was working, the first week she wrote a list but after that I was left to my own devices. I admitted to her years later that I always brought an extra bar of chocolate for myself and her reply was that she knew – how did she know I never gave her the receipt, obviously a mum thing.

My eldest son was out when I got home and my youngest went off to spend the night with his dad, so after putting the shopping away I settled down to revise for an exam I have next month. I am studying for a degree with the Open University simply because I can, I should have done it when I was younger but school was boring and I couldn’t wait to leave, if I had done it in the 70’s I am sure I would have found it easier. The revising didn’t go well it conflicted with Grand Designs on catch up TV.

When the eldest son came home we settled down to watch Dr Who together. This was always a family moment in the 60’s and I used to sit on the floor next to my mum’s chair (we didn’t have a settee then just a chair each) so that I would be well placed to hold her leg if I got scared – which did happen on occasions!

The rest of the evening was spent doing very little other than watching TV and catching up with emails and Facebook and I went to bed early with the intention of revising – that didn’t happen either the Readers Digest monthly magazine was far more interesting.