Of Bats and Reservoirs

Lots has been happening and going on this end of the week....

On Thursday we (Mum, Kathy, Adam, Adam's friend Nick and I) drove to Street in Somerset. Mum wanted to go and visit, of all things, the Shoe Museum (Street is where the company Clarks began)... apparently as research for something she is writing. Adam, Nick and I, not being entirely enthusiastic about the prospect of spending such a beautiful day in a Shoe Museum, walked the mile or so to Glastonbury. And in true fashion, rather than going to Glastonbury for the festival, as most people our age would have gone for, we went to Glastonbury Abbey (or the ruins of), which was worthwhile in an entirely different way. Brilliant place, lots and lots of history, including apparently being the site of the first Christian church on British soil... but more excitingly, and weirdly, I rescued a bat!!! In the crypt (yes, the crypt... apparently the bat was a fan of cliche...) this little bat was crawling around, at risk of being trampled underfoot by the many visitors to the Abbey. Eventually, this bat had started crawling up the trousers of a lady, who was on crutches, and so had no hands or ability to remove it. So I did (having asked first, of course). Anyway, so it was that I found myself clutching this little bat. Which was crawling over my hands, clinging on with its little claws. You should be proud, who knew I had the guts! I then deposited said bat in an area of the crypt which was away from public access, and watched it crawl off to the nearest dark corner. All together a very weird experience. The whole day was a little weird to be honest. Adam and I ended up having a huge argument with Mum in the evening, which was weird, ended weirdly and is just screwed up. But yeah, sorted now, so nevermind.

Then, yesterday, some old old friends of the family, Diana (mum's best friend), and her son Zander (Adam's age) came to stay for the weekend with Diana's brother (Andy, who we have met before but havent seen in years because he now lives in Chile on a mountain), and his Chilean wife Beni (who doesnt speak much English) and their absolutely adorable, cutest thing in the world, 2 yr old daughter Isadora. Iz is at the age where she is saying some words, though not in sentence form. Half of these words are Spanish, half are English... It is so sweet to see a little 2yr old speaking spanish.

Very very sweet. Anyway, so last night they arrived and we gradually got quite drunk. Ended up sleeping in a big tent in our garden (my bed was commandeered for visitors) with Adam, Nick and Zander, having stayed up talking and drinking and listening to music at 4.30am. That would have been ok if the tent hadnt got so scorchingly hot that I had to get up at 8am just to get out of the heat. So I spent a couple hours watching children's TV, which has declined an awful lot in the last 10 yrs!!! A big breakfast helped. Then spent rest of the morning playing table tennis.

This afternoon we went to Chagford, had a drink (non alcoholic!) at the pub, at which they were playing live folksy music which was quite cool. Then wandered around the village, bought a picnic, and drove up to Fernworthy Reservoir for a 4pm lunch and walk. Was very nice, Fernworthy is a trully beautiful place.


Anyways, lots of fun, and I am so tired I'm afraid I havent presented it in a particularly interesting way. Oh well, serves you right for reading all this way...

xxx

Alice in Wonderland

Another day, another post... aren't I being good...

Well this evening I went to see Oscar (7) in his primary school production of Alice: The Musical. On the face of it, it was a very sweet, sometimes sung beautifully out of key evening. The children were endearingly nervous, or enthusiastic... or in Oscar's case oblivious to anything but finding familiar faces in the audience. Incidentally, he played a Jackdaw... apparently he was just given title of "bird" but he felt the role needed something a little more specific. So it was that a jackdaw, a group of other anonymous birds, and a few other creatures from Class 2 did their dance and sang their songs etc etc. Was v sweet... especially when a young member of the audience got so excited by the repetitive chorus of "down down down down" in one of the songs, that he decided to attempt to join in too... although at all the wrong times and keys and everything. Amusing though.

This was just a primary school production... it was not meant to inspire any of the audience members into anything more than gloating over how wonderful their child was. However, it did strike me as the children mimed Alice falling down the rabbit hole, not sure where she was going, when this constant falling would end, or who wouldbe there with her when it ended, as something rather akin to life, or my life.

I sometimes feel rather like Alice must have, falling down that rabbit hole... totally unsure of anything, and yet unable to stop the rollercoaster I am on. It is scary. And confusing. And rather like Alice, I sometimes find myself in a sea of tears at the end of it (go read Lewis Carrol if you dont get the reference). I could go further into this analogy, and describe the fact that there are many boisterous queens of hearts, and crazy cheshire cats, and uninterested yet enticing white rabbits in my life... but maybe that would be taking too much away from a production put on by a bunch of under 11 year olds. Interesting, however, it is. And I suppose Lewis Carrol thought so.

Then again, I guess I could read something into the label on a jam jar... so keen am I to find answers to all the questions I cannot name.

At the end of the day, those questions dont matter if you look at yourself and make sure that, in your eyes, you are doing the best you can to be the person you think you should be. That you uphold what is important, and act accordingly. You dont let yourself be dragged into things that muddy the water. It can be hard sometimes though... and then is when you need a little help.

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Wow, I haven't posted in so long. But still I have nothing to say...

I'm back home now, though I don't know how much longer this will be home... we are probably moving house in next few months... if we can find someone to buy our house. I guess that's quite exciting. Went to Emma's birthday last week. That was good- thanks again Emma, for a lovely weekend. Other than these things, I guess not much is going on. Life is relatively quiet... which can be quite a relief.

Hrmmn. x

Many days later..

Haven't posted for soooooo long, and I guess lots has happened since I last did but I just don't remember! Have two houses now, and was given keys for new one today so wandered up to check it out. It's all clean and exciting and new! Will be good to move into it, new beginnings etc. What else has been happening? Lots of nothing. Everything and nothing. Don't really have anything to say actually... probably should have thought about that before trying to update you all on my life. Maybe will try again later, x