A nice catch-all title that lets me just dump a sort of “stuff-that-happened” flow-of-consciousness style of entry.
We drove down to London on Saturday for Elly’s birthday do at the Cock and Dragon. It was a lovely warm day and we took the scenic route through The Shelfords, Fowlmere, Barley, Barkway, Puckeridge. On the way there, we dropped onto the A10 and then the M25 but I wasn’t too keen on that, so on the way back I went through Potters Bar, Essendon, Hertford, Puckeridge, etc. Lovely countryside with poppies in bloom, corn ripening, etc.
We went swimming at David Lloyds on Sunday morning. That was the first time we’d all been for a little while. Neve and Lola both very pleased to go. Lola still very cautious; it took a lot of persuading her to use her arms while I held her in the water: she wanted to keep them near her chest, holding on to my arm. Still, she did eventually let go.
That behaviour is fairly typical of Lola at the moment. We went across to the Engineering Society in Newnham that afternoon for Sascha’s party, arriving a little late — just late enough to have missed the rain, which was good. Sabrina and Tim had organised a few games, one of which was a stilt race, where the stilts were wooden blocks with ropes attached that you pulled on to keep the blocks on your feet. Lola went over to join in, then came back to ask that Isa or I accompany her. I went with her but she wouldn’t join in the game, saying she was scared. I stayed with her, encouraging her to join in, trying to put her at her ease. It wasn’t until everyone else had wandered off that she jumped off my knee and went to try the stilts.
For the past two weeks, Stefy and Sofia had been staying with us but this was their last weekend; spent largely in town at the shops. We left them to it, while we got on with the above. On Monday night, Nonna Cesarina and Assunta arrived, together with Alvise who was to chaperone the girls back the following day. So there were nine of us staying in the house that night. Isa and I moved in with Lola and Neve for the evening, Alvise slept on the sofa, Nonna and Assunta took our room and the other two girls stayed in the spare room on my lovely new bed.
Easy as pie. And then Tuesday evening, Stefy, Sofia and Alvise flew back (I drove, despite worries that my back might be too painful to allow it) and we are now alone with Nonna and Assunta.