The day from hell ... and belly dancing.

Do you ever have one of those days, when almost everything goes wrong? It started out as a bad day as soon as we stepped foot out of bed this morning. Steve was going to be off today, so that was exciting. He got up to get Sam ready for school, as he hasn't done it since he started. I thought a nice lie in was in order. But no, it seems that Sam went to bed too late last night and was not in good form this morning. Firstly, it is a PE day and he needed a towel for the showers. Easy, put a towel into the PE bag, right? No, a towel doesn't fit in a PE bad so he puts it in his school bag, then I suggest he may need a carrier bag to bring the wet towel home in. Anyway, there was all sorts of teenage moody grunts coming from his direction. I dragged myself out of bed to get him ready myself because I could see they were going to be late without my intervention. Bye bye beautiful lie in. When I came downstairs Sam was refusing to eat or drink and wanted to go to school on an empty stomach. Steve was agreeable to this, for some reason. He finally got out to school, in a bad mood. So of course I spent all day hoping that he was OK, and that he perked up when he got there.

I got back into bed. Steve told the remaining kids that he would take them out to breakfast and give me a break (for some reason I never get invited out to these breakfast dates). Anyway, they got ready, got all excited, when the lady working in Steve's shop phoned in sick. So Steve had to go to work and spend the day in the shop, despite it being his day off. That sucked. I had planned for us all to go to Gosford Forest Park or somewhere for a nice family walk. So the day started on a down note, and I was not in good form.

It got worse. Jude quietly started her studies and kept a low profile until she came and asked me about some work, and I realised that I hadn't yet printed it out. So I tried to. But our brand new Dell Printer has broken. Big time broken, and I think it will have to go back. So by this time I was steaming. Stupid damn printer, my life would be a whole lot better if I just threw the computer out of the window! I spend most of my life fixing things. I took a deep breath. Went downstairs. Had a bath. Luke was in good form and we had some cuddles and tickles. His little laughs and smiles soon had me feeling tip top again.

At midday there was a knock at the door (see post below) and there was a lady delivering me a huge beautiful bouquet of flowers! The day was starting to look up again. That really did cheer me up, big time. What a surprise! They were completely unexpected. They are now proudly displayed at the window in the living room. They are gorgeous and smell divine. I tried to put a photo of them on the blog, but this new beta blog very rarely lets anyone post any pictures. It's still not working now. You can see them on flickr in the post below if you want to though.

I picked Sam up from school at 3.20 and was greeted by a child who had discovered the horror of communal showers! Why on earth do they make young children, and adolescents, take showers together in one big shower. You'd think in today's society, that communal showers in schools would be a big no-no. But this is only a new school. All the kids were horrified beyond belief, and most of them managed to sneak in with their PE shorts still on (hence Sam coming home with a wet bum and trousers). I'm wondering whether I can send in a note saying I do not approve of communal showers, and won't let my son take part in that. I don't know if it would be any use. Why do they subject children to such things during a time of their lives when they are more self conscious about their bodies, than ever? It's crazy. As if kids don't have enough to cope with, worry about self image, peer pressure, studies etc.

Well, its 5.15pm and Sam is doing his homework. He says that he does miss all that free time. Jude finished her studies at 1pm and has been free to enjoy herself since then. Sam is still slogging away at 5pm. I must say, the homework he has been set every day so far, is reminiscent of work completed in P1! It's all been colouring! Seriously. On a good note, Sam's whole class were tested today in Music to see how musical they are. I think it was basically testing for a musical ear. "Is this note higher than this one?" Questions like that. Sam said when the teacher asked who plays an instrument, all but one child put their hands up! The test results were read out at the end of the test, from lowest score (an apparently harp playing lad) to the highest score. And guess who got the highest score? Yes, my Sam. He was glowing when he told me. Apparently he let out a big cheer and jumped up in the air when he found out. His teacher calmly said "well done Sam". It must be nice to be the best at something.

I asked Jude to take a shower. I was happily putting my flowers into a vase when I noticed a dripping sound. I went to investigate and discovered a huge crack along the hall way ceiling with water dripping through at rapid speed! I ran up stairs and burst into the shower room. Jude was already out, getting dried. The shower seemed fine, not blocked or overflowing. I raced back downstairs and dragged the huge heavy book case from under the drips, in case a whole torrent should come through. I can't believe it! We had the electrician out yesterday to fix our faulty electric box, and now it looks as if we need to get a plumber out. Thank goodness I had a bath this morning! Keeping a home is like putting your money into a bag of wholes. It cost £300 for Sam's uniform, but we already had a letter home this week requesting us all to purchase special black drama t-shirts from the school. Seemingly, a plain black t-shirt does not do the trick and we must purchase one with the school logo on. Today Sam brought home a letter about music tuition. Sam used to play the violin at primary school. That stopped when he left school. I promised him that he could have lessons on a new instrument when he started high school. I had imagined (perhaps foolishly) that the school lessons would be subsidized (as they were at the primary school). But no, they are more than Jude's private piano lessons. He wants to learn the guitar; at £10 a lesson that's going to cost another £300 a year. Oh boy.

Did I mention that I have signed up for belly dancing lessons?? Oh yes, I kid you not. My Mum wanted to do them and no one would go with her, so I agreed to give it a try. That'll make for some interesting blog photos!

I got an call today from the local newspaper asking if they can come out and take a photo of the kids with their 10ft tall sunflowers and their vegetable garden! So it looks like we'll be in the paper. Cool.

So, its been a bad day, with a nice surprise, which kept my sanity. We have a babysitter this evening so we'll be having a night out without the kids. What do you suppose could go wrong? Food poisoning perhaps? Wish me luck.