Week 93 - Front room painting, New Years! and surfing at Rest Bay

On Monday we were still down in Dorset. Mark and I had a swim in the morning before breakfast which is a rather nice way to start the day.

We had an early lunch and then went out for a walk in the New Forest. The air was damp, but there was only one very brief rain-shower. 

The girls were particularly keen on mushroom spotting, hence follows a lot of pictures of mushrooms as well as pictures of my lovely girls...

On Tuesday morning, Mark and I had another pre-breakfast swim.

We got some of our stuff packed up and then tried my new game. At work, several of my colleagues are into board games. I had asked for their top recommendation for a board game given the ages of the girls, and Catan was what was suggested.

It took us a little while to get going and figure out what on earth (or what on Catan) was going on. But once we were into it, everyone was engaged with the process. The game involves creating settlements and developing cities and roads, while gathering resources and trading with other islanders. It was a good hour's worth of concentrated world building!

We had lunch, and packed up a bit more. The girls had a swim. 

We said our goodbyes and drove home in the dark. I don't like that journey in the daylight, but it was nice to have spent the best of the day with D&T. It had been lovely to spend the time with them, with things feeling almost back to normal. I could tell how much they had missed having us all around, and how grateful they were for this Christmas, given how they had spent last Christmas just the two of them. 

We had a fairly lazy morning on Wednesday. We had been thinking about going surfing, but checking the weather again, we decided against it. We didn't have much food in besides Christmas snacks, so went across to the hatch, having forgotten that it was only open for cakes, coffee, and with outdoor seating.

I wanted to take pictures of the girls in some of their new stuff...Bunnykins in her new super fluffy fleece that she was very pleased with....

And Woo looking very stylish in her new jeans, newly cropped t-shirt (previously found in a charity shop) and new Converse...

We walked up to the high street and bought some pasties for lunch. Then Mark and I set about the front room. Mark did another coat of white paint on the ceiling, and I cleaned up the skirting boards and picture rails.

In the evening we watched Superman on the projector.

On Thursday we spent most of the day working on the front room. Mark nipped out to get more white paint for the ceiling, and I made a start on painting. I did all the edges: painting around the skirting, corners, picture rails, and sockets. Mark painted the ceiling, then did all the rollering of the new colour on the walls.

We listened to audio books on BBC Sounds all day: The Mysterious case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, a Charles Paris mystery, and loads of Sherlock Homes short stories.

We got most of the colour painting done before it was dark, then ate supper. I wanted to get the glossing done as well on the skirting and picture rail, so we found work lamps and carried on.

In the evening, Bunnykins didn't want to watch telly, so we chose something from Woo's list of classic films that she wants to see: Some like it hot. I haven't seen it before, it was fun enough, and I was amused to see Marylin Monroe playing a ukulele (badly). 

Friday was New Year's eve. I had rescheduled the cancelled 5 Children and It tickets for the 11am performance at the Egg theatre in Bath. 

We were the only ones up on the balcony which was really lovely. The rest of the audience were much younger and were all in the stalls, so it felt even better to have our own private space!

Woo decided to try a new spot at the interval

....spotted 

(these pictures were in the interval - they were actually quite rapt when the play was on).

We then went to a tapas bar close to the theatre. The girls had asked for tapas. This place you couldn't book tables which gave me a deal of anxiety, but fortunately when we arrived there were still 2 tables free.

We drove home. Mark went off to get us some groceries. I did a bit of touching up on the paintwork in the front room and the girls had a couple of hours reading or scrolling in their rooms. 

When Mark was back, we all convened for some Catan...

Then Mark prepared a fondue while the girls and I got the outside area set up. We were quite late eating, but that suited us very well.

We sat out chatting and listening to fireworks going off around.

We talked about new year's resolutions, and about what we had thought of 2021. I don't set resolutions any more. But I do have opinions on 2021...it sucked! 😄 Tbh, I much much preferred 2020 to 2021. In those early months of the pandemic, there was sunshine, I was spending time with my girls, I wasn't working, there was hope of an end.

2021 has run me ragged work wise, and the covid outlook has morphed into something much more long term and insidious. The vaccines have been a huge positive to 2021, so the Christmas we have just spent it much more like back to normal and that it all thanks to vaccines and boosters. But all in all, I am happy the year is done.

Then we played Cards against Humanity (family edition mind you!).

(For the Mummies...)

It was really good fun. 

Woo was particularly good at it, and basically won every round that it was possible for her to win. This was the little gesture she made eventually each time she won...

A fireworks display started off a few gardens over, our blind took ages to raise, which was funny as we strained to try and see under and through it.

Catching the last few bangs over the fence...

Just before midnight, we wandered down the garden and watched the fireworks all around. The most impressive being in the park.

We then all went straight to bed as alarms had already been set for 7am!

Saturday was new year's day - 2022! We were away a little after 8am, and drove to Rest Bay.

It was overcast and windy when we arrived, but not raining too much and with a relatively mild air temperature.

We got ready for body boarding...

We had a great time in the water. We stayed in about 50 minutes. The air temperature may have been mild, but the sea felt freezing. The waves were 4-6ft and regular, so it was good for messing about on the boards. I loved it, and I could see that the girls loved it. I want to remember for a long time how happy we all looked.

We got dry, dressed, and warm-ish in the car. We had some food and warm drinks and then drove home. 

Mark and I finished clearing out the front room of all the decorating stuff.

Woo went to do some homework, so the three of us played Catan. We were all pretty bushed by the end of the day and were glad to go to bed.

On Sunday morning I got up and went to the 9:15am yoga over in the Bean Tree. Ben had booked us in and it was lovely to see him and Pippa too. 

We had a coffee and catch up afterwards. When I came home I spent some time fixing the sofa cushions. It was nice to sit in the clean calm room sewing mindfully to fix something old, something I love.