A fun few days!

Well I have had a fun few days!  (Big helping of sarcasm there!)  As you may recall me saying, yesterday I went to Stevenage to see my Mum and Dad.  It was basically a disaster from beginning to end.  I was up at the crack of dawn so that I could drive with Simon to school so that I may have the car for the day. It seems that it was not possible for him to arrange for anyone to give him a lift.

It was a terrible day with pouring rain making for dreadful driving conditions.   For some unknown to me reason, Simon decided that rather than driving into school he would swerve up onto the pavement of the main road and walk round the corner from there.  He thought this would be easier.  It left me having to try and edge my way into the rush hour traffic that was streaming along.  As I edged forward trying to get in, I narrowly missed hitting a lamp post as I had edged up further than I realised!  GREAT START.  It took me 20 minutes to get from there to Coralies house.

When I used to be able to have the car without problems, I would never leave until just after 9am so that I avoided all the traffic.  Anyway, despite the rain we had an uneventful drive up (the usual idiots were out in force as normal though!) with baby Evan asleep for most of the way.

We got to Stevenage so early that we paid a visit to the Hobby Craft shop which was great to browse around but even that was disappointing as I wanted to buy some oil cloth to make a water proof table cloth and they didn’t have much to choose from.  There was one that was just about ok, although I have seen nicer ones.  I was going to get it but then I was told that particular one was £9.99 a metre whereas everything else was £5.99!  I changed my mind!

We went from there to Dads house and he was pretty much the same as normal.  He spoke of nothing else apart from Mum and more or less took no notice of his great grandson.  We are getting used to this.  He was going to the hospital with Dial-A-Ride at 1.30pm and insisted that we went before him at 1pm.  As you may recall me saying, I am trying to cut down the length of my visits as that is what makes it so hard.  An hour is just about bearable.  3 hours is intolerable, at least that is how I feel.

When we arrived and rang the bell we were kept waiting ages before anyone came to let us in.  When they did we were told that we couldn’t go in because they had diarrhoea and sickness back again and babies were not allowed.  We agreed that Coralie would wait outside with Evan while I just popped in for a few minutes to say hello to my Mum.  I think that may have been a mistake on my part as she seemed very confused and had no idea who I was.

We ended up waiting outside for Dad so that we could tell him that we were going home.  He wasn’t that pleased and seemed to think that I should have spent some time there while Coralie waited outside with Evan.  I couldn’t leave her hanging around in the cold with a baby!

To cut a long story short I am not too sure what is going on there as Dad phoned this morning to say that they don’t have a sickness bug back again but that Evan was not allowed in as it was only a week since they got rid of the bug. They also told my sister this when she rang them.  They definitely told us that they had it back again, so they seem somewhat confused.  Either way I only saw Mum for about 10 minutes, consequently my Dad was nagging to know today when I would be going back up!  No pressure!

We got home very early and I dropped Coralie off and was able to come home and have a cup of coffee and relax. Simon and I had agreed that if possible Joshua, who was home from Uni, would collect him from school at 5pm.  If Josh couldn’t do it then I would ring him before 4.30pm to arrange where I should meet him.  Josh hadn’t got his car as Charlotte was using it but said he would drive with me as he knows I hate driving in the dark and in the rush hour especially when I don’t really know where I am going. 

I began ringing Simon about ten past four.  Every time the message was the same “This phone is switched off”.  At twenty to five Josh and I decided that we had to leave or we would be late.  Josh kept trying to phone in the car but no luck. 

I have only every collected Simon from school once before which was outside the exit which is near the college.  As I don’t really know how to get to the school entrance which is some streets away we decided to go to where I had collected him before.  Of course he wasn’t there.  At ten past five Josh walked up the school drive to the main entrance and car park to see if he could see him but he wasn’t there.  We waited a while longer still trying to phone with no luck.

At twenty past five I turned the car round, found somewhere to park that wasn’t residents only and both Josh and I walked up to the school.  There was no sign of Simon so we decided to go into the school and ask.  Of course by this time it is all locked up and it took ages to get the attention of the girl on the desk who finally admitted us, only to say everyone has gone home.

Now by this time I am getting pretty wild and can’t be doing with stupid people who are clearly lying; everyone has not gone home, you are sitting right in front of me, (I didn’t say that) I told her Simon could not possibly have gone home yet as I had the car keys and if she would kindly point me to the technology department I would go and find him myself.  Of course that is not allowed as it would be a security risk, so we then had to wait whilst she got a caretaker to come to the desk who she then despatched to the technology to department to find Simon, who was of course still there.

I have to say I don’t think too much of their security, after all she said everyone had gone home and lo and behold there were at least 2 other people there as well as her, Simon and a care taker.  I wonder how many other people were floating around. 

When Simon finally appeared there was no apology or anything.  He said he was waiting for us to ring him.  We explained that we had been ringing constantly since ten past four and each time it said the same.... switched off.  He showed us that it was on but Josh dialled his number to show him the message we were receiving.  I have no idea what was wrong with it as it is ok now.

 I was really cross though because he had not thought to phone me.  He knows well that I am rarely late; 5pm to me is 5pm.  I had driven to Stevenage and was now 50miutes late as far as he was concerned and yet it never occurred to him to phone to see if I was ok!  By the time we finally got home I had a dreadful headache and the whole thing had taken me longer than it took to get home from Stevenage.

I have decided that will be the last time I will do that!  It will be easier by far to go on the train.  I walk to the bus stop, sit on the bus, walk to the train station, sit on the train where I can read my book, get on the bus to my Dad’s and then do the same in reverse to get home.  It’s a bit of a pain but WAY, WAY, less stressful than trying to have the use of our car for the day.   I drive it so rarely now it’s a wonder that I haven’t forgotten how to drive!

After all that I ended up going to bed as my head was just dreadful.  It was obviously because of the amount of stress. Today I have mainly been taking it slow and my head is just about ok now.  Simon went out this morning to take all the bags of rubbish from the allotment to the dump (28 bags!).  He is clearly in a huff.  He went to his barn (Man cave) after that until 6.30pm. 

He also announced that he would be going out at 8.30pm to see a band with a friend of his.  That was fine, I could have a quiet evening.................except guess what............... he returned after half an hour..............the band were playing last night, he got the wrong day.  Whose fault would that be.....................................yep you’ve guessed, my fault totally.  I can’t quite figure out why.  So now he is in a foul mood and I am taking refuge in my bedroom with my trusty computer.  I’m also thinking twice about moving it downstairs.  LOL!  It’s way more peaceful here.

So there you have it, a few fun days!  Hopefully tomorrow will be a bit more pleasant.  Joshua will be here for dinner before returning to Uni so we will have a family meal.  Saskia is keen to go to the allotment but we need to see if the rain holds off.  Simon I imagine will go to his barn.  Monday is my lovely long quiet day as Simon doesn’t get in until 9pm and Saskia is in Uni all day.   Roll on Monday!!