Sunday 29 June 2008

Wimbledon, and How the Other Half Live..

We've had quite a busy week - piano, grade 2 exam on Tuesday morning, very exhausting for me, since I kept waking up all night with his tunes playing around in my head, panicking because I hadn't really heard him consistently play them well, because he does NOT practise enough. He's not a natural born musician, but he can play, and play well, if he applies himself. As far as his Father and I see it, he needs to have some discipline; and learning to play, and pass exams gives him this - since as a homeschooler, he won't be getting the same experience of being tested and examined as other children his age. He will be glad of it one day, even if it means he'll be able to bash away at the old joanna down the pub, with his mates, once he leaves home! Anyway, he didn't seem too phased by the whole affair, so we'll see....
Then in the afternoon, we drove down to stay overnight with an old friend of mine, (from Uni) and her husband, who live in a town just north of London. We spent time in the Abbey, and the Roman museum, and arrived at their house at a time when she would be back from work, about sixish. We had a cuppa, and a biccie, and chatted for a while. My son watched a bit of the Wimbledon highlights on the tv, and I suddenly realised how uncomfortable I felt being in the home of someone who is a dear friend, but who has no understanding of how we have been keeping our son from the impurity of tv. If we are at the grandparent's house, he knows he has to leave the room whenever the adverts come on - even when flicking through channels, but they at least have some understanding of why. Anyway, we got to the sports channel, without witnessing too much advertising for adult programmes - yes, they like to pack in sex, violence, and horror excerpts into the previews they put on before 9 o'clock of shows which are to come on after the ha ha "9 o'clock" ho ho, "watershed"; although I did have to stick my rather large backside in front of the box, whilst one such preview came on. Then my friend and I chatted some more, and I wondered when we'd be having supper. Her husband arrived, and we all decided we'd go to the allotment, and water some of their plants. I wondered some more when we'd be having supper. We got back, and I still wondered when we were going to have supper. Her husband asked my son what time he normally went to bed, he spouted some nonsense about half past nine - oh yeah, that's what he'd like it to be, but I could hardly insist too much in front of them that it was usually half eight to nine, since that was the current time, and we STILL hadn't had supper. But I think the hint was dropped, and my friend thought she'd better get on with starting to prepare some food!
It is interesting that some people who don't have children, don't have any idea that it might be appropriate to offer food to a child at a slightly earlier time than they themselves might eat!! Anyway, we got fed, and got him off to bed, ready for his big day at Wimbledon - his birthday gift from us, since we'd been offered tickets for court number one, via his tennis club - they cost an arm and a leg - but since the good Lord has only given us one child, we can afford to indulge him occasionally!
And of course, he took his own spending money, so that he could indulge himself, on the famous Wimbledon "Strawberries, and Cream" - which weren't bad, but not half as good as the strawberries we'd picked from the garden of our friends down the road, earlier in the week!!

It's taken me to the end of the week to recover from the late nights, and the travelling though!

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