5th November 2010 (Friday)

 Busy day today but very nice. As can be imagined after the romp of yesternight, there was a hell of a lot of tidying up to do. So, most of the day, I tidied up. We're eating leftover party food for lunch but I did have to go and get something decent for dinner, because we were expecting Dicky and Phyl for the night. Really only just managed to get the stuff in before I had to pick up the Littles, and it was barely packed away before the Mr came home from an early day so that I could take her to the gym. Dicky and Phy expected at about 5, so it would have been a problem were we out! The Mr had some reading to do (thesis marking) so it wasn't a problem working from home, luckily.

As it turned out, he'd only just managed to put the roast on which I bought when they arrived, so plenty of work left to be done on that, unfortunately. Meanwhile Littles was doing pretty OK at the gym – listening and looking quite nicely, today. She had sneaked in Thermo mouse and I hadn't realised she'd been hauling him around to some extent during the class. Luckily the teacher is pretty clued in to child phsycology and told her to tuck him under her chin when she did her forward rolls. Now, it's been well-nigh impossible to get the Non to tuck her neck in and keep her back rounded on the forward rolls, and I've been wincing every time she does one, just waiting to hear the neck snap one of these times. Finally, with the aid of Thermo, she managed a semi-decent roll! Have to tuck your chin in quite a lot if you don't want him to fall off, you see. Kudos to that gym instructor.

Anyway by the time we got home Dicky and Phyll were well ensconced, and we got out the booze and got down to natterring and eating. Have to say, the Littles wasn't too bad either, reasonably polite, and even asking interested questions about where they'd been and what they'd seen. Curiously, she asked what they'd seen in Africa. Now, they have of course been to Africa but this was in 2004. I know she was there when they were talking about it, and we saw some pictures of giraffes and elephants, but it was a jolly good long while back and she certainly couldn't at the time participate in the conversation, in fact we didn't even realise she had been listening – but obviously it had left a somewhat lasting impression.

Anyway, seems they've been having a pretty decent time travelling about the place. Due to go to the Blue Mountains tomorrow and stay there for a couple of days, then off to New Zealand and then back to the UK by about the middle of November. We seemed to get through three bottles of wine pretty easily so I hope you'll excuse me if the details remain a bit vague. Dinner seemed to turn out OK, out onto SuperEasy mode with and instant prawn platter for starters, then the roast (which lovely Mr had cooked), and a bought orange cake to finish off with. Amazing how little effort one can get away with if one decides to.

Particularly if someone else is cooking! :)