Almost the end of May, to be exact. This month my little nephew turned one year old (and remains absolutely delicious and squishy and wonderful), my sister turns 23 (how is she so grown up), and I am coming to the end of an utterly exhausting month.
Fortunately, there is a Bank Holiday approaching and being the savvy Annual Leave taker that I am, I had the foresight to book the Tuesday and Wednesday off as well. Heather is off home for Half Term so I have Saturday to Wednesday completely free to do anything or nothing, and everything in between.
In my supervision last week, my line manager and I talked about how I always seem to fill my ‘time off’ with busy things. Case in point – the Easter weekend….
I took the Thursday off (before Good Friday) and travelled home on the train on the Wednesday after work. It has been many years since I got the train home to Devon and I have to say, I don’t really miss the travel into London, getting the tube to Paddington, and then the several hours hurtling through the countryside to Plymouth. However…. the technological developments over the last few years have been great and I actually spent most of the journey watching ’13 Reasons Why’ on my phone, thanks to Netflix and a great data package. 18 year old Sarah is very jealous of 28 (almost) year old Sarah!
So, I arrived into Plymouth very late on the Wednesday night (and promptly nearly broke my ankle with my suitcase so had a fetching bruise for a few days). Mum picked me up and I spent the weekend at hers… bed on the floor in the living room, so very little sleep and no chance of a lie-in!! Nice to be home though.
Mum and I spent Thursday looking after the little boy. (When I say ‘little boy’ I am usually referring to Ezra, although possibly I could be referring to our dog Toby who was the ‘little boy’ prior to the nephew’s arrival. It gets confusing now) I walked the dog in the morning and then Rebecca and Simeon brought Ezra over and went off for a date day while I got to enjoy a date day with my squish! Mum usually takes him to a Nursery Rhyme group at a local library on Thursdays so that’s what we did…so cute. Save the local library!!! Ezra seems to go there at least 3 times a week with each of his grandmothers and sometimes my sister takes him too! Then we went for an afternoon tea (Ezra likes scones, who’d have guessed) and completely wore ourselves out looking at ducks.
Friday (Good Friday) we all went to a place called Antony House in Cornwall. It’s a National Trust property with lovely gardens and grounds, which were used for the filming of the newest version of Alice in Wonderland a few years ago. We had a long walk round the gardens and looked at all the flowers etc, had a picnic, and then looked around the house. Again, exhausting.
Saturday – I went down to Cornwall again to spend the day with my little sister Jessica and my stepmum. We all went to Tintagel (a little village with an old ruined castle, reportedly where King Arthur was conceived…or so the 7 year old told me) We had fish and chips, explored the beach and the caves, had a cup of tea in the café and just generally enjoyed time together. After we went back to their caravan in this sweet little caravan park and played word games until I had to go home…. and then I got lost in deepest darkest Cornwall without a satnav and it took several hours to get home. (I was driving Mum’s car since I got the train on Wednesday)
Sunday, Easter Sunday, we had a roast dinner at Rebecca and Simeon’s (which Mum cooked) and I spent the day reading in the sunshine. It was lovely. Mum did a little Easter egg hunt for Ezra… plastic eggs with dinosaur toys in… he squealed a lot which I think meant he liked it!
Monday…. urgh, Monday. Mum and I (and a million others) drove from Plymouth up country. It took us nearly 10 hours to get from Plymouth to Canterbury. Fortunately we were able to share the driving so that helped a lot. We got home early evening and crashed out a bit.
Tuesday, we went to London!!!! We drove to my work to collect my car, since I was going to be driving into London itself and wanted my familiar car. We did London driving!! Across Westminster Bridge, past Tower of London, near the Houses of Parliament. I was very impressed with myself but internally very nervous about it! The reason for our trip was to have Afternoon Tea at a hotel near Kensington (Mothers’ Day treat) and then go to the Classic FM Live Concert at the Royal Albert Hall. Both were lovely, and we walked round Kensington Gardens too, in the sunshine. I think this could be an annual occurrence but only if we’re on public transport next time.
Wednesday, I had another day off work but we were both shattered so we had a restful morning at home and then met up with my brother and sister-in-law for lunch in Canterbury. It was lovely to spend time with them as well, it’s always good to see them when Mum comes up.
And that was my ‘weekend off’. Back to work on the Thursday, Mum drove back to Plymouth and ‘life’ started again.
Not exactly restful. So, this Bank Holiday weekend… have I learned my lesson and not booked anything?! (Have I heck.)
Well, sort of, actually. On Saturday I am having breakfast at a local café with Jonnie and Kate, who are visiting from Bradford, then I have choir rehearsal followed by afternoon tea later. Sunday I have church. That’s it though. No obligations on Sunday afternoon, Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday.
It will be nice to rest and recover following a hectic and intense month of May! And maybe one day I’ll finally find the balance between business and restfulness…
-x-
Little Miss Read 