Cue: Write about the Silent Treatment

I've been giving it the silent treatment,
my sorrow, but it does not let me be.
It sits there in the gloom,
watching.
Like the ill-invited party guest, it scowls,
from the corner,
waiting for the moment
where its awkward , stunted movements
can ruin everything.

Jelly and Ice-Cream.

Or, Who's The Adult Here?

It was mentioned here that I spent my birthday doing cool stuff with one of the coolest people on earth.

Erm, it was instigated by my Dad, andSkip back a couple of days, and I was a) roaming the new forest and naming everything in sight. though I'm not exactly sure why, it quickly escalated into hilarity. The rain which lashed down upon us, incidentally, was called Rupert.

Then I spent a civilized morning bargain-shopping with my grandmother.

So, back to my birthday. I leave my grandparents' house and hop onto a train, to look around bath spa campus and meet The Pest for lunch and fun.

The tour was rather pointless. My department was closed and the student leading the tour was clueless. Completely clueless. However, it's a beautiful place with good vibes, and the course does look great.

Then, beginning with tea and art appreciation, The Pest and I took in the city. Quickly however, we slipped from adult tourism to childish fun. We discussed how to defeat the satanic power of the toddler's scream as we walked along the crescent. We sat under a tree in a circle of green, surrounded by beautiful stone architecture, listening to music and perusing Cambridge literature. And then we found this...


This playground has everything, from giant slides and climbing frames to an array of swings (including 2 for disabled kids), sandpits to those aerial tyre runs, a wonky spinning disc which was imposible to stay standing on, and a tyre see-saw on which we got stuck.

Naturally, I accepted the place at Bath Spa :-)

And summer just keeps on getting better. This week, three more of my favourite-but-rarely-seen people - my uncle, and 7-year-old cousins - came to stay.

It looked a little like this:


Eureka is a fantastic labyrinth of stuff for kids to explore and experiment with. 'Kids' not determined by age, obviously.


Mum triumphed over mud, tree roots and narrow pathways on our walk through woods and fields. Everyone got a little wet.

Much of their stay was not photo-documented. I spent one glorious late-evening at a pub, with my favourite jazz band playing, talking - properly talking - to my uncle. Just us.

The girls discovered artichokes, and Marion tried prawn curry.

We examined potato plants and wheat in fields beside the woods. We swung over the river. We skipped and hopped and jumped.

We spent 2 hours in Borders Bookstore searching for the perfect Birthday Books. And the girls each read one as we snuggled on the sofa that evening.

We played hide and seek, read monster poetry, and tried out their new game, cranium cadoo. We played the piano with more energy and randomness than you'd imagine.

I am never growing up.