Packing

Yes, I have started packing. I have started so early - my packing to come here was done about an hour before leaving for the airport - because I have twice the amount to take back. Not because I have bought very much, I haven't, but because I have some of Laurence's things which I collected from his dad's house to bring back, so I needed to have some idea of weight. So far so good.

Today started out sunny and clear. By the time Alex had departed for Londinium it was nearly time to feed the kids and put them upstairs for their naps. Afterwards, when we are all ready to walk into town, the sky had clouded over and rain was spitting at us.
I had a few last minute bits and pieces to do and we wanted the walk. We didn't have a great deal of choice, the bus can't accommodate a double length pushchair. But we enjoyed our potter around.
I saw another kid I used to...teach?...no, more wrangle, I think she was in a colleague's class but the usual spillage would occur. She was a nice girl, not too bright, but sweet-natured, but she was already, then at 15, in a seriously abusive relationship with a boy. Eventually the boy was excluded from the school but would continue to come on site and beat her up.
But she seemed happy now, full of hope. It's nice when they escape the gravity well of the whole thing.

There's nothing like Christmas leftovers for tea. I love it. Cold turkey (sic), cold sausages wrapped in streaky, pickles, fried-up veggies. Yummers. Austen's roasties yesterday and his sprouts with chestnuts were just awesome. Well, the whole meal was.
We went to the evening service at church. We were not expecting what it turned out to be, which was a candlelit service of Advent hymns and quite extraordinary singing by the choir, but it was soothing and just beautiful.

Tomorrow is my last day here. I am catching an early train to Woking, meeting Ben and going for coffee somewhere, then up to town to meet Alex, we are going to the London Dungeon. I am looking forward to this, but it was something Kevin and I had planned to do last time and didn't get round to. Nil Desperandum, you can never visit the London Dungeon too many times.

I am also waiting to hear whether one of my very close friends will be having surgery tomorrow. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for her, and bothering all my gods on her behalf.