Quite a Quiet Weekend

I have been pretty much incommunicado since Thursday afternoon when my phone was suddenly cut off. I had been to collect Grandson for a long weekend, and walked in expecting to be able to have the usual chats with family and friends during the evening, only to be frustrated by a dead and silent telephone. I expected it to be a small hiccup, over soon, but here we are on Sunday evening and it's still out of order. I should have gone out on Friday and topped up my mobile, but Grandson didn't want to go anywhere (he was pretty tired) so I didn't venture out - and it was a foul day anyway. If I had known that I'd still be sitting here in silence, I would have forced myself out! But no. Consequently I ran out of mobile credit some time on Saturday, but having reported the phone fault on Friday, I foolishly expected it to be put right subito. Ho, Ho. Still no mobile credit. Still no Landline. And yet my Broadband is working. I don't get the logic of this (if there is any). So here I sit Blogging into the void and hoping for re-connection tomorrow.

I had Grandson here because Daughter was off on some business junket for her new job. Her Company had taken over the Rembrandt Hotel in Kensington for a Conference, and she was part of the hospitality and administration team. It all sounded rather posh, and she arrived back here yesterday afternoon looking very pale and not having had much sleep, as a result of all the entertaining they were doing. She didn't want a glass of wine either, so I imagine there was some over-indulgence involved. After her drive Daughter decided to stay over, which was lovely for me. So she caught up on her sleep and I had another cosy cuddle with Grandson. Plus I had a cup of tea in bed this morning. A rare luxury...

Anyway, we had had a lovely relaxing time, and Grandson was so pleased to see his Mum. He has been rather reluctant about eating his food at school, so his wonderful Teacher has devised a "smiley face" reward scheme for him; every time he eats his breakfast and lunch he is awarded a smiley face on the chart, and 8 smiley faces equal a reward. His chosen reward this week was "a muddy walk with Nana", so that's what we had on Saturday morning, and he couldn't wait to show Daughter his chart with no less that 12 smiley faces on it. I must say he ate every scrap of his food while he was here at the weekend, but I think the real object of the exercise is to get him to try a few new things when they are on the school menu. He has been refusing unfamiliar dishes without trying them first, and that's not a good habit to get into.

Students are thin on the ground at the moment, which is no bad thing really after my last experience. One of my Brighton BFs has just had her first student - a Chilean called Rolando whom her husband insisted on calling Ronaldo (he's a great football fan). I haven't heard the gritty details, but apparently he was both charming and a pleasure to have around. She only took him on a Bed and Breakfast basis for her first experiment, and it seems to have been a success. He has gone home today, and she was expecting her next two Students to arrive this evening. They are on half-board, so last week we worked out a rota of recipes in order to prepare her for cooking suppers as well. Then she learned that she would be having her Grandchildren over Half Term too, so she really is in at the deep end. For at least one of the weeks, there will be six of them sitting down to both breakfast and dinner every day. Let's hope she comes out of it smiling.

Yesterday was a black day for Spurs supporters. Tottenham Hospur were playing Manchester United in the FA Cup fourth round. It all started well when they scored a goal in the first 5 minutes, but it was downhill after that. In the end we were all shouting at the TV in frustration.
Even Grandson joined in because he couldn't understand why our team in the white shirts kept passing the ball to the red-shirts. They lost their get-up-and-go, stopped tackling the opposition, and strolled around the park as if they were winning, when they were actually losing. Sister phoned me (on my mobile) this evening and said she could hardly bear to watch it either. I haven't yet talked to Son about it, but I'm pretty sure his opinion will be unprintable...