Friday

What an awakening!  Last night I met up with friends from school at the local pub to have a meal and a drink together.  It was lovely (more about that later) but I had three glasses of wine, which is three more than I've had since we came home from Streele Farm.  This morning I woke with cramp in one calf - ow, ow, ow - and in my sleepy haste to get out of bed to stretch the muscle I missed the side of the bed, fell out and landed with the other leg under me which promptly cramped too.  I had to laugh in between the squawks of ouchness, it was rather funny in a painful sort of way.  Fortunately, it wasn't bad, nor did it last very long, but I suspect it was the wine and the subsequent slight dehydration that was at fault there.  So now I'm sitting here with a slightly muggy head (only slightly, I didn't have all that much but I've been off the wine for over a month now so am not exactly used to it), a rumbling tum and stiff calf muscles.  Great start to the day, eh?

We did have a good time last night.  These evenings are open to everyone but, in fact, it's just a smallish group of about ten of us who go, those of us who live near enough to walk.  We all go back a long way and we were all mummy helpers at the school before being taken onto the staff in one capacity or another.  There was a lot of reminiscing and A and I nearly cried with laughter as we recalled one particular incident.  A used to be my classroom assistant so there's a lot of shared memories and laughter, but this is one of the best.

We were doing phonics.  Little Boy Who Is Now Grown Up (yes, it was that long ago) was making valiant attempts to make the word 'cat' with his letter cards.  He tried it all ways round before deciding on cta.

Me:    What a great try, LBWINGU.  What do you think about it?
LBWINGU:   (looking hopefully up)  I've got all the right letters, Mrs Clark.
Me:  (feeling wicked)  You have got all the right letters, but not necessarily in the right order . . .

. . . and then I caught A's eye and we both laughed - and laughed and laughed and  . . . oh, for the longest time.  The children just sat there, silent and dumbfounded, while the two supposedly most sensible people in the whole room made utter fools of themselves. 

For those who don't get it, I refer you to the late and great Morcambe and Wise's greatest ever sketch, 'Grieg's Piano Concerto with Mr Andrew Preview (Andre Previn)' - totally unforgettable and the funniest of all their funnies by a mile.