Birthday Party

Well CS has had her birthday party. All the little girls were enjoying themselves and all was going well until the excitement got too much for CS. She spent the last half hour of her party curled up on my lap.

The others had a good time though and the party bags (loot bags) were much appreciated. One little girl emptied out the sweets and filled her bag with popcorn. I am not sure if that is customary but she seemed happy with her popcorn.

One party down, next one in November for CE. BTW she is having everything in pink.

I can't go to pre-school because...

'I Can't go to pre-school! I absolutely can't."
"Why not?"
"Because .... I have a cough. Cough cough"
"No you don't. Don't you like it a school?"
"Yes, but I can't go"
"I thought you liked being in red group. Are you unhappy at school are the other children not nice to you?"
"Yes, but I can't go to school today."
"Why?"
"Because at pre-school they don't have playmobil or Barbie."
"But you can play with them when you get home."
"Can CE come to school today as well?"
"No, she only goes Monday and Friday"
"But she might play with MY playmobil and my Barbie when I am at pre-school!"

At least she like her presents. But she has gone to school and I promised to not let CE play with her toys.

Preparations

Tomorrow is CS's 4th birthday. This means that I will be busy this evening blowing up balloons and wrapping presents. I hope she will like her presents.

I have foolishly agreed to her having a birthday party. We will have potentially 8 girls aged between 2 and 5 years here on Saturday. I must be mad. I can't even think of party games or the rules. My mother is no help. My birthday parties consisted of 5 other girls and cake bought at the patisserie (my mother does not do baking. Gasps of horror of the German mothers in our town "Ach die armen Kleinen." "Wie kann das denn?") copious amounts of sweets and crisps. My mother never organised games, we were herded into the garden and told to amuse ourselves. This wasn't too difficult as the garden was huge and we had swings that were standard issue for a respectable playground. My father would then come home from work to take everyone home (normally via Eis Cafe Venezia). There was usually a fight for who got to sit in the boot of his estate.

I do not remember any negative feedback and nor does my mother. Will this free form arrangement for parties be enough though in the noughties (as in 2007, could call it 00's but that looks ttoo much like loo)? And what if it rains? So I guess I'll have to google party games. I hope the suggestions will be suitable for the under fives.

BTW I will be baking cake and I need to find Nic's recipe for apple pie.

Insurance

When I took my driving license at 17 I thought great, I have saved all my pocket money, birthday bonuses and my earnings (well you know holiday jobs, so lousy wages for mostly dull and repetitive work) I'll buy a little motor. And so I went out and bought my little Renault 5 Campus. It had a tiny engine and managed about 60mph downhill. I loved her. Insurance was steep. Much more than I expected. I wasn't worried I had no other commitments, so the money could be spent on the car and its insurance.

I am now almost 17 years older than I was then. I have many years and miles of claim free and blame free motoring (please may it continue in this way for a long time). There are myths and legends that when you reach 25 your insurance will go down. I have just renewed my insurance for another year. It is in fact the same amount I paid 17 years ago. Yes, in real terms it will have gone down (inflation and I now drive a Mondeo). I know it is not a fair comparison but nevertheless I do feel up out.

Schools part 4

Hurrah, the technical difficulties on the website have been resolved. I have applied for a school place for CS. Now all we have to do is wait till 22/2/08 to find out whether she got in.

Schools part 3

As promised the county council sent us a letter telling us that we need to apply for a school place for CS.

"You can apply using the application (available from your local school from 1/9) or why not use our on-line service. Register online using the unique registration code below." it said in the letter.

I consider myself reasonably au fait with the interweb, so tried on-line registration. I wasn't phased by the 12 digit alpha numeric code. I thought up a great password. I filled in all the details and then get round to choosing her preferred school. Oh oh the spinning beach ball of death appears (if you are not a Mac user this will not mean much to you but I believe if memory serves PCs have the hourglass of doom). The site for the county council decides to give up the ghost on me. Not to worry I know what any good helpdesk would suggest:"Have you tried rebooting?"

I have tried rebooting. I should be able to edit the form. However every time I try the site tells me that is was "expecting a semicolon". I just click a link, so no place to fill in a ; anywhere.

I will use pen and paper. I set off to the local school, which is also preferred school. I asked for the application form at the reception desk. "Yes, we should have them but the Council hasn't sent them to us yet. Have you tried the internet?"

Oh well, I have till 23/11 to complete the form and return it (submit it) maybe the internet will be fixed in time.

Water conservation

It has been felt for some time that the Yoasties should do something about the downstairs loo. I did not understand why, but it would appear that no one could flush the loo. It was simple; one short flush (pulling softly on the chain) and one long flush (quickly pull chain again once the lever has gone up) easy. Maybe not that easy but seriously not rocket science.

Anyway the plumber came and did some sucking of teeth, scratching of head and tutting. Well the whole lot would have to be replaced our 1955 cistern and loo were no longer being made and so no internal workings.

We now have a new loo and cistern. I hope that this will be easier to flush. Mr Yoastie has brought the old loo to the dump. I am now wondering should we have kept it? It was after all an original feature, if they are no longer being made like this maybe it will be antique one day?