I am soaked to the skin once again (through my waterproofs) after cycling to work through the great deluge. Predictably it has stopped raining now. I’m starting to get the impression that somebody up there doesn’t like me very much - perhaps because I argue about belief in such whimsical paranormal beings. Calendars with pretty pictures of English country scenes in the late summer should also have a few months of horrible grey rain, with rivers of mud, huge muddy puddles and overflowing drains everywhere you look.
Thankfully I had the presence of mind earlier in the week to bring a change of clothes to work - meaning I could peel off my tracksuit bottoms and put on something dry. Whenever I come in from the rain I remember Leutenant Dan in Forrest Gump’s advice about an army marching on it’s socks. Of course usually I don’t have a pair of clean, dry socks, so flap around the place is soggy socks.
Yesterday was a long day.
We spent the entire morning thrashing out the “plan” for the introductions between ourselves and the children. Somehow this required the involvement of about 6 social workers (everybody involved in the case so far). I can’t help feeling that the social services works like most big corporates - where everybody tries to be involved in a successful project at the end just so they can add it to their list of accomplishments.
After hearing two hours worth of what we already knew, and educating yet another manager with the entire back story, we left knowing exactly what we had known before we arrived (the plan had been written up between our social worker and the foster carer a couple of weeks ago based on their experience from the past). Did I mention that our foster carer has fostered over ninety children? We listen to absolutely every word she says.
Next stop was Ikea at Wembley. Quite possibly the biggest furniture store in the UK… it reminds me of the CostCo in Idiocracy - you fully expect to turn a corner and see a showroom with light aircraft, or a hanger full of coffee tables, or couches (I’m not joking either).
After walking about 4 miles and discovering lots of things we didn’t know we needed, but we do now, we had the giant “can we fit it in the car” game. We won. I also surprised myself with just how heavy an entire chest of drawers is…
This is where I get around to the “aching” bit. After getting home I was busy lugging the various boxes back into the house, when I came to the afore mentioned chest of drawers box. The one that weighed about the same as a small elephant. While halfway between the car and the house, something tightened up at the sides of my chest. Given that I was edging sideways through the house carrying the small elephant, I couldn’t put it down, and the pain suddenly stopped me from breathing. Not good. I made it to the kitchen and eased my load to the floor, and didn’t get up. W noticed.
So now, not only did my sides hurt, but W was also having a go at me about trying to do everything on my own. For most of yesterday evening I was worried I had done my back in, and thinking “oh crap” basically. Thankfully this morning I got up, and seem to be fine - if a little sore.
I did manage to get a new television cabinet built last night - although (in true Jonathan style) I managed to put something together backwards, and ended up drilling my own holes inside the unit for something rather than take the ENTIRE THING back to pieces. I could have sworn the instructions were wrong, until I went and really looked.
I guess the moral for yesterday is not to carry very heavy boxes sideways through the house. You WILL hurt yourself. Wait for your father in law to arrive, then he can hurt himself too.
I will take pictures when the house has re-organised itself into something half-way presentable once more - both for your interest and amusement, and to document what our house looked like before children descended upon it.