Grandma-by-the-sea

Just Jim and Minnie on Friday evening as Amy was at a sleepover. Strangely easy with the two of them. Lots of PS3 in the morning, then C went to pick up Amy from Waterbeach and her folks from the caravan park. Picnicky lunch, then C, Amy and grandmabythesea took Min for a taster swimming lesson while Jim and I did Lego. When they came back the kids played really nicely for the rest of the afternoon.

Sunday. S-max test drive and Lazy Otter, then walk at Anglesey Abbey with the kids obsessively looking for NT stickers (green is the most poplyar, apparently) Lovely day.

Dropped Jim off Tuesday morning as usual, slightly late after getting stuck behind some stupid horses and a Travis Perkins lorry on Lacey's Lane. He is fine but coughing a little, so we have been feeding him vit c. I was v. impressed with his reading of the hen book yesterday afternoon. On the way home on Monday he said he had some bad news and some good news. The bad news was that someone had come up behind him in the playground and put their hand over his face so he couldn't see them, then punched him in the stomach. He said it hurt a bit but not too much, and that the "good news" was that his friend Jack helped him up off the floor and was kind to him. It was all a bit confused, as these things are sometimes, but he said he'd told someone on duty but he couldn't say who'd done it because of the hand over his face - he could only see their coat. He said he'd then seen a bigger kid called Marley who was wearing that coat so he thought it was him. A bunch of other stuff came out about a pushing incident with Nathan (I think) which ended up with Jim in the hedge, but I suspect that was a misunderstanding about what the point of the game was. Also something about him kicking some girls' lunchboxes - it transpired that they were older girls who were friends of Paris and there was some jealousy that they wanted to talk to her but not him. Or some such. Anyway, it is mostly playground trivia but I didn't like the punching in the stomach thing, and obviously neither did he. I was going to have a brief word with Mrs. Segust about it Tuesday morning but couldn't, as we were late.

The delay in the car allowed time for consideration of the ultimate death of guinea pigs and what to do with them post mortem. Use as mops or posting to Peru for human consumption were considered and eventually rejected in favour of burial with suitable headstone. This led in turn to a detailed consideration of headstone options (big pebble from Cornish beach favoured) and stone inscription technologies.