I have been suffering from “the time of the month” which is a euphemism for “it’s almost pay day”. As a result I’ve been experiencing that constricted feeling again…my insides have felt all twisted and tight and I’ve been finding it hard to think straight…part of the problem it seems is I’ve been overdosing on Radio 4 news programmes who are almost wall to wall banking crisis with a bit of Obama and Gaza thrown in for variety…
As an experiment I tried silence…I tried turning silence up loud…doesn’t work…must remember to put some CD’s in the car.
What has worked however is forward thinking about parties. Spider has a lot of friends with birthdays in February and March so we are busy most weekends it would seem…trying to find presents within budget now that Woolies has gone is proving a challenge.
But the thing that really cheers me up is planning Spider’s birthday. He is having a shared party with Flapjack Princess (they have a lot of the same friends in the village and quite a large circle of non pre-school friends) and for purely practical and economic reasons it is going to be a Pirate and Princess party. Practical because most girls have a princess or fairy type outfit, economic because our local supermarket was selling chocolate coins off cheap and we have bought in bulk (yes I know I’m a cheapskate…I prefer the word “thrifty”)!
I suspect that I will probably enjoy Spider’s party more than he will…he will enjoy it because it’s a party, he will enjoy his party as much as he enjoys the other parties…I will enjoy it because it will make him smile…
I have a rather ambitious plan to do a skull and cross bones cake…it’s ambitious for me as I don’t really do icing, not the rolled out type…I may need a back up plan…I may be about to test drive Susan Austin’s Freezer party (see Frostbite) which even includes a frozen birthday cake amongst it’s recipes.
I don’t know whether it was the phonecall confirming our reservation of the village hall or whether it was my payslip dropping through the letter box but for the first time in a week I can feel my internal organs uncurling and relaxing…and I am beginning to be able to think straight…but to stay this way I might try weaning myself off Radio 4 or at least try not to listen to quite so much news !
