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| A day off from being a Mum |
When I signed up for the job of being a Mum about forty years ago, I didn't imagine the range of tasks I would have to perform. This week has particularly stretched me. My wide remit as a Mum has included sorting out my son's tax and fixing a flat tyre for my daughter while still wearing my dressing gown.
The tax issue was especially taxing! The final date for filing for 2024-25 was January 31st 2026. So on January 28th I got the call requesting help getting it done. There is nothing like doing something at the eleventh hour to focus the mind. So, as Sammi worked his way through the questions on the online form, I had to say whether they were relevant or not. UK tax is not straightforward and despite it having had a lot of the jargon taken out in recent times, there is still some dodgy wording specific to tax that laymen like me need to get our heads around. Let's hope I gave the write advice! HMRC is MTD in future. That's another thing I need to get my head around.
On the flat tyre front, Danielle's front wheel went flat on her early school run on a damp, dreary morning. She wheeled the bike with attached trailer to my garden. I got out my repair kit and closed the door on her. Why on Earth would I want to sit around outside with very little on at 9am on a January morning even if it is my Daughter who needs help? Mattaya woke up so I took her indoors - no problem! Then Danielle asked me to put the tyre back onto the wheel after she had fixed the puncture. I got the inner tube and tyre back on the rim and then made a coffee just so we could wait and see if the tyre went down. Yay. Bike repairs and tax advice are just part of my expertise.
Then of course it was Danielle's MOT this week as well. Convinced the car would fail, she asked me to go along to the garage so that she could get home if the car was not road worthy. So I can add taxi service to my job spec as well. Danielle's car needed significant fixing so it is still in the garage! Luckily the bike got fixed!
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| Muddy clothes |
There are things that I don't do well. After all these years I feel I should have better judgement as to when it is not a good idea taking the bike. Last Tuesday it was cold, wet and windy. I went out, got plastered in mud and then plastered the inside of my front door with the mud from my clothes as I peeled them off. Mathematically there has to be an intersection between these three variables where I should not take the bike. I still need to find that intersection.
I had a day out on Saturday. A day off from being a Mum. That was fun. I went to London with Diane and Jeremy to visit the National Portrait Gallery and later to a show. In the Portrait Gallery, we worked our way through history from the Tudors onwards, and of course, the pictures say as much about the reasons for having them painted as they do about the subjects. I loved it. I am not sure which was my favourite picture but I learnt what a plumbago is and that Charles ll took the thrown on my birthday just two years short of three hundred years before I was born. I noted he also had much nicer legs than I have.
Not far away from the gallery, there was a Palestine demonstration of about 150,000 people with loads of police milling about. Despite the cease fire in Palestine, the IDF are still killing Palestinians as well as Lebanese and they are still blocking the crossing to Egypt. Will no government stand up and call Israel out for its genocide? I stand with those demonstrators - even if I didn't physically stand with them on Saturday.
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| My neighbour Totoro iconic umbrella |
As for the show, we saw My Neighbour, Totoro. Loved it. A naughty four-year-old, a busy dad and magical puppets made for a wonderful evening's entertainment.
