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SO! When You Look In The Mirror!

Blog: Norfolk Single Dad
Posted by: Eddie2sox Sunday 13th May 2007, 9:52am
Last edited 13/05/2007 9:52am by Eddie2sox

Is the line from "Same Jeans" by The View that Sam surprised me with yesterday....

I was previously fully aware that he knew some of the words from The View's choruses, but yesterday I caught him singing along with verses several times, not just their singles either. It turns out that his favourite song at the moment is "Gran's For Tea" which I had to play back to back a few times. "Why is he in the chippy not at his gran's house daddy?" "Why did he say leave the tools at home daddy?" "Does his grandad live with his gran Daddy?" Best of all we sang along together as we were arriving back at King's Lynn last night, MOST of Same Jeans, he loves shouting the "SO" bit in the line at the top of this blog. Of course I've had to change one line to "That STUFF'S made your head spin round", wonder what his mummy will change it to (she's borrowed the CD to find out more about these songs that Sam is always singing!).

Friday Morning....

Dawned way too early, with most of Thursday evening's Kronenbourg still wreaking havoc in my head. Somehow got dressed correctly, two socks, pants NOT on head, all buttons done up, if not exactly, to within one buttonhole of where they should be. Off to The Woolie to clean - Danny and Kim were already up with GMTV blasting on the pub's big screen, and it was pretty surreal hoovering with a six foot Lorraine Kelly lurking behind your back. They don't understand why I always take a brew with me instead of making one there, guess it's just a case of "old habits die hard", in the Gulf or anywhere abroad on deployment to be honest, it was always the routine to take a cuppa with you from the mess tent/hall into work. Still using the same insulated cup even!

Chicken And Rice?

On a slight tangent, just remembered a brief tale from Kuwait. In 1998 when Saddam was getting bolshy again, we launched Operation Bolton from my then-posting of Bruggen in Germany. We'd been told at 6 p.m. on Friday that we would be departing at 4 a.m. on Sunday, pretty short notice! Saturday was full of running round getting extra innoculations, filling in paperwork, picking up extra protective eqiuipment etc, so we didn't have much time for goodbyes to our families. Anyway, we flew into Kuwait International then got bussed (and the bus was deathly quiet) to Ali Al Salem airbase which was to be our base. First thing when we got there we were directed to the mess hall, and ambled in to be greeted by extremely cheerful RAF chefs yelling "Chicken and rice lads?" It was LOVELY, and whether it was because we were starving hungry or whether it really was a gourmet offering who knows? The night was spent getting security briefings, finding bunk spaces, the usual, then it was breakfast time. "Chicken and rice lads?" What? Well, last night's was great, so no complaints that we'd have more of the same for brekkie eh! Lunch was delayed due to being stuck in an air raid shelter after a SCUD attack, but when we finally emerged....."chicken and rice lads?" Uhhh....OK. Got a job lot of chicken did you? This continued for OVER A WEEK! Chicken and rice for every meal. It was nice, but you might think a little monotonous. Then, exactly a week after we arrived...."Evening lads, got something different for you tonight!" FANTASTIC! What is it? "Sorry you've had chicken and rice for so long, so tonight you've got a treat......rice and chicken" Oh ha bloody ha! Eventually the caterers sorted out some contracts with reliable local traders and The Sun newspaper shipped in tons of baked beans, oven chips etc, so the monotony was over. Happy days, being shot at in the desert!

Friday Afternoon & Evening

Picked Sam up and Friday evening was completely in the usual routine, fun playing outside and in, chip butty for Sam's tea, lovely bedtime which saw Sam falling asleep before his stories had even finished. Maybe burning that lavender in his room and the living room really worked in making him sleepy? Then it was left for me to retire to the settee for the Friday night comedy, which is pretty good at the moment, My Family (cheesy but harmless), Have I Got News For You (Paul Merton's a star), Ruddy Hell It's Harry & Paul (parson's egg of a show), then it's 10 o'clock and time to take Sam to the loo then hit the hay myself.

Saturday Morning

Sam must have been tired, or I overdid the lavender oil, but he didn't appear in my room until half past six, unheard of! Sam started the day as he meant to go on, eating like a horse, big breakfast of Coco Pops, a banana and two yoghurts. Saturday morning is all about relaxing together, watching a little bit of telly, inventing new games and revisiting old favourites. Sam has dismantled most of his Lego sets now, and is really starting to use his imagination and make new, crazy vehicles out of the pieces - it's fascinating to see and makes me very proud at the same time, my son! After Hider In The House and Scooby Doo we headed into town to check if Sam's Lego Fire Station has arrived at the toy shop yet? No it hadn't, but Sam took the news very graciously. We had a naughty donut from the donut van then came home via the Globe Bowls Club, where we like to watch the blokes jacking off to start the games then tossing their balls across the green. At the moment, thanks to The Walks renovations, there are several long banks of dug-up earth in the park, which Sam enjoys exploring and running along (well, so does Sam's Daddy but don't tell anyone) and yesterday we found an old bottle that had been unearthed by a digger. We later asked Sam's Grandad what it was and it seems to be an old ink bottle, with the following on the base:

F G C

2 3 1

4

Does that mean anything to anyone? Sam was quite interested, so who knows, this may have been the moment when he subconciously became an archaeologist of the future?

Saturday Afternoon

We made Sam's picnic dinner then set off for Sleaford. On the way into the underground car park we noticed something funny. The key-post for the car park was knocked over a few weeks ago and Roy The Caretaker has re-embedded it in concrete. Well, "somebody" has written "SAM" in the concrete (see picture), and it's now there for eternity (or until the post gets mullered again). How naughty!

We had a lovely visit with Nana and Grandad, my Dad is looking fitter now than for a while which is great to see. Sam loved being pushed round the garden at high speed in a wheelbarrow, racing behind Didi the dog, but I tell you what, Sam's Daddy is getting TOO old for it! Sam is really chatty with his grandparents, which they seem to love, and he gives them both a big lovely cuddle when we have to leave. Which of course we eventually did, Sam wasn't too happy about it but was looking forward to his special tea...

...which was MacDonalds! We hadn't been to MacD's since March 10th so it was about time. How do I know the date? Well, I write down in my diary every meal that Sam has when he's with me. It's because Sam's mummy was very critical of the diet Sam received from me - so now he mainly has food made from scratch by me or healthy shop stuff - except chip butty Friday of course (which was a routine established by his mummy LOL). Monday to Friday, when Sam's not with me, he has all his other meals at nursery, breakfast, dinner and tea, and they provide generally healthy food too. The only day Sam's mummy has to feed him is on a Sunday, so maybe criticism is a little misplaced eh? Anyhow, I digress, Sam enjoyed his Happy Meal immensely, and we reached home at quarter to five. Sam was in and out of the bath quickly so we could have playtime and watch the first part of You've Been Framed.

Now. These days on Saturday Sam has to be home at 6. That's fine but it puts pressure on us on a Saturday afternoon. If we attend any kind of organised event we are really pushing it, as we have to drive, more than likely, 45 minutes to get home from an event that probably ends in the late afternoon anyway. Then it's tea and bathtime too, while trying to make the last of our time together happy and fun. Days like yesterday are more manageable. However, Sam's favourite programme (You've Been Framed) is usually showing at 6. Yesterday was no different, it was on from 5.40 to 6.40, so we could only watch ten minutes before heading off to mummy's house. I had to reassure Sam that Mummy "might" let him watch it there, but he didn't buy into that story and insisted "I'm NOT going, I am staying here with you Daddy!" We DID make it back to Mummy's nearly on time in the end, and again Sam's last words were "I want to come with you Daddy". Another tough one.

Saturday Evening

Well I got home and legged it to The Woolpack. Got there at quarter to seven, came home quarter to eight. Couple of calming pints, lovely. Last night was Vonny's birthday party, so the preparations were in progress and folk started arriving in their party clothes (Chanie and Georgie looking particularly bodacious). However, the BIG story of the night was the charity pool competition that is happening on Sunday 27 May. Apparently, during one of the usual "Us lot not in the pool team could beat you lot" debates, someone came up with the idea of putting their money where their mouth is and a formal challenge was made. This has now mushroomed into a four team tournament, but I'll make a separate blog for such an important event.....

So, it was home and Eurovision was on, hoorah! Usually our family has a BBQ and party on Eurovision night, with a £1 a go sweepstake. The sting in the tail being that the winner of the sweepstake, as well as pocketing £30-odd hosts the next year's party. This year we gave it a miss, as it was so close to Grandad's big party a couple of weeks ago. This year's Eurovision was just as funny as ever, it seems to me that the countries are gradually moving towards more bizarre entries each year, long may it continue!

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