Boredom vs Budget: Week 6

Week 6 over, only a couple of days left til the big P2! Can't quite believe it.

So the last full week of holidays started with Monday and a few hours to myself. B had been invited round to a little friend's house for a good chunk of the day. Which followed on from the previous few days being to myself when B was at his gran's/dad's... but I'm not complaining, B had a fab time, playing superheros mostly, by the sounds of it. He didn't want to leave, but his friend's mum, a teacher, had a trick-of-the-trade up her sleeve, and promised the boys who agreed to go home with their mums without a fuss a special chocolate medal. Genius.

Money spent: none.

Energy spent: always loads when with other wee pals.

Tuesday and I felt the need to start thinking about school, and doing a bit of a shopping run for school trousers, polo shirts, etc. B wanted to go to the beach as it was definitely beach weather, but i wasn't so sure as I thought it'd be too busy. But B got his way and I'm glad he did cos we headed to a quieter end of the beach where there was plenty of room for sandcastle building, bit of beach tennis, and generally running about. A great afternoon, wish there could be more of them.

Yum, ice-cream

Money spent: well, I couldn't put it off forever, some money was needed for school stuff. Not too bad, though.

Boredom factor: Shopping trips are never on B's list of exciting activities, but the promise of the beach made it bearable.

Midweek was another bittersweet day with B going off again to his dad's for the rest of the week. We were meeting up with friends today, at the softplay (oh no, my "one soft play trip only" pledge in tatters...) and given the continuing 'heatwave' (cough) outside, it was quiet, thankfully. 

After lunch, we headed into town, squeezing our way through the throng of Edinburgh Festival tourists, to find one of the Golden Postboxes, painted in honour of Sir Chris Hoy's gold medals. B was desperate to see it, but wouldn't touch it as he thought it'd still be wet... There was even a bit of a 'queue' to get our picture taken! Who'd have thought we'd all be taking photos of postboxes.

Money spent: not too bad, only softplay entry so can cope with that.

Energy spent: lots, and some nervous excitement waiting to see the postbox! Go figure!

Rest of the week followed as previous two weeks, with B at his dads/gran's. 

I struggled a bit again, but made arrangements to meet a friend on Thursday evening, went down to a local harbour and ate fish and chips as the fishing boats went out for the night on the calm sea, and the sun was almost setting. It's impossible to feel low when you get to watch that on such a beautiful evening.

Camera phone photo doesn't do the real thing justice

Weekly Roundup
Money spent: more on school necessities than 'entertainment', good going.

Boredometer: barely registering

Best bit: Didn't think i'd be saying this, but has to be the postbox!

Boredom vs Budget - Week 5

Wait a minute... Week 5?... already??! Only another week and a bit and school starts back. (And actually as I write this we're half way through Week 6, where does the time go?!) Our first experience of the 'big' school holidays, unlike my vision of them stretching endlessly on and on, have in fact raced by. I'm almost sorry to see the end of them in sight. *sigh*

But I'm not wishing them away just yet.

Week 5 began with some morning sunshine on Monday, so we went for a walk/scoot round to the library to take some books back as part of the StoryLab Kids summer reading challenge. We were thwarted in our libary visit, however, as I'd forgotten that it doesn't open until lunchtime on a monday, but a stop at the swingpark on the way home was a happy substitute.

I had set myself a mini-challenge at the start of the holidays, to only go to a softplay once all summer - there's so much else to do, and cheaper, sometimes it seems like a lazy option. Today was our first softplay visit of the holidays, and it was reasonably quiet, so the thought of too much noise combined with hyper children and overpriced coffees didn't materialise (the coffees weren't too bad either)

Money spent: softplays are never a cheap option, but we'd had lunch already so only needed a bit of juice and a snack.

Energy used up: the usual sweat lashing off his neck and the red face was evidence of a funpacked, energy-filled trip.

Tuesday and with the sun out, we headed to Edinburgh Castle to put our recently bought Historic Scotland membership to good use. I must have been to the castle as a child, but have no memory of it and certainly haven't been as an adult, so it was a whole new experience for both B and I.

I'll not try and do a visitor's guide to Edinburgh Castle, if you want that you can go here. Instead, B and I's best bits were:

Mons Meg - over 550 years old, one of the world's oldest  and biggest canon guns

image credit: www.edinburghcastle.gov.uk

The very loud One O'clock Gun

Smoke from the just-fired One O'Clock Gun

The ramparts and the views across Edinburgh

We were there for about 4 and a half hours, and could have easily spent the day there (if B was at all interested in actually reading any of the information on display...) Will definitely go back even if it's to fill an hour or so. Might wait until it's not Edinburgh Festival time however, as it was just a teensy bit busy...

Money spent: as I've said before, the Historic Scotland membership came into its own today, with normal prices costing us £25 for the 2 of us to get in, we're paying £4 a month. So it's worth at least 6 months worth of membership alone. And you can queue-jump to get in!

Top tip: be prepared for lots and lots of people, in festival time. Having said that, there's lots of open spaces and places to explore within the castle grounds, so even when heaving there's space to move around.

Wednesday was a quiet-ish day. B was heading to his gran's again in the afternoon, so we spent the morning on bits and pieces, cutting out and making an Ironman mask and having a picnic-in-the-house lunch.

I braced myself for the inevitable surge of emotions once he'd gone, luckily I seemed to manage them a bit better than the previous week so work on the thursday was managable without a self-inflicted sore head to contend with!

Money spent: none. woohoo!

No. of 'i'm bored's: none. double woohoo!

Week 5 in brief:
Money spent: reasonable. thumbs up for the Historic Scotland membership!
Energy used: plenty of fresh air and activities to use up 5year old energy tanks.
Boredometer: minimal, close to the red zone on wednesday but Ironman pulled us back from the brink.

My Small Stuff

Inspired by Letters from your Mum, who was in turn herself inspired by Is there a Plan B?, I've been thinking of my Small Stuff, the stuff that's not supposed to be important, but in reality it's the stuff that matters the most.

Is there a Plan B? quotes from Bob Crampton from The Guardian:

The small stuff, ..., that you think is the small stuff,  

and then you get older and realise that the small stuff is what actually matters. 

So here's just a small selection of mine:

A good mood day, i.e. a cold clear day with warm sunshine.

B doing his repertoire of funny faces. B watching himself in the mirror doing his repertoire of funny faces. B doing a really good impersonation of his little friend's Yorkshire accent and not realising he's doing it. B's delight every morning at seeing his friends in the school playground, as if he's not seen them for ages, but it's been less than 24 hours. 

news.discovery.com

A double or triple rainbow, but I'll take a single one too. The orange night sky just before it snows. The silence of falling snow.

Suddenly noticing the vastness of a clear sky at night. Picking out all the stars, but not knowing any of the constellations. Using my new star-map app to spot in which direction the planets lie. Pointing out Venus and Jupiter to B and competing to see who is the most excited and in awe of being able to see actual planets!

The first trip of the year to the beach, usually when it's not quite warm enough to take your coat off. But sandcastles still get built and ice-creams still get licked. Then every trip to the beach after. Going for a walk along the sea-shore, shoes and socks off, having forgotten the feeling of the sinking sand and cold sea on your bare feet. Clambering up a big bank of sand, then running back down again.

Cuddles from B.

The words 'heebie-jeebies' and 'nincumpoop' (no, I didn't just make them up now).

Viggo Mortensen. Hugh Jackman. Not in any particular order.

Drinking sparkling wine from proper champagne flutes.

Waking up thinking it must be time to get up and the clock reassures me I've got another hour of snooze-time. Waking up to B's padding feet and a 'Good mornin' cheeky little face right next to mine. Getting that same wake up call when it's later than 7am (that one is a rarity, sadly. But one day...)

Being complimented by friends.

Watching B do a rolie-polie down a grassy bank.

Ticking off jobs on my to-do list. Writing nice tasks in my to-do list like 'book holiday' or 'arrange lunch with ... friend'.

Image Credit: tomstuart.org

Clambering on climbing frames with B. Still being able to clamber on climbing frames.

Playing Hide and Seek. Playing B's version of Hide and Seek where he tells me where he's going to hide. Or when he hides in the same place I've just hidden. His face when he finds me (especially if it's been a "really good hide place")

The smell of washing when it's been line-dried outside. My pink ugg slippers. Garlic bread. Daffodils.

* * *

I could go on. And on. Once you get going, the list of small stuff is endless. And it'll leave you in the best mood!

What's your Small Stuff?