Gerald the giraffe

Went to see Mt, H and the weans today. AR was enamoured with a stuffed toy/doorstop she’d got from her aunties’ house yesterday. She’d named him Gerald and was larking around with him most of the day. Chatted to Mt and H over coffee…hearing about H’s off putting experiences in her first week in a job at a clinic which sounded awful. She’s not going back! They’re looking for somewhere to go for her 40th birthday in May so I suggested they spend some focussed time looking whilst I took the kids (and Gerald!) to the park. As usual they chatted all the way, about Mt’s diet, football and rugby injuries, camping, sleepovers and holidays. They played on the swings and with a ball they found then we made our way home, and Mt&H had decided on Sardinia by then and had booked their flight. I looked over our time in Sardinia in 2017 (thank goodness for Blip to find these things!) and told them about places we’d been.
We had lunch, chatting about potential home improvements they might do, their jobs, family, plans etc. I helped Mx do his spellings homework (extra) and listened to him playing piano which he’s taken up….he concentrates really well on both. He then dashed back to a screen as he’s only allowed to play the various computer/video games at weekends.
We drove over to see N&G and they’d bought some gorgeous patisserie cakes which we shared whilst we chatted. Nice to see them after quite a while and G was telling me about changing estate plans at the OU and N about her Mum’s health and their holiday plans.
Left about 4 and had a slow drive back as the M25 was closed at one point and the nearby roads were all clogged up, but arrived at K’s in time for lasagne supper with A, K and her brother W. We chatted on afterwards about old children’s TV programmes, travels in Japan, China and Korea and their cultures and food.