Back on duty

Settling back in everyday family life after my adventures in Sweden has its own upsides and downsides. A definite upside is seeing Archaeologist Husband being happy after having his first pub night for a long time. This couple of pints was after observing a long parish council meeting, but that too was a victory of a kind. The candidate of the Charnwood Greens is sitting there in the council and literally starting the groundwork at the grassroot level. It is also marvellous to hear that our reliable and respected Liberal Democrat councillor was back in action recovering from a serious illness - even if he was only drinking orange juice. Our councillor was not voted in with 8 votes but much more: some of my friends did vote Andrew, too. A green ethical banker. We do need more of those!

I am still not sure if the different morning routines are a downside. Number One Son seems to have no problem with the fact that with Daddy he will first change and then have breakfast, while with Mummy it is the other way round. The definite downside is the mixed messages we give in relation to homework. Or actually in relation to bribing that goes on in order to get things done. While Daddy happily promises chocolate eggs, Mummy tries to keep all chocolates and sweets away after 5pm - and aims at restricting sweets to Saturdays, the traditional Finnish and Finnish weekly day for limited sweets and candy. I also notice that even if Archaeologist Husband has done sterling work with Number One Son's reading and writing practices, I am slightly more lax with them, concentrating on the reading. However, I am taking humouristically Archaeologist Husband's stern 'I did this for 20 months' comments. Since he did - and I never know when I will need his help next.

But this weekend Archaeologist Husband has off and hopefully having great time. He is on the south coast celebrating Our Bestman's 50th birthday. They do it in a quaint style having an afternoon tea in a hotel. Well, they did have Japanese food yesterday. Some style in celebrating the 'new 30s', not just getting pissed...