Brands Hatch; Lovely Weather; 'Spiderdude'

Brands Hatch Start and Finish Line

The past couple of weekends have been rather busy lately.  The first, my friend Branden from back home was given the sacred 'weekend pass', and came to town to catch up.  There inevitably were a couple of beers involved, but we made sure to do something productive, so this involved heading over to Brands Hatch to watch the German Touring Cars in action.  They had a host of other races on throughout the day, and it was all a rather enjoyable experience.  The noise was something different, and the freedom to roam was fantastic, so once we found a prime position to see all the cars come flying up to us with some potential overtakes and scrapes, all was well worth it.

The rest of the weekend, is a bit of a blur, as we caught up with a couple of other old friends.  It set me up for feeling tired for the rest of the week, having to work hard.

This weekend, we had the joy of finally getting some heat in the air, so the garden was the place to visit, and when the neighbour popped his head over the fence suggesting we attend his barbecue, there was little stopping us.  I hastily got a couple of chores out of the way, cleaned Olive's old paddling pool, and we headed over for a lovely evening soaking in the last rays of sunlight coupled with a selection of good food and fine wine.

I didn't quite realise what hour it was when Julia took Olive to bed, but I had the joy of staying longer, and made the most of the situation.

The problem being I wasn't feeling too great when I had to get up at the inevitable hour, and then run 10miles on Sunday morning.  The least said about that run, the better.  I did it, and kept to the desired pace, but, ye Gods, I thought I was going to come a cropper at some stage.

After the run, it was another day spent outside, drinking lots of water, and doing the annual 'tidying of the shed'.  Our shed is small, and houses many things, as jobs occur through the house, it becomes a chore to find things in the shed, so a chore to put them away.  For this reason, tools etc, soon take residence inside.  It was a horrible job, but I'm glad to get it out of the way.  The other reason why I have to do it is because of a tenant we have living inside the shed, and Julia knows about it all too well.  As you go through the door, you will see lots of spiders, but none of them move.  None, but the one who is living in the corner right by entrance, who Olive named 'Spiderdude'.  This critter is a cannibalistic son of a gun; measures a good two inches; carries a decent shadow, with eyes you can see; and has certainly established itself as the 'top dog' of our shed.

Julia wanted it removing, but that would spoil my amusement in watching her tepidly getting a spade or a tin of paint.

No.  Olive liked Spiderdude, and while everything got cleaned up, Spiderdude remained to establish herself for the next year.  It will be interesting to see how big she becomes then.

A final thing, I have been playing with Olive to get her to write her name, she has grasped it all by herself.  If you ask her to do it, it comes out random for the first few attempts (she's better at writing it as the mirror image strangely), but on this occasion, I thought she did really well for a 2 and half year old.  She draws a circle to dot the 'I', and the 'E' is usually an 'O' with a line on it.  I can read it though, and know I could never do that at her age, so hats off little one.