The week that was

Well, Jesus. It's been quite a week.

Sunday: the parting of the Red Sea. Or, the parting of company between us and our erstwhile guests, previous owners of the house who had been camping at our place since we moved in, keeping some of their horses (about 9 to be precise) with us in exchange for doing the boys. The experience has taught me that one should not underestimate the perils involved in sharing one's space with someone who once used to own it and who has tendencies towards the ... oh never mind. Suffice it to say it was an awkward and surprisingly emotional day and by and large we stayed out of the way and let them get on with it.

Monday: up at the crack of dawn to drive to Cambridge for the final day of the leaders' course. It might sound crap and twee to go on about what an affirming day it was, but it really was and it has been quite a journey to take with people I have come to know well and become fond of. I'll miss seeing them but we've resolved to keep our learning set going. It's been amazing to see how much some people have grown and changed as a result of the experience and I certainly consider myself one of those fortunate to get a great deal from it.

The experience was only slightly marred by my breaking down on the M25 during rush hour on the way home, just after the junction with the M11 where traditionally there are lots of road works and not much in the way of a hard shoulder. Took one of the few options available to me which was to pull into a works access area and wait for the radiator to cool off sufficiently to be ministered to with coolant. While I was waiting, a bloke pulled over and said helpfully "you can't stay there love, you'll die". Well thanks. Just as I was admiring the view, too. Just as soon as the car was in a state to accept my offering of coolant, off we toddled/limped to the nearest service station, during which time I was able to reflect upon the inverse relationship between reliability of car and tightness of various involuntary sphincters. Made it to Thurrock services to top up and get back to poor Sid who'd last heard from me in a state of need on the M25 and was imagining all sorts of unpleasant and blood-soaked scenarios. Topped up the radiator fully (who knew it took about 6 litres) and limped home without further incident.

Tuesday: Arrgghhhhh dentist. Because of olympic levels of crapness on my part I had neglected to visit the dentist as a result of my ailing tooth for so long that there was nothing for it but for the thing to be removed - in two pieces. Plus a filling. There is a reason I don't go to the dentist. Well actually there are two reasons. 1) It hurts and is unpleasant; and 2) It costs shitloads of money, which IMO is far better spent on almost anything else. And so it is that I leave it and leave it, and then have to face up to worse horrors than if I'd just pulled on my big girl pants and gone on a regular basis like most right-thinking adults do.

Anyway, the day looms and I'm starting to flap in a more visible way, no longer able to keep the rising tide of panic at bay. Clearly, something had to be done. The application of half a bottle of rescue remedy and a spot of meditation seemed to do the trick, and off I went. The experience itself wasn't as bad as I thought, partly because I kept my eyes squeezed shut throughout and because I insisted on plenty of injections. The filling was ok and the extraction - well, horrid but pain-free at the time, although it's never a pleasant thing to have a fully grown man hanging off your face with a pair of pliers or whatever the hell it was he used. Eventually it came out and it was only afterwards he told me how lower jaw extractions are fraught with difficulty and that I had a 50-50 chance of infection. Thanks chuck. And with that, off I went, numb of face and unable to speak. It wasn't long before the pain kicked in and I spent the rest of the afternoon in a state of Pure Blokeishness.

Wednesday: First day leaving the boys unattended at home, but happy that the contractor doing the hardstanding was on site and keeping an eye on them for me. Managed to get morning stables done in 18 minutes. This is some sort of record and deserves a round of applause. Especially after a bad night's sleep an a 3am foray downstairs in search of cocodamol. Boys seem very chilled in fact and spent most of the day out grazing.

Thursday: After another restless night due to throbbing jaw, a trip to Canterbury for a conference on technology and learning spaces. Caught myself nodding off a few times and rued the bit where I misjudged painkiller timings and drove home to the accompaniment of further throbbing. Am really not good with pain, or sleep deprivation. Both = serious shit.

Friday: demob happy; two weeks off - yay!

Saturday: busy busy busy day. It doesn't matter what I do, I am now seemingly programmed to wake at 6.30 to do the boys. I tell myself this constitutes a lie-in when school day wake up is an hour earlier. Morning stables, shopping done and pooch walked all by 10am, which is not bad going.

There is So Much Cleaning to do on the yard it's difficult to know where to start. But it's good because now we can get on with it and it is starting to feel like our place. Dug out the hay barn and what was the feed room, which turned out to be ankle deep in the skankiest slurry shite known to man. Dug out the worst of that and Sid went in with the power hose. He loves his power hose :)

Meanwhile the hardstanding is almost finished and we now have parking for a number of cars, and a mud-free zone between house and yard in preparation for the arena installation. I noticed a link between the application of coffee, tea, bacon and cake in getting the work done which I will keep in mind for future reference. Especially when the bacon is the superlative stuff from the farm shop up the road.

We now have external lights on the yard, which are fab. It's all coming together and the next challenge will be to finance the arena itself. Meanwhile, I am looking forward to two weeks off, the fact that the clocks ave gone forward and we have the place to ourselves. Bliss.