B(argain)BQ

What a day! 31 degrees C in our garden at one point! Rian was decidedly unimpressed, and as a result Philippa didn't have a good day, but Mathew and I had a whale of a time with the paddling pool up and a carefully positioned beach tent providing a bit of shade. God, parenthood gets better as your children get a bit older, doesn't it? That's my conclusion, anyway. Certainly for dads. Well, certainly for this dad. Mathew is such a little character now, and he really knows what he likes and he's quite vocal and forceful about getting it. So sometimes there are little clashes and minor power struggles as he pushes boundaries and tests limits, but generally he's a good lad and most of our time together is spent laughing. He really has his own personality now, and I'm so relieved that I like it!

I was going to end the day with a barbecue, but we hadn't ordered anything suitable in, and I couldn't be arsed to nip out to the shop just for a few burgers and sausage or two, so I may do that tomorrow. Let's face it, every arsehole and his stepmum would have been prepping for a barbie today, and I didn't want to get caught up in the mad scramble for the last bottle of ketchup. (It's the same reason we didn't tackle the beach today - first decent weekend of Summer so every numbskull nobhead would be piling straight to the coast.) Tomorrow, anything that wasn't bought over the weekend will be on reduced price and Yellow Stickered, so we'll get the same kind of meal for a third of the price!

RC 11-6-23