Freddie…

It was a Freddie day today. What fun we had going through the lovely list that we’d written yesterday of things to do.

Freddie hadn’t forgotten we’d written a list and, when he arrived, he went straight to it to check it out. First off: Scalectrix. We brought it down and set it up just off the lounge in the library area.

Well, I say ‘we’ – actually it was John who set it all up and got it going. He said I was being sexist, referring to the ‘boys’ setting it up – and he might have been right. Funny how old ideas stick in your mind, isn’t it? I still have memories of not being allowed to touch such hallowed and treasured games in days gone by.

Anyway, we had fun with it for a while, but one of the cars struggled round, so I did a lot of polishing of the track and repairing of the car’s connection to the track, until we decided it probably was the car itself. At that point, Freddie had had enough. It’s not that much fun when the car isn’t racing round the track. Mind you, Freddie didn’t half giggle every time the car went spinning off. It was his favourite part of the race.

After we’d finished playing with the Scalectrix, we worked our way through the list: i) make a den – we played in the ‘Harry Potter’ cupboard upstairs instead, fiddling about with glowsticks to our hearts’ content; ii) play with the slinky – well, we did that several times and played with the cats while we were at it; iii) move the bird feeder – Freddie helped decide where to place it so that we can actually see the birds when they come to feed. That was very helpful. iv) marshmallow roast on an open fire – the fire was brilliant and roasted the marshmallows to perfection….. I think Freddie enjoyed eating them…..yummmm……

We also made cakes, Freddie played on the swing, and we watched an old, classic film called ‘The Plank’, which we chuckled over.

All in all, it was a wonderful time and reminded me of how much we have been missing in the last 18 months.

What is particularly nice, of course, is the ‘growing up’ phase. Freddie is an articulate and intelligent boy, so it’s good to be able to talk to him. He is also a great joker – deliberately so – and makes you laugh at his antics. Our hearts are full.

This evening we drank beer by way of relaxation and slouched in front of the TV as is our wont when we are tired. I did fall asleep for half an hour while John cleared the kitchen. Good man.

In other news, we were so sad to get a message at lunchtime telling us that Brian, my cousin Janet’s husband, passed away this morning. We feel so very sorry that the opportunity to spend more time with them as a couple has now passed, but I am pleased that I was able to visit them on their golden wedding anniversary not so long ago. If you are so inclined, please hold Janet, Peter, their son, and Linda, their daughter, in your prayers.

In COVID news, there were 31,808 people who tested positive for the virus today and a lot of people died – 92 deaths in the community. The final tally of deaths in hospitals on 4 August was 37, and there were 10 recorded yesterday.

Do take care everyone. God bless.