Six weeks + 4

Well yesterday was quite fun, I did take it easy after a fashion, mainly because after skipping out the field I came home and fell asleep. That's a clue as to how tiring it is skipping out a field when you're not really fit, even with an official wheelbarrow pusher (Xander) doing the heavy work. As to the cheap bolognese sauce, well nobody complained, actually that's not true, Neil complained that the sauce was too watery, and Xander complained that the pieces of carrot weren't cooked enough, the point is nobody complained that half the mince was soya mince. I do think though that if I do any experimental recipes again I won't mention it to them, it may stop them picking apart my cooking, especially after Xanders suggestion that we try all of my new recipes on the dog first, in case he turns his nose up at them, then we shouldn't eat them. Considering that Ned would eat anything, and has from cat poo to whole tubs of butter spread, I'm not sure that it would be a worthwhile test! 

Xander and I had a little trip out yesterday to Cooltrader, it's like a cheap mans Iceland, which is saying something, so we could stock up the little freezer. I know it doesn't sound very exciting but we went there via McDonalds (hardly a direct route), just to make it more appealing. We were sitting in the carpark, eating our snack wraps (I am beginning to wonder why I always end up eating chicken when I go to McDonalds), when Xander started talking about a trip we took to the Safari Park. It's because he wanted to go there this week, as his "not going to Woolacombe" treat but I don't think I'm up to the driving round avoiding being sat on by camels part (the car not me personally). Anyway, he said we went in a big red car, not ours, not Carlas and I was starting to wonder if he was having some kind of mental breakdown as they seemed like the only reasonable  possibilities. Carla used to have a red short wheel base Landrover called Larry (and why not), whereas I did own a red (burgundy) Renault scenic at one point. Actually the scenic was the car I owned when Xander was 4, I remember it well as he took the keys one day and attempted to steal it, now that is another story. So then I remembered that Carla had borrowed Helens long wheel base Landrover (she was the owner of Stourton, the stables where I used to work and Carla was the manager), and we had gone to the Safari Park in it taking Sophie with us as well as Will and Xander (Sophie is a friends daughter, actually a friend now, that's how you know you are old when the children of your friends are now old enough to be your drinking buddies). Now going round the Safari Park in a long wheel base Landrover (they have 9 seats) is really the way to do it, everyone gets a good view and it feels, just a little bit more realistic, especially if the sun is shining and you squint when the steam trains go past. 

I was really impressed that he remembered it, as it must have been quite a few years ago, and I mentioned as much. "Well it's funny but I have a really good long term memory, and a really bad short term one" he replied. Now I'm a little stumped to be fair as he's 10 (he'll tell you he's 11 in weeks time) surely most of the things he has in his memory are short term? I could be wrong on this point, my knowledge of memory is sketchy at best, but if you don't remember much of anything before you are 4 or 5, and he's 10, are any of the memories that he has long term? Oh well that's living with Xander for you, he is "special" in so many ways, if you are in any doubt of that I will just refer you to the car-jacking at 4 from the previous paragraph. Now my issues with short term memory loss are actually making me walk around the house more than is normal, mainly because I keep forgetting that the washing machine is in the kitchen, so I go into the utility instead for no reason. Luckily only Ned has been witnessing this odd behaviour, and I've sworn him to secrecy by threatening to use him as a guinea pig for my future cooking experiments. Talking of washing, I should go and hang some out, I find it dries better that way, then Xander and I can plan our adventures for today.