Wet Start

  It was a very wet start to the day. I had to wear my waterproofs when I walked around to Zoe's to collect them for the walk to school. We made our way through the driving rain and dropped Ellie at the classroom door. Zoe headed off to work, and I started on my morning walk. Despite the rain, which was beginning to ease, I had an enjoyable walk and, thanks to my audiobook, it was quite enthralling.

Once home and my fast broken, we completed the weekly shopping list and headed off to Sainsbury's. The shop didn't seem to take too long and we were back home by midday. The shopping was stowed away and we had a bite of lunch, then Di settled down with her Kindle and I spent some time refining the spreadsheet for next year's accounts. This did highlight an area which could benefit from a rethink and some rationalisation. I will allow this to fester and return to the problem tomorrow.

We collected Ellie from school and brought her back to our home. The plan was that she would have an early dinner with us and then we'd all go out. She was a bit hyper when she left school, but gradually calmed down once we got home. Zoe arrived soon after 17:00 and collected Ellie. We would meet them at the Christmas Ice rink in Bognor Regis.

We arrived at the fair and rink a few minutes after Zoe. Ellie had her friend Oscar with her. They rushed in to get their ice skates on and were soon, gingerly, making their way around on the ice holding some "snowmen" to give them stability.

After a few loops of the rink, Ellie ditched the snowman and set off on her own. She stayed close to the edge so she could grab the rails every few steps. Oscar took a few more laps before he ditched his snowman. Ellie did really well, and her dependence on the rails diminished as she became more confident. 

In retrospect, I wish I had gone on the ice with them; then I could have held her hand as she negotiated the odd traffic jam, and maybe given her some more confidence. Instead, Di, Zoe, and I stood at the edge and drank some mulled wine as we watched.

The session finished at 18:45 and after they had changed out of their skates, they stopped for some fresh doughnuts to eat on the way home. We left them to it and headed home ourselves for a quiet evening.