Author Archives: Stephen Smith

Greenwich turned out to be totally fine, but some of the high streets we passed on the way there looked hellish. Chislehurst and Blackheath in particular were utterly rammed and there were very few masks to be seen. This is how we’ll end up with a second wave – be sensible people!

The children asked if they could go in the garden and specifically requested to play musical instruments. Typically, and having a box full of musical instruments to choose from, both Genevieve and James chose the loudest recorders available and paraded around the garden as though they were the Pied Piper being followed by a hoard of rats.

Genevieve found one of the hen do games that we thought had been hidden away. It was a game of hoopla where the pole you’re aiming for is strapped to someone’s body and is shaped like, shall we say, an invigorated male protuberance. Thankfully she thought it was a “witch’s nose”. Oh the joy of innocence.

Megan had bought sausage rolls for the kids to enjoy. They were exceedingly happy with that piece of news. However, I was less thrilled as, somehow, they always manage to spread flakes of puff-pastry all over the house when they eat the meaty treats. Oh well.

We were having homemade burgers for dinner and James was on hand to be my sous-chef. He did an excellent job measuring the dry ingredients, but when it came to adding the minced beef he was more keen to stab it than mix it together. He ended up flicking meat everywhere but we got there in the end.

The kids must have jumped in every puddle on the block plus all the other nearby puddles for good measure. There can’t have been a single puddle within a kilometre that hadn’t been splashed or frolicked in.

Having not properly left the house for over three weeks I was determined to walk around the block by the end of the day. Not a long way in the grand scheme of things, but really quite a distance given how inactive I’d been up to that point.

Megan displayed her artistic credentials and got the children creating beautiful flowers from colourful circles of paper. It was amazing to see their utterly gorgeous pictures springing to life from such a simple starting point.

The kids took every opportunity to splash and jump in puddles. Despite wearing wellies and puddle suits, they still managed to arrive home with cold and wet feet and legs. A quick change of clothes and warm sausage rolls sorted them out soon enough though.

While the kids were playing together beautifully, they had somehow managed to make such an almighty mess that it took nearly half an hour to sort it all out. If only there was some way to channel their ability to cause chaos in to something good!