I woke up feeling rather smug and thin this morning, I’d managed to run 6km last night, breaking through my 5k barrier and I could swear my waist was just a little bit more ‘toned’. I could have run further last night but I was starting to have problems with my big toe, something I hope isn’t a sign of things to come.
This morning I took the kids into town for a spot of uniform shopping, there’s a 3 for 2 sale on at M&S and I wanted to take advantage of it before it went. I hit a problem though, although the shops are all full of school uniform, trying to find something in size 4 or 5 year old is easier said than done. I’d gone into M&S looking for a pinafore dress, a skirt and a pair of trousers, a combination I thought would last an average week before needing to be washed, however I couldn’t find a pair of trousers, so ended up getting an extra skirt, well it was ‘free’. We then went to BHS as I’d heard their polo shirts wash really well, we brought the last 5 year old twin pack, could really do with more than that. We also found a twin pack of trousers that fitted, would have preferred a single pair but again I couldn’t find a pair in the right size, although this time that I liked, there were a few size 4s that I discounted as the material felt horrible, I’m already uncomfortable as it is with this whole idea of non-iron, stain-repellent coatings, I’ve even seen ones with waterproof coatings, on a pair of ‘normal’ trousers! The idea of all those chemicals next to their skin, yuck! I was also looking for a summer school uniform dress, again found loads in bigger sizes, none in Girl Lacer’s size. This all makes me glad that I decided to uniform shop ‘early’. I think this whole shortage is because in our area the intake of children going into reception is so huge, the education authority has had to add on an extra six reception classes! And the retailers haven’t seemed to have cottoned on to that.
This evening I’m off to spend even more money on uniform at the ‘new parent’s evening’ as we need to buy logo-ed jumpers, pe kit and a specific book bag. I also need to buy the material and instructions to make a chair bag, ahhh the chair bag, I remember when I started school I had a little drawer to put my books and pens in, no at Girl Lacer’s school it’s chair bags, as in a fabric construction you put over the back of their chair. I don’t know when I became aware of this concept but I’ve been aware of it for some time (longer than Girl Lacer has been at nursery – which doesn’t have chair bags) and although I haven’t been practicing my sewing and embroidery solely for the purpose of making a chair bag, it has been one of the reasons. You have to construct the bag (although you can buy them ready made) and then sew (or write) on their name in LARGE letters and add decoration. Mmmm, they should be offering classes to the mummies for this! Anyway, so that’s where I’m off to tonight, however the title of ‘new parent’s evening’ is a bit of a misnomer, as I was there last year for Girl Lacer starting nursery and it’s the same talk and you know what? I’ll be there next year to for Boy Lacer starting nursery and the year after for him starting school, so I’ll definitely be an old parent by then!
