Life . . .

 . . .gets in the way huh?!

It certainly has for me of late, weeks have been busy with "life", with work, with all sorts of things . . .and then of course the holiday.  Although it was touch and go right up until the afternoon before we were due to travel after the mini man had a bit of an "accident" playing football the weekend before we were due to fly on the wednesday, and suffered a fractured elbow.  Not the greatest start to his return to playing football, having suffered an almost season long injury!

So, it was all very stressful, mixed with hospital appointments, a crazy work schedule and a week long school trip for mini man before we travelled ourselves.

I would like to say that our trip to Italy was 2 weeks of total bliss and relaxation . . .it wasn't, but Italy was fabulous!

I fell in love with Rome, and Venice was simply beautiful even though I had not felt drawn to it before we went.  I didn't enjoy the time at the Lake, but that wasn't because it wasn't beautiful.  We were blessed by beautiful weather, too hot on some days to do the things we really wanted, but with some wonderful Cities to visit, we could only touch the surface of the wonderful things to do and see.  It has certainly opened the door to repeat visits in the future, but seeing some of the wonderful sights of Rome and Venice and indeed Verona, where we travelled to from the lake to see the Amphitheatre and of course home to Romeo and Juliet!

Lots of wonderful food, some marvellous Italian wines, the most wonderful gelato you could ever eat.  But, it's been a while since we have travelled in Europe, and the prices have increased dramatically.  But, it was a wonderful trip, but very busy, so since returning we've been trying to "recover".

It is of course the season of holidays, end of school years but this time for us an end of a school "era" as mini man will move to secondary school in September.  It has been a whole round of school meetings, visits to the new school and now we are faced with a new uniform list that will no doubt cost us around £500, because yes, they really need two reversible rugby shirts, because yes, it really is possible to wear more than one at a time!

Gone are the days when you could buy plain white sports t-shirts, no, the school he is going to has now introduced specific items of uniform, all of them neatly embroidered with the school badge or colours and logo, and of course it takes it to being 4 times the price!

Still, I am incredibly proud of mini man, the results he achieved at his tests and also the end of year report that he brought home to me.  He whowever was disappointed, disappointed that he missed out on a specific grade by 1 mark. Even though the level he was at, isn't what is expected until at least another year . . .for him it wasn't good enough.  He reminds me very much of myself and how I was at school.  The perfectionist and who would never be happy with settling for anything less, trying the hardest was simply never good enough. 

I can see the pattern within him, even though I try all the time to get him to relax and not get stuck into that same pattern.  Nothing wrong with aiming high, but as long as he tries his hardest and does his best, then I hope that he will be happy. However, the competitiveness within him always makes him want to push himself a whole lot harder.

So, tomorrow is the last day of the school year, an end of year treat for him and 15 friends who are going to be picked up from school in a stretch limo, driven around and then head off for dinner, where we will be joined by another 4 children!  We must be mad!

Still, not a day . . not a moment goes by when I am not incredibly proud of the young man that grows before me, of the things that he does, the things that he achieves, but more so for the person that he is.  It can be a lot of pressure at times, being a single parent.  But I am lucky that we are incredibly close and have a wonderful relationship ~ as those teen years approach, I hope it continues!

So, it's been chaos, life has been chaotic.  Whether things will ease of a bit who knows.  As such, I haven't had time to blog, the writers block continues to be there and the motivation to write hasn't really been fired, however, I did finally decide that I really must get back into it. A book will not write itself!

And there has been some interesting contact recently on a "D/s" front, some very interesting conversations which has given real food for thought.

I really must make some time to taste such delights . . .