Off to Cub Camp

Friday was the day J went to cub camp. While getting his stuff ready has been infinitely easier now I've got a washing machine it somehow all became a bit frenetic. He was supposed to take a tin of cakes with him and I really didn't feel like making some so I bought some little sponge cakes and decided to ice them. How can it take 2 hours to dollop some icing and sprinkles on 24 cupcakes? I don't know but it did.

By the time I'd finished they looked so wrecked that no-one would ever think they were shop ones. While I was doing it I was in an introspective mood, I suppose it was from being reminded so much of my past the day before. I was just thinking about my life and how I wish I'd done some things differently - (work harder at just about everything for one thing). But then if I'd done it differently, if I hadn't made some of the mistakes would I have ended up somewhere else doing something else? I might not have ended up spending 2 hours icing cupcakes for one thing. But then I might not have the family and friends I've got now and I wouldn't ever want to change them for anything and the thing about life is that cupcakes don't matter and yet they do matter both at the same time and what's more I quite enjoyed icing them.

Then I started getting his stuff together. The list didn't seem much but it was like 'Where is the stuff sack for his sleeping bag? How do I put his name on his torch? How do I label his grey socks? It would be too uncomfortable to have name labels and anyway I can't find the name labels. Should I put the antihistamine cream in even though we were supposed to inform the leader in advance of any medication, but is it really medication and if I don't put it in will he get awful bites and not be able to stop the itching? Oh no I didn't know his wellies were caked in mud! How do I squash a pillow, blanket, towels, raincoat, clothes and washgear into a holdall? Should he take his teddy? What if he does and it's lost? What if he doesn't  and he can't sleep?

In the midst of this there was a ring at the door - one of the Jehovah's witnesses back again! So I broke off and had this discussion about whether the Holy Spirit is a person or a power and what does this Geek word mean and what does that Hebrew word mean and I suggested she comes back in a couple of weeks when J is back at school. 

Then I got J to drag his bag to the porch and we waited for Becky who was picking him up. She arrived late and flustered, burst into the kitchen saying "Have you got a plastic bag for him to put his wet clothes in at camp?"

Then they were off and I went to pick up P from work. Parents are expected to help out a bit at camp and also J didn't settle in very well last year so P had decided to stay there Friday night and come back Saturday evening. For the last few weeks whenever I'd mentioned camp P's expression had been similar to that of someone who's about to go into hospital for a particularly unpleasant procedure. However he phoned me later and he sounded like he was enjoying it. They'd been rifle shooting and he's done really well (P that is) and they had a great camp fire and J's troublesome wobbly tooth had fallen out.

I spent the evening eating too much chocolate and watching 'The Tudors' which P doesn't like because he says it's historically inaccurate but I think the characterisation's really good. Then I watched a programme about Ronnie Corbett, don't know why really. Then I went to bed with the knowledge that for the first time in years nothing and nobody was going to wake me up, I could just wake up in my own good time. It took a while to get to sleep because I kept hearing noises and switching on the light and sitting up in bed with my heart thumping. But at last, with both the landline phone and mobile beside me I settled into a peaceful sleep...

At 3 am I was woken by the alarm on my mobile. This was to inform me that it was J's friend Adam's birthday.

At 6 am P's alarm clock went off.

For goodness sake!!