Thank you for being a reader here at What Did She Say? I am so pleased to have you here! If you enjoy this post, please share it. And if you would like to be a free or paid subscriber I would love that. Your support means I can spend more time writing here.
In my head
Summer is here in Leicester. It’s been hot, hot, hot and I’ve spent a lot of time making doggy ice cream cups - well, yogurt ones, with salmon and boiled eggs. Delicious, according to Ted.
It’s been a month of two themes. Celebration and grief. L turned 10, which seems monumental to me. I feel the boys galloping ahead in their lives. Our first set of mocks done and dusted, another set of GCSE subjects chosen, and for L, the last year of primary beckons. His year are very much a Covid class. They spent some of year 1 and 2 being home schooled, so they missed out on a lot of the playground socialising that can be both a good and a bad thing. We don’t like to talk about that, do we? How our kids can go to school as really quite nice humans and then emerge having picked up a smattering of not so delightful habits.
It’s elitist maybe to say? I’m not sure what kind of slur it is. But I know it happens. One of my boys came back from his first week at a new playschool having learnt to spit. He’d never done it before. I wonder what naughtiness he taught his new pals? When I think about my own habits, most of them - good and bad, have been learnt from others, so it figures.
L and his friends have benefitted from this extra injection of home. It firmed them up a bit, shored up their roots. They’re a lovely class. Characterful, confident, young for their age. It’s a joy to watch them interact. I fear for their foray into secondary at the end of next year. I want them to keep this essence of ‘them’. Is it possible? Did that extra time at home do enough? We’ll see.
And grief, oh grief. It’s been omnipresent throughout June, as it will always be forever more. Two years since V died. TWO YEARS. And then later this month another bereavement within the house. (Not mine). It’s been a lot. We plod on. One foot in front of the other. The sun’s still shining in spite of death, which always feels bonkers doesn’t it? How dare the world just carry on regardless.
Right, let’s get to it… lots to report!
In my basket
As I am now a dog mum, I find myself buying little gifts for Teddy. From the charity shop a slow feeding bowl donated by an owner of a dog who’s now passed across to the big park in the sky. From Lidl a dog fountain to attach to the hose. Who even am I?
There are lots of up close and personal physical reminders of aging, aren’t there? Achy joints, waking early, white hair, and, in my opinion, one of the most irritating; hoof like feet. I’ve noticed in the last few years that my soles are less than OnlyFans material. So I have invested £15 in this electric sand papering thing by JML. Reviews are off the scale. Wish me luck. (Do I need a hard hat?) Postscript: reader, buy one. It was an other worldly experience and my feet are now baby soft, maybe wear a mask though, not sure breathing in hard skin dust is very good for your lungs.
I’ve also been using this stuff too, it’s 30% urea, which is the stuff that makes your skin softer. I’m ignoring the urine like name which I think is for the best.
Listening/reading/watching/visiting
Listening & Reading
I finally listened to Lessons in Chemistry.
I’m a real sod for refusing to read something if everyone tells me it’s amazing. I hate being told what to do. I’ve never read The Da Vinci Code for example, or 50 Shades of Grey. It’s petulant behaviour I know, I know.
My initial beef with Lessons in Chemistry was the title. I hated chemistry at school. I felt like it was all a swizz. Lies upon lies. I could get on board with the made up stories of my English Literature classes. Fiction writers aren’t pretending what they’re saying is true, they’re blatantly front and centre making things up. But my chemistry teacher expected me to believe her that everything IN THE WORLD has little things in them called protons or neutrons or electrons or all three, banging against each other? Not having it. And the periodic table? Don’t even get me started. I hated it. I hated the high benches and the uncomfortable too tall stools and the lab coat that popped open as you sat down. It was all just uncomfortable, physically and mentally.
So when my library app FINALLY had this on audiobook I gave it a go. And do you know what?
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to What Did She Say? to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.