We’ve all had a busy day today. It started very early. Jan had us all up by 6:30! Jan, Jamie and Jan’s sister Wendy were going to a car boot sale to be held in the local park this morning. It was to be an all-day sale as Stockport Carnival was on today too. Mean while I had a big job to do, which was to remove the window seat in the lounge. This is in preparation for the new windows being fitted next week. We are having the bay window rebuilt hence the need to remove the window seat before the workmen arrive to demolish the bay.
But first, I went back to bed for an hour! 😉 When I eventually got to work on it, it went quite well. It wasn’t as tough as I had thought it was going to be. I only managed to cut my self once when I caught my arm on a nail resulting in a deep gash. In all I had the window seat removed, some temporary cover up work and everything cleaned up in about two and a half hours. Quite good going for me that (no cigarette breaks anymore!).
Then I had lunch, showered and walked up to the park to see the girls. The carnival parade was arriving as I made my way into the park. The various bands I could hear on my way up sounded much better than last year. I eventually found the girls and the car. They had had a good day so far. Especially Jamie who was selling off some of her old toys and books. She managed to raise just over £45 altogether. Jan did well, and Wendy made more than she was expecting. We had just decided to start packing up as things were going quiet, when the rain started (it had been threatening all day). That decided for us and we quickly packed up and set off home.
The girls were exhausted from their early start and were both in bed by 9pm!

Jamie brought all her work books home from school today in preparation for the end of year. She also brought a pile of papers, drawings, etc. I’ve been looking through some of her work and it is fantastic! I’m really surprised at the quality and depth of some of the work she has been doing. She tells us next to nothing about the work she does. We do try to ask and express an interest, we are full of praise when she deserves it and supportive when she needs helps. But we get next to nothing back! It is very frustrating. I also found a certificate showing that she had taken and passed her bronze level keyboard exam 10 days ago! She was in bed when I found it so I couldn’t ask, but she hasn’t told us a thing about taking this exam or that she had passed it. *sigh*

I made my phone calls this morning: The inland revenue are still a huge disorganised bureaucracy! I got transferred from one department to another, and in the end I have to fill in a new form and I may as well have not bothered with the last one. I also found out I have been paying tax on a benefit I haven’t received for the last four years and will have to try to claim it back! The investment company I phoned about surrendering a policy have decided to rip me off! I lodged an official complaint! I also had to phone the hospital to chase up an appointment that I have been waiting for. It still hadn’t been made, but the lady I spoke to was able to do so whilst I was on the phone. So it has taken them more than a month since they received the referral from my GP to make the appointment, andthey still wouldn’t have made it if I hadn’t called them! I still have to wait more than a month to actually go into hospital for the appointment.

After lunch Jan and I went down to school for the show. I hadn’t realised it was going to be in the church. We got seats and settled down to wait. Eventually the kids came out and started the show. They did about ten songs from Joseph. They were really quite good. The PA system stopped working so it was a little hard to hear the soloists, but all in all they did very well. The costumes were good too. I took some photos and will put them in the gallery soon.

After coffee and biscuits in the parish hall, we went for our appointment with Jamie’s teacher. As usual she was full of praise for Jamie. She did not have a single complaint to make. She said she could not recall having to tell Jamie off for anything at all this year! She read us a story Jamie had written as part of her ‘optional’ SATS exam she took in May. The story was fantastic, and it had been graded by the year six teacher at level four, which is the level she will be expected to attain in year six. She is currently in year four, and will start year five next year. Her teacher assures us she will be doing year six work next year as she as pretty much attained year five level already!

I have a day off work tomorrow! I’ve got some phone calls to make in the morning (dealing with the Inland Revenue — yeuch!), and then we’re going to watch Jamie sing at school. The school are doing some songs from Joseph. I’m really looking forward to it. We’ve also got an appointment for Parents Evening tomorrow where we will get a chance to talk to Jamie’s teacher about how Jamie is doing in school. We got her end of year report on Friday and it was excellent as usual! Still, I would like to know that she is being stretched enough. I wouldn’t like her to get bored.