A dramatic time (in all sorts of ways)

Despite a newly broken wrist, there was never any question in M's mind that she would still be going to the drama workshop every day this week.  She was and still is at times really down about not being able to do any sports for the next month or so, particularly the two days of gymnastics in a couple of weeks time.  So on Monday with a bit of trepidation, after a night of very disturbed sleep, I dropped my girls off at Nottingham Arts Theatre for the first day of the Show in a Week Theatre Skills workshop with their pack lunches, which included a paracetamol in M's case! 

After returning home, I later headed back out to collect my lovely friend from uni, MC, who came for a visit, from the station.  We had the leisure to have a lovely catch up chat (it had been far too long!) over a cuppa and plum cake before going to pick up the girls.  We discovered that the show that they are putting on is a variety show on the theme of cats, mostly T S Eliot/Cats the Musical and the girls had some things to learn and that they knew one other person there through home ed, Ma.

MC & the girls had their turn for a catch up and a game of Destination Hogwarts while I made tea and we also introduced her to The Flumps, we feel it necessary to introduce MC to important things that she missed out on as a child as she's American.  She also helped the girls with their lines, which was very helpful.

On Tuesday, MC & I dropped the girls off again and spent the day in town pootling around the shops (mostly charity shops and bookshops - I have recently learned that there is an admitted relatively new bookshop that I didn't know existed in Nottingham!).  After we'd picked up K & M, on arriving home and finding a parcel, which contained a dvd which a friend had promised to lend the girls (thank you Z!), we introduced MC to The Wombles!

We had such a wonderful time with MC, she's a brilliant guest and such an uplifting person to have around generally and she says such lovely things about my girls and indeed me.  K & M adore her, as evidenced by the fact that she was welcome to stay and listen to a chapter of the bedtime story that K is reading to M (they've moved on to Pippi Longstocking), something I would never be allowed to do!

Today, sadly we had to say goodbye to MC, but we have both promised that we won't leave it as long before we meet up again.  It was rather a stressful day after that though unfortunately.  M had her appointment at the fracture clinic, so I needed to go and pick her up from the theatre.  Just as I was arriving I had a phone call to tell me that both K & M had got rather upset about parts at the drama workshop and K, who had clearly calmed down, burst into tears when she saw me, it was obviously a good idea to have done so.  If I hadn't been picking M up, it would probably have been worked through by the end of the day.  I think it's partly disappointment at only getting a line each to speak in the poem that they'd been working on, when a few of the teenagers had much bigger chunks.  K hasn't wanted to talk about it, but I did get M's version on the way to the hospital.  They have both (with MC's help) worked very hard on learning lines and certainly were given the impression that this would have a bearing on the allocation of parts although it doesn't seem to have been the case.  I think possibly expectations could have been managed a bit better, the fact that it's a variety show rather than a play means that parts are much less clear cut, but since certainly M and I think K are talking about doing another of the Shows in a Week next year, I think things are okay, although they have both said they'd rather do a play next time.  

I got rather stressed twice over parking this afternoon, first trying to find somewhere to park at the hospital for M's appointment at the fracture clinic but we found one and made it in time in the end.  We had a bit of a wait before M saw the doctor, then had the temporary cast taken off and replaced by a splint.  This was something of a disappointment, as it is neither colourful nor can it be drawn on and I think it'll take a bit of getting used to as well.  She is also still really quite down about not being able to do sport for the next month.  She has to keep the splint on for 3 weeks, after which time she can swim but not do any other sport for another 2 weeks, which means missing out on the two days of gymnastics at the end of the month that she had really been looking forward to, as well as the start of the new term of korfball and the end of the cricket season.

The boring splint.

One area of stress was alleviated greatly thanks to B and her delightful daughter, Ma, who was my back up in case of not making it back in time to pick up K from drama, she and K were going to go to a cafe to wait until M and I got back.  We made it in plenty of time though, so I took all three girls for a treat instead, but then I got a bit stressed about getting back to the car in time to the point that I shepherded the girls out and forgot to pay! They were very nice about it fortunately when they called down the street to ask if I'd paid.  It was supposed to be swimming tonight, but both girls are absolutely shattered from the long days and especially in M's case early starts.  Apart from Sunday night she hasn't needed pain relief during the night, but her wrist is apparently 'like an alarm clock' and has been waking her up between 6 and half past.  M is allowed to take her splint off to bath and wash, but it hurt too much when we tried that so we left it on and took it off later very briefly to wash just her (admittedly rather grubby) hand, but even that was very painful, so I'm hoping she'll manage a decent night's sleep.