All's well that ends well.

Two posts in two days,almost feels like old times ;-)

We have had a really strange day today when things just didn't happen as we had expected them to.

We set off and dropped Alan off at the hospital and went in to the town to meet a friend and her son at a soft play center.I had been into the town on a few occasions but had never driven,in a panic at a junction I took a slight detour and we ended up on a scenic route around the lovely one way system to the car park :-)

When we were planning the outing my friend and I had had a discussion about a journey myself and another couple of friends had been on to a center in a neighbouring town that had closed on a Monday. I had meant to phone yesterday just to make sure this one was open but forgot.Emily was so excited as we hadn't been for ages and she almost dragged me along the street to the entrance and yes you guessed it, it was closed :-(

She is feeling so fragile at present and she just crumbled and cried and blamed me for not checking,my initial reaction was to be defensive however I breathed and took a moment and I just hugged her and empathised rather than pointing out my reasons for failing to check and how it really wasn't my fault.She calmed down quite quickly and we discussed our options which unfortunately in her opinion weren't a patch on the soft play.Our friends came and E who is 6 was also upset but was so keen to spend time with Emily that he was OK with going to the park.Luckily it was a sunny day and we set off with a rather sullen Milly.It didn't take long for her to perk up,I got some crisps and innocent smoothies from Morrisons and also some bubble gum which is her new craze at the moment(took a while but she can now blow bubbles and is immensely pleased with herself)I have to say I am not keen on the stuff but I am not 9 and I do remember many happy hours chewing and blowing bubbles when I was her age so can live with it.

In the end we spent one and half hours at the park and then just as we were walking to McDonald's for some food a nurse from the hospital rang. I had been expecting Alan to ring to let us know he needed picking up so got a bit of a shock at first thinking something had gone wrong, however everything was OK and we had lunch and then walked back to the car park.Said our goodbyes and E gave Emily a lovely hug and kissed her neck as he couldn't reach her cheek :-))

Just to complete the journey we took a wrong turn and saw rather more of the town than I would have liked and after a few more wrong turns ended up at the other side of town but at least on a road I knew!! 20 minutes late for Al .In the examination they had found an inflamed area and have taken biopsies, so now we wait three weeks for the results.

Back home for a rest and then as Alan hadn't been able to get the fish and chips he had wanted for lunch we decided to go to a nearby seaside town where there is a really good chippy and sit by the sea.

However true to form the chippy was closed and after many attempts we ended up in another town and found what seemed to be the only chippy open on a Monday night!! As it turned out they were lovely and we sat out overlooking the sea but it was rather less scenic in a much more industrial part.Milly had her binoculars and was keen to be outside, we were less keen as it had taken us some time to find the chippy and the sun had gone ,we suggested it was too windy and cold but decided as it was so important to her that it would be much kinder to sit with her than make her sit in the car. We put out the picnic mat on the harbour wall,put on our fleeces,and held on tightly to the paper while eating our tea. After five minutes Milly casually commented on being a little cold and said that in future she would probably sit in the car unless it was really warm.We both managed not to say "I told you so"or any words to that effect, maybe we are both growing up!!!

So, things didn't go quite according to plan today but as my old Nan used to say, all's well that ends well..