A Year of Much Bickering by Jane Ayres

A PARTY FOR #CephalopodWeek The call came at 10.30. Monica is desperate. Isolde’s triplets are having their birthday party, and can we come and boost the numbers. Several of their friends are down with the chicken pox and they don’t want the affair to look meagre. It wasn’t until we got there that she spilled the beans about Mr Chuckle…also down with pox…she didn’t state chicken or other, but suffice to say there would be NO CLOWN. Monica emptied her make up box (there must be several hundred pounds worth of Estee Lauder in there) and told the grand-poppets that nice Mrs Trehorlicks would love to do face painting. I certainly  would   not…that woman lies like a cheap Japanese watch. Pippa and Poppy were delighted. All the little girls all wanted to be fairies (eyeliner and a butterfly on the temple), princesses (rouge and lipstick) or mermaids (turquoise eye shadow). Little Vespasian’s male friends settled for Tigers or Spiderman. But not the birthday boy. ‘This is

    EXAMS AND INSPECTIONS    Arraminta’s exams are nearly over so no more we can do but cross our fingers.   Apparently, Drama Practical went quite well. They had to improvise being a vegetable…she chose carrot for some reason. I felt it unwise to ask how she had portrayed it…I always sound very silly when I try to get involved. That’s what is so clever about these courses. You learn to see such things in a different light. She sounded fairly upbeat about yesterday’s Travel and Leisure Paper 2 . An essay on Lanzarote versus The Maldives as a destination. No contest imo, but that doesn’t fill three sides of A4, does it?  Critical Thinking was less of a hit with questions all about Aintree and the Grand National. A gift for a girl whose father is never far from the racing times, I would have thought, but she said not. It's just nerves. I’m sure she’ll have done well.    The kittens will all be gone, apart from Tiger (this week’s name), when Arraminta gets ba