I've just said goodbye to Small Person, who is off to Slovakia tomorrow for Christmas and New Year. We've been looking after her this week as she's on holiday from school, ad it's been the usual chaos.
As always, she's been a blast.
I decided to try and get her to do her homework BEFORE she goes away, so it isn't hanging over her while she's on holiday. The first part was easy, it was about baking some biscuits and writing detailed instructions and including pictures. That was Monday, after she went to help DH check on the Allotmenteers.
The next part was to do with The Ancient Greeks, so that involved a bit of internet research, a reminder about not just writing down what you see on the screen, and trying to produce a poster. She did the preliminary work yesterday, including a sketch of the poster layout and writing down some key facts.
Today, after we all went to the allotment, was trying to rewrite things neatly and produce the poster. I
The poster took several hours to produce, and she was desperate to finish it before her mum came to collect her. She had very definitely bought in to the idea of having it all FINISHED before she went away. She did a good job, and stuck at it, which was a challenge for her as she does tend to get easily distracted.
Last week I impulse-bought a Tefal snack maker which was at a bargain price in Costco. It came with toasted sandwich plates and waffle plates. I'd had a go at a most acceptable toastie at the weekend, and I'd promised Small Person that we'dtry making waffles today.
I made some this afternoon while she was working, and she had a break to eat them. She then pronounced that they are even better than pancakes! which means she'll be having those for breakfast from now on when she comes to visit. Her Nan (my lovely late Aunt) taught her how to make pancake batter, and Small Person makes it herself when she comes to visit. I have an electric griddle which I get out so she can cook them herself, at the table - and she loves doing this. I'm hoping she'll find making her own waffles easy enough to do. They really were rather scrummy, even DH asked for one after tasting some of mine.
We had cocktails last night. For her, this was half a lime, home made Jostaberry cordial, with more Jostaberry cordial in place of alcohol, lots of ice, and lemonade. For her second cocktail, she added home made blackcurrant cordial. She got the giggles when she accidentally got out a bag of potato croquettes instead of a bag of ice cubes.
When she came back from the allotment on Monday, she mentioned that Nora seemed to be moulting, she'd lost feathers from her head and from her side. I realised that this was probably caused by Bertie, so I mentioned that Bertie was probably mating with her. I had to explain that sometimes the cockerels legs rub, or the spurs catch, and cause the feathers to come off. The reason I went to the allotment today was so we could catch Nora and check her over, to make sure she hadn't been injured. Of course there was a barrage of questions: how might she be injured, what would we do if she was injured, did a saddle have stirrups, how would the saddle help, why didn't we just put a saddle on anyway....
Today she saw Bertie mating with Pong, and she asked me why he was biting her comb. I explained that he isn't biting, he's just having to hold on to her comb. She hasn't asked me yet what actually happens when they mate, I suspect it's just a matter of time before that subject comes up.. I'm starting to practice my answers now.
Her TV request was The Persuaders. We've watched a few episodes the last two times she's visited. I've no idea why she likes it, although I did love it too when I was her age (or younger, probably). I think she likes it because it is easy going, a bit silly, and humorous; and because it's not gritty, it's not a kids program, and it wouldn't be acceptable if it was made today.
I meant to ice a cake for a friend today, but there just wasn't the time or kitchen space to do it. I marzipanned it on Monday (while Small Person was using the cookie press), so I'll get it done tomorrow morning and delivered tomorrow afternoon.
