That's when good neighbours become good friends…

Or in this case, good friends became good neighbours 🙂

HGow to remark upon this holiday? The MuddlePuddle camp i took no part in planning and no responsibility for and barely managed to make myself turn up to. Well, embarrassingly, that seemed to mean it was the greatest success so far, for which there are a million people to thank, most particularly Nic for her planning and organisation and general panache (and for giving me my single job of the week so i felt useful!) Stella (and co) and the Beans for tents, everyone who did a craft, the person who paid for a spare tent pitch and just everyone else who did something that meant it worked so well. (Oh, and Joyce and Kirsty for the weather 🙂 ) I think Steph typified what i have often felt by saying at the end of the week “who does organise this anyway?” but on this occasion the glory goes firmly towards Nic and the other people who were kind enough to take it off my hands, answer list questions,organise a forum and etc etc. But i’m not ready to become the Dowager Mrs Muddlepuddle yet 🙄 😆 so i’ll look forward to being back on board next year.

On a personal level, thanks from the bottom of my heart to the Beans who nursed me through the week with tea, supper and sympathy, the people who jollied me along at times, the people who helped me out or leant an ear and just generally to people who know my for not minding that i wasn’t quite with it and had opted out of it all so totally. I sincerely hope i didn’t appear too much of a space cadet or offend anyone by walking away from some conversations that were too much to cope with.

And that was quite an Oscar speech i thought 🙂

Anyway, the 5th Annual MuddlePuddle camp was a huge success and despite enormous anxiety about going, i really enjoyed it. Fran, Maddy and Amelie clocked up their 8th week under canvas and now behave like pros at it, it began to feel like a tolerable sort of way to relax, though camping one parented with 4 children is more of a change than a holiday really! Thank heavens for Max being at both ends of the week to unpack and pack us up! Borrowing French Bean is all very well, but not quite the same (though he was starting to seem positively polygamous by the end of the week! 😆

High points for me were the kite flying on the beach on the first sunday, all the crafts, Helen’s cooking, being comfy on my new airbed and my children sleeping through practically every night, playing Animal Crossing with Poppy and Fran and seeing them finding a footing for a friendship that has long been in the offing but needed a hook to hang itself on, Watching Josie and BB playing like proper children, listening to Josie talking so much more and trying so many new words. Notable were biscuit, kite, duck, “i want milk” and all of the HEMUK kids names. Another high was Amelie and Buttercup doing a cabaret duet and being positively in love with one another on stage. Enjoyed lying in a field with my big three all flying kites, laughing at Amelie who was convinced if hers went in front of the sun it would melt! Enjoyed untangling strings a bit less 🙄 Africa Alive was a great trip out again, felting could well become a hit craft here and did i mention i love my tent? 😀

Low point was Thursday which signalled the beginning of a Maddy crash with a multitude of knicker related accidents and hair twiddling, lots of shouting and falling out, monster tantrums from Amelie and Josie and eventually Amelie being so awful that while removing her from the scene, i managed to miss Maddy standing up and singing the whole of Ariels song from the little mermaid, unaccompanied, in front of everyone in the caqmp. Was utterly gutted, as apparently she was great and i would have loved the chance to glow at her success and confidence. However, that was only topped by me utterly losing my head with Amelie and shrieking that she was horrid and i hated her for making me miss it, utterly humiliating her in front of goodness knows how many people 🙁 😳 Still a bit of work to do on that relationship i fear 🙁

Max reappeared late of Friday and we had our customary chips and water jet play at Lowestoft seafront and then stayed an extra day with the Beans, watching everyone packing up while we loafed. Felt extremely different without everyone (much quieter!) but was very joyful friend time which ended the week just perfectly for me.

Got home to discover that my shop died on Tuesday due to a random corrupted something, thus losing me 5 days of orders and several hundred pounds no doubt. Thank heavens for Jax, who fixed it as usual. 🙂

And thank heavens for being in a better frame of mind than i was 10 days ago. Life feels like it is tentatively back together.