Punctuality

It is currently taking me around four hours to get out the front door. The other day I went to visit one of my workplaces. I knew it was a mistake to warn people in advance as there was a) a good chance we wouldn't get there at all and b) no chance whatsoever of keeping to any particular timetable. I think I was a bit overambitious. We parked in the park and ride and took a double decker, with the baby in his baby carrier. The girls wanted to go on the top deck and, before I could stop them, headed to the back of the bus. Now, getting on was no problem. Getting off with several small children and a baby while the bus is moving and you are at the back of the upstairs is another matter. When we got off we managed to negotiate the tourist-packed streets and cars/bikes and got to the office, by which time the baby was hungry. It was good to see all the old faces [not that they had aged - it's only been three months - but, boy, have I] and I almost wanted to leap into my seat and resume my old life immediately. I am going through that missing work stage, which usually ends just as you go back and the baby starts doing fun stuff and stops crying. The girls were hungry to we headed to a green space, but, unfortunately, I chose somewhere where two hornets had chosen to hover and eye us through the entire picnic I had brought. Big girl daughter screamed [she was stung by a wasp earlier in the summer] and it all became a little stressful so we headed to a cake shop. When in doubt eat cake. I then noticed that it was around 4pm and, as we were expecting Tesco to deliver shortly afterwards, we hightailed it to the bus stop [some 10 minutes walk away, but more like half an hour with children, including two desperate for the toilet]. By the time we got to the car and found a toilet I realised that rebel daughter had programmed my phone to be one hour later for European time during the holiday so we could have taken things at a lot more leisurely pace.

The following day [why?] I had arranged to meet an old school friend who lives about three quarters of an hour away in the "late morning". I thought this was suitably vague. We arrived around 1.30pm after numerous nappy changes, clothes changes, facepainting sessions [I was feeding the baby and bonkers and big girl daughters cornered me], tussles with the bank, etc. The problem is the baby is still waking half the night every one to two hours and I am so comatose that I have to really psyche myself up to get people dressed, etc. I am hoping to be on top of things by around 2nd September - school going back day. Having been really keen for the holidays, I am now pinning all my hopes on the beginning of term.