May 10

It's Mother's Day.  It's also cold and windy.

Sian and Ellie make me breakfast of pancakes, scrambled eggs and fried mushrooms. Very filling!  they also give me homemade cards and presents they have made - bath bombs and a facial scrub.  I am amazed at how industrious they both are.  I don't remember being like this as a child. We get a fire going in the lounge and spend the morning playing Cluedo and Time Flies.  For lunch, Ellie makes me her special toasted cheese, mint and tumeric sandwich.  It's actually very nice! After lunch, we watch Foyle's War.  

It's a lovely day and it reminds me, as always, not to spend the whole weekend working.  We all need days off.  Both my children are very loving and affectionate.  I wish my parents had been more affectionate, but unfortunately, both had grown up in homes where open displays of affection were not considered the done thing.  This is especially true of my dad. I feel that stiff upper lip Rule Britannia attitude did a lot of harm to a lot of people.

I feel much more positive than I did yesterday.  Yesterday, I just felt overwhelmed.  Part of my problem is, as John always tells me, I take on too much to do.  I have been writing the whole holiday, keeping up my blog and doing a proofreading course.  Now, I am doing all those things plus teaching and, unless you are a teacher, you will never understand how much preparation goes into the job. Recently, I saw something on Facebook about teaching.  What people see teaching as and what teaching really involves.  People will often comment on our nice long holidays but, as the poster said, in actual fact, nine months of salary is stretched over twelve months (in Zimbabwe, I think one month's salary is stretched over twelve months!)  Parents currently having to homeschool their children, don't have to do any preparation or marking - and they still find it difficult!

We have not had a booking for at least two months.  Today, we receive a cancellation from people booked to stay in August.  We didn't really expect them as they were coming from the UK, but the message is still a reminder of the fact that our business may take months to get going again.