The long sleep!

9 November 2018

Well, we all needed that sleep, clearly! Neither Ian nor I rose from our bed until 10:00, and Cornelia slept on through until 12:00, despite the noise of a hundred school kids walking past our apartment, and the tumble dryer on full swing. She had woken briefly last night at 04:00, where I found her sitting on the edge of her bed, crying. I clambered in for a cuddle, and she settled straightaway, and I was back in my own bed twenty minutes later. Apart from the funny dreams I had (a dream within a dream, I think), I slept like a log and woke feeling a bit shell-shocked from the previous day, but a thousand times better! Ian had been to the loo in the night and, disoriented, had walked into a shin-height table, grazing it. Whoops…

Ian and I did very little in the morning, other than drink tea/coffee and lounge around, browsing the internet for things to do locally.

Cornelia eventually called out for me at 12:45. And then said “I’m really sorry, Mummy. I tried my hardest to go to sleep, but I just couldn’t. Do you mind if I have a bit of a nap now?!” I explained to her that she’d had a really good sleep, but she was insistent that the cats had woken her up and she just couldn’t go to sleep. Then she said she just wanted to try and wake up then she’d be ready to get up. She was in a total daze!

She woke in a feisty mood, yelling at Daddy to go away, and only wanting me to cuddle her. When I told her that it was time for breakfast (lunch!) she refused to get out of bed. I was, by now, quite hungry (I was waiting for her so that she wouldn’t eat alone – the importance of eating together ‘n’ all that) so I said I was going for my breakfast, which invoked a persistent yell of “Come back, Mumpa, come back!” All went quiet for another fifteen minutes, until I heard a “I’m ready!” summons and out she came.

We ended up having a nice shower together before breakfast/lunch, and then her crappy behaviour came back again, exaggerated no doubt by our own tiredness from the last 48 hours. She kicked Ian (after he’d asked her to put on her shoes so we could go out for what was left of the day) and then slapped me, when she tried to get into our bedroom to retrieve her Kindle which had been lost for the day, for the kicking incident. She was utterly beastly, and I plonked her in her bedroom for some thinking time. This involved her first kicking the wall and screaming “Let me out! Let me out!” (She wasn’t locked in, nor was her door completely closed, so she was by no means trapped), followed by a more sorrowful cry, to her Gang, that she had ruined the day and now she wouldn’t be able to have any fun. After her time was up, I went in to ask how she was feeling and to investigate whether she was ready to apologise. Her kick out at me and “Go away!” suggested not!

I suggested to Ian (who was so wound up, I could see he was about to explode!) that he go to the supermarket for tonight’s supper to save me a trip later on. I think he was happy to have an excuse to get out! While he was away, I slowly worked on Cornelia, who had left her room, and eventually stood in front of me, looked me in the eye and apologised. Hallelujah- I got there in the end. With that out of the way, she started to do some colouring quietly, while I sat and thought the whole thing through. I concluded that she definitely just needed to get out into the fresh air!

With that in mind, once Ian was back, I suggested that we visit nearby Ambury Park, a council-run day where you are allowed to roam freely amongst the animals. There was also a beach running alongside it, and although it was already 16:00, we all needed to get outside.

We navigated there easily enough despite not having Google Maps switched on (I have, astonishingly and for the first time ever, used all of my data for the month – I hadn’t switched on the WiFi when I downloaded various episodes of things to watch, 🙄, and it will cost a fortune to use additional data now) and Cornelia was very happy to see some familiar animals that she could stroke and admire without the worry of being snatched away and eaten! There is a sheep shearing competition and dog trials taking place tomorrow, so it was just as well we came today, when it was virtually empty! It is free of charge too, and we just followed our noses around and through the various fields housing cows, sheep, chickens and a couple of hairy pigs!

Then we walked down towards the shoreline, but “beach” is a bit of a misnomer. It was a tidal wetland, and was quite unusual in that it was muddy and volcanic. Despite the grey clouds, it was strangely beautiful. I think it would be hard to be by any sea and see anything but beauty though!

We looked in the rock pools but didn’t find anything of interest and wandered back to the car an hour later, literally as the rain started. We had a slight navigation issue on the way back, joining Highway 20 going in the wrong direction, but apart from that (!), the return journey was uneventful.

I went out to get some oil that we needed for our stir fry tonight and managed to buy FOUR packets of Lindor chocolates while I was there… I couldn’t help it – they have my favourite lemon and white chocolate truffles. 🐷😋

Ian and Bugsy were watching the Disney channel when I returned, curled up on the sofa together, and they stayed there while I made supper which, I have to say, was very tasty. Cornelia was really tired and went off to bed easily enough, and I stayed in and cuddled her again, dozing off for only a few minutes this time! She was asleep by 21:00, and fingers crossed she stays that way until morning!