The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 2643 by Angharad Copyright© 2015 Angharad

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This is a work of fiction any mention of real people, places or institutions is purely coincidental and does not imply that they are as suggested in the story.
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When I checked with Sammi, she was taking and collecting Danielle from the football training. Danni was pretty smug about going in the BMW Z whatever it was. Personally, I’d rather go in a series 7 Beamer, much more comfy than the thing Sammi has, but she loves it. Actually Simon’s two Jaguars are a nicer ride but they are a bit more expensive. He’s never told me what they cost but the latest one, the F type, lovely looking car, runs out at about eighty thousand pounds for the basic one; mind you, I discovered mine was over forty—but I wouldn’t swap it for all the tea in China.

On Thursday evening I told Danni to make sure she had everything she needed for her training session. She protested but went when she saw I wasn’t messing about and discovered she hadn’t packed any socks and her boots—so it could have been somewhat embarrassing to say the least; plus if opportunities are missed they don’t necessarily present themselves again.

David had done a delicious dinner which we all enjoyed, he did a leg of pork with all the trimmings including crackling which went down a treat with the kids. Given the amount of fat in it and the fact that I don’t want to break my teeth, I tend to avoid it, but the girls love it. I also prefer boiled potatoes to roast ones but I ate them to avoid seeming too picky to David who does his best for us.

I sounded Helen and Jacquie out about Saturday saying that I had to lead a dormouse survey and they were both going to be around and happy to keep an eye on the children. I was almost tempted to take Trish or Livvie with me, but they’re just a bit small and dealing with rough undergrowth isn’t really fair for them. I mentioned it to Danni but only if she felt up to it after her training session. She said she hoped to be up for it but would have to see.

Thursday evening finished with me reading to the girls something I haven’t done for ages, after which I snuggled down with Simon with a glass of Merlot and we just spent a pleasant hour or so before going to bed.

Friday morning was frantic getting Danni off on time, then getting the others into the car for school when they’d rather stand and dither watching their big sisters getting ready. To be fair to them, they all hugged and kissed her and wished her good luck. I simply told her just to do her best and be careful because there would be some who took a dim view of her abilities and would seek to take her down a peg. I also told Sammi to drive carefully.

When I finally got to my office I felt like I’d done a day’s work already and it took more than one cuppa to revive me. Once I got back into gear again we did plough through a pile of paperwork about half a mile high. Some of it is tedious in the extreme, like applying for licenses to run experiments or to enable us to handle things like dormice, one was my own license for dormice, shrews and water voles. Daddy used to have one for handling bats but he doesn’t do much of that sort of stuff anymore and he let it lapse.

We don’t do much experimental work these days involving animals, both Tom and I have moved us more towards ecology and surveys or examining things like parasites such as nematodes found in the gut of various animals. We’ve also got a chap in microbiology who is very involved in trying to save bees from diseases, parasites and pesticides. Not only does he study them, he keeps bees and could only be described as a committed apiarist. In a recent reshuffle we took over microbiology in an administrative sense, so they were incorporated into the Dept of Biological Sciences, being a relatively small department before—so my empire has grown a little since I’ve been there; not that much of it was down to me, Daddy had done the spade work, I just presented it and pulled off the coup.

Our little friend from Physical Anthropology visited briefly with Professor Mullins and we agreed to end our hostilities shaking hands in front of him. I told Daddy what had happened and he told me never to turn my back on a smiling cobra. I’m not sure where he got the aphorism but I told him I had no intention of believing her sincerity one bit and would watch my back at all times when she was around. He told me to watch out when she wasn’t as well. As they say, keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

It struck me as strange that I was becoming one of the most senior or certainly most respected academic in the scientific side of the university simply because my intake numbers were bigger than most other courses, I’d made two documentary films which had been shown to some acclaim, was married to an aristocrat and was also a director of a clearing bank. I considered that my work with the woodland study centres in Hampshire and up in Scotland, were of equal importance as that would ultimately be my legacy to future generations. Dan had reported that they were now back on track with preparing the centre for an official opening which would involve Henry and me—I hate that sort of thing, but I couldn’t avoid it and wouldn’t if I could because I wanted to celebrate the life of my daughter which was remembered in the visitor centre’s name. So on her behalf, I would be there if it killed me. St Claire’s were down on the list for the first school visit, Sister Maria made sure of that.

I certainly couldn’t complain of nothing to do and to keep things interesting, we had decorators in at home. They were doing the bedrooms, starting with ours—Simon and mine, that is. So everything will be upside down and smelling of paint for a few days—just what I needed.

On Friday evening, Simon and I decided to sleep in the spare room to avoid touching or smelling wet paint, they were returning on Saturday morning to finish our room and starting on the girls on Monday—we’ll have some furniture shifting to do on Sunday evening—what joy.

I was just about ready for bed when our two wanderers returned. Danielle was like a bottle of pop, absolutely fizzing. It had gone better than she expected and in the two games they played she scored twice. She was the best spot kick taker they had and did a number of bendy free kicks, they were calling her Beckham before she finished, not helped by the fact that she wore the Beckham No 7 shirt to play in. I told her if she started getting tattoos she’d be out the door so quickly her feet wouldn’t touch the ground.

Reminding her we had a fairly early start in the morning for our survey, I went to bed, leaving her talking to Simon about the fact that she felt sure she was in for a chance for a place on the bench if not in the team for the next women’s international. I felt so proud of her but was just plain knackered.