The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike) Part 1565 by Angharad Copyright © 2011 Angharad All Rights Reserved.

After my unscheduled and difficult meeting with Sister Maria, I headed home via the supermarket and picked up a few things–yeah, and a few more and before long I’d got a trolley load and another hundred quid disappeared. I did buy myself a treat, though quite how I’d hide them from the others, I wasn’t sure.

The treat was a pack of Lotus biscuits which I’d only ever had in restaurants and cafes with a cuppa as a complimentary biscuit and then they come individually wrapped. I’d seen an ad on the back of the last one saying they available from supermarkets but had never seen them before, so I grabbed a pack and they are currently in the glove box of my car, awaiting a chance for me to smuggle them into the house and down to my study–I reckon I can put a box or tin in my desk or something to keep them fresh and hide them. Well, I’m sure Simon has stranger things in his desk drawer–I must ask him if ever he discovers my dark secret.

Waiting at traffic lights I noticed that the skin on my cheeks and nose seemed rather dry–okay, female skin is drier than male, and hormones make it drier still, cold weather tends to shrivel it up even more. I need to up the amount of moisturiser I’m using. Damn the lights have changed before I’d finished looking in my vanity mirror and Horatio Hornblower is driving behind me. I deliberately stalled the car to make him wait even longer and then pulled off quickly on the amber. Serve him right.

I got home and Simon and the kids were playing Monopoly–don’t they ever learn? Guess who was in the lead–it wasn’t my hubby–that’s for sure. I unloaded the car with help from Danny who’d been fiddling with some bits of wood by the fireplace. I was grateful for his help but it meant I couldn’t bring in my biccies.

I took the presents through to my study while he put the food away and by sleight of hand got my biccies in hidden in a bag from Debenham’s. A moment later they were in my desk drawer and I had a legitimate reason to lock the office to protect the presents. Then I had a brainwave–I’d hide Danny’s stuff and he could help me wrap the girl’s prezzies. See I’m not just a pretty face.

I called him after removing his stuff from view and he agreed to help me. We spent quite a nice hour together while the girls fleeced Simon at Monopoly. Good job it was only a board game or he’d have been employed by them–I’m sure that Livvie and Trish would have taken possession of his bank within a few rounds. I don’t know if it teaches them anything but ruthless capitalism, but it gave me a chance to get their stuff wrapped so saved me a bit of time in the evenings between now and Christmas morning.

With Danny’s help we soon filled the large cardboard box I’d kept for storing the presents and I only had to wrap his. In the supermarket, I bought a few amaryllis bulbs, so the older girls could plant something and watch it grow and Meems I bought a hyacinth, which was already planted.

Danny grumbled that he didn’t have anything like that and he quite liked seeing things grow. I knew that, he helped Tom in the garden quite a lot, so I bought him a propagator and some seeds and compost, so he could start to grow some plants in the early spring–in his case I thought vegetables might be more suitable, so it had things like broad beans and peas. So a bit more challenging than a bulb in pot which grows so long as you remember to water it occasionally, as seedlings will need to be pricked out and so on, which I know Tom will enjoy teaching him.

I had to find a way to explain to Tom that I hadn’t so much dropped him in it as given him a way to show he believed in the importance of early education by becoming a school governor.

So after dinner that evening, when he was feeling mellow and well fed on Dover sole, it had been a very expensive meal, but I like that particular fish and I couldn’t see the others settling for cod and chips while I wolfed down a whole sole. I topped up his coffee and not so much dropped the bombshell as placed a mine under him.

“I’m so pleased with the way that Trish and Livvie are doing in school, and Danny isn’t doing too badly either since I got him some coaching.” I should add the coaching was in football skills but he had to improve his marks before I’d arrange it. It did the trick, so it’s sometimes about motivation–if his average drops, so does his coaching. At present both have improved.

“Aye it’s a guid school, a’richt, mind ye, t shuld be f’ thae monny yer payin’.”

“But I think school education is so important don’t you, without a good start they don’t come on to us, do they?”

“They dinna, sae ye’re richt as ever.”

“But so many schools don’t do the job properly, do they, Daddy, they don’t educate children ready for university?”

“Aye, that’s richt enough.”

“So why aren’t the universities doing something about it?”

“Daein’ somethin’ aboot it–we dae, we complain tae the Department each year, f’ a’ thae guid it daes.”

“Why not do something locally, show them what’s needed?”

“Like whit?”

“Get yourself involved with one of the schools.”

“Cathy, I hae enough tae dae.”

“But if you were on a board of governors, you could influence things without too much input, four or five meetings a year.”

“Aye an’ wha’s gonna ask me tae do this,” he rolled his eyes in disbelief.

“Actually, I have just the person.”

“Whit?” he almost choked on his coffee.

“Sister Maria was asking me earlier today if you’d be interested in becoming a school governor, and with your CV and experience, I couldn’t think of anyone better qualified and it gives you a chance to keep the educational standards up for university entrance.”

“She’s right, Tom,” agreed Simon and Stella nodded.

“This is a bloody fait accompli, ye scunner,” he glared at me.

“Would I do that to you?”

“Yes ye wuld, ye schemin’ vixen.”

“No, Tom, scheming dormouse is more Cathy.”

He gave Simon a withering glance then laughed. “Aye, a’richt, I’ll hae a chat wi’ her.”

“I knew you’d be good at it, Daddy,” and pecked him on the cheek.

“Aye but not as guid as ye’re at schemin’.”

I shrugged, if you’ve got it flaunt it, if you haven’t scheme for it.

I sent the headmistress an email a bit later while I drank my tea and ate a couple of the Lotus biscuits without anyone knowing–I felt really naughty, a bit like I did when I used to change into a skirt in my bedsit before it got out.

It had been a strange kind of day, what with the row–well–assertive discussion with Sister Maria, the shopping and then wrapping of the presents–I still had Danny’s to do, so while he was in bed, I wrapped his and put them in the box with the others.

A strange day, but one where I actually managed to complete one or two things, which made a nice change. Tom and Simon were still arguing in the kitchen when I set the bread machine to make a loaf for breakfast and Simon beamed at me–he loves his bread–but it’s beginning to show. He doesn’t know it yet but his New Year resolution is to lose some weight, but I’ll probably lose as much chasing him to either diet or exercise.

I kissed them both good night, checked the children and went to bed. I didn’t hear Simon arrive so I must have been asleep.