Not all those who wander are lost.

Ben has recently taken to not being able to get to sleep because he’s convinced monsters and...

Fri, 17 May 2013 05:06:55 +1000

Ben has recently taken to not being able to get to sleep because he’s convinced monsters and witches and baddies are going to get him. So I have taken a leaf out of my dads book tonight and helped him mix a bunch of disgusting things in the kitchen together to make Baddie Poison, so the monsters come in, get distracted by the drink, drink it, and die before they get to him. Boom, he’s asleep.

I’m on the 2 week countdown. 14 days to remove any trace of myself from the house, to be...

Fri, 17 May 2013 01:30:00 +1000

I’m on the 2 week countdown.

14 days to remove any trace of myself from the house, to be replaced by a 22 year old Canadian girl called Nora.

14 days left with my boys and my puppy and my adoptive english family.

14 days left in Ely working as an au pair.

14 days left.

George asked me to read to him tonight, but he chose a really boring book, so I tried to spice it up...

Thu, 09 May 2013 09:37:37 +1000

George asked me to read to him tonight, but he chose a really boring book, so I tried to spice it up for myself by reading it in silly voices so I didn’t fall asleep. He looked at me and said ‘If you’re not going to take this book seriously then I would like you to leave’ so I tried to read it normally but I started laughing at something about bat noses and he pointed to the door and said ‘I am so disappointed in you, Kimberley.’

Sometimes I think he and I confuse who the au pair is and who the kid is.

Janine got round to uploading some pictures of Ben and I today....

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 01:13:10 +1000

Janine got round to uploading some pictures of Ben and I today. The first one is from when I had my sympathy sling on for the day. The second one is from when we went to the zoo and were feeding the giraffes.

Ben’s party is all set up and the boys are going to start...

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 01:08:40 +1000

Ben’s party is all set up and the boys are going to start arriving in the next few minutes. I’m dying of flu-like symptoms and am not looking forward to it.

I made some chocolate chip cookies with ‘8’ iced onto them

And some of these

Which I forgot to take a photo of but I found that one on the internet

And then I also made some of these

Except fancier and with more worms

And a bunch of other stuff

I can hear children screaming outside…here we go

Had a very strange day yesterday. Started with Louise and I meeting a woman who wanted to present...

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 18:57:42 +1000

Had a very strange day yesterday.

Started with Louise and I meeting a woman who wanted to present us with an “opportunity”, which sounded a bit dodgy the entire way through, and when she finished and I mentioned I wasn’t comfortable with pyramid selling or pyramid schemes, she baulked and avoided really addressing it and then eventually started saying it was more of a spider web…which works exactly the same as a pyramid except it’s flat. Anyway so we’re not doing that. but we did get a bunch of free face creams and stuff. So.

We wandered down to the train station and discovered that the train from Ely to Cambridge wasn’t running and had to catch a BUS. I MEAN, A BUS. REALLY?

Anyway then we went and met a new french au pair in Cambridge, who complained about the family she worked for for around 4 and a half out of the 5 hours we were together, and then judged us for eating McDonalds. She was nice enough when she wasn’t complaining, but everything seemed to go back to her and her problems. It took 3 hours for her to ask Louise anything. We ended up wandering onto the Trinity University campus and sat by the river watching the punters go past and enjoying the sun for a while and then walked back to city centre and said goodbye.

After that we went to the movies, saw the new Scary Movie against my will, and when it ended Louise was like ‘That wasn’t as good as I expected” and I was like “REALLY LOUSIE? WAS THAT NOT A GOOD MOVIE? IF ONLY YOU HAD SOMEONE TO TELL YOU THAT BEFORE YOU SAW IT. OH, WAIT, YOU DID.” so she’s never living that one down.

Then we caught a bus back to Ely around 9 and I came home and watched Doctor Who and went to sleepies. And that was my Saturday!

Also we groomed Tommy this week and now he’s all tiny and fragile looking

Ben’s been getting really annoyed at everyone asking him what happened to his arm, and having...

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 18:10:37 +1000

Ben’s been getting really annoyed at everyone asking him what happened to his arm, and having to tell the same story over and over, so we created some alternative stories for him to tell

I built a set of wings and tried to jump off the roof of the house, but they didn’t work.
I was walking down the street when a stampede of rhinoceros came out of nowhere, and they broke my arm whilst I was saving a group of puppies and babies.
A travelling circus saw me in the stands and thought it looked like I had the potential to be an acrobat. But whilst I was training, the wires broke, and I fell all the way from the top of a trapeze to the floor.

Or, alternatively,

The real question is not what’s wrong with my arm, but what’s wrong with my leg.

Because of Ben’s arm and my lack of knowledge about how to...

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 05:51:03 +1000

Because of Ben’s arm and my lack of knowledge about how to tie ties, George had to do it for him this morning. But he’s never tied someone else’s he’s only done his own. So he had to stand behind and do it like it was on him. George thought it was hilarious, Ben was perplexed.

Ben is having a camping party, and I was put in charge of...

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 05:41:00 +1000

Ben is having a camping party, and I was put in charge of invites. I’ve made little sleeping bag invites, where you have to pull out the person and he’s going to have all the information.

Leaving Ben to decorate them with his one good arm.

We’re going to fid pictures of his friends faces and print them and stick them on the head of the person!

I’d also like to point out that he chose to have the Joker font. I do not approve of it.

So, here we go, Wednesday-Sunday update Wednesday: The day Ben broke his arm Before the injury, the...

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 23:36:35 +1000

So, here we go, Wednesday-Sunday update

Wednesday: The day Ben broke his arm

Before the injury, the boys and I spent the morning watching movies, and then the afternoon at the park.

When they misbehaved, I sent them to time out either next to the dog poo bin or the trash can, depending on the level of naughtiness.

They did not take this is as seriously as I would have liked.

“Look Kimba, I’m having a baby!”

Then Ben fell off the bars, broke his arm, and we had a chaotic few hours where Ben went to hospital, I got George ready to go to a friends, I went to the hospital to distract and cheer up Ben, spent a few hours there, then caught a bus and train back home to Ely.

Thursday: The day in limbo

Spent most of the day waiting to hear if Ben’s operation was a success (yes) if I had George over the weekend (almost) and what the plan was for the next few days.

Had a 2 hour bath.

George came back, we had dinner, then Ben and Janine arrived home from the hospital.

Friday: I have next to no recollection of Friday

I feel like I slept a lot

Saturday: WEEKEND!

Woke up at an ungodly hour to watch George play football. Spent most of the game cuddling the dog because the princess doesn’t like getting his paws wet.

Came back to Ely, had lunch with Amanda, enjoying the sun in Ely.

Ben and Janine went to one of Ben’s friends birthday parties, so I babysat George, then went to Amanda’s for the night.

We ordered in Indian food, watched Twilight (for some unknown reason…God it’s just so bad?????) drank wine to make Twilight more bearable and giggled a lot.

Went to sleep early because we’re old now. Amanda’s hip was cracking all night and every time it happened we were like uUUUUGH WE’RE SO OOOOLLLLD.

Sunday: today

Came home from Amanda’s to look after Ben whilst Janine and George spent some time together. Ben was sad because he’s sick of not being able to do what everyone else can do, so I adopted a Sympathy Sling, which really cheered him up.

Got my butt kicked at Monopoly (damn Free Parking!!!!! I was winning until Ben got almost £2500 from Free Parking)

Trained Tommy a little bit, sat outside with Ben playing silly games in our slings, and am now just resting up.

School starts again tomorrow. Ben and I get to work out how to get him dressed into his uniform over his cast (joy of all joys) and then I’m back in routine for the last 1 month, 3 weeks of my time with the family.

I can’t believe I’ve been here almost a year.

I made it 10 months and 4 days without one of the kids I look after injuring themselves in my...

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 02:02:01 +1000

I made it 10 months and 4 days without one of the kids I look after injuring themselves in my care, but today my victorious reign of keeping children safe has ended, with Ben in hospital with a broken arm.

He broke it swinging off a bar at the park. The moral of the story is never take children out of the house ever. And if you do, wrap them in bubble wrap and duvets and pillows and don’t let them climb, jump, or run.

Yesterday Amanda and I took four kids into Cambridge to see The...

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 22:19:03 +1000

Yesterday Amanda and I took four kids into Cambridge to see The Croods and go bowling, then to Cherry Hill to play.

Tommy has adopted this as his default position when I am near here and it is not cute even a little bit.

And today George and I made bubbles with dishwashing liquid and badminton racquets.

And that’s it.

So the sun is shining in Ely again! My friends and I have spent...

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 08:07:00 +1000

So the sun is shining in Ely again! My friends and I have spent most of the weekend going for walks and going to the park and eating ice cream.

We created a game called Park Bowling today, where we got things out of our bags and threw balled up gloves at them like we were bowling. It sounds ridiculous but we had a stupid amount of fun.

We booked tickets to The Tempest tonight, so we’re off to see that on June 1st, which I am super excited about! (Yes Mum, that’s the one with Merlin in it)

On Friday Amanda and I ordered in Indian food and got given about 50 dips instead of the 2 requested which was unexpected but interesting. We also managed to order half a chicken smothered in tandoori, which was also unexpected, but delicious.

Then last night I made the girls pizza and Jana, Louise, Amanda and I went bowling, where none of us managed to break 100 on either game, but we had a blast in between fits of rage at getting gutter balls.

The family came home from a weekend at their grandparents today, and the boys were being very sweet, so fingers crossed that continues for tomorrow, when Amanda and I take my two boys and two of their friends into Cambridge to see a movie and to bowl.

Amanda’s landlord technically gave me permission to marry her son, even though I haven’t met him, so that’s fun. She did demand grandchildren though so it might not work out with my whole ‘I am not going to ever have kids no one can make me I shant do it ever no no no’ thing.

I have officially been here 10 months now, so only 2 months to go, which is a very strange feeling.

7am start tomorrow so I’m off to bed!

So George has been acting up really badly this week. Never with me, but with his parents. It’s...

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 01:50:13 +1100

So George has been acting up really badly this week. Never with me, but with his parents. It’s been so bad that my host parents have looked into a therapist for him.

Anyway, long story short, the therapist thinks he’s acting up because I’m leaving soon.

If his complaining and arguing and rudeness wasn’t so annoying, I think I would almost take it as a compliment.

We fed elephants and fed giraffes and I made a spider monkey...

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 08:17:46 +1100

We fed elephants and fed giraffes and I made a spider monkey friend, who when I made kissy faces at him, he did them back.

That penguin was such a poser too!

Today the family and I went into Cambridge to go rock climbing, but without the harness. It’s...

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 04:02:02 +1100

Today the family and I went into Cambridge to go rock climbing, but without the harness. It’s basically just this big room with a bunch of walls and really soft floor, and you have to climb up and down without any support. Just your arms and stuff. I am half monkey half cat. Always landed on my feet when jumping down off 10 m walls, and scrambled up and down a 10m wall in 8 seconds flat.

Just had a really long talk to Janine about how much she thinks I’ve helped George since...

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 09:57:00 +1100

Just had a really long talk to Janine about how much she thinks I’ve helped George since I’ve been here and how much happier and open he is, and how she can see that I genuinely enjoy spending time with the boys and how much they love me and I’m all warm and fuzzy inside and I’m good at my job and that makes me happy

Louise and I went to the Ely Museum and Oliver Cromwell House...

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 08:33:19 +1100

Louise and I went to the Ely Museum and Oliver Cromwell House today, after avoiding them for almost 10 months

We played dress ups and had sword fights and went into a haunted bedroom and watched a 15 minutes video about draining fields or something and it was an ace day

So there is a really difficult kid called Elliot who I look after sometimes, and I’ve been...

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 07:31:00 +1100

So there is a really difficult kid called Elliot who I look after sometimes, and I’ve been working with him every Monday for a few months now, and have looked after him when he was sick a couple of times. He’s been getting progressively better behaved with me over the past 9 months and I thought it was just him maturing. But his mother told me tonight that his behaviour improves dramatically when I’ve been around, and that I’m his favourite babysitter he’s ever had, and now I have this overwhelming sense of victory at winning over one of the most difficult kids I’ve ever known.

Update time! So, this week I helped the boys make some Mothers Day cookies for their mum, and then...

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 00:36:53 +1100

Update time!

So, this week I helped the boys make some Mothers Day cookies for their mum, and then watched helplessly as they decorated my beautiful cookies as little boys do (“I’m covering this one in red so it looks like it’s bleeding.” Ah, Happy Mothers Day)

Apparently Mothers Day here is in March, not May, which is weird, but there you go.

On that note- the boys got me a Mothers Day present too! To thank me for being a ‘sometimes mummy’ and for looking after them.

Yesterday, when our normal cafe was too busy, my friends and I had lunch at a different place we’ve been meaning to try and I had the worlds best jacket potato, that was the size of my head.

And then even though there was torrential, freezing snow last night (as we battled our way to the pub for someones birthday) during the day, we discovered that the past week had been warm enough to trick the blossoms into blooming, which was very exciting, although we walked past last night and they had been frozen off again.

This week George is on a school camp Monday-Wednesday, which means tomorrow I am child free from 8am-8pm, and on Tuesday I am child free from 8am-7:30pm. So hopefully this week will be pretty simple!