I finally got round to taking my boat licence today along with John and Leanne who obviously have some urgency to get it now that they live on an island. Jules had the 4 kids for the day and John, Leanne and I were dancing around with joy when he drove off with them - a whole day to ourselves even if we were stuck in a classroom and out on a boat (I can think of worse places to be stuck). I had been my usual girly-swot self and spent the past 2 weeks revising so I sat through the theory part of the course with growing impatience although perhaps I might actually retain some of the useful facts such as how to avoid a collision and what to do in an emergency. The practical part was what I was really looking forward to because although I've driven our boat a little bit particularly when launching her and taking her back out of the water I have never got up to any sort of speed (a result of not having my licence and not being allowed to of course!). With the instructor I got the boat up to a speed of 20 knots at which point I explained that it really wasn't the thing and I was quite happy just pootling about at a tame 10 knots!! Anyway, the day was a success with Jules and the children in 1 piece and the three of us clutching our certificates to say we'd passed.
Jules had another Sydney-Hobart practice race on Saturday and apparently St Jude is now in 4th place in the race series which bodes very well for the big race. Whilst Jules was out the kids and I went to buy school shoes - I actually feel quite guilty by how much their feet must have grown without my realising and how they must have been wearing really quite painful shoes. We then went to "the oven shop" so that I could buy a new oven. Now, the astute amongst you will be saying to yourselves "surely her oven is only 2 years old as that's when the kitchen was re-done", and you would be right. However, I have never liked my oven (I chose it for its aesthetic and the saying holds true - never trust a good looking Italian), it's begun to make truly dreadful noises and it will cost money to fix so after some discussion and deliberation with the man who came round to fix it I decided that the only sensible thing to do was to buy a new one.
Once Jules was back from sailing on Saturday evening we put up the Christmas tree. It won't surprise you to hear that I'm fairly fussy about my Christmas tree - sticking to a colour scheme and hiding all the more garish decorations round the back where they can't be seen. However, I understand that it's hugely exciting for the children and I decided to give them completely free rein on the basis that once they were in bed I'd redo the whole thing. Amazingly, Tess seems to have caught some of my neurosis and the tree looked so beautiful that I did not need to change a thing!
Jules, Tom and I all went up to school on Friday morning for Tess' class play in which they performed Rapunzel and Tess was the witch. It was brilliant with Tess making a very good witch, knowing all her words and speaking in a loud clear voice but what really made the play was Rapunzel himself (yes it was a modern take on the fairy tale) who was played by the class heart-throb - a gorgeous boy called Noah whom all the girls want to sit next to. He hammed it up like a true thespian and had all the parents (and most of the kids) in stitches. I did try to take some photos but they were on my iphone and are too dreadful to post.
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