It started off OK

Well yesterday was a good day… at first.

I had a busy day at work and when I left the sun was blazing, it was warm and I didn’t feel like going home so I grabbed the kids and we went for an early dinner where we all managed to keep it healthy. Afterwards I fancied a walk so we wandered down to the seaside and had a stroll along, taking crazy group selfies (yes actually allowing myself to be in photos) and generally having fun together. I’m sure people looked at us thinking we were insane a few times but you know what? I didn’t give a hoot! That was such a huge thing for me to just not care what anyone thought of me, I was happy having fun with my kids in the sun and it was just lovely.

I do love to be beside the seaside. So lucky to live by the sea

There’s always something going on at the sea side, always something to look at, we watched a life boat rescue, it wasn’t so dramatic but a small private fishing boat had got into some engine trouble and was towed back in to shore with its sailors looking not best pleased to have had their fishing trip cut short.

There was temptation all around but we resisted, even though the smell of fresh fried doughnuts was at times near impossible to bear. Healthy, healthy, healthy we kept reminding ourselves. I think I made a break through following my melt down the day or so before and not only that but my daughter noticed my lovely nails over dinner and asked how come they were so silky and shiny and when I told her I had nothing on them and it must just be my diet and maybe some of the fermented stuff I’m drinking she suddenly clicked that there really are more benefits to healthy eating than just weight loss.

Temptation

So we arrived home and it must have been the sea air or the early start following the late night but I fell into a sound sleep on the sofa. I awoke at 1am and found my daughter sitting catching up on end to end Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes.

Shadow selfie with the son

I felt wide awake so I made myself some tea and sat in the lounge with the lap top and started to do some marking for my students.

Time flew and at 3am I heard a bang from the back of the house, I alerted my daughter to it but she said I’d imagined it, then a second bang. We went to investigate and found that burglars had smashed the back door trying to gain entry and the swinging garden gate told us that they had just taken off, we’d clearly disturbed them as we’d turned on lights going through the house to the kitchen.

We called the police on 999 and they were with us in seconds and because it was a little more sinister than a casual break in in that it was clear there were people home and awake with lights on and sound coming from the loung TV they scrambled a helicopter and a dog unit and did a sweep of the area, stopping anyone in the street at that time of night, I believe they did apprehend some body and have yet to find out if it was the perpetrator or not.

So we had an evening of police, phone calls, scenes of crime officers. I had to leave for work at 7am and so had no sleep at all (thank goodness I’d had the nap and thank goodness I had been awake or else I dread to think what would have happened, the immortal daughter not feeling there was anything untoward with the noises from the back of the house).

I was worried that I had to go to work and wouldn’t be able to snatch time to make the necessary calls to get the house secured properly again and to have a few new security measures installed. I figured if I didn’t manage to do it during work I might just have some time when I finished but really worried that I wouldn’t be able to get things sorted out.

Damaged one pane of the double glazing 😦 That’s the daughter in the reflection I’ve not been making my obesity up

I took my first break at 12 for lunch, I was shattered, so tired and running on sheer will. I rang home to find out if everyone was OK and my daughter informed me that she had had locks replaced with ‘unbreakable’ ones, she’d had extra locks fitted to the gates and extra alarm sensors independent of the main alarm (which obviously wasn’t on as we were awake) to detect movement in the back porch and around the back of the house, CCTV was being installed and she had a glazier coming to replace the broken door glass. Not only that but she’d spent the morning outside with my son weeding the garden.

I was shocked but very proud and very satisfied that I did raise her to be able to take care of herself. I worried that I had not prepared her well for independent life as I am a bit of a hands on mother at times and like to ‘do’ for the kids. But I’m happy now that she might not have practiced much but she’s absorbed lots and for someone who has never had to deal with a crisis she did me very proud.

I was a little sharp with the school attendance officer who rang to reprimand me for not letting the school know before 11am that my son wouldn’t be at school.. I explained the situation and she said “Well we still need to know they are not coming in by 11”. I said “I’ll tell you what, we’ve had a horrific experience having our home violated, we’ve been awake all night, I’ve had no sleep and had to come into work for a 7 o’clock meeting, have been teaching no stop until now and I am sorry if your statistics were not my priority but I had a couple of other things on my mind!”

Not gone fishing

Some people!

Oh well all good and well, house secured and we’re glad that fate made sure we were awake and together when it happened.