What a time I've had over the last week.  Son moved into Uni on Sunday and moved back home on Tuesday!  All those arrangements and packing and then he hates living on campus.  We suggested he give it a while to settle in but he was so miserable and wasn't eating so now he's home.  Luckily Uni isn't far away and he can bus in but I'm a wreck - all those emotions when he left, then hearing him so unhappy on the phone then arranging for him to leave.  We'd only just got him a TV Licence on Sunday, along with insurance - all need to be cancelled.  He brought a nice pile of washing back.  Don't get me wrong, I'm pleased he is home and happy but I was looking forward to a bit of a rest!  Right now I feel like I move from one crisis to another.  I guess the good thing is that he won't have so much student debt.  The Uni were able to re-let his room as there were 83 people waiting for rooms!



Down House - home of Charles Darwin



Last Friday I visisted Charles Darwin's house in Downe, Kent with a friend.  The house felt like a real family home, relaxed - it had a good feel about it.  The audio tour is good but we had problems with the audio machines because of low battery power and had to return two.  This may be because it was afternoon and they'd been used a lot but it was a bit annoying.  We ran out of time to walk around a lot of the garden so I'd love to go back another time.  I loved the rooms as well as the exhibition on the first floor. There was lots of information and lovely photos of Darwin's children.  Darwin comes across as a loving and fun father and his children helped to collect specimens from the grounds around the house.  They had a wooden slide on the stairs with a pillow to sit on to come down.  It was said that Darwin often came out of his study on the pretext of looking at some maps in the hall to watch his children enjoying themselves.

Darwin's greenhouse



This afternoon, after coming back from choir, I went into Oxfam.  My older son was helping out there today so I treated us to a McDonalds (veggie burger and fries) and then stayed until just gone 3pm sorting the records, tapes and sheet music.  I thought I might as well make myself useful!