Learning Fast

Britain is currently in the grip of a big freeze.

We've been in minus temperatures for days and much of the country is in inches of snow.

Where we live, we've avoided the worst.

Where we live, the local council is amazing.

Where our old town Colchester is a mass of chaos 18 miles away with many school and road closures, our roads and pavements are clear as my photo shows.

Yesterday, I dropped Matthew at school and I passed a number of council workers gritting the pavements ready for the next possible load of snow fall. This was at 9am in the morning and there wasn't any snow or ice that were a hazzard to pedestrians or road users alike.

I mentioned it to the lady who runs the library kids group on a Tuesday afternoon on how well this council worked compared to Colchester. "Well" she said with a smile "Let's just say Melford is a very wealthy area. The council can't have the villagers being inconvenienced with a little snow."

I was surprised to hear it from a local but I've been amazed by how much this village is so different to Colchester. This village seems to have so much people power compared to a town. It's just unbelievable that a place with only a population of 3000 (approx) can be so well maintained compared to the 104,000 in Colchester. It's crazy.

Other than the snow, the week began well. The weekend was better.

On Saturday, we left the boys with my mum as we headed off on a kid free day out. Hubby first drove his mum to London. We offered to give her a lift to Wandsworth, central London as she was returning hubby's brother's dogs home. She had been dog sitting all week since bro and sister in law were in America celebrating Thanksgiving with her family. (She's originally from New York). So we took pity on mother in law having to take 2 lively dogs on trains and busses all across London and took them there direct. The dogs were great in the car and slept most of the journey. Once in the right place, we headed off to a furniture superstore to decide what wardrobes we are going to order. We had the idea we'd seen online but wanted to see them in action. That made up our minds 100%.

We then took a trip into the Essex town of Basildon and got a few christmas presents done.

On Saturday we took the kids into Colchester. It was cold, but hadn't started snowing in our neck of the world just yet. Matthew really enjoyed his day. Especially when he got to be photographed with his football teams mascot Eddie The Eagle.

He was so pleased and proud. Love him. Dressed out in the Colchester United club strip, he did look warmer than what I felt. We have got Matthew the football shirt as his main christmas present this year. Matthew seems to be over toys and into nothing more than football, football games on the PS3 and the occassional book. His reading is brilliant, his spelling is rather good, he just needs to master writing. He's trying so hard and I can't ask for more than that but I want him to succeed and hope he gets there soon. I am so proud of that boy.

Sunday I also got to the point I couldn't wait any longer so up went the christmas tree. Matthew even left the PS3 long enough to help me. So the tree this year is kiddy friendly but traditional.

Baubles, presents, crackers, pine cones, candy canes, tinsel, flashing lights and snowflakes adorn the plastic tree. A star sits on the top.

The kids love it. We've already lost a couple of presents as James was curious as to what was inside the shiny giftwrapped boxes but it's all ok for now.

Rosie is becoming a lively little soul. She loves to run round the garden in the snow. She doesn't mind her little paws getting cold and wet. She is doing really well settling in. We do of course have the odd little nip and all that but she's getting there. It will hopefully ease up more so in the coming weeks. I'm looking forward to being able to take her out for walks soon. She needs to get the exercise and is yet to stumble across another dog. But it will all be good once we are up to date on the injections and she can get some proper exercise in.