I thought I’d write with the Hathaway News but we haven’t really got any, so in a bid to keep in touch, I thought I’d burble on for a bit about the family, weddings, rabbits, school, hobbies and stuff…

First of all

The wedding(s)

Last August, the girls were asked if they would be bridesmaids for Carl’s nephew Gavin and his partner Ping (there are pictures of this event on the Hathaway web site). We had a wonderful time despite the journey! We were stuck on the M25 for four hours!! Laura fortunately fell asleep and Bec and I had ample supplies of goodies to keep us going. Carl and Ardette had gone separately as the girls and I were going straight to Bournemouth on holiday the day after the wedding. However after a while, as on such occasions, we found we all needed the toilet. Traffic at this stage had come to a complete stand still and car doors were opened. It was therefore fairly easy for the two girls to use the potty in the car and for this to be emptied on the central reservation!

However as time went on I became more and more desperate and with no sign of any significant move in the traffic, I began to consider using the potty as well! Yes I know! But let’s face it, when you’ve given birth, picked up poo, travelled to work with a small piece of sick on the shoulder of your black jacket…. then considering using the potty on a four laned motorway is not completely out of the question! I had just worked out the logistics of trouser removal when I noticed a lady and a young girl walking towards me alongside the central reservation, smiling. Fortunately I was still clothed and they slowed down when they reached the car and spoke to me. They were going to ask the coach driver in the middle lane some way behind whether the daughter could use the toilet! I couldn’t believe it. That should have been me! They went on their way and I faced a new dilemma. Could I make it to the coach and back before anything moved – the traffic had a habit of moving 20 yards every twenty minutes or so? Would Laura wake up? There were enough people around to watch the girls for me. But then would I be able to go with all that pressure? In the end I just couldn’t go through with it. And it was back to potty idea… when the family in the car in front, obviously sensing that I was just about to go for it, came to have a chat about life. They were off on holiday to Scotland and wanted to know what all the little flies were. Fancy getting stuck on the M25 when you’re going to Scotland! Ha ha.

We did eventually get to Down Hatherley and Rebecca was extremely amused that I’d had to wait for eight hours before going to the toilet! (The merits of having an efficient bladder go largely unnoticed – it’s not immediately apparent where one could include this on one’s C.V.)

Anyway, the wedding…

The bride was a picture and so were the girls, in ivory, accompanied by Page Boy Michael from Hong Kong. The do was a good one, the claps of thunder during the ceremony just as Ping was about to make her vows, adding a bit of drama to the occasion! The girls were well behaved, but Carl took his Fart Machine to add a bit of humour during the photographs (his humour, not mine!)

Wedding Number Two

A couple of months back Jeanine, Carl’s niece and godchild, and Rebecca’s godmother, asked if the girls would be bridesmaids at her wedding to Andrew in April. And so, Jeanine and Andrew got married at St. Mary’s in Bletchingley, on Tuesday 2^nd April 2002. The girls looked wonderful in white, alongside Cerys, the matron of honour in blue, and Charlie and John, the two ring-bearers in traditional morning suits.

We had travelled the night before (thankfully, an uneventful journey compared to that of last August) so that we could attend a rehearsal at the Church.

Laura made it perfectly clear at the rehearsal that her role as a bridesmaid would be on her terms and there was much bribery on the day to ensure that she appeared a normal child and not one with obsessive, compulsive tendencies! The bribery worked for much of the day and she did indeed walk down the aisle with the normal folk, and pose in some of the pictures, although she wouldn’t smile. Because Carl’s so important, he had to work on the morning of the wedding.

He did make it however, sporting a new £2.99 tie, purchased especially for the occasion. The beard (a present from myself for Carl’s 40^th birthday last year) finished off his outfit perfectly. The wedding itself went very well and the sun shone throughout the day.

Charlotte’s Impressions

Charlotte did an impression of Claire (the Church Minister) at the rehearsal on Monday evening walking ‘importantly’ (as Charlotte would put it) with her hands in her pockets saying “Now if you’re going to say it to them….” Charlotte’s pretty hot when it comes to impressions.

She did another impression to our neighbour Lyn that same week. We had been to Marsh Farm and as we got back Lyn and her two dogs Misty and Amber were in the front garden. We chatted for a while and I was just thinking about coming in when Charlotte got on all fours and said to Lyn, “your dog’s bottom does this when it walks!”

Oh the shame! You try and maintain a normal relationship with someone (they don’t have children) and Charlotte does an impression of a dog’s bottom!

Last week she asked when Nanny would become Queen? I pointed out that if our Queen died, Charles would be next. But this didn’t satisfy her and so I pointed to each of the Royal Family members who are in line to take the throne. She then got cross and said what if all the people the Queen is related to, and all the people she knows, died? Then would Nanny be Queen?

Laura’s Foot

We had a trip to Accident & Emergency last Thursday as Laura fell down the stairs. This happened on Wednesday but as she still was in some pain and it was quite swollen on Thursday, we thought we’d better get it checked out. This was quite a tense trip not least because Laura (like Ardette) has an acute sense of smell and a tendency to go ‘Pooorrrr’ when she smells anything out of the ordinary. We escaped after only a couple of ‘pooorrrr’s although she did ask in a loud voice ‘What that ‘mell?’ as a nude man with only four toes was wheeled into X-ray. Laura was lucky to escape unscathed from the X-ray machine as I accidentally stepped on the foot pedal as I put her on to the trolley! This caused the top to shoot about all over the place and Laura clung on for dear life!

There were no bones broken (from the fall or the trolley) and although she’s not using it yet (today is Sunday) she can get about at top speed on all fours, with one foot raised.

We’ve got a rabbit living our garden! A small grey bobbing thing!

Bec spotted it during the Easter Holidays and I told her that it was a squirrel! Then I saw it on the patio before Church on Sunday and convinced myself that it was a squirrel despite it having no tail. I then saw it again on the patio and it ran under the little shed. I then thought that it might be a rat (despite it still not having a tail!) as the gap in which it hid was tiny. I rang mum and she said I had to get a torch. I was about to head fearlessly into the unknown (I imagined the rat to be lurking under the play shed only to pounce and hang from my nose or jugular when I looked underneath!) only to see the little thing bobbing all over the garden. We assume it is a wild rabbit as it hasn’t a hutch. We've all seen it now and Rebecca has named it our Easter Bunny!

The girls are all back at school now. They have a new Headmistress at Ashingdon. Her name is Mrs. Stewart and she is Scottish. This is a subject for much debate in the Hathaway household not least because she talks differently. “Mummy she comes from another country” are words that were uttered quite earnestly and very often, even before she had arrived! Charlotte says she’s got curly hair and high heels. I have now seen her myself and she certainly doesn’t look Scottish. She is tanned and looks exceedingly efficient at all things! I think I spotted her holding a placard with the words ‘There’s no flies on me!’ but I couldn’t be sure!

Today Charlotte asked me if she had a Step-dad.

New Hobbies and a Tender Moment

Since watching Survivor Raw on television, Bec has taken to practising holding her breath under water and keeps a clock permanently in the bathroom so that she can time herself. She now plays Netball at school and LOVES trampolining with her cousin Lucy at the Sports Centre in Hawkwell. Charlotte has started dancing lessons, Ballet and Modern and Tap. Both have continued with their swimming lessons and are on National Levels 5 & 8.

Laura’s hobby is being Downright Awkward, which she practises as much as she can. She started at Hockley Pre-school in January where she pretends to be normal. I recall an incident which happened soon after she started. After her bedtime story I lay down next to her and her cool soft cheek touched mine. It was such a tender moment and I remember thinking ‘I think I love her more now that she has a little bit of independence….’ when suddenly I felt a little something poking about up my nose. I said “Laura, what are you doing?” and Laura laughed saying “I have to go up there.” A lesson for us all there I think.

Carl has joined a squash club at Clements Hall. I think he enjoys it although he rarely wins. This week he was beaten by a deaf man. He’s also been beaten by a sixty year old man with a broken arm and a man with the build of Bernard Manning.

I am doing a First Aid Course organised through the Pre-school (it started just after Laura had hurt her foot). It has been emphasised on the course that 90 something percent of First Aid is practised on members of one’s own family. I now feel pretty confident that I could have a go should the need arise, but I’m a little concerned as to who would the same for me? Carl assures me he did a First Aid course when in the RAF. I am reminded of the last occasion I collapsed at home. Carl phoned for an ambulance but as he did I vomited and so he put the phone down. The emergency services of course rang back, and I came round to hear Carl shouting crossly at me from the bedroom, “Jude, it’s the emergency services on the phone. Do you want an ambulance?” Laura was crawling up the stairs and Rebecca was screaming “She’s going to die. She’s going to die.”

I wonder if Carl should take a refresher course…?

Well, I think I should stop now.

Greetings and love to you all.

God bless.

Judy & co.

P.S. We’ve just had dinner during which Rebecca said that Carl was King Alfred as he was born long ago. And Charlotte asked if Carl was the black sheep of the family. Carl said he’s working late next Friday.