Yesterday was a sort of family day.

I picked up Grandson and GrandDaughter the Younger from school and brought them here for the afternoon as their Ma [who by coincidence happens to be Daughter] was working.

They are an odd pair. Grandson is by nature a very quiet kid whereas GDtY is a ball of happy chatter noise and mayhem. Grandson does have a tendency though to tease his sister and winds her up something rotten, which leads to an even further increase in noise and mayhem. Poor Penny was in a right state as she spent her time asking to go out to escape the noise and then asking to come in again as it was snowing on her. The poor dog didn’t know what to do.

The usual routine is for Grandson to sit quietly on the couch [which further upsets Penny as it’s her couch] while GDtY empties her Sack of Treasures on the floor. This is a collection of stuff that has accumulated over the years, most of it being broken toys and treasures. This makes one hell of a mess and GDtY happily sits on the floor chattering and playing games in the middle of it all.

Grandson and I usually settle into some surreal conversation about something obscure. He is intensely bright for his age [eleven] and generally the topics can range from astronomy to zoology with all the letters in between.

During the afternoon Daughter arrived. This of course doubled the noise level. She told us a little story though.

A wee while ago, Daughter’s Ex’s father died. Ex phoned the kids to gently break the news to them. He quietly explained to GDtY that Grandad had died. “Oh no” said she. “No more hugs. And who will look after Granny now because she’s always sick in bed?” Ex explained gently that it was his father who had died and not the other Grandad. “Oh that’s all right then!” says GDtY.

It was kind of flattering for me but I wouldn’t imagine Ex was too happy?