And he scored!

Nathaniel’s thrifty mum bought him a 2 year’s out of date Newcastle away strip as its half price. She got a 9 for his birthday but as each letter cost £1.50 she just got Nat put on it.

Brother-in-law called for a cup of tea on his way south to pick up his latest Lady (capitals because apparently she has a title) from Southampton. (She didn’t trust the trains or planes and saw him coming a long way off.)

Then we called for Nathaniel’s birthday. Unfortunately his mum wasn’t feeling well so we wore masks and only stayed long enough to see the candles being blown out. He played with Thomas and James while Ella took me to her room to show me the new tops she got with some of her Christmas money - the first time that she wanted clothes not toys. Then I had to check her giant world map canvas for any countries I’d been to that she’s not put a pin in. There were 4 to add. Then we went to play football in the field down the street. Nathaniel is celebrating scoring a goal on the blip.

I took a Christmas book back to Waterstones as I already had it and swapped for a Donna Leon. As Jenny has now got the tickets for La Fenice it seemed appropriate.

I don’t know whether or not to prepare any food for #3 and family arriving tomorrow - we don’t want her to come if she’s poorly, so a decision will be made in the morning. Much as I’d be happy to look after her normally, we are due to fly off in 5 days and the visa hassles plus getting the malaria stuff mean we really don’t want to risk any horrid virus impacting on the plans.