Five on Friday - the nearly end of term edition

Oh man, it has been a crazy week. I am so looking forward to putting my feet up this evening. There must be something trashy on the telly, just for me. Apart from the usual, I have been worrying about the state of the world. How can I not? How can there be so much hatred and lunacy in a world that has the potential to be so beautiful??? I am speechless after this weeks latest pointless atrocities. Homophobia, sexism, inequality, deluded extremists, politicians with inflated egos, trigger happy madmen... the list could be longer but it pains me too much. Maybe I'll not watch trashy television but bury my head in the sand for a while instead. On a related topic: I am so annoyed that I am unable to vote in next week's EU referendum. I have been living here since 1998, I have been called for jury's duty but I can't vote? I am an EU migrant and I wonder about my future in this country that I have adopted as my home and that I love.

Give me a call when it is save to pull my head out of the sand, will you, please.

Moving on swiftly to less fraught subjects, here is my Five on Friday, joining in with Amy. I am as always striving for calm serenity in my life. Alas, it may be another time.

:: End of term madness is nearly over. Two sports days this week. Alistair won the spoon and egg race. I think he did, he came in first but dropped his egg. He is quite happy to claim the victory. James came third in the sprint final, second in the heats. I sneaked off before the parent race. I also banked the money from our summer PTA fundraiser without incident. It was such a relief. Just a few more days now.

:: At work, I did nothing particularly useful and I feel a bit underwhelmed. It took me an evening and part of the next morning to upgrade my computer's operating system which I needed to do to be able to view a remote desktop in full screen mode. What a faff. I had to lodge two support calls with Apple, both of which were dealt with efficiently and in a friendly manner and actually solved my problems. Customer service at its best. Further faffing included thinking about how to explain the inner workings of a particularly complicated piece of equipment in the lab for my next how-to video. I envisaged two sentences or so but apparently, many greater minds have written a lot more on the subject. Everybody at work suggested I just say it is a grey box that does magic. I may just do that.

:: Holidays near and not so near. We booked flights to visit Turkey in October. It was a rather spontaneous decision and I am still a bit dumbstruck. Over coffee one morning Richard mentioned that we should 'do something' in the autumn break and a few hours later, we had booked flights. We are Queen and King of procrastination and I am not quite sure how we actually managed to get organised in one day. We'll be staying in my godmother's flat, where I stayed two years ago. I am really looking forward to this holiday as during the summer, we won't have a all of us family holiday and it may well be the last year Sam is traveling with us. With regards to the imminent summer holiday, schools will be closed on the second last day of term next week (due to the referendum) and on the last day of school finishes at lunch time. What an opportunity missed to take the kids out early if only the referendum date had been announced before I booked the flights. We could have added four days to Tour of Switzerland and I might not feel so stressed about doing lots in very little time.

:: I feel like I am in the doghouse rather more than I would like to be. It is rather crowded at the moment actually. I confiscated Annie's phone for one day. She has no insight into why she might have deserved the harshest of all possible teenage punishments. She claims it is because she wasn't cheerful enough but I know she knows better. I evicted the teenager from the bathroom before he was finished with his grooming, I was rude to two friends last weekend (I apologised of course) and I also forgot to tell my mum firsthand about our autumn holiday. Things like that matter. Jack and James have joined me in the doghouse, too. Jack was being aggressive towards his walking buddies and had to travel in the naughty dog cage on the way to the Campsies with Tim, the dog walker. He feels no remorse. James got out of bed, opened the top floor window in his bedroom and climbed out onto the window ledge. Really! Annie spotted him when she came home from the play park and was hysterical. I am not surprised. I am feeling sick just typing this. James said he wanted to see how high high the top story of our house is. He also encouraged Alistair to climb out. I suggested he may judge the height by looking up instead. He feels no remorse for the actual climbing out of the window part but feels sorry for getting his little brother into trouble.

:: On the domestic front, the situation is deplorable. Something unspeakable has exploded in the microwave. Tomato sauce has made its way onto the ceiling in the kitchen, the dust bunnies are holding a dance in the corners, dog hair is permanently lodged into the rugs, various piles of paper started to accumulate in random places of the house (school work decanted home), the laundry pile is sky high and the windows are covered with dog nose and children's hand prints. The garden is out of control and the bins stink. I know what I'll be doing this weekend (hoping all goes away magically).

That's it all of my chest. Some good, some not so good, some underwhelming, some overwhelming. A pretty average week!

I hope you like my orchids, they have been flowering regularly for the past few years, despite ongoing neglect. I noticed another flower stem this morning, this one for a crimson red and yellow small flowered orchid. They are surprisingly difficult to photograph.

Have a lovely weekend! I know I will. I have plans to make something for myself and I also want to make a coffee scented scrub soap if I get a chance. I have a sweetened black coffee fragrance that is so real it is difficult not to take a sip. xx