Day of disaster

Mum had the day to herself and was looking forward to leisurely completing the few chores that she had lined up.
Mum had promised to make a rice pudding for the local women’s group lunch after a request from Mrs Pennington-Smythe, Robbie had asked for his pet rabbit to be cleaned out, Annabelle needed her paper mache chicken head painting for her part in the school play. Bubbles the cat needed feeding and Dad wanted a sandwich making for his tea.
A few things to do, but Mum had a knack for multi-tasking and set about her jobs.
First on the list was the rice pudding. Mrs Pennington-Smythe was very difficult to turn down when she asked for help and Mum’s rice pudding was legendary due to the honeyed sultanas that she dropped into the mix.
Mum put on the radio and found herself shimmying around the kitchen to a stream of disco hits and she put the ingredients together and slipped the rice pudding into the oven.
Mum pulled the pudding out of the oven ten minutes before Mrs Pennington-Smythe was due to call. She decided to taste the pudding to make sure it was sweet enough. One taste and Mum could feel herslf starting to blush even though she was alone in the house. The pudding was sweet, the sultanas were delicious, the nutmeg seasoning was perfect, but Mum had forgotten to add the rice. All she had was a steaming bowl of beautifully tasting hot milk.
Mm couldn’t stand the idea of losing face in front of Mrs Pennington-Smyhte and desperately tried to think of a way out of the problem. She heard a car door close out on the street and at the same time Bubbles the cat trotted through the door flap hoping for some lunch.
Mum took one look at the pudding and promptly poured it over her head.
Mrs Pennington-Smythe walked through the back door seconds later and was confronted by Mum dripping milk from all her clothing and fringe.
“Bubbles tripped me up” Wailed Mum “I dropped your pudding all over me and now I’ve got nothing to give you for the lunch”
Mrs Pennington-Smythe secretly loved a crisis.
“Don’t worry dear, I’ll sort something out” She proclaimed. “Naughty cat” she shouted at a bemused Bubbles as she quickly flew out the door.
“Sorry Bubbles” Said Mum. “I’ll do you some food in a minute”.
Mum threw her clothes into the wash and went upstairs for a quick shower.
Robbie had brought home the school bunny for the weekend as all [pupils had a turn to look after it. Mum had volunteered to clean out the rabbit and made this her next job. She gently lifted him from the cage not realising that her sands were still a little soapy from the shower. The bunny slipped out of her hands and sensing his freedom, shot down the stairs and out of the cat flap.
Mum shot down after him, flew out the door and flung herself into a bush as she saw the rabbits tail disappearing. The good news is that Mum managed to catch the bunny. The bad news is that she landed into a small pile of pooh that some kind of animal had neatly deposited in the bush.
“Great” Mum said to herself, “I’ll need another shower”.
Mum walked back to the house, Bunny in hand. She looked on in horror as she realised that the door had dead-locked behind her. Mum had not come out with a handbag in the rush and her keys were inside the house.
What could she do?
She peered through the cat flap and tried to coax Bubbles into getting the keys for her and bringing them out.
Being a cat, Bubbles had no idea what she was saying and was only interested in being given his lunch.
Mum had left a window open on the top floor. Her only option was to borrow a ladder from their neighbour Mr Barclay, climb up and through the open window.
Mr Barclay was happy to help and up Mum climbed. It was a tight squeeze climbing through the window. Mr Barclay felt slightly guilty about not volunteering to climb the ladder himself, but Mum was quite athleic nad Mr Barclay rather enjoyed the view.
Mum finally squeezed through the window. It led to Annabelle’s bedroom. She dropped to the bed, bounced on Annabelle’s new mattress, lost her balance and landed on Annabelle’s paper mache chicken head turning it into a crushed figure that looked like some weird clowns mask.
Mum couldn’t believe her luck. She now had only a couple of hours to repair the chicken head before Annabelle got home. She needed to buy newspaper, paste and paint.
She raced out the door again skidding to a halt as she saw a patient Bubbles waiting by her food bowl. Mum quickly emptied a can of cat food into Bubble’s bowl and shot out of the house.
Bubbles was glad of the sudden silence and settled to eat her meal. Unfortunately, Mum’s slamming of the door had caused a precariously positioned bag of rice, the same rice that mum had forgotten to put in the pudding to fall. The bag of rice landed on the edge of the cat bowl which subsequently flipped into the air and landed on Bubbles head. Bubbles did a cat like sigh and wandered out into the garden, deciding it would be easier to try and catch a bird.
Mum finally got home with her craft products and set about repairing Annabelle’s chicken head. Why Annabelle needed a chicken’s head, Mum didn’t quite understand as Annabelle was appearing in a school version of Oliver, but Mum hadn’t had the time or energy to try and make sense of it all.
Mum worked furiously and completed restoration of the chicken head just before her family were due home. It didn’t look quite as good as the earlier version, but she didn’t think Annabelle would notice.
Dad, Annabelle and Robbie all arrived home together and quickly completed their household tasks before going out again.
Mum collapsed exhausted in a chair, but only for thirty seconds before her family accusingly burst through the door.
“Why does my chicken head look like a toad” Wailed Annabelle.
“Why is my bunny covered in pooh” Demanded Robbie
“Where’s my sandwich” Snapped Dad. “I did ask you this morning and you’ve had nothing to do today” Dad continued.
At this remark Mum flipped.
She leapt up from her chair. She snarled at Robbie, growled at Annabelle and through a custard cream biscuit at Dad that clipped him round the ear as he attempted to duck.
Nobody understood the day that Mum had had.
But all ended well.
Mrs Pennington-Smythe bought a rather delicious strawberry gateaux for the lunch. Everyone loved Annabelle’s chicken costume. Robbie’s bunny was safely returned to school and Dad had fish and chips for tea from the local takeaway that he rather enjoyed.

That sinking feeling

Robbie’s class homework was all about hobbies. For the following day, the whole class had to take in an example of their hobby or something they admired about someone else’s hobby. Although Robbie had been very proud of his stick insect collection, Annabelle had accidentally thrown it away when Robbie had left the jam jar in the garden so that the stick insects could do a spot of sun-bathing.
Dad had suggested that Robbie talk to their neighbour Mr Barclay. Robbie thought that this was a great idea. Mr Barclay made the most amazing wooden boats that had the most intricate details on them. Robbie was delighted that Mr Barclay agreed that he could take a boat to school.
“Whatever you do, don’t try to sail it” Said Mr Barclay. “Leave your phone on and I’ll text you if it’s a problem” Mr Barclay continued.
Robbie was out of credit but would sort that out with Mum in the evening.
It was all a bit of a rush the next morning and Robbie had forgotten to tp up the credit on his mobile.
“Did Mr Barclay bring a boat round for me?” Asked Robbie.
“No, but I have the key to his house”. “Did he say it was okay to take one?” Asked Dad.
“Oh yes” Said Robbie, deliberately forgetting to mention about how Mr Barclay was going to text him any important information.
Robbie’s friend Nick arrived on his way to school and the two boys followed Dad into Mr Barclay’s hall.
There under the hat stand was a rather rickety, but brilliantly made wooden boat.
The boys were delighted and carefully carried the boat to school, arriving ten minutes late for class as they were being so careful not to drop it.
There presentation in the lesson was a big success and the teacher Miss Knowles was extremely pleased with them.
“Shall we float it on the pond in the park?” Asked Nick after school. It was a glorious afternoon and it seemed such a pity not to take advantage.
“Mr Barclay did say not to, but I guess a quick sail wouldn’t hurt” Replied Nick.
So they sent it across the pond. The vessel looked majestic with its sails standing proudly fluttering gently in a light breeze.
Robbie and Nick took a moment to watch Billy Sadler at bat in a knockabout cricket match. Billy was a fine batsman and Nick and Robbie both applauded as Billy hit a soaring shot high into the sky.
But suddenly, both boys stopped applauding and just stood with their mouths slightly a gape.
The ball soared over their heads and landed in the middle of the pond, right on Mr Barclay’s boat, smashing it to a hundred pieces.
Billy was very apologetic, but Robbie was distraught. What was he going to tell Mr Barclay?
“Let’s try to re-create it” Helpfully suggested Robbie.
With nothing else up their sleeves, both boys thought that this was the only option to save face and maybe give Mr Barclay a new, better ship.
They got some wood from Dad’s shed. Some glue from mum’s drawer. Some hankies from Annabelle’s room and some paint from the school art room.
They cut, sawed, hammered, glued and painted.
At one point, Nick got a piece of wood stuck to his finger. He waved it quickly up and down in an attempt to un-stick it an managed to hit Bubbles the cat square in the nose.
Eventually after about four hours, the boys examined their finished craft.
It in no way looked how they had hoped and actually resembled a rabbit hutch rather than an elegant ship.
They filled the bath with water so that they could send their craft on it’s maiden voyage. Both boys after the event, were convinced that it stayed afloat for at least two seconds before it sunk to the bottom of the bath and immediately disintegrated leaving a sodden mess of cotton, glue and wood that mum was then trying to clean away from the bath for the next month.
After a sleepless night, Robbie trudged round to confess to Mr Barclay with Dad hovering a few paces behind in case Robbie decided to try and run off.
He knocked on the door and saw Mr Barclay’s shadow looming towards him.
“Ah, Robbie” He cheerfully said. “How was the homework?” “I see you got my text and thanks for bringing my boat safely back in its display case.”
Robbie tried to speak, but his mouth had lost the ability to move.
“Thanks also for taking away that old prototype of mine” Continued Mr Barclay. “I really had no need for it any more and it was getting in the way somewhat”.
Robbie wanted to leap up and down and give Mr Barclay a bit hug. He had the broadest smile on his face which didn’t slip a bit, even when Dad whispered
“You’re still grounded young man.”
Robbie immediately rang Nick to tell him of their lucky escape and both boys decided that if there were any further hobby days at school, they would take their favourite Top trump sets.