Yesterday was quite a day. We have a saying that bad things come in threes and a quick google search confirms this is not just our belief. But by noon I had all of them out of the way for the day and at my aunts house for lunch one of the visitors there said “Khalas, Thalathti” Which means finish, you’ve had the three. So I decided the rest of my day, inshallah, was going to be good. And that is was.

In case you are interested in my “bad things” here they are. Because I thought the iPhone’s  alarm worked even when the iPhone was off I missed my children’s morning parade. I don’t do the morning school run for the kids as I’ve explained in my ‘Spoilt Mothers’ post so I don’t usually wake at 7.30 am. I went to bed earlyish (after midnight) and set my alarm. When I woke, very rested I lay in bed for 5 seconds thinking ‘Allah… It’s so nice to wake up in a comfy bed so well rested. Mashallah I slept really well…. Oh S#@!‘ It immediately hit me that there was no way I would be waking so rested had I woken on time to make the parade… so S#%*. It was 8.30 am. The parade was at 8.

I called the school. Have no idea what I expected the school to do but I called anyway. My friend answered. So happy I have a friend in my children’s school! I can ask ridiculous things of her without worrying about it since I am more than positive she will tell me I am being ridiculous if I was. Stroke of luck S’s home room teacher was passing by her office when I called and she confirmed that S was asking about me and was worried I left before his class walked in the parade. Yes shoot me now in the foot then stab me with guilt knives my son was walking around the school expecting to see me around every corner.

Now Yes I know it’s not the end of the world. And he has already forgotten about it but I am telling you now what I was feeling then. So don’t worry I am not beating myself up about it. I am, thank God a mother who always keeps her promises and my children know that. So I don’t feel like I have done irreversible damage I just felt guilty at that particular moment. And a little later on in the day as you will read.

Now, the reason I was only asking and worried about S is because I know he will be the only one who was going to linger on the subject of me not showing up. It’s his personality and he tends to over think things. I have No idea Who he could have gotten that from. It is baffling. There was nothing I could do about it so I had to just get out of bed and get on with my day.

I had an appointment at 10.30 to sign some documents and I sent out text messages to the others who would meet me there reminding them to bring their ID’s. We decided to all go together so we met at my house, got into my car and headed out. As we were approaching the building a large flatbed truck with some idiot talking on his phone and two other idiots sitting beside him either decided we were invisible or thought he could change the laws of physics and peeled away the front left side of our bumper. S#%*.

The idiotic thing is this happened at a roundabout and we were going so slow. It was a very calm street and even the driver of the flatbed was going slow. Idiotic! We got out of our car and into my sisters car that was thankfully behind us.

We pulled up at our appointment and I opened my bag to get my ID out. You know when you put your hand into your bag reaching for the familiar shape of your wallet and your hand grabs hold of your phone then lets go then fishes again and finds a leathery object but no, that’s your sunglasses case. And again… no thats lip balm… papers… bits of stuff your kids put in there. S#%*.

“I forgot my ID” I had to say knowing full well this was karma for how much I nagged everyone not to forget their ID. Finally got ID, signed papers and headed home in my sisters car. The rest of the day was a highly choreographed dance of pick ups and drop offs as my little family had four separate engagements to get to and one car.

After returning home I picked up Special K and headed to my aunts for lunch where I was reminded that I “thalatht” so I was good to go. Then I sent the car and nanny to pick B up from school, take him home and come back for us. Then went home and 20 minutes later I went to pick S and J up from school.  As I suspected it was S who said “Why didn’t you come today? I was looking for you everywhere! I begged my teacher to let me go out and sit with you to watch the parade till my turn came but I couldn’t find you anywhere!” (this is the time I referred to earlier in the post by the way with the guilt and stuff… yeah…).

“My alarm didn’t go off. You know I would never miss it on purpose”. S: “Yes I know.” With the Oh my God the world has ended look on his face. J: “Don’t worry mama, I saw my teacher take pictures of my in the parade and I am sure she took pictures of B and S. Inshallah she did! I will ask her for you next week don’t worry!”. That is the reason I was more worried about S than J. He totally got over it that second though.

We arrived at the house and started homework. 20 minutes later I went to my doctor’s appointment. Then back home and checked on homework. Rest of evening was relatively quiet. I taught S how to play the game Sequence and it will probably become a family favourite. I thought I would be playing it without the usual nastiness that accompanies it when I play with my friends but I was proven wrong when S not once but twice used his one-eyed jack to remove my chips!

I was so tired at the end of the night I couldn’t get through the last episode of Downton Abbey season three that I have been watching for 4 days now! Maybe I just don’t want it to end. Who knows.

It’s the end of a lovely day again. J had 6 of her friends over and she hosted a lovely party if I do say so myself. More on that in another post. Downton awaits.