A meltdown situation
We almost had a meltdown situation before Nick went back to school.
He's reached that point in a young man's life where the comfort of elasticated waist trousers are no longer a foregone conclusion.
I had the foresight this year to buy his new uniform early (before they broke up for the summer, rather smugly).
I only wish I'd been smug enough to try them on him earlier than the night before he went back to school.
So he tried them on – with at least six inches to spare on the waist, another six on each leg and no belt to hold them up.
Total panic ensued, as Nick feared he would be laughed at by all and sundry, and refused to wear them, putting on his old trousers, which even the Bay City Rollers wouldn't have worn.
I feared for the "has your budgie died" jokes (you know the one, it must have done, that's why your trousers are flying at half mast).
"Fear not, mother will fix it," I said calmly. (Well, something like that.)
Of course, he hadn't bothered to see how the trousers actually fastened before condemning them.
They were the type with "secret adjustable" elastic which will tighten to fit even very skinny kids.
Well, that was one problem solved. And taking up the hems wasn't the end of the world either, although he did think I was just going to put a couple of safety pins in and leave them like that.
The week before the kids went back to school, we went away for a couple of days to Liverpool.
It's a great city and there's lots to do. Cost-wise, it went from the sublime to the ridiculous.
On the good side, its fabulous museums (don't let that "m" word put you off – they're far from stuffy) are all free.
But a lot of the other "must-sees" for example, the Beatles Story, which luckily, the kids weren't bothered about going to, would have cost more than 55 to get in.
Unfortunately, one thing they did want to do was go on the Yellow Duckmarine – a one-hour tour around the city on a Second World War D-Day amphibious landing craft which plunges into the docks and then sails around for a bit.
It is very good fun, but set us back an eye-watering 60!
It was also most amusing to watch Ali and Nick trying to be teenage hard men in the face of the most appalling summer holiday weather we had ever encountered. It was the tail end of Hurricane Bill which decided to lash Merseyside – and then followed us all the way home.
Vanessa and I did the sensible waterproof thing – while they tried to brave torrential horizontal rain in T-shirts. Nick even had a kagoule in his back pack, but didn't want to look soft in front of the Scousers!
Pride's painful, as my mother always said.
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Weather for Sunderland
Friday 10 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -3 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 1 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: South west
