Ellie came calling

Mrs. Treaclechops is still down in Hampshire spending time with her sister who is unwell, so granddaughter Ellie decided that she was coming for a sleepover and to keep me company.

She’s 9 years old (10 next month) … going on 17. She came for one night with a small suitcase containing her jim jams, dressing gown, a change of clothes, a tablet, a cushion and a pillow. Also, one carrier bag full of books and a second carrier bag containing her makeup items. Phew! She told me her makeup stuff was mainly moisturizing creams. The bathroom has never smelled so sweetly. I asked her why she needed so much makeup. She said that single girls needed a lot of makeup to attract the hottest boys. Yikes! 9 years old!!!

We had fish and chips for tea and I asked her if she’d like to watch a video. She had a rummage through our collection and found the first ‘Mama Mia’ video. (I forgot we had that one). I was surprised to discover that she knew the words of many of those old songs. They are about 40 years old now. Not many songs from that era still resonate with today’s
children… except perhaps Abba.

She chose the menu for breakfast. Being a committed carnivore, she requested sausage, bacon, black pudding and a dippy egg. I insisted on whole meal bread soldiers and a piece of fruit for afterwards. She ate the lot. She likes a cup of tea and always asks for 2 sugars. I sneakily include only 1 sugar and she doesn’t seem to notice. I had to press her to wash the dishes, which she did with a little bit of a moan. Her mother used to do the
same years ago.

We collected her mother, brother Jacob and baby sister Sophie mid-morning and went to visit her auntie Claire and cousins Jack and James. I took Ellie, plus the 3 lads on a hike through Warley woods while her mother, auntie and baby sister went shopping. We had great fun on the swings and slides whilst being on constant alert for any menacing bears,
wolves, gruffalos and suchlike. There’s a café in the woods, so we stopped off for a quick snack. Cuppa tea for me, hot chocolate for Ellie and a fruit shoot for each of the lads. All 4 of them had a finger of Kit Kat each. All 4 of them ended up covered in chocolate. On the way back home, they all acquired a stick to wave in the air with a leaf stuck on the end of it. Granddad may well have come up with the original concept of this… not sure. Ellie tried to teach the lads the lyrics of ‘Dancing Queen’, but they seemed more interested in acting out an adventure containing Spiderman, Peppa Pig and the Avengers.

Nobody told me life would get this good.