Viking Festival

It’s going to look like I spend a lot of my time doing events and supporting my children in their interests and things like that and I worry that I might be giving you the wrong impression. However, today, we took the park and ride into York and attended a battle for 5 - 12 year olds in honour of York’s viking festival.

Battle Mode

The event was great. Probably about 100 kids equipped with foam swords, shields and helmets allowed to beat the shit out of each other and taught the basics of a shield wall. Obviously, the six-year-old loved it and has spent the afternoon/evening practicing his “moves”. The four-year-old was sad that she didn’t get to partake, but was cheered up immensely by the opportunity to buy a cuddly warhammer.

A cuddly warhammer.

Cuddly. Warhammer.

Lazy Days

The day before, we were back from holiday and basically mooched around the house the whole day. There’s nothing that brings me greater joy than a good mooch, with the children playing with each other (we played ‘toilet tig’ which I’d have called ‘tiggy bump’ or ‘tiggy bop down’ - though you apparently have to flush the toilet to free the contender) and generally ticking off life admin. Two loads of washing, a bunch of tidying up, and a happy family. Bliss.

Injury

I also managed to get to the gym, but I think I probably overdid it and have been skirting illness all day. No idea what it is - it’s possibly diverticulitis but that seems pretty unlikely. I have that, but I don’t really see why that’d be exacerbated by gym. Maybe it isn’t exacerbated by the gym, but by travelling (we drove back from Scotland), living unhealthily (we were in Scotland), or by something else entirely.

Like all people, I’d love to ascribe some sort of reason…because then I could do something about it and retake the power. But for now, I can’t, and so I’m on liquid diets and resting and trying to parent as much as possible without hurting myself.

Conclusion

Why do I need a conclusion for every post? Well, this is just a slice-of-life: a reminder to myself on what I’ve done. I watched my six-year-old charge at a full grown man with beard, battle axe and flag and try to push him over. The three-year-old would have been scared of strangers and would have hidden behind my legs. It’s good to remind myself of that.

Also, go to the Viking Festival. York is pretty accessible and pretty cool.