That was not the weekend I was looking for...

Long story short:

1. My relaxing weekend wasn't.
2. The winner of *last* week's Saturday Giveaway is announced at the bottom of this post.

I've been looking forwards to this last weekend for quite some time. Life has been unusually hectic recently, and this weekend was designed to be relaxing, family-filled and fun. The plan was:

• Drive to hotel Friday evening; nice dinner with parents, early night.
• Spend Saturday in hotel lounge with knitting and laptop. Blog updates and pattern writing. Perhaps a walk around lunchtime.
• Meet up with brother late afternoon; head off to evening shindig for the wedding my parents were attending during the day.
• Relaxed extended family lunch on Sunday
• Drive home.

What I actually got:

• Friday went as planned, ackshully.
• Saturday morning, immediately after breakfast: hear that my parent’s home has been burgled overnight.
• Spend half an hour calming them down to the point where plans can be made. During this time, I heard my Dad use the F-word for the first, second and third times in my life.
• Find out that my parents have neither buildings nor contents insurance for their home. Repeat calming exercises for my mother.
• Dispatch Dad to drive 4 hours to assess damage, make secure and stay home overnight. Cancel Dad’s lunch orders for Sunday.
• Drive Mum to wedding, where I fill my Dad’s place during the ceremony, sitting around phase and ‘lunch’ (which starts at 16:30. I do not do well when hungry). Note that I have only brought relaxed clothes and evening clothes for the whole trip; I feel quite sparkly. I also miss my lunchtime rest (as mandated by occupational therapist) and have to make small talk with total strangers.
• Lunch is excellent, including the wine (which I cannot drink as I am the driver).
• Drive back to hotel with Mum, to pick up brother in order to return for evening shindig. Realise as we’re driving back that I’m too tired to safely repeat the trip later. By this time, I’ve missed my afternoon rest, too.
• During drive, receive text from Dad saying It Could Be Worse, and that he’s planning to drive 4 hours back the next day, arriving in time for lunch. Please could we reinstate his lunch order?
• Decide to have dinner at hotel with family. We only finished lunch an hour ago, and ‘light bites’ are only served till 5pm. Order a starter for dinner, and nothing else.
• Sunday’s lunch with aunts, uncles and cousins, some of whom I haven't seen for nigh on 20 years. (One in particular I remember as knee-high, learning to ride her bike and very wobbly. She is now a teacher, and got married last year!!).
• Drive home. So tired by the time I’m back that J packs me straight off to bed for a rest. Too tired to read Rav, or follow a sentence to the end.
• Properly in bed before 9pm.

So: not so much according to plan, then. It's particularly annoying as this was going to be the week when I started working on my preparations for Wonderwool Wales in earnest - but I think I'm going to have to spend a couple of days relaxing first. I *have*, however, drawn the winner for last week's Saturday Giveaway. Congratulations to Eskimimi - a very familiar face on Ravelry, from some of the UK boards (and I think she's a spindler, too!). Mimi, I'll be emailing you for your postal address soon, so I can send you your yarn. On a related note, I've been in a reflective mood regarding the club and competition. I think I will try and post a retrospective of the last six months over the next week or two - not that I've finished much, of course, but I think it will still be fun!