In which Dad nearly buys placemats

One thing by way of souvenir that Dad really wants to buy is placemats - he and Mom have collected a set of placemats from nearly all the exotic locations they've visited (St Helena being one).  We've been looking at placemats in every souvenir shop we've visited from Cape Reinga to the Bluff (just about), but either prices have been too high or they haven't been quite the right thing.  I've been saying all along that Briscoes is bound to add a sale to their already-better prices, but it was Farmers who ended up being the price winner.  Today was a half-day for me at school and although I still have piles of work to get through, I figured it was more important to spend time with my parents!  We went to town...literally.  Dad had a set in his hands at Farmers and got as far as the pay point before deciding that perhaps they weren't right enough after all...so back they went.  I picked up a cute hands-free tin opener and a set of bright pink baking measuring cups, and Mom found exactly what she was looking for.  Shortly before 3 pm we had to collect the boys from the swimming pool where they had their first lesson of the year - all the kids were excited about swimming starting up again!  It's been super cold here again today - let's hope the weather cheers up before the long weekend coming.

I managed to persuade Caleb to play a violin duet with me (he said on condition that I said "Caleb's awesome and I'm a nerd", so having announced that to everyone, he had to uphold his end of the deal). We scraped and screeched through a few pieces and actually sounded quite passable (despite that he never practices). Got Aaron in on the act too with Supercalfragilisticexpialadocious - glad that Dad thought to bring out the camera!