finding vegan cream cheese

Back with a bump, we returned from Denmark yesterday. It is always a bit of a shock, coming home from a holiday and I usually take a few days to order thoughts, memories and photos. In the meantime, some teenage shenanigans for your entertainment.

Sam stayed behind to look after the cats and dog. We were a bit anxious as he he swings between a sensibly thoughtful and a wildly immature personality, with not much clues as to which we might see next. We left a calendar for Sam with entries like "take the green bin down", "feed the dog" and "water the courgettes"  etc. Alas, he failed to look at it. The dog is fine and happy, thanks for asking. The wheelie bin was too full to hold all his garbage because he missed the bin day. He had no money left to buy milk or any other food, or toilet paper. I have never quite seen the cupboards so bare. The wooden floors were dull and sticky. He had washed these with Fairy liquid and very little water....

We knew he had "some friends over one evening". As it transpires, this translates into "I am not sure how many people were here and who they all were". The evidence was subtle at first, a stain of red wine here, a scrunched up burger wrapper there. I was a bit suspicious when we spoke last week because he mentioned washing bedlinen, and cleaning rugs and armchairs. I prefer not to think about it too much. The partygoers used the entire house and garden like they owned it. Or maybe not, more like squatters. It appears that the girls were hanging out in Annie's bedroom. Sam didn't check her room out after the party because he fears a trap and consequences for trespassing. In any case, he would not have noticed that her makeup utensils were in disarray, clearly used, some missing, and her wardrobe was rummaged through. I am really cross about this and Annie feels understandably violated. Had it not been for Annie's room, I don't think we would have made a big deal of the party. Teenagers make mistakes. But there have been some stern discussions and many apologies. I am glad it did not escalate into something one reads on social media about. To put things in perspective, Sam didn't enjoy the party. He said it was stressful and he couldn't get anyone to leave, and he clearly had not much control over what people did. Maybe he just knows how to butter up his old mother.

Sam also injured himself with a glass and had to attend the minor injuries clinic to have a large and deep cut in his hand x-rayed for fragments of glass, checked for nerve/tendon damage, cleaned and bandaged. I was surprised that he didn't require stitches, having seen the wound on the photo that he dutifully messaged - wondering what to do. He also needed money to pay an Ueber to go to the clinic. He must have been dining on caviar and champagne, we left him quite a generous amount of money to live on.

Sam was pleasantly meek and apologetic today and even talked to his sister and offered to replace what went missing. He scrubbed the bathrooms that were actually quite clean, took all the rubbish to the dump with Richard, cooked a nice lunch for the boys and helped me with the big food shop during which he eventually found the vegan cream cheese that Annie requires to make a birthday cake for her best and newly vegan friend. Vegan cream cheese!

I will be back at work on Tuesday and there is laundry and more packing to be done for Friday, when offspring and husband will depart for another trip. Me and the dog will have plenty of time to indulge in holiday memories and I promise I'll share some highlights, not including the part when I lost my boarding pass somewhere between security and gate... not my finest moment.

Thanks for stopping by. xx