Flu

Cough, cough, cough, sneeze, sneeze, groan...

Feel awful

Think what J & I've got is flu. Feel terrible.

Lot of it about

J & I both got bad colds. J spent most of Christmas Eve in bed with temperature. Lot of it about. Apart from that have had really good Christmas although for first time in my life I didn't get to church on Christmas day as snow & ice so bad P couldn't get car out of drive. Think it's now finally beginning to thaw.

Happy Christmas

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 (NIV)

Scary

Yesterday I had the experience of getting stuck in snow & being towed up a hill backwards by a landrover. Not one I wish to repeat.

Our friendly robin

Nativity

We had a lovely nativity this morning although the audience was rather depleted because of the snow. Some really cute little angels. J did very well with his narrating. Bit of a panic afterwards when 4 year old 'Mary' went missing & her mum started freaking out (which I can totally understand). Turned out she was playing hide & seek under a pew. The evening candle-light carol service was cancelled, it's the first time I ever remember that happening. It's difficult when it's icy as our church car park is on a steep slope so people almost need crampons to get from their cars to the door.

We had Mavis the old lady we take to church round for lunch (& had Christmas pudding). In the evening we decided to go to 'other church' for their carol service & Mavis said she'd like to come too. We warned her it might be very lively as she doesn't like loud music & it was but ever so good. They had this brilliant video which was like the nativity on facebook - messages between Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth & family & friends etc There was this bit where one of Joseph's friends said 'You made Mary pregnant?' & he said 'An angel appeared to me in a dream & said it was God' & the friend said 'How convenient' then it said '23 people defriend Joseph'. It was just really funny but it ended up with 'What are you going to call the baby?' & then someone was typing in in big letters 'He shall be called Jesus' which was quite moving somehow.

To our surprise Mavis sang along to the carols, ate 4 mince pies, found someone to chat to & said she enjoyed it. Wonder if she would enjoy their normal service which is even noisier. She could do with enjoying church again.

Just spoke to my brother on the phone, he arrived back home safely at 2 am.

On with the Christmas preparations.

Maths puzzle

Ok can you do this?

What is the value of P + Q + R in the multiplication below?

A 13 B 12 C 11 D 10 E 9

P Q P Q

x R R R
_____________
6 3 9 0 2 7

Answers on a post-card.

If you're wondering why I'm putting in a mathematical challenge see blog entry below.

The weird thing is I worked it out & got the right answer but then thought my working out was wrong & still can't see why it isn't wrong & have looked up the solution & the explanation for the solution & can't understand it. But it's ok because I'm not going in for the Maths challenge.

School's out

Yesterday J's school broke up & he finished at 2.00. I decided to take him into town as he'd got some money he wanted to spend. I didn't realise all the schools in town finished early & one by one they all descended on the town centre - one comprehensive, then another, then the boys' grammar, then the girls' grammar, then the Catholic school then another comprehensive until the place was swarming with teenagers. Anyway J got the DS game he wanted then we went into a cafe & he had an apple juice & chocolate cake & I had a peppermint tea & thought 'This is nice, being here together' but J was only interested in reading the instructions for his game.
Back home I set about trying to access his report which is now on-line. This did take some time. Firstly the stupendously amazing wonderful thing is that this term he has 100% attendance!!! This is brilliant compared to last year when we were on 'special measures' for attendance as he'd had so much time off sick & I'm so thankful his health has been so much better.
Anyway for nearly every subject he got a really good report, even for PE (one of the nice things about his PE teachers is that they're positive about effort), they all used words like 'superb', 'polite', 'enthusiastic', 'hard-working', 'very pleasant' & then I looked at Geography. 'Has made a modest start'... 'needs to look at the subject in detail & not take such a broad-brush' approach'...'could do better'. So what on earth's going on with Geography (pardon the pun)? I decided to email the teacher & ask him, not expecting him to answer until next term but he answered today. I'm not sure if I should think 'how enthusiastic & helpful emailing parents on the first Saturday of the holidays' or 'get a life'. Anyway he gave this long spiel about how he takes a stict approach in order to try & overcome the 'year 8 dip' & he feels the whole class need to 'raise their game' & this approach worked for last year's class & there was a problem in marking the second assessment due to the snow & J actually did better in that one so would have got a higher grade but he thinks he could still do better anyway. I don't know, just have to see how it goes next term but meanwhile he'd better do his Geography homework.
J's Maths teacher said he might put him in for the UK Junior Maths challenge next year. I printed out last year's paper for him, thinking it would keep him amused for the whole holiday but he did it in about an hour & got a reasonable mark I'm still puzzling over the last question. I'll print it in the next blog bit.

Yet more snow!

Can't believe it's over a week since I blogged & here we are with more snow. Yesterday we only had a sprinkling whereas where my brother lives in Wales they had a foot. He phoned me yesterday for advice on buying his daughter's present & said he was working in the North of England & wasn't sure if he'd get home. My dad phoned this morning & said my brother hadn't got home & wasn't answering his phone & his family were snowed in which made me feel quite worried about them all. Meanwhile I was also getting a bit concerned as we had a power cut yesterday & I thought if we had a bad one our only heating is electric so what would we do? So we headed off to B&Q & got one of their last 3 portable gas heaters then on the way home popped into Tescos at which point it started snowing with a vengeance. We had a very long slow journey home during which my brother texted to say he was 300 miles from home & not sure if he'd make it or not. I told him it might be best to book into somewhere but not sure what he has done.
Like everyone else our Christmas plans are all up in the air. J is the narrator in the nativity at church tomorrow, he & P can walk down if necesary but don't know if I'll make it. We're also meant to be having an old lady from church for lunch, don't know if she'll make it.
Feel really sorry for those people stuck at the airport.

Friday

I've been trying to upload some of my videos of the snow but it's not working, will try again tomorrow.

Something really awful happened to one of my friends. Her car got stuck in the ice & a man came out of his house & offered to push. Then he slipped & hit his head & was lying there unconscious. He went to hospital, just hope he's ok. Obviously it's not her fault but she feels really bad.

The snow & ice have been really bad but it's beginning to thaw now. There've been some very loud whooshes as snow has slid off the roof at the back of the house where it gets no sun.

Today I went out to do some Christmas shopping, well actually I went out & did some on Tuesday as well but in a different town. It's so hard getting round the shops on the scooter at this time of year as not only are there crowds of people but they try & cram as much stuff in as possible making the aisles really narrow. This leads to some embarrassing situations when I get stuck or crash into a display. When I went into HMV with J & knocked down the DVD display he said 'Mum, I'm not with you,' & walked off.

A couple of months ago I was in the precinct eating a sandwich & feeling a bit embarrassed about it as my school gave me a life-long hang-up about eating on the street & I'm not exactly inconspicous when a girl from church came past. Today I was in the precinct again eating a sandwich & feeling a bit embarrassed & the same girl came past. Perhaps she just spends a lot of time in the precinct. She said on Monday there's going to be more snow.

P had his work Christmas lunch today which he really enjoyed. I feel a bit jealous as I haven't had a Christmas lunch so far this year. When he got home he made spaghetti carbonara for J & me but sadly the sauce curdled & was a bit unpleasant. Never mind.

I'd better go & do some Christmas cards or something.

Winter wonderland

It's very beautiful here, freezing fog has coated all the tree branches with ice. A real winter wonderland. Yesterday had horrendous journey to school, woke up late, J forgotten to print out homework (after 6 days off!!!), had to go back for his coat, drive still very icy, seriously bad traffic jams, thick fog...but when I got home after 2 hours I just thought 'Hey, I don't live in a caravan. Yippee!!! Let's keep things in perspective.'
There are several short cuts to J's school which involve going down country lanes. In this weather they are very icy. As everyone else is avoiding them too the main roads get jammed. This morning I decided to risk the icy route, drove very carefully, saw incredibly beautiful sunrise over snowy fields & managed to get him there in good time which was good as I was going out to breakfast with (old) house group. We went to a restaurant in local town & had bacon, eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes & toast, yum.

More & more snow

Can't get onto facebook reckon it's clogged by all the snow-bound people. They say that what we're having are 'light snow showers' but we're having an awful lot of this light snow, it's been snowing all day. J's school is shut again & I can't really see how they can get it open tomorrow. However he needn't think he can sit around playing computer games all day today. Her can make a start on his History assignment & perhaps we can do a bit of cooking together. Or he could even tidy his room!!!

P went to work this morning but walked most of the way, some of it through a blizzard. The bus he normally gets can't get up the hills in this ice and we can't get the car out of the drive. He says he's going to bring some work home to do tomorrow so he can stay at home. He might go down to the primary school to help clear their snow as it's their Christmas Fair tomorrow if they don't cancel it.

Yesterday I was sorting some of our old photos & P said 'Make sure you keep the negatives' to which J said 'What's a negative?' I suppose all he remembers is digital. Oh no, I'm feeling old again.

Nice warm feet

When you've got really cold feet from being in the snow underfloor heating is just wonderful!
(Don't know if I mentioned we've got it in the bathroom now.)

A nice day

Lot's more snow. School closed. J had Adam round to play in snow. (Poor Tim's grammar school one of few schools still open). P off work. I had nice lie-in, breakfast in bed & lovely lunch at pub next door (my new off-road scooter, Monster Mean Machine, is really good in snow).
What a nice day.

My Dad

My Dad is really, really not well at the moment. He is having terrible pain in his hip. They think it might possibly be a bit of bone detached from his back surgery, pressing on a nerve. He had an MRI on Friday & the technician said 'You have to brace yourself that this won't be good news, the surgeon will be phoning you.' So we're just waiting to hear.
Poor old Dad, it's awful he's in so much pain.

Christmas lunch is cancelled

Oh no! Our coffee morning Christmas lunch tomorrow has been cancelled due to the weather! I should be sitting down to smoked mackerel pate, roast turkey & all the trimmings & lemon cheesecake in a lovely restaurant & instead I'll be eating marmite on toast & staring out of the window at the snow.

Ok there's an awful lot of potential 'should be thankful fors' here & it is merely postponed until after Christmas. It's a shame for the old people though, although most of them somehow manage to pack in 4 or 5 Christmas lunches.

At the rate I'm going I could probably join the over 60s & no-one would query it. Actually they do have loads of fun outings. Where's the phone number?

This week

I'm just trying to think what else I've done recently. Hmm...

Last weekend we had J's school fayre at which there were just wonderful chocolate brownies, still warm. Bliss...

P's brother stayed only one night instead of two because his wife was missing him so much! It was quite handy though as we had Tim & his sister to sleep so it wsa easier to work out who slept where.

I spent ages helping J with Biology homework at which I should be an expert really but he only got a good mark, not a very good mark (school say we can & in fact should help with homework) but honestly it took 3 hours, how much longer do they expect? I thought my arm movements demonstrating the action of cilia in your respiratory tract & what happens when you smoke was pretty good. So was my idea of stuffing buttons (ie platelets) & tissues in a tube to represent your arteries getting clogged up. Shame the platelets ended up getting thrown around the room.

I went to both old & new housegroups & went out to lunch with new group which was very nice but a lot of new people to get to know. Leader is so nice though. Leader at old group is really nice but she does turn up looking like a model, really she does, black leather mini skirt, thigh boots, immaculate make-up & hair dyed red (as in scarlet) & it sort of makes me feel a bit inadequate sometimes in my tracky top & jeans & hardly-brushed hair. Apart from that though she really doesn't know the Bible very well which is the big problem.

And then this really misery-making thing happened at the group (old one this is). This lady in her seventies turned to me and said 'These young mums make me feel young again, don't you find that?' at which I gave her a look of despair & she said 'Well you're not as old as me but you're not as young as them are you?' 'Shall we start the study?' I said.
Sigh.

Then on Sunday morning we had this missionary couple visiting whom we've known for years & I was talking to her & she said 'What's your name?' cos she didn't recognise me. Is this cos I've got so old?
Sigh.

We went to this other church on Sunday evening & the teaching was awesomely good which made the sermon we'd had in the morning seem not really all that good. We've got a lot of different people preaching now, which is good in some ways but quality is a bit patchy at times.
Sigh.

Our church

What follows are a video and some photos of our church. I'm saving these largely for my benefit because it's the last time I would see our church looking like this. Work has started to transform the building - taking out the organ, pews replace with chairs, alter the stage, new floor. On Sunday most of the organ had already gone. Anyway I just wanted to keep a record of how it was.

The sound system at the back is where P hangs out. My favourite seat is the one by the wall in front of the red chairs at the back on the left hand side. This is a very warm seat, right over the heater.

Get your act together deputy head!

Ok we've finally caught up with everyone else & got snow. Lots & lots of snow.

What schools are meant to do when it snows is decide early in the morning that they are closed so parents can stay in bed. What they're not meant to do is say they're open so poor parents who live in the country have to be dug out of their drives then spend an hour driving just 2 miles in horrendous conditions & then once they've reached the bottom of a big hill the school texts to say they're now closed. So parents have to turn round & join traffic jam going up icy hill at top of which a bus has broken down.
This was actually just about the scariest journey of my life. Every time I stopped in traffic it was a real effort to get going again on the ice & slipping & sliding all over the place. There were 4 really nice people at the top of the hill giving cars a push, otherwise I'd still be there.

So anyway we spent 2 hours this morning going basically nowhere.

It's very pretty though, once you're safe & warm indoors.

View from living room window

View from bathroom window

Who wants to be a wombat?

P's brother is here for a couple of days. He's here to try & sort out his dad's house out a bit which is good.

J had a non-uniform day at school today, unlike the last time he & I remembered. He went off to school in his hoodie which has WOMBAT across it. This hoodie is made from fair-trade cotton & guaranteed not made by child-labour ( made by a company called Wombat, believe it or not). This is a result of the research I did when I was preparing for the pudding & prayer evening as I wanted us to do some serious praying about slavery & human trafficking etc Anyway while the prayer evening didn't happen I did start to have more of a conscience about fair trade issues which is why I paid about 4 times what I'd have paid at Peacocks for J's hoodie.

His big concern though was that for the rest of his school days he'd be called 'Wombat'. Apparently that didn't happen though. Anyway being called Wombat's better than being called Gingerhead.

I think.

Cosy toes

Today P has switched on the underfloor heating in the bathrom! Yippee!!!

Flower

Another flower from Eden.

House group dilemma

I'm better now & back to my usual routine, except P was off today & did the school runs.

This morning I did something a bit unusual. There's another church we've been going to sometimes on a Sunday evening & I had decided to try one of their house groups. Last night I thought I wasn't going to bother but P said why not give it a try. Anyway I felt really shy when I got there but it was really good. We watched a dvd of someone called Andrew Womack teaching & then discussed it. I can't believe how much stuff I shared. Then we listened to a really good song I'd never heard before & had a time of prayer. There were 6 other women there & they were all really nice. So I think I'll go back next week.

For the whole of this term at my usual house group we haven't managed to have a single in-depth discussion which is frustrating. I really love the people there but increasingly it's not giving me what I'm looking for, which is the opportunity to grow in my faith. Two of the people who go aren't yet Christians, two are older & quite set in their ways & really don't seem to want to change & our leader became the leader when she was still a very new Christian & has a lovely personality but a very limited knowledge of the Bible. On top of that the teaching on Sunday is now quite variable & while we're meant to get notes for the house group from the preacher it doesn't always happen & often they're really not enough to get a discussion going.

So long term what should I do? I don't know is the answer. The new group breaks for Christmas after next week anyway. Just have to see.

Getting better

I'm getting better, got up for a bit, now back in bed for a little rest.

Not well

I'm in bed cos I'm not well, I feel dizzy & the glands in my neck hurt. Wonder what disease I've got. I feel a bit bad about it cos last week J kept saying he felt ill but I ade him go to school. Perhaps he really was ill & has given it to me.

Had to miss Remembrance Service yesterday but they played the hymn we always have on Premier Radio & did 2 minute silence. P said it all went well at the memorial. J was there handing out hymn sheets, rather reluctantly as he was tired after Saturday.

I'm going to have a sleep now.

Party

Today J had his paintball party, this was actually his belated birthday party. He had 7 friends there & they seemed to enjoy it. I am really, really thankful that it wasn't raining as I had to sit there all day. It was nice to get to see some of his friends whom I hadn't seen before.

That's definitely the last big birthday party we're doing.

A funeral & a new computer

Today we went to the funeral of the man at church who died recently. It was a very nice service but sad, several of us were discretely crying. I was trying hard to hold it together when we sang hymn that was at my mum's funeral. There were a lot of people there which was good. I felt like I was back in the past at one point as the woman sitting next to me, who has now left, used to sit next to me years ago & we were singing an old hymn we used to sing but don't any more. It's not a good sign though when you start talking about 'the good old days'.

We just got a new desktop computer which has P & J very excited, I'm just staying out of it & letting them get on with it.

The boys are complaining about the way the cleaner has put away their computer cables, I'm going to retreat to the bedroom.

J's wrist is a lot better he says so he can go paintballing.

Gone into hiding

Just to clarify last but one post, it's only one or two people from church, in the younger age bracket, who swear etc on facebook. Most people at church are clean-living respectable people, as far as I know. Anyway the person who had a friend make a comment which appeared on my page & totally shocked me has now had her posts 'hidden' so won't be seen again.

Stuck in the mud

Can you believe P thought he would get away with changing the hymns at the village Remembrance Service? The same hymn has been sung for decades & he suggested to the Unity Committee they should change it, they agreed but needed ok from British Legion. Man from BL has just phoned up & said basically 'no way' & he hoped P wouldn't be disappointed. 'Yes he will be disappointed actually' I said which I thought was quite daring of me. He just laughed nervously.

Sometimes I think our village exists in a bubble, a nice, cosy, middle-class we've always done it this way.

I mean for goodness sake does it matter if we sing a different hymn. Will the world end?

Don't quote me.

A sprained wrist & bad language

Wet, miserable day! J has fallen & sprained his wrist, he's paintballing on Saturday so hope he's better by then. This happened because his blazer button fell off, his friend picked it up & ran off with it, J chased him & tripped over someone's foot. When I was doing his Bible reading that night he said 'Why did God let that happen?' I'm not sure there's much of a case for blaming God for it really.
Talking of which I'm really shocked by some of the posts from people from church which appear on my facebook page. Swearing, rude pictures, photos of their halloween parties. I must be just very innocent cos I didn't think they were like that.
Anyway must go, delivery man about to arrive with samples of tiles for our kitchen!

Bad night

Last night pain in feet was so bad that couldn't sleep. Today feel miserable. Cleaner came, wrote out list of jobs for her to do, seemed to work a lot better.

My brother came last night & we had lovely meal cooked by P - slow-cooked wild boar casserole followed by cherry ice cream I made in my new ice cream maker. Yum. He also brought back the last of our stuff he's been storing in his loft. We've now got all our belongings out of storage. There's boxes of books everywhere & I've got some decisions to make, like do I really need the Mexican cookbook or should we just get a taco kit from Tescos? I like collecting recipe books, I think I've possibly got enough recipes to eat something different every day for the rest of my life.

Facebook

I have to confess I have been a bit disloyal to my blog & have been hanging out on facebook. I've opened an account because some of my friends have moved away & it seems to be the best way to keep in touch these days. It's been a bit disturbing though, some 'friends of friends' use some quite strong language!

I think I prefer my blog on the whole, I can be a bit more real.

Wall hanging

Wall hanging in St Stephen's church Exeter, this picture doesn't really do it justice.

Going round in circles

I had arranged to borrow an electric wheelchair at the Eden Project but I couldn't get the hang of steering it. I went up in a lift & when I tried to reverse out I just went round in circles with a crowd of people watching me!

The Biomes

Been away

Just been to housegroup, a bit sad as old man who used to come to our group has just died from cancer. It was a bit of a shock when we got back to find email saying what had happened.

Last week we were in Devon & Cornwall. We stayed in really nice B&B near Tavistock. The man had built the house himself & his wife is a part-ime wheelchair user - coincidence! Her brother lives near us & they're going to call in next time they're up this way.

Went to Eden Project, Plymouth Aquarium (a bit pricey) & Buckfast Abbey. Will put on some photos.

Quick update

• Ventilation system working. Air now seems very fresh. Wish it was a bit warmer but weather has turned really cold.
• Went into town this morning to get hair cut. Had quick whizz round shops buying stuff I needed to make quince cheese which at this moment is bubbling away filling the kitchen with a wonderful smell. If you've never smelt a quince cooking you just have to. (When it said in the 'Riverside Cottage Handbook on Preserving', which I got from the library, that you cook them to a pulp it didn't mention that it takes several hours to get to a pulp.) Felt a bit impatient when shopping because people kept being where I wanted to be & on the scooter I can't just sneak in & get what I want. In Tescos my way was blocked by what looked like a student scrutinising the ingredients on a packet of sugar. I felt like saying: 'It's sugar, that's all it contains - just sugar, now hurry up & move.' But I didn't.
• As I went to cross the road outside Tescos a man was leaning in a car window & yelling 'Why don't you read the Highway Code & give way to pedestrians?' while the man in the car yelled back something along the lines of why couldn't he be a bit quieter. Nice.
• Had a bit of a disaster with the freezer. P had said there was a slot in the door into which you could put ice blocks, I put in an ice block. As it froze it expanded & pushed the door open & everything started to thaw. So a load of our food has had to be thrown out. Is it worth claiming on the insurance? Do they cover idiotic mistakes due to misinformation?
• Quince should be turning pink by now? Why isn't it pink???
  

The Boys Are Back!

They're back! The long-tailed tits that is, who go off & hide in forests in summer then as winter approaches come back to our fat balls. I affectionately call them The Boys. I love them, they're so delicate & beautiful. I suppose this means it's the end of summer, although yesterday it was quite nice & sunny. There are also a couple of coal tits using our feeder, these are apparently quite rare. I thought they were just messed-up great tits until P put me right.

Church

This is what has happened at our church. Our minister has stopped being a paid minister & has taken a full time job. He feels he has a call to tell people about God back in his old line of work. He is planning to still run the church on an unpaid very part-time basis, most of what was his work being done by the leadership & members of the church. This was a major shock to us all, some people responded positively, some negatively, quite a lot just confused. At the moment we are having a six month trial to see if it works.
As part of this a new Pastoral Care Team has formed of which I'm a member. We're in charge of making sure the sick & needy people get the help they need. The others are a really nice group of people & I enjoy meeting with them but to be honest I feel already a bit over-burdened by it & concerned that a situation could arise which I can't handle. There's also a part of me which thinks 'I'm sick, I need help.'
Anyway we are just going to have to wait & see how it all works out.

Prayer evening

This is what happened about the prayer evening.
Back in April we organised a 'Pudding & Prayer Evening'. This was generally considered to be very successful, well attended, people both had a good time & did some praying. People were saying we should do another one. Settled on a date - October 15th. Advertised it well in advance. Wrote article in church magazine about it. Hardly anyone signed up. I decided to cancel it. Last Sunday had sermon on prayer. At end after quickly whispering to me someone stood up & said we shouldn't be cancelling prayer evening & we would hold a meeting on Friday without any of the pudding or displays or anything. After the service someone came up & said we didn't need displays we just needed prayer meetings & I should organise one a month. Someone else came up & said if we didn't have puddings & displays she wasn't coming. Ok. I went home & planned what we would do - meet in classroom, have maybe a couple of displays, try to stick to original agenda to some extent. Meanwhile without telling me person who had stood up in church sent out email saying it would be in the church & we could pray about anything & she & I would pray with people if they wanted. Arranged to meet her half an hour before meeting. Got there 15 mins late, she was even later & she had key. Struggled to get cd player working & candles lit. About 18-20 people turned up & it went very well & we prayed with several people. Said prayer to finish it then someone stood up & said cos it was in the church he hadn't been able to hear what we were saying & wouldn't it be better to have held it in the classroom? Person who was helping arrange it had to rush off to dinner engagement. Someone said we should do it every week. By then felt exhausted. To my surprise everyone then went leaving Becky & me to switch off lights & shut doors. As Becky couldn't work out how to switch off heating this meant I had to walk back round the church which really was too much for my feet. We then realised that side door had been opened with key in such a way we couldn't shut it so had to summon person back from her dinner to lock it.
Woke up this morning feeling it was really, really good that we had been able to meet together but annoyed that I'd been left to switch everything off & annoyed too that all those people hadn't signed up for original evening.

Somehow all this has made me feel a bit stressed.

My week

This is a summary of my week:

Sunday - complicated situation at church, got beaten by J at Monopoly again

Monday - did washing then sat sorting out paperwork all morning while cleaner came. Had quite difficult conversation in which she said she likes working with me but she feels very anxious because she feels P doesn't like her moving his stuff & she feels all she does is move stuff from one place to another & isn't really getting the place tidy & she hasn't enough to do. The first two facts are undeniably true, not so sure about the second as if she hasn't got enough to do I'd have thought she'd have cleaned underneath the bathroom taps. I'm really sorry she's feeling bad & I really don't want to lose her. The trouble is she sometimes has this tendency to throw things away which we consider useful & to pile things in the loft so they squash other more delicate things. In fact we do go through the rubbish after she's gone. But I really, really don't want to lose her.
J feeling so ill went straight to bed after school.

Tuesday - felt really rough, lot of pain, got email to say someone at church in hospital, had to make a couple of calls to let someone know, felt better later, managed to cook dinner

Weds - took Mavis to coffee morning where was harangued by an elderly lady over the fact that we had the 'wrong' tune to the Harvest Hymn. Like it's my fault??? Did Becky's washing. Picked up J from chess club & drove in to pick up P & take J to piano lesson

Thurs -am tidied work-top, pm verbally attacked by Jehovah's Witnesses

Fri - tidied, went to doctors for injection & also took Mavis for appointment, she has host of medical problems. Wrote them out as a list for doctor. Worried that some of them may be serious. She's also suffering from depression. Taking her back again next week. Went with P to look at furniture & buy some DIY stuff. Picked up J from half way bus-stop. As soon as got home got into an hour-long phone conversation with someone who used to come to our church who is very unhappy about present situation. At same time made some flapjacks for coffee morning next day. Accidentally put in too much butter. Quickly ate dinner. Went to prayer meeting in evening.

I just sort of feel I seem to be responding to everyone else's needs & demands at the moment. I need some fun.

Technology

I've just picked what's probably the last of the blackberries to put in the freezer. We've just got a new fridge-freezer which is really nice. Our previous one had a freezer which was really too small with flap down drawers. Everything was crammed in so when I opened it it all came tumbling out & I had a struggle to get it back in. This one has drawers you can lift out (& even get back in again) so is much more civilised. The only problem was that although it should have fitted in the gap left by the other one it didn't. Poor P went through a painful process of pushing & shoving similar to childbirth in reverse before resorting to moving the electric socket & shaving a bit off the wall.
It was worth the effort cos it's lovely.

What P is now working on is the heat recovery system. This is a ventilation system which takes the heat out of the air & pumps it back in with clean air. This will mean we won't have to open the windows so the house should be warmer. In theory.

Picking blackberries

Blackberries & cake

The cake, I can testify, does taste a bit sickly.

Today I feel not all that well which is possibly partly due to having had a tetanus/polio/diphtheria jab yesterday. This was because when I was blackberrying recently a bramble tore into my leg & I suddenly thought 'When did I last have a tetanus booster? 1985!!!'

I've picked a lot of blackberries this year, we've had an enormous crop. I've made several crumbles & a couple of blackberry puddings, which is like a sweet batter on top of blackberries baked in the oven & yummy. I think I've got a video of our blackberries somewhere.

Serious about losing weight?

Today P & I started a weight loss contest. Every Saturday we will have a weigh in & plot the results on a graph. This was my suggestion as P is insisting he's losing weight but if he's really losing as much as he says he is he'd be invisible by now. This morning I discovered he weighs a whole 4 stone more than me.
Later this morning we went off to a fund-raising coffee morning in the village. This is what P bought:

This, in case you're wondering is a chocolate cake shaped like a hat with white icing as the brim.

Jehovah's Witnesses!

I'm sitting here shaking & my heart's beating fast. Why? Because I've just had the Jehovah's Witnesses round & one of them just lost it. It was cos I was asking why the Watchtower had predicted the world would end in 1925 & it didn't so how could they be the one true channel for God's light if they made false prophecies & she started shouting at me. She did apologise but they're only coming back if I phone her. I'm not sure I will phone her. They're taking up so much of my time & while she's obviously a bit rattled I'm not sure I'm getting anywhere. Just have to pray about it.

Not so sunny

Where's the sunshine gone? Today I feel cold.

Have been watching some of the miners coming out, it's so moving.

J woke me up ridiculously early this morning as he had to hand in some homework before school as he should have handed it in yesterday but forgot & if he didn't get it in on time he'd get a bad half term report. I thought with us leaving early there wouldn't be any traffic but it was just as bad.

Yesterday he had a French assessment for which they had written a passage then memorised it then had to stand in front of the class & say it. J said he was shaking beforehand but some of them were crying & one boy just couldn't manage it. The French teacher this year is pretty scary apparently. She is however raising the standard of their work considerably. This morning I asked 'Don't you have a German assessment this half term?' 'Oh, yes it's today, I'd forgotten.' Quick last minute revision in the car. German teacher obviously not nearly so scary.

There are some people in the village who leave out their windfall apples in a box for people to take. This morning there were some quinces in the box. I took some & am wondering what to do with them. My mum used to make quince jelly, should I try that? Or pickled quince? Or poached quince?

Part of the reason I am getting more into cooking is because I have now got a cleaner so the kitchen is a lot more clean, tidy & organised which makes the whole cooking scene a lot easier. Plus I can just bung everything in the dishwasher afterwards. There are however some stressful aspects about having a cleaner. I'll talk about that another time. Right now I've got to get Becky's washing out of my machine (her's has broken down) & pop a pizza in the oven.

Lovely sunny weather

We're having such nice weather at the moment. Just like summer all over again.

Both P & J have bad colds. J felt really rough this morning but went into school as he has set his sights on getting an attendance prize at the end of the year. All the lying on my bed groaning that he felt ill this morning meant we left late when we really needed to leave early as he had to put his cookery ingredients into the fridge on the way to form. Despite a bad traffic jam he got in just on time & came home proudly carrying a tray of tuna vegetable bake. This he ate himself tonight while we ate chicken tikka marsala cooked by me for a change! Well with the aid of a jar of curry sauce. I think I did pretty well though & it gave P an evening off.

P also has kept going to work despite being unwell as there's too much going on to miss he says. He's working different hours now - he does 4 long days & then has a day off. This means he's getting a bit more time to work on the house. As a result we now have a little porch so you can ring our doorbell without getting soaking wet if it's raining.

I'm going to have to stop cos I'm tired - too much cooking!

I'm back!

I'm back in the blogosphere!

I just hope some of you come back & read this again.

I am writing this on our new little ex-display, nice & cheap & also nice & light laptop. This is because our other computer has been diagnosed as having the NVIDIA DEFECT. The Nvidia defect is very, very bad. It means that when your computer was manufactured a faulty chip was put into it & at a certain stage in its life it will overheat & stop working. Permanently. Ours has been temporarily patched together with a blob of solder but it is inevitably going to fail & then that's it. Apparently they already knew this chip was faulty before we bought our computer so we are looking into trying to get our money back.

Anyway I hope you're all well.

I'm not going to write much tonight as had long, tiring & rather stressful day. I'm mulling over a couple of situations & wondering how to handle them.

Will write a bit more tomorrow

Computer problems

At the end of August we went to Malta on holiday! Very interesting but very, very hot! We got home, loaded all 600 photos & videos onto computer & then computer stopped working. It's been sent off for repairs, they think they can fix it but it has major fault going back to when it was manufactured & they can't guarantee how long it will be before it completely gives up the ghost.

Sigh.

Virus

This is just a quick post to say I am still alive. We got a really nasty computer virus which has taken ages to sort out & I thought we were going to lose all our photos which I hadn't backed up. PC World managed to fix it (don't worry we're not infectious!) but P is having to load our programs back on one by one & having to hunt for some of the discs he needs. They recommended we changed to Windows 7 rather than Vista & it has been a lot quicker since we did but everything's sort of different & every so often we find something that still doesn't work properly.

We had AVG free anti-virus but obviously it wasn't up to this particular Trojan. We've now bought Norton 60, hopefully that will be better.

All this has cost us quite a lot of money, not to mention time & stress.

We were also away the week before last - at Faith Camp again, had just awesome time. I think I say that every year but this time was even more awesome.

There has just been loads going on, will try & write more tomorrow.

A hot Monday

Today has been sooo hot. Too hot to sit outside. It has been one of those days when I got to school picking up time & thought 'What have I actually done today? I've not been doing nothing but there's nothing to show for what I've been doing.'

J's friend Tim is staying with us tonight, I think he & J have just about stopped talking & annoying P who likes to get to sleep early. Earlier the four of us went out for a meal to an Italian restaurant where P & I both had vegetable risotto which sounds boring but is delicious. Having the same as P avoided my usual problem of liking what he gets more than what I get. When it came to dessert though he ordered amaretto ice-cream which I tasted & decided was much nicer than my coconut. He did give me some, well in return for a spoonful of my mango sorbet (you get 2 scoops of ice cream so I chose 2 different flavours). J had chicken & bacon tagliatelle in white wine sauce followed by lemon sorbet & ice cream. Tim had burger & chips then chocolate fudge cake - obviously on a healthy eating programme.

Shortly after we got home the phone rang - J's piano teacher to say J had passed exam. Yippee! The really strange thing though is that his best piece is the one for which he got the lowest marks & he got a good mark for the singing test which we'd all written off as a no-hoper. Strange things exams.

Wales

Another view of Wales.

Update

Sorry I haven't blogged for a while, life has been hectic beyond belief. Here's bit of an update:

• J & I worked incredibly hard for his piano exam, he felt it went well but we'll have to wait & see.
• Zoomed up to see my brother last weekend as he was having a 'surprise' birthday party although I don't think it was much of a surprise in the end. I made a little book with photos & stories from his younger days which took me far longer than I expected & ended up as a mad rush but everyone seemed to like it. P made cake which also ended up as a mad rush - he was icing it just before party started. Had good journeys both ways, after briefly visiting friends on the way (sorry it was so brief) stayed in Wolverhampton Travelodge which was ok except it's really tricky to find the car park. Got there just half an hour before restaurant closed so managed to get dinner which we'd prebooked. They did a buffet for breakfast which was nice, J ate an awful lot - tried a bit of nearly everything.
• My Dad is doing ok, still having to take it really easy though. My uncle says he's beginning to feel he's turned the corner too. We still miss P's Dad, still trying to adjust to him not being there really.
• J has had what seemed like endless series of tests & assessments, preparation for all of which has been a mad last minute rush. He & his partner had to make a breakfast for food tech assessment so that morning I taught him how to make scrambled egg:

'Do you know how to break an egg?' I asked.
'Yes, I did it at Louise's house when Adam & I were helping make cakes.'
Splat! Egg over worktop, running down fridge door onto floor.
'That happened at Louise's house too.'

Thankfully J's partner was an egg breaking expert while J turned out to be the scrambled egg stirring star so they got full marks. J has also developed a taste for smoked salmon - expensive!

• Weather here is wild! Electricity was off all day yesterday & wind blown over runner beans.
• J's prize-giving evening went well, local dignitary handed out prizes. He says he's aiming for an attendance prize next year!
  
• There are some big changes happening at church, bit of a shock can't get my head round it yet, will blog more about it later.
  

Got to go

I really need to stop now & get on with something, I've got letters to write, two houses to sort out, a prayer bulletin to write, washing to hang out & then Andy Murray to watch. Can he do it? Hmmm not sure...

Video

This one is us going swimming, not a very good video & J interrupting to say 'here's your chair Mum,' but I've managed to post it.

Rhododendron

Wow it worked, I just put a video on my blog. This was a few weeks ago when our rhododendron was in bloom & the birds were singing.

Has this video worked?

A good morning

I think I did so well this morning. I got up early & did some more piano with J which went well (but we have yet to hit the dreaded middle section with the trill in Minuetto).

I was resolved to stay calm & when J still hadn't packed his books after I'd asked him 5 times I went over, looked him in the eye & calmly & clearly said:

'I have asked you several times to pack your books & I would really like you to do it now.'

And he did!

My friend who's a teacher says the key is to keep your voice low, if it gets shrill children pick up that you're losing it & play up.

We set off for school nice & early, missed bad traffic, dropped ironing off on way & got him to school 15 minutes before assembly. Wow! If only I could do this every day.

Some really good news is that J has won an award at school! For 'exceptional effort'! We are going to a prize-giving evening to see him get it. He has worked hard at school, I think he deserves it.

Will J ever get his timing right?

J's piano exam is next week & last night in his lesson his playing was just all over the place & his behaviour wasn't much better. He couldn't seem to pick up on the fact that his teacher & I were nearly tearing our hair out. His teacher is incredibly patient, if I was him I'd have been screaming. After J had gone out of the room we had a little talk in which I mentioned possibility that J might fail.

Teacher looked very serious: 'I've never had a failure before. I don't want a failure Liz.'

Ok that's all very well, he doesn't want to upset his perfect record but he's the one who has got J to this point & has probably put him in for his exam before he's ready.

Anyway J & I agreed we will really go for it this week & work really hard.

I need a dongle

I am just so frustrated with our internet connection. P says what we need is a dongle. I don't know what a dongle is but if that's what we need let's hurry up & get one. Even now I've got an 'Error'sign coming up so I don't know if this will publish or not.

Hot Sunday

There are just no words to describe our football team's performance. I'm just not going to say any more. After watching this event I'm not mentioning J & I went swimming & there were loads of people at the pool. It was like the beach. I wanted to go in to try out my new swimsuit but I waited until nearly everyone had gone because I was feeling fat, I don't know why really because I don't think anyone else was what you'd call super slim. Anyway it was quite nice in the water but I did wish I'd gone in earlier so I could have sat in the sun drying out a bit longer.

J was so funny walking round in his flippers, a bit like an elongated penguin.

Today has been really hot but in the heat our house really comes into it's own - it's so cool.

I feel in a bit of a fed up mood today, I don't know why really, I have such a lot to be thankful for.

Food for thought

On Sunday at church the Sunday School children had made amazing pictures from food. P had a bit of a problem with it as he doesn't like food used for art when there are people starving in the world. It's a tricky one. The teacher said we could take it home & eat it but we didn't fancy it really, not after it had been through those little fingers.

Come on England!

Talking of football I saw this house the other day!

Tennis

Most of today I've spent watching tennis because a) I like Wimbledon & b) I've done a lot of tidying over the last couple of days & I need a rest. I sat with my feet in cold water for a couple of hours to stop them throbbing.

Talking of Wimbledon didn't the Queen look nice yesterday.

P & J are having a bit of a hard time at the moment as neither of them likes watching either the tennis or the World Cup whereas I do. J has stated that I shouldn't be allowed to watch both but I've basically said 'Tough'. There isn't much else on anyway.

Trouble reversing

I realised last night that a lot of my trouble with reversing up our drive is that the plants along the fence have become overgrown.

'That shouldn't be a problem as long as you stay parallel with the fence' said P in a rather superior tone.

Then he got caught up in the brambles & hit the wing mirror against the fence.

Joy!

Yuk

I was putting something in J's bag this morning & noticed the front compartment smelt like something had died in it. On investigation I found what I think was once a muesli bar & 2 sandwich bags containing lumps of green mould.

Young boys are just a different species.

Don't tell Dad

I just tried to put a nice picture in here but the internet was too slow to let me do it. Never mind.

Here are some updates:

• Dad doing well although has been told to take it very easy
• My brother's hand doing well, he says it's more painful as it gets better due to nerves growing back. Scar looks like a tiger scratched him!
• Minister's mum doing well, was at church on Sunday though quite pale & thin
• Organising youth event has been seriously stressful! Why can't they give in their forms on time?!!
• I have got an (almost) all terrain new outdoor scooter. I call it Monster Mean Machine. It has seriously improved my quality of life. I can even get to the compost tip by myself now. Bliss!!
  
• In the last week I have reversed our car into Dorothy's car, reversed Monster Mean Machine into our car's wing mirror, reversed the car into Monster Mean Machine's shed & reversed the car into the rubbish bin. What is wrong with me?
• I have discovered that telling J not to tell Dad what I've hit with the car doesn't work.
  

Tiscali you could do better

Notice anything different about my blog?!!

Just trying to liven it up a bit which isn't helped at all by the fact I keep losing internet connection. Tiscali you're not up to scratch!

I'm back

Hello I'm back. I've been with my brother to visit our extended family following our aunt's death. This was quite a long journey & was preceded by complete organisational chaos on our parts. I'm too embarrassed to go into the details of how badly we planned this trip. Anyway we arrived to find our uncle (as in our aunt's brother) in hospital so we spent most of the time there visiting him & didn't see much of the lovely weather or beautiful countryside. It was really good to spend time with him though, I hadn't seen him for years & he is a real character with a wicked sense of humour. He is diabetic & has a foot infection which has sent his sugar levels crazy but he is slowly improving so should be home soon. My mum's cousin & her niece came & met up with us at the hospital & we were having a great time laughing & joking & taking photos. I suddenly thought 'This is a hospital & here we are practically having a party!' We managed to get past the security men as I was in the wheelchair so they thought I was a patient so we didn't worry about visiting times!

The really, really good thing that happened was we met up with our first cousin. When we were young we saw her & her brother every year & were really close. Then there was this awful family falling out & we were on either side of the divide even though my brother & I weren't personally involved in it all. The result of this was I hadn't seen her for 24 years. Anyway my mum's cousin gave me her mobile number & I thought I would text & ask if she wanted to meet up. She replied & said she would love to & we met up in a bar. I felt really nervous after all that had happened but it was great. We all just got on really well, like the intervening years had never happened & talked & talked late into the night & went back to her house for sandwiches. I just feel that after having been robbed of my cousin for all those years I've got her back & we're determined to stay in touch. All three of us also seem to be determined not to carry on with the silly feuding & fighting that has been so much part of our family for years & years.

Sadly her brother is very ill with schizophrenia but won't take his medication & is so disturbed at the moment that she can't see him because he becomes very aggressive towards her.

Really my family is the most precious thing I have.

Comfort

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (NIV)

I just used this as the verse on the front of the church prayer bulletin. There is so much trouble in so many lives at the moment it just seemed appropriate.

Oxford

My Dad is doing really well. He's back home & walking a bit more each day. Our minister's mum is slowly improving as well. Also my brother had good news from the hospital re his hand which is doing well & he can now drive again.

We are gradually getting back into normal life. Yesterday we went on a trip to Oxford but spent a lot of time in traffic jams. We had a good time when we were there & also went to see the White Horse at Uffington (this is a chalk white horse carved into a hill side) & then had a really nice meal in a pub in the village. The best chips ever! More roadworks & traffic jams on the way home, got home very late.

Lots of Oxford we didn't get to see, think we need to actually stay there so we can have a proper look round.

Both yesterday & today very hot. Will write more about it all tomorrow.

Cumbria

What happened in Cumbria is just so awful. My friend Naomi was actually there! She is planning to move up there & had gone to look at houses. She sheltered in a shop & could hear gun shots outside. Terrifying. I just feel so sorry for everyone who has lost someone or who has been injured.

Monday

Saw my Dad on Saturday, he's doing very well. two of his vertebrae had collapsed, the nurses say they think the surgeon actually removed them which seems a bit drastic. He just phoned to say he's walked about two hundred yards & apart from some pain is doing fine.

Have been trying to sort out P's Dad's house a bit, at least get rid of any open food packets in cupboards. A lot of stuff in bedroom was P's mum's stuff which had never been sorted out.

Got message last night to say our minister's mum very ill with kidney failure, so busy praying for her.

Good news

Dad's operation went well. Going to see him tomorrow. Really tired.

Yet more bad news

Today was P's Dad's funeral. The service went well & P gave a very good talk but poor J cried all the way through which was sad. Seeing him upset made me upset so I cried all the way though as well. P's brother & his wife & her son came, plus P's cousins, one of his Dad's carers, some of our neighbours & a couple of people from church. Also Becky & Louise & Steve came to support us which was really nice of them & then after school brought Tim & Adam to be with J.

The pub had done a really nice buffet for us & the sun was shining through the window. I was sitting talking to my sister in law when my mobile rang. It was my brother. My Dad was admitted to hospital for tests two days ago because he's been having trouble walking. His wife had just called my brother to say he needs emergency surgery on his spine & if he doesn't have it he could be paralysed. Apparently the bones are crumbling & pressing on the spinal cord. He needed to be transferred to another hospital, they were seeing where they could find a bed for him.

We're just waiting for news.

Sunday

Still waiting to find out more about what happened to my aunt. This morning I phoned P's aunt with details of his Dad's funeral & she sounded terrible - really short of breath! She said she was having a funny turn & waiting for doctor to arrive.

Yesterday at church sat behind family with new twins + toddler. All gorgeous but there wasn't a second when one of them wasn't needing attention. Little girl kept taking dummies from twins' mouths so hard to get them to settle to sleep. I managed to cuddle a twin for a while. Naomi who was sitting next to me suddenly started dabbing her eyes & went out. During hymn I went out to see if she was ok & bumped into Linda who was doing the same but we found someone else was already with her. She said the babies brought back painful memories, she's had quite a traumatic past.

Then had long conversation with retired GP about Mavis. I went with Mavis to the doctors last week to get result of MRI on her back. This was the same doctor who so sensitively (not!) told me about the osteoporosis. Anyway he just read out this great long report in very complicated medical language & was oblivious to the fact she didn't understand a word of it. Even though he tried to tell her it was basically ok & she didn't need surgery she was still upset & confused but retired GP managed to put her mind at rest. I was talking to her about this particular doctor & she was very critical of him - thinks he doesn't work hard enough & doesn't really care about patients. I'm not sure he totally doesn't care, I think he just doesn't understand what it's like to be a patient, partly because he is so fit & healthy. Other doctor (who's my hero cos he came out so quickly when J had swine flu) is better really although some people find him a bit over zealous & he tends to do lots of tests.

After church we went to pub for lunch with Louise & some friends of hers. We sat outside where I was quite nervous of caterpillars descending on strings from oak trees. I just don't like caterpillars in my hair. Had lovely lunch anyway - smoked haddock, same as I had last time I was there. They have painted wooden spoons with the table numbers on them & several years ago to my horror while waiting for his order P drew a picture of J on one of them. Guess what was on our wooden spoon yesterday - J's picture!

I'm feeling very frustrated today as there is so much I want to do, I've got so many plans for house & garden etc & I haven't got the strength.

More bad news

Obviously over the last few days we've been busy arranging the funeral etc It's going to be a simple service at the crematorium as he wasn't a church goer & that's what he wanted. Afterwards we'll go to the pub near our house.

Today we went to pick up some of our furniture from storage as the friend whose farm it's stored at is moving. There are now cupboards, shelves & boxes of ornaments everywhere & there's still another trailer load to collect. It's quite strange, it's like we moved house packed up our stuff then unpacked it 8 years later. I suppose that is literally what we did. Some stuff we'd just forgotten we'd got. And some stuff we wonder why on earth we've got.

Rather to my consternation & P's delight his thousands of model aeroplane magazines have survived intact. We are having something of an ongoing debate about the necessity of keeping them.

We picked up J & I took him to town for a hair cut & to buy the ipod touch he's been saving up for (the £31 he got for putting his hand up helped a lot).

Shortly after I got home the phone rang & P answered it - it was my uncle. He was saying something about someone having died & P assumed he'd found about his Dad. But no, it was my aunt - she was found dead this morning! I just can't take it in, two deaths in a week. It just seems unreal.

P's Dad

At about quarter to one this morning P's Dad died. He had been transferred to the main hospital unconscious with a severe chest infection but had improved a lot & was talking to us when we visited at lunch time. In the evening P went in & he seemed almost back to his old self & complaining he was bored because he didn't have a book. In the middle of the night we got a call to say he'd suddenly deteriorated. P went straight in but he'd gone before he got there. Apparently he was talking to a nurse, said 'I don't feel well' & just slipped away.

It's been quite a shock & we're really going to miss him but it's a comfort that it was so peaceful at the end.

I think I just have to go & have a cry.

Garden

P has been working hard clearing the area in front of our house. This has been a lot easier with the new strimmer he got with the insurance money - thanks burglars. Anyway it's beginning to look quite nice, like a real garden. There's a sheet of wood (where one day the decking will be) where I can sit on my recliner in the sun (er what sun?) & I've arranged the pansies (which are still blooming) around it. And he's mown the grass so it's almost like a lawn. And the rhododendron is just coming into bloom. I was out there having a nice relax this afternoon then it started raining. Never mind.
Did I say I've also got a rotary airer now? Bliss.

Sunday

Today was Church Anniversary Sunday at church so we had a visiting preacher who was very good. I was sitting in front of the couple whose nephew killed himself. Turns out he went to live with them after his parents divorced when he was 8 so he was like a son to them. I just kept muttering 'It must be so hard for you.' What else is there to say?

CRE

Today P & I went to the Christian Resource Exhibition at Sandown Park Racecourse. Had good journey both ways & a quite tiring but enjoyable day. This year I had my scooter, Scootie, which was a lot better than P pushing me around. It meant I didn't have to hang around being bored while he chatted about sound systems & he didn't have to hang around bored while I looked at books. P does like books, it's just after about 15 minutes of looking around a bookshop he's had enough while I could do it all day.

So we've returned home with 4 carrier bags of stuff - books (mainly for the church library), leaflets, magazines, candles, free pens & notepads, cards, a video, an interactive digital Bible, two necklaces, a puzzle & keyring for J, etc etc

I think my decluttering campaign has just suffered a setback.

A good day though.

Slate mine

Just for a change of scene some pictures of an old slate mine from our time in Wales.

Bribery & corruption

My brother's hand is doing well, he is getting more flexibility in it he says. Tim's arm is also doing well & P's Dad is making good progress.

I have been having an email conversation with J's German teacher about how he hardly ever puts his hand up to answer questions in class. I know he is also the same in most of his other lessons. In a rash moment yesterday I said I would pay him a pound for each time he put his hand up. I thought perhaps he would manage it once or twice a week.

Today he came home & said I owed him £31.

I have just received this email from his German teacher:

Just to let you know J did amazingly well in his German class today and put his hand up several times and gave good answers. I even gave him a school point for this.

I am hoping that with a little encouragement, he will continue to push himself. I was very pleased with him today!

She must never know.

And now J has shown what he's capable of he can jolly well keep it up!

Update

It's really cold here today, like winter's here all over again.

My brother should be having an operation today to repair nerve damage & see if there's any other problems & what further treatment he may need. He said that yesterday he was beginning to get some feeling back in his hand which is good. Doctors seem confident they can sort it all out. It's amazing what they can do now with microsurgery.

Tim had surgery on his arm as they couldn't manipulate the bones together so they had to pin them. Apparently he screamed nearly the whole time in casualty - they got seen pretty quickly. I took J round to see him yesterday, he's a bit miserable as he's still in pain but not too bad.

Had to lead house group this morning, talking about baptism. It was really hard though with three very young children there who are lovely but kept yelling, couldn't really create atmosphere in which people could share & somebody led discussion completely off track anyway.

I don't know if I've said J is having a tutor (who's a friend of ours) to help with French & German speaking. He's really gaining in confidence. He's also doing some mandarin lessons at school! Some new Government thing about improving relations with China. How am I supposed to cope with a child who can speak Chinese?

Sad news

Something else really, really sad happened today. There is a woman at church about my age who often asks us to pray for her cousin who was paralysed from the neck down after a diving accident at 21. Her parents also come to church so he's her mum's nephew as well & his mum has been to church a few times. He has had a lot of health problems recently including bad neck pain & pressure sores & has spent a lot of time in hospital.

We just had an email from our minister to say it must have all got too much for him as he has taken his own life.

I just can't even begin to imagine how his family must be feeling.

Sunday

Such a lot has happened today & some of it is so upsetting. We woke up late because P who is the one who wakes up early has J's cold & is really not well. He didn't feel up to going to church so I quickly got ready & picked up Adam & Mavis. There was a baptism service which was really moving.

Afterwards I was quite busy trying to sort out youth activity forms & talking to various people. Then Mavis got upset because she said she was sitting on her own & everyone was ignoring her & no-one cares about her. Linda & I were trying to comfort her while at the same time I was trying to ask the church treasurer if it was ok to pay for all the helpers to go on youth activity. I think I've overdone the 'we can't run this event without adult help' bit because we've now got too many helpers!

After lunch J & Adam went to meet up with Tim & some others in the woods near the village. In the woods there's a rope swing & while Tim was on it he somehow fell off & J said he was lying on the ground screaming in pain & crying out to God not to let him die. Thankfully Adam had his mobile & Becky got there really quickly. She has texted me from the hospital to say he's broken both bones in his forearm. Could have been a lot worse, I suppose.

Meanwhile in Wales my brother was cutting a bit of wood with his bow saw without his gloves as he couldn't find them & he was 'only going to cut one branch'. The saw kicked back & ripped though his hand. Thankfully it seems to have missed the tendons but there is some nerve damage & he is going to a bigger hospital tomorrow as he probably needs plastic surgery as there is virtually no skin left on the back of his hand.

Today

P off today so he took J to school. This afternoon we went to see P's dad in hospital, this is a hospital he hasn't been in before. He was in a wheelchair in the day room which was a large sunny room with a nice view. He just looked so happy in there, sitting with the other men. They think his painful leg is due to muscle spasm & he's to have physio. At the moment he still can't walk on it. In himself he is very alert & cheerful though.
This evening we went to Pizza Express with J, Tim & Adam We had these vouchers where you got a pizza for £1 with every main meal. I had vowed to have a salad then frozen yoghurt. I actually had pesto pollo (chicken & pasta in creamy sauce) & tiramisu. At least, unlike the others, I resisted the dough balls. The 3 boys all had margheritas & chocolate glorys. P had canneloni & frozen yoghurt.
I must stop writing about food all the time.

Election night

Last night I went out to a local pub to celebrate birthdays of 2 people at church. Had good time although live music was a bit loud at times so a bit hard to hear what people saying. But generally a good time (& there were free bowls of chips). When I got home I grabbed a pillow & some throws, got a hot drink & a bowl of cereal & settled down to stay up all night to watch the election results. P thinks this behaviour is completely insane but I grew up with very politically active parents & my Dad used to stand as a Liberal candidate & my brother & I used to address envelopes & deliver leaflets & sit outside polling stations writing down lists of numbers & be rent-a-crowd for pictures in the local paper & all sorts of things. Anyway I've always stayed up to watch the results. But last night was just so dismal. I don't know if you stayed up too & thought the same but because the TV presenters were desperately trying to find trends in the early results where there weren't any & because they had to talk about something they were just talking a load of rubbish. So I fell asleep. At 5 am I was woken by J saying 'What a waste of electricity!' & turning off the TV.
There's just such a strange atmosphere after this election, it's like everyone's a loser & no-one quite knows where they are & I just had to feel really sorry for Nick Clegg, he just looked so tired & so devastated. But anyway looks like he & David Cameron are going to get together & perhaps they can turn things around.

Update

This morning got off to a bit of a stressful start - think J with a cold, me tired, have to drop off P at station for conference in London so can't take short cut to school and ... 5 minutes after we should have left discover J needs apple crumble ingredients for food technology lesson. Right.

To quickly update last week:

• J had brilliant time at activity weekend. On way to pick him up got message that coach stuck on motorway. Went home. Half an hour later got message that they would be at school in 20 minutes. The thing is they have this 'phone tree' which is a list of parents who phone each other. The problem was we were tenth on the list so by the time we got the call they were probably already at school & whereas most of the other parents live round the corner we live about 20-30 minutes drive away. This meant that when we arrived car park was empty save for J & 4 shivering teachers.

• I've got a washing line (as in rotary airer) ! Haven't had my own line for 8 years. Just feels so good.

• I can't remember if I said P's dad was home but yesterday he got a pain in his leg & couldn't move it so I had to call an ambulance & he's back in hospital.

• J got another cold & lost his voice.

• I'm not sure how to vote! I think I'm going to have to vote for a candidate I don't like in order to get in a party I don't like in order to stop the others who are even worse.

• If J laughs once more at my lack of computer skills while looking over my shoulder he'll be sorry. Get on with eating your apple crumble & custard!
  

School trip

J went off on a school trip today - an adventure weekend. I couldn't wait in the hall like the other parents but I waited in the car park. J came walking past acting like he'd never seen me before in his life then I drove out right past the coach as he was loading his luggage in the side & he still ignored me. I contemplated winding down the window & shouting 'Bye, Mummy's little boy! Make sure you wash behind your ears!' but I thought perhaps not.

He looked happy anyway, chatting away to his friend.

Not so sure about the weather though.

Lunch

This was our lunch out I was telling you about, it's from P's side so his wild boar sausages are in the foreground & my smoked haddock the other side of the table.

Household tip

Here is a household tip. If you are doing some handwashing before you shake the bottle check the lid is screwed on. Otherwise you can get washing liquid shooting up your wall. And dribbling down and making a pink splodge on the floor before you can stop it.

Aaaaaarrrgh!!!!!

Sorry

Sorry, I haven't blogged for ages. This is because I have been busy with organising the Pudding & Prayer Evening & then tired recovering from the P & P Evening then busy trying to catch up on the housework which I hadn't done cos I was organising the P & P evening then tired cos I was recovering from the housework...

Anyway apart from two holes in tablecloths & one singed prayer bulletin (were those candles really a good idea?) the Pudding & Prayer Evening went really well. P & I spent a lot of time setting up the hall with our prayer stations. We had a slight disagreement as I had planned to have a sand tray in which people could write the word SIN & then smooth it out so it's completely gone in the same way our sin is gone when God forgives us. He'd brought along builders sand which had been sitting in a heap outside for years. I mean how many cats had used that for a toilet? No problem said he. Big problem said I (sometimes I don't understand my husband). Anyway we ended up driving to the hardware shop to get a bag of play sand.

We also went to a country pub for lunch which was brilliant - £10 for a super two course lunch - salmon cakes with aoli & smoked haddock in yummy sauce with asparagus & other fresh veg. I'm going to go there again definitely.

Anyway a lot of people turned up & we all had some delicious puddings. I had planned this introduction where I talked a bit & then played a CD - 'History Maker' by Delirious. I got really nervous just before doing it & contemplated just leaving & never coming back but once I started talking I was fine. Then everyone really joined in the prayer activities & loads of people said they really enjoyed it which was good.

Now I'm in the middle of organising the youth activity day which I organised last year. P's not going this time a J is now in the older group which camps there for the week-end.