Concert

Spent most of yesterday asleep but in evening went to concert at J's school in which he was playing the steel pans. Very good evening. Some excellent performances.

Today feeling quite a lot better though throat still sore. Did quite a lot of washing as has been getting out of hand. J finished school at 1.30 as end of term. Came out with an award certificate for graphics and art.

Went into town to pick up P. Got J a Subway and gave him some money towards a new wii game, wasn't prepared to pay for it all as so expensive. Town horrendously busy.

New phone and not well

Yesterday I got a new mobile phone. This is because we'd upgraded so I wouldn't keep going over my text limit and they said they would send a better phone. P spent all yesterday evening transferring data onto it but this didn't seem to include my contact list. Horrible feeling will have to do them by hand.

Last night started getting a sore throat. Then in bed just felt really cold, even with a pile of blankets on top of me. Woke up this morning feeling quite rough: sore throat, aching joints and still shivery. Hope it's soon gone. Apparently there's a lot of it about.

Mavis

I think I said it was Mavis's 70th birthday on Saturday. I did quite a lot of getting other people to make/organise cake etc for her - at coffee morning last week, at church on Sunday and there was still leftover cake at coffee morning yesterday. She gave me a lovely thank you card saying she knew I was behind it all and she really appreciates all we do for her and she's sorry she's a bit much sometimes. Almost felt like crying.

On Friday something awful happened to her. Three men came into her house (she hadn't locked her doors) and said they'd trimmed her trees, which she hadn't asked them to do and wasnted £300. They became quite threatening and she phoned police at which point they went, taking a £20 note with tehm. How horrible. She's remarkably calm considering.
 

Dog tired

I'm sorry if you've got a yappy little dog and you love it but in general I don't like yappy little dogs. In general J doesn't like dogs at all. This all proved to be a bit of a problem on Saturday when we went to  visit both a friend of P's and my Dad in Norfolk.

It was a lovely sunny day and we had a pleasant journey there. P's friend is a farmer who doesn't do much hands on stuff any more but contracts it out as he's getting on a bit. He's built a new house which downstairs just has a basic living room cum office and a utility room and toilet and shower. Upstairs is an open plan kitchen diner and living room with a bedroom and lovely bathroom leading off. It had glass all round and was absolutely beautiful with views across the fields and the sun streaming in.

He has this little Jack Russell which is getting old and has calmed down a lot but did the usual yapping thing when we got there. It jumped up on my lap and I patted it a bit which it liked and I managed to stop it licking my face (Yuk!). Then it took an interest in J and decided to lick his face. He resisted this and backed away and ended up lying on the sofa with the dog on top of him so I started pulling it away and it turned and tried to bite me. Nice. J transferred to a dining chair where he was safer. We had a nice cup of tea. Then I noticed what the dog had done on the floor. Seriously yuk!

Apart from the doggy business we had a very nice time then went on to my Dad's. He and his wife have 3 King Charles spaniels which are very cute but when we got there they all yapped at full volume. They were given some chewy bones which quietened them down but the filling in these bones was tripe and we ate our dinner with the delighful aroma of doggy tripe being chewed.

It was very nice to see my Dad who is getting quite frail which is a bit scary really. 

Quite a long day though so quite tired at the end of it all.

Nice walk

Pictures of us on our recent walk. This was just before P got distracted and I ended up in the mud.

Chatted up in the bird feed aisle

Picked up P from work today and went shopping briefly. Had to take some jeans back because they were a bit small, must be making them smaller these days. Bought a load of bird food which cost £14! Hopefully this will last some time but it was making me think - that could keep someone's starving child alive. The real issue here is that the bird food producers are absolutely ripping us off.

Anyway while I was loading my scooter basket with sunflower seeds and peanuts a fairly elderly man started chatting to me about how he likes feeding the birds but the pigeons come and eat it all and I was saying how the squirrels are a nuisance for us. Then he said 'I hope you don't mind me saying this but you've got a lovely face.'  Gosh.

Aint nothin but a hound dog

Yesterday afternoon I was doing a bit of tidying and went outside to put out some rubbish. There was this really strange noise, like a load of horses' hooves clattering. Then a muddy dog came padding past. Then another muddy dog came past. The next thing I knew a whole pack of hounds was in my garden!

They all marched past me then scattered in the wood.

I went inside and looked out of the living room window and the other side of the wood was a line of men in red jackets on horses. One of them blew his horn and the dogs came running back. Then our neighbour, who has about 6 cats came over: 'Get them out of here!' she screamed.

All a bit dramatic. I'm not sure I'm all that happy about a pack of hounds in my garden. Wonder how J or our neighbour;s little boy would have reacted if they'd encountered them. 

Coffee morning

Yesterday I went into the coffee morning with a demented grin on my face which made everyone look up at me like I'd totally lost it. Anyway the centre of attention was Mavis who celebrates her 70th birthday on Saturday. On Tuesday, sort of leaving it to the last minute, I'd phoned Becky and said 'Do you think we should do something at the coffee morning for Mavis's birthday?' Becky produced an amazing iced cake and a home made card for us all to sign. Mavis was really pleased I think.

I was going to take her out to lunch on Friday but someone else is taking her she says. Must be nice to  have such a busy social life. She is lonely though, I don't think she's got any real friends her own age.

Tactless remark

I am just feeling so upset right now. Basically someone at housegroup this morning criticised me for having been looking miserable at coffee morning last week. This had been a day when I was in a lot of pain and had hardly slept at all the night before but obviously she wasn't to know that. She said that she and the woman who runs it were saying that Mavis and I both looked so miserable it would put people off coming. 'Ok I'll try and have a cheerful grin in future' I said which was meant to be loaded with sarcasm but didn't really work. It actually felt like she'd physically hit me but I was saying to myself I could rise above it and handle it and somehow I managed to lead the discussion. Then I got home and P phoned and I burst into tears.

How should I handle this? Forgive them obviously but say anything? Just not go any more? Ignore it? 

I don't know.
 

Finches and a nice Mother's Day

Today I'm torn between the desire to rest, to read, to study or to tidy up the house. It's a lovely sunny day and after school I sat in the car for almost an hour just watching the birds on the feeder. We've now got goldfinches, chaffinches and greenfinches. They're all getting through the sunflower seeds at quite an alarming rate.

J managed to remember his options form this morning which should have been in on Friday. Oops.

Yesterday at church the ladies were given a mug for Mother's Day which was a really nice present. Last year I got pink tea lights which were nice but I've never actually unpacked them. A mug is nice and useful though. J chose me a design with cupcakes on it. Wonder why? He also made me a lovely card and we went to the pub next door for lunch. This was nice but not anywhere near as nice as last year. They've got a different chef and he doesn't seem to be as good. After that I lay down on the sofa and fell asleep. I woke up and thought it was a school day and I was at home alone so what was the noise coming from the study? As I started to shout I realised it was J doing his homework. Embarrassing. 
When we went to Other Church in the evening they gave out little chocolate eggs and a magazine to the ladies. Very nice.

I've managed to write 'nice' six times in that paragraph. That's what Mother's Day is though. Nice.

I think I need to go and tidy somewhere.

Day in London

Yesterday J had a course in London. P had been on the website and planned our journey. It should have been nice and straightforward but it wasn't. It was very complicated and long. This was because there were 'planned engineering works' which they obviously didn't feel it was necessary to mention on the website. In the end J was only half an hour late and all the others, including the tutor, had been late as well. 


The course was held in a school near St. Paul's Cathedral, this area being our old stamping ground from when I used to go for appointments at Barts Hospital. It was nice to be back (and actually I love central London) but it has changed a lot. One good change was a new shopping centre called 'One New Change', bit of a strange name if you ask me. Only thing was it was raining quite a lot and being in the wheelchair and not moving I got really cold. Thankfully J had left his coat with me and I kept it wrapped round my legs and had my rain cover on top. We went straight to a cafe and had Moroccan peppermint tea and a totally amazing chocolate cake (picture to follow) but got rather a shock when we got the bill. This actually included a service charge, for tea and cake!



The shopping centre was quite good but most of the walkways were open to the air so I was still cold.d I bought a cardigan and skirt which is a bit small, well quite a lot small, and another t shirt for J. We ate our peanut butter and marmite sandwiches under an underpass then went hunting for the CLC (Christian) bookshop which used to be in High Holborn but it had moved to another road. On the way we passed an old church which was open so we had a look inside and there was a music group practising and it was wonderfully warm so we had quite a long look round. 


I love the CLC bookshop and could buy it all up. We ended up buying three books: a Bible study guide, a 'Teach Yourself Hebrew' book, more on that later and I got 'Surprised by the Voice of God' by Jack Deere. I've read 'Surprised by the Power of the Spirit' by him and it was very good.


Then we had some freshly squeezed juice in a cafe, again expensive and wandered across the millenium bridge.


J really enjoyed his course which is good and we had an enjoyable, if rather cold and expensive day.

Lovely sunny day and shopping

Woke up to thick fog this morning which made journey to school interesting. Later it cleared and we had a lovely sunny day. I even saw one man walking around bare chested. Didn't think it was that hot.

Helped sort out the Unity Easter Cards this morning then went shopping this afternoon. Got some new clothes for J. Among them was a red fleece and I tried it on and it fits really well. I wore it to school. I asked him if he liked it and he said 'No too red!' so I think I've got a new fleece which is nice and snuggly and warm. 

J's not really all that into clothes and has 3 freebie t shirts all the same which he always wears to non-uniform days. I think the others have been teasing him about it a bit which is why he's asked for new ones, it being non-uniform day tomorrow. He liked 2 out of 3 of the t shirts, the third being 'toddler colours'. Think I'll give it to children's home in Kenya, sure they won't complain.


Talking of which our housegroup leader, Sophie, had a great time there despite living mainly on cabbage and beans and wants to go back sometime.

Looking at Easter eggs today, can't believe how expensive some of them are. Should I get some of the 'Real Meaning of Easter' ones?




 

Maths competition and redundancy date

Yesterday J was one of 4 pupils chosen to enter the Maths Team Challenge competing against teams from local schools. They did really well, coming 8th out of 28 schools and all the schools that beat them were either grammar or private schools (who apparently spend a lot of time practising). Teacher who took them had to fill out 6 pages of Health and Safety forms in order to give them a lift in his car.

P has date for leaving work - June 29th. Still can't quite believe it's happening.

P's going to take photo for my new Blue Badge application. Help, I need to brush my hair and put on some lipstick so I don't look like quite as much like a zombified scarecrow as in my last photo. 

A dull day

I've been uploading pictures because I can't think of much to write about. Yesterday P and I went and bought some fabric with which to reupholster our dining room chairs. Got some pale green faintly patterned material. Been searching the web for instructions on how to do it.

Otherwise life trudging on a bit as normal. I always feel a bit impatient in March because I want Spring to hurry up. It's such a dull day today. P dragged J down to the farm to fly his model plane. It crashed but not badly.

Spices

My lovely little present of spices in a banana leaf basket

Winter flowers

Christmas Cactus, which amazingly flowered at Christmas

And my Helleborus

Carnations

Carnations

Worth a try

I suppose putting 'Throw Clannad CD in the bin' on the 'to do list' was worth a try.

Thankful Thursday

I think I'm in need of a Thankful Thursday so here goes:

1)  J is ok, he wasn't diagnosed with heart condition and his cough's improving and he's back at school.
2)  That we have access to such a high standard of health care.
3)  That we have access to a good education.
4)  That we have good food to eat and clean water to drink.
5)  That we have a house to live in.
6)  That my friend with marriage problems has emailed and said things are a bit better.
7)  That we are able to freely go to church and worship.
8)  That P has been in employment all these years.
9)  That it was nice and sunny today.
10) For Shopmobility that enables me to go out shopping. 




 

You can't preach about money or politics in our village

Just to mention the talk about justice and riots etc at the Women's World Day of Prayer didn't go down all that well with some people. Too political. And what did we need all that talk about votes for women and equal pay and justice and all that for? Could it be because for some women in the world their lives aren't exactly ideal and they haven't got a lot of the things we take for granted?

Also sort of think Jesus tended to be a bit concerned about justice.

There are a lot of things I like about our village but the sort of complacent attitude that 'as long as I have my four holidays abroad a year and eat out three times a week and have a nice car and my gym membership and the kids go to a good school everything's right with the world' is not one of them. And really in some cases it is that bad.


 

What's going to become of our high streets?

At coffee morning yesterday Mavis was showing everyone the results of her sigmoidoscopy, which thankfully were normal. I'm beginning to think I would like to be able to eat or drink at church without hearing about the state of her intestines. An old man was telling us all about his kidney scan, which is just routine not anything serious. I'm just hoping in my old age I've got more exciting things to talk about. Perhaps that's how it ends up. Scary.

Someone from church phoned up today and invited me to lunch. The earliest she can fit it in is May 10th! She obviously has a much busier social life than me. I could do any day next week.

Went into town this afternoon. Two more shops closed down, one of them where I got quite a lot of J's J's clothes. Every town I go through just seems to be the same, the high streets getting more and more dismal. 

In perspective

Yesterday we left a bit late mainly because J and I struggled to get up. I ended up taking the slightly longer route which usually has less traffic but there was a really long queue. Cars in front were turning round but I thought I'd keep going as it wasn't far until my turn-off so I might just make it. Then when I got to the front of the queue there was a group of people standing round someone who was lying on the road wrapped in a blanket. I didn't think I could be of any help so I turned round but it was so upsetting, just hope they're ok.

J had his vaccine yesterday for dihtheria, polio and tetanus. He was nervous about it but I told him that when I was little my mum nursed a 19 year old boy who died horribly from tetanus and that sort of puts it in perspective. If there'd been tetanus vaccine when he was little he'd be a grandad by now I suppose. 

 

A stressful day and some good news

Yesterday got off to a bit of a stressful start. I was really hoping J would be well enough to go to school as I just hate him missing so much. He got up but it was obvious he wasn't well enough and I just sat in bed and cried. I'm so fed up of him being ill and me being ill. Anyway I pulled myself together, told God I was trusting Him anyway, phoned the school office while it was still on answerphone, found I was actually walking a bit better, thought J would probably be well enough for school today and he wasn't missing anything he can't easily catch up on. So far so good.

The other thing that was happening yesterday was J's hospital appointment. This was as a result of his near-collapse after cross-country because our GP was a bit concerned he might have a genetic condition affecting his heart. This was such a potentially scary situation that I mostly just blanked it out of my mind and apart from P didn't talk about it to anyone. Yesterday though I couldn't help but think about it. Insisting that he had to go even though he was coughing and no I couldn't tell them he wasn't having any blood tests and desperately hoping that it wasn't the same doctor we saw last time J went to outpatients who was probably the most unpleasant doctor I've ever encountered and definitely prejudiced against women and especially women in wheelchairs, we set out. I had I thought , arranged with P that I would call him as I was leaving home then he would pop out to a model shop then meet us in the car park outside his work. Fine. I phoned P, said we were leaving, he said ok, off we went.

Just as I parked my phone rang but we didn't pick it up on time. It was P. 'Call Dad back,' I said. 'I can't it's saying you can't make any more calls because you've exceeded your limit.' What???

That has never happened to me before, never, ever. 'Ok, phone Dad, on your phone.' 'Er, I can't I haven't got it,' 'But I handed it to you as we were leaving.' 'I know but I put it down again.'

Time was ticking by but all we could do was wait. Not sure where shop was, if I set off almost inevitable P and I would miss each other. After 5 minutes he phoned again 'Thought we'd arranged you'd meet me here.' Rather animated conversation followed, don't think we'll ever know what original arrangement was but I agreed to go and pick him up. As I started to drive out a woman came along and started reversing into space really close to me when she could have just waited and let me out. Went into hyper stress mode. Looked at J and he was laughing.

We got to hospital with 2 minutes to spare and car park was absolute chaos. Had to drop J off so he could go in and register using machine so we wouldn't lose appointment. Anyway when we got to clinic they were really nice and when we went into doctor she was a woman and very pleasant and made eye contact with me as well as P and didn't suggest in any way that being an only child and having a disabled mother contributed to J being unwell. Best of all she doesn't think he's got this condition. His chest is a bit of an unusual shape, what they used to call 'pigeon chest' but he might grow out of it. His ECG was normal, his spine is straight and his joints are normal, all of which are good. He's just got to have a heart scan and she said it might be worth checking him in a year or so but she basiclly thinks he's ok. Yes!!! And he didn't need a blood test. 

Sunday

J poorly, stayed in bed so missed parade service & church lunch. Me poorly but went to church, P had to push me through to hall in wheelchair. Soup nice but wish hadn't had second helping. Brought some home for J with some cake. Pouring with rain. Need it I suppose.

Not on the table

J has got yet another cold and I woke up with various parts of my body aching, especially the feet so we both stayed in bed. P was a bit disappointed as he was planning to go to a model aeroplane buy and sell get together and wanted our company and navigation skills. In the end he went by himslf, found the way ok and came back with a huge model glider with which he's very pleased. He then laid it on the table and took it apart. Aaaargh! Not on the table.

J has lost his voice so it has been very quiet. He was texting me as a means of communication and even though I was a few feet away I was texting back until I suddenly thought 'Why am I doing this? I can talk!' Weird.

P made a chicken pie tonight. Very nice.

I managed to do prayer bulletin today which is good as last month my rib was too painful for me to sit at the computer that long so it must be getting better. Still can't lift the laundry basket though.   

Visit from my brother and a new table

My brother came for a visit on Thursday night which was nice. We're trying to decide what to do for my dad's 80th birthday. My brother's come up with the idea of taking him to the London Eye. A nice idea, just got to work out the practicalities. As his mother in law might come as well there could be 3 people with mobility problems to get round London.

The other thing that happened on Thursday was we got a new table. We've been arguing about  debating which sort of dining table to have for the last couple of years. We couldn't agree on a style, P wanted to make one I didn't want him to etc. Anyway on Wednesday he popped into a charity shop opposite his work and there was what he described as a really nice table for only £40. Wondering if I was doing the right thing I agreed that he should buy it but while waiting for it to be delivered on Thursday morning I was quite nervous. When it arrived it was a really nice table - just what we needed, all nice and shiny and we both like it. Only thing is I'm getting a bit paranoid about it getting damaged so I'm not keen on people making model aeroplanes etc on it. It was really good timing as we were able to entertain my brother with our nice new table. 

They threw in 6 chairs in with it which need re-upholstering as the fabric on them wasn't fireproof so they tore it off. Sure we could manage that.

 

Options

On Monday J came home with a great big book all about his GCSE options. 'That's interesting, you'd better read it,' I said. 'Uh,' he said. P came home. 'We've got this book all about GCSE options you'd better read it,' I said. 'Uh,' he said.
So I was the only one who sat down and read it.

This year things are different from previous years. As well as Maths, English, Science and RE they used to have to choose a language, a technology and one out of Music, Art and Drama. Now they still have to do Maths, English, Science and RE but just choose any 3 other subjects.

Having studied the book I concluded that the best options for J would be Art, Graphics and German. This is on the basis that he loves Art so much he'd hate to give it up, Graphics might come in useful for engineering and some of the engineering courses are wanting a language GCSE. 

On Wednesday we had 'Options Evening' at school. In the first half there were stalls for each subject with teachers telling you how interesting their speciality was. The head of year with whom I previously got hysterical on the phone came over and was very helpful about showing us the wheelchair accessible way into the hall so perhaps our relatonship has improved which is good. After going round J said he'd decided the 3 options he wanted - Art, Graphics and German. So that's good.

Then we went into the hall for a talk by one of the assistant heads all about working hard and how we parents should support our teenagers. At the start he said 'Good Evening,' and a dad answered back 'Good Evening.' At the end his daughter turned on him 'I've never been so embarrassed in my life, he said Good Evening and you said Good Evening back, how could you?'

That's teenagers for you.

Habakkuk

The other thing that happened at the service yesterday was they had that same reading from Habakkuk that I put on here last week. Strange.

Women's World Day of Prayer

Feet have been seriously painful for last couple of days. Today was Women's World Day of Prayer and I was to do a reading. Walking so poor that not sure I could make it into church but after a couple of phone calls arranged for Becky to push me in and for the door at the top of the ramp to be open. Service was written by women in Malaysia on theme of justice. Very good and a lot to think about. Had to wear a sash with 'Empower Women Workers' on it, somehow it slipped down round my legs. Always feel nervous speaking in public but ok. Speaker talking about protesters at St Pauls, rioters etc and was justice really done in these situations? Also what injustices in our society do we feel strongly about. Like I said a lot to think about.