Feeling sea sick

We decided at very short notice to go somewhere for a little break.
'Where shall we go?' said P.
'York,' I said because although P and I went there back in 1985 we've been saying we should take J.
P found a last minute deal in a bed and breakfast and off we went, having resigned ourselves to the fact that it would probably be pouring with rain the whole time but at least there were plenty of museums etc.


We had a good journey. The guest house was really nice and the owners friendly. There was just one thing: as soon as I got to our room I started feeling slightly as if I was sea-sick and I thought 'Oh no, I'm going down with something.' Next morning as we had (a delicious) breakfast the woman serving it said 'Have you noticed our sloping ceiling?' Then I realised: the floor of our room sloped. That's why I was feeling funny. How strange.


More about York later, it's dinner time.
 

No phone or internet for 11 days

11 days ago I was quite happily sending some emails when the internet stopped working. P checked the router and there was no signal at all and also our phone wasn't working. He also discovered that most of our neighbours had the same problem. After phoning BT on his mobile he eventually got through to an Indian call centre and was told that it was due to the wet weather we've been having in England and there were a lot of people in the same boat (pardon the pun) so it would take about 5 days to repair and please stop complaining. In our view this was a load of rubbish as although we've had rain we haven't had floods and presumably internet and phone cables are waterproof.

On Wednesday, the last day of term, we picked J up from school (where there were some very happy looking teachers) and went off for a short break in York. Internet still not back.


Had a great time in York, more about that later. Also had several text conversations with our neighbour about the fact that BT didn't seem to be doing anything. Both she and P made lots of fuss and asked for it to be 'escalated'. Obviously escalation does the trick as returning home today after having been out we were told by our other neighbour that 'there had been a man from BT around saying something about  mending a telegraph pole.' It turned out that the problem had been caused by a lorry hitting a pole and the repair man was astonished that we'd all been without phone orr internet for so long.


I think perhaps a bit of money off our bill would be in order here.

A sunny day

Today the sun has shone, well most of the time which is really unusual because for the last few days like most of the rest of the country we've had torrential rain. Really, really torrential rain. 

And they say it's going to last until September. The rain that is.

Went to watch P working on his maze today. If the summer's really as wet as they say he's not going to make much money out of it.

Feel really tired today, like all I want to do is sleep.

Sport for all?

Today J's school had a big sports day at a large stadium and he had to go and watch. For some reason he also had to wear PE kit even though he wasn't taking part. He says he has had an utterly miserable day.

If pupils are not good at Maths and they hate it they're not forced to watch people do sums all day are they?

(This is written by someone who loathed sport at school).

Sleepovers should be banned

On Wednesday J went on a school trip to Thorpe Park where he had a good time but refused to go on the rides where you get wet.

P and I meanwhile went into town so he could sign on but they said that though his pension is small it means he can't get Jobseekers Allowance. He went into an Employment Agency who were very helpful in advising him how to word his CV. 

He's had one request for some work so that's hopeful.

On Thursday we picked up our 'new' car which is an interim car but is ok. A Peugeot 407 Estate in quite good condition. The only thing is it's got this rattle. There seems to be something metal trapped under the dashboard somewhere and every time we go round a bend it rolls from one side to the other. Can we cope with this?

I must say it rolls around a lot more when P drives, my driving being of a more gentle nature.

Last night J was on a sleepover with the scouts. Sadly during the night someone must have kidnapped him and replaced him with a sore-headed bear.

He has been so grumpy and says he only got two hours sleep and didn't enjoy any of it at all.

I think I'm going to start a 'Parents against Sleepovers' group. 

Or else next time I'll just say 'You're not going'. 
 

Really sad news

The woman I mentioned on Tuesday with the brain tumour died unexpectedly that afternoon. Really sad.

Heard some sad news

This morning at our housegroup I heard about a woman in our village whom I know slightly (she used to be at the mums and toddler group). She's got two boys aged 12 and 16 and she's been diagnosed with an aggressive malignant inoperable brain tumour.

How do you cope with something like that?