Bedtime conversation

Conversation at bedtime:

Mum: 'I just need to straighten out your sheet.'

J: 'Be careful with the cheese under my pillow.'

Mum: 'Why have you put cheese under your pillow?'

J: 'So the flies don't get it.'

I suppose it was a stupid question.

Will J ever get the bus?

This afternoon I spent on the 'Pre Christmas Tidy-Up' & had quite got into it, kneeling on the floor with a waste paper sack, rubbish sack & cardboard box into which I was chucking stuff & then sticking on a label to say what it was (pretty organised for me!) & was just thinking I'd got 45 minutes until J came home on the bus. Then the phone rang - J!
'Now what's happened?'
'The bus driver didn't stop, he just waved at us & drove past.'
'He what?!!!'
I picked J up. He did ok in his French test apart from spelling 'Quel' as 'Kel' (words fail me). As soon as I got home I was on the phone to the bus company. After half an hour of determined waiting I got through:
'My son says the bus didn't stop outside his school!'
'I know, the driver just waved & drove past. We've been inundated with complaints & when the driver comes in he's probably going to be subject to a disciplinary procedure & we're really, really sorry.'
There wasn't really anything else I could say.

Brrr

December arrived with a vengeance this morning - it was cold & icy. I could find neither de-icer or scraper so had to attack the car windows with a credit card while J did some last-minute homework printing. We made it to school just in time. On the way back I was listening to Premier Radio & they were talking about World Aids Day & someone was describing a trip to Uganda on which she'd come across a 7 year old boy bringing up his 3 year old brother all alone. They lived in what was basically a heap of mud with a twig fire & were eating white ants. She was able to get help for them, they're now at school & the older boy wants to be a doctor. I really hope he makes it. But in Africa there are so many children like them orphaned by AIDs & so many grandparents struggling to bring up grandchildren & earn a living. It's very sobering to think about.
For the first time in ages I was able to go to the housegroup. This has changed quite a lot as several young mums now come along with a couple of babies who are very sweet but quite distracting. There was only Sophie & me there this morning from the original group. Sophie had brought mince pies & Christmas cake but I don't like mince pies & resisted the cake as I'd trying hard to lose weight & was feeling very encouraged as this morning I managed to get into my dark blue jeans! For the first time in 2 1/2 years!
Sophie had left behind her notes & was relying on mine which were sadly very brief as Sunday was the anniversary of my mum dying & I kept trying not to think about it during the service but then thinking about it anyway & also I felt the sermon went off track theologically & so did the woman next to me who's got a degree in theology ( it wasn't our usual preacher). A couple of people in the group said they found it helpful though so I don't know.

Shopping again

Yesterday afternoon I headed for town as I hadn't been shopping by myself for weeks & weeks. I got J a Fair Trade Advent Calendar & P some Fair Trade chocolate brazils as one of his Christmas presents (don't tell him). I also went a bit mad & got a brown 3/4 sleeve cardigan to go over my rust polo neck & a pink polo neck to go under the top I got for my birthday which I haven't been able to wear cos I didn't have anything to go with it. Then I saw some really cool boots (well I thought they were cool). The thing with my feet is they are long, narrow & a bit knobbly & they hurt. So it's almost like in the rare event of footwear fitting & being comfortable I buy it. And these boots were super comfy.
I carried on whizzing round the clothes shops desperately looking for something for my nieces & almost demolishing a display of jeans with my scooter then headed back to the car to meet P at which moment my mobile rang - J had missed the bus cos he was busy taking a book back to the library so off to school we went.
P went to a meeting in the evening & I tested J on French vocabulary:
'What's French for cat?'
'Chien.'
All those years of sending J to French Club have really paid off!

A lovely view

This was the view from our bedroom window a few weeks ago.

Autumn Crocus

This photo doesn't do them justice but these were some of our Autumn Crocus.

More update

P said he wanted the computer to look up insulation material to make his poor old Dad's house warmer. Not that poor old Dad wants his house made warmer, like the other males in the family he doesn't feel the cold and keeps turning down the heating.

Anyway to carry on recapping on the Sunday after the school fair there was a baptism at church & it was so moving. There was a lady who had a very difficult childhood & lost her husband a couple of years ago & had an amazing testimony about God speaking to her, then a couple who hadn't told anyone they were getting baptised. They had lost a baby daughter a few days before her first birthday & their testimony was so moving it made me cry.
Sunday evening we sent J to do his piano practice & he just slumped over the keyboard at which point we realised he wasn't well. He was off school the next day with a bit of a temperature. The next morning he woke with a slight temperature then he started coughing badly & about 11 o'clock his temperature shot up to 39 & he suddenly became really ill & drowsy at which point I totally panicked & phoned the surgery in tears. Our doctor, to whom I shall be forever grateful, came out straight away. He took one look then went to his car & came back clad in apron, mask & gloves. He did various tests for meningitis which were negative & said he was pretty sure it was swine flu. He authorised some tamiflu but sadly it made J sick, however when P went down with it he took the tamiflu & made a quick recovery unlike poor J. So the last 2 weeks was J & me at home but now he's back at school, hooray! Really there is only so much Star Wars & Dr Who I can take.