Purple Dragon

"Bad Parenting Blamed for Rise in Children's Reporter cases" http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1869112007

OK - I haven't actually read the full story on today's news headline, but I have skimmed it, and my immediate reaction is : I am not surprised, because we are no longer allowed to parent our children.

When I was three, if I threw a total tantrum in the supermarket, screamed the place down and started throwing groceries at my parent, said parent would have given me a sharp slap round the arse and a damn good yelling at.

Nowadays, we have to 'reason' with the child, because that is the only recourse available without either having our kids taken away for being smacked, getting a criminal record, or 'scarring them mentally for life' because they are't understood and given the space to express themselves.

I am convinced that the people who have been making the laws either don't have kids, or they have nannies to take care of their kids and they don't actually have anything to do with them, apart from a quick kiss goodnight at bedtime when they are bathed and polished to within an inch of their lives, and instructed on their best behaviour.

I got a bunch of new books today. I bought them from eBay and the postman delivered them (rather ungraciusly actually) this morning. Well, this afternoon. He was running about 3 hours late because "there was so much bloody post to sort this morning". Oops.

God help him, because I've had an eBay frenzy and am awaiting a rather large stack of parcels over the next few days

Anyway. My books. I got the 2nd one in the Fourth Realm Trilogy - The Dark River. I read The Traveler about a year ago, so I am looking forward to re-reading it and then reading the 2nd one. The first one had a pretty profound effect on me, and I am hoping this new one will be equally as gripping and moving.

I also got Something Wicked This Way Comes. Someone recommended it to me for Hallowe'en reading for the kids, but it is a bit late now. Not to worry - I would rather read it first before I read it to them, to make sure it is suitable.

I also have the other two Thomas Harris books that I hadn't read yet. Black Sunday and The Red Dragon. Only one is about Hannibal Lecter. I was rather disappointed with the ending of Hannibal, because Clarice Starling let her character down so badly, she was let down so badly by her bosses, and Lecter also disappointed me mightily in his final behaviour. It degenerated into a mutual respect into a mutual ... hmm ... tackiness?

You have to take the first letter of your name, and use it to answer the questions.

1. Famous Singer: Cher
2. Four Letter Word: oh, please! Um. Cart
3. Street that you have been down: Cove Road, Cove Bay, Aberdeen
4. Colour that expresses your mental state: cornflower blue
5. Gift/Present you would like to recieve: case of champagne (to share of course!)
6. Type of Vehicle: Cherokee Jeep
7. Things In A Souvenir Shop: coral beads
8. Boy Name: Charles
9. Girl Name: Carol (of course!)
10. Favourite Movie Title: Close Encounters of the Third Kind
11. Alchoholic Drink: Captain Morgan
12. Occupation: carer
13. Famous Celebrity: Cameron Diaz
14. Magazine: Country Smallholding
15. U.K. City: Cheltenham
16. U.S. City: chicago
17. Fruit: cherry
18. Reason For Being Late For Work: chasing my kids
19. Something You Throw Away: crap
20. Something You Shout: Come here!

Lala got glutened.

I watched her yesterday after school and she was scratching, and then she started complaining of a tummy ache and a headache, then she hit the loo.

I have been racking my brains trying to think of what she could have eaten, and the only thing I could think that was different to her incredibly strict diet was some sweeties her Dad left here last time he was here.

Checked the ingredients. Guess what? "wheat gluten" is on the list.

She even asked me if they were okay for her to eat, and I assumed they would be. Stupid stupid stupid.

I feel so rotten. All that denying herself and being strict and I let her have stupid sweeties and make her ill. Bloody idiot. I'm kicking myself, I really am.

I have a headache.

It is a bitch of a headache.

And it is only not even 7pm - so I have to sit up till kids bedtime before I can go to bed myself.

I am feeling seriously sorry for myself.

Well, I just went and booked Lala's birthday party, and bought the invitations. I have also arranged the cake.

The party will be held in the local sports centre. They call it a Fit Kids Party. Basically, they chuck a load of soft play stuff in a badminton court, open the door, let the kids in, and close the door for two hours.

I bought girl and boy invitations because she wants to invite her whole class. I shall write them tonight for handing out tomorrow, cxoz the party is on Sunday left it a bit late ...

I am making her cake. I have bought gluten free flour, and once I have made it, it goes to the local baker to be iced. They ice it and put the child's photo on it. She will have her name, age and photo. It only costs a few quid. I can't ice a cake to save my life, and it has the bonus of the pic on it too She will like that.

I am rather nervous because I shall be doing it all myself, apart from a sports centre helper. For the first 45 minutes, the helper does games and competitions. Then they eat. Then the rest of the time is more games, that I have to organise and run. I shall probably do pass the parcels, and I guess musical statues or bumps. Any other ideas?

I shall be doing the food, but I shall just do a buffet. Much easier with her diet. Sandwiches with ham and cheese, and perhaps chocolate spread (we have a dairy and gluten free one she loves). Pringles. Apples and bananas cut up. Party size sausages and sausage rolls. Jelly for afters. Can't think of anything else, either.

Yesterday Coeliac UK / Aberdeen branch held a Soup N Sweet event, and I took Lala along, just me and her - 'Out To Lunch'.

There was a talk and info session for Newly Diagnosed, but unfortunately it took us SO LONG to get there that we missed it

We had the lentil soup (which was lovely, except it had ham pieces in it that she wouldn't eat) and gluten free bread rolls, which were lovely. Then we had the dairy and gluten free chocolate cake. Lala asked for a 2nd slice, but her eyes were bigger than her belly, so I had to eat it. Ah, the trials of motherhood

They had a raffle, which annoyed me a wee bit. I don't mind buying tickets, although I rarely win, but Lala really wanted some. That would be fine, except one of our tickets came up. But - there were two of the same ticket, and the serial number was for the other winning ticket. That was bad enough - that she got her hopes right up and they were dashed (the never wins anything either), but we were the first ones who produced a duplicate ticket. Subsequent duplicates were given a prize each, which she couldn't understand at all.

AND to top it off, the folk who got our duplicate number won about 6 prizes between the two of them. I don't know about you, but if I won a raffle and a duplicate ticket was held by a 4-year old, then I would concede to the 4-year old, and also if I was at a charity event and won more than one prize, I would put the other prizes back in, not leave with a massive stash of stuff.

But I guess that's just me.

Or I am the one being selfish? Tell me if I am, because I have faults and I prefer to have them pointed out to me.

Well, I've had a bit of an unsettling morning.

Went thru to Inverurie to get the boy's guitar sorted out. Bought him a half size one because even the 3/4 eats him up. He can have that till Xmas, then we will consider an electric one for him. Bought him a music stand for his Xmas as well.

Went thru to Sainsbury's to get some food for Lala (as they do the best selection of gluten-free stuff around here, and even do GF yorkshire puddings!). As I was walking up to the front door, I thought I was looking at my pal Kimmie. The woman looked identical, only her hair was a bit longer and blonde. Now Kimmie is a bit of a bugger for changing her hair colour, but she tends towards dark rather than blonde. I started into this woman's eyes, with a sort of "Hey, you" look, and as I got closer, her total lack of recognition made me realise it wasn't her at all.

Litt'lun wanted a drink and a cake in the cafe, so we went in and who should I [not] see sitting in a chair in there but the childminder, Nicola, who stays beside me. I swear it was her double! Again, the "Hey, you!" look, followed by the complete lack of recognition. Just as well I never spoke to her.

We were sitting at the table consuming our purchases, and who walks thru the doors and into the shop but my pal Sharon. This was getting beyond a joke. The only way I knew it wasn't her was because I saw her last weekend and she had her hair cut off short, and this wifey had hers long, in exactly the mad-curl style that Shaz has when her hair is long. Same colour, same build of female, everything.

The totally bonkers thing is this : when I was putting everything thru the till, and packing my shopping back up, Rachel suddenly took off down the store following this wifey in jeans and a back jacket the same as mine. She thought it was me! I called her, she turned, got toally confused and started to cry. She was superglued to my side the rest of the trip.

Bizarro!!

Anyway, on a more normal note, Sainsbury's have a half price toy sale. I bought loads of stuff! I have two jigsaws for Rachel, a Bratz toy with headphone/microphone thingie for Lala, along with that Barbie with her jumping horse. Can't remember everything I bought. I could easily have spent a small fortune, but the place was totally hoaching with Mums and their trolleys/buggies, converged on the sale like fiends, and I could barely elbow my way to the shelves.

Three men died on Christmas Eve and were met by Saint Peter at the
pearly gates.

"In honour of this holy season" Saint Peter said,"You must each possess
something that symbolizes Christmas to get into heaven. The first man fumbled through his pockets and pulled out a lighter. He flicked it on. "It represents a candle", he said

"You may pass through the pearly gates" Saint Peter said.

The second man reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys. He shook them and said, "They're bells."

Saint Peter said "You may pass through the pearly gates".The third man
searched desperately through his pockets and finally pulled out a pair of women's panties. St Peter looked at the man with a raised eyebrow and asked, "And just what do those symbolise?"

The man replied, "These are Carols."

After Rachel felt better on Friday, and I got a phone call from Himself telling me he couldn't get back because his radiator got a hole in it, we decided to nip down the road for the weekend, as the kids weren't at school Monday because it was In Service.

Saturday we packed everything up, put the mutt in kennels, got a neighbour to watch/feed the cats and hens, and by lunchtime we were well on our way.

Saturday night the Boy stayed at his Aunt's house, and the rest of us stayed at a motel. The place was fine - the same as every other single one in the chain, but what the heck. The breakfast was well overpriced though.

Sunday night, Lala stayed with the Aunt.

I went and saw my pals, one of which dropped the bombshell that she is pregnant. I'm chuffed to bits for her. I was sitting blethering shite while she was sitting with this stupendous news and not telling me. Rotten thing!

We were going to have a look at a house, but decided at the last minute not to bother. It has no drive, the front door opens straight on a path, and there is nowhere to park your car. Nice house though.

Just before we left on Monday I bought a turkey sandwich from the Co-op beside my FILs place, and it was off. It tasted okay, but by the time we got to Dundee, I was feeling poorly. Next thing, the world is falling out of my bottom and I then had to drive from Dundee to home, which is normally a 2.5 hour drive, stopping at every single petrol station / services in order to empty myself in comfort. I had to lift the three kids out of the car every time as well, and ensconce them in the loos with me so I didn't lose any of them.

As one point, I was right in the country, when I just HAD to stop and throw up. I pulled over into the entrance to someone's drive, jumped out of the car, and was kneeling in the rain beside the road. The bloke whose drive I was in decided that would be the best time to go out, but I had blocked him in. Do you know, he actually moved my car so he could get past? My three kids are unnerved enough by my sudden and abrupt departure from the car, and then some strange bloke they have never seen before jumps in and stars off with the car.

There were a couple of times when I lost feeling in my extremities. One point I couldn't move or even feel my right hand. And - God! - I was so cold.My whole body was shaking.

I have spent the day in bed. The kids didn't go back to school today. I was supposed to be at a PSA meeting this evening, but I didn't go. Tomorrow I am supposed to be on PlayGroup Duty. Hopefully I shall feel better by then and manage to get in.

I know this has been aired before but I'm bringing it up again. Because I can, okay?

Jenray and I were discussing whether or not we would stop at an accident - particularly the accident my pal had recently, being knocked off his bike and then waving at folk trying to get them to stop and help him.

I had said I probably wouldn't stop, but would phone the police and ambulance to get him help.

However, memory reminds me that I did actually stop one time. A kid walked out onto a main A-road and was hit by a cyclist going some rate. He was a 'proper' cyclist with all the gear, rather than a 'Sunday cyclist', and one minute he was pedalling along, the next flying thru the air after smacking into the kid. There was a stream of traffic in front of me, all who slowed right down, had to have seen the kid by the roadside (because I did easily enough), and drove a wide berth around the bloke actually standing in the road waving both arms in the air, trying to get folk to stop.

It turned out the children were late home and decided to cross the main road to get home quicker. His pals saw he was hit and did a runner, leaving him in some pain with a broken leg. One of the 'pals' was his wee brother, who did a disappearing act, and then came back to loiter on the other side of the road because he was too scared to go home and face the music.

Anyway, I stopped for the cyclist, put my hazards on, and then stopped the next available car, telling him to call an ambulance when he got into town (this was long before the whole world had it's own mobile phone).

My amusing memory was of the young lad being loaded into the ambulance, saying to me "Do you have to tell my Mum & Dad?" and me replying "I think they'll notice your leg is broken, love".

The police let me take the wee brother home (shows how long ago this event was!) and I remember his Mum opening the door, face frantic, and being SO mad with me for being the bearer of bad tidings.

So, I guess, yeah, I would stop after all.

A pal of mine rides a trike with a kid-carrier thing in front, much like this one.

http://www.camcycle.org.uk/newsletters/69/article13.html

He has just been knocked off the bike, fortunately when his kids weren't in it. Here is his blog entry all about it

http://stonehead.wordpress.com/2007/11/14/knocked-down/

What shocks me about all this, apart from that soneone appears to have done this deliberately, is the attitude of the people who have left comments. What total utter bastards!

My mum always told me that if I couldn't say something nice then don't say anything at all - one has to wonder how many of these commenters would say any of what they have typed to his face!

Dropped the two older ones at school, then nipped along to a village not far from here for a box of FreeCycled books. Little one started fussing on the way back, wanting the toilet, so I put my foot down and we got back double-quick.

Got home, put her on the loo .. nothing.

Brought her back into the living room where she promptly threw up all over my trousers, then her sweater and jeans got some, and finally she decided the carpet shouldn't be left out, so that got some as well.

She is on the couch just now with a blanket over her.

Poor kid.

I was sitting here catching up on blogs when No3Child came downstairs, hysterical.

I lifted her onto my lap to comfort her. She was crying so hard she couldn't tell me what the problem was.

Then, slowly and inexorably, the warmth started to spread.

She woke coz she needed to pee, the bathroom (next to her bedroom) was dark, so she was scared. She came down for some help, was too scared of the fright in the dark to manage to stop crying long enough to tell me she wanted to pee ... so she demonstrated.

My jeans are soaked.

Life of Pi , Yann Martel

Very good book. I was pretty much engrossed. Obviously, you know he lived because he is telling the story, but it isn't until you get to the final chapters that you understand why. A very good example of how the human mind can trick itself. Recommended.

Hannibal Rising, Thomas Harris

Oh, my goodness! Hannibal Lecter is a very enjoyable character (don't we all love the bad guy?) and this is the story of his childhood and early adulthood, and what triggered his monsterousness. I am well into him just now, having read this one, and have now started Silence of the Lambs. I would have preferred to read them in order, but I don't think it matters too much.

Well, this morning, Rachel was a lot perkier. She hadn't had a bath for the last couple of days because she wasn't well enough, so I dropped her in the bath when she got up.

Then, I noticed that her whole torso was covered what looked like a cross between welts and burns. Not good. Phoned NHS24 and they told me I had to take her to the Dr at the local hospital.

So, it appears she has a fungus infection on her skin (nice) and she now has antibiotic cream to go with her antibiotic medicine.

Poor wee tote.

My little girl, as you all know, was three back on Wednesday. I made her very favorite tea (sausages, yorkshire pudding, mashed potato and gravy) but she didn't eat it. I thought it was the excitement, so I left her alone.

Yesterday, she didn't want breakfast, then lunchtime arrived - no go. Teatime? Nope. Not wanting a thing. In fact, at teatime (5.30) she asked to go to bed. She had been fading before that, so I made her up a bottle and put her to bed.

When I went to bed, who did I find in there but my little one! She was as red as a beetroot, with a cough that sounded more like a bark, and she couldn't talk. She could barely breathe, actually. She kept growing all red, head to toe, and her temperature shot up; then she would cool back down and go an awful pasty white - again head to toe.

At 4.30 this morning she was gasping for breath, then coughing, then gasping again. I sat her up, did the standard croup type things, gave her some Tyxylix Cough & Cold, and she settled again about 5am.

First thing, I was on the phone to the Dr. Took her down at 10am and he had a good look at her. She has an ear infection, tonsilitus and upper respiratory infection. You know those nasty pus-y spots they get on their tonsils when they are infected? Her whole tongue is covered.

She is a total lump. She is sitting next to me on the couch while I type this and the heat coming off her is keeping me warm!

I hope the antibiotics kick in soon.

Geezo, it is getting a bit bonkers up here!

Little one has been smitten with the nasty bug that I had recently, and she took herself to bed just after 5.30 - she wanted me to sit with her while she went off to sleep, so I sat on the end of her bed, and leaned against the wall. As I sat there, I could feel the plasterboard moving in the wind - it is obviously coming in (probably thru the loft) and howling thru the cavity wall. Felt pretty scary!

You wouldn't believe how many draughts you get in such a modern house!

We have four tarpaulins over the boat, strapped down with that heavy duty strapping. The wind has shredded them. We will have to replace all of them. The boat is moving, swaying alarmingly, in the wind. Someone is picking my boy up from his movie night for me, coz litt'lun is poorly, and I told her not to park near the boat - can you imagine if it toppled onto her car?

Apparently the wind will abate overnight, so we will be able to clean up tomorrow.

Just a quick post while we still have power - it has been out this afternoon and I think it will probably go off again. Apparently, the whole of the north east was out of power. The kids were sent home from school because they had no power or water. Apparently the oil rigs are on shut down because of the bad weather.

The wind is howling around the house - it is even opening and closing internal doors. It has ripped the faring/sun visor thing off the windscreen of my car and thrown it a couple of hundred yards up the garden. I hope it isn't too badly broken and that it can go back on.

The wind is pushing the car slowly backwards where it is parked. The boat is rocking on its trailer, and I am a wee bit worried that it might tip over. If it does, we will have to hire a crane in. I hope, if it does tip, it doesn't land on the car parked underneath.

The hail is lashing against the window.

Hope you are all safe and cosy!

I hope we don't lose any rooftiles.

Considering how my children can fight, I thought this book might be quite inspiring and give me some ideas on helping them relate to one another more quietly, if nothing else.

Well, to see some almost direct quotations of my interaction with the kids in print was a bit worrying, to say the least. I didn't realise that I say some things, and I certainly didn't think that some of those things would have the effects they say they do in the book. Fortunately, I think that the majority of my interactions with them are fairly laid back and non-judgemental.

The opening quotation bothered me : "To all the grown-up siblings who still have a hurt child inside them"

I can't be doing with 'inner children'. My eyebrows go up, my mouth turns down into a frown, and skepticism rules. My immediate reaction to mentions of 'inner children' is "bloody grow up then". I'm afraid I'm far too practical for being arty-farty ... I've got three kids, after all!

So - to the book.

It discussed comparisons. Now, I have always known that saying to Child A that Child B is much better at math, and why can't Child A be more like Child B is a tremendously damaging thing to do. After all, Child A has his/her own strengths anyway, and why would they want to be like their sibling? They are two different people, and I rejoice in individuality (seen my wardrobe?). However, the authors feel that even mentioning a strength of one child in earshot of another is detrimental. Hmm.

Another idea is what to do when they start ripping one another into pieces. Verbally, that is. I shall let you read the book for the theory, and apparently it is quite effective. I have been trying to instigate the procedure in this madhouse, to little effect. You are supposed to encourage them to sort it out themselves, but one of mine is going thru a "bash first, ask questions later" stage (actually, two of them are, come to think of it) so I spend more time sending one off to think about their actions than I do mediating.

Anyway, all in all I think it was a good book, with quite a few things that were very helpful.

Well, I had a chat with lala's teacher today. She has been having trouble learning her letters at school and the rest of the class is moving up to Level2, she is still at the beginning, pretty well, of Level 1.

She just doesn't get it. She can't 'hear' the letters when you sound them out (they learn phonics) and although she can recognise individual letters in a word (c-a-n) she can't make those letters into a word (can).

To start with, we thought that she was just unhappy and that when she settled in, everything else would follow, but we have been disappointed.

To cut a long story short, she is being observed on Wednesday and if the SENCO thinks that it is necessary, she will be assessed, probably on Thursday.

I think she needs assessed, and I think she is dyslexic - probably worse so than the boy.

Poor kid. First the lactose intolerance, then the coeliac and now this.

Had my hairdresser appointment yesterday.

I got there a wee bit late because Rachel didn't want to stay at Playgroup

I got a chocolate base with blonde streaks, but because my hair had been purple before, the blond is more of a caramel colour. I don't mind - it looks nice.

A parent of one of the little girls middle child is friends with took her back to her house, and when I went to collect her, she threw a right paddy and wouldn't come. I had to get her dressed while she was fretting, because I had Rachel to collect and we were going to be late. Took Lala to the car, she got in and slammed the door, but omitted to remove her thumb from said door so I had to drive to school with screaming and crying in my ear, at top speed (well, as fast as safe, anyway), to get her thumb under cold water.

Then came the swimming lessons. Boy usually goes with his pal, but they have moved him from his class into an earlier one, because Lala has been moved to an earlier one as well, and they wanted to save me the bother of going back and forth. Well, you'd think his world had ended. He was mightily miffed because he had been moved, but when he found out that I hadn't checked to see who else was in his new class, it was nuclear war. He screamed, he cried. This child is EIGHT YEARS OLD by the way! I told him he could jolly well quit swimming lessons and drown if he fell in the water. Eventually he came and apologised for flying off the handle. Kids!

Put them all to bed. The two older ones slept together again because the wind was so high they were scared.

Mum bought Rachel a trampoline for her birthday, so I sat up putting it together last night. I put it together but it didnt look right - the bouncy bit looked too baggy. I checkd the threading, checked the picture - looked like I had done it right. I worried about it, and this morning I was proven right - it was too baggy. So while Rachel was in Playgroup this morning, I rethreaded it. It is nice and taut now.

This wind is dreadful. I have been down and checked the big trampoline to make sure the pegs are still holding it down, and they are. Flippin should be - they are over a foot long! The tiles are still on the roof as well. But the tarps over the boat are looking the worse for wear. I shall have to buy some heavy duty tarps to replace the top one with - the wind is shredding it to pieces.

My littlest one is three today.

She seems very happy with the bits and pieces she has received. The other two were hovering like vultures, trying to see what toys she would let them play with. Fortunately, she's a tough little cookie and doesn't take any nonsense

She had playgroup this morning, and they were taken to Haddo Country Park to spend the morning with the Ranger and learn some about trees, the countryside, Autumn and so on. They took her cake with them, and they sang Happy Birthday on the bus. When they came back they were all clutching wee bags with a piece of cake each.

She's dancing round in her new dressing gown just now.

About 7pm tonight, I had one of these :

on my bathroom wall.

Then, my middle child decided that it would offer loads of fun to climb, while prevaricating about why I couldn't comb her hair to check for any of the lice that are currently inviting themselves home with various school children of our acquaintance.

The radiator has had lots of this treatment and had recently been considering a retraining for a new career with the climbing frame in the garden. It has better hours and is out in the fresh air.

The radiator decided that this was the opportunity it had been waiting for, and made an abortive bid for freedom, being rudely and loudly apprehended by the bathroom sink.

Daughter decided she would be better served by making herself scarce and exited to her bedroom to consider "what Daddy was going to say when he got home".

I wrapped a towel round the pipe that was pissing water in all directions, and reattached the rad to two of the three fixings on the wall. Regrettably, the third fixing is beyond fixing (hehehe) and is laying in shattered pieces on the bathroom floor.

Went out into the garage, in the pouring rain and howling wind (believe it - it is wild here tonight!) to arm myself with spanners and managed, after only three tries, to find the right size to try and fix the leak.

Anyway. The leak is now a drip instead of a disaster and the rad is (hopefully) in no danger of flinging itself across the bathroom in the foreseeable future. At least until I can get a man in who knows what he is doing.

Kids, eh.

I've been reading some books lately that I thought I would share with you. They have been a bit different from what I usually like.

Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton

The book that Steven Spielberg got a hold of and changed pretty much completely. I really should leave books alone once I have seen the film, and vice versa. The kids were different ages, the girl was a whiner and thick, the main couple weren't in a relationship, the old bloke who set up the Park was an egomaniac, and the only person who pretty much stayed the same from book to film was the bad guy who steals the embryos. In saying all that, if I forgot about one while reading/watching the other, I enjoyed both.

The Colour Purple, Alice Walker

I have seen the Whoopi Goldberg film advertised, but never watched it. I came across the paperback in the local charity shop, and ended up reading it cover to cover in what felt like minutes. What a great book. I liked the way it was written, in letter form, and also the language used drew you into the way Celie thought and felt quite well. I have a feeling that the film is quite a bit different to the book, although not having seen it, I can't really comment, but I am now loathe to watch the film.

Fortune, Erica Spindler

This is alright. Not great. Totally unbelievable plot which ruins it somewhat, because I found myself unable to believe it, which is hard for me because I can read other books with fabulous plots and find that I can get engrossed and suspend disbelief. The idea that a mother would go thru so much for her child, and then up and leave her with someone who is in effect a complete stranger, left me cold - her reasons were rubbish. Too many loose ends as well - such as - how would the bad guy and the daughter have managed to marry with her with no birth certificate?

I am only 43 and yet ... I am just about to snuggle down and grab an afternoon nap while the little one has one.

We went swimming this morning. You wuldn't think that splashing around for 45 minutes would knacker someone my age, would you?

This is great - I wish I had the patience to do this stuff!

http://alanbecker.deviantart.com/art/Animator-vs-Animation-34244097

Here is a link to 15 reasons why you should change to a veggie box scheme.

http://www.theecologist.org/archive_detail.asp?content_id=566

Well, we finally got a phone call back from the Dr this afternoon, and neither of the other children have coeliac antibodies!

YIPPEE!!!!!

It appears that November 1st is not a happy day. All of blog seems to be in the doldrums, people closing comments because they just don't want to talk. Some folk haven't even bothered to post at all.

The weather has been shite all day - raining and dismal.

I have a shitty cold ... still ... and it just doesn't want to shift. And a temperature to go with it.

Boy went for his first guitar lesson today, which he thoroughly enjoyed.

I went to parents evening tonight at the school to see both teachers. More on that another time. I'm rather unchuffed to say the least.

Anyway, Mum flies home in the morning, so I have to be up at the crack of dawn to take her to the airport. So - nighty-nite and I hope you all have a good night and feel better tomorrow.