slogging on

Life is just slogging on at the moment. LMB's chicken pox scabbed over pretty quickly and she went back to school admidst wails of protsts. I thought it was just that daddy had spoiled her while she was at home, but as the days went on I had to wonder if there really was a problem. I finally managed to get a couple of names out of her today and spoke to the staff, so hopefully that ill be an end to it. She's only got two more weeks there, then we're off on holiday and she's staying off to do some fun things before starting big school, so i want them to be good weeks.

LMD finally caught chicken pox - yesterday 1000's of spots suddenly appeared all over her. Literally1000's and literally all over - she's got over 100 on her face poor love! In her usual awkward way she waited pretty much the full incubation period before getting it, she couldn't have it at the same tiem as LMB! Which means Aggie has to have another week off his groovy drugs. His skin's getting quite bad at the moment:-(

I had some issues at work last week - you'd think that a law firm would manage to implement employment law - or at least not do anything so *****ing stupid that they are begging to be taken to tribunal, but no. Apparently not. I seriouly considered leaving & taking them for all the money they deserve to pay out, but in the end decided just it write it down for future reference, then ignore it. My solicitor was on leave so he couldn't sort it out - although he was steaming when he got back yesterday! And I decided that I like him, and the rest of my department, and the work, and the set up is convenient for me, so there is no need to leave at the moment. But it was pretty stressful for a few days.

My nice new lap-top lasted one full day:-( Then it died:-( I'm back on the old one now Aggie has put it back together - sticky keys and all!

Mstr A started a week of football (soccer) lessons today. After all the successes we've been having recently, and the apparent non-aspie findings of his assessments I thought we might have got over all his behavioural issues. His school report was great, and he's started playing imaginitive games with the girls - but it was not to be, He spent half the time ignoring his coach and the other half hitting the other kids:-( We've had a long talk this evening, and he's written a letter of apolog, so hopefully he'll be a bit better tomorrow, but I'm not sure:-(

Although he loves his golf lessons - and seems to be doing pretty well at them. And he's asked to do some music lessons (if I can find anything that doesn't cost an arm and a leg) so perhaps we should consolidate his solitary persuits before working on team things.

Will it never end?

I know that pretty much everywhere else in th world it's boiling hot and sunny, but right here, right now, it's the Great Flood! 40 days and forty nights of rain is nothing - I reckon we're at around eight weeks of rain here in the UK.

That's right, it has rained every day for eight weeks! Today I was sitting in work, listening to the downpour, as the day faded to a dim twilight at 2pm and the tempreture barely reached double figures and decided that I've had enough now. Even I have had to bow to the inevitable and buy a rain coat (well Aggie bought it, but I wore it). Our weekend event has been cancelled because of flooding - and it's a really big event - we were so looking forward to going & trading & chatting to other re-encators etc:-(

The trains have pretty much given up trying to be boats, the roads are all rivers - half the motorways are closed, even Weston-super-Mare beach is under water for once;-) It's JULY!!! I want some sunshine!

Actually, I think what has really got to the great British publi is not so much the rain - we're used to rain, but the lack of weather. Our weather should change - generally every few hours. 8 weeks of the smae weather is just not normal:-)

Oh yes, and just to make things even more depressing, LMB's gone and caught chicken pox (again) so we can't even do anything exciting with our wet weekend off:-(

It's nice to be appreciated

I was cornered t work today by two of the fee-earners in the family dept (the other is off this week) and told how great it was to have me there:-)

Which was nice.

I was going to ask for a review meeting next week as that'll be my one month mark, but it looks like I'm ok.

I spent yesterday covering the reception area downstairs, as one of the other receptionist/secretaries was off sick. It's a bit of a pain having to stop what you're doing to answer the phone every few minutes, but that wasn't a massive problem. Gossiping and audio-typing don't go well together though:-) Personally I'm a rubbish gossip - I never remember who, what, when, where or why, or what was said yesterday by whom! I'm also just not interested most of the time. I'm quite glad I got shoved away upstairs with the fee-earners:-)

Aggie made me stay up to midnight the other day to watch the first two episodes of Heroes. he downloaded the first series ages ago & has been raving about it.I thought it was OK. A bit meh! really, but he swears it's the best thing since, um, Lost probably;-) But now I'm soooo tired! I never get a chance to catch up on late nights. I know that once upon a time I didn't feel tired all the time - when does that come round again?

On the plus side, LMB has made the transistion to night-time dryness really easily. We had those accidents on day 1 & 3, then she used a potty in her room for a week, and now she's been properly dry for a whole week. no nappies, no potty emptying, no wake-up in the middle of the night! Although we do still get informed that she is going to toilet at whatever time she feels the need to go, be that 7am, 6am, or 5am! At least she will go back to bed if it's too early.

It seemed like a good idea at the time......

We went up to Northants to collect some re-enactment gear yesterday. I search through ebay fairly periodically for useful stuff, and I'm usually quite good about rememberig that "a bargain is only a bargain if you were going to buy it anyway", and just look, think how nice a new x would be, and move on. But last week a couple of chairs caught my eye. I had promised myself a pair of chairs by the end of this season, so it was something I was kind of looking for (you wouldn't believe how much you miss sitting ON things in general, and backed seats are a real luxury!). These were a real bargain, retailing at nearly £300 each (yeah, i know - chairs!! But these are hand made, from English oak, no modern fixings etc. I was intending to buy the cheaper mostly machined & hand finished ones fo £100 each), and this guy had the pair going for less than £100.

I was about to put a bid in, when I noticed he had LOADS of stuff for sale. A bed, tent, crossbow, longbow, loom..... Obviously a re-enacter giving up, and you can get some real bargains that way:-) So I allowed Aggie to email him with an offer. After a bit of arguing we took both chairs, the bed & the loom off him for £180 with an option on the tent, depending on viewing (there are some things you do not buy unseen!). It was a good deal. The kids can share the bed - it will be MUCH warmer than camp beds, which always concerns me on the cold nights. It would've cost us more than that just to get the cheaper chairs we had promised ourselves.

By the END of this season. Now isn't the best time financially. We put it on the credit card.

After a lovely drive into the snow, we arrived, collected the goods. Drooled over the crossbow a bit, but managed to withstand the temptation, but did decide to take the tent. Again, it was a bargain. It was something we had intended to buy - when we had the money. Not now. Out came the credit card again.

Ho hum. I'm sure it'll be great.

We stopped off at a Little chef on the way home for lunch (yes, some do still exist). We had two tables pushed together and all watched as LMB carefully and meticulously placed the handle of her fork between the two tables and pushed them together till it stood upright.

Then promptly headbutted it!!!???***!!!

She burst into tears and we all burst out laughing. Poor thing. It comes of being blond I suppose:-)