Tuesday, June 3, 2014

My month in numbers April / May 2014


6 weeks with a very poorly little boy meaning I didn't count my stats last month.  8 nights in the children's ward in Southampton, one stoma closed, 3 different hospitals visited for subsequent sickness, endless beds changed and loads of laundry, it is very hard to find time to do anything else apart from looking after w and reading trashy novels.  Lots of books read in April not so many in May!  One very comedy moment when we took w to a&e in Nuneaton and they thought I had brought him because he had chicken pox, once we had established I wasn't that stupid we got a private room to protect the other patients, very nice!  One dose of Botox in mid May and we have our boy back!  It is incredible how well this treatment works and we are on the list for more later in the year.  I feel very blessed to have a team of people working for w that are so dedicated and prepared to keep trying things for him.  It is much easier to leave him in the operating theatre (this month was his 11th op) when I leave him with people who know him and are the best, he has had the same anaesthetist for 10 of his 11 operations and she is brilliant with him and knows him really well and just how to make him comfortable and me reassured.  Don't you dare mess with my NHS Nigel Farage!



One job gained!  The gap year will finish in September when I start working at our local school, it was a lovely interview with a really nice class to teach and a very friendly and encouraging panel interview where I struggled to find things to say apart from I agree with you!  I will have to teach more German than I have for a long time but it is a great school and I will also do French and be back working with the people who trained me a decade ago.  It feels like a nice way to get back into state school teaching after my lovely girls school.  Let's see how I like teaching round the corner and being spotted in the co-op! 

25 years and a lovely silver wedding afternoon tea for my parents,  the vintage china we borrowed from my friend was gorgeous and we managed to repack it without breaking any!  The music was great and Paul was brilliant as always.  Laurie made a lovely speech and it was all very romantic and pretty.  Just don't tell my West Country friends I threw away two bowls of clotted cream at the end of the afternoon!    We all had fun and I was very proud of the children being so good and polite while older people said how big they were!  W ate about 10 scones so I think his appetite is back!

56 bottles of wine drunk on our amazing half term holiday in Whitstable!  It was so lovely after such an awful six weeks to have a well boy and properly enjoy a week away with our friends.  So many highlights, prosecco in the sun, #breadbinheadchampers, amazing fish platter in Whitstable, ice cream in the rain! mini golf and Chris hitting the ball onto the promenade, w crying when he had to be silent in Canterbury cathedral because he doesn't like to whisper!  M and her new best friend which made their mummies VERY happy.  Just a really lovely week in the country with people we love.  

At least 100 times that we have heard "let it go" including the preschool assembly and a word perfect rendition on our new stage!  M is convinced that we should leave the new kitchen like this so it can be a theatre,  Paul wants a festival I am sticking with the steps and breakfast bar I have ordered!  



The house is coming on quickly and there are now 6 new rooms that actually look like rooms, it is getting exciting now that we can think about carpets and furniture and the fun stuff. There is only so much interest I can show in plasterboard and damp courses.  

My month in numbers is a monthly memory keeping idea from the brilliant Julie Kirk, check it out on her blog http://notesonpaper.blogspot.co.uk