Morning all,
Spamar and JM, lovely that you two were able to meet up for a natter
JM, hope all is going OK for your Dau - wishing her lots of luck x
Ouch on your cousins' wifes' ankle, Spamar - like Slugsta, admire her fortitude but flipping heck - such a serious thing to ignore! Hope she makes a swift recovery!
Slugsta, hope all is going OK for you and yours? xxxx
2jays, Amy, Celia, canary and everyone else - hope you guys are OK too?
Youngest has finally started her driving lessons (heaven help us all!). She had been recommended two instructors, and booked lessons with both before deciding which one she was going to stick with. She didn't seem at all nervous, but didn't like the second instructor, who she dubbed 'rude' - when I asked why, she said on both lessons, she clipped the kerb once or twice. The first instructor reassured her, the second snapped at her (her words) to be careful of his car. So, she is sticking with the first instructor, and now fitting in lessons around her shifts at work. Son has also started both driving lessons
and his new job! He is currently working as Officer support at a prison near him, waiting for a place on an officer training course. So far, so good - a bit of me is hoping that he decides to stick with the support role, a lot safer than the officer role! He is working Christmas Eve and some of Christmas day, though - but is then off for 4 days after Christmas. So, OH will pick him up from work at 5 on Xmas day, and we'll just have a (very) late Christmas dinner. Not complaining - at least he will be home for Christmas day, which is better than him not being able to get here at all!
It was lovely to have all the kids (and their partners and dogs) here last weekend, but also exhausting. Still full of this stupid cold, not sleeping and feeling very rough. The gang all had fun doing the tree - complete with dinosaurs - and 'Christmassifying' ( as youngest called it) the rest of downstairs too. It actually all looks really nice (if you ignore the dinosaurs!), very festive and warm. Oldest needed a good weekend, she was quite down, poor thing. You may have seen on the news that a young lad was stabbed and killed in Coventry the weekend before?. The poor kid was one of her year 11 students, and she had had a heartbreaking week, not only dealing with the sadness she felt, but in trying to support all her other students, who were obviously terribly traumatised by what happened. Such a collossal waste of a young life - and terrifying and equally tragic that the perpetrator is also only a kid, and that's another young life wasted
It's the first time oldest has had to deal with losing a student, and it knocked her for six. She has coped, helping the other students has helped her, but I think a weekend at home was just what she needed.
The only sort of fly in the ointment was that Oscar and Luna were both absolute pains in the bum! Those two are just wicked together - talk about kindred spirits. Constant playing, chasing each other round - and unfortunately, extremely noisy! Cushions and ornaments flying, the other doggys finding themselves being lept on as the twosome tore round together. Son and his GF were forced to take Oz upstairs at night, just so we could guarantee enough peace and quiet for everyone to sleep.
This cold/flu lurgy has kept me away from Mil, though OH has been. She is 'Fiesty', but reasonably good humoured, he says. It feels odd, because of work and one bug after another, I've barely seen her for a few weeks now. I know I can't risk passing on any infection to her, but I will be glad when I'm germ free and can visit her properly again.
S Wales run tomorrow - bless my new boss, she is picking me up from her nearest station that I pass through on the way, and driving me to the meeting, then back for my return train at the end of the day. Her doing that knocks about 2 hours off the days travel time, for which I am extremely grateful,( though its still going to be a 12 and a half hour day) and it saves me a couple of train changes too.
Today, I'm taking my day off. The house isn't too bad at all, just a bit of tidying and laundry to do, so I'm hoping to make a start on wrapping the presents I've bought so far. Not doing cards this year - instead I bought some essentials to go into care packs for a local homeless shelter. One of my projects has involved working with the shelter recently (we put together the care packs that we do every year) - there are currently over 60 people sleeping rough in this area, there is no room at any of the shelters for them, and as we are now on I think the 6th day of heavy rain, my heart breaks for them. I decided the money that I usually spend on cards would be better spent on them. The group of young people I've been working with on the care pack project, after meeting some of the volunteers from the shelter, have off their own backs started an appeal in the college for sleeping bags to be donated - really proud of them.
Right - time to move - looking forward to a couple of hours just lazing with a book this afternoon!
Much love to all xxxxx
