Sadness

Another sad day.

When we moved into our first married home, we had a wonderful neighbour called Jonnie. He was such a wonderful person, friendly, genou=rous, kind, thoughtful. He rescued me from spiders and looked after Rhiannon as a three year old toddler and Megan, (the German Shephard) when I had to take Aedan, just less than two, into hospital, (with Ciara as a four-month-old breast feeding baby). David was on his way home from America and got stuck in fog at Lynham. He was such a star, always there for a chat, a local born and bred, but well travelled and full of wildlife knowledge, I loved him dearly.

Since we moved, I visited him whenever we were in the area, although this was obviously impossible in the last year. I think we last saw him at the end of last May.

We had a telephone call earlier with the sad news that he died today and I am distraught. It's a private service, which I obviously respect, but I'm determined to find out where he's laid to rest so that I can pay my respects. The sad thing is, I had already made plans for our next visit after our holiday.

I have had a dram and lit a virtual candle in his remembrance.

It's a small reminder to me that those closest to me will soon be gone.

xx

Shame

It was a terrible shame, the boys tried their very best and did enjoy themselves, but they didn't win a place to London. I can't say I'm terribly surprised, although I was very hopeful, but I feel the school have let them down badly. (If a bad workman blames his tools, does a bad mother blame the school?)

They have lots of goodies each and a K'Nex set for the school, but as Daniel pointed out, the school didn't do anything, so the boys should share it between them! Obviously, I can't condone that, but I do agree in private.

The school entered them into this competition, but haven't even sent a representative with them to Glasgow The University had to hire David a car so that he could take them, otherwise they wouldn't have gone. On top of that, they have not been allowed to do any preparation together at the school, they haven't been shown how to do the planning that was required, nothing. We've tried to get the boys together, but it hasn't been much help, I'm neither a teacher, nor an engineer.

At the moment, I'm swinging between disappointed, angry and upset.

Lambs to the slaughter, I think it was a terrible shame.

It's nearly time for a big adventure

(Apart from the fact it's only two weeks and five days till we drop the children at Gairloch with my sister and brother-in-law, not that I'm counting...) it's tomorrow that the boys go to Glasgow to take part in the next round of the K'Nex Challenge. I know Aedan's excited, not because he's said so, but because we_haven't_been_able_to_get_him_to_sleep at a decent time of night for at least three days. That wouldn't be so bad, (he'll wear himself out eventually!) but he and Conall (Conall and he, him and Conall? Whatever!) share a room, so Conall's unbearable too!

Anyway, I'll update you tomorrow when they return.

Good luck Aedan and Daniel!

Ruggish!

I am proving to be decidedly ruggish at this. I don't have a brilliant excuse, but I am trying to rest my arm whenever possible to aid recovery, so perhaps I can blame it on that. It's getting much better much more quickly than I was expecting, so I'm really pleased! I'd forgotten what it was like to live with (virtually) no pain, but that was my own silly fault for not going to the quack sooner. Hey ho!

Anyway, it's Father's Day and whilst I think it's an American idea brought over here for commercial reasons, the children like to give Daddy a day off like Mummy has one earlier in the year and Daddy thinks it's only fair. (Mine was cheaper, a pair of slippers and a mug. His is a bottle of amber nectar! Don't need to tell him it was reduced, shhh...)

Must be time for breakfast.

I'm here!

Waving, not drowning.

I'm still here, just having a quiet time I guess. I hadn't actually realised it was quite so long, but I suppose nearly two weeks is a while. I can't even blame it on half term, we don't have those up here, just the Thursday and Friday before my birthday, but that suits me fine. In fact, it's not long until we break up for the summer, four weeks today, to be precise.

So, have been up to anything? Errrr, no.

Not much.

Didn't run last week, which made me a little anxious, (becoming obsessed, me?!) but we had a trial walk with a loaded rucksac, 12 miles and 20 lbs, to be accurate. It went fine, we did it in four hours, which I was quite happy with. It means that, on the actual walk, I can manage the rucksac at a reasonable speed with scope to slow down for a more enjoyable stroll!

I couldn't run on the Wednesday because the rain was doing a good impression of stair rods, so I did some weights and another six mile walk on the Thursday instead.

Monday was written off because I can't say no to a bottle of wine.

I don't mean I was ill, (more worryingly, I wasn't...) just that I don't like to do hard excercise after consuming alcohol as I'm not sure the stress is good for the organs.

Tuesday, now, that proved to be interesting. I had intended to run that day instead, but I had a fabulous telephone call on the Monday lunch time, offering me a cancellation physiotherapy appointment on Tuesday for my shoulder. I took it! What a lovely lady she was to.

I don't have tendonitis, which is good. I have weak Rotator Cuff Muscles, which cause my shoulder joint to be unstable. She rubbed it a bit, ("This will be sore to start, but it'll go numb eventually." Never a truer word said!) then a few minutes of ultrasound, (no pretty pictures of babies to look at, that was strange...) and a couple of exercises with an elastic band everyday. I go back weekly for a while, then maybe monthly for a while after that. It's going to be a long haul apparently, because it has become chronic.

Should have gone to the quack last summer...

Did go to the gym yesterday, now David has renewed my membership. Ran for 25 minutes on the treadmill, which was about two and a quarter miles, but running on the treadmill is so much easier than on the road. It's cushioned and does part of the work for you, but better than nothing.

Apart from that? Nothing much.

I'll be back again soon.

I promise!