The day draws nearer - but not yet.

My OMD was diagnosed with chronic kidney failure this morning.

As well as extreme regenerative anaemia and ulcerated stomach lining.

However the vet said she checked the findings twice because the failing dog the numbers were talking about was not the quite perky, wobbly-headed, fally-down dog she saw in her consulting room.

We are dealing with things via diet and drugs and will watch carefully what happens over the next few weeks.

So once again my lovely OMD has told The Grim Reaper to fuck off and not bother coming back until he can find a really good frisbee.

Reason #3071 to love my girl (fixed now)

Found this when d/Boy and I left for school the other morning.

Reason #3071 why I love my girl.

Found this one morning when destructoBoy and I left for school.

**now**

OMD has finally gone to sleep after sharing his insomnia with me for the past hour and a half.

Watching the forsythia appear like magic as the dawn sky begins to lighten.

Listening to the dawn chorus. They have been going since 4:08 am and dawn isn't for another 8 mins! Someone should get them an alarm clock.

Trying to id best way to encourage d/Boy to handle meeting with headteacher in about three hours. He has to initiate the whole thing and explain why having stones thrown at him by other (older) students is unacceptable whether those children are at school or en route home.

Remembering the glow on Pr. C-W's face as she arrived home from Scouts last night after being voted 'Scout of the Evening'.

Desperately trying to remember where I put the 'lace' book bc I have a 'how to knit lace you fecking idiot' lesson in three hours and 45 minutes.

The moving picture show of a mahoosive 3/4 waning moon glide over the rooftops as framed through the living room window.

Loving that glass is a super-cooled liquid and the different effects visible when looking through 'old' windows.

"Alright Mrs Jones? How's your Bert's lumbago?"

"Lazy Sunday afternoon, I got no time to worry."

And the same goes for Sunday morning and Sunday night as well.

A day of so very little attempted and probably even less achieved.

Dogs not walked.

Fire burning since about 2pm.

Chunky wool hat only six rows off completion but NO idea where I have put the second ball. Bah!

V. yummy homemade plum tomato and caramelised onion tart.

Salmon en croute for the terences ( which translates as I whacked a frozen salmon fillet in some shop pastry).

And an awful lot of facebookery/googlification/'friv' usage happening throughout the day.



Oh! And when I came downstairs after a lovely long sleep-in I found out my bastard b-i-l is coming for a visit at Easter!

For Japan, with love.

If there is one thing we bloggers are extremely good at it is talking.

We share so much of our lives and thoughts with one another.I know so much about your families, your friends, your pets, your crafting, humour, anger, emotions, politics and points of view.

How about quiet though?

As a mark of respect and a way of raising funds for Shelter Boxes to send to Japan Utterly Engaged and Ever Ours have proposed a Day of Blogging Silence.

24 hours to be quiet and to let the world, and particularly the people of Japan, know that we stand by them.

This is the outline about the event as posted by Henny & Lucia over at 'Utterly Engaged'

The aim is just raise awareness and respect and acknowledge the devastation going on in Japan.

The guidelines are simple.

1. This coming Friday, March 18th, no posts at all on your blog.
2. Please post a blog post about what you will be doing this Friday whenever possible in hopes to spread the word and whoever else would like to join in. You all can check out what Lydia of Ever-Ours did for her’s here or how we did ours here and do it your way if you’d like. We’ll be posting a reminder post on Thursday evening on my blog too.
3. Tweet and Re-Tweet the shiznit out of the link to http://www.forjapanwithlove.com please.
4. Encourage your readers to contribute to donate shelter to Japan.

Whatever anyone can contribute will be appreciated.
Every little helps.

** now**

The front door and windows are wide open.
The sun is shining.
A fat noisy bee has just flown past my bedroom window.

Even over the innernets she works her dark magic!

Have just googled the names of the last children I nannied.

One of them is mentioned in today's Daily Mail.

Another in tagged in newspaper picture from a swish 50th birthday party last year for Lord High Sooper-Dooper Lani-Pants.

The mother is even coming up as being on Facebook!

As for the third child, a couple of pages filled with references to her popped up onscreen and then my computer fastracked itself to a virus scan that in itself is a con.

Even now, nearly 20 years later, she is making my life hard work. That woman had access to bad forces when she was a little girl and her power seems only to have grown stronger.

Forget the redeeming features shown in 'Wicked', this kid is 100% the Wicked Witch of the East.

Throwing it out there for comment.

Girls wearing make-up to school.

What say you all?

In the past month...

I have ...

* finalised plans for new kitchen/living room building (Yippee! Woohoo! And Yay!) .

* nearly left my husband during IKEA trip to id potential kitchens (not that he even realised but I felt better for considering it).

* transported four highly excited under 9s through the wilds of Wiltshire to their first chess tournament. They only came 8/12 bc of a mahoosive amount of adult-sanctioned cheating by other schools. Seriously a headmaster who calls his under 9 pupils 'stupid' bc they lost a chess match??

* realised not every family plays maths and history and word games during 'long' car trips'! Who knew?

* mortified my son by banning the use of all the blurry DS consoles those children had for an hour during the six we spent at said tournament.

* been reminded of all the fabulous and exciting history there is on our doortsep here in Engerland.

* not been asked for interview to a job I would have loved.

* bought my daughter a new school bag following on from the saga last term.

* met old friend and children (inc god daughter) for lunch in beautiful Cathedral surrounds.

* had verbal smackdown with Mr. HeadTeacher twice. Once about the crazy-arse parking that goes on down there and the other about having held the door for the ENTIRE school (inc one teacher) and only one child said thank you. (And it wasn't my son, about which we have since had words ;-)

* had a meeting about teaching capability of destructoBoy's teacher because he is bored in class, every day.
* been called scarey by a parent at school.
* dobbed in stupid Yr. 8 students clever enough to hide out of sight from staff when smoking at playtime but sufficiently stupid to stand next to railing fence right beside road.

* praised highly to teacher the one child who did thank me for holding open school door.

* extremely lately handed over handmade birthday present to good friend and I think she liked it.

* had double success over at Posh Yarns Sunday night sellout. I foresee perhaps a hat for Princess C-W for Christmas with the pink sparkly one and the kicking-off off a garter stitch scarf kal this Friday with the chunky cashmere.

* nursed destructoboy through a whole month of ear infection. This entailed four visits to the doctors, three lots of antibiotics and one fight with the rottweilerXdoctors' receptionist. TG it has cleared up now and he is playing at top speed again.

* received a phonecall from YOT telling me my phone was being kept in their safe overnight if I would like to come and collect it the following morning. Oops!!
* recognised it is still six months away but have made a decision on d/Boy's birthday present.
* identified OMD's episodes as being epilepsy not a stroke.
* watched freezing on the sidelines as my son captained the under 9s to a distinct non-victory at the local schools football tournament. I was the screeching woman on the sidelines but offset my mania by cheering for the other teams too.

* purchased outfit for 80th birthday party this Saturday.

* attended Princess C-W's first ever secondary parent/teacher evening. Unlike most of her peers she didn't attend and so didn't hear how well-regarded she is by her teachers and how well she is doing in her classes. There was a little glow about us as parents by the end of it all. And I didn't even start-up on her History teacher. Perhaps it was bc she looked so knackered after dealing w grown-ups all evening. Perhaps it was bc she was our last stop and we could go home afterwards. I don't know why but remain impressed that I maintained my silence when she referred to 'our written conversation earlier in the year' and how she 'always encourages parents to help with the homework'. HA!

* taken the big black dog to the vet with a sore eye. Am hoping to stave off need to do this again.

* had The Bat Lady around to visit and am sending off her report today. This in turn means we apply for planning permission by the end of the week. If you want to voice an objection you have two months to lodge it with the relevant authority!

A result I hadn't expected.

The Bat Lady has just been.

The tools of her trade seem to be no more than a ladder, a notepad, a pencil and a really big torch.

She looked out the back at the section onto which we will be building.

"Is this it?" She said in a slightly accusatory fashion, staring at the roof with an inch and half gap between two slates.

Ummmm ... yes." I replied wondering what more I could offer her.

Is there no roof access from inside?"

"No. None."

"Well I shall have to look into the loft space of the main roof as well. To make sure there are no bats at all.

"Really? It means moving furniture you know. And we won't be building near that roofline."

"I'll just go and get my ladder."

"Oh."

So while she magicked a mahoosive ladder from her car I corralled the three Hounds of the Baskervilles behind one locked door before dashing up the stairs throwing detritus into appropriate rooms and slamming doors. Unfortunately the last one I slammed on my thumb.

With wardrobe moved, ladder in place and loft hatch opened she fired up her torch. This is a torch that demands respect. A torch that might well have its own fiefdom somewhere. To be honest if I were a bat I would probably hide as soon as I saw the light from this behemoth arcing toward me.

Within five minutes she was back down shaking her head.

"Let's go back outside.

So we stood out behind the house discussing exactly why there are **NO BATS** on the property and what needs to be done to prevent them turning up. Turns out a North (= no sun fyi you Antipodeans) facing aspect is a major no no for pteropines. She also suggested I immediately lay waste to the tangled hedgerow of brambles, honeysuckle and Mexican Orange Blossom that now stands about 9 foot across by eight foot high and three foot deep right on the boundary where we want to build before the birds start nesting in it.

So after seeing her safely out the drive I dashed into town and bought the most girlie looking pair of gauntlets you have ever seen in your life and will be using them to wave farewll to all the bats that don't live up here on The Hill.

... and the horse you rode in on!

Out walking with my assistant this morning when internationally reknowned photographer said

"What are you wearing on your feet? Are they some kind of boots or something?"

I looked down at the bright orange and turquoise trainers topped by my bright orange and lime green swirly socks visible under the hem of my long skirt.

"These are my socks. Handknitted, took me forever but I made them." I replied feeling quite perky and capable.

"You could have just gone to BHS and got some. Would have been much easier."

To which all my mind could think (and fortunately mouth did not say) was

"Well a photobooth would do for portraits of my children but I still asked you to do it!"

Oh and then she called me scarey!!

Is it me? Is it??

Heavily insulated knickers

Enquired after an acquaintance's child on Friday. She had been in Princess C-W's tutor group until Christmas but left to attend a nearby private (public) school. I had assumed it was for snobbish reasons; this family live in the valley off The Hill where all the money resides, their other daughters go to swish sounding schools in the closest Cathedral city and the dad has been invited to a flash wedding on April 29.

It wasn't. It was for sound educational ones that benefit their daughter's needs and was made after in-depth family discussions with the others who are receiving a state education. This will teach me the error of assumption.

I explained to this mother that I had been to a school run by the same nuns and that the backbone of the order was education and bringing out the best in every girl whatever her capability. I commended her on their choice and wished their daughter the very best and hoped she would pass on Princess C-W's best wishes also as she missed their daughter.

I walked off back to Maria Juanita Conchita Gonzalez all the way waiting for the gods to strike me down for lying through my teeth. Although, perhaps things have changed since my day and they really are now living up to the founding principles of the order? Until I am sure I will pulling on those special unders to channel that lightning safely away.

My favourite Scout

Just home from a very pleasant evening out with some friends at the cinema over in The Big Smoke. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are genii there is no doubt. Much being rude about the odd inhabitants of the Big Smoke followed by funny film and then a beer in good company to round the night off. On returning home I remembered tonight was the night my girl was finding out the result of the orienteering competition she took part in 10 days ago.



First Saturday in the half term the four local Scout troops gathered up here on our Hilltop Town armed with an o/s map, stout boots, an adult in case of emergency and a good packed lunch. Each team (our troop fielded two) set their course, logged it with the base unit and then set off at the alloted times. In seven and a half hours the teams had to reach as many 'trig' points as possible. It was anticipated that a minmum of five miles would be travelled. I figured my girl would be lucky to manage that.



There were four in Princess C-W's team. Those girls walked over 18 miles and were back to base only six minutes outside their scheduled return. They hit all the trig points. They got incredibly muddy. Their grown-up in case of emergency (who came from another troop) said they were the most generous group of Scouts with whom he had ever hiked. (Plus the cleanest, those girls were rocking the alcohol gel!)

When CK picked her up that night she plaintively asked whether he had brought the car to pick her up. He hadn't. So wearing just waterproofs and a windbreaker as the rest of her clothing was muddy beyond belief, she hobbled home to a warm bath and the sleep of the exhausted. Her team leader (APSN) stayed on to watch the results tally and it is just as well she did because the 'Merlins' were posted as coming second.

According to APSN's calculations this was wrong so she demanded a recount and oversaw the each sheet as it was checked. Turns out she was right. Team Merlin, four little girls aged 11&12, knocked the stuffing out of the egos of all those big bluff Scouting boys (11-14) and
won the competition by a resounding six points!

If I didn't already love what the Scouting Movement offered my daughter I would now. She doesn't care that her friends met for lunch on that Saturday, she is too busy basking in the glow of having tested herself to the limit and succeeding and then WINNING the whole competition!

She is both brave and beautiful.