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Here we go again...
Dec. 2nd, 2008 12:02 amSo as of 1st December Robin is officially redundant. Again. Happy Christmas.
Mind the vent
Nov. 23rd, 2008 11:49 pmI'm sure he was trying to be helpful but I've just discovered that before he went to bed nearly two hours ago Robin turned off the cooker. So the Christmas puddings that I thought were simmering nicely weren't. Bother, bother, bother, bother, bother. Unparliamentary language!!!
Now I've got to work out whether I should try to boil them again tomorrow or hope they are OK as is.
Now I've got to work out whether I should try to boil them again tomorrow or hope they are OK as is.
(no subject)
Nov. 14th, 2008 10:54 pmMemo to self: basic rule - always follow the crucifer regardless of whether they go where you are expecting them to go. Except when it is clearly wrong.
We got away with it but only just - fortunately the Precentor did not actually notice us all have to swap sides as we reached the Octagon!
We got away with it but only just - fortunately the Precentor did not actually notice us all have to swap sides as we reached the Octagon!
Have his carcass?
Oct. 5th, 2008 02:37 pmI was somewhat amused by this item on the BBC News site http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/7652841.stm
Shiny things!
Sep. 28th, 2008 11:12 pmA week ago I went to turn my computer on and lights flash then... nothing. Not a squeak.
So now instead of a nearly 10 year old w98 box I have a shiny new laptop with winXP (not touching Vista with a barge pole until it settles down some more!). It's amazing how much faster everything is when the limiting factor is the broadband and not the computer. Local fix-it shop diagnosed motherboard failure and put some of the stuff from the hard drive onto disk for me but weren't exactly over helpful so R bought an external box for the old hard drive so we have been able to recover all the data we wanted not just what the computer shop interpreted my instructions to be.
I also have a shiny new portable multi-region DVD player so T can watch without taking up my screen (previously he would watch such things as Thomas the Tank Enging or Pingu or The Wombles (yes really, he's totally fascinated by the original 1970s Wombles) on my computer if I needed to do anything on the computer when he was around). I was surprised at just how difficult it was to get a multi-region player at a sensible price.
So now instead of a nearly 10 year old w98 box I have a shiny new laptop with winXP (not touching Vista with a barge pole until it settles down some more!). It's amazing how much faster everything is when the limiting factor is the broadband and not the computer. Local fix-it shop diagnosed motherboard failure and put some of the stuff from the hard drive onto disk for me but weren't exactly over helpful so R bought an external box for the old hard drive so we have been able to recover all the data we wanted not just what the computer shop interpreted my instructions to be.
I also have a shiny new portable multi-region DVD player so T can watch without taking up my screen (previously he would watch such things as Thomas the Tank Enging or Pingu or The Wombles (yes really, he's totally fascinated by the original 1970s Wombles) on my computer if I needed to do anything on the computer when he was around). I was surprised at just how difficult it was to get a multi-region player at a sensible price.
What on earth possessed me to think that driving to London and back to deliver S's bits and bobs to his adoptive mother was a good idea? Especially having Theo with me!
It's just taken me over 6½ hours for the round trip and I only stopped for about 40 minutes at the delivery point. At least partly due to traffic but partly because I had to waste an hour waiting for the engine to cool down again after it over heated driving down the A10 through Enfield. The car has been tending to get hotter than it should and has been loosing water from some unfindable point for a while now but not this badly. Will have to phone the garage tomorrow and book it in to see if they can find what's wrong with it.
It's just taken me over 6½ hours for the round trip and I only stopped for about 40 minutes at the delivery point. At least partly due to traffic but partly because I had to waste an hour waiting for the engine to cool down again after it over heated driving down the A10 through Enfield. The car has been tending to get hotter than it should and has been loosing water from some unfindable point for a while now but not this badly. Will have to phone the garage tomorrow and book it in to see if they can find what's wrong with it.
Just looked at the time and I really ought to go to sleep not sit reading a book and faffing about on the computer. Particularly considering that Theo will still get up at 6:30 regardless of what time I go to bed. Unless like last night he decides to wake screaming at 4:15 and refuse to be put down or go to sleep again for almost an hour an a half! And that on top of a self-inflicted late night on Saturday going to a Guiders' only camp-fire.
Car boot bargains
Sep. 2nd, 2008 12:31 amI have, I think, only been to two car boot sales. One in mid-August and one this weekend just gone.
At the first one I got an Aulos tenor recorder at a reasonable price (£8). It's not a great instrument but then I'm not a great player either! I also got a toy London Routemaster bus for Theo for 50p. It has become one of the "must have" toys.
This weekend I got a toy for Theo that I was too tight to buy for him new. My nephew has one and T was very taken with it when we visited last Christmas but I wasn't spending £36 on this battery operated toy. Got it for £7 at the boot sale at a local garden centre which we only went to because they also had a "country show" with a local viking era re-enactment group present.
At the first one I got an Aulos tenor recorder at a reasonable price (£8). It's not a great instrument but then I'm not a great player either! I also got a toy London Routemaster bus for Theo for 50p. It has become one of the "must have" toys.
This weekend I got a toy for Theo that I was too tight to buy for him new. My nephew has one and T was very taken with it when we visited last Christmas but I wasn't spending £36 on this battery operated toy. Got it for £7 at the boot sale at a local garden centre which we only went to because they also had a "country show" with a local viking era re-enactment group present.
Trip to London
Aug. 29th, 2008 10:42 pmToday's special was a trip to London for what was hoped would be the very final Court Hearing relating to the administration of a friend's will. It's over five years since she died and it ain't quite over yet. (If she ever asks us to do anything for her again the answer is NO! ;-) )
Initially it looked as though the judge today was not going to look favourably on our application but then the other party managed to very effectively shoot himself in the foot and show exactly why we were asking for what we were asking. I've lost count but think this is the fifth Court Hearing and there is probably one more to go. There were also two case conferences. And that's just the part of this case that we're involved in. There's a whole other section that we haven't had anything to do with.
Having to travel up to London today made me thankful that I'm not having to do that every day anymore. Central London is too noisy, loud, dirty, crowded and fast. And it's still school holidays so it won't have been at it's complete worst!
Initially it looked as though the judge today was not going to look favourably on our application but then the other party managed to very effectively shoot himself in the foot and show exactly why we were asking for what we were asking. I've lost count but think this is the fifth Court Hearing and there is probably one more to go. There were also two case conferences. And that's just the part of this case that we're involved in. There's a whole other section that we haven't had anything to do with.
Having to travel up to London today made me thankful that I'm not having to do that every day anymore. Central London is too noisy, loud, dirty, crowded and fast. And it's still school holidays so it won't have been at it's complete worst!
Power Failure
Aug. 29th, 2008 10:35 pmIn the end the power was out for several hours - at about the worst time of day since it went off about 3pm came back on for a short while (around 15-20 mins) and then went off again and came back about 7.
But I've decided that I so want a portable DVD player. Minor quibble is that it needs to be multi-region as my sister keeps sending things from Oz. My computer quite happily played the first three DVDs from Oz and then suddenly decided it was region locked to region 2. Although it will still play the three region 4 disks it has already played it won't play anything new. Very strange.
The demands for playschool were got round by playing a CD using my portable CD player for which I have a small pair of speakers as well as the earphones.
But I've decided that I so want a portable DVD player. Minor quibble is that it needs to be multi-region as my sister keeps sending things from Oz. My computer quite happily played the first three DVDs from Oz and then suddenly decided it was region locked to region 2. Although it will still play the three region 4 disks it has already played it won't play anything new. Very strange.
The demands for playschool were got round by playing a CD using my portable CD player for which I have a small pair of speakers as well as the earphones.
Rhetorical question
Aug. 28th, 2008 10:40 pmAaarghh. How to explain to a two year old that he can't watch Hairy Maclary, or Pingu, or Playschool or Thomas because there is a power failure?
Elderly computers...
Aug. 15th, 2008 03:29 pmSo on Wednesday evening I was cheerfully reading a board and went to move to the next page and my mouse won't move the pointer. Scroll wheel still working, buttons working but no movement.
Have had to revert to the old mouse - which doesn't have a scroll wheel! Aaaargh.
We must do some sorting out of computers. We currently have set up and running a DR-Dos box and this W98 box. In the study there is what ought to be a linux box but we've never managed to get it running properly. Under the desk in here there is another windows box we were given - we've never even set it up enough to discover which version of windoze it has! But something will have to happen as I'm about to have to use a web-based database which requires a minimum of W2000 (and doesn't even promise to work for Macs).
Which reminds me I must sort out something about T's webpage which we broke the first time we tried to update it and so has had the same "place-holding" photo up for over 18 months. (Has anyone any recommendations for writing a webpage?)
Have had to revert to the old mouse - which doesn't have a scroll wheel! Aaaargh.
We must do some sorting out of computers. We currently have set up and running a DR-Dos box and this W98 box. In the study there is what ought to be a linux box but we've never managed to get it running properly. Under the desk in here there is another windows box we were given - we've never even set it up enough to discover which version of windoze it has! But something will have to happen as I'm about to have to use a web-based database which requires a minimum of W2000 (and doesn't even promise to work for Macs).
Which reminds me I must sort out something about T's webpage which we broke the first time we tried to update it and so has had the same "place-holding" photo up for over 18 months. (Has anyone any recommendations for writing a webpage?)
Mrs Tiggy Winkle
Jul. 29th, 2008 12:35 pmI meant to post this a few days ago when it actually happened...
Lateish on Saturday (I guess it must have been 9:30 or 10) Robin was sorting things out just outside the back door. He's been digging up drains and such. All of a sudden I could see this small animal skittering along by the fence. My first thought given the drain situation was "rat". And then we realised it wasn't a rat at all but a hedgehog. So I've now seen my first live wild hedgehog. It skittered off into the rhubarb patch and vanished.
Lateish on Saturday (I guess it must have been 9:30 or 10) Robin was sorting things out just outside the back door. He's been digging up drains and such. All of a sudden I could see this small animal skittering along by the fence. My first thought given the drain situation was "rat". And then we realised it wasn't a rat at all but a hedgehog. So I've now seen my first live wild hedgehog. It skittered off into the rhubarb patch and vanished.
More Essential Language
Jul. 2nd, 2008 11:56 pmOh and "coif".
For those who aren't Tudor/re-enactors that's the close fitting cap he has to wear.
For those who aren't Tudor/re-enactors that's the close fitting cap he has to wear.
Jumping on the meme waggon
Jun. 8th, 2008 10:40 pmI'm sure there's a whole heap of stuff I was meaning to post about but instead all that's getting done tonight is this meme which has shown up in several places on my flist!
"Ba ba black meme, have you any wool..."
Leave a comment and I will:
1. tell you why I friended you,
2. associate you with something - fandom, a song, a color, a photo, etc.,
3. tell you something I like about you,
4. tell you a memory I have of you,
5. ask something I've always wanted to know about you,
6. tell you my favorite user pic of yours,
7. in return, you must post this in your LJ
"Ba ba black meme, have you any wool..."
Leave a comment and I will:
1. tell you why I friended you,
2. associate you with something - fandom, a song, a color, a photo, etc.,
3. tell you something I like about you,
4. tell you a memory I have of you,
5. ask something I've always wanted to know about you,
6. tell you my favorite user pic of yours,
7. in return, you must post this in your LJ
Toddler dancing
Apr. 17th, 2008 11:30 pmClassic "wish I had a camera handy" moment this morning. T had got hold of two white flannels (IKEA's best!) and was jigging around, singing and waving the flannels up and down. For all the world like he was morris dancing.
Needless to say both the camera and the phone were downstairs and I'd have had to disturb T to get past!
Needless to say both the camera and the phone were downstairs and I'd have had to disturb T to get past!
First thing Monday morning I thought I was going to be posting a "woe is me" type post but we seem to be coming through. This may get a little long!
On Sunday morning T came into bed for his usual feed and tried so hard but just couldn't manage to latch on. His mouth was clearly still sore and by then was also bruised and quite swollen particularly the top lip - made him look very "pouty"! During Sunday T didn't ask for a feed again at all.
On Monday when he woke up T came into bed but wouldn't even try to feed, which had me very upset. The guilt trip about the fact I'd left the pusher where he could climb it to tip it over and the fact that I'd really wanted to get to 2 years and we were so close but so far was pretty overwhelming. On top of the PND it was almost too much - I really just wanted to sit in a corner and cry.
Mid morning I was sitting in the kitchen and T was playing around when he suddenly came up and pointed vigorously saying "sa, sa" which is his way of asking for a feed. I figured there was nothing to loose by trying. It took a bit of perseverance but he did manage to latch on - standing up facing me with me sitting on an upright kitchen chair. He also had a short feed mid afternoon.
This morning he came into bed and asked for his feed. He did manage to get latched on and fed pretty well. For the last few months he's done a lot of swapping back and forth during his morning feed but this morning I had to stop him after a while as I was getting quite sore. Unfortunately the angle the upper tooth is now on means it was digging in to the base of my nipple. I suspect that I'm going to have to be a lot more precise about feeding positions than we have been recently!
Monday morning I rang our dentist to ask what, if anything, we should do about the tooth. The advice from the dentist is that since the tooth feels firm and T can still close his teeth together we should leave it. Obviously if it changes then we'll have to re-assess. The dentist says that in that case T would have to go to the dental hospital as probably the only thing that could be done would be to remove the tooth and that would almost certainly have to be done under general anaesthetic so we hope that doesn't have to happen.
My aim on the b/feeding front is to get to two years, which is coming up far too rapidly! I'm going away for a child-and-DH-free weekend (otherwise known as a Guide region arts advisers training weekend) mid-May which I rather think will be the end point of our breastfeeding journey. It will be interesting to see how DH copes with T for a weekend without me.
On Sunday morning T came into bed for his usual feed and tried so hard but just couldn't manage to latch on. His mouth was clearly still sore and by then was also bruised and quite swollen particularly the top lip - made him look very "pouty"! During Sunday T didn't ask for a feed again at all.
On Monday when he woke up T came into bed but wouldn't even try to feed, which had me very upset. The guilt trip about the fact I'd left the pusher where he could climb it to tip it over and the fact that I'd really wanted to get to 2 years and we were so close but so far was pretty overwhelming. On top of the PND it was almost too much - I really just wanted to sit in a corner and cry.
Mid morning I was sitting in the kitchen and T was playing around when he suddenly came up and pointed vigorously saying "sa, sa" which is his way of asking for a feed. I figured there was nothing to loose by trying. It took a bit of perseverance but he did manage to latch on - standing up facing me with me sitting on an upright kitchen chair. He also had a short feed mid afternoon.
This morning he came into bed and asked for his feed. He did manage to get latched on and fed pretty well. For the last few months he's done a lot of swapping back and forth during his morning feed but this morning I had to stop him after a while as I was getting quite sore. Unfortunately the angle the upper tooth is now on means it was digging in to the base of my nipple. I suspect that I'm going to have to be a lot more precise about feeding positions than we have been recently!
Monday morning I rang our dentist to ask what, if anything, we should do about the tooth. The advice from the dentist is that since the tooth feels firm and T can still close his teeth together we should leave it. Obviously if it changes then we'll have to re-assess. The dentist says that in that case T would have to go to the dental hospital as probably the only thing that could be done would be to remove the tooth and that would almost certainly have to be done under general anaesthetic so we hope that doesn't have to happen.
My aim on the b/feeding front is to get to two years, which is coming up far too rapidly! I'm going away for a child-and-DH-free weekend (otherwise known as a Guide region arts advisers training weekend) mid-May which I rather think will be the end point of our breastfeeding journey. It will be interesting to see how DH copes with T for a weekend without me.
Falling Over
Apr. 5th, 2008 11:08 pmI'm rather scared that today is going to have been a sudden traumatic end to T's b/feeding journey (at 23½ months).
While we were out today (clearing out the storage area at the hall where the Guides meet) T managed to fall and bang his face on the floor. He'd climbed into the pusher and managed to tip it over backwards. R picked him up and after a short time when T was still crying I went through to see what the problem was and saw that T was bleeding copiously. R hadn't noticed when he picked T up and, of course, couldn't see his face due to cuddling him. T wasn't keen for us to try and look in his mouth to see what was bleeding and I ended up taking him to A&E. Quite apart from the bleeding he was very subdued and we were all a bit worried about concussion. It seems the only damage is that he's managed to knock one of his top front teeth back so it's on a funny angle. Of course as its the weekend there isn't a dentist available to check with. Hopefully as its a milk tooth it won't cause any long-term problems.
Needless to say his mouth is sore. He had a sausage roll for a very late lunch and normally he just munches through but today we had to cut it up into tiny bite-size pieces so he didn't have to use his front teeth.
We're at a stage where T always b/feeds first thing on waking up (comes into bed with me for a really lovely snuggly cuddle feed) and then may or may not b/feed during the rest of the day depending on his mood and how busy he is.
This evening he asked for a b/feed and then just couldn't seem to get latched on right and it definitely seemed to be hurting him. The closest he got to latching on also made me wonder whether with the angle of his tooth it's going to hurt me! After trying to suck and crying a couple of times he just gave up.
We'll have to see how things go in the morning but I'm just scared it won't work. At least being Sunday R is home tomorrow.
While we were out today (clearing out the storage area at the hall where the Guides meet) T managed to fall and bang his face on the floor. He'd climbed into the pusher and managed to tip it over backwards. R picked him up and after a short time when T was still crying I went through to see what the problem was and saw that T was bleeding copiously. R hadn't noticed when he picked T up and, of course, couldn't see his face due to cuddling him. T wasn't keen for us to try and look in his mouth to see what was bleeding and I ended up taking him to A&E. Quite apart from the bleeding he was very subdued and we were all a bit worried about concussion. It seems the only damage is that he's managed to knock one of his top front teeth back so it's on a funny angle. Of course as its the weekend there isn't a dentist available to check with. Hopefully as its a milk tooth it won't cause any long-term problems.
Needless to say his mouth is sore. He had a sausage roll for a very late lunch and normally he just munches through but today we had to cut it up into tiny bite-size pieces so he didn't have to use his front teeth.
We're at a stage where T always b/feeds first thing on waking up (comes into bed with me for a really lovely snuggly cuddle feed) and then may or may not b/feed during the rest of the day depending on his mood and how busy he is.
This evening he asked for a b/feed and then just couldn't seem to get latched on right and it definitely seemed to be hurting him. The closest he got to latching on also made me wonder whether with the angle of his tooth it's going to hurt me! After trying to suck and crying a couple of times he just gave up.
We'll have to see how things go in the morning but I'm just scared it won't work. At least being Sunday R is home tomorrow.
(no subject)
Mar. 6th, 2008 10:30 pmSo today I drove the 10 miles to Ely in order to do various errands. I'd forgotten it was market day so parking was interesting but not totally impossible. Finally got parked, went to get myself, T and stuff out of the car and found I'd not got my wallet! AAAARRRGGHHH......
No money, nothing. Couldn't do any of the errands I needed to do.
So instead I rang up a Guiding friend and invited myself for afternoon tea! Will have to go back into Ely tomorrow morning.
No money, nothing. Couldn't do any of the errands I needed to do.
So instead I rang up a Guiding friend and invited myself for afternoon tea! Will have to go back into Ely tomorrow morning.
