Monthly Archives: October 2008

Louise & the kids came to meet me from work on Monday, which was nice.

There was some humming & ha-ing during the day as to whether they would make it because Jude was resistant at one point & the rest of them had dashed out to play with others at some other point, so Louise was wondering whether their professing that they all wanted to go was less based on reality than the idea. But when Jude had a bath he was more amenable & the kids must have been reasonably easy to round up, so I met them getting off the train at Victoria; everyone in buoyant mood.

1st stop Cafe, then some shops – the kids picking up treats for themselves while Louise searches for clothes & so forth. I suppose TK Max is about as close as we can get to a department store nowadays; the kids can be distracted n one area while Louise is able to get a bit of shopping done; she found Eve a lovely new coat.

I didn’t get to look for new shoes (ah well) & I did have to make rather more trips to the toilets with one or other of them than I though was really necessary (but they were needed) but all in all it went very well indeed.

At work, Lee is back from Japan & has tales to tell & photos to show, so I’m slower than I should be, but it’s not just me – so that’s good.

OK – half term hols clocks change & funnily enough the kids were awake this morning before I set off for work… Eve at 05:45 & Jude probably not long after & Esme, naturally Esme was awake before six… sheesh. Remains to be seem when Jack actually stirs, but he was later to bed than usual & even later to sleep knowing him… He’s in an … undisciplined (shall we say) mood as he’s on half term, so getting him to apply himself to his homework is a little difficult (nailing jelly to the wall – bear I mind we’re vegetarian so you can’t overdo the gelatin).

Jack might have more, but might have less homework… He was ill on the last Thursday of school (sick in the toilets, apparently). It might have been the stomach bug that Louise had (& I may have had very mildly) but it may also have been mounting stress & a lack of sleep as his sleeping habits were starting to get worn – up early, yet starting to try (or being cursed with) staying awake later (he’s difficult to gauge). Therefore he still has homework that he should have completed for the Friday to complete and the homework he was set over the holidays. So – he has additional homework that he should have completed, but also missing a few lessons at the end of term (he didn’t go in on the Friday, but there were only 2 classes that day) he has potentially less as he’s missed opportunities to be given homework. Now, the other thing is; I’m not sure as to what the school policy is toward missed homework assignments… Is he supposed to do these at a later date? That might be harsh…

Still Louise has thought of some bribery to get him going on what he needs to get done – so hopefully that should help him concentrate on what he has to do, rather than on Fantastic Contraptions.

As the kids are all on half term hols, then Louise will hopefully be dragging them out to meet me after work today. Louise wants to get a present for her friend’s birthday party at the end of the week(I should really try to get something for Neil – worrying about what to get has yet to result into anything concrete in the way of a proper clue) Annnd Louise’s birthday is around the corner as well (although I do have an idea what I should be getting there… maybe.

That and the fact that I need to be getting some new shoes.. I’m not so pleased at that as my zip up Chelsea boot style cherry Doc Martens are officially dead & I didn’t get to wear the soles out… The zip went on Saturday; not sure how, but it would not fix, so I ended up breaking the zip to get the boot off my foot. Ah, well – they lasted longer than a pair of shoes usually lasts for me.

My morning bluuuuu

Little jaded round the edges this morning – up a bit late – alarm clock batteries failed after firing off the alarm at least once as I remember turning it off (for snooze) maybe twice, but then nothing until drifting on headlines thinking it’s the summary before thought for a day (before farming today) & I’ve plenty of ti… “And with the time at five past six here’s Rob McKelway” … OK – definitely awake & moving (I’m late). Naturally Esme was awake (she’s not properly adjusted to GMT) & chatty, “You going for your shower daddy?” “‘Course I am” mumbled & off I pop.

Quick, quick & back up to take Esme downstairs & disturb Louise awake as she need to get a shower next. It’s not fair as she normally gets a little more snoozing & a cup of tea waiting in the bathroom, but I’ve normally had some time to have breakfast already & have a cup of tea prepared.

Esme wants me to do that & that when we got downstairs & have to say that I need to get my breakfast & I’m a bit busy, so she does the curling up on the floor thing & I ignore her & pour cereal, wash out the teapot & keep going. I get the playdoh & ‘tools’ off the hook for her; hand them over, but she’s not interested in taking them to the table herself. She craves an audience, but satisfies herself being my audience for a bit. Tea brewing & cereal going doused with milk I head to the front room stage (table) for her so she can ‘bake’ & I can eat. Rice Crispies taste better than playdoh.

Tea, drinks for work prepared, tea for Louise taken up (passed through the barely opened door & disturbing her equilibrium a little as she thinks I’m someone smaller trying to gain access to the bathroom before she’s finished in there) bag packed up & back to being the audience.

When Louise comes down she asks that I close Jack’s window, which I do on my way to brushing my teeth before going. It doesn’t seem to smell in there much & the carpets are drying out – Louise thinks I must have done a good job scrubbing the floor last night, although I have to say it’s not something I would have preferred to be doing at midnight. Jack & his stomach: he’s the only one of them who pukes all over the place. He’d been fine all day & then when he gets to bed (only when he gets to bed) he says that he’s feeling unwell – his stomach hurts & to be quite frank we didn’t believe him because we get this so much from him of recent. & it’s proved to be nothing. Both Louise & I had told him to relax & just get some sleep, but he was fidgeting & carrying on. He’s think this unfair, but we just hear “Wolf! Wolf!” so often. So I came to bed at 11:00 – not bad for me, but Jack is still making a meal of things. He goes to the bathroom as I’m making sure Esme does her nightly wee duties & rather than disturb him & listen to repeated woes I place the potty in a safe spot & just go up to bed. I chunter a little to Louise & this wakes her & she’s not happy to hear Jack knocking about in his room (she has better hearing for the quite noises than I). She goes off to see what he’s up to & try to get him to settle in I soon hear her berating him. I think it’s best to check what’s going on & add moral backup & I’m shocked to find that Louise is telling him off for opening his window. What’s he doing with his window open? – it’s a very cold night (quite frosty this morning) & as Louise berates him & I’ve my back to him he pukes at a spot just behind me on the floor (ugh). I probably thought, “Well that’s going to be keeping me busy for a while”. Jack apologises, Louise is frustrated (I imagine it’s a combination of things including feeling guilty as he now plainly is ill) & Jack vomits again. Jack’s room is small – there’s not a lot of room, but Louise is unscathed & I’ve only got some splash on the back of my legs. The furniture’s OK, but the carpet’s doing badly. Jack’s told to go to the bathroom, I hand him the small bowl in his room & he’s apologising & crying, as he’s sick for a third time & goes off to the bathroom. I don’t think he’s sick again…

Louise is cross with him, the situation & probably herself & I go start getting things together for clearing up. It takes a while… I find it’s best to start with a dustpan & brush because you can get quite a bit of liquid & the chunks that way. Then I set to with a scrubbing brush because his carpet is textured. After I’m satisfied I’ve got any gunk off the carpet I move to soapy water & a bleach clean cleaner for any splashings & then we’re done. A good spray with a fabric deodoriser & leave the window open & close the door. Clean my hands thoroughly & take Esme upstairs so that Jack can use the futon Esme sleeps on before coming upstairs to us. Jack has apologised many times & I don’t want him to feel bad about it – these things happen. I’m sort if sorry that it was so hard to take him seriously; that’s the real problem. I tell him he needs to tell us his problems, & remember we love him & leave him to settle to sleep. I remember thinking that 12:30 wasn’t so bad, all things considered.

So then – how do Eve & Jude’s teachers perceive that they are dong at school?

Well, Eve’s teacher: she likes Eve; confident, able considerate & all that sort of thing; lovely girl, “Another bright one there”. Louise brought up her lack of confidence at the moment & teacher was a little surprised. Two edged… Eve is uncountably seems more confident at school, so it’s not odd that she’s a little surprised by this. She’s also the same teacher that didn’t spot Jack’s confidence crumble while he was in her class… So… we either are worrying unduly or not worrying unduly… but it’s too early to tell. Eve may just have had a couple of ‘off’ weeks, or as is more usual has different responses to different situations. She has quite noble ethics, does Eve & the hurly burly of our family life does take it’s toll on her sense of justice now & then (thus the ‘not fair’ weekend when there was little that could be declared unfair).

So then Jude… Jude is with a teacher Jack just didn’t get one with… for one reason or another. Jude seems to get on with her fine though, so this is good. She says that Jude is a bit of a dark horse. He (like Eve) is in the ‘top ability’ group & he can do anything that she gives him. He also seems to be canny enough not to do too much; it seems he can pace himself so that although he gets everything done, he doesn’t do it too quickly & thus be given extra to do. She doesn’t seem to indicate that he’s not pushing himself, it sounds like she’s indicating that he’s figured how to ‘work the system’ that she operates; ‘dark horse’, indeed. Jude does have ’11+ type’ books at home for maths & verbal reasoning & Louise does set these & he does enjoy dong them. He’s not by any means scared of school work. I was being jumped on by Esme yesterday evening (Esme did a lot of jumping on me yesterday) & he asked if he could read me his reading book. He ended up reading it to Louise, but it was pleasant to have been offered.

Jack had a homework overload a little bit again last night. Bad day at school was foolish enough to try to catch a bus up the road to catch the school bus, but caught the wrong bus leaving him having to dash back to where he wants to catch the school bus. The school bus could be more… civilised. Being ‘Year 7’ (youngest in the school) they are lower in the packing order & therefore find it harder to get seats on the bus. Therefore Leila, Cleo Thomas & he have been travelling further up the bus run to catch the bus where seats are less sparse. Jack is presently walking quite a way to catch the bus at an early stop at the moment. So yesterday as he has a bus pass he tried catching a bus to get further ‘ahead’ & failed miserably because he didn’t think things through properly. He’s been chastised at home for even trying because he does run the risk of missing the bus altogether if he keeps takes this approach. Next bungle involved rushing from Food Tech without first ensuring his bag was well done up & his school bags spilling into a muddy puddle. He has some seriously damp books & he was not allowed to go out of German to go back & retrieve a couple of books he (somehow) missed – including his German, which (…hmm – this all sounds so less likely as I type) included his German book which meant that he could not hand in the German homework that he was supposed to have done. Hmm… anyway – he did get a merit in German because he only got one wrong in his spelling & that was because he wrote ‘s’ rather than ‘z’. Homework next lesson. Jack seems to miss noting down all the homework he’s has due sometimes. Stressful day for him though.

I wonder why he was up in the night & left the hall light on & left a chair from his room in the middle of the hall? The lights on is nothing new – he does that when he get up to go to the toilet – it’s just part of who he is that he doesn’t manage to turn the lights off, but the chair was odd.

Annnd again it was a ‘no venturing forth’ weekend.

Well, Louise is not so good at the moment. The tummy bug that was getting to Esme & Jude seem to have fallen upon her (& it’s a bit crippling). It’s something we’ve all had before, I’m sure; cramping stomach pains that prevent you from eating & as a whole you feel drained. She ate something on Saturday that left her completely scuppered by evening.

Things done… um…

Emptied everything out of the porch on Sunday, & found the carpet in the corner was a bit mouldy… That won’t make it through the winter so I decided to ditch it… but what to replace it with? Hm – well – there’s these rugs… Chose the larger hessian one (didn’t mum & dad bring this as a hand-me-down from Neil?) It’s been folded up in the porch a good while now; having been family trampled into a state of splotchy disrepair for some time now). It’s a bit big for the task to hand – so lay it flat & put the old carpet atop & cut out a new one. It being hessian all the edges are frayed though; so grab the white gaffer tape & follow around as I cut to seal it up. The kids return from playing & asked what I’m doing? “Bodging, dear; bodging.” I cannot really o DIY, but I can ‘bodge’ to a reasonable degree.

Eve had a slightly highly strung weekend. She found a lot of things “Not fair!” to a tear inducing degree.

I’m not sure there’s a remedy to this slightly disadvantages world view. Sometimes she may have a point, but most of the time no. Jude muttered that she’s going through the same sort of thing that Jack went through a couple of years back: a propensity to emotional thinking. I’m not so sure, but it’s interesting that Jude must have picked up on musings between Louise & I. Okay, to a degree I think there’s a similarity to Jack, & he weighed most of the blame for this at school; a certain level of feeling victimised there & to an extent that was true, but there was a self distortion field in being used as well. Eve may even be suffering a similar thing at school, because goodness knows some of her fellow pupils are the epitome of ‘the only child’. It’s difficult though. As I say it’s not the same as Jack; she’s different for a start. I’m minded to keep an open mind to see how she copes.

And all that brings to mind it’s parent’s evening at school today, so I need to be on form & be getting back home to help Louise… I’m not sure whether I’m taking the kids home or the kids are hanging about while we go see teachers. If I’m I with the teachers I have to keep my big fat mouth shut & let Louise do the talking; I tend to say important things in a daft way which can lead away from the point I’m trying to make, Possibly my tangental way of thinking about things?

It seems that Eve didn’t even get a ‘sprain’ diagnosis – bruising, yes… I wonder what it is that qualifies as a sprain… perhaps damage to the ligaments or something… Anyway – just as well, because it’s not pleasant & she’d need to be using crutches & all that sort of malarkey. As it is she’s a lot better now. She stopped limping during the day on Monday (well,school is a great distraction) & now she seems OK. It is still delicate as her tears at Jude pulling her foot yesterday evening tends to show, but on the whole it’s thankfully no problem.

Weekend low key. Jack was not keen on applying himself on homework & we paid a little last night because although he had written his history essay it needed typing up & sticking in his book.

Again I have a vestige of memory of something on Friday, but I refuse to scrabble round trying to figure it out. Monday… Eve had extra homework from school as she’s on the ‘top table’ & someone on the table said that they wouldn’t mind extra homework (Eve was aghast!) . She protested about it after tea bemoaning the (un)fairness of it all. However Louise managed to get her to sit down & make a start; sat with her & guided her & through what she was doing & Eve started to enjoy what she was doing. I think she’s starting to realise that she can do this it’s not really so hard when you look at it. I think Louise has managed to bolster Eve’s confidence quite well. When Eve came home yesterday she announced that she’s enjoyed the maths lesson that day. Jude piped up that maths was his favourite lesson (he is good with his numbers at the moment, is Jude).

Oh, I remember what the Friday ‘thing’ was – Eve had hurt her ankle at school, but it seems mostly better now. She’s apparently excused games for a bit, but that’s about all. When she got home on the Friday she was quite weepy about things & not really able (or willing) to put her weight on it. She’s fallen off the climbing wall (which is not high – she just dropped down badly) It was a little swollen & we were a little surprised that they hadn’t really taken a look at it at school because she was chided by her ‘friends’ (hm – well, classmates, then) going to & fro the church for the Harvest Festival service. Jude had a speaking part in that…

So although we were concerned enough to call up the health centre we were brushed off by the terse receptionists with the explanation that it was an ‘incident’ (the hurting of an ankle) & therefore we should not go down to see a doctor, but to go to a casualty department. Louise says I should just have asked if it was possible to see the duty nurse, but I evidently do not know my way around that particular bureaucracy.

So, in the morning Eve is not much better. Esme is still in a clingly mood after her tummy upset the week prior, but as she’s feeling better she has a greater propensity to show off & be a noisy attention seeking monkey, so although I could take Eve, I could not face a time in hospital with a performing chimp. Esme was being very ‘daddy’s girl’ proclaiming that she wanted to go with me, so I muttered that it wouldn’t be possible for me to go, therefore pissing off Louise as she would have to go . It’s not that I wanted to manoeuvre her into a corner, but I was manoeuvred into a corner…

Louise set out with hobbling Eve & I was left with the kids for the morning… afternoon… I did manage to get them out to the supermarket as we needed to get supplies & Louise & Eve came home (Louise a little refreshed by the change of pace from frantic to tedious: hospital time) & Eve was … happier having spent some time with just the one parent & had an x ray & so forth – all that attention. And she had 2 chapters of the Gruesome Grotto read to her.

Misty moisty morning. Trying to take a snap of the interesting light at the station, & probably just missed the point where the colours were really clear… ah well.

What was it that we were doing on Friday evening? I have a vague recollection of something, ut that might just be a phantom of previous weeks…

Esme was not unsettled (at least I don’t think so). She has a tummy bug – probably the same one that Jude is suffering with (which has Put him back in a crabby mood) but I don’t think that Friday to Saturday was an especially restless night Saturday to Sunday was… That was a poor nights sleep & I expect to be suffering from it today or tomorrow (as these things tend to hit me nowadays) . Having said that I did manage a bit of lie in on the Sunday morning – so I may be fine (grasping around for future excuses).

Without a plan we set out to Wakefield on the Saturday; a couple of things: Jack needed some new casual shoes (his last pair having finally given up & fallen apart) & Louise wanted to get some ‘practice papers’ for Eve (& Jude). As this was not especially planned we set out later than we … um… might have planned after a morning that drifted that way that Saturday mornings tend to drift. The kids (being Eve & Jude) have stated to get up for Saturday morning TV (Toonatic) which has some of their favourite cartoons wrapped u p- in the usual Saturday morning TV nonsense. It would be better if it was the BBC though, as they subject themselves to a good deal too many adverts (too many latent ‘wants’).

So having decided that we need to go out & where we are going we get them all focussed on the task to hand & actually set out. Esme was definitely not feeling her usual self & needing to be held or reassured most all of the time. It can get a little rattling on the nerves after a bit which is not fair on her as she needs the reassurance of clinging to you even if your nerves need to just have a rest from the relentless barrage of attention seeking from all parties.
The plan was to get the train to Halifax, change there (the kids get softmints) & then catch the train we usually catch to Huddersfield, but stay on to Wakefield. Now this train is not usually so brilliant as it seems to take a while to get to Huddersfield, having to wait at signals every so often, but the kids did well – no grumpiness & Esme only mildly clingly. Esme did start to get a little worse though, & the journey did start to drag past Huddersfield to the extent that the journey became less than enjoyable for me. Off the train & Esme in the pushchair. We knew that she was not going to be doing so well, so we knew the pushchair would be needed. I remember Wakefield being a bit more interesting on my last visit. Perhaps the route from the train station shows off a not so great aspect to the town. Actually that’s not so uncommon; train stations were only built so close as they could to city centres as a rule & if they are central they are in what are nowadays the older parts of town centres (the centres of commerce shift). There were some very grand buildings close to the station, but a few were boarded up.

07/10/08@06:53
Recent economics would have had these old grandees turned into flats – hopefully they will be spared that indignity – but then again – hopefully they will be spared & actually put to use again.

Signage from the station was a little vague (or invisible) so we drifted a little before backtracking to the centre to do that traditional 1st stop – a cafe. Well… BHS Cafe, at least. There are a lot of cafes around, but we want somewhere fairly innocuous with our brood. Esme had fallen asleep on the train, so she missed this bit; didn’t mess a lot though. Kids were in a good mood & it was nice & easy.

Right then, the business to hand; we’d come to get Jack some shoes as he can’t wear his school shoes all the time – so we set out through the shopping centre to see what we can see. TK Max seems a good spot, (if a little ‘pot luck’ ) & we stumble across one of these & pop in. Louise checks out the shoes while the kids are distracted at the ‘toy’ section. They each gather something & Esme wakes up, so she gets to choose something as well (through her complaints. She’s not happy & is unwell. Jack is dragged off to try on some shoes & is quite happy with them; a little less happy that he can’t have the Monopoly game with accompanying DVD though . Eve manages to get new pair of boots (not wellies) as well (lucky her). Next stop WHSmith as the next most important thing is getting Jude one of those ‘mechanical’ pencils that have … um… well – they have multiple little plastic bits that have sharpened leads in them & when one is worn out you take it off & push it into the top end of the pencil to push a new sharp lead plastic thing out the front end… There’s probably a name for those that you wouldn’t know if it was used so you’d have to write a foolish description as I just had to do. So.. WHSmith were a bit short on these… Not in vogue, I suspect. A company that does interestingly odd pens that are alleged to help with handwriting had one of these pencil things though, and it was the only one in the shop – so we had that.

Two for one on whatchermacallists – study books – so Louise got the ‘introduction to’, & books one & two of some Verbal Reasoning books. Thence to Waterstones (next door) for bookishness. Louise got Jude a Maths practice book (as Jude likes Maths) but Jack seemed to not be interested in getting another book. They didn’t have the latest Barnaby Grimes (by Stewart & Riddel) so I couldn’t even tempt him with that!

Then Esme started kicking off – not happy at all. Louise had taken Jude to the toilet (elsewhere in the shopping centre) so after my phone rang a couple of times & dropped off (Louise trying & failing to call me for some reason & failing to get a signal through all the concrete of the centre). Okay – Esme is not happy – uncomfortable & Louise has been an age & failed to contact me. Rather than staying put I had also to go off to the toilet as Eve needs to go, so I get stressed. Stress,stress,stress….

So, eventually back to Waterstones to wait (where there’s an uncommonly unpleasant smell)

09/10/08@06:54:37
Louise & Jude have been getting a little shopping – which what I assumed that they must be doing, but it didn’t help with the stressy bits. Esme is still complaining vociferously but I can start to calm a bit. Rearrange the shopping for carriage & skedaddle. Esme complains she’s feeling sick & that she’s going to be sick. Actually… of all the kids Esme is the one that’s usually right about this… She’s not usually pukey (unlike the others) and when she says that she’s, “Going to be sick” she’s the one we can take seriously. Out of the shopping centre, into the clear(er) air & here’s a plastic shopping bag Esme. Perhaps it was the sorftmints as these are the greater ingredient of the vomit…. Fortunately it doesn’t escape the plastic bag & Esme is not so disturbed by it all, so we set off & pop the back in a rubbish bin round the corner. Different train back – an Intercity to leads & a transpeninne (the usual via Bradford) back home. We were curious to see how that journey to Wakefield would be, but I think it’s safe to say that we won’t be taking that route again (it’s just too tedious).

So – this week?

Well I got a wireless adsl router to act as a bridge fro the DSL modem – this is the next step to getting Caroline next door on the web (having purchased Lee’s laptop for her & installed an easy Linux (Ubuntu) system on there. The only thing is I’ve not managed to pass the laptop over to her yet – which is a little silly. It’s starting to be used as a an Internet radio at the moment… Still – I need to go through a few of the basics of usage with her so that she’s not al at sea with it. Change passwords as well – stuff like that.

Hmm – it would be nice to have something like that as well – but then we couldn’t afford such a thing… Hey ho.

Jack has been using his laptop with the Wifi – been able to slob on the sofa or sit in his room & watch the BBC iplayer without difficulty. He’s getting a better hang of his homework, but this is proving a frustrating (for us) distraction. Although he’s doing OK we worry that he’s banking things us a bit, s there’s going to be a lump to do all at once which might cause him a problem… but hopefully we can keep him chipping away at things.