Written by: paul

Hmm
I actually don’t feel completely shagged & useless. This does not mean that I actually have 2 brain cells to rub together; it just means that the paracetamol I had half an hour ago or so is starting to have an effect.
MMMmmm no headache….
Eve is teething at the moment. This means that she is acting barmy as her gums are driving her barmy. Her ‘loud-o-meter’ seems to have stuck on ‘intense’ & she has a constant frantic edge to her. She is also rather fragile.
Jack was saying the other day as I picked him up from school that he was missing William. William is the lad who was his main friend at school, & who has gone to Spain. It’s difficult to know what to say really. I empathise as we moved around a bit when I was young, but I still don’t know what to say. I will have to try find the address for them in Spain that his mum gave me. I know where I put it, but household clutter may have swamped it. I suggested that he write to him – but I really do have to ensure that we can before reminding him of that. Jack also said that no one would play with him at school when he was going to bed last night. I don’t know about the hurly-burly of the day to day at school – but Jack seems a popular lad. Other kids say hello to him when we are out. Not just ones from his ‘year’, but older kids. So maybe that’s just Jack missing William again. I don’t know. Again I worry for him & I don’t know if I justifiably worry.
Hmmm – I think there’s a ‘parent’s evening’ next week…

Train home.
Not too, too busy today. As usual I am over tired though. I really should get a better nights sleep. Pottering in the attic last night & I shall potter some more when I get home. The old pantomime of being home, but not being home. As Louise’s mum is visiting, I can get away with this.
Just been reading the paper. International news is depressing. We are still as www.seruv.org.il at some point. It looks to be honourable people in the face of national stupidity.

Cor – that make 3 day in a row I’ve set off for work & it’s actually not raining. Lovely.
They have not come to the roof again. Louise met Jill yesterday who said that ours was the next ‘roof job’. They have not been to do the roof yet as they want to take off all the ridge tiles. It’s going to be a 2 day job, & we have not had a period of 2 working days without rain.

Jeeez- another month! I mean – a month!– what happened there?
<sigh> – I only used to get caught out by weeks passing.
Will years be next?
No fair – no time to enjoy things.
Train home – brain is a blur from it being busy at work yet again. Nothing notable to explain such other than lingering tidying up of previous problems.
No time to complain at being underpaid the hours I work & all that crap – hey ho.
That’s all ‘work’ – leave as much of it at work as I can.
Jude was smiling over the weekend. Yet to catch such a photographic image of such an elusive thing. Heh – we did catch one of Jack’s early smiles on film. Smiling at you rather than the ceiling. There is communication stuff starting to set in his brain.
Wonderful things – baby smiles.

Jack was called up in front of assembly at school on Friday. This was because he was “the best behaved boy” in his class/year. He got a little sticker & a lot of pride. He was chufty about it. He has been especially lovely recently. Had the occasional flare up, but nothing as protracted & as involved as he used to do with us at home. He is no angel, but Louise thinks that he has made the decision to be good at school. His reading is starting to work better for him as well – he understands & recognises things better. He is also able to write more words on his own. He filled as few lines in a notebook with “yes no yes no yes no yes no” the other day. It’s all less frustrating for him.
I wonder sometimes if we expect too much. I suspect we are probably quite quietly demanding parents, but I have no yardstick to compare.
Heh – we got Jack another coat the other day as the one recently bought did not really seem good enough for the frightful weather we have been experiencing (Old Lincolnshire saying that Louise reminded us ‘tother day: ‘February Fill Dyke’). I got it on the way home Wednesday, I think, & it was put away as I got home so as not to be noted by Jack or Louise’s mum. Louise got it out in the morning as they were about to go & Jack is under the impression that ‘a lorry came in the night’ to deliver it (as if we ordered it off t’net). We had tried to order one previously from t’net t’other day, like, but they were low on stock – so we cancelled the order when fannying about started. Louise thought it easier to flatter Jack’s assumption – so, he thinks the coat is more ‘special’ due to this phantom delivery & maybe he likes it all the more (?).
Eve has been cheekier of recent. She’s always been an opinionated little thing, but is trying to get her way more. She picks up Jack’s bad habits & runs like billio with them bath water gurgling & spitting, taking things from the fridge. She is probably the loudest member of the household, & when she is upset has really started to be piercing. High-pitched over-scream. OW! She has been getting up too early & still has not properly resolved the ‘sleeping during the day’ thing. Sometimes she just does not – gets over tired – over emotional & loud. She is also winding Jack up occasionally, which he does not respond well to (& she should know that by now). Still – that’s all part of being brother/sister. Perhaps there’s a bit of attention seeking now that Jude is here.

Catching breath as I ended up having to run a bit for the train this morning. All my own fault – prating about at home. It’s not like Jack or Eve were up. That’s 2 morning that neither of them were awake as I left.
Eve has been in the habit of waking too early of recent – so hopefully that habit is starting to break. Jude was up with Louise. It was the computer what done it (made me late). Silly me. It doesn’t help that I’m sat at a chair with a heater under it.
It was a lovely bright crisp afternoon yesterday. It’s a shame it was not consistently so, or they may have had a chance to look at our roof (sigh).

Revolting weather this morning. Thrashing wind & rain – instant soaking. Hah! What a laff! ….Only – they won’t be coming to do the roof again at this rate… At least the Summit Tunnel was not flooded again.

Busy at work again yesterday.
BT pulled a funny one changing the format of the packets sent over the network to us – which caused out RADIUS server to crash. Translation: when someone phones us to connect to us as an Internet Service Provider BT sends their request to us down the phone line. BT started to send these signals to us in a new & different format (without actually telling us they might try this) & the server that listens for these connection & checks the caller’s user name & passwords got well confused & stopped working properly – so – no one could connect – so all hell broke loose.
So – my website is still down as it was all hands to the pump to try & figure out what the hell was going on?! No time for rebuilding servers.
Oh, & we have to field calls from people disgruntled that their website is down – even though they do not have to actually pay for the service.
Good innit.
We are busy at work.

Jude near smiled at me yesterday. I was holding him in the bath & chatting to him, & he nearly smiled; an all to brief flash of a smile & a half smile. He was content.
His eyes are still blue. Whether they will remain blue, only time will tell. I can’t recall when the colour ‘sets’ as it was. They all start off with dark blue eyes, but Jack & Eve have gone hazel.
I seem to recall that my brother’s eyes changed from a green to a hazel when he was a boy. Maybe he made it up, but his impressionable younger brother took note of what he claimed.

So – I did no work in the attic over the weekend. Bad Paul – bad.

We did rearrange the kid’s room though as we are thinking that Jude might go in there as well in the travel cot. It remains to be seen that we will do this, but it’s nice to have the option, & the room seems better for it. Jude sleeps very well with us, but he will he cope on his own? He didn’t really go for the Moses Basket that much.
Louise said that he was smiling yesterday morning. He certainly seems to have moved up a notch in perception terms. Instead of focusing on a light over your shoulder, or the transition between a light & dark area he is looking more at you. Into your eyes (& the drifting off & you realise that he is not any more). He is starting to coo & gurgle a little as well. Jack & Eve love him to bits. Louise says that Eve announced that she “..Like baby Jude”. They would spend a lot more time giving him kisses if he was not out of reach.

Website is still down; has been all weekend. Weird. I know exactly why, but am not saying, as I’m not sure I’m allowed. Suffice to say the cause was not our fault.

Well – the weather has been shitty this week – so no fix on the roof. I was up there last night though doing evening work on paint stripping. Louise thinks it would be a good idea if I tried to do a ‘push’ up there for a couple of weeks. I have to agree it would be a good idea. I will not be able to concentrate so much on getting web stuff done although that is already beginning to suffer from a lack of time in general at the moment.
The diary page is in dire need of a tidy up, but minutes to spare are sparse. Noted last night that the site was down. This was due to a power cut initially, but the server that it’s based on has not recovered. Some kind of hard disk failure – so no doubt we will be fielding a lot of call from that problem at work today as well. Bah.
Fortunately I only just did a complete download of the site last week – so I do have a proper backup (phew!)

Did my work in the attic when I got home. The house was empty when I arrived, so I was able to slink off up there without anyone knowing where I was. I left the newspaper on the table as an indication to Louise I was in fact home & not prating about in Manchester buying stuff like what I’m not supposed to. Took my coat & bag up with me so I could perform the pretence of coming home, so that the kids would not think I had been up there. When I say kids, I mean ‘Jack’ as he is the one apt to want to ‘help’ in the attic. Got my bit of work done, & togged up again for the ‘just got home’ pantomime & sneaked downstairs. The kids didn’t see me, but Louise was just opening the door for Jimmy & Jill who had just arrived (They do the roof fixing). Timing or what? So – I got to look like I was arriving with them & took them up to the attic so that they could survey what was going on. Jimmy had to get onto the roof in the rain (it was pouring down again). Not something that I like the thought of too much (from a personal safety point of view). I left them to it – took the ever-inquisitive Jack & following Eve downstairs & out of the way. They followed later & said that, well; it’s going to have to take some thorough investigation, as they cannot see what’s causing it. They have, after all, fixed it up at least twice now, including redoing the lead flashing, putting silicone sealant on the stonework & all sorts of tricks. Weird. If it stops raining they’ll be able to take things up & look proper & trace back. There was some condensation last time they did this, so I guess that might have obscured the diagnosis.

Home train – slept on the morning train (I needed it). I blame audiogalaxy… or should I blame the internet in general? Heh. At least I don’t feel dead in the water now.
Just have a headache, but that’s probably due to busy at work as much as sleep deprivation. ‘Busy’ – responsibility can be landed at BT’s door.
More rain this week. Will they be able to get the roof sorted this week or will the dampness on the plaster in the attic spread the more?
bah
Going to do some more paint stripping when I get home. Pretend that I am not home & sneak into the attic, so that the kids do not get to join in the ‘nasty chemicals’ that are used for such activity.
I really should do more work in the evening, but then I really should do more work on a lot of things.
How many times do I have this discussion with myself…
Oh, I’ve put myself off now.
I am annoyed with typing (pretence?)
I shall read for a bit.
Leisure time on the way home :P