2019 in 5 words

I saw this trending on Twitter - #2019in5words - summing up your year in just five words.  Not as easy as you may think!  So not only 5 words, but five versions of 5 words:

Much to be thankful for

Full of ups and downs

Now have three little grandchildren

Trying to be more healthy

and finally

Wish this cough would go

So this is the last post of 2019, and along with my trusty companion Coco I would like to wish you a happy and healthy new year, and thank you for visiting my little blog.  

See you in 2020!

Coco, what does OUT spell?

We realised this afternoon that Coco has learnt to spell.  She was snoring gently on a blanket on my armchair, enjoying the peace and quiet after a day of guests on Christmas Day and a day of visiting at our son's on Boxing Day.   Paul mentioned that he may take her O.U.T in a minute.  She went from this

to this

in 5 seconds flat

Trust me, when that dog gives you the stares, she will never be the one to look away first!

So, Christmas is over for another year, we have the annual photo

I've been looking at this trying to work out why it doesn't look right and I've just realised that the camera has transposed the photo so the whole room is round the wrong way!  We had our daughter's parents in law here this year for Christmas Day and then went to visit our son yesterday so we've seen everyone, just not all in the same place at the same time.  Paul's mum was too frail to join us this year, leaving her own home is becoming increasingly difficult for her.  

I'm just about to go downstairs and turn leftovers into a festive turkey and ham pie, and I'm pleased to say that there is then very little in the fridge that didn't get eaten.  Does this mean that at the grand old age of 61 I have finally got the quantities of food right?!

Then onwards and upwards, back on the healthy eating regime (after I've finished off those last few chocolates of course 😉) but from the look of a message on my phone I seem to have signed up for a 'shake off that turkey, total abs workout' group that starts on Monday.  How the heck did that happen?  Fortunately it seems to be done in the privacy of your own home.  Five minutes every day for a month.  A month?!  What was I thinking?  And it's run by my Zumba teacher so there's no backing out now.  Wish me luck ...

Not long to wait now

What day of the week is it?  They are all merging into one.  At 7am this morning I was in Tesco buying all my vegetables and last minute forgotten items so I feel like it's been a long day already!  It's nice to sit here quietly with a cup of coffee and check over blog posts although I strongly suspect there is something I should really be doing in the run up to Christmas Day.

I'm trying to tell myself, it's just like a normal Sunday roast and I'm only cooking for 8 so I should not get myself stressed should I?  I have a fridge full of food, a box in the garage full of veggies, and a timetable spreadsheet co-ordinating the cooking times of each bit of the meal so there is no excuse for being either hungry or disorganised is there?  

I know from experience though that things can easily go off course!  We traditionally have a glass of fizz with our breakfast of smoked salmon with scrambled eggs - and then Paul will take Coco for a walk while I start on the cooking.  Normally things go ok until the first guest arrives and I get talking or start offering drinks and forget about that highly organised timetable!  Although we all know that no one really cares if everything gets to the table at the time I was expecting it to so I need to just take a deep breath and relax.  If I don't mention what time I think we will be eating no one will know if we are early, late or on time!

I've mentioned before that my Zumba teacher likes us all to dress up from time to time so this was my outfit for the last class before Christmas, the feather boa seemed like a good idea at the time but boy did it get hot and scratchy round my neck after the first few warm up dances.  The sequinned Santa hat also did my hair no favours after 45 minutes of exercise!  So needless to say this will not be my outfit of choice for Wednesday!

Today is going to get busier, we need to go over to Paul's mum's as we aren't going to be seeing her over the next few days, there's cakes to bake for those who don't like traditional Christmas fruit cake (me) and a dog in need of a spa day/groom!

Have a lovely Christmas, remember to factor in some relaxation time in between all the busyness and enjoy yourself!

Headline news

Another photo related post!

Our local newspaper sent photographers round to all the local schools to cover the nativity plays being acted out around the town last week.  How proud we were to see our little Leo's face in the photo that they chose for their headline post on Facebook

Never seen him look so serious!  {last angel on the right in the middle row}

First 'press cutting' to add to his memory box 😊 

Hot dogs and perfectly imperfect photos

"'twas the day before Sunday
and all through the house ..."

A certain dog was stealing all the best places to sit

Morning sun in the conservatory

Followed by evening warmth by the fire

I had noticed, while tidying up the lounge, that little toddler fingers had been playing with the 'coals' in the fireplace and they were all bunched up at the bottom.  So I rearranged them back to how they should be, turned on the fire to make sure the flames were burning properly and suddenly I was aware of a little furry body gradually pushing me out of the way so she could have all the warmth.  I'm not sure who's in charge in our house, Coco or us?  Who am I kidding, she's totally the one in charge!

The Saturday tidy up was so we could relax and enjoy having all the family over on Sunday for a late celebration of Paul's birthday.  As you know, I take a photo a day to merge into the 1 Second Every Day monthly video.  I didn't think about it before we started eating so you will have to excuse the slightly eaten plates of lasagne!  I took this photo

and then Rachel said 'Mum, you aren't in it, let's see if we can get everyone in a selfie

And we kind of did!  All children are looking in the wrong direction, Leo has reached the age of pulling a face the minute he thinks someone is taking a photo and there is no way it would be considered the perfect photo.  But it is to me.  Because it shows us all together, and that is how I consider a perfect Sunday to be.

One photo - Twenty words

How long do you think it will take Rosie to remove every ornament on the lower branches of my tree?

Not as organised as I thought!

At the beginning of each month I print off the calendar from my phone so that we have a paper copy of what's happening, when and where for the next four weeks.  I have found that this puts an end to any 'I didn't know about that' conversations that sometimes occur (otherwise known as 'I knew you weren't listening to me when I told you about that' conversations 😉)

December is one month in particular where there is a lot going on and shopping trips and days out need to be planned well in advance so we can work around the day we look after Leo and Rosie and the day where I pick up Leo from nursery and drop him at the childminders.  I had a busy week in the diary this week - and then all plans had to change.  The childminder was in hospital, Rachel and James have no annual holiday leave left so guess what?  Three days of childminding and hastily rescheduled shopping trips!  That'll teach me to think I know what's happening well in advance - when will I learn?  

Christmas festivities have started for everyone.  

Rosie and I had a Christmas jumper themed Baby Sensory session

Paul met up in London with a bunch of ex work colleagues, I went out for dinner with three girls I used to work with (we all turned up in sparkly outfits; the waitress said we were the smartest people in the restaurant, and you know what?  I think we were!). Paul went up to London with our son to visit the William Blake exhibition at the Tate Britain and when he got home it was a quick shower and change of clothes for another meal out  on Saturday night with four other couples.  Tree decorating always happens on the Sunday closest to Paul's birthday so that was Sunday taken care of.

Dare I think I know what is happening this week?  Will the childminder be given the ok to go back to childminding duties after her check up on Tuesday?  All I can say is I am taking one day at a time and building in lots of wriggle room room for last minute changes.  Meeting up for drinks with some more ex work colleagues at the local pub on Monday evening, party themed last ever baby sensory for Rosie on Tuesday, Wednesday is ominously clear, Paul's birthday is on Thursday, which is also the day of the General Election.  Results will be in on Friday the 13th.  Is that significant I wonder?!!!

Also on Friday it is Leo's first nativity play.  It looks like his daddy is going to miss it as he has to be in Manchester on business on Thursday and is staying up there overnight and it's looking like he won't be back in time.  So 'someone' is going to have to use that second ticket aren't they?  I mean, Rachel will need someone there to keep an eye on Rosie and distract her if she starts playing up, so I suppose I may have to go.  Which will mean I'll be the emotional wreck trying to hold back the tears.  There's something about the sight and sound of tiny children dressed up as shepherds and angels singing Silent Night that gets me every time.  Leo has been practising his carols very seriously and I love the fact that they have all been taught (yes, even the three year olds) to sing 'We wish you a merry Christmas' whilst doing the verses in sign language.  Must remember to take tissues with me.

A sentence a day in November

November - The month where I start by saying I refuse to start thinking about Christmas too early and end the month starting to panic as everyone else has finished shopping and I haven't even started!

Day 1 Bit of a boring start to the month as I seemed to spend the day catching up on household chores that have slipped under the radar while I was ill, the photo book from our holiday arrived, lovely memories.

Day 2 Although England reached the Rugby World Cup final in Japan, they were beaten by South Africa so a disappointing start to the day but ended it nicely with friends coming over for drinks in the evening

Day 3 Sunday lunch with M-I-L and Rachel and family, first time in about a month - M-I-L was so pleased to see her great grandchildren, it really did brighten her up.

Day 4 In the words of Britney Spears 'Oops I did it again ...' bought some gorgeous sparkly shoes from Marks and Spencer which will be perfect for going out over the Christmas period and any other time (whoever is in charge of shoe design at the moment at M and S gets my vote!)

Day 5 Childminding day and a trip to Baby Sensory where the theme was 'Under the Sea' 

Day 6 Had my flu jab at the local pharmacy this morning (I'm five years too young to get a free NHS one!)  also ended up having to wash my car due to some very large bird leaving some very large bird poo on the back windscreen and all down the back - disgusting - I tried just hosing it off but ended up cleaning the whole car.

Day 7 Zumba! 

Day 8 Went to Cambridge and unexpectedly bought a few Christmas presents - had friends over for drinks in the evening

Day 9 One of the volunteers that Paul works with at our local Country Park invited all the committee members and their wives to his home for a meal - I didn't know any of the other people there so I have to admit that I wasn't really looking forward to it but, as often happens, we actually had a really nice evening, everyone was lovely and friendly.

Day 10 Thought we had a quiet Sunday with just the two of us, then Max turned up for Sunday lunch (along with his mum and dad!) and we met up with Rachel and her family over the park so it ended up being a great family day.

Although this photo is predominately Rachel and Leo on a zip wire, you can also see (right to left) Jon with baby Max in his sling, Sophie, James with Rosie in her buggy, Paul and Coco!

Day 11 Next week Sophie's sister is getting married and I am going the the venue to look after Max behind the scenes so she and Jon can relax and enjoy the festivities - the venue is nearly an hour from us and in a place I have never been to before (fantastic name of the village - Shingay cum Wendy) and as I have no sense of direction and don't always trust a sat nav today we did a trial run so I know where I am going.

Day 12 Childminding day - Rosie seems to have taken a shine to a little boy called Alex at Baby Sensory, they crawl into the middle of the room together and then sit opposite one another and stroke each other's face, (cue lots of 'aaah' from all the other mums!) #verycute

Day 13 My author friend has a new book published today so I went to her book launch at our local Waterstones store - also Coco went to groomers and had her festive photo taken

Day 14 Zumba - always a good start to a Thursday

Day 15 Started decorating the dining room ...

 ... and Paul had an hour long dentist appointment for root canal work 😱 

Day 16 More decorating, walls are now done, just a door left to paint now

Day 17 Finished knitting a little cardigan to send to the NICU hospital 

Day 18 Another trial run to the wedding venue using a different route - this was was much more direct, I feel like I may actually find it myself now - celebrated with a coffee and hot sausage sandwich at a local farm shop

Day 19 Belated Children in Need themed Baby Sensory today

Day 20 Had a manicure for the first time in months!

Day 21 Rosie's first birthday - the time has flown!

Day 22 Babysitting Max at Natalie's wedding, happy to report that he was very well behaved and I found my way home again even in the dark!

Day 23 Went into town and tried out a new cafe/deli for mid morning coffee - will definitely be returning, it was lovely!

Day 24 Zumba 'Christmas' lunch followed by Rosie's birthday party - Rachel made a fabulous cake

Day 25 Went with a friend to the cinema to see 'Last Christmas' - we both really enjoyed it and the George Michael music throughout was perfect!  Even Andrew Ridgeley is in a scene right at the end!

Day 26 Childminding day - baby sensory in the afternoon, only two more sessions to go before Rosie is too old for that group.

Day 27 A totally unsuccessful shopping trip into a nearby town - I'm trying hard to shop locally this year to support local business rather than internet shopping but need to have more of an idea of what I'm looking for before I head to the shops!

Day 28 Zumba!

Day 29 Babysitting for Rachel in eve, when I tried to get in my car to come home all the door handles had frozen shut #winteriscoming

Day 30 Went to friends for dinner, car windscreen totally frozen when we came to go home but at least the doors opened!

Ready for the monthly video round up? 1 Second Every Day

And if you fancy seeing what other people have been doing this month, or if you want to join in yourself, here's the place with the links! (I may be a day early in sharing this so if that's the case, please come back again tomorrow 😉)

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Last Christmas ...

... I gave you my heart ...  

Oh how sad I was when I heard that George Michael had died - I absolutely loved his music.  So when I heard that there was a film that had all his music for the soundtrack I was definitely going to watch it.  Even though it got terrible reviews in the press!

Yesterday I went with a friend to see it and even though I have to admit it wasn't the best film I had ever seen, we both really enjoyed it.  Naturally the soundtrack is fantastic and at times brought a tear to my eye.  I did actually get to see George in concert once and it was absolutely the best concert I have ever been to - what a voice and what a performer.

It's been a busy few days over here in Deb's World.  On Friday I went to a wedding as baby Max's 'plus one'.  Our daughter in law, Sophie, was bridesmaid at her sister's wedding so I went along to look after the littlest best man so Jon and Sophie could relax and enjoy the festivities.  It all went remarkably well!

To say I was apprehensive is the understatement of the year.  Not about looking after Mr Adorable, but the actually getting to the venue and then getting home again in the dark.  You see the venue was quite literally in the middle of nowhere.  Here's a google map as proof

See that little dot in the middle of all the farm land?  That's it.  It was in a village called Shingay Cum Wendy.  There must be some history behind such an unusual place name.  I say it's a village, but I'm not sure if a few farm houses and a wedding venue equal a village!  I freely admit that I have no sense of direction and a deep distrust of sat navs so we had to do a couple of trial runs beforehand so I knew where I was going.  Trial one was a disaster.  The sat nav took us deep into farm land along single track 'roads' with railway crossings in the middle of nowhere.  When we finally got to the venue, we sat in the car park and Paul looked at a map to see how he would have gone without technology getting involved.  The return journey was better.  So a week later we did the trial run again, ignoring sat nav, with me driving and him just being there for moral support.  It was much better and I felt reasonably confident that I could get there and back in one piece.  So imagine how I felt a few days later when I saw a road work message on a Facebook page that said that a road which formed part of my journey would be closing at 10pm Friday evening and the detour would add another half hour onto my journey!  Fortunately, on the night the roadworks were rescheduled so the road was open - phew!

Then Sunday I had my pre-Christmas Zumba party lunch at a local golf club.  It was really good and naturally with 52 'midlife' ladies who enjoy a bit of Zumba, there was no room on the dance floor once we had eaten our meal.  I think the singer performing the after lunch show could hardly believe his luck getting such an enthusiastic audience!

From there I had to quickly get to Rosie's first birthday celebration.  Leo was naturally the most excited person there and monopolising all of Rosie's new toys.  Rachel had spent so much time on the birthday cake

So that was why things have been a bit quiet on the blog front - I've either been out celebrating, or recovering from it all!  This weekend looks like being a bit quieter.  Watch this space ...

Can you Caboodle?

Attention all book lovers!

Have you seen the annual book challenge on the National Book Tokens website?  They have a picture that includes clues to 20 books.  It's compulsive and challenging and good fun.  There's a mix of children's books, adult best sellers and classics - you just have to guess the book by the drawing.  I'm only up to 10 of the 20 so far, I need to get my thinking cap on!  Let me know if you decide to join in too, and let me know if you can work out what the blue car with the white wedding ribbon refers to!

It's been a busy few days here, we decided to decorate our dining room and am pleased to say that the paint is dry, the curtains are back up and all the glasses are back in the display cabinet.  We'd emptied them all out onto a kitchen unit and when I came down to make a cup of tea this morning it looked like we'd had a massive party the night before.  It's freshened the room up and whilst it's been a busy couple of days doing it non stop, it's nice to know it's all clean and tidy in time for the Christmas festivities.

Talking of which ... I ordered my turkey today - which means it must be getting closer! When I start my proper 'to do' list I will be happy to be able to tick one thing off straight away.  Well, two things actually as I have bought some Christmas cards too - this year I decided that instead of adding to the profits of one of the department stores who give about 5p per pack to charity, I would buy direct from one of the charity shops in town where the charity gets 100% of the cost.  

There's someone else in the house who's getting ready for next month, Coco had her official Christmas photo taken when she was at the groomers on Thursday

  
This is a bad time of year to have a white dog - those paws won't stay that clean for long!

Six degrees of separation

They say that we are only six, or fewer, social connections away from anyone else.  I'm beginning to think it is true!  It always seems that whoever you meet knows someone that knows someone who knows you.  

Today a lady who I've never spoken to before came up to me in the Zumba class and said 'oh, I found out at the weekend that we have a mutual friend, you used to work with her at the school' and this happens so often.  The town we live in isn't particularly small but it does seem that we all have a lot of mutual acquaintances.  

On Saturday the leader of the volunteer group that Paul works with at our local Country Park invited all the committee and their wives for dinner at his house.  I was seated opposite a guy who is new to the committee and I've certainly never met him before.  We were chatting about where he had lived before he moved to Stortford and he said he moved here from Broxbourne.  "That's a coincidence" I said, "I used to work in Broxbourne".  I had worked for a travel tour operator called OSL and Wings and we were based in a large tower block on the High Street there so I knew he would have known about the company.  He was describing where he lived in relation to the OSL building and it sounded familiar.  Very familiar.  Turns out he was the neighbour of the lady who was our office secretary who was, and still is, a very good friend of Paul's cousin.

It's quite an interesting thing to think about and I have two rather famous connections which are both less than six people away!  My son Jon went to school with a boy who used to live opposite a family who had a son who was very keen on football.  In four small steps I can link myself to David Beckham!  

But possibly one of the most unusual short connections is this one - my son is married to Sophie, whose dad designed a website for the Dalai Lama.  How obscure eh?

The lady who lives opposite me has a granddaughter who goes to a local gymnastic class and when she went to watch an end of term display, she was chatting to Rod Stewart and his wife who were there as their son was in the same class.

Do you have anyone famous within six social connections to you?  Think about it, I bet you do!

One photo -Twenty words

Just when I think I know Cambridge really well, I turn a different corner and find a new quirky place.

A sentence a day in October

I'm always a bit early to the SAD link up which should be on the first Tuesday of the month but I like to post it early in the new month so please excuse my impatience!

October did not have the best of starts so let's see how the rest of the month unfolded shall we?

Day 1 Seem to have woken up with a cold but still had fun with Rosie at Cowboy week at Baby Sensory but the day ended with me having to go and interrupt Paul's badminton game in the evening as we had a call to say his mum had had a fall.

Day 2 Went to visit a friend in the afternoon to hear all about her recent holiday in Corfu, also baked a lemon and poppyseed cake.

Day 3 Back to Zumba and it felt so good!  Oh I had missed having a good dance to some cheerful 'disco' music (I'm talking about you Justin Timberlake and Pharell). A phone call in the evening to say Paul's mum had fallen again.

Day 4 I spent the day knitting a hat for Max.  

Paul spent all morning at his mum's with the nurse and doctor visiting and they agreed she needed to be admitted to hospital.  Fortunately the one closest to where we live, about 15 mins drive away from us) not the one closest to her (about an hour's drive away from us).

Day 5 Now in addition to a cold and cough, I also have raging conjunctivitis 😒 Paul visited his mum along with Rachel and Jon and I kept my germs well away.

Day 6 Jon brought Max with him for Sunday lunch as his wife had to go into where she used to work for a 'keep in touch' day.  Never one for missing out on a get together, Rachel brought her family round too - it was lovely to have them all here to take our minds off the problems with M-I-L.

(Snuggling with a warm sleepy baby is good for the soul)

Day 7 Feeling poorly myself but visited Mother in Law in afternoon, she does look very frail

Day 8 My childminding day - brilliant aerobic workout swinging Rosie around at Baby Sensory

Day 9 Opened the wardrobe in Rachel's old bedroom and found a jacket I had bought in the Spring Sales and then forgotten about - result!

I had also forgotten that the sleeves were about 2" too long so spent the morning with my trusty sewing machine making it good to wear.

Day 10 Took my car to the tyre shop as a warning message came up on the dashboard and discovered that a nail had punctured one of the rear tyres

Day 11 Went to friends for dinner in the evening - left earlier than we would normally stay as I wasn't feeling brilliant.

Day 12 Woke at 3.40am feeling very poorly

Day 13 Woke at 3.10 am and went downstairs to try and sleep on the sofa so I didn't wake Paul with my coughing

Day 14 Enough is enough!  Woke at 2 am today - went to the doctor's sit and wait clinic this afternoon and got medicine

Day 15 Only 24 hours into the antibiotics (I have chest infection and sinusitis) and I feel horrendous

Day 16 Had to give up on antibiotics as the side effects were worse than my original symptoms

Day 17 First day of new antibiotics - please let these ones be kinder to me.  Mother in law discharged from hospital, Paul very involved in trying to organise the right timings for her care visits.

Day 18 Daughter rang to say her washing machine has broken, can she bring her washing round as Leo has developed a sickness bug and there is a LOT of washing to be done

Day 19 Should have gone to our daughter in law's surprise 30th birthday lunch in Cambridge but I am still too poorly

Day 20 I think I may be starting to improve - knitted the green version of my Traffic Light hats for the NICU at Addenbrookes hospital

Day 21 Actually left the house and drove into town this morning - something I would normally take for granted becomes the highlight of the day!

Day 22 Our first Christmas invitation - Boxing Day lunch at our son's house - yes please!

Day 23 Looked after Rosie and Leo as Rachel has caught a horrendous sickness bug

Day 24 Caught up with the housework I haven't felt like doing - everywhere feels fresh and tidy again

Day 25 Went into town and bought myself some fab patent leather loafers

Day 26 Finally uploaded our holiday photos to the Photobox website to make a photobook of our stay in Dubrovnik

Day 27 Sunday lunch at my cousin's house - what a treat!

Day 28 Met Jon, Sophie and Max for brunch in Saffron Walden - good to catch up on a few Max cuddles

Day 29 Childminding day so lots of Duplo games and puzzles 

Day 30 Hair cut - boy does that feel better

Day 31 Zumba with a halloween theme - you're never too old to dress up!

Here's a 1 second a day version of the month

Are you joining in?  Everyone's welcome, add your link here 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Back on the road

... the road to recovery that is!  Whatever this bug was it really took a hold of me and I can only hope that if it comes my way again, my immune system will remember I already had it and send it packing.

But the good news is that 

1 - I managed to finish the other traffic light hat

Being modelled by our old Cabbage Patch doll

2 - I had the energy to help build and play in a rather elaborate den

 The entrance to it is via a path of cushion stepping stones so that the crocodiles don't get you on the way in

3 - We all managed to get out in the fresh air for a nice dog walk, until someone's legs started aching and he needed a piggy back ride

4 - I had the energy to go into town for a browse.  Went into Marks and Spencer to get a loaf of their delicious mature cheddar and Red Leicester bread and also came out with a snowsuit for Max, some leggings for Rosie, a fox shaped gingerbread biscuit for Leo and these rather lovely loafers

5 - I am well enough to go with Paul to my cousin's for Sunday lunch along with my sister and brother in law.  She is such a character, I know it will be a fun afternoon with lots of laughs.  

Fingers crossed that the coming week sees even more improvement - I hope everyone else is keeping well and that no germs have been shared by visiting my blog!

On the mend

I'm not saying that it's been a very long time since I left the house, but when as I reversed my car off the drive this morning, I noticed that a spider had spun a web over the lens of my reversing camera lens!  That gave me a bit of a shock when it showed up on the screen.

🕸🕷🕸🕷🕸

Boy did it feel good to be out.  Who knew that a grocery trip to Waitrose could be a highlight to a day?  So it seems the second batch of antibiotics like me more than the first ones did and I can finally see progress.  Hooray!

One good thing to come out of my enforced home confinement was that I have finished another of the traffic light hats

and have today started on the yellow one

With thanks to Snapchat for giving me a bit of colour to my poor washed out complexion!

Hair cut day on Wednesday and I cannot wait - I really need a bit of self care and a hair cut and a few highlights should make me look a bit better too. The trouble is that I've felt so poorly that I am now feeling 'Right, I am fed up with looking and feeling like this, let's do something different' which could go very wrong or it could be just the boost I need.  What do you think?

Watch this space ...

What came next

'What's next?' I asked in my last post.  There were a lot of negative things going on and we were all hopeful that things would start to get better.

We were wrong.

My cough and cold got worse so I went to the doctors and he said I had a bad chest infection and sinusitis.  He prescribed antibiotics. Surely now I would start to get better?

Wrong.  The side effects of the antibiotics were far worse than the symptoms I had gone to see the doctor with.  So much so that after two days of taking them I had to call the surgery to ask for a call back appointment.  The doctor who called said I should stop taking them, give my body 24 hours for them to get out my system and she faxed across a new prescription to the pharmacy.  I must be honest and say I've given myself 48 hours before starting the new ones today - fingers crossed.  I don't often have antibiotics (last time was 2014 apparently) but I have had these ones before so I'm hoping I'll be ok with them.

Mother in law stayed in hospital until yesterday.  Apart from old age, there really is very little wrong with her, she's had CT scans and daily blood tests and all seem ok.  So Paul went to pick her up and take her home, she has a care package set up so will have carers pop in three times a day so he waited for the carer to arrive and then came home.  Within an hour of him arriving home she called to say she'd had a fall and couldn't get up.  Back he went.  Turns out the carer washed up a mug and plate and left it draining on the side.  MIL could not bear the thought of her kitchen being 'cluttered up' with all that washing up not put away and had gone in to dry it up.  She's been in bed for the last 2 weeks, hardly getting up at all and her legs simply don't have the strength to stand up unaided for any amount of time.  Let's see what today brings ...

On Tuesday we were woken by Coco running up and downstairs at 2am so I went down to let her out and guess what?  She's got an upset stomach too!  Scrambled egg and poached chicken for her for a couple of days.  Then yesterday I had Rosie and Leo for the day and Leo had decorated some Minnion cupcakes, left one too close to the side of the table, Coco thought it was her birthday and swallowed the little cake in one gulp.  Quickly escorted outside as it was obvious that the cupcake was never going to be digested and sure enough, back it came, still in one piece.

Let's just say that looking after these two munchkins at times this week have been the one thing guaranteed to make me smile

This young chap went to his first fancy dress party last weekend

And this young lady enjoyed discovering Snapchat with me

Right- it's a new day, and let's see if I can find anything TGIF to mention.


Trusting that these new antibiotics will kill the germs in my body and not try to poison me like the first ones did

Grateful for the care shown to MIL in hospital and the speedy way in which the NHS have been able to sort out a package of care in the hope that she can remain in her own home as long as possible.

Inspired to just sit, relax, get the wool out and start on my next traffic light hat

Fun this one's harder, I think the most fun I can anticipate in the next few days is watching this weekend's Strictly Come Dancing.  What a good bunch of celebrities they have this year.

What's next?

In the last 10 days I have had a cough, a cold, conjunctivitis in both eyes, my 92 year old Mother in law had 3 falls and is now admitted to our local hospital and just to top things off ...

On Tuesday a warning message came up on my car to say that the tyre pressure in the back passenger tyre was low.  When we checked it on Wednesday, instead of being up to 2.2 bar pressure, it was 0.8.  So today I took the car down to the local tyre company ...

This nail eventually cost me £168.  😭

Who needs aerobic classes?

Every Tuesday afternoon Rosie takes me to her Baby Sensory class.

Apparently it's the best place to go to get to know people by poking them in the eye.  This seems to be the main method of greeting other small children, crawl towards them, push yourself into sitting position, reach out - and poke them in the eye.  They all seem to do it and hopefully it's something she will grow out of before she gets into trouble.

I am the only grandparent there.  All the rest are much, much younger than me (by about 30 years!) but are very friendly and welcoming.  Rosie is in the upper limit of the age group - it's aimed at 6 - 13 months old.  The younger ones who can't yet sit up are sitting targets for finger poking as they lay prone on the floor and I'm getting quite fast at crawling across the floor to retrieve Rosie before finger meets eye ball.  

It really is good exercise for everyone and I'm sure I use up as many calories as Rosie does.  Yesterday, however I think I was pushed to my limit.

"Today we are going to stimulate our babies' senses by swinging them through the air"

I looked at Rosie, and wondered a) how much she weighed and b) how much swinging was going to be involved.  Oh she loved it alright.  Picked her up, got her into a Superman position, swing to the right, swing to the left, now up in the sky, now down to the ground, right, left, up, down ...

"Wasn't that fun?  Shall we do it again?"

What?  Again?  I was just congratulating myself on surviving what was probably the most difficult work out I've done in years, and now she wants me to do it again?  Rosie's endorphins may have been flowing but poor nanny was feeling knackered.  Oldest adult there + chunkiest baby = I'm going to ache tomorrow.

It'll take me six days to recover just in time for the next session - wish me luck!