NotSheep

…and only on blogging. Nothing else is caught up at all. It’s becoming a way of life.

Yesterday’s activities required that Barney and George be at the GY Summer Scheme by 10 a.m., and since the train service seems to have been designed by someone who thinks that everybody starts work before 8.45 or after 11.30, that meant I’d to drive them in. Fortunately the traffic is much better once the schools are off, and leaving home at 9.20 left us with plenty of time. I had a quick word with one of the youth workers who runs the group, because it was George’s first time participating in their activities, and I felt it was only fair to warn him of what can happen when George’s intensity goes in a negative direction – and they were planning to spend the day on the river, doing water-sports, and I could imagine George getting wet and having a meltdown. But I’m glad to report that George coped very well – in fact, better than very well. When I collected the two of them from the train, he had a great big grin on his face and told me that it was “the best day of my life so far”. I do like his optimism

They had been out on the river for most of the day, in boats and kayaks. They did indeed get wet, but they both had spare clothes to change into, so it didn’t matter, and they came home hot and tired but happy. George was even keen to go to Sea Cadets in the evening – I’d wondered if he’d be too tired. Freddy was also keen to go – now that Cubs is over for the summer, he’s going to do Sea Cadets on Wednesday evenings until September, and then we’ll think again about Wednesdays.

Meanwhile I had tried, without much success, to find some shorts for Freddy and Toby. I managed one pair for each, plus a pair of trousers for Freddy and two pairs of pyjamas for Jack (marked down to £5 for the pair because the packaging was damaged) before giving up and heading home – and then I had my own little adventure. I was on a road with one lane in each direction, but which is reasonably busy – I was going quite slowly, because I’d just pulled out of a car-park beside some shops, when I saw a car which appeared to be driving straight towards me on the wrong side of the road. I thought it must have been parked on the wrong side and was just moving off, and expected it to veer across to the other side any second – but it didn’t. I had already come to a stop, but I flung my car into first gear and swerved as quickly as I could up onto the footpath, avoiding being hit by about two inches. The car behind me wasn’t as lucky – the woman driving it had been in second gear, and when she tried to move out of the oncoming car’s path, her engine stalled. The other car side-swiped hers, then continued on its way down the road, eventually coming to a halt against a lamp-post on the footpath on the other side. It turned out that the owner had parked it outside her house and had either not applied the hand-brake or not done it firmly enough or perhaps it had failed – but whatever, the consequence was that her car merrily took itself on a trip down the road without a driver. I didn’t know what to say when she said, “It happened to me before.” – I’d have thought the first time might be enough to make you very careful in future!

Today Barney and George were back to GY, and it turned out that George’s optimism was well-placed, because he says today was even better. They spent the day at the Community Circus School and had an absolute blast. Some of the skills they did were things they used to do when they went to Circus School once a week (before we moved house) – like scarf-juggling and doing interesting things with hats. Some of it wasn’t new but they’re older and better at it now – like walking on stilts. And some of it was brand-new, like trapeze skills. I only wish I’d been there to take some photos! Never mind – these photos of Louie with his biggest brothers, taken a few days ago, will have to do

Barney has his new glasses, which are gorgeous – I really, really like them, and will have to get a photograph of him wearing them this evening. Finding him new glasses is much easier than finding him new clothes! And there’s lots of Scout Camp packing going on – well, there’s supposed to be, although one of those who should be packing has just climbed out of the bath and is wandering about in a towel, and another is now in the shower, and another is sitting about talking. But I’m refusing to get involved – because if I do, they’ll let me!

Still playing catch-up blogging…once I finish this post and get it published, we’ll only be two days behind. Unless I don’t get this finished until tomorrow, of course.

So, Tuesday. The last day of the first half of 2009 – where the heck is 2009 going?! I started the day by trying to completely fix my partly-fixed blog* on my partly-fixed laptop** and then, after lunch, we went to the official opening celebrations of the new building for the Chinese Welfare Association. There was lots going on there, including Lion Dances and drumming workshops, and the new building is going to be a great place for all the services they offer

*My blog went haywire on an upgrade on Thursday night – nice timing, eh? – and Tim got it showing posts again but there were back-end issues and it really needed a completely fresh install, which it has now had – not that that went smoothly either, but I can live with the minor problems until the next Wordpress release. The nightlies have fixed it already, but I’m not brave enough for those.

**My laptop made horrendous noises when it returned from the hospital, then worked for a few minutes, then turned off without warning. And repeat. Scratchy got the fan working so that it stopped over-heating and turning off, but there was a lot of racket until a new fan was acquired and installed.

George’s 12th birthday was on Sunday. His birthday celebrations were a bit…well, in bits – partly because nobody had done anything to arrange a celebration (I’d told George he had to sort it out if he wanted one, and he did approximately nothing), and partly because we didn’t know what was going on with Jack.

In the end, George, Freddy and their friend R had a sleepover in the tent in the back garden on Saturday night. They enjoyed themselves, and all went well until Sunday morning when George went into total meltdown. Too little sleep, too little routine over the previous few days, too much uncertainty with Jack in hospital – and probably, although George wouldn’t want to admit it, some worry about Jack thrown in there too. But it was a doozy of a meltdown, and in the end I decided to take R home. This did not go down well with George, but it was pointed out to him that he’d had plenty of warning, and that R (or anybody else) really wouldn’t want to be around him when he’s like that. R’s mum has had a couple of challenging children herself (R included), so she was very understanding, and I told R he was welcome to come back any time he wanted.

We didn’t make firm plans for Monday until Monday morning, when we could see whether Jack was well enough to go anywhere, but he was fine, and we spent the day at the science centre. It was busier than usual, but not nearly as busy as it will be for the next two months while the schools are off, so we wanted to squeeze in a visit before that happened. We’ll be back the first week of September There were a few new exhibits too:

Jack and Toby requested the camera again, and the results were…random

Barney and I went shopping before meeting the others at the science centre. He has outgrown all his jeans and other trousers, so we went in search of some shorts and/or 3/4-length trousers, but he’s at an awkward stage. By “awkward”, I mean that he’s too big for all the kids’ clothes and too skinny for all the men’s clothes, but I also mean that he’s just plain awkward. He doesn’t care about fashion or style, and you’d think that would make him easy to buy for, but oh no…he won’t wear things if they’re too heavy, or too stiff, or too scratchy, or too rough. He doesn’t like new clothes (and I often think he’s none too keen on clean ones either). He takes about twenty minutes to try on each item you send him to the fitting-room with. Neither of us likes shopping, and I can’t say that the experience of clothing a teenage boy is making either of us change our minds. The obvious solution, of course, is to give him money and tell him to figure it out – but I know what would happen if I did that, and the end result would be money spent and no suitable clothing, or no money spent until I went to spend it anyway. In the end we found two pairs of long-ish shorts before we gave up – he’ll just have to wear those until he outgrows them or it snows.

After dinner on Monday we had birthday cake: a Dalek, topped with 12 can’t-blow-’em-out candles. Note to self: buy ordinary birthday cake candles soon.

Every time I think that life can’t really get busier…it gets busier. Right now I’m longing for a few days with nothing scheduled – and in theory, with most of the boys’ regular activities off for the summer now, that should be happening. But it isn’t – and the only way I can blog all that has happened over the last few days is to do a bit of catch-up at a time, so I’ve had to resort to writing in a text-editor, and there will be several posts over the next day or two. Unless, of course, something else happens to keep me even busier and I don’t have time to blog – which certainly seems to be current form…

The most major event, of course, was Jack’s hospitalisation. That pretty much eliminated any prior plans for Friday and Saturday, and even for Sunday, because we didn’t know until about 7 p.m. on Saturday whether he’d be staying another night. He’s been doing great ever since we got him home, although he’s still on antibiotics and still using his inhaler. I’ve an appointment to follow up with the GP on Monday, as instructed by the hospital. (”Follow up with the GP in a week,” said the nurse. “Right,” said I, “I’ll have to phone three weeks ago and organise that then.” And the nurse understood immediately.)

On Saturday morning, knowing how boring being in hospital is, and knowing how Jack does not do boring, and not knowing how long he was going to be there, I asked Freddy and George to pack a bag of things to keep him entertained. They put in a few books, Doctor Who Top Trumps, a much-beloved beanie tiger belonging to George, a Rubik’s snake and a few other bits and pieces. For my part, I packed a camera that he could play with, as well as a Zoombinis CD and my laptop – the netbooks are much more portable, but they don’t have CD drives. The laptop-plus-Zoombinis turned out to be a very good combination; it kept Jack’s attention for about five hours on Saturday (even while I was taking a photograph and trying to get him to look at the camera – his head turned towards the camera, but his attention remained firmly fixed on the laptop screen LOL )

The camera was also a hit: Jack took photos of his nurse’s badge, Top Trumps cards, his orange juice, his inhaler, his nurse, his toothpaste, Louie, his books, and himself:

I hope there isn’t a next time, but just in case, reminders to self: take a notebook and pen to write down everything that happens, the names of everyone and what they tell you; take a small camera, for entertainment purposes; take a book for yourself; take bottles of water, or at least have them in the car; remember that time as we know it doesn’t exist in a hospital setting, so that when someone says they’re “about to” do something, it might take three hours before it actually happens.

I’m ever so glad he’s home.

This is just a very quick update for those who read this blog but don’t get my Brightkite or Facebook updates. We spent all day today hoping that Jack would be able to leave hospital this evening, and although his sats had been great all day, and he had no nebulisers after 9 a.m., they were still concerned about his temperature. We were waiting from 3 p.m. for the doctor to come and review him – she eventually arrived at about 6, and said that he sounded good but felt hot. However when they actually took his temperature, it was 37.9, and while I’m not convinced that was an accurate reading, I wasn’t going to argue if it meant I could spring him

So he’s home – with lots of meds for the next few days, but he’s home, and I am very relieved. He certainly seems to be feeling better: he’s out in the back garden now, playing with George and Freddy and their friend R, who is sleeping over with them tonight – in the tent. Jack will not be joining them!

Thanks to all those who sent messages – they have been very much appreciated. I’m going to eat and crash now – it’s amazing how sitting around all day doing nothing much can leave you so exhausted!

Jack is in hospital – as mentioned in my previous post, his breathing hasn’t been good all week. This morning it got worse, and he was running a fever and clearly just not well (those who are parents will know just what I mean by that). By noon, he seemed to be getting worse rather than better, so I decided to take him to the Children’s Hospital.

I had to take Louie with me, of course, because I didn’t know how long I’d be gone (a long time, it turned out, so it’s just as well I took him). I took Barney too, because it’s quite hard work keeping a baby entertained on your own in a place like that all day, and he is fantastic with Louie, and also because it meant I could give Jack my full attention when necessary, while knowing that Louie was with someone he knows and loves.

Jack had three nebulisers in succession, with several more after that. He also had a chest x-ray, which looked pretty clear, and so they think it’s a viral infection which has triggered a flare-up of his asthma. He’s also had a dose of oral steroids and two doses of paracetamol, and has anaesthetising cream on his hand and arm in case they want to put a line in, although so far they haven’t. His temperature is down and his sats are looking fairly good even on room air. His air movement still isn’t very good though, which is why he’s now on hourly nebulisers until…well, until things improve. He ate a little at about 5 p.m., then said he was hungry when they took him to the ward about an hour later, and was given a plate of toast – but since I left shortly after 9, he’s thrown up, probably as a consequence of the coughing. Scratchy is there with him now, having driven in to meet me there after George and Freddy finished ju-jitsu.

The nurse Jack had in Casualty all afternoon was one of those no-explanation ones – the kind who seem only to be interested in actually doing medical procedures, rather than communicating with patients (or patients’ parents). She didn’t once offer any information about what she was doing or about to do, never mind ask our permission. But I kept up my routine of getting between her and Jack every time she came in and saying, “What’s this for?” or “What are we doing now?” or “What’s the plan from here?” etc, and then keeping myself between Jack and her until I’d found out the answer, and taken a minute to talk to Jack about it, and by the time he was moved to the ward, she seemed to have begun to realise I was always going to be doing this, although she still didn’t offer any information without me beating it out of her asking first. The doctor, on the other hand, was great about communicating with us – I told her I’d be questioning everything, because this is my kid and he’s my responsibility and the consequences of whatever happens are something I have to live with, and she nodded and said that was the right way to go about it. And the doctor who is on the ward this evening also seems great – when I said that we prefer to avoid meds if they’re not necessary (rather than taking the “throw everything at it just to cover all possibilities” policy that so many here seem to have) he said “Oh, absolutely!” – and he spent time looking at Jack, rather than just at the numbers on the monitor, and watched how he was sitting and moving, paying attention to how he was actually feeling. He chatted with both of us, and even came back after he’d had to go and respond to an urgent page, just to check if we had any more questions. I don’t have a lot of time for doctors who don’t treat their patients as people, and that’s particularly so when the patient is a child – I’m glad we seem to have got lucky this time.

Otherwise – I did not get to fixing my blog after last night’s oh-heck-what-has-this-done Wordpress upgrade, so there will be bits of it that don’t work as expected. I have no idea when I will get around to doing that, because tomorrow will involve going to the hospital at least once as well as taking Barney and maybe George to a barbecue, and meeting/collecting one of George’s friends who has been invited to stay over tomorrow night in the tent in the back garden – except that the tent is not actually up in the back garden, so that’s another thing that needs to be done. And then Sunday is George’s birthday – and I have no idea what our plans are yet.

Also today Barney had an appointment with the optometrist – which he’d have missed if it wasn’t for Google Calendar’s wonderful sms reminders, because I’d completely forgotten about it. His prescription is unchanged, but they told us he could get another pair of glasses for nothing, and with his summer packed as full as it is with camps and various other activities, it seemed a good idea to have a spare pair. He has chosen an absolutely fantastic pair – they bring out the colour of his eyes in an amazing way, and they are by far my favourites of all the glasses he’s ever had. And the insides of the legs on them have a giraffe-print, so Toby is going to be very, very happy (and Barney is going to have to be very, very careful where he leaves them!)

Oh, and before Jack was even out of bed this morning (well, before he was out of my bed, where he’d crashed after getting his inhalers), I had done my treadmill bit. Just as well, really, given that I don’t know when I’ll next get half an hour to do it again.

I am very disappointed in you all. You were supposed to nag me if I didn’t blog that I had done my exercise, and you didn’t (well, one person did, on facebook). The fact that I did not blog at all yesterday is no excuse

I did get on my treadmill yesterday, however – in fact I was all done by 8.30. The best thing about that was knowing that I didn’t have to think about it again for nearly 48 hours

Freddy went to the end-of-year Cub/Scout barbecue yesterday, but Barney, having had a major teen-tantrum, did not. George missed Sea Cadets for similar reasons, and it does seem that the early night did both of them a lot of good, for today was a big improvement.

Jack’s asthma has been a problem all week, but it’s been better since we realised that the inhaler he was using was empty Fortunately I’ve a spare one that I carry in my bag; it’s been used a few times but is still good. I phoned to get a repeat prescription – a process which takes 48 hours, apparently. I’m not sure I understand how the four seconds to print the prescription plus the four seconds to sign it add up to 48 hours, but there’s not much I can do about it. Oh, and you can’t order prescriptions before 11.30 a.m., even if you happen to already be talking to the receptionist on the phone. I’m just hoping they put at least two inhalers on the prescription, or I’ll have to ring and ask for more, and then I’ll have to explain why I’m asking for another one only days after getting the last one, and they’ll get all offended that I think their service is rubbish. Which I do.

Apart from dealing with the raging hormones of teens and pre-teens, and the wheezing of a seven-year-old who already acts like a teen (heaven help me when he actually is one), I’ve been playing with my camera. I do like my camera, but don’t have a lot of time for exploring what it can do, and I thought it was about time I put that right. So behold…
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Dentist for me and all the children this morning, except for Louie, who has no teeth yet. Eleven-and-a-half months old and not a tooth to be seen. I asked the dentist if I should worry about it; she said to go back with him in three months if he still hasn’t any teeth.

Our usual dentist, C, is off on maternity leave, so there’s another dentist covering – I’m glad there’s a replacement, because while I love our regular dentist, I am not at all keen on her partner. The replacement dentist was fine – not quite as good a rapport with children as C, but no problems. I’m lucky that the two dentists my children have had (C and her predecessor) have always been wonderful with them, and that the only dental treatment any of the boys has needed up to now was George’s night-time brace and that only took two weeks of wearing it to sort the problem out – so they are all absolutely fine about seeing the dentist. I’d like to keep it that way, and I know from experience that it only takes one negative experience to set a kid up with fears and phobias about dentists, so when I heard that C was away, I made sure to check with the receptionist that her replacement was good with kids. Barney went first, and has no problems, apart from a bit of crowding of his lower front teeth, which means one of them is sitting at an angle to fit behind another. He’s being referred to an orthodontist, but we’ve been told to expect a two-year wait for an appointment <:-(

Jack has a couple of very small cavities. As they're in his milk-teeth, and as he's seven, she felt it would be okay to use a sealant rather than anything more drastic, so we went ahead and did that. Jack wasn't very sure about the whole idea, but he perked up when he realised he had a cool blue light in his mouth, and even moreso when I called it a sonic screwdriver

Toby wasn't too sure at first either, but he eventually agreed to sit on my lap and open his mouth as long as he got to wear the funny glasses. He and George and Freddy were all proclaimed to have no problems at all, and the only problem I have is that lying back in the chair with that bright light above me triggers memories and leaves me very shaky - I knew to expect this though, having fallen apart after my last appointment, so I warned the dentist that I might get a bit upset and that it wasn't anything to do with her or dentistry. Deep breaths and eyes-shut-tight got me through it with only a bit of shakiness and teariness, and I had the sense to keep busy the rest of the day in case of a delayed reaction.

We met Scratchy at Ikea for lunch, had a wander around the shop, then he and Freddy went and bought barbecue food for dinner while I headed home with everyone else. Barney went on the treadmill before dinner - he's following the same programme that I’m doing – he’s much fitter than that, and much, much fitter than me, but he has offered to follow it along with me to support me. When he was done, I did a bit of brisk treadmill walking – not part of the programme, but I took the notion, and I figured I might as well make the most of it. I will do the second workout of the first week of the programme tomorrow. I am very determined – I’ve even made a new blog category for posts about getting fit, so that I can have the reward of ticking the little box when I do anything related to it. And if I don’t blog about it tomorrow evening, you all have permission to send me nagging messages.

Barney was out for the end-of-year party with SJA Cadets tonight, at a laser-quest thingy, and has come home happy and tired. The others are in bed, apart from Louie, who is over-tired, over-heated and over-sticky – much like his mum. Tomorrow is a quieter day, I think – there are some evening things happening, but we’ve no plans for during the day, so we’ll either stay in and do skool, or go out and enjoy the weather

We had an early start this morning for some reason – and when I say “we”, I mean “certain children”. First Louie woke at 5 a.m. and decided it was time to giggle and practice clapping his hands – all very amusing, but I can think of other times of day when such activities would appeal more (to me, anyway). And then by 7 a.m., several other children were up and having breakfast. Barney, being a teenaged boy, was not one of them – he likes to cling to his bed in the mornings. Yesterday he didn’t make it downstairs until 11.15, which shocked even him. But his brothers are still at that stage in which they leap out of bed to face the day…even if it’s not even really day yet. At least, not a reasonable time of day.

Anyway, with that early start, we got on with skool things very promptly, and after that was done, we got out a science kit called “Explosive Experiments”. The name of this kit made me feel that perhaps it should be done a) outdoors and b) with a certain amount of supervision. Well, the weather was pleasant, so we set up on the patio, and as Scratchy was off work, I thought perhaps he could supervise. Hm, yes, well, at least the weather stayed good.

Meet the Famous Patio Science Gang:

Why are most of them half-nekkid, I hear you ask? Is that Chicago Bulls t-shirt on George some sort of status-symbol, signifying that he, as the oldest of the four children involved in this activity, is the Gaffer? Well, no. Freddy was hot, so took off his shirt (as you do – well, I don’t, at least not usually, but some people do). And Jack decided to follow suit. And obviously Toby looked at his older brothers and thought, “Hey, they’re half-nekkid, and they’re cool dudes, so I’ll go half-nekkid too!”

The notepad on the ground, by the way, is Very Important. Not because it was used to make notes on the Experiments, or to record Results, or anything like that. It is Very Important because it’s what Freddy spent his money on yesterday in the shop at the castle. Money in Freddy’s pocket = burning hole. And notepads are always good. So it has been carried around today and used to write down Anything That Can Be Written Down – including the word “Done”, to wave in front of me to let me know he’d finished his maths this morning. But not Results of Experiments.

Freddy wore the safety-goggles. On his head, of course. I don’t think they ever, at any point, actually covered his eyes. But isn’t having safety-goggles to wear on your head and therefore make you look scientist-y the whole point of being a scientist?

Soon things were being turned green, and, uh, snot-like. George was much more concerned about the green stains on his hands than the green snot-like substance on his hands. Indeed, the latter appeared to be quite thrilling.

And then there was the volcano, which did erupt quite spectacularly, but never when the camera was on it, so you’ll have to use your imagination.

Louie watched the proceedings with interest – at least until he decided that enough was enough and it was time to attach himself to Mum and go back to sleep. Being up from 5 a.m. will do that to a boy. And his mum.




Minutes after three o’clock, Jack, having discovered it was minutes past three o’clock, went to call for his friends. I spent 20 minutes on my treadmill, which I know is not a very long time, but it’s not a bad start, given the shape I’m in, and I am determined to keep at the exercise this time in order to improve matters, fitnessly-speaking. I’ve even gone public and blogged it – that’s how determined I am. I’m not sure barbecuing every dry evening is necessarily going to help, though.

Air Cadets for Barney this evening, but no other out-and-abouts tonight. However a letter which arrived this morning has created plans for Barney and George for no less than nine days over the next few weeks – and yet another residential for Barney in August, which might (or might not) conflict with one he’s already planned to attend. He’s to find out the dates of the other one tomorrow evening (although I’d put money on him forgetting). And we all have dental appointments for tomorrow morning, so I do hope Louie doesn’t make a habit of the 5 a.m. hand-clapping thing, even if it (and he) is mighty cute.

Bye! (See what I mean about the mighty-cute thing?)

I used to blog every day, or nearly every day, and it worked quite well. I don’t know why it doesn’t work like that anymore – now I end up blogging about once a week, and either I forget half of it or there’s been too much going on and the post ends up being so long that nobody’s ever going to read to the end. I need to do something about it.

But it’s been nearly a week since I last posted, so you’re stuck with lengthy and/or half-forgotten for now.

George and Freddy, having made it right through the night in the tent from Monday to Tuesday, came inside to eat breakfast, and then went back out again. A while after that, Freddy decided he was cold, so he came in and put on a sweater, and then went back out again. They both thought it was great – so great that they decided to sleep out there on Tuesday night too. That was a bit different – there was heavy rain and enough wind to set off some car-alarms – but they still stuck it out. They came in at about 7 a.m. because Freddy was starting to suspect the tent might not be rain-proof for much longer, but in fact it stayed up in the garden until Friday and coped very well. It also survived the cat getting stuck in it on Thursday.

Toby measured himself with a metre-rule, looked thoughtful, then said, “I’m about…five metres.” Then he got hiccups and said, “I’m hiccuping…”, then, obviously trying to figure out the grammar rules, amended it to “I’m hicking up!” It reminded me of the time that Barney (then about two) was told to “Behave!” and replied, “I am being have!”

Saturday morning found us at the zoo for ridiculous o’clock – I mean, for 7.30 a.m. The reason? A longest-day-of-the-year special event in which we got to follow a zoo-keeper around the zoo as he did his morning duties. We got to visit parts of the zoo that are not open to the public, and to see lots of animals from much closer quarters than is usually possible. The keeper was great, and told us all sorts of interesting things about the animals, about the zoo, about being a zoo-keeper, etc. There were between 20 and 25 people in the group, so there was plenty of opportunity to ask questions. We’d been told the tour would take about two to two-and-a-half hours, but in fact it ran from 7.30 until nearly noon. Well worth getting up early for (but no more than once a year, thanks!)

As I think I’ve mentioned before, Toby is very keen on giraffes – but he’d never seen one in real life until yesterday. His reaction? Well, he looked at them, and then turned around and walked away a little, then turned back and looked again, then turned away, then walked over again and looked again. I think Barney said it best when he said, “He just looked at them like…like…like you’d seen God or something!” LOL I don’t think Toby had ever realised quite how tall a giraffe is, but now that he knows, it doesn’t seem to have diminished his fondness for them

Barney had to leave the zoo before the tour ended, because he had another event to attend – a Selection Day for the Youth Panel for the Commissioner for Children and Young People. They did various workshops and games and at the end each applicant nominated one other for the Youth Panel. There were about four times as many applicants as there were places available, and he wasn’t one of those chosen to join the Youth Panel, but he had a great time and is very glad he applied. It’s an annual process, and he plans to apply again next year. I had thought he might be very disappointed if he didn’t get chosen, but when he came home he was really buzzing about the whole thing.

Today we were all soooo tired, but we managed to drag ourselves out after lunch for the second day of the fencing tournament at the castle. Last time we attended the weather was sunny and warm and the competitors were battling it out all over the castle – in the keep, on the ramparts, etc. Today the weather was on-and-off drizzle, so the outdoors bits were moved into a large gazebo-type thing in one of the castle courtyards. The indoor bits were still up in the solar room and the banquet hall in the keep though, and it really does add to the event to have a backdrop like that (one of the competitors told me it’s the only fencing tournament in Europe which takes place in an active castle). The boys had a good time watching the fencing and generally running around the place.

And now it is time I was asleep, but my flickr upload is still going – and looks like it might take half the night. We took lots of photos at the zoo, you see – some of our favourites are below the fold, from gorillas and giraffes to otters and peacock chicks. We’ve been having a laugh relating the photos to the members of our family…see if you can guess which ones we chose for which person

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