Tuesday, 26 February 2013

Busy Busy


It’s been a busy few weeks but now, thankfully, I have the time to re-group and, hopefully, get some work done.

Youngest’s arm is fixed and my eldest now has a permanent brace fitted to his teeth – top and bottom.  The words, Metal Mickey, spring to mind, but bless him, he’s adjusting to it really well and so far is taking the cleaning of it, which is a bit of a nightmare, really seriously. 

And now, without trying to tempt fate, I have a clear run ahead of me without a plethora of hospital, doctors and dentists appointments to attend.

Last week was half term, and needless to say, I didn’t get much writing done.  It was also my husband’s birthday so we were busy busy, including watching Les Miserables at the cinema, which was fab, a trip to the theatre to see Phantom of the Opera (third time for us oldies, a first for the boys).  The boys loved both Les Miserables and Phantom, what cultured children! In fact, at the theatre, they were better behaved than the adults who were sitting behind us (but that’s another story).

We also had a visit to Quarry Bank Mill in Styal and The Grosvenor Museum in Chester (other children get to go to theme parks, but not mine poor things! They will thank me later in life.)

I’m looking forward to a quiet week now, applying my bottom to my desk chair and my fingers to my keyboard.
 
Just need to un-cross those fingers now

Tuesday, 12 February 2013

Lazy Sunday Mornings


Easy like Sunday morning is something I’m not familiar with.  Sundays mean homework, football matches and running around getting ready for the week ahead.
Last Sunday however, my husband was playing golf, one son was at a sleepover, and the other had his football match cancelled and was practising being a teenager by staying in bed as long as he could.
So I decided that, “if you can’t beat ‘em, you should join ‘em” and stayed in bed too.  Only my lie in included a cup of tea and a good book.
Normally I read in short bursts when I get the time, but on Sunday I decided to indulge in a long luxurious read.  It was bliss!
It’s a long time since I’ve read any Erica James books, but my mum passed some of them on to me the other week, and I’d made a start on A Sense of Belonging, earlier in the week.
Erica writes about strong, independent women, who, whilst ambitious, aren’t afraid to fall in love. Her books are also set in Cheshire, close to where I grew up, which adds an extra interest.
I forgotten how much I enjoyed her books, and this was no different.  I can honestly say I didn’t want to put the book down, so guess what? I didn’t.  I was sad to finish it though and can’t wait to start on the next when I get a minute.

Sunday, 10 February 2013

Good News!

The good news is that after a visit to the hospital on Friday, my youngest son has had his plaster removed.
 
After another x-ray, it seems that things are healing well.  He does have to wear a splint, all the time for the next two weeks and at night time for a further three, but it is fastened by velcro and it means that he can take it off when he has a bath or shower - that certainly makes things easier.
 
It also means that he'll be able to rejoin his swimming lessons soon too - although football - well I think that will take a bit longer!
 
It certainly gave my weekend a bit of a sparkle!  Hope yours had one too.
 


Tuesday, 5 February 2013

Frustrating Days

Today is turning out to be a frustrating one.  First of all I had to take my car in for it’s MOT.  Although it was booked in, I didn’t fancy hanging around so thought I would come home and try to work while I was waiting for it – better than shivering in a drafty garage!
So when I got home I thought I would just empty the washer before getting back down to some work.  But I didn’t realise that it hadn’t drained properly and although the door shouldn’t have opened, it did and flooded the entire kitchen.  I used up practically my whole collection of towels to mop up the tsunami and now I have to wash them too – fingers crossed that the washing machine will actually drain this time, otherwise I won’t actually have any towels to mop up the mess.
I don’t know about you but my washing machine has a little tap at the bottom which you can turn when the water won’t drain and it releases the water from the front.  The design on it is so brilliant that you can’t actually fit anything underneath it at the bottom to catch the water coming out – so there was another flood.
Soon I’ll have to go and pick the car up and knowing my luck today it will have failed it’s MOT – oh the joys of working from home!
And the weekend wasn’t much better – my youngest son scored a hat-trick – not in goals mind you but in broken bones.  He first broke his wrist when he was four – playing football in goal.  It was a bad break and for a while we were worried about how well it would heal.  But as he was young we were assured that his future growth would sort it out.
When he was six, he broke his other wrist – playing football – in goal.  Brilliant!  So after that we decided that perhaps he shouldn’t play in goal any more.  But he loves it so much and is really quite good so last year we decided that he could start playing again. Everything has been fine and it has reignited his love for the game.
On Saturday morning, though, his luck ran out.  Although he had hurt his arm, we didn’t think it was broken as he could move everything quite freely.  We strapped it up and hoped for the best.  But on Sunday morning when it was no better I decided that a visit to A&E was in order.  In my defence, the triage nurse didn’t think it was broken either, but when the x-rays came back, although the bone wasn’t fractured, there was a crack.  Now he’s back in plaster and I’m waiting for an appointment for the fracture clinic.
At least he’s not in pain anymore, and actually is quite enjoying being the centre of attention, but I spent most of yesterday cancelling arrangements I’d made for him for the next few weeks and he really is going to have to consider the fact that his goaly career is over.  Later today I have a visit to the orthodontist planned for my other son.  
 
But I’m managing to smile, I will take this all in my stride and tomorrow is another day.  Oh dear, think it might be safer not to get out of bed at all!
Hope you’re having better luck than me at the moment.

Things They Never Said - First Week in the Big Bad World

  Well, my debut novel Things They Never Said has been out in the real world for nearly a week now and I'm pleased to say that it seems ...