Monday continues

Bear has been sent home with the dire rear.  He is generous with his germs, I am flagging.  On top of all the problems with uncle over the weekend (doing much better, thank goodness) I am feeling a bit low.

Something is definitely wrong.  I remember that I dreamed vividly but sadly I only remember that I was chased by a dinosaur that was wearing a pink knitted cardigan with flower buttons.  This sort of dream is usually a sign that I need a bit of a break.

School rules mean that bear has to be home at least tomorrow and as his tummy still seems to be a bit challenged then I suspect it will be a day or two more.  I expect to see a lot more about nerf guns.

It could all be worse.  All I need to do now is convince bear that having a drink of water or squash is not for wimps.

Bear is Lovely

Bear bought me loads of candles, a porcelain teaspoon which I have coveted

And made a huge fuss of me.

Uncle slept through my visit.

I don't deserve bear, I really don't.  He is just so lovely.  I feel very blessed.

Questions Mothers Have to Ask

"Why is my dishwasher manual hidden under a pile of your old dressing up clothes?"

I'll ask bear when he comes back from his trip to the cinema with DH.  I'm not expecting much of a reply.

I am in Big Trouble

Bear is watching Gordon Ramsay on YouTube.  He wants to try out all the recipes.  Or rather, he wants me to try out all the recipes while he supervises.

I don't have a chance.

I didn't drop it down the stairs

And I forgot to take a photo.

There has been a heavy blanket chest in bear's room for ages.  However things keep getting stacked on top of it, so it just doesn't get used.  It was full of out of date, too small dressing up clothes.  We have moved one new storage unit up into bear's room and now we needed space for another one that would replace the chest and actually be used.  There is one waiting as I type, sitting under the living room window looking smug (and full, but that's another story!).

In a random moment I emptied the chest and asked nice Mr Next Door to take it downstairs for me.  He promised me that he would but he needed to help out a friend with a tricky problem and a deadline first.  In an even more random moment I decided to take the blanket chest down myself.

There should be a word for that moment half way down the stairs when you realise that you are humping something seriously hefty and you have bitten off more than you can safely chew.  It's that moment when you pause half way with a piece of solid wooden furniture wedged half way down and think - am I going to be stuck here for hours and do I have my phone on me to call for help, although to be fair the last time I managed that it was a metal storage unit that was slightly taller than me.  Today I was staring at the door at the bottom of the stairs and wondering how cross DH would be if I crashed into it.  It is a solid blanket chest, constructed from planks and heavy iron hinges.  The door at the bottom of the stairs wouldn't have had a chance.  However I am now incredibly smug as I got the blanket chest and me safely down the steps and out into the garden.

Nice Mr Next Door was happy to take it off my hands, together with the enamel potato bin that I had lusted after and bought in a moment of weakness and then had to watch it go rusty.

So that is one solid blanket box that needed restoration but is probably vintage and one definitely antique set of drawers out of the house and mdf and IKEA self assembly in.  I am glad we sent the drawers to Emmaus.  They do such good work and the thought of trying to work out how to get it fit to sell and the delay in getting rid of it was daunting.  It was a lovely piece, but too big for the house really and not what was needed for what we need to store now.  The blanket box was always a bit of a nuisance as in theory we should have been able to do all sorts with it, but it never happened and now we have a space that can be used properly.

Now I am off to visit uncle in the hope I can find him awake at this time.  

Need a talking to

I visited uncle this morning after dropping bear off at school.  He didn't know where he was.  I am not entirely sure that he recognised me.  He only woke up briefly then went back to sleep, just like yesterday.  I spoke to the nurse and uncle is a bit confused at the moment.  There is no guarantee when he will be awake.  I'm going to try going up at lunch time, when he should be awake after a meal.  This is a foul time of day for me, as it chops the day up awkwardly.

I picked bear (completely exhausted) up from school, where a notice taped to the door said that all children in bear's class needed to have stuff like jogging bottoms etc as the planned visit from football coaches would be there tomorrow.  In other words, less than 24 hours to make sure he had the school leggings.  He doesn't, as they are not generally used.  I am not impressed.  The poor lad will be in jogging bottoms, but at least he will have warning.  There was no note sent home, but there was a note on the poorly advertised school site.  I suspect there will be plenty of kids out in the cold with shorts and no trainers.

I started typing this but it has been a bit stop start as bear has lost the rubber from the end of his pencil and the world has ended.  He really needs to get some extra sleep, but is refusing vehemently.  I am wondering if 4.30pm is too early for strong drink.

I'm finding it hard to find the positive at the moment.  I think I will slink away and see if I can dig out a good attitude from somewhere.

Uncle has a phone

Uncle has his own phone back.  Sigh.

9.40pm last night our phone went.  As no-one we know phones that late DH shot to the phone.  It was uncle.
"Where are you?" He asked when DH passed me the phone.  "I'm just sitting here on my own, no-one is coming near me."
"I can't do much about that at nearly ten o'clock at night." I said as deadpan as I could manage.
"Is it night time?  I thought it was ten o'clock in the morning."

To his credit uncle was a bit embarrassed when he realised and got off the phone very quickly.  I expect this is not the last of such calls.  I am so glad that he isn't in sheltered housing and that we managed to get him to residential.

Another Busy Day

I am really tempted to break my resolution of not using ebay in Lent.  Bear has, predictably, lost a screw from one of his guns.  As a very unhandy female I did not expect to be carefully screwing a gun together - especially one where I didn't know what it ought to look like.  I think a bag of mixed screws is probably going to be a good idea, with a set of small screwdrivers that are entirely bear's to lose or otherwise and some very cheap meccano knock offs.

Uncle is very grumpy as well.  We can't find the charger for his tablet, so he is complaining about being dumped and left.  Sigh.  I took him a rosemary plant in a pot this morning, and I've booked his paper to take up.  As it is I am still waiting for the adapter for the air thingy that I want in my room as I couldn't tell until too late with Amazon that it was coming from Hong Kong - and the room is still giving me a few problems with dust/mold etc.  If I need a charger in a hurry to protect the staff at his residential home I need to be able to filter for UK only.

We got rid of a chest of drawers to Emmaus, but only just.  The drivers were lovely but the road was blocked.  It is getting a bit silly.  I am starting to arrange with my lovely neighbour (who is rather at the mercy of some of his friends leaving cars randomly) when I get deliveries, so I have a fighting chance of getting a delivery van nearish my home.

And speaking of deliveries, I looked on Approved Food but there wasn't that much I wanted.  I am not sure I will bother this month.

However we have got rid of something else clogging up the house.  We will be replacing it with different but more suitable storage, and I think that means a better feel to bear's room.  We can take the opportunity to get rid of some stuff as well (bear permitting).  Despite bear's best efforts, the house is getting emptier.

Bit shaky

DH had a day off and we were starting towards IKEA.  Just as we were heading down the dual carriageway and nearly at the roundabout we suddenly found ourselves facing a 4x4 coming the wrong way down the carriageway at speed.  DH managed to get us out of the way in the nick of time.  Behind the 4x4 but on the right side of the road were a lot of police.

We missed being hit by a 4x4 driven at high speed by only a few inches.  We have been shaken all day.

Just feeling very lucky.

A screw loose

Bear has found a screwdriver.  Bear has worked out how to unscrew the incredibly expensive nerf guns, and I have said that he can go ahead on the strict understanding that if anything that goes wrong it is entirely his own fault.  Nothing has gone wrong yet.

I am still, however, incredibly nervous.  Bear is desperate to unscrew anything.  We are not a household of natural tinkerers (apart from father who doesn't bother so much these days) but bear wants to take things apart.  So far nothing has fallen to bits so bear is restraining himself a little.  Part of the problem is that he has watched videos of people unscrewing nerf guns.  I have mentioned several times that they have more money than sense but I think that fell on deaf ears.

In the end we decided to go to Clearances at Forge Lane, which is a warehouse full of house clearance stuff.  Bear thought it was wonderful, and father treated bear to yet another gun which he can unscrew safe in the knowledge that it didn't cost £30 or more of hard earned pocket money.  I was having a wander around the elderly electricals but I didn't see anything suitable for bear.  I didn't see any sort of construction kits either, though bear also brought home an elderly transformer toy which he thought was wonderful.

While we were there I succumbed to a trolley.  I didn't need it but it will be perfect to replace the two drawer filing cabinet currently between the chairs of me and father.  I thought it would be fine for £35.

I am going to have to ration my trips there, as it is a very tempting place.  However next weekend we go to Headingley and the charity shops to look for meccano or something else that bear can unscrew.

Writing

My weekly spell at the writing gym prompted by Write on Edge and the picture above gave this.

Bear is feeling much better and was happily stuffing his face.  He visited Toys R Us with his saved up pocket money and brought home yet another dratted nerf gun.  There was some sort of 'event' going on, but the report I got was a bit lukewarm.  I was quite glad, to be honest.  I am not in a hurry to encourage bear with these.  Then bear visited uncle and both had a brilliant time.

I am off to snuggle down with DH to watch Grimm.  A perfect end to a lovely day.

Just popping in

Lots of bright sides today.  I visited uncle in his residential home and he seems happy.  There is sunshine.  Bear is in a good mood.  The road is almost okay again (though still a lot of barricades).  I have even remembered to get something out of the freezer for dinner.

Long may this continue!

Bear had a good parents evening

We are really proud.  The teacher actually said he had academia written all over him.   My little bear!  He has done the exams he should have done in May in February and will be doing the next stage in May when most of the rest of the class will be sitting the normal stage.  And I found that there is a healing well that I didn't know about in the village on which I based the Forgotten Village.  This was a nice surprise, though I should stress that the only thing the two places really have in common is a very vague half street and some lovely people.  There are no vampires or werewolves there, honest. 

On the other hand, well, where do I start.  Father had a polyp removed from his bowels and they found some cancerous cells.  As he is being referred to six monthly check ups I am not as worried as I could be, but it is a bit of a concern.  Bear is much recovered, and completely resistent to homework, even on training days.  Today he was happily working on an English book for the year above him, but try and get him to write out half a dozen words three times each and it feels like the ceiling is falling on me.  To my utter relief he is back at school tomorrow.  I am not so keen on him wearing his very new taekwondo kit (Sport Relief), but it is a good advert for his teacher.  Bear has been very clear that the pound that he needs for the privilege is not, under any conceivable circumstances, coming out of his pocket money.

I have had some spectacular failures in the kitchen in the last few days when I wasn't sure about fitness of meat, then I was convinced about unfitness of meat, and I left the iron on all night.  I haven't been able to test the iron much today because apart from bear insisting on my company the electric went off at 5.30am.  Apparently something in the street light blew up which meant that the power supply to us and our neighbours was interrupted and the street is now full of barricades, mounds of earth, bits of tarmac, diggers plus thirteen separate cars that nice Mr Next Door is working on and it is a bit congested.  It is slightly reassuring that there is some basis in science for the times when the internet went off every time the street light came on, so that is something.

We are nowhere near in the sort of state that some poor people have been in over the last few months, especially in places like Somerset, and we have probably saved a few pennies on the electric, but it has been a little depressing.  I also have boxes of dirty china all over my living room to sort out from uncle's home.  It is waiting until tomorrow. 

But there is some incredible good news - uncle is up in Leeds!  I am so relieved and happy and will be able to visit him tomorrow. 

Diet Fail

The diet I was trying was one of those shake ones and a very low calorie diet.  I'd heard it recommended by bear's martial arts teacher who is red hot on nutrition.  I now feel really ill, like I do on all very low calorie diets.  I could be stoic and just keep going, but I have a bit much on at the moment,  so I am going to see what else I can come up with.

Bear is in school today but I expect a very tired bear coming home.  I am bracing for impact, in fact.  But he is so much better.  It's normal for little ones, they get poorly, their mothers (and fathers!) go frantic with worry and then they are better.  I am quite relieved bear is back in school as yesterday I got caught up in a very complicated game where at one point the Dam Buster Squadron were bombing a group of Allosaurus and I wasn't keeping track of everything so well.  There was also a very heated discussion about whether the Ice Age came before or after the Stegosaurus.

Dinner tonight is looking like a fish charlotte with purple kale.  I think it is purple kale, it looks a bit like it and it came as part of the delivery.

Now I am off to book my Morrisons delivery for three weeks away.  You have to get in early if you want to get the £1 slots.  I may cancel it nearer the time.  I thought I was doing well.  I had a £45 delivery from the market with a chicken, gammon joint, veg box, fruit box and some nice coley fillets, and I was just going over the £40 minimum order for Morrisons for pop and milk and the healthy seeded bread that bear has approved of, when father added two bottles of whisky to the Morrisons order.  It is very lowering to see the cost of the delivery go up.  I was really pleased to get lots of healthy food, treats and staples for under £90.  I think my grocery bill is a lost cause.

Bear continues Better

Bear is feeling a lot better and actually slept through the night.  I kept waking up after 3am worrying about sleeping through him.  He is forcing down some biscuits as I speak.  He thinks he may manage some chocolate later. Actually he may get some as he has been too poorly for chocolate over the weekend.  

My ironing board is drooping.  The rounded pointy end has gone all limp.  I am feeling a bit cursed in the laundry department.  I am on my third iron and third ironing board this year and it isn't even April.  Fortunately the board is still usuable.  I think it is because I lean on it when I am putting stuff in the tumble dryer, though I didn't think I leant on it that much.  

Today I am mentally sorting out the week and I realise that when I asked for uncle to come over to here on Thursday I should have checked the calendar instead of just acting on reflex, because Thursday is a training day and DH can't get it off.  I don't want to take bear to meet uncle on the first day or so as he became very confused each time he was moved in the past, and father can't keep an eye on bear as he has a packed Thursday.  I am sure I will work something out.  

Bear improves

Poor bear was up at 4am sobbing, but he is much improved.  He is explaining nerf guns to DH as we speak.

I took the chance to do something that didn't revolve around bear with two guilty hands.  I managed to get some washing on, wash some cutlery, get burgers out of the freezer and respond to Write on Edge's latest prompt (here if you are interested).

Now I am off to make fried egg butties all round for lunch.  Except for bear, who is still on soup and ice cream and me who is going to try and limp back on to the diet.  And possible DH who likes bacon, and I haven't even heard from father...

Saturday continues Bear

Depending on how recent his paracetamol or ibuprofen has been, bear is doing okay or poorly.  At lunchtime he couldn't manage icecream.  At 3.00pm he was insisting on a sandwich.  He only managed a few mouthfuls, but it was definitely a sandwich.  He is a lot better than yesterday when I was really panicking.  I ended up sponging him down with lukewarm water in desperation as his temperature climbed.   I suppose it is normal for being a mum, but it's not nice being in the middle of it.  Bear does a spectacular temperature sometimes, so I am not perhaps as worried as I could be as it always climbs back down again.
 
DH now has a poorly foot and is considering the doctor.  This is very worrying as normally DH only gets to the doctor under extreme circumstances.  If father went to the doctors with his bad knee I think I would have a full set.

Compared to six months ago, things are a lot better here.  I am very grateful.

Willpower? What Willpower?

I'm sneaking this in as bear is asleep for now.

Poor bear is going through it, just like all kids do.  However I am not able to get much done.  After literally fifteen minutes he was calling me out of the kitchen because he said he couldn't move his little finger.  He could, but it was cold and I think he had been holding it up.  The last few days he has suffered a lot with pins and needles and cramp.  I daren't sneak past him to make the lovely healthy meal that is my diet, so I have had a few biscuits.  So much for the diet.  Father is very supportive, though.  He has just brought in a box of maltesers.  Sigh.  At least it wasn't Cointreau.

I gave up my friend ebay for Lent.  I really could do with some browsing to take my mind off things.  I can feel my resolve slipping.

On the bright side I am getting a lot of time to wander around the various blogs and forums.  I can't start anything that needs continuity as I may be summoned at any moment, so I have a lot of time to look around.

I may dig out the old Walking with Dinosaurs dvd this afternoon.  Bear is mildly interested in dinosaurs and it will make a nice change from nerf guns.

Bear Knows

The doctor asked bear what he felt like.  Bear firmly told the doctor that he had tonsilitis.  The doctor checked and, yes, it is indeed tonsilitis.

Bear is really poorly with it.  I'm keeping the cuddles going.

Well that Explains It

Bear was awake at 3am with tummy ache, sore throat and a forehead so hot you could fry an egg on it.  That does explain a lot.  So back to the doctors again.  Bear does seem to be going down with one thing after another at the moment.  I am working on the extra fruit (he had two huge oranges last night before the last of his appetite disappeared) and he is pretty good about veggies, and I am going to set an alarm on my phone to remind me to give him vitamins.

I also suspect another growth spurt in the wings, although there isn't enough of him to fuel one.

School are going to be going crackers about his absence record.  I am really worried about getting into trouble.  He's had three days off since half term, if you include today, and I expect bear will not be fit tomorrow either.

Until then I am on cuddle duty, cartoon watching duty and supervising video game duty.

More Writing

I've been trying to cheer myself up, and so I followed the most amazing prompt from Write on Edge and the result is here.  I definitely didn't do it justice, but I feel a bit better for the writing.

Poor Tired Bear

Bear is soooooo tired.  He is shattered, exhausted and out on his feet by 5pm.  I suspect that he has had a growth spurt or two on top of the virus the doctor said he had.  I definitely suspect the growth spurt.  Bear is nothing but bones.  It is ridiculous.  I look at him and there is nothing to him.  His new trousers are already starting to inch up - or they would if they sat on his waist and didn't sag to what there is of his hips.  He is a very skinny bear indeed.  This does not stop him trying to eat his bodyweight in sugar, but it is having no obvious effect.

I think I will have a baking day tomorrow and make stuff that has some nutrition as well as sugar.  Bear is suspicious of my cooking but DH will help out.  I am on day three of the diet.  I am finding it tough.  I shouldn't have got this fat in the first place.  However it does excuse me from my own baking.

Not Fit for Company

I am trying to keep a smile on, but despite the lovely sun I am not doing so well.  The first day of the diet ended with fish n chips and we finally watched a version of Macbeth that we recorded back in 2012.  I assume the version was true to the original as the cast were so carried away doing Shakespeare in a warehouse that it was hard to tell what they were saying.  We switched off before we saw how they did Birnam Wood going to Dunsinane in industrial brick work.

I've got a shed load of stuff to do, and I could make a list, but I think I will just pootle along, see what I get done and where I end up by teatime.  It's definitely kedgeree tonight.  I have the fish coming with the market delivered.  Yesterday I got a delivery of three bottles of Famous Grouse and twelve bottles of 7up and the delivery driver gave me a look.

Bear keeps asking for stories about our cats.  I think I may end up with another furry fiend whether I like it or not.

I am not sure about continuing to call uncle.  It always seems awkward when I call and he has to trundle around to get to the office, even though they say that they had a mobile to take to them.  I sent him a basket of fruit via Amazon and they are keeping it in a store and letting him have a bit here and there.  He's had some grapes.  I spent a lot on the postage, though the fruit wasn't so bad, and I'm a bit upset that it isn't left in his room.  I'm considering sending stuff via Tesco next time, especially as they have £1 slots.

In this sort of mood there is only one thing to do.  I'm off to clean the fridge.

Another Step

We were at uncle's house yesterday.  I tried to sort stuff out with my brother while DH took bear to Chester where they had a wonderful time at the Roman Experience.  They at at Spudulike and in Chester if you go downstairs you can sit next to the genuine Roman hypocaust that was excavated when Spudulike was opened.

We barely made a dent in uncle's stuff.  We are faced with things like this:

This thing must be forty years old, needs a good clean, has no value but it has always been there.  Behind it you can see a silver jubilee paper coaster and a trophy that belongs to a quiz team uncle was on.  We should be able to pass that back to the one remaining member.  We found medals and all sorts.

Bear has been in absolutely pieces as he realises that we are losing the bungalow.  There is an apple tree planted for him, which he is devastated he will lose.  Hopefully we will be able to dig it up and move it, but I don't know if it will survive.

I am finding this hard, and it is hard to make the time to go through the bits that need sorting.  We are also trying to guess what uncle will want in a home as he is still wanting people to do thinking for him.

If feels like we are sorting a house after someone has died, but uncle is still alive and being awkward.  When we took bear to visit him uncle did his usual trick of spending the time threatening bear with taking away his rat, his pocket money and his pandy.  I was glad to get out and felt awful for it.

Bear continues well

Bear was back at school today.  He started the day in form, calling me to him at 6.13am.  To put this into context, he has to leave the house for school at 8.49am, so it was early.  He was complaining he was running a temperature and lying on the floor with an expression of distilled mischief.  I tucked him back into his bed, told him he was fine and dragged myself back to bed, where surprisingly I got back to sleep for another hour.

He has had a nasty cough for a few weeks now.  I had him to the doctor, who decided it was a virus and to let him get on with it.  Bear has been really exhausted recently, but when we got back from the doctor he was hurtling up and down the street with the gun father brought him back from Spain so I will go with the flow, as ever.

I should mention the gun father brought back.  It is huge, comes to pieces and makes so much noise it is a health hazard.  It also has a full complement of flashing lights.  Bear loves it.  I am considering ear plugs.

Wish I didn't Notice Things

I've just noticed a tear in the sofa cushion.  It's an IKEA sofa and the cushion cover isn't one you take off and replace.

Yesterday bear gleefully showed me some holes in the fabric underneath the cushions that cover the frame.

The tear on the cushion is just wear on the fabric.  It was not an expensive sofa - quite the opposite.  We got it when bear was about six months old, so it is six and a half years or more, and is just fabric.  Bear has given it a lot of wear over the years and I have repeatedly threatened to make him pay for it.

I remember how we came to have it.  The sofa we had had previously was one left by DH's grandmother who passed in 1989, and I loathed it.  It was too small to lie on, fake leatherette and if you sat on it wrong it tipped you on the floor.  I had had two chances to get free sofas and each time DH's mother had had a dicky fit at the thought of the sofa going with all the memories of her mother.  It had been constructed around 1970 and the cats had managed to get inside it.  I was fed up of being stuck with a sofa you couldn't cuddle on.

Then we had bear and DH's mother was sitting on the sofa a little more.  She got tipped on the floor once too often and gave us the money to get a new one.  She passed when bear was five months old and before we had got the sofa home.

This sofa has a lot of memory attached, with cushions regularly used as the walls of a fort and it has been slept on, cuddled on and fussed on.  It is the place where evil cat passed away.

I'm going to use gaffer tape on the holes and start seriously saving for another cheap sofa that can probably fit through our door but DH can still stretch out on.  I am going to feel very sad that it is gone, but quite relieved to have one a little less battlescarred.

Bear still on Sick Leave

The school enforce a strict 48 hour quarantine after D&V so bear is at home today as well.  He is bearing up well, all things considering.  We have watched Planet Dinosaur on dvd, we have watched far too many videos of nerf guns, we have discussed cook books and he has copied out a recipe.  Creamy sweetcorn soup is looking very likely this weekend.

Bear is also recovering from a very minor cut he got from messing around with a metal tape measure.  It is the same metal tape measure that I warned him not to mess around with.  Some things go down from generation.  'Don't touch that, you'll get hurt.' 'Ouch!' 'Told you so.'  It's probably been said since our ancestors started evolving away from the trees.  It's not stopping in this house.  So far I have managed to keep bear safe but I honestly believe that is more luck than judgement.  I certainly don't take the credit.

Bear has played with some toys and explained some extremely complicated stories to me.  I pretended to understand.  He has also done some colouring and drawing and I have had a much better insight into his colour blindness.  He has some very odd ideas about the colour brown.  I've let him get on with it.

He has also got first dibs on my copy of Jack Monroe's cookbook which came from Amazon today.  Darn.  I shall try and keep it downstairs at bedtime.  He is currently belting up and down stairs for some reason that I have not really grasped.  He is definitely in school tomorrow.

Definite Bright Side

Bear was poorly yesterday.  He was sick and had an explosion in what a few years ago was the nappy area.  Poor lad was mortified.  Plus he could barely manage a pancake (ready made, I am rubbish at pancakes).  This means he is off school for the next few days.  The school has a mandatory forty eight hours absence after dire rear.  

I therefore will not be getting the haircut I have been promising myself since January, and I won't be able to meet my friend who is having a bit of a bad time and I haven't seen her for months, and I will not even be able to pop to the shops as father is away in Benidorm (worried sick, he was quite frail) so until DH comes home at 6.30 there is just me and bear.

And it is going to be BRILLIANT!  Bear has been more and more exhausted so a few duvet days will do him no harm.  He fell asleep on a half hour car journey on Sunday afternoon, which he hasn't done for years.  He is definitely in need of a rest.  He has been falling asleep at eight at night which is unheard of.  He fell asleep after school at around 5pm last night.  So he will be much better for it.  Then there is the chance for cuddles, cuddles and more cuddles while watching dvds and films.  We can chill together on the computer.  I can read to him and listen to him and he can tell me all about just about everything.

He is looking a lot better.  Definitely a bright side.

Looking for the Bright Side

I am struggling to find a bright side and feeling buried under inertia.  I was supposed to get a delivery before 12 and now it is 2.20pm and no sign.  I will have to get bear soon.  Bear is exhausted and full of cough and won't want to go to martial arts but he needs to keep going or he won't get the benefit of the camp he wants to go to at Easter.  I've managed to get an appointment with the doctor for him, so that is something.

I have got lots of naffraff to do - lots of changing because of other changes and fiddling to work around other stuff.  I ought to be hammering the housework and sorting out a hairdresser's appointment.  Instead I am moping, and I am cross with myself but finding it hard to shift.

On the bright side it isn't raining.  And it seems that the respite home where uncle is staying is lovely, kind and cheerful.  That's a pretty good bright side.

Also, bear is asking for cat stories about our cats.  He is desperate for a pet.  I have quite enjoyed being without litter trays.  I wonder how long I can hold out.

Spring is on the way

I found a butterfly on the step today

When I first saw it the wings were spread flat and I thought it was a dead butterfly shaken loose, but it had revived by the time I got back with my phone.

I need to think what I am going to give up for Lent.  I twigged yesterday that it was nearly Pancake Day, but I only twigged this morning that it was Ash Wednesday the day after.  I don't have a good record with Lent.  I may try and give up ebay.

I found out on Saturday that uncle had been moved to a respite home on Friday.  No-one had been told.  It seems kind and cheerful from what I have heard in the background during brief calls, but I worry.

Drive Out

We went to Otley today with bear.  There were a few detours to charity shops (open on a Sunday!) and a bookshop (spent a fortune!) but really we wanted to show him the pet shop with the killer cat.

It was years ago when we last called in, but there was a pet shop that had a pet cat.  The cat roamed free in the shop and slept on the dried food.  There were signs everywhere saying, 'do not touch the cat, we are not joking, we are not going to be liable'.  I remember it as a sort of saggy ginger and white monster.  DH and I were cat owners.  We knew that if a cat didn't want a fuss, they had ways of showing it and we were not going to even try.  We picked up some treats for our cats and went to pay.

The cat was lounging disdainfully at the till.  The customer before us tried to stroke the cat.  The cat drew blood.  We didn't even consider it.

Thinking back it may have even been before we moved to here in 1994, so I expect the cat has long since gone to the great hearthrug in the sky where the mice are slow and there is cream in every dish.  We picked up some treats for my brother's dogs anyway, and went to pay.

As we were waiting a wild pigeon flew in, had a few pecks in the open sack labelled 'wild bird peanuts' and flew out again.  It happened a few times while we were waiting and the staff seemed resigned to the avian shoplifter.  It must be that sort of shop.

Bear fell asleep in the car on the way home, and DH is currently trying to coax him to nap - not easy with a lively seven year old but bear is exhausted.  He is also desperate for a pet.  I am refusing to allow him pet rats.  I don't know how much longer I can hold out for.

What you find when you look!

We have a subscription to Lovefilm.  This has migrated to Amazon and if we upgrade to Amazon Prime we can get extra films and programmes.  I am not entirely convinced, but I thought I would look and see what you got from Amazon Prime.

Free delivery is a real draw, especially when you buy as much online as I do.  However I don't actually get that much from Amazon.  I suppose I could but I am not sure.  I know that there have been some good bargains on food or washing powder that are not such bargains once postage is added on, so I could save if they are part of the Amazon Prime promotion (not all are) and if I couldn't actually get it cheaper elsewhere.

While I have been looking I found black toilet paper.  If you don't believe me the link is here.  I do have to question what sort of decorating scheme needs black loo paper.  I am not that keen on peach or pink so I am confident that I will not be paying £6.99 for six rolls even if the postage is free.  I may possibly consider the 48 rolls of white toilet paper for £9.63 plus £2.35 p&p or £11.98 or @ 25p per roll.  This compares favourably with the Tescos Everday Value Double Length loo paper at £1.95 for six rolls (£15.60 for 48 rolls, although if they are really double length then £7,80 for 24, and a bargain with it).  You can probably make a good argument for Tesco with initial investment and ease of storage even if it isn't literally double length.  Neither of the Amazon offers are part of Amazon Prime, so the whole 'is it worth Amazon Prime?' discussion doesn't really apply.

One thing that is part of Amazon Prime is 'Distinctive' which is a washing powder for men.  I was a bit baffled by the whole idea.  I can understand why a man may be getting fed up of going to work on an oil rig smelling of pink diamond or lavender dreams, but really!  At £14.99 for twelve washes I'd expect some serious cleaning power but it is very focused on the scent of the thing.  You can get it gift wrapped as well.  According to the description it doesn't contain optical brighteners to protect designer clothes, but leaves the whites stuffed.  However one lady did comment that it left the dog's blanket smelling fresh.  I suppose that is an endorsement.