January 2008 – Page 2 – In At The Deep End

Fishy farewells and watery walks

Yesterday the boys both had first aid training with Badgers (for a competition which we’ve just realised falls while we’re at Melrose so they’ll miss it 🙁 ) while Bob collected a parcel from the depot (1kg of assorted buttons!) and bought a radiator key and the girls and I pottered.
The afternoon was spent baking (see previous post), bleeding radiators, sorting buttons and eating 😆
Not a huge amount achieved, in the grand scheme of things, but a pleasant day really, except that we also had to hold a little funeral service for Sparkle, our fancy goldfish 🙁
We’re not sure what he died of, but he’s been unhappy for a while and clearly had a swim bladder problem, among other things, but none of the things suggested seemed to help and his tank-mate Bubbles seemed unaffected (so presumably it was something wrong with Sparkle rather than e.g. a water issue) so we ended up putting him in an isolation hospital tank (large jug with oxygenation tablets and medicated water) where he languished for a while, swimming sideways, and then expired 🙁 Children very upset (far more so than warranted, really, given that we’ve not had the fish that long and they go unnoticed most of the time) and J wanted to give him “a proper Christian burial” so Bob helped them to make a little cardboard coffin, which K and J decorated, L dictated a letter for Bob to write and J made a little notice and chose some (long-treasured) seaside stones to mark his grave, then we (J – unprompted) said a little prayer thanking God for the time Sparkle had spent with us and hoping that he will be happy in heaven and Bob went out into pouring rain to dig a little hole by the summerhouse for the pathetic little coffin with its newspaper wrapped (trying to keep everything bio-degradable but also moderately cat-proof) inhabitant. Very touching, but perhaps also a trifle over-played; I think J is overreacting a bit 😕

Today we walked to church, which involved going past the playground, bridge and fields we walked to last week, and we noticed that the fairly impressive water levels we had noticed (and photographed) then were now even higher. After lunch we therefore decided (as we usually do, if I’m honest) that housework could wait, grabbed wellies and a camera and went back to redo the walk we did last Sunday. This involved some serious wading – the water was over the top of L’s boots most of the time (not helped by the fact that she had worn odd ones, so one was rather shorter than the other) and both K and J ended up tipping impressive amounts of water onto the path 😀 Lots of photos will be on flickr soon 😉
Came home and chucked the children into the bath before tea.

Now weathering a rather tiresome tantrum from J over finishing the work he should have done on Friday but which is still hanging over the weekend… Deep joy! Still, I guess if he was at school we’d have the same issues over getting homework finished and handed in 😕

Baking!

this but without pecans
these but with goji berries instead of raisins
bread with pumpkin puree and pumpkin seeds
and some carob chip cookies with xylitol to see how they work 🙂

Doctors and photographs

We’ve been getting to know the doctors at our new surgery this week! L had us up in the night a few times over the weekend, in a way which made me suspect she may have a UTI. Took her to the doc on Monday, clutching some wee in a pasta sauce jar, and his paper strip test gave results suspicious enough for him to ask for a proper sample to send off for testing. Took her home, gave her lots to drink and just managed to get back to the surgery with a sample in time to catch the courier.
We managed to do Maths and English (my New Year’s Resolution is to sit round the table for at least 30 mins each day doing work together – hoping it will be less painful that way and it seems to be working so far) but not much more, unless you count trotting up the road to the surgery twice in one day – PE? Geography? Lots of playing outside and splashing in puddles 😀

Tuesday started well – no night-time disturbances from L, although she did wet the bed first thing, making me suspect even more that she may have a UTI. J now has a clock-radio to help him with mornings and a reading time to help with evenings and this seems to be helping a bit 🙂 We sat together and did maths (Singapore Maths – both boys have almost finished the first book of this year’s pair so are well-motivated) and English (about 3 Easy Lessons for K; J chose to write about our visit to London last week) then the children had a snack while I rushed round collecting swimming stuff. We got to the pool a bit late for the boys’ lesson, then J (who really would rather not be doing it 🙁 ) dilly-dallied in the changing rooms so they missed more than half 😡 We splashed, played and chatted in the toddler pool for a good while afterwards though, which I guess counts for something. Came home via supermarket to get dishwasher salt and ended up getting some much reduced Christmas stuff to put away for next year – mustn’t forget it though! – and also a doll from the boys to L for her b’day – need to put that away and not forget it too 😆

Wednesday – again a nice easy start (just as well as A gave me a really bad night and I was shattered) with radio, maths (J finished his book), English (L did her first Easy Lesson), K’Nex, Octons, table football, lots of playing outside… oh and another trip to the doc, this time for A’s 8-10 month check (the bit the gp has to do). The doctor was lovely and A really took to him, as did K and L – fortunately he was very patient with their interruptions 🙄 He asked if A was on solids, fully weaned etc and when I said mostly BF he was really pleased and said that his children were all mostly BF at that age too, but in nearly 20 years as a doctor in this area A was the first baby he had come across other than his own who was still breastfed at that age 🙁 I asked about A’s incredibly red swollen gums and he commiserated but said he knows nothing about gums (huh?) and he’ll get the V to give us a ring. He did check her mouth for signs of thrush or other infections and said he couldn’t see any so it’s probably just swollen toothy gums.
Afternoon was gymnastics for the boys, then we dashed home for tea, which the plan had been for Bob to cook as soon as he got in, but instead he ended up going to doc’s for L’s script (she does have a UTI) and then to pharmacy to get it filled. Speedy pasta and jar then, followed by a lightning dash to Badgers for Bob and the boys while L, A and I pootled on the pooter. When they got back J announced proudly that he had signed us up to provide pizza for the presentation evening next week 😯 So that’s Latin, gymnastics and pizza next week… Children safely in bed, A and I went out to see Emma – was supposed to be a girlie evening watching Sense and Sensibility but we didn’t get that far – just drank hot chocolate and chatted.

Thursday toddlers was slow-starting, but soon picked up 🙂 We made doves (using the stuff Gina brought last week and left to use again) and made Roman Army bread, saying the ingredients in Latin and counting that as the Latin lesson for this week, because time slipped away too fast for us to do a lesson as well. Didn’t do French either – must try to do something with my lot later in the week. Sarah brought chess and the bigger ones all played, which we decided counted as maths for the boys 😉 Had to dash a bit at the end (Chris and the little Beans did a great job of helping clear up – thanks Chris – I must remember to warn people the tables and chairs *don’t* get put away next time though 😆 ) because we were picking Bob up from work and going to the photographer who did baby photos of J, K and L to get some pics of A done (bit late, as the others were all 4-6 months, but we’re hoping it will match enough) and we only just had enough time. Ate lunch in the car and got there with a few minutes in hand, which we spent wandering round charity shops looking for trousers for J for Badgers presentation evening. Managed to find a couple of nice Orchard Games at a price low enough to be worth taking a chance on missing bits too 🙂
A’s pics went well, except that she decided she had to scratch her neck (lots!) while I was undressing her so ended up with a huge red blotch on her throat – not a great look! It was speedy enough that the photographer said we could do family pics in the same sitting, so we then had fun arranging ourselves in interesting ways on the floor and laughing at a man with a camera in his hand and a toy monkey on his head :frog: Have to go back on 30th to view pics/spend lots of money 😛
Got back home and the children immediately begged to play their new games, so they started with Greedy Gorilla which went down very well (especially the burps!) and proved to have all its pieces present and correct 🙂

Friday – started rather early, as the children had managed to set their radio to go off at 4 🙄 then restarted rather late (breakfast at 10!) and we didn’t quite do all I’d planned (no formal Maths or English 😳 ) but we did do some other things instead 😀
Started with playing What’s Rubbish?, which we picked up in a charity shop yesterday. There are a few cards missing, but not enough to make it unplayable 🙂 I suspect that the 5 + age suggestion may be to do with the attention span necessary, as the game takes forever! After well over half an hour, with nobody having managed to collect more than two items at a time before losing them again, we decided to stop and watch some schools tv (Primary History on Tudor homes, English Express on describing characters to bring them to life, Pod’s Mission on habitat) but when we went back to playing L lost it completely and wound everyone up by moving pieces on the board, so I sent them all upstairs to let off steam on the climbing frame (it was too grim and wet to send them outside without big hassle over wellies etc – a battle not worth fighting at that point!) and they then decided to tidy away the game and play again another day rather than trying to finish it today. They watched a few Veggietales clips on youtube while I changed A’s impressively full nappy and just as I was mid-clean-up a parcel arrived which turned out to be a hamper I won a few days ago from whyorganic so I had to leave A wailing while I signed for it (J was a bit put out that the man wouldn’t let him sign for it 😆 ) then we put it to one side while we had lunch and investigated after that – see here for what happened next!

In order to make space for the baby food we had to remove an apple pie and some spring rolls (J’s choice for tea) so since he had chosen I got him to cook them and offered to cook some rice to go with “his” tea 🙂 Also managed to make some bread and popped in a pumpkin and some parsnips to roast so we can fiddle with them tomorrow (white carrot cake anyone?) and have a bit of a bake-fest 😀

Bob got back early enough to do some chatting with the boys about CO2 while I cooked and J decided that for his English he would write down some facts about dry ice (it was that, write up the ice cream making as an experiment, write about technology and the Terracotta Army or do a page of workbook) but they only got as far as talking about it, so that’ll be another battle for tomorrow 😕 K wanted to do his next Easy Lesson, but we decided to put it off until tomorrow as A was too grumpy to let us concentrate 🙁 She is very grumpy just now (well, very grumpy for her!) still has incredibly red gums and now has red marks on her tongue too – we’re trying to decide whether they are from biting herself with big new teeth (they’re in about the right place) or whether they go with the red gums somehow as a symptom of something nasty… Practically no solid food actually entered her mouth today or yesterday, although she did play with a bit and smear it round everywhere, but she has been feeding a lot so I’m not worried – I just feel slightly drained-husk-like, as L has also been taking more thanks to feeling poorly.

Fun with frozen food

Or rather with frozen food packaging 🙂

I won a hamper of organic frozen baby meals the other day (bit of a shock, as I don’t usually seem to win anything!) and it arrived today:

We were intrigued by the warning and the little bags inside…

Since we had no cream, J and I made some custard:

added some raspberries:

and then poured in the crushed dry ice:

It was rather impressive!

Slightly spookily we could hear and see it bubbling Photobucket

Sadly we didn’t have quite enough dry ice to make it properly freeze, so we’ve had to put it into a tub to finish off in the freezer 🙁 I was tempted to use the fire extinguisher (apparently they use food grade CO2 in them in case of kitchen fires) but thought that might be a bit drastic 😆

Raspberry ice-cream for tea 😀

Where was I?

Ah yes! Monday 17th December 🙂 Dentist – new one, but only for check-ups and only K, J and me (Bob and L having already been – which reminds me – is it normal for NHS dentist to say that scale and polish are needed but must be booked with the hygienist as a private appointment? I thought s and p formed part of the check-up and should be included in NHS price for basic treatment? Is our new dentist a bit dodgy?). All well, except that one of my fillings may be a bit loose and X-ray will show if it needs replacing. They are currently white (on NHS because preventative and a nice dentist at the time 😉 ) but apparently replacement will have to be amalgam if NHS or private if white – if I were pg it might make a difference but BF doesn’t 🙁

Tuesday 18th was a great treat 😀 Our friends Rebecca and J from parents and tots many moons ago (they were one of our first families) are back in the UK from the US and they came to see us! Also little R, who is more young lady now than baby 🙂 We had a lovely day doing nothing much, with lunch rescued by another friend, Emma, who popped in on her way home from town with her DS2 and some bread and cheese and stayed to chat and play a bit (well, we chatted and the children played 😉 ). There was much eating of chocolate spread :frog: It was strange how little seemed to have changed, except that the children are all bigger, and it seems really odd now to think that it could be months before we see each other again. Better start saving up for air tickets…

Wed 19th was a Latin etc day, with bread, mince pie and jam tart making in the kitchen and Helen Haricot doing beautiful wreaths with the children using greenery and ribbons. The annexe was freezing though – must see if we can get it a bit warmer next time!

Thursday was P&T as usual and then a church meeting in the evening, which Bob managed to get to, about work in/with the community and where we are heading – very positive it seems, although our biggest problem is lack of people in a position to do much: those who are able-bodied enough are either working full-time, already volunteered out or busy looking after family.

On Friday the boys were booked into an all-day sports camp, which they loved! Meanwhile L, A and I did a bit of Christmas shopping 🙂 On Saturday the boys had sports again and this time Bob took them and had a day in town himself while A, L and I pottered at home.

Christmas was, well, Christmas 😀 We went to Bob’s sister’s on Christmas Eve and had a lovely day there, but also caught a nasty fluey bug… Christmas Day was quiet and at home, apart from church, and Bob has blogged it already. We took our time over present-opening – a few at Christmas and then the rest at times of need lol, so they lasted into the new year! Just a few wibbles from J over lack of DSLite – I think this was exacerbated by hm feeling guilty for wanting something he knew we couldn’t afford, poor sausage! Will be keeping an eye out for second-hand ones we might be able to manage for his birthday, but not overly hopeful 🙁 Actually, I feel slightly ambivalent about them anyway – I can see lots of scope for addiction and it’s hard enough to get his head out of books already without adding anything else 😆

On Boxing Day we went to see my aunt and had a lovely family day there, then came back because J had holiday orchestra for the rest of the week. This meant that toddlers was on on Thursday, although there were very few of us there and most of the time was spent clearing out the cupboards and thinking about how to make it easier to run and delegate. J did Gamelan, 7+ choir and Music Games and loved it all! That pretty much took out the week between Christmas and New Year, especially when combined with K managing to catch his cousin’s ‘flu’ and being really quite ill, and then passing it on to A so she was ill too 🙁

Fortunately residual germs didn’t put Rebecca, Benedict, J and R off from coming over to celebrate new year with us, which was lovely and reminiscent of last year, when we spent new year’s eve with them (not in the US though!) except that they stayed over so we got to spend even more time with them 🙂 Then New Year’s day was my birthday and we had a few friends over to celebrate, including both sets of A’s godparents (but at different times) and did lots of baking, lots of chatting and lots of eating 😉

Rained off!

First Friday Club of the term/year and it should have been a nature walk, but we cravenly decided that it was just too wet! Instead we stayed indoors and did a few emergency drama activities, then some (fruit) still life painting (should have been nature study watercolours) and a few more games before lunch – by which time the sky was a little clearer and we were able to go the rec after all 😀

Actually we started late, because A had her 8-10 month HV appointment – not the full check, because a doctor has to do that, apparently, but the HV has to do the weighing and measuring – the doctor can’t do that 🙄 Anyhoo, she’s following family pattern by being above 50th centile for height and below it for weight, with the added bonus of a 91st centile head circ – HV said she must have lots of brains 😆

More Food for Thought

Katy passed this link on to me – it’s long but worth a read. All sorts of stuff – the need for humility in science, the hijacking of science by politics and the hijacking of politics by money, the problems of reductionism rather than holism, wisdom in traditions: Unhappy Meals.

I really hope that when our descendants look back in the future, they will see that our current consumption mania (the obesity kind and the environmental kind) was just a blip that ended when we came to our senses and realised that our great-grandparents knew more than we do.

Starting to get back to normal

… whatever that is.

Fortunately Katy is now better although very tired. Mostly this is due to the trip down to London to see the Terracotta Army. We were up an hour early and got the children up too, and the other K and his mum Susan came round, they all bundled into our car and then headed off. It was a good job that Katy had allowed lots of time, because the traffic was terrible, which meant they were later getting to London, which meant it was harder to find parking, and a delay on the tube didn’t help. They got there with 10 minutes to spare, originally thinking there would be about an hour spare. It was a timed visit, so being late would mean missing it. The bloke who was supposed to give a talk didn’t turn up and the museum staff didn’t know anything about it, and you couldn’t take photos in the exhibit proper, but otherwise it was good. (See some photos on Flickr.)

Meanwhile I was waiting in for the plumber, to replace three crucial non-boiler parts of the central heating. This went smoothly, so we now have a much healthier and quieter central heating system and less money.

Then today some local Home Ed. families came around to our house as usual for Katy to do Latin with all but the youngest, and the Beans doing some science which was floating and things today. When everyone had left it was time to get ready for the boys’ first proper gymnastics session about 15 minutes’ drive away. The other K has been doing this for a while, and J and K are in his class which is good. After Katy wrote a slightly eye-watering cheque and filled in some forms the boys went off and apparently enjoyed themselves. Afterwards K said it was a bit scary at one point but he got a bit more courage and it was OK then. I said that it will be like that occasionally – scary and/or hard until they practice enough to be good at it, and then move on to the next thing.

Tea for the boys in the car in the car park as there wasn’t really time to get home before the first Badgers of the year. Just for logistics fun, Katy dropped the boys off and came home, then later I went out and picked them up again. Then home and bed, and I’m off soon too. Tomorrow is Parents and Tots, although I don’t know if S will let Gina do piano lessons with the boys as usual (putting up with learner pianists’ tinklings is quite a lot to ask when you’re less than two weeks old). Gina might have a few other things on her mind too, like sleep.

Oh, and I managed to book a night for Katy and the children and the excellently-named Once Brewed Youth Hostel. Obviously, Twice Brewed is just down the road. It’s for when Katy does her first solo expedition to Melrose, to break the journey on the way up. It’s very handy for Vindolanda with the Raines and Beans, and then a short journey on to Melrose itself.

Mastitis – real full-on bleurgh!

Ugh!

Having just been knocked out for the best part of three days by my first proper bout of mastitis I thought I’d share the joy :frog: Actually, I’ve given advice on mastitis so many times now, both on and offline, that I thought it might be a good idea to put my experience down here and then I’ve got something to refer to in future. Any more self-help ideas or references welcome too please 🙂

I’ve had warning signs before – blocked ducts, lumps in breast, painful areas, even a slight fever – and always managed to head it off with self-help methods, but this time either it came on very fast or I missed the signs 🙁 (I was a little distracted by Gina 😉 ) I woke at 4 in the morning on Thursday with uncontrollable shivering, teeth chattering, raging thirst and breast pain. No matter what I did I could not get warm, but I was too muzzy headed to realise that this probably meant I had a fever 🙄
Feeding A helped a little with the breast pain, although it was rather uncomfortable to do, and then I woke Bob up and insisted he get me warm – poor man! He tried to warm me up with cuddles, blankets, a cup of tea (helped with the raging thirst anyway!) and a hot water bottle and then finally went in search of Ibuprofen (I think I may have been mildly hallucinating by then 😯 which I guess helped him realise I needed something!) which helped a little, but we didn’t really get much sleep from then on and by the time Bob should have been leaving for work it was fairly obvious I was in no fit state to look after our 4 small children and the two equally small friends we had sleeping over and he decided (bless him) to take the day off – and run toddlers for me :clap: That day I could barely stand up, my breast was hot, red and swollen, and it was hard even to string a sentence together; I stayed in bed all day except when I was in the bath.

I was determined not to take antibiotics unless absolutely necessary so used all the self help techniques I could think of:

– feed as much as possible from the affected side (and feed from that side first , so baby feeds most effectively) but don’t neglect the other side completely or you risk engorgement and possibly mastitis that side too.

– rest as much as you can.

– take ibuprofen (unless you’re allergic to it, obviously) to relieve pain, fever and swelling. Paracetamol (acetaminophen, tylenol) can also be used, but it doesn’t have the anti-inflammatory effect. Don’t forget you can alternate the two as well – I ended up doing this on day two when my temperature began to rise again between ibuprofen doses.

– a warm bath helps enormously. I used this as a chance to express as much as I could to drain the affected breast again, especially when I saw that the milk coming out of the affected ducts was grey-green and stringy and then luminous green and thick – although I’m assured it won’t do any harm I’d rather that went in the bath than in my baby! That gunky milk has to come out somehow and the faster you can strip it from the ducts the more chance you have of clearing the infection quickly.

– on a similar note, use massage or a wide-toothed comb to break up any clogs and to push any infection towards the nipple so that it can drain from the duct. Start well away from the nipple area and push gently but firmly towards it, either whilst nursing or whilst expressing. This is painful to do, but it relieves the swelling and tenderness no end, so is well worth it. I found it hurt less under warm water (ie in the bath).

– feed in different positions and at different angles to make sure that the breast is fully drained. The most effective position (if your baby will oblige – mine kept giggling at me 😆 ) is actually to lay the baby down and dangle your breast over his or her mouth so that gravity helps with the drainage as well. Angle yourself so that baby’s chin is pointing towards any painful/swollen/lumpy/red areas, as the chin side does most work at squeezing and so will empty more efficiently 😉 You may feel a fool, but I have cleared many a blocked duct this way and thereby avoided the whole mastitis experience 😀 I have a big advantage here in that L is still BF too, and she can take direction 😉

By day 2 I had a distinct red patch (looked like a bad sunburn) on my breast and a large lump which I could break up and almost remove by nursing and/or expressing, but which kept returning. I had a fever which I could keep under control by alternating ibuprofen and paracetamol and I felt as though I had been run over by a bus – I think thanks to muscle spasms from all the shivering the day before. I was well enough for DH to go back to work, but just barely – and we didn’t get much done that day (apart from visiting Gina and new baby 😀 ). Fortunately I have helpful kids 🙂 They got to play computer games and watch tv more than usual in return for keeping quiet-ish and playing with the baby too 😉

By day 3 the redness was still there, but a smaller area and less red. The lump was still there, but smaller, easier to get rid of and slower to return. The fever was occasional and the muscle aches almost gone, but my head felt as though it would fall off if I moved too fast 😕 That’s when I knew I could get by without ABs this time 😀 Luckily it was Saturday, so Bob was able to do childcare again and I was able to get more rest.

Day 4 is today and I still feel shattered, but my breast is pretty much back to normal, bar a little residual tenderness. My head still aches a little and I’m distinctly crabby, but I’ve got through to 9pm without retiring to bed…

Useful links for info on mastitis: BFN
kellymom

Holidays

I hope Katy will do it more justice than I have time for now, but I’m sure I’ll forget if I don’t do things now. This will be in random order too – bonus points will be awarded for anyone who can turn it into a proper narrative without flashbacks etc.

Yesterday we had people over for New Year’s Day (not Katy’s birthday, honest!) which was lovely. Cue much lovely baking from Katy, a lack of Tunis cake 🙁 – her proper birthday cake that had sold out in all the local supermarkets, a house full of excellent visitors over the day, much tidying / shovelling of junk to places no-one would see it the day before and even a snooze on the sofa cuddling with A for about an hour. I’m glad we have friends who are chilled out enough to allow their host to sleep – good job the hostess didn’t as well! The children now have a climbing frame in their room (yes) – an old wooden indoors one from Freecycle – which was popular and didn’t produce any injuries as far as I was aware.

For New Year’s Eve to New Year’s Day we were joined by R and B, (the friends, not the music style) briefly home from earthquake territory in America with their children J and R. The last time I saw R she was a tiny thing not up to much, but now she is walking and interested in these stair things (US home is a bungalow because of earthquakes). R and B brought chocolate monopoly, which the children played reasonably well after some elasticity of the rules from B to ensure fair enough winning of the chocolate. To me it seemed like a chocolate laser – adding more and more chocolate to the system, and then it all comes out in a burst. B’s iPhone was out of charge so I couldn’t play with it, but it was still great to see them ;), and they were immensely helpful getting things sorted for the New Year’s Day party.

I won’t make any resolutions, at least any New Years ones as they seem the most doomed to failure. I might have some things I want to get done by the end of the year but they won’t be New Year’s Resolutions as they seem to evaporate with the Christmas / New Year holiday. I hope I make a major dent in the unpacking and sorting, in particular getting clothes storage better. I hope that our central heating will be happier this time next year – 3 dodgy bits will be replaced next week while everyone else is in London to see the Terracotta Army, and I hope nothing else will leak, break or otherwise go wrong.

We went to my sister and brother-in-law on Christmas Eve, and Mum and Dad were there too. It was lovely to see everyone, although not so lovely for K to pick up C’s flu, which produced several nose bleeds including some big ones at night :(. A has also moved on to her second cold which is messy and leads to general unhappiness. On New Year’s Eve she pulled herself up for the first time – for a while she had been happy if you stood her up, but couldn’t start it herself.

Christmas Day was nice, although J having a meltdown on the way home from church that he hadn’t got the things he’d asked for (the first thing on his letter to Santa was a laptop :roll:) put a dampener on things briefly. My favourite present was from the children and Katy: a mug saying “Warning – Male Brain installed. Do not attempt to run multiple tasks simultaneously.” Too true: I mean, I’m already pumping blood, breathing, regulating my body temperature, digesting food, processing the sounds and images around me – that sounds pretty busy to me.

On Boxing Day we went to Katy’s uncle and aunt as is traditional, and it was as lovely as ever.

Between Christmas and New Years Day (I’m making this proper narrative task too easy, aren’t I?) J had a holiday orchestra thing. He played Gamelan, did some singing and some music games (which I think was music theory hidden in things like dancing and playing). He liked it, and his singing group took part in the performance at the end of the last day. The Gamelan was so big and hard to move that we went to it rather than it coming to the main concert hall – a weird sound that’s gentle but rather loud when you have 20 children playing at the same time!

Also between Christmas and New Years Day, Beardie and family dropped in en route between various bits of family. I had forgotten they were coming and so was particularly grateful for their warning phone call from a service station. They know me too well – I expect it was subconsciously allowing for my normal lack of remembering or being organised. They also know J (their godson) well – the rip-the-flap book on the brain delayed bed time that night. I don’t see T enough to be much more than godfather-at-a-distance 🙁 He’s not really old enough for a Facebook account or blog yet :), so all the modern distance-spanning technology doesn’t really cut it.