Sitting on a Cornflake

Haahoos

Ninky Nonk

Pinky Ponk

Upsy Daisy

Igglepiggle

Tobliboos

Makka Pakka

Of course, every parent of a young child knows that these are the ‘characters’ from ‘In the Night Garden‘. Amy loves it, as do, I believe many other youngsters. Everytime I watch it, however, I find myself wondering if the writers were smoking something they shouldn’t when they came up with those names!

I haven’t posted for a few days, so I thought I’d share a few random happenings, and thoughts.

~ I went to Beth’s ‘parent consultation evening’ last week, and she was once again highly praised. Not only is she still well behaved, and working hard, but she’s also showing leadership, and is very thoughtful.

Something tells me that Amy is going to be a little different… lol

~ We’ve been doing a little baking around here. First came the little fairy cakes (cupcakes), which the girls love decorating. Today Beth and I attempted an apple crumble.. and it was actually pretty good! Apparently Beth wants to try scones next!

~ We’re not a very healthy household atm.. both girls have had bad coughs, and I seem to have the sore throat that’s doing the rounds. Lovely!

And finally…

~ Demi Moore has been using leeches to ‘detoxify’. She says.. “It detoxifies your blood… generally you bleed for quite a bit and your health is optimised, and I’m feeling very detoxified right now!”

Words fail me!

In this post, I told you about Beth coming up with the idea of a class magazine, which she started to make with a few friends. Yesterday it was ready to go, and they started to sell it (yes, they decided to charge 20p per copy, with the money going back to the school).. the head and the teachers were very supportive, and the class are interested, so she is already jangling a purse full of coins, and is very pleased with herself!

Her head told her that she could tell everyone about it in assembly today (what happened to my quiet daughter?!), and this has sparked the idea to expand to a school magazine. We chatted about it yesterday evening, and I’ve told her she needs to chat to her head/teachers first (rather than just handing them all that photocopying!), and I also told her she’d have to make sure she had interesting content. She seems extremely excited by the whole thing!

I attempted the same thing when younger, but it wasn’t until 6th form college (and it didn’t come to much.. shh!), the fact that she’s coming up with these ideas in year 4 still surprises me.

I did ask her who was ‘the boss’.. she explained that it was her and Mayas, but Mayas just agrees with everything she says! Way to go girl! LOL

Here’s what Beth has to say about it.. http://bethrose.wordpress.com/ Go take a look.

When I got in from work yesterday, Beth started telling me about an idea she had had, to produce a magazine for her class. She already had 2 helpers, and was making fliers to give out, to get 2 more volunteers.

They had already decided on competitions, jokes, puzzles etc, so I discussed with her the idea of having news about her class and the school, and reporting back on events.. ideas she also liked. She sat and listed their plans, so they could talk to their teacher this morning.

After school today, she was pleased to report that they had chosen their 2 new volunteers, and that her teacher was very happy to help out. She’s already written out the first draft, ready to go over it with her friends tomorrow.

Considering that she’s only 9, and it was all her own idea, do we have a future editor in the making?!

I’ve just been drinking my coffee, and taking a look at the BBC news. I just thought I’d share a few things, and give my thoughts on them.

“One in four teenage girls in the United States has a sexually-transmitted disease, a study has indicated.“

This was a study looking at girls aged 14-19. HPV was the most common, followed by chlamydia, trichomoniasis and herpes. The really sad thing is that HPV can go on to cause cervical cancer, and chlamydia often affects fertility.

I’m not sure what saddens me the most - the fact that young girls are in such a rush to start having sex, or that they’re not taking care of themselves when they do so. Condoms can play such an important role in preventing many STDs, but for some reason, young people seem so reluctant to use them.

“Tube workers vote to go on strike.“

Again?! Honestly, there are so many underpaid jobs out there, who deserve better, but choose not to strike, because of the effect it will have. When tube workers go on strike, they cause travel disruption for so many people. Is it really justified, time and time again?

Which leads me on to my next point..

Budget Day!

Apparently the chancellor has decided not to put any more tax on the price of petrol, considering it has jumped so high recently. Friend’s of the Earth have said, “Abandoning plans to increase fuel duty will seriously undermine the government’s green credentials.“

Ok.. this may sound selfish, and I might get shouted at, but right now, rising petrol charges are more important to me that the government trying to look ‘green’. I know the environment is important, and we need to get out of our cars as much as possible, but there are plenty of times that we need our cars, and petrol costs are getting ridiculous. And what are the alternatives for people.. public transport isn’t always close enough, or reliable (plus at school times, there are lots of loud, rude kids to deal with), and there’s point relying on the tube, because they’ll be out on strike!

There’s also talk of greatly increasing alcohol taxes, to try to curb binge drinking.. in youngsters in particular. I’m not actually sure that it will help with that particular problem.. instead something needs to be done about this culture that is arising with youngsters.. of hanging around, and getting drunk, because there’s nothing better to do. I’d like to see more coffee bars, youth centres, activity centres etc.. let’s give young people something to do with their time.

As for cigarettes, let’s make them as expensive as possible.. in my job, I see the health effects that they have, and it makes me so angry.. but let’s also make smoking cessation help even more readily available. The NHS are doing better, with lots of support available. However, how about making patches etc free for all, if they see an advisor. As with everything, those on benefits get these free, whilst others have to pay prescription charges. Let’s make it equally available for all.

Finally.. “A ‘daydreaming’ lorry driver who caused two women’s deaths has been sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison.”

This guy admitted in court that he had been daydreaming, and distracted by his laptop. He drove into the back of a car, and pushed it under a horse box. The two ladies in the car, only in their 40s, both died.

Distracted by a laptop?! Whilst driving a lorry on a motorway?! And.. only three and a half years? Not enough!

Well, there you go, my ramblings are over! As Jen would say, Just Sayin’!

Last night we went to our local theatre to see a stage production of South Pacific, and it was a lovely night out. It stars Helena Blackman, who was the runner up in the televised search to find a new Maria for The Sound Of Music. In my opinion, that part wasn’t really for her.. whereas this one was.

The story was well told, the dancing was fun, and the singing was great.. from all the performers.

For me though, the star of the show was Christopher Howell, who played Luther Billis. He had great energy, and was highly amusing when dressed as a woman!

All in all, a very polished performance from all, and an experience that was as good as going to the West End!

When we decided to sell our previous house, Glen went through, top to bottom, decorating. And it helped, we sold quickly, at a decent price. However, when we moved into this house, the enthusiasm was just not there to start again!

The previous owners were keen on wallpaper, and colours such as yellow and pink.. we’re far happier with plain emulsioned walls, in more neutral colours.

When I came home yesterday, after shopping with some friends, I found one of the walls in the dining area all stripped of wallpaper. This morning he’s busily attacking the others! As for me, I’m hiding upstairs.. well, I have laundry to sort, ironing to do.. and yes, it will take me some time!

Cindy wrote about locking herself out her house this morning, and it reminded me I hadn’t shared my little story. (It’s not as well written as hers though! :))

Anyway, we have patio doors at the back, a side gate, bolted on the inside, and a front door that locks when you shut it. I’m very good at checking that I have my keys before I shut that front door.. but I guess we all have off days, right?

So, Amy and I were off out for pizza one lunchtime.. I slammed the front door behind me, then realised that I didn’t have my keys. As we were heading out after school, that should have been ok, because by the time we’d made it back, hubby would have been home…

The problem was, however, that I’d left the patio door unlocked. Obviously, if anyone had gotten in, our insurance company wouldn’t have been very understanding! So, I needed to get round there to be able to get my keys, and lock it up. But, standing in my way was the bolted side gate..

My neighbour did point out (when I knocked to see if our previous owners had left keys with her) that if I couldn’t get in, no one else could. I had to point out though that some 18 year old lad would probably find it easy to get over the fence.. it was simply posing a problem for me, being a 30-something, female, un-athletic, scaredy cat!

After discussing a few options, she offered me their ladder, so I could try to get over the gate.. which I accepted. So round I went, climbed the ladder, and cocked my leg over the top of the gate. I had trouble finding a foothold on the other side, and I seriously had visions of me tumbling over head-first, and lying sobbing in pain on the other side! I guess Amy had similar visions, because she looked terrified!

Thankfully however, I made it safely over (grateful there was no one other than my 3 year old to witness me being rather ungraceful!) got my keys, locked up, and returned the ladder. And off we went to get our well earned pizza!

I have always been prone to headaches, some of them pretty bad, but it was only a few years ago that I started to realise that they were migraines. I don’t get any sort of aura, nor so I get sick.. and that is what put me off thinking of them as migraines. What I did realise however, was that I experienced two very distinct types of headaches.

The one that I can get any time is most probably a tension headache.. it’s pretty much all over, or across my forehead, it often doesn’t respond that well to painkillers, but at the same time, it’s something that I can cope with.. daily life can go on.

The second type however, is almost always on the right side, and it quickly builds up into something very painful. I do get a slight nauseous feeling, lights obviously make it worse, as does moving about.. but the main difference is the affect it has on me. I feel ‘ill’, and I start to find it hard to concentrate. It makes driving scary, and work almost impossible. (Do you really want me injecting you with something, if I can’t concentrate on picking the right thing out the fridge!?)

A few weeks ago, I had to do something I hate doing.. leave work, and go home to my bed. I know it can cause problems all round, but I really had no choice. Then a few weeks later, it happened again.

I decided to go to the local chemist, to ask if I could get the over-the-counter triptan drug. I have tried triptan’s in the dim and distant past, but had taken them too late, along with other painkillers etc, and hadn’t really been able to assess them.

Anyway, the chemist was out of stock, but she did suggest that I spoke to the GP I work with, to see if he would write me a prescription. He was quite happy to, so I gave it a go.

This was definitely a migraine, and I already knew that nothing else was working, so it was a good test. Sure enough, after about an hour, the pain had gone! I was very happy, to say the least!

Last night gave me a chance to try again. I had had an annoying tension headache all day, but it was starting to settle over my right eye, and that pain get pretty bad. Having the two types together is no fun! I had to head to the supermarket, so I took a tablet, and sure enough, within an hour, that pain had lifted.

Apparently, these tablets don’t work for every migraine, but if it clears the vast majority it will be a great help. In case you’ve never heard of them, there’s some info here.

Coversation with my 3 year old, walking past a cemetery..

Amy: Look, that’s a nice place to have a picnic!
Me: Erm, probably not Amy. That’s a cemetery, where they bury the bodies of people who have died.
Amy: Oh.
Amy: I want to put Thomas in there, because he’s naughty, and horrible to me.

I thought it was nice that she hasn’t yet experienced negative images of cemeteries, and thought it a nice place. As for me, I was rather spooked by the fact that there was a ‘weeping angel’, just like the ones in Doctor Who!

I think I should have a word with the nursery about this Thomas…