Thomas Update

Thomas updated his blog over at TFTD yesterday with lots of photos. Please go and see and leave him a few comments.

The Telephone Trumps Everything!

What is it about the telephone here? No matter what someone is doing, if their phone, or increasingly, I've noticed, Blackberry (tm) (no, I'm not envious, I'd rather have an iPhone*) rings, they stop whatever they are doing, even if they are in the middle of a sentence, and answer the phone. Then they talk away, no matter who is waiting here next to them in the actual room.

I had two medical appointments this week. During both, I had to wait while the doctor took a call. The first, at least I was just sat in a chair, but today, I was mid-examination, so lying there, half naked. You know, I really didn't appreciate the interruption. The doctor said "yes, I'm with a patient", but then he carried on talking, as if that was of no consequence. Gah.

In other news, I can understand a lot of what the chemo suite nurses are saying now. Shame I let on about that!

*oops, how did that slip out?

Birthday Parties

I really must get Thomas to post about his birthday party, at which we drank punch out of a washing up bowl, and ate popcorn out of a rubbish bin.

It was a postponed party, because many of his friends were away in January around his birthday, but I think everyone had fun, and hey, it meant that Thomas's birthday lasted 3 weeks. can't beat that.

afterwards, we went to A's house for *his* birthday party. It was a long, tiring, but fun day. I took about one photo, using TT's camera, so tomorrow my mission is to get him to post it on his own blog.

Bill gets home (still seems strange, sometimes, referring to here as home!) tomorrow night, after the boys go to bed probably. We've missed him.

Just our luck!

Not that I'm complaining about the wall to wall sunshine or anything, but trust us to miss out on the first real winter for years.

Every winter I'd be heard to bemoan the fact that there was only a piddling amount of snow. In fact last winter there wasn't any, and the year before, it snowed, a little bit, one Friday lunchtime as school was getting out. It had more or less stopped when we got home.

Bill and the boys made a very small snowman two winters ago. That's all we had snow for. If I recall, they had to use snow from the front garden as well as the back.

And now, we're thinking about all our friends having snowball fights, and building snowmen, and we're not there.

I can't even complain that it's too hot here, becasue while it's hot, it doesn't get above 33, so it's not unbearable, just perfect for getting in the pool. But it's February! And I'm not used to this yet - I still feel like winter.

We need to book our travel for July. And find somewhere to stay in Edinburgh & Bath. No home of our own to rely on for a few years.

In other news, the gatitos have settled in well. Quirk is giving us serious cold shoulder treatment, because we brought these two noisy playful things into her calm, sofa-bound existence.

Oma and Grandad were here for 3 weeks. We didn't actually do much, just hung out and enjoyed the sun. We did a little touristing, spent a day at the beach. Next year we might get a little more adventurous.

The boys go back to school a week on Monday. Thomas's belated birthday party is this Saturday - his friends are coming over for a swim, a scavenger hunt, then pizza and cake. Bill is away up at the site, so he's missing a birthay party for the first time. We need to take photos.

In fact, this blog is serioulsy lacking in photos, isn't it? I'd better do something about that. Thomas got a camera for his birthday, and he'll be updating his own blog at TFTD2001 when I remind him!

Tomorrow feels like the first day in weeks that we haven't had something to get up for in the morning, we need to buy school shoes, and a few supplies for Saturday's party, and that's it, until some friends come over in the afternoon. No alarms to set. But we do need to get into practice for school going back. Eek!