I have someone to watch over me

I have had a spectacular illness, one which while not very serious, is one that I have recovered from.  For which I am very glad.

On Saturday, we travelled to London to see my mother.  Before we met her, we popped over to the house of my wife's parents to check up on it.  We had discussed if we should return from London that day, but had decided to stay over for the weekend and go somewhere on Sunday morning.  But, while resting at watching television, I realised that I did not feel too well.  And then it hit me, vomiting and a raging temperature.  I ended up in a jumper, fleece, overcoat and was wrapped in a duvet and still felt cold.  Needless to say, the kids were taken by my wife to see my mother (and brother and his partner) while I stayed in bed with the occasional trip to the toilet.  My wife was great and took great care of me both then, and also the next day.  But while the vomiting had settled, I was still feeling unwell with a fever and inability to eat.  In fact, due to this, I was not able to return to work until Tuesday, and then, was not able to eat that much.

But today, I have got back to my normal(ish) self.  Being Wednesday, I have a different job, one that requires me to cycle.  So my son rode his bike into school, and I noted that his strength doing so is improving.  Then a ride to work, which I was capable of, but my bike chain kept coming off.  That required a trip to the bike shop and £70 quid later, I had a bike with a new chain, gear set and the ability to not have to worry about the chain coming off all the time. 

Once at home, my daughter had a friend round and later, we went over to see Isabel and Tony.  It was great to chat about things including politics with them as well as Arsenal.  And it is on that topic that I now have to say, I am not sure what is going to happen.  We lost last night, which is never good, especially against a team fighting relegation.  Our away form has been terrible, but I had not expected this result.  But, we have managed to allow a striker who could not score for us (that much) to leave, and have brought another one in, and got one of our best players to stay for longer. I am hoping that Arsène Wenger will be able to make the most out of them, but he has had great players before and while being able to get the best out of them at times, it is getting the best out of them most of the time which is needed.

And last of all, before i go to bed, chess.  I have had a bad run of late, but still enjoy the game.  I cannot get the kids to play it though.  The tournaments that have been completed are as follows.
December 2017
243 SPREE II (I finished in 20th place, and out of 243, that was impressive)
Wallyjack's Knights Of History - Henry "Hotspur" Percy (where I finished 32nd)

Good night all!

The radio

Since the last post, the most amazing thing that happened was when my wife and the children were on national radio.  Yesterday, I was dropped off at work (my wife was worried that as it was raining that I would slip and die if I cycled there) to do my paperwork.  They then went away to shop and prepare for some guests arriving today. On the way back, then I was walking home (with a detour to catch Pokémon, I got rung.  My son had rung into a national radio station and managed to get on!  I got to listen to my wife, and children talking on air to the nation!

Anyway, today, it snowed and we had Adam and Victoria around for a late lunch.  It was great having them around, they have been round before and will no doubt come round again.

If stars belong to my daughter...

My daughter is very proud, and rightly so.  When we had visited her school, before she joined up properly, one of the things we were shown was the library.  Outside it, there was a chart detailing who had scored the most for reading different books, the names of the girls who had done so being in a star.  We did wonder if she would be one of those on it, as she loves reading.  Well, she made it, scoring loads of points for the reading that she had done last term.

RIP Dolores O'Riordan

Like many across the nation of my age, I was shocked to hear of the sudden death of Dolores O'Riordan.  When younger I loved the song Linger, in fact I still do.  Working in healthcare I am reminded how fragile life is, but this reminder, despite the way I see death stalk those younger, is stronger than others. I suspect that this is probably because of the sudden nature in how this happened, a death when no one amongst the public expected it.

As a family, we have been watching a film based on one Jane Austen film, in some stages.  And the kids love it.  Hopefully they will read the book, which to be fair is one of many classics that I have not done so.  On the topic of family and relationships, it was interesting to see how a politician who left his (second) family for a model half his age has felt it necessary to dump her after she was 'indiscreet' on social media about her racist views about the royal family.

And I have finally watched the two most important games from yesterday.  First of all, the nail biting match between Liverpool and Manchester City which means that Arsenal remain the last team to finish a season unbeaten.  And of course the capitulation of Arsenal away to Bournemouth.  While many are calling for the head of Arsene Wenger, it may be too early to say so.  We were without several first team players and we are still in the league cup as well as the Europa Cup.  I have to be honest in that I am torn between loyalty towards him and the desire for the club to evolve.  Anyway, I am to watch StarvTrek now.  good night all.

The first family walk of the year

Okay, it was not all the family, but it was a nice walk anyway.

Yesterday, Lynne and Steve came round.  We had not seen them in a while and they were surprised to see how much our daughter had grown.  It was great to have them around, though I was quite sad and had to go to sleep before they left.  My son did spend the time watching The Voice UK, but had to miss the last act as he had to go to bed.

Today, we spent the morning in bed watching Once Upon A time before my wife went out for a lunch time meet with Michelle for her birthday.  After the kids were fed, and a discussion was had over issues with behaviour (followed by ice cream), we (without my wife) walked into town.  It was a lovely walk, the kids were amazing during it.  We went to Waterstones were my daughter bought some books, and then it was a trip to the Comic Book Shop.  Each time I go there, I hope to see a copy of Groo the Wanderer, but I have not been so fortunate, yet. This time, my son bought some Pokémon cards, my daughter bought a poster, and I bought a fridge magnet.  And they did not mind the walk back either.

All in all, a good day.  And one I hope we improve on.

My son and sexism

Sexism has been in the news in the last few weeks, more so than normal.  There was the issue over the gender pay gap (which has shown itself again this week) and of course there has been the #MeToo movement.

I think that it is important to point out just how amazing my son is with this.  In November we learned this when we attended a learning conference meeting without our son, who had been spectacularly unwell that day. 

One day at school, the class my son was in was given a task.  They were given a list of jobs and were told to sort them into boys and girls jobs.  He was in a group with about four other children some boys, some girls.  While the others in his group were to divide the jobs up, my son said that all the jobs could be done by both.  While the other children continued to do so, my son was adamant that dividing the jobs based on sex was wrong.

His teacher noted this, as did the deputy head who came into the room when this discussion was taking place.  Anyway, I am proud that he stood up for what he thought was right, as well as being proud of the stance that he took. 

Mewtwo

My son is laughing.  Last month, he had got a pass on Pokémon Go to something called an exclusive raid.  The problem is that, despite his account being registered as that of a child, it was for a time when he was at school.  Fortunately, some kind player in Colchester agreed to catch it for him when the EX raid took place.  On that day, when he got home from school he was so happy.

Since then, I have overtaken him in Pokémon Go, in that I have reached a higher level than him.  I started to play in September after getting annoyed with the way the kids were managing their accounts and have done quite well on it.  So when I got a pass to such a raid, I was quite pleased as well. 

So on Tuesday, I was able to get some time to take part in the raid.  I arrived on time expecting to find quite a few other players there.  And there were two other players.  We tried to catch the raid boss, but with two players, our chances of defeating it were very small, and needless to say, we did not succeed.  But as this resulted in me not catching this rare and elusive Pokémon, my son was quite happy.  I may have some Pokémon that he has not got for now, but I doubt I will be given the chance to catch another one again. 

It hurts

It hurts.  Arsenal have been knocked out of the FA cup.  A cup we have won over and over again in the last few seasons.  A cup I did not expect to win last season.  The Emirates FA Cup, for a team that plays in the Emirates stadium. 

Do not get me wrong, Nottingham Forest deserved the first goal, due to our terrible defending, and the second goal that they scored was amazing.  They did deserve the first penalty as well.  However, I feel that the second one was not deserved.  I think that Debuchy got to the ball first, but it is unclear on the replays that the referee had no access to.  But the penalty was a double touch one and should not have counted.  But again, this is hard to tell when using the replay.

And with our defending, I am not looking forwards to the league cup game against Chelski later this week.

I resolve

First of all, I have lost some weight compared to last year, and now am 92kg.  My resolutions this year include
1 - Getting into work before 0700 more often than not
2 - Being more tidy at home 
3 - Ending the year lighter than last year

The kids have been back at school, my daughter for two days, my son for four.  My mother had come up for New Years which was great, especially as we did not get a chance to see her before we left for Sri Lanka due to the snow that fell on the weekend before we travelled.

I do feel faster at work and we have organised things to deal with the winter rush.  Being back just for four days, I have not had to deal with much of the crisis that is affecting the NHS at the moment.  While the Conservative government appears to be denying the crisis that has been created by them not funding the NHS properly, I have had to warn a few patients that they may not get the treatments that they are hoping for this month due to the crisis.

Today, we have been to collect the laptop of my wife which was repaired after I broke it.  During this time, the kids were exemplary in their behaviour.  We ate in Chelmsford after taking a break on our journey back, and while the seating was a bit chilly, the food was fantastic.  

Anyway, now it is time for The Voice UK which we all love.