Archive for December, 2006

Playing with her Christmas Present

Published at Friday, December 29, 2006 in Diary. 0 Comments

Gabby playing with a toy.

Middle Class Twitter of the Year

Published at Thursday, December 21, 2006 in Diary. 1 Comment

I had heard about Twitter, but dismissed it as Another The Latest Fad, but first Mr. Hg, then Mr. Aq2 got themselves accounts and I thought, why not?

There was some TV program, some meme or some school fad, I forget which, which would describe something as something else on acid. Well, Twitter is Blogging on Acid. Got a random thought that if you fleshed out would make a good blog entry? Well, why bother making an effort, when you can twitter it straight.

Apparently, you get it on your mobile, but I imagine that would be a) expensive and b) annoying as the Nokia Ringtone. I’ve got it set up to AIM me, but that only seemed to work on day 1. Anyway, if you get an account, tell me and I will Twit-You (or whatever you call it).

The nightmare hour from hell

Published at Monday, December 18, 2006 in Diary, Extension and Parenting. 0 Comments

Or How Many Parents Does it Take to Change a Light Bulb?

Let me recount the events in strictly chronological order (times invented because really I was too stressed to know exactly what time it was).

Pre-nightmare hour from hell

12:30 Plumbers finally arrive to move toilet
16:30 Plumbers leave having only taken out toilet and not put in new toilet, promising to return tomorrow (voucher worth 0.00000001p)[1]
16:31 Panic about not having a toilet
16:32 Remember that we have a new downstairs toilet fully working.
18:00 remind children to use downstairs toilet
18:01 Put a potty where the old toilet was
18:45 Wife leaves for work dinner leaving me to put all three children to bed

During nightmare hour from hell

19:00 Gabby crying. Get Jeannie to read her a story
19:10 Give Ryan bedtime story
19:20 Say night night to Ryan and goto Gabby
19:22 Ryan wants his mummy.
19:23 Return to Ryan. Gabby crying again
19:25 Settle Ryan. Ask Jeannie to read to herself until I can give her a story
19:30 Settle Gabby. Put down.
19:32 Gabby crying. Ryan needs the toilet.
19:35 Take Ryan downstairs. Find the bulb has blown and there is glass all over a dark toilet floor. Ryan desperate and not wearing anything on his feet. Gabby crying still
19:36 Find dustpan and brush. Cannot find torch. Gabby crying. Send Ryan to get slippers
19:38 Ryan cannot find slippers. Tell him to put on wellies.
19:39 Find different torch. Sweep up glass.
19:40 Ryan goes to toilet.
19:41 Help Ryan flush, wash hands, take wellies off, get back up stairs.
19:42 Darryl from down the road knocks on door with kids to help me move the old washing machine out so the council can collect it[2]. Gabby still crying.
19:50 Get washing machine out front. Thank Darryl telling him I owe him a beer.
19:51 Gabby has cried herself to sleep. Jeannie is asleep as well. Ryan is in bed but awake
19:52 Try to change bulb in toilet. Not knowing whether it has blown for a reason (it looks now like it just fell out!) turn off lighting circuit. Turn off wrong switch (it is a new circuit board) and turn off in turn, upstairs lights and then downstairs power (resetting clocks).
19:52 and 30s : Ryan comes down because the lights went off and on. This wakes up Gabby
19:55 Settle everyone again and change lightbulb. It works.
20:00 Find out Sky+ box will not turn on

Post Nightmare Hour from Hell

Opened bottle of Hobgoblin and drink. Slump in chair

And the answer to the question about the lightbulb? Clearly more than one.

[1] In actuality, it seems they will return as they left most of their tools behind.
[2] Has to be out by 7:30 am the morning after you call, despite them giving themselves 10 days before they have to collect it.

How to lose a Test Match in one easy collapse.

Published at Tuesday, December 5, 2006 in Diary. 0 Comments

Oh dear, it really doesn’t get much worse than waking up to watch England giving the Aussies a lesson in how to really lose a test match. Whilst car crashes are a spectator sport in this country, I don’t think I can bring myself to watch the hightlights (ha!) of this.

Magic Pink

Published at Friday, December 1, 2006 in Diary. 0 Comments

We’ve all got little sniffs and wheezes. In fact, Gabby has a nasty cough, is off her food and slept alot today. Jeanie got back from ballet (at the new later time as she has gone up a set of lessons) and was hot and thirsty.

In the end, she was so lathargic and hot that we cooked up the Secret Parent Magic Potion in our special caldron, otherwise known as Calpol. Now, Jeanie has Six Plus Calpol and the special thing about Six Plus Calpol is that it is not pink but white (which is useful at 3am when you sleepily get Calpol out for your baby and your brain really does notice that it isn’t pink and therefore you have the wrong bottle).

This is a stumbing block for the taking of the medicine as you see, children get addicted to the sickly, strawberry pinkness of it and will take no other (Boots OwnBrand for instance is white and will not be taken). I know it is sickly because I had a terrible headache once and no tablets in the house. I tried Calpol. I’m not sure if it helped with the headache, but it made me sick.

Luckily, Calpol Six-Plus is still sickly strawberry tasting, so we tricked Jeannie into taking her medicine. You see, she now believes she is old enough to have Magic Pink Calpol. It isn’t pink, but it is magic because it still tastes like it is pink.