Had the second part of my first aid course this afternoon, I am now, once again, qualified to tell people I'm a first-aider. Whether or not I'm qualified to do anything more than that is a moot point - after doing goodness knows how many chest compressions on a plastic dummy this afternoon, I now have a completely dead right arm. With horrible pulsing pins and needles.
I'm better at the sling tying, wound dressing and more practical stuff. I can't really claim that CPR isn't practical, but to be honest it terrifies me that I might actually have to do it, whereas putting arms in slings or dressings on wounds doesn't scare me in the same way.
One of my colleagues quite fancied stealing the mask off the Resusci Annie - I have no idea what she wanted it for, really the mind boggles, surely she didn't intend to wear it?
I have to wonder whose bright idea it was to give a fifteen-year-old with an x-box addiction exam leave for his prelims. I nearly didn't sign the consent form that came home today. However, Mouse pointed out that the only people who are not being allowed exam leave are the neds those who perhaps have not behaved as well as they should, and therefore if I denied it to him, he would have to sit in a study class with the aforementioned neds people who have not behaved as well as they should.
And then he wouldn't be able to get any studying done.
I was not born yesterday. I have my doubts about how much studying will be done when he is in the house on his own, with no-one here to nag vocally care. But I can remove the x-box controllers (I think making them cordless was a wonderful idea) and therefore make it easier for him to resist temptation.
Mouse and I went for our six-monthly (or whenever I've had two reminders) asthma clinic appointments yesterday, with a same-old, same-old attitude (Mouse as well as me), to discover that we were both below our appropriate peak-flow readings and therefore we both had to up our medication.... It's understandable for Mouse, because he's grown again, so presumably he's outgrown his dosage, but I've only grown sideways. I blame it on a duff peak flow meter myself.
The GP also performed the usual moral blackmail to persuade us both to have flu jabs, and then informed us that we were on the call list for the swine flu jab, and that we'd hear in the next two weeks. I'm still not that sure about it, particularly for Mouse. Then again, I'd feel dreadful if I didn't take him for the jab and he got swine flu.
I wish that there was more information about that wasn't either hysterical or government based, everything seems to be at one extreme or the other. I have the official information leaflet as handed out by the medical practice, but it actually gives no information at all, in several languages. And against my worry about giving him (and me) a not-tested-over-many-years vaccine, I have to balance the fact that he is not only at risk because of his asthma, but at the moment he is also vulnerable until his medication dosage is properly balanced again. And he's in a school, where there are many, many germs.
Decisions, decisions...
My poor Papa is in hospital, having had an apple-picking related accident (he didn't fall out of a tree or anything, he slipped on wet leaves on a steep slope) and broken his ankle in three places. Because he's broken it on both sides, the joint won't hold together, so he's currently awaiting a surgeon to have time to fix it for him. With lots of luck that'll be tomorrow.
My Mama seems to have had a dreadful time yesterday - she took him to the local hospital in the car, where they did x-rays and plastered him up, but they have no orthopaedic surgeon there, so he was sent on to a larger hospital in Edinburgh. Because they might have had to wait several hours for an ambulance Mama took him on in the car, but the hospital did phone ahead to let Little France know. But when she got to Little France they denied all knowledge of the call (even though Mama had been standing there at the time), and they couldn't manage to find anyone to help her get Papa from the car into a wheelchair and then into the building. Honestly, she's quite a lot smaller than he is, surely they realised she would need some help! Eventually an ambulance-man helped her because no-one else had arrived.
It looks as though it'll be a long repair for Papa, with pins and lying still and lots of time. I don't know whether to feel sorrier for him or for Mama!
The weather was glorious this morning, so we went for an autumnal walk in New Lanark - up to the bridge and back.
And there just happened to be a food fair on as well (nothing at all to do with our reasons for going there), so we came home with some of these...
After repainting the hall, and getting the new carpet fitted (it came yesterday) the hall has suddenly got three feet wider. Wow, I can probably fit bookshelves in there now. After all, it is the only room in the house that doesn't have them...
I had to make an emergency dentist's appointment for today, having lost a large lump off one of my back teeth on Sunday (I think it may have dissolved in all that rain we had). The tooth itself wasn't hurting at all, but it had a really rough edge where it had broken, and my tongue was being rubbed raw, so I took the first appointment they could give me. Now the last time I went for an emergency appointment I had to wait for ages (only fair); what I'd done involved root canal work and a crown and lots of follow-on appointments; it cost a small fortune and I had to have quite a few of those numbing injections which make me feel sick. I really wasn't looking forward to today with enthusiasm, even 'though our dentist is really quite a nice person (for a dentist).
This time... I was taken as soon as I got there; it was quick and easy to fix; I only needed one injection, so I'm still feeling like a human being and it didn't cost the earth either. And, and this is the really good bit, we had a family check-up and clean and polish due next weekend, so he just did mine while I was there, so Handsome will have to take the boys and I can stay at home (and read).
Next time I might look forward to going to the dentist...
On an entirely different note, apparently there are two hundred pupils and a fair number of staff absent at Mouse's school. The school only has just over seven hundred students, so that's quite a large proportion there - I'm amazed they haven't made the press (although possibly Mouse is exaggerating quite a bit...) . They do however, definitely have a rather nasty little virus spreading quite fast (symptoms are nothing like the dreaded SF), as well as (according to Mouse and friends) quite a few people who have caught extreme hypochondria as well. Thankfully (cross fingers, touch wood) Mouse has currently caught neither virus nor hypochondria.
Mouse is playing his saxophone tonight, at a SWRI birthday party... the SWRI's birthday, I think, not an individual person. That'll be a whole new experience for him! Hopefully there'll be cake to reconcile him and the other kids who have braved the old ladies.
Currently we are having a stunning autumn; the trees are wonderful colours and the mornings are bright, sunny, and not as cold as they can be at this time of year. The colours look even better when the sun is shining on them and there's a dark sky behind - a description of the view from my office window this morning.
But the clocks changed last weekend, so dusk falls before I leave work, and this for me means that it is nearly the dark days of winter. I get so depressed when I don't get enough daylight, and in about a month, I'll be leaving in the dark and coming home in the dark every day. And it'll stay like that until February. And we're not even allowed to buy incandescent lightbulbs any more.
It seems so pointless opening the curtains before I leave the house, knowing that the first thing I'll do when I get home is close them again. However, I don't think I'm capable of leaving them closed in case the few neighbours we have think we've stayed in bed all day! I don't know why I care, but I do. It would even be quite an ecologically friendly thing to do, it would keep the heat in...
And, even worse, at this time of year I lose vast amounts of personal reading time, because I read in the car (not whilst driving, obviously) and now I can't.
I've been attempting to make some posters on Glogster, because I found it by accident and thought it looked like fun. It is, lots and lots of fun, and I have now spent many happy hours that I did not have making posters that I do not need (but will use). I'm partial to bits of software and webware that allow completely inartistic people (such as myself) to make pseudo artistic stuff, although Mouse came by a short while ago and said "Muuuuuuum, you're not leaving it like that, are you?"
I left it like that.
We went across to Glasgow today, to take Hairy some essentials (clothes, underwear mainly, and home-baked bread) and to take him shopping. We met him for lunch, and then headed for a supermarket with a shopping list written by his flat-mate. Unlike most of the males in my family, Hairy does not cook. This isn't from lack of encouragement; Handsome and myself have been most vociferous about cooking being an essential life skill, and Mouse cooks without encouragement (and sometimes without checking that we don't need the ingredients for dinner). However, Hairy does appear to have fallen on his feet - his flat mate cooks and apparently loves to cook, and is prepared to cook for him. The least we can do is provide the ingredients!
We got to meet the new girlfriend as well, as she was at the flat (with the self sacrificing cooking flat mate and boyfriend) when we got back with the shopping. They made us tea, and made conversation while we drank it (quickly, so we could take our old selves out of there before Hairy got too embarrassed). Hairy seems very happy, his friends are lovely (and polite to parents, which is definitely a good thing), the flat looks fine for a student flat, and is considerably cleaner than some I've seen. Everything's looking good.
I think I'll stop worrying for a bit.
