Journal Entries
An egg equals a stone
Posted Apr 18, 2007
I've been at a series of health lectures over the last few months at work. Today we had a couple of really top-line speakers - the Chief Medical Officer for Royal Mail and the President of the Faculty of Public Health. Both were fascinating.
I learned that overeating by 60 calories per day (that's about an egg a day) equals a stone a decade weight gain - and it's very difficult to get off.
The Royal Mail chap was an expert on absence management and one of his stories was a real beaut. It was about two women, both aged 45 who had hysterectomies by the same surgeon. One returned to work 14 days later, having worked out a plan of how she could do it and the other returned 9 months later, then retired 6 months after that. What was the difference? Oh yes, the first was in slightly worse health and a bit fatter.
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Latest reply: Apr 18, 2007
Probably but not definitely
Posted Apr 18, 2007
I took little to the Community Paediatrician on Monday afternoon. A lovely Scottish doctor, four days away from retirement. Apparently my lovely Egyptian GP had written a long letter to him asking him if he could fit let in to see him before he retired. We had quite a long chat. Initially all the focus was on let and it was some time before he spoke directly to me. He had him to some copying of line drawings and a picture of me, then some balancing on one leg. He said that we would talk in circumlocutions in front of him and after a while sent him out of the room so that we could chat more freely.
I was told that he probably was somewhere on the autistic spectrum - the main thing I think was that he didn't maintain eye contact - and that he would refer him to a speech and language therapist. He should get an appointment reasonably quickly and then we'll see the rather nice young Indian doctor who will be taking over from him.
It was encouraging that the doctor thought highly of the school he presently goes to and to our own GP. As far as I can tell, let is in the best possible hands on both counts, which is encouraging.
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Latest reply: Apr 18, 2007
Destruction and reconstruction
Posted Apr 13, 2007
I'm definitely living in a building site at the moment. The kitchen is stripped to bare walls (and by that I mean bare brick walls). The kitchen window has been taken out and replaced, but it's not yet firmly in place. I've no sink or cooker and everything is in boxes waiting for the kitchen to be installed.
The kitchen arrived flat packed last Friday and it took us four days to build it. We finished putting it together at 1.00am on Tuesday - so that was our Easter gone. It took three hours to put the first piece together. Other pieces came more easily after that but some of them were quite tricky. The worst of all was the larder unit with the swing-out baskets. It was German made and the instructions were in appalling English. That one took four hours to do and we had to take one part out and replace it as it didn't work when we installed it the way the instructions told us to.
Most of the units arrived on Friday, but the worktops didn't. We went to see them and arranged for different ones to be sent as the original ones ordered would be out of stock for another three weeks and you can't have a functioning kitchen without worktops. It was supposed to arrive on Wednesday and I took a day off work. It didn't arrive as the delivery van was too large to get down the road. They then said it would arrive on Monday, but I told them I didn't want to take another day off work and they agreed to bring it on Saturday and they'll park at the end of the road and we'll carry the worktops up to the house.
I had another problem with my awful ISP. My internet connection went off-line on Friday evening and I didn't get it back until yesterday. They said it wasn't their fault and told me to check the router and reinstall the firewall. None of these worked and lo and behold, it came back on its own about a day after the last call. I've decided enough's enough and have asked BT to take over my telephone supply and also be my internet provider.
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Latest reply: Apr 13, 2007
Pain and progress
Posted Mar 22, 2007
I went to the orthodontist yesterday and he's very pleased with my progress. He's put elastics on my top teeth, so they've been huring all day. I went into work and came home again.
There's been progress in the building work too. The decking is finished and the pergola is well on the way. Given the back garden is on a slope, there's about a foot and a half drop, so I think that we'll need some steps to get to the level of the lawn.
Also I'm about to pay my tax disc for my car - online. No more queueing in post offices for over half and hour. There's progress for you! o/
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Latest reply: Mar 22, 2007
More disruption
Posted Mar 14, 2007
Today has been an emotional rollercoaster. I got to the after school club to pick up little , to be taken aside by the scheme organiser, who told me that there had been some kind of incident involving him at the school, although she didn't know the details. There was also another incident in the crocodile on the way to the after school club, when he was being kicked by someone behind him. He was put to the front of the crocodile, without his friends, which he saw as a kind of punishment and an unfair one. Once at after school club, he had thown his after school food, bag and all, in the bin and thrown all the contents of his bag all over the floor. He was extremely upset.
I tried to get him to come to me and there was a whole rigmarole with him hiding and running awaym which lasted for ages. I put my things and his in the car so that I had both hands free. Eventually he ended up in the school curled up on a soft cushion and whimpered every time he was approached. Eventually, I managed to get him up and carried him towards the car. Then there was another bout of running and hiding, and a whole load of not wanting to get in the car and wanting to walk home alone - without his shoes, I might add.
I decided to stand by the car and wait for him. Another age later, he did climb in the car, but not before a lot of coming to me and running away and some swearing had taken place. Then a rigmarole about wearing his seatbelt, which he did eventually do up. I would say it took me over an hour to get him home, maybe approaching an hour and a half.
The staff were very patient. At one point I didn't know whether I would be able to get him to move at all. I'm not physically able to manhandle him any more - he's much too big and there isn't anyone locally that I can call on for help. It was very stressful. I phoned Roy to talk it through with him and that helped.
When I got home, the builders had removed the wall between the kitchen and the dining room. The room looks enormous, although it's very dusty. Because of how late I got in (I had really been looking forward to coming home early) and the trials and tribulations of the day, I've not had the energy to do any dusting and cleaning, nor trumpet practice. Again, I'm going to bed early.
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Latest reply: Mar 14, 2007
Zarquon's Singing Fish!
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