RECOVERING FROM CHRISTMAS

HI EVERYONE,
it is amazing the difference a good nights sleep can make.
Whatever bug we have had this time has been quite debilitating but I feel that at last I may have turned the corner. Although Beauty has been ill she has not been too bad as she has managed to play as much as ever AND make lots of noise! Especially with her beloved cartoons.

Because Beauty was unwell on Christmas Eve we were unable to visit the family grave but we managed it yesterday and for my sister and my girls who couldn't get there as they live so far away, here is a slide show of pictures that we took on the visit. Whilst the Day of the Dead Celebrations see graves decorated on the 1st and 2nd of November, traditionally in Wales we decorate graves at Christmas and on Palm Sunday which in welsh is called Sul A Blodau which roughly translates as Flower Sunday.

Due to illness,Christmas Day was spent opening presents, cooking ,eating,watching television and SLEEPING....as the following photographs prove!

See.....it's the men who can't take the pace!


Ariel's young man and Anastasia's friend.

CHRISTMAS IS AS FAR AWAY AS IT EVER WILL BE.....My father's Boxing Day message-every year.

WHY WE WATCH SOAPS ON TV AT CHRISTMAS.....
because they make your own family life look like LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE!

Though for entertainment value , the best thing on TV was the Dr Who Christmas Special(filmed in Cardiff). Most entertaining moment was Kylie describing the area around St John's Church/Burger King as ' beautiful'..... and the Queen running out of the palace complete with curlers and corgis.


We also love Clive Rowe previously of Tracy Beaker and Magic Card playing mate Of SnoWhite's friend, he is so funny and such a good actor and really added to this years Dr Who Christmas Special.


Beauty managed to open three presents before losing interest and returning to Noggin!
Her favourite present appears to be a fairy rabbit in a tutu!

Santa brought her a Doodle Pro

She absolutely loves Doodlers and has previously had 2 Fimbles Doodlers and the brilliant thing is they go everywhere with her and they keep her really entertained. I think I should buy one just to keep in the car.
And from PianoMan she had a Silver Cross pram


Beauty is still not brilliant at pretend play and so we thought that a pram might help, a very STRONG but DURABLE pram due to Beauty's ability to destroy anything.Also due to the fact that I have 3 daughters in their 20's, it will also be something my grandchildren can use!That is one of the problems with my house, it just isn't big enough because my girls will not let me throw anything away as they love ALL of Beauty's things so much that they want them for their own children. I have a basket of things that I have collected that came from my niece, toys , baby clothes and baby bedding that are still in perfect condition that we are going to give her as a present as she is pregnant with her first baby,She must be 30 now.

Runningman bought Beauty Shrek the Third,she hasn't opened it yet but perhaps that is a good thing because if she had it would be on constantly and I mean CONSTANTLY.



Whilst Anastasia had, amongst other things


A Welsh T Shirt



Belle had a Welsh Rugby Shirt
Whilst SnoWhite had GHD's!
Ariel had a Star Cath Kidston Dressing Gown
and Fiona had a lot of FRUIT stuff!

And I had an electric pencil sharpener.......!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY

Now I know why I threw away all my really old and tatty bedroom carpets and painted the floorboards white.....I spent all last night awake with Vomiting Veronica. I have the feeling that illness I have had for 2 days wasn't a migraine but some sort of bug as Beauty has spent the night being sick.....everywhere!My washing machine is humming along nicely with it's 2nd load of the day as I try to wash all the bedding and clothes used during the night. Beauty ended up wearing a sparkley green t-shirt of mine whilst I finished up in a summer dress that I haven't worn in many years. I can tell that she is unwell because even though we are downstairs she has taken to the sofa and looking very sorry for herself but still giggling and chatting about the Disney Channel!I am feeling a little better today and any headache or sickness I might still be feeling is probably down to lack of sleep.I know I said I enjoyed being a night nurse BUT that was when I got to sleep in the day and I can't see much of that happening today.
However, I think that tomorrow I shall call upon the skills of my little IKEA restaurant workers(SnoWhite & Ariel) and my little Baker(Fiona) to help me prepare lunch .

I AM AN IDIOT!

I went to pick Runningman up from his social club last night, I pick him up each Saturday night and drop him off at his flat so he doesn't have to catch the bus(which are not reliable). I usually stop at a local shop to pick up a few groceries etc and last night was no different EXCEPT for the fact that I got my finger stuck in a charity box! I put my change into a Red Cross Collecting Box next to the till but the coins would not go down so I pushed them quite forcefully and got my finger stuck in the opening of the box. Imagine it ...I am stood at the till with a collecting box hanging from my finger!IDIOT!

Thankfully I knew the staff in the shop or they may have thought I was trying to steal the box or as SnoWhite so eloquently put it, they may have thought I was ON THE ROB!

SnoWhite and Ariel will finish work today for Christmas as IKEA is a Swedish company and their main celebration day over Christmas is Christmas Eve so the store will be closed tomorrow. We will be going to visit my parents grave tomorrow to decorate it and then taking the presents to the in-laws.So Anastasia and Belle if you want me to put a note or a photo or something on the grave then email it to me and we will put it with the rest of the things. I could photocopy your card Belle so if you want to send a personal message on it ,then email it to me.
Just to let you know THE PHONE IS FIXED - Brilliant news.
Have fun.

CHRISTMAS IS COMING

I am busily cleaning the house for Christmas even if it is not as fast as usual,my joints seem to have slowed down due to the constant cold but I am slowly getting there.Last night I took Fiona and SnoWhite shopping in Tesco Extra on Western Avenue and it is a BIG shop, well it was so large that after finding the biscuits that I needed to finish a Christmas Hamper I had to go and sit on the seats behind the tills as I just couldn't walk anymore. I left Fiona and SnoWhite to happily wander and buy their Christmas presents.Tesco did not seem as bad as usual due to the fact that all the tills were open and things seemed to be moving pretty quickly , I think that when I go shopping next I will definitely have to use a shopping scooter.

Recently , after not having watched the show in a long time, I have taken to watching Eastenders again!(SORRY). I tend to do my artwork whilst sat at a small folding table in the living room, so I tend to have the TV on plus I am needing to take more rests between activity so overall I am sitting down more - well that's my excuse and I am sticking to it.
I know it's only a story but the whole homelessness issue with Billy and Honey and the children is making me angry. They have been evicted from their flat because Phil Mitchel sold the house and the new landlord wanted double the rent and Billy couldn't afford it and they were thrown out on the streets without the landlord going through the courts.
Billy and Honey
First of all I would like to punch Phil Mitchel in the head(who wouldn't?) for selling the house and being so unsympathetic but most of all I am angry that situations like this can still happen in the 4th richest nation in the world. Billy may not be the sharpest tool in the box but he works as hard as he can but he always seems to get the bum deal. As with Special Needs Education, I think many areas of the social care system benefit those who SHOUT THE LOUDEST.
I watched a program the other night on TV Called Growing Up Skint

Growing Up Skint follows the lives of young people in three cities around the country. However different their family lives and ethnic backgrounds may be, they all have one thing in common: a chronic lack of cash.
Yet despite missing out on what many families take for granted - school trips, books, birthday treats and holidays - we'll see how they try and defy the odds to succeed and survive.

I really feel that the system does not help and encourage those who really want to work hard and provide for their families.

When I grew up in the 60's my family were very poor due to my father's ill health and times were really hard but after watching Growing Up Skint I can honestly say that for many today the situation is no better and I would say for many a lot worse.

IT'S COLD OUTSIDE.

I think it must be to do with my advancing age but I think that my memory is playing tricks on me.The temperature at the moment appears to be hovering around the freezing mark and goes down to as much as 6 below at night and has definitely not been this cold at this time of year for quite a few years or is it just me getting confused?

Wales in Winter

This picture of Llandaff Cathedral in Cardiff was taken by Mike Roberts while walking through Hailey Park.

Fiona has a new room.....a study to be exact,Fiona's room is the smallest in the house so she has now taken the other tiny bedroom as a study. I awoke last night at about 4am to what sounded like an explosion-the door to Fiona's study would not open and she was kicking the poop out of it to try and open it! The door is a bi-folding door because SnoWhite used to sleep in the room and the room was so small that an ordinary door was just not suitable and so we put in the folding door to allow more space in the room.The door it seems would not travel properly on the rails on which it is mounted.
Beauty slept through it all!

I TRULY LOVE GOK WAN.

Now this is why I will NEVER go on a BIG WHEEL!

Children's big wheel 'nightmare'

Primary school children were stuck on a big wheel for 45 minutes when a winter treat turned into a "nightmare".

The Wheel of Wales at Cardiff's Winter Wonderland attraction, stopped during the evening while checks were carried out on the doors of all the gondolas.

A choir from Ysgol Gymraeg Coed-y-Gof were among those stranded as the passengers were slowly taken off. One parent described it as a "nightmare".

Cardiff Council, which runs the city centre attraction, apologised.


I LOVE GOK WAN!
Gok Wan is one of the nicest guy's on TV.
On his show How To Look Good Naked a girl who hated her butt was asked to look at the butts of 5 women and to guess where she thought in size she would come in the line up. She put herself as a lot bigger than he actually was and so did I!
I put myself at about half way and it turned out that I was a full 5 inches smaller on the butt than the smallest of the girls in the line-up. Now that is better than any Christmas present that money can buy!

Gok Wan

My feet are so cold this winter that I have bought myself a pair of UGG boots to wear as slippers from where else but Peacocks,one of my favourite shops.And why do I like Peacocks? Because I can park right outside the shop.
Not the branded Ugg boots(though I think they look so amazing-sad or what?)but the cheap synthetic version, I just couldn't wear dead sheep on my feet!I always wear shoes that are synthetic because of being a vegetarian but I do have a leather belt that I bought a while ago and I feel bad about having it in my wardrobe but what do you do with it? I keep it because(sorry if this sounds a bit naff)some animal died to make it and throwing it away seems worse than wearing it!Yes I hear you all saying WHAT A WALLY!

Now what do you think of this amazing card?
You so have to check out the Santoro London website.
Beauty received this card from Anastasia's in-laws in Switzerland and it is so beautiful.The card is a tri-fold and The London Eye and the Helicopter blades rotate and the helicopter is suspended, I think it is stunning. Thank you so much.
Beauty plays constantly with some boxes of blocks that came from Geneva, they are German made and they were Dimitri's when he was little(he is now 26) and his little brother gave them to Beauty when as a teenager his mum said he was too old for them.Beauty loves to stack them and line them up but Fiona has been known to build with them too(she once built a convent for a wind-up nun that belonged to SnoWhite!).

TIS THE SEASON TO BE FREEZIN

I am so not a technically minded person yet NTL are driving me to distraction, my house phone has not worked for 3 days (Internet fine!)and neither have many of my neighbours but NTL insist there is nothing wrong and they will send out an engineer .....on Christmas Eve! They are forcing me to get my mobile phone working and I can barely turn the thing on and off I am so useless.I have the sincerest desire to throw my mobile at the first passing Virgin/NTL van.

It is pretty cold here at the moment, obviously not as cold as the parts of the USA and Canada that are experiencing pretty extreme weather but the wind is making it pretty nippy and whilst the temperature is hovering around freezing, the wind is making it feel a lot colder.
In the winter I wear large square shaped scarves, folded into a triangle and worn a bit like an hijab with a fringe but instead of leaving the ends at the front I pass them round the back and tie them in a double knot.


Hijab
link
This is how I look(well not quite as pretty but you know what I mean).













I do this so the scarf is more like an 80's 'snood' and when I go into a building I can push the scarf back and it looks just like a scarf around my neck.
Snood
link










However ,I am totally aware that it does look a little like an hijab and complete with my fitted black coat and jeans I do look like a westernised muslim women.
Yesterday I felt like Harrison Ford in the film Witness,
due to problems with the car I had to walk Beauty to and from school and I passed a number of local women walking to the school.Due to the biting wind I was holding my scarf tightly to my head and my scarf really must have look an hijab and I was also wearing sunglasses due to the strong sun.
Well, both women stared at me all the time until they passed me and even when I went to cross the road and turned to check the traffic, one was still looking. I really wanted to ask them if there was a problem and I know I could have been over sensitive but it really felt an uncomfortable situation.
I really do feel like I am from a different age, I wear a head scarf because I hate my head getting cold.The women I passed were wearing skinny jeans with pumps/ballet shoe type footwear with no socks, little thin bomber jackets with no hats, scarves or gloves and they looked really, really cold.
I am sorry but when I get cold fashion has nothing to do with it.
I am sure girls you will be pleased to hear that unlike Harrison Ford in Witness I did not punch anybody!

After reading yesterdays post by Mother of Shrek I came to the conclusion that I am so missing out by not reading so many books lately.I used to read all the current releases but I haven't read a new book in ages.Let's hope that I receive a book for Christmas to get me going.
I think that it must be to do with thinking about books that I have read that last night I dreamed about the book The Time Traveler's Wife and I dreamed that Beauty suddenly gained the ability to time travel And be invisible!
Imagine giving those abilities to a profoundly autistic 7 year old.....now that would be interesting!

TO BULLY ON NOT TO BULLY, THAT IS THE QUESTION

I have heard it said a number of times that 'the bullied become bullies' but I do not believe that this has to happen Looking back over my life I can remember a number of incidents which I was involved in which were probably bullying.When I was about 6 I 'accidentally' bumped into a girl in the playground,' on another occasion I made a comment about a boys weight(I think I was about 8), on another occasion something happened which was a misunderstanding and the other person got upset and I think that I was more upset than they were and finally I made fun of a girl in school when I was about 14 but it was only the once. I am so getting old because I can clearly remember the incidents in my life that might be considered as bullying but I cannot remember sometimes that happened a week ago!
In primary school, secondary school, nursing and even church I was bullied. In school I was bullied so badly that life did not seem worth living and I even left my initial nurses training because I was bullied by a fellow student.In the secondary school I was bullied by 2 girls who were huge, they were so big they made Pat Butcher look positively waif like. Looking back with the experience of adulthood I would deal with the situation differently but looking back, when I was 14 the threats of violence from 2 amazonian type girls was very frightening..
Now I can hear the cogs in your brains whirring and thinking NOW WHERE DID THIS COME FROM?
Well I'm back again to Cyber Bullying.
What is wrong with people?
Are their meds not working?
Did they just get out of bed on the wrong side?
Or are they just plain mean?
Stereotypically we think of bullies as thick and ignorant people but on the Internet the biggest bullies seem to be quite intelligent people.
I have just witnessed some cyber bullying, I will not name the person as it will only give them the attention they obviously crave but anyone who usually reads my blog will not find it difficult to find out what I am talking about.
Life is way to short to get your jollies by being mean to other people.
OK you may have been bullied as a child or even as an adult, your life may have been poop but does it really make you feel better by treading on the feelings of others?

LAST NIGHT I HAD THE STRANGEST DREAM.....

Dawkins: I'm a cultural Christian

Prof Dawkins said atheists were not a threat to Christian traditions

Scientist Richard Dawkins, an atheist known worldwide for arguing against the existence of God, has described himself as a "cultural Christian".

He told the BBC's Have Your Say that he did not want to "purge" the UK of its Christian heritage.

The comments came after Tory MP Mark Pritchard accused "politically correct" people of undermining Christmas.

Professor Dawkins, author of the God Delusion, added that he liked "singing Carols along with everybody else".

The article concludes with

He added: "I fully recognise the full historical and cultural significance [of Christianity] in our country.

"We should all be aware of that and celebrate that."

And the head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Trevor Phillips, said schools were wrong if they thought celebrating Christmas excluded children who were not Christian.

He said: "Christmas and the celebration of Christmas in this country, though it is a religious festival, is one in which people who are of no religion - or other religions - can share."

I also feel this way.
Because I do not believe in God does not mean that I want to take religion away from people, I think that religion is a huge power for good. The religious festivals are also a large part of our cultural heritage and as such should be remembered and celebrated.I have read many instances in the UK of how Christmas and other religious festivals are being marginalised so as not to cause offense to the peoples of other religions in the UK. I think this is totally wrong and we are meant to celebrate our diversity.

When I went to Turkey, being awoken by a CALL TO PRAYER was what happened in that country and any suggestions of stopping it to prevent causing offense to non-Muslims would have made me angry.When I go to Spain I love to see all the shops with Nativity scenes in their windows, I was pleased to see quite a few shops with Nativity scenes in Cardiff's shopping centre when I visited last.
At Beauty's Nativity play Whoops a Daisy Angel the audience consisted of many Muslim parents who all seemed to enjoy the play very much and if they had not wanted their child to participate then they had the chance to opt out.

At the school play I talked to Beauty's best friends mother, they are African Muslims who have lived here for a number of years due to to the fact that there is war in their country and they cannot go back. Beauty's best friend is high functioning autism and so he is extremely bright and questioning and this year he asked if they would be decorating the house for Christmas.

I explained to his Mum that in the UK we have celebrated at this time of year(any historian who wants to correct me-not a problem)back to pre-Christian times, the winter solstice and the fact that the longest day of the year is over and the days are getting shorter. I also suggested decorating the house for Eid-al-Adha-The festival of Sacrifice, the festival that marks the end of Hajj. She thought that this was a brilliant idea and she will be decorating her house with snow and other non-religious items.Beauty's friend thought this was great and when he asked his mum if they were going to decorate she said 'Of course, Christmas is for everyone'.

Again, as Richard Dawkins said

He said: "Christmas and the celebration of Christmas in this country, though it is a religious festival, is one in which people who are of no religion - or other religions - can share."
Christmas is a time to share and for families to be together, and I as a humanist will be celebrating it within the cultural traditions of my country or any other traditions that bring us all closer together.

Oh as a by the way, Anastasia bought me a copy of The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins as a Christmas present one year and it was very good,
Thank you Anastasia.

Last night I had another of my crazy dreams!
Due to the fact that I do not sleep very well, I do not get a lot of deep sleep so any dreams that I have i seem to remember quite vividly.
I dreamed that Anastasia had been doing missionary work for the church she belongs to and had been gone for 18 months doing this work-not a chance!I do not think that I or Dimitri would be too pleased with that idea.
Now if I had dreamed that she had done a VSO year abroad that would have been totally different. I have never been too enthusiastic about people who go away JUST to SPREAD THE GOSPEL but if they were to go to Africa to help build wells etc AND talk about their religion, that sounds good.I have also thought that Health Educating in needy areas sounded good or working in a homeless hostel in Cardiff but going away just to preach doesn't do it for me.
I have also found the thought of Enclosed Orders a bit worrying but if it floats your boat then who am I to criticise.
However, the one most likely to get itchy feet is SnowWhite, she is presently considering working in Special Needs Summer Camps-who can tell where she will be next year? She has friends she went to school with who are currently living in Israel(one is doing is national service) so she could end up working on a Kibbutz!

BEAUTY WAS AN ANGEL.

Yesterday was the school Nativity Play and Beauty played one of the many of the little angels. She is the only little girl in her class so she looked really sweet dancing around with all the little boys.I bought her a new dress to wear, it is the princess dress from Enchanted and she looked an absolute picture. Due to the rules about not taking pictures of the other children in the school I do not have a photo yet but I will post one as soon as possible.
We all want to go and see Enchanted and so we might go as a family,Beauty has never been to the cinema before so that will be something to look forward to but as she absolutely loves the dark I am hoping we will not have too many problems.I have seen clips from Enchanted on the Disney Channel for a long time now and it looks very funny.
I was also thinking about taking Beauty to see the pantomime Snow White in the New Theatre, Gwen's boyfriend from Torchwood is in it which means that the older girl's would love to see it too.
One thing we will not be doing this year though is going on the Big Wheel at the Winter Wonderland. This year it is not just a Big Wheel but a BIG WHEEL, obviously not as big as the London Eye but big enough to scare me and all the girls into saying IT JUST ISN'T GOING TO HAPPEN.

I shall stick to the carousel with Beauty!

I WAS TAGGED

I have been tagged by Steve from Bloggertropolis.

"When people say 'Christmas' you immediately think..."

Post Christmas dieting-sad but true.
I also remember the total belief I held as a child that Jesus was born that night all those years ago and I would love more than anything to return to that child like belief.Presents were never really that significant as I was growing up but the spiritual aspect of Christmas for me was definitely the most important thing.

"Favourite Christmas memory..."

As a child, going with my mother to the local woods to find a small log to make a Yule Log.


"Favourite Christmas song/carol..."

Now this is not so easy to answer.
My favourite carol is IN THE BLEAK MID WINTER-I find it hauntingly beautiful but I also like the children's Christmas song LITTLE JESUS SWEETLY SLEEP.
My favourite Christmas song is FAIRY TALE OF NEW YORK closely followed by the David Essex rendition of WINTER'S TALE.

"Favourite Christmas movie..."

I love the film Scrooged as it is so funny.

"Favourite Christmas character..."
Sadly, due to financial implications, as a child I never believed in Santa but I really loved the Christmas story and I think I liked the donkey best. As an adult, I do love the European Christmas traditions .
In Austria where Anastasia lives, December 6th is the day Saint Nicholas, the giver of gifts, makes his rounds accompanied by his devilish assistant, Knecht Rupnecht, he can occasionally be seen roaming the streets giving sweets and apples to good children while his companion playfully beckons "little sinners" to feel the string of his golden rod.
Spooky or what!

"Favourite Christmas ornament/object..."
Christmas baubles.
I buy the girls a Christmas tree ornament every Christmas, so with 6 girls we have LOTS of tree ornaments.This years theme is stars.

"Plans for this Christmas..."
To do as little as possible.
I love giving presents and I love to see people open them so I am looking forward to that.
I also like to decorate the family graves, whilst South America may decorate theirs on The Day of the Dead,here the graves look very festive at Christmas.I once saw a man pouring a can of beer into a grave!

"Is Christmas your favourite holiday?"
Most definitely.
I like the general overall atmosphere that lasts from November through to New Years Day.
I would hate the thought of it being 'Christmas every day' but it would be so nice for some of that feeling to last all year.
I have tagged the following
Marla,
Elissa,
Laa,
Casdok,
Dave

EVENTS OF THE AWESOME KIND!

Anastasia, Belle and SnoWhite.....there is no need to phone home to check as all is well BUT yesterday Fiona asked me to give her hug!I was flabbergasted.
She also told me that in college she and her friends had been talking about their parents and she realised how good we were to her.Well you could have knocked me down with a feather.....and it was not the outcome of drinking Red Bull or eating lots of sweets and having a sugar rush. I am still concerned that she maybe hiding something like a tattoo or a piercing or a 38 year old boyfriend or she is going to run away and join the circus/Foreign Legion/Peace Corp.

Now I know why I never go into town shopping!
Beauty is an angel in the school play tomorrow and I thought that one of Fiona or Ariel's bridesmaids dresses would be OK but when I took it out of the wardrobe I was shocked to see how cream it really is.So I went into town to the Disney shop to buy an Enchanted dress for her to wear and the dress is beautiful but walking to the shop from the car is such a long way. No wonder I only go to town maybe twice a year, as I was in town I also bought a few Christmas presents. If I can't get their presents from stores with car parks then their sisters will have to do the shopping for me. Whilst I was in the St David's centre I read a sign that said that when all the building work was completed the new St David's centre would be the size of 30(that's right,30) football pitches.That sounds to me like a nightmare.

'WELL THINGS JUST GOT A LITTLE FROSTY'

A very cold night last night- well for Cardiff anyway, I so would not want to be living further north at this time of year.Outside is very frosty and glittery, thankfully sunshine is forecast for all day.
Yesterday I couldn't understand why the car wouldn't work properly and was slow to pull away from stationary.Somehow the Snow Button on the car had been pushed and so the car had generally slowed down for snowy conditions.(which shows how much I know about cars-well apart from watching Top Gear and seeing middle aged men destroy cars!)I did use the snow button once last year when we had a blizzard and the snow didn't melt even under the heavy use of Cardiff traffic but Cardiff is more likely to have rain than snow.I think it is something to do with living on the Bristol Channel.When we stayed in New Orleans it seemed to rain every day but the rain lasted 5 minutes and it dried up straightaway and was gone, a pity Cardiff can't be a bit more like that.

Due to the weather my house is like a laundry,Beauty wipes her hands into her clothes when her hands are dirty-constantly! Yesterday she came home from school covered from top-to-toe in red paint, and then she had to be changed again after eating her tea. Her bedding has to be changed regularly as she still wears nappies to bed and Fiona still baths using 3 large bath towels and changes her clothes every hour! We also have throws over all of the furniture because the furniture is getting a bit tatty PLUS Beauty also gets the sofa filthy. I have seen the most beautiful sofa that I would like but it seems pointless to buy it with Beauty still in destruction mode.I wash the clothes and dry them overnight on a clothes horse/dryer and then finish them off in a tumble dryer, for financial reasons as well as environmental ones.Todays sunshine looks like we good have a good bit of drying weather so I think it is time to wash throws.
On some streets in Cardiff we have a number of pod-type super loos that self-clean after use, the whole of the inside is washed down and dried .I wish my house were like that PLUS I wish that children could also go through the same process.

I had the final mark yesterday for my art project for my AS Level ART and I got an A which I am really pleased with.
For the final piece I did a tree and the marker felt that I could have done more detail into the tree but that was how I wanted the tree to look. I told the lecturer that I would have been happy to have done another painting because I didn't want to add to the painting that I had done but they said not to bother as I had an A and there was no real point.
At present we are doing a portraiture project and as well as my large presentation folder I am also filling a small A5 sketchbook with portraits and the more I do the better I really seem to get. I really do not have much natural talent when it comes to portraiture but I have learnt the techniques and the more that I draw the better I rally seem to get at creating likenesses of people.I am not sure what I should do as a final piece for this project, I have been considering a water colour of my mother but my lecturer thinks a picture of one of my girls might be a good idea.
We shall see.

WILMENTING

I have been unwell for the last few days with flu symptoms after having a flu jab and all I could think was WHAT IDIOT GETS FLU SYMPTOMS FROM A FLU JAB? However, after surfing the web, I have read that it is possible. I have all the symptoms except I can still walk around so it can't be that bad.I had the jab because Beauty has been sick since September with different viruses, she now has a runny nose type cold-well that's something to look forward to as we still have the remains of the last virus that she gave us-an upper respiratory infection that we all still have.Luckily Beauty is rarely very ill will her infections and will take herself to bed if she really feels poorly. She can't be too bad as she broke another 6 eggs last night!~I am going to buy a tub to hide them in so she can not find them so easily in the fridge-or a fridge lock!
I am not sure how you spell the word but there is a word that I have only heard used in Wales- WILMENTING- it means to be into everything and it aptly describes Beauty's behaviour of late. She is into absolutely everything all the time. She cannot be left for a second.
Eggs are definitely her favourite but yesterday she also destroyed a box of SMARTIES Christmas tree decorations. She didn't want to eat them, she just broke the chocolate and broke it into small pieces.AND the pieces were strewn everywhere.
She also loves to scatter the hay everywhere, empty the salt, line up videos and count vegetables(I FOUND A POTATO WITH PINS STUCK IN IT!). She is also constantly turning up the thermostat in the fridge, the piggy boys were not impressed with carrots for supper on Saturday because she had frozen the cucumber.

On to other more important things-TV!
Letitia Dean is out of Strictly Come Dancing and Nicky is out of X Factor,
I really liked Letita Deans dancing and I thought she was good enough to win and whilst Same Difference are a highly entertaining duet-for a stage show or Disney , Nicki deserved to still be in as she is a very talented singer.
AND I watched Robin Hood, Keith Allen is brilliant as the Sheriff of Nottingham-he is so funny. I also feel that Charlie Brooks(Janine from Eastenders) was brilliant as the mother , Robin told her she needed to improve her parenting skills -well she was prepared to cut her children's arms off to make them look like convincing beggars!

Life was so much simpler at Christmas when my girls were younger!
SnoWhite was sure she wanted GHD's for Christmas and Ariel wanted a suit to wear at dressy army events BUT now they are both on the verge of changing their minds.
Fiona has a list as long as your arm so no problem there, Anastasia's and Belle's presents are posted and they will get money and Beauty has a pram and a pile of activity toys all bought and ready.
I have a monetary limit on what I spend on the girls(allegedly) and it usually works quite well.However a nursing sister that I worked with a few years ago would spend £1000 on each of her 2 children every Christmas and I remember thinking at the time that £1000 each was a criminal amount to be spending.With the money I spend on my girls, presents for friends and relatives and food for the holiday period, the total I spend does not come to £1000.
My girls usually choose things that they really need for Christmas and hate too many surprise presents as they do not want to waste their money on unwanted gifts, they are all good girls really.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A COMPUTER, A 16 YEAR OLD AND 2 GUINEA PIGS?

Not a lot as far as I can see as they are as emotional as each other!
The 16 year old-well the least said there the better,!
The computer however is driving me totally nuts, it is behaving so emotional recently(a bit like the 16 year old) that I am convinced that a visit to a counselor would definitely help. Again , the computer has gone into it's I WANT TO BE ALONE mode and I spent 15 minutes swapping keyboards and mice(Beauty is still breaking them faster than I can replace them).
AND as for the piggy boys, you walk past them and they go into hysteria mode and scurrying around as if I intended to eat them!
I'M A VEGETARIAN does not seem to convince them!
We are also having ISSUES with Beauty.
Not content with destroying computers(is that an Olympic sport?), she has also taken to destroying eggs.Her teacher thinks it is something to do with a shape sorter game that they have in school where eggs crack in half and there are smaller eggs inside, a bit Matrioska-ish.
Fiona and Beauty have also taken to squabbling together like a pair of 4 year olds, for Beauty that is good news, that she is acting like a 4 year old but as for the 16 year old.....well I did expect her to act at least like a teenager!

We also had a serious incident with Beauty and the rabbit! The other night I couldn't find her but eventually I did, she was in with the rabbit .....playing with the straw in his hutch!
I was convinced I was going to find him dead BUT he and Beauty were fine. They were sat together as happily as an old married couple. Looking back I shouldn't have been worried, If Beauty had tried to hurt the rabbit he would definitely have bitten her and she would have been out of there like a shot.
If she had tried to get in with the piggy boys their hysterical squeaking would have been heard by Belle in Florida and Anastasia in Austria!
Yep, I think Bunny Boy can definitely handle himself, if he were human he would definitely be one of those large but gentle security guards that you respect , a bit like my brother in-law-6ft 4in's, as we say in Wales built like a brick built ****(poop) house but an absolute sweetheart.

Today is post 600-WOW.....who would have thought I would find the time to write so much.

I HAVE LOST MY TREE.

I would love to say that I have been on holiday BUT I haven't(mores the pity).
I also have not been really ill(if you do not count the irritating cough that I have had for over a month now!).
I would like to say that I won the lottery and was busy spending the money but that is also not true.
For the last few days my computer has been 'confused' and would not load(after Beauty messed with it!) and so I left it turned off for the day and when I turned it back on ..... VOILA ! So now I am able to use the computer again. It is is only sitting here thinking about it that I realise that I can go on line with my laptop .....DUH!Oh well!

I have lost my Christmas Tree!
Last Twelfth Night I put it somewhere really obvious so I would know where it was this Christmas and now I can't find it.What a twit!
After watching the film ELF last night, Fiona and I made white paper chains and cut snowflakes and the living room looks really good. I was so impressed with that film, I have never seen the film before or heard anyone talk about it but to me Buddy the Elf was autistic and it was about his family coming to terms with his condition. It was a brilliant film.

SCRATCHING!

YES.....IT WAS ME THAT SAID SHE WANTED TO GO TO THE ANTARCTIC!


Ice-rescue tourists to fly home

The Explorer lay on its side in the frozen seas for several hours

Passengers rescued from a cruise ship that sank after hitting ice in the Antarctic Ocean are expected to start their journeys home within hours.

The 154 tourists and crew from the M/S Explorer have been spending the night at a military base on a Chilean island.

They are due to be flown to Chile and then to their home countries. The ship's operator Gap Adventures said they were in "good spirits".

Some 23 Britons, 17 Dutch and 13 Americans were among those on board.

What is it with me and cruises? Remember I also said that I wanted to go on a cruise on the Nile and the scary thing is that I would still go on both. There is also a cruise between St Petersburg and Moscow that I would love to do, when I went to Russia we traveled on a train between the 2 cities so a cruise would be nice to see the country.
I wonder if Qantas do cruises?( just joking).

Also in the news , Ziggy complains that Chanelle' bitch slapped' him!
Well, when they were on Big Brother he messed with her head so much that if he had treated one of my girls like that I would have 'bitch slapped' him myself. Chanelle may have emotional problems but Ziggy is certainly no gentleman and definitely does not know how to treat women properly.
WOW.....I really enjoyed being shallow.

SnoWhite is 22 today and as a birthday present I bought her a very adult coat, it is a dark purple swing coat and it looks really good on her, my baby is all grown up! It must be OK because even Fiona has given it her seal of approval.Anyway, SnoWhite really needed a coat because her present coat looks very similar to the one that Betty wears in Ugly Betty(the pale blue coat).
And I bought her a penguin for her penguin collection!
Carrying on with the shallow theme.....Oh please! Wasn't it just a little bit predictable for Alan Dale(Bradford Meade) to die of a heart attack! Isn't that how he died in The OC and Neighbours? Personally for me he will always be Jim from Neighbours .
And last night Rab (Derek Riddell) from The Book Group showed up as Christina's husband, I love them both as they are both such good actors.Though personally I don't trust him in Ugly Betty!
I also bought myself a new coat, I think the last coat that I bought is about 4 years old and it has gone quite thin and as this winter is promising to be very cold a thicker coat was definitely needed. I have a very long Russian Army style coat but it isn't very fashionable at the moment but I couldn't get rid of it as it is still in very good condition even though it is 8 years old and Russian Army style coats seem to come back into fashion quite regularly.

Beauty has a unique talent with the computer! When she watches short videos on children's channels she stops and starts them in the same way that a DJ does what he does to his records(scratching?) and whilst entertaining for a few seconds, after a while it gets verrrrrrry irritating.Scratching any longer than a minute usually gets the comment........HE GETS IT( from 2 Pints of Lager when Janet tells baby Corinthian something in baby talk-repeatedly and Donna shouts at her!).
I recently bought a new record player which Beauty is banned from playing on, I can imagine her sneaking out of bed at night and DJing for a party for her and the guinea pigs!

PROBLEM SOLVED.....I HOPE!

After Beauty's run-in with the thinner than thin and lighter than air computer screen we have gone back to using an old monitor to hopefully prevent a repeat of her last attempt at trying to 'KILL' a computer screen!
It weights(is it weight or weigh?) twice as much as Beauty so it should hopefully be too big for her to move and I am also going to attach it to the table with duct tape and attach the table to the computer desk next to it to prevent the table being pushed over.
And yes Anastasia, anytime Dimitri wants his monitor back is fine with me!

I WAS WRONG........

I CAN DO PROFOUND!

I watched this documentary on Sunday night and have not been able to sleep since because I was so traumatised by what I saw.
Bulgaria's Abandoned Children

The Campaign for BULGARIA'S ABANDONED CHILDREN

aims to challenge the standards of social care in Bulgaria and promote the practice of community based care for all disabled children and adults.

We began our campaign following the broadcasting of Kate Blewett’s harrowing film 'Bulgaria's Abandoned Children' that exposed the appalling neglect of 75 unwanted and disabled children in the state-run Mogilino Institute. Members of the public, outraged at the children’s suffering contacted Kate and together they have begun the campaign to challenge this neglect and rebuild the children's lives.

We have joined forces with an established charity, The Bulgaria Project, who have many years experience of working in orphanages and institutes across Bulgaria . Together we are campaigning to bring help into the Mogilino Institute to improve the children's immediate situation as well as ensure that they have long term care in a therapeutic environment that recognises their right to be protected, educated and respected.

I am ashamed to say that it is not the first time that I have read about what is going on in Bulgaria and a few years ago I wrote to the government in Bulgaria and explained how I felt about the situation. However, I also write letters for Amnesty International and have done so for the last 16 years and I am ashamed to say that after a while you read about so much suffering and pain that in the end you push it to the back of your mind to protect yourself.

I was so upset by the treatment of the children in the Mogilino Institute that was shown in the documentary. I found the treatment of the deaf and blind children especially disturbing and upsetting because they received food(if you can call it that) and were washed daily and pottied and that was it. Then they sat in a little room , on little seats, doing nothing but rocking all day. None of the children were educated in anyway as the powers that be had labeled them ineducable.
I was especially upset by the plight of Vasky,



the poor little soul is blind and sits in a buggy all day. The documentary makers noticed that Vasky had a broken leg but the nurse was not interested and blamed some 'condition' for brittle bones. I wanted to scoop Vasky up and bring her home and care for her. Vasky was bedridden by the end of the documentary.
I also found the adult institutions that were shown at the end of the program appalling and was deeply saddened by the man in his 30's talking about all he wanted was a Mummy.


This is the President of Bulgaria
Sergey Dmitrievich Stanishev (Bulgarian: Сергей Дмитриевич Станишев, born May 5, 1966), Bulgarian politician, is Prime Minister of Bulgaria and Chairman of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP).




Stanishev, the second-youngest chairman of the BSP, is an unconventional politician. Although not married, he has been living for a long time with prominent journalist Elena Yoncheva. In 2002 he amazed party members when he came to a gathering at Buzludzha on a motorcycle with a rock-style jacket that had a label on the back saying: "If you are reading this, Elena must have fallen off on the way." Stanishev is an active Internet user. He joined the Internet Society - Bulgaria [1] on April 22, 2001, and immediately following his election as leader of the Socialist Party in 2001, he had an ICQ-chat with hundreds of users.

This is a quote from Wikipedia

I cannot believe that this man, who seems firmly seated in the 21st century could allow institutions like Mogilino to exist. What would happen if he and his girlfriend had a child and the child was deaf or blind or had learning difficulties? Would that child end up in an institution?
What would happen if their child were born 'perfect' and after an infection or accident developed problems? How many of us had any idea of our child's problems at birth?
I cannot believe that he can know what these institutions are like, nobody as intelligent and well educated could know and allow them to continue.


From the website Bulgaria's Abandoned Children

Our website explains the what, who and how that’s involved in our campaign - and the ways you can get involved to help.

KITCHEN SKIING!

What a bimbo!
I have sprained my left ankle and wrist by tripping over a camel(toy one of course!).Well actually I didn't technically trip ......I stood on the camel and skidded across the stone tiled kitchen floor!
It is not as mad as when I pushed a full shopping trolley over my toe and broke my toe on Belle's 8th birthday!
Or when I fell in a river whilst playing with the girls and AGAIN broke my toe BUT also having to have MANY stitches to sew it back together!
Thankfully no break this time.

Yesterday, Beauty and I had a frank and vigorous...... she threw the computer screen on the floor-so I slapped her well nappied butt. It obviously didn't hurt her but she was certainly aware that she had done something wrong. She may not understand WHY she shouldn't throw a computer screen on the floor but I think she will think twice about doing it again. Why do Mums have to be the mean ones to stop all their little girls fun?

OLD MACDONALD HAD A FARM

Today Beauty woke me at a very unreasonable hour by singing Old Macdonald Had A Farm, to which I told her LOOK, EVEN OLD MACDONALD AND HIS WIFE HAD A LIE IN ON A SUNDAY MORNING!(Yes I know, Farmers don't get a day off BUT it sounded good) and believe it or not she rolled over and let me sleep another 2 hours. I was very impressed.

I read this on the news today and I had to look up the word CANYONING
all I could think was WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT TO DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT ?
I am a very unadventurous soul.
I can think of a lot more interesting things to do on a Saturday in cold and driving rain than getting wet and freezing and getting yourself almost killed!

Man hurt after 'canyoning' fall

The man was winched 230 ft into the rescue helicopter

A 22-year-old man has been airlifted to hospital after he injured his back and hip during a fall near the top of the Neath Valley.It is understood the man was canyoning with a group of 12 people.Forty members of Brecon Mountain Rescue Teams and a helicopter crew from RAF Chivenor in north Devon were called at around 1700 GMT on Saturday.The man was winched 230 ft (70m) into the helicopter and flown to the Prince Charles hospital in Merthyr Tydfil.The members of the Brecon, central Brecon and western Brecon mountain rescue teams were called to an area of the Neath valley, between the village of Pont Nedd Vaughan and the Ystradfellte waterfalls, at around 1600 GMT on Saturday.



Talking about trying to get yourself almost killed......it seems that Ariel has spent the weekend on Salisbury Plain doing some kind of training. And she was happy to remind me that it is a Ministry of Defence and NATO training ground that uses LIVE AMMUNITION. Couldn't she have told me this AFTERWARDS?

NEW EMAIL ANASTASIA

IN THE BLEAK MID WINTER

It is officially winter-well according to SnoWhite anyway, she says it started to get cold from last Monday but SnoWhite no longer gets up really early so she has missed a lot of very cold early mornings.
The other day the weather forecast said that it was to be 2 degrees but it ended up as 2 degrees below zero so YES SnoWhite, it is definitely winter.

Yesterday I was reading through the other blogs that I read and I felt that my blog was very shallow in comparison. When I started to write my blog I decided to call it a Blog On The Spectrum because I wanted it to be about all of my family and for my family. To help keep in touch with my girls and talk about how autism influences our lives but still to talk about every day things, which doesn't always include autism. My blog is definitely not as profound as the other blogs that I read and that makes me feel quite guilty.
I love to write about TV , the news(usually stories of injustice), disability and anything else that happens in my weird and crazy life BUT this doesn't make for a best read blog it seems.HOWEVER, I don't know how people keep up with their blogs when they become very well read because mine is even now quite tiring to do. One of my children commented about my 'eventful' past and suggested writing about that but I DON'T THINK SO.
I love Andrew Collins and his book Where Did It All Go Right?- who needs another miserable childhood or miserable life book, I hate reading them so at the moment I do not have any intentions of adding another mis lit to the best seller list!

Talking about the news, am I missing something here?

Bike sex man placed on probation

Bike sex case sparks legal debate

And they put him on the Sex Offenders register, what a strange case.
For pity sake it was drunken man in his own private space.
I have seen drunken students bare their butts and do much worse in the street(I live in a university city) .
Having worked in hostels I personally feel that the Hostel warden and the cleaners need a good slap for invasion of privacy AND wasting the police time. Anybody who has worked in a hostel has almost definitely seen worse than that, reporting this kind of situation is not going to encourage trust.
He is not a danger to others and especially not a danger to children so what he has done wrong I do not understand.
I have heard many stories(none I can repeat because of privacy)of friends who have worked in casualty(ER) and the things they have had to remove from places..... in future will such people be prosecuted for causing offense to those doing the removing?
Curiouser and curiouser!

THE BOYZ ARE BACK IN TOWN!

HOW DO YOU MAKE SNOWHITE REALLY HAPPY?

Keating joins Boyzone for UK tour

Boyzone have sold more than 15 million records

All five original members of Boyzone are to begin a UK tour in May, which will be their first in seven years.Ronan Keating, who left the Irish boy band to pursue a solo career, will join the group for the series of concerts."We've been talking about getting back together for some time now. I can't wait to be back on the road and all the guys feel the same." Keating said. The 10-date tour is due to start on 30 May at London's O2 arena, and will end in Glasgow on 23 June.



Boyzone are SnoWhite's first love.
We will never hear the last of it.
Well I suppose it could be worse, she could have been a crack head but instead I have a child obsessed with Irish boy bands.....sounds like a good deal to me!
We have had Take That reform for Anastasia, Boyzone for SnoWhite and now all is left is PJ and Duncan for Belle(believe it or not I have seen PJ and Duncan 3 times in concert!). They were surprisingly very entertaining.



Yesterday I had to buy new keyboards for the computers as both had pretty much died, death by yoghurt-well fromage frais to be exact.Beauty has been known to eat at the computer(well frequently actually) and so no matter how hard we try the keyboards were filthy.I decided to trash the keyboards after sending an email to Belle in which her name was spelled wrong due to sticky keys causing a typo. The keyboards was also stringing all the words as the shift key was the stickiest of all keys. Now we will have perfect emails and no risk of salmonella.

It shows how easily pleased I am.....whilst searching for something else I just discovered how to create a € sign and I was so thrilled. Imagine what I would be like if I discovered time travel or the answer to world peace.

Look what else I found girls! How to accent your sister's name.
accent site
ô alt + 0244( using right hand number pad)
Ô alt + 0212(using right hand number pad)

On Tuesday evening I went to Beauty's parent teacher meeting and it was all very positive. The biggest problem with Beauty is her lack of compliance, basically because she doesn't really understand that she needs to do something rather than her being naughty. All her goals I know she has already achieved but it is a matter of her doing them ,on demand, in school. Her speech is coming along so well, apart from the one naughty word that she came out with(which could have just sounded like a naughty word as her speech is still unclear at times) , she is doing brilliantly. Sometimes I have to stop and think about what she means when she says something as one set phrase could mean a few different things in Beauty's head. For instance, when I picked Beauty up from school on Tuesday she said WELL DONE, which roughly seemed to translate at the time as THANK YOU FOR COMING TO GET ME, I WANT TO GO HOME NOW. I think!

WELL THAT'S GOOD NEWS

The terrapin had been taped to the firework with white masking tape

Ad pulled after terrapin attack
Turtle by the firework

An online advert showing a tortoise being shot into space has been pulled after it was linked to an incident when a terrapin was tied to a lit firework.

The creature was found injured by a dog in a garden in Wrexham on Bonfire Night. It had suffered a cracked shell, bumped head and a bleeding mouth.

The RSPCA linked the incident with the Virgin Media broadband advert which uses a cartoon tortoise.

The company apologised for any offence and said the advert had been stopped.

The RSPCA had accused Virgin Media of depicting animal cruelty with its cartoon image of a lit firework being used to fire a tortoise into space, ripping off its shell in the process.

A spokesman for the company said the advert was symbolic of a tortoise who wanted to get faster broadband and it did not condone cruelty to animals.

"We have stopped running our online advert, depicting a tortoise with a rocket, and sincerely apologise to anyone this may have offended," added the spokesman.

SNEAKY LITTLE BU**ERS

My neighbours have issues .....and I am not talking about the fact that they have been arguing non-stop for the last 11 years!
It is commonly held local belief that my neighbours have a rodents nest in their garage and every time they make an attempt to clear out their garage the furry little friends go walkabout.Well- at the weekend the neighbours made a half-hearted attempt to sort out their garage, which meant that Sunday evening we had a little visitor, of the mouse variety.
The mouse scared myself and Fiona who nows insists on wearing her Uggs everywhere.Why it scared me I don't know because I pick up and care for the Weekie boys daily.When the girls were younger we lived in a 17th century farm laborers cottage on the Berkshire/Oxfordshire border and when the grain silo was emptied yearly we had our fair share of visitors.
So yesterday I bought a bait box to catch the mouse and keep him alive until I could get rid of him in a local field. Would the sneaky little bu**er take the bait? Not a chance.The bait box now contains one of Beauty's chocolate stars(she doesn't know or she would be in there after it!) so perhaps we will have more joy.

I love the way the police make it clear that the guy was not intoxicated!

Man hurt using gun to change tyre

The man had removed all but one of the wheel nuts

A US man has injured himself in both legs after attempting to loosen a stiff wheel-nut by blasting it with his gun.The 66-year-old man from Washington state was repairing his car outside his home when the accident took place.Shooting at the wheel from arm's length with his 12-gauge shotgun, he was peppered with buckshot and debris. The man - who police say was on his own and not intoxicated - was taken to hospital with severe, but not life-threatening, injuries.






HOW TO SOLVE A BUNNY PROBLEM

<







We all love the bunny but when he is cuddled on your lap he always has an accident.
The answer......a bunny bowl to sit bunny in, bunny loves it and we get to pet bunny.

Brrrrr!

Wow the temperature sure has dipped today-2 degrees!
I now have wanderlust which I get this time EVERY year,it is never a desire to travel anywhere new just to travel to one of the warmer places that I have already been. As sad as it sounds I just want to go to Benidorm and stay in one of the traditional Spanish hotels that I have stayed in before in the old town. I am so boring, when I go on holiday all I seem to do is take walks, eat and play with Beauty in the sand. Winter is definitely my time to travel, any other time is too hot.

Beauty seems to be a lot better so hopefully tomorrow will be the return to school day.
It will be nice to catch up on my sleep.

DAY OF REST

Today is Sunday, the sabbath, a day of rest........however, somebody forgot to tell Beauty.We have been up and awake(well sort of awake!) since 7am and Beauty has been playing games on Mama Mirabelle's website. I am now aware of where snakes and lions and monkeys and big horn sheep like to live and what they like to do!I never cease to be amazed at the information that I learn from Beauty's websites, computers are amazing things. When I was Beauty's age my only source of information was of course the local library which was not that extensive in the late 60's.I was addicted to reading books about Tutankhamun and there was one book that I read from cover to cover many times. Who would have thought I would grow up to do a History degree?

Another book I read as a child was AN HOUR IN THE MORNING,but it certainly did not have the same profound effect upon me!It was the story of a maid in Edwardian times and how an hour spent working in the morning seemed to achieve more than an hour spent working in the afternoon.
When I get up I get Beauty ready for school and take her there and I also collect all the rubbish and sort it, collect the dishes and empty and fill the dishwasher and collect all the dirty clothes and sort out the washing and drying ,sort out the animals AND then the best part of the day....... I lie down to recover! Without that morning nap(well lie down really) I couldn't cope with the rest of the day.And then I get up and carry on!
The funny thing is when you tell other people that you have a disability , many people think of you as being ill but apart from when I get an infection like anyone else I do not think of my self as ill, exhausted all the time but definitely not ill.

Thanks to PBS my ears are being assaulted by the dulcet tones of BARNEY, perhaps my praise of the computer was a little hasty!

SURROUNDED BY IDIOTS.

I am surrounded by crazy people!
I really tried to fall asleep early last night but it just wasn't happening(Beauty slept through everything!), I felt as if I were in the film Rear Window.We live in front of a block of flats and last night one of the young ladies who lives there decided to have a blazing row with her ex-boyfriend, in front of the flats and it went on for hours.AND THEN..... at 8am this morning the council workers show up to carry on building an outhouse for the flats that they had started yesterday.If they had spent more time working yesterday rather than hanging around talking on their mobiles, gossiping or smoking then the job would have been finished yesterday.Yep.....I have turned into a grumpy old woman, lack of sleep will do that to you.

WHY THE BUNNY AND THE PIGGIES SLEEP IN THE HOUSE AT NIGHT!

The terrapin had been taped to the firework with white masking tape

Anger at terrapin firework launch

The RSPCA has called for an internet advert to be pulled after a terrapin was taped to a firework rocket and fired into a garden on Bonfire Night.
The creature, thought to be a female, was found by a dog in Wrexham with a cracked shell and a bleeding mouth.
The animal charity claimed there was an "obvious" connection with a Virgin Media Broadband advert of a cartoon tortoise being launched into space.The company defended the ad but said it did not condone any animal cruelty.The RSPCA has appealed for help in catching the culprits behind the cruelty to the terrapin, calling it "callous and sick".
The creature is being cared for at a North Wales specialist reptile centre.

Trust no one!

Is it late or early?
I spent yesterday spring cleaning my bedroom.
I cleared 10 carrier bags of clothes which I took to the OXFAM bin at the local recycling centre, 3 black bags of rubbish, I green bag of recycling and 4 sacks of general stuff for a charity shop.
Whilst spring cleaning I came across a book that has been lost for quite a while, Clear Your Clutter With Feng Shui!
Almost as ironic as my key ring with the picture of St Anthony of Padua on it, the picture fell off and is now lost!
Next the front bedroom, perhaps I will find the picture of St Anthony!

Beauty's tummy is better but her cough persists, however she is as happy as ever.She is our little Miss sunshine.

MEMORIES

I now have another memory that I would rather not have!
When the girls were younger they came home after a sleepover and they were not even 13 and it seemed that they had been allowed to watch the video American Pie, I was not best pleased. When I was younger I watched the film Damien:Omen II (why I couldn't tell you) an all I remember from the film is the sheet of glass coming off the back of the lorry. Yuk!
Because of this I told the girls to choose wisely what they saw as they would never forget the things that they had seen in films even if they had wanted to.
Anyway, back to the point, last night I watched Heroes and I now have another memory that I would rather not have. Sylar, by telekinesis, levitates shards of broken glass and uses them as a weapon and Peter Petrelli gets 'killed' by a piece being embedded into the back of his head. As a nurse, I am not an overly tender soul but sometimes I think that there are things we shouldn't have to see.

Beauty is still off school with her nasty cough so I am being terrorised by Beauty's advert of choice! It is an advert for Wii which keeps popping up on the Disney Channel and a family talk about how the Wii game has transformed their lives and how 7 year old MAX is the King of Wii.
This advert has had only one effect on me......to limit my child's usage of the computer! I want to know 'MAX'S' address so I can send him a football.

DEFINITELY NOT WIND

Today we have a very(VERY-SHE IS SMILING!) happy 16 year old.
Fiona has inherited her father's old Prinzflex 500 35mm camera( circa 1972/.74), as she is doing Art and wants to do a fashion degree and is very interested in photography, we decided she should start practicing on her father's old camera. She is absolutely thrilled and I have managed to get an instruction book off the internet. When I was with her father I was the only one who ever used the camera so I am sure it will be easy enough to show Fiona how to use it. We have to look for a lens cap and a flash for it but it seems that EBAY has lots of things for sale for the Prinzflex. Of course Fiona would still like a new digital 35mm camera!
Ariel had a laptop when she went to university as I didn't want her using the library late at night on the campus when she needed to write essays so the next thing on my list of things to buy is a new digital camera for Fiona as she wants to start a photography course next September.

School started back yesterday but Beauty is still at home as she has a really productive cough and whilst some parents in Beauty's school send their children in with bad colds ,I(and the school) think it is better that a cough like Beauty has is better at home because it really is quite nasty.And I don't want the teachers and the other children getting the cough as it really isn't pleasant.
So Beauty spent yesterday and today playing with her wooden blocks(thank you M.), watching videos and playing educational games on Cbeebies. Beauty does love school but she doesn't miss it too much when she is not there as she has lots of toys and games to occupy her at home.She has also being paying a lot more attention to the piggies and the rabbit recently but I still have to watch her carefully when she is with them as she still doesn't realise that she can hurt them.

GUY FAWKES NIGHT.

Tonight is Bonfire Night.....OFFICIALLY!
But the fireworks have been going off every night across Cardiff since Halloween and I am sure they will continue for another week to come.
As well as the fireworks we have to contend with the bonfires, the local children have been building and lighting bonfires for the last week and I am sure they will be building them for another week until their pyrotechnic desires are satiated for another year. I think this year has been more difficult than usual because the 5th November falls on a Monday, which means that many official firework displays have been on Saturday and Sunday but there will still be some official displays tonight and of course locals setting off their own fireworks and building their own bonfires.
The air quality was awful last night and I suppose we can expect more of the same tonight.
Tonight we will be taking Beauty for a walk down Cardiff Bay as we will have a brilliant view of all the fireworks being set off all over Cardiff. I think that fireworks are very unsafe and there was even an accident at a display over the weekend so we will not be attending any displays but watching from a very safe distance.

That will teach me never to take a nap!
After picking Fiona up from college I decided to make Beauty lie down and take a nap and Fiona went with her and I fell asleep on the sofa. I awoke in the pitch black to what I thought sounded like bombs falling!
It was half past five and the fireworks had started.
I shot of the sofa and all I could think of was THE PIGS and BUNNY BOY, they were still outside and the piggies were running around their hutch going crazy!
Thankfully they are now in and all is well, all I have to deal with now is marauding children trying to burn the contents of my garden!
Such is the joy of childhood.

A HALLOWEEN HAUNTING

Beautiful Belle and Beau dressed up for a Florida Halloween.



Belle and Beau's spooky garden.



The Destroying Angel/Wicked Witch.



Fiona being cool.



In the fridge.



Fiona's pumpkin carving called..........SYLAR!



Beauty complete with University of Exeter Hoodie that Ariel bought her for her birthday.



MOUTH