Sharpening Up

The first Halloween I spent in the UK, I served a dumb supper, complete with black-draped seat (I still have that length of material somewhere, a black chiffon with sparkly stars and crescents), that quite spooked Monster. The second, we had got a few show pieces - a large jack-o-lantern candle holder and a cat that seemed to reflect the candlelight within through her eyes, as well as a cauldron that, when filled with water and plugged in, created an effect of mist above the water; we still have no idea how it worked). Then Spawn started moving around, and we still haven't dared put up any decorations. He kinda likes the singing and dancing toys (witches and mummies, this year) at the supermarket, but I doubt he'd leave anything else alone.

If Halloween were on a Saturday, I'd probably break out the candles after Spawn's bedtime and move seamlessly into an all-night write-in on the stroke of midnight, to get a good head start for NaNoWriMo. As it is, I have to content myself with getting a good night's sleep, so I can start writing first thing in the morning. I've stocked up on hot chocolate drink sachets - one can't go through NaNo without chocolate, even if our penny-pinching won't allow me to do the full slab thing, which is perhaps just as well for my hips.

During November, I'll be popping in every day to do a single Blogthing and air my word count, just to keep in touch. Customary in(s)anity to resume from December!

Tripping Along

We're back, and nothing disastrous has happened. It wasn't all a walk in the park, mind you, but it was... survivable.

The drive up was mercifully uneventful, as was the return. Handling splodgy nappies isn't fun at best, but in motorway service changing rooms it becomes an adventure I didn't care for. The way we went through nappies at home, though, was another story entirely. It was enough to give poor Spawn the worst nappy rash in his life, forcing me to break out the Sudocrem, because the antibacterial cream I put on him regularly stung too badly.

We took a half-day trip to Whitby, mainly because Grumpy wanted to stock up on 'the best kippers in the world', directly from the smokers'. Despite it being so close to the Halloween Gothic Weekend, there weren't any visiting goths to ogle in the streets yet. Being strapped for cash meant no indulging in raiding the local gothic shops, more's the pity. Monster and I agreed we'd have to save up until the next visit and take a trip there by ourselves, with retail therapy as our sole purpose.

On the good side, Spawn loved his fish and chips from the Magpie, and even I polished off my portion; it was more manageable, not to mention head and shoulders better, than those from the local chippy (which I have already decided I'm not going to eat again, because they make me gag and end up being a waste of money). And while the two of us waited outside, since Spawn much preferred to watch and pet dogs to queueing up, I was approached by a BBC radio reporter who interviewed me on meat consumption. From vegetarianism I ended up pushing the Mediterranean diet. I promptly forgot which station it would air on, let alone when, though.

Otherwise, it was cold, and mostly rainy, so we stayed inside. Once more there was no internet to leech off the neighbours, so I read a lot - about 600 pages in just under four days, in fact. One 375-page book went in just over a day. I even delved into the Kindle, finishing the prologues to The Fall of Atlanta. Who would have thought that the Ravnos would be one of my favourite storylines there?

We returned today, starting out after lunch, instead of tomorrow, because Monster grumbled that she needed more time to do her coursework; her Vista laptop won't connect to our new net provider, while our XP ones, plus the Kindle and iPhone, do just fine. (I was hard pressed not to gloat at that, after she called the Kindle a 'crap piece of software'. Snotty little bitch.) A good part of the drive was in the dark, listening to music, with Spawn gradually falling asleep, and the gathering felt more companionable than anything we had done for a long time.

We'll be taking Spawn to the doctor's tomorrow, to see what's wrong with his bowels. I put down money that he'll be fine before the end of the day.

Status Update

It's been some time since I posted last. Some days I didn't feel like it, others I didn't feel up to it. Either way, time waits for no one.

I don't like dealing with a sick family. I've teetered on the verge of a cold for days, not to mention my SAD getting me early (and the supermarket didn't stock St John's Wort, making it a pain to get into town to search Holland and Barrett's; and even there I had to make do with a tincture, because there were no capsules to be found for love or money). Naturally, mama gets no time off to heal. It's tough when everyone else is well, but with Grumpy suffering from an ache or other every day, plus work pressure, and Spawn getting the sniffles first and then returning to the exploding nappy syndrome, it can become too much, fast.

We're supposed to drive up to see the mother-in-law tomorrow, and although we're packed, I'm still not sure it's a good idea. October visits there tend to end with someone or other getting very sick, and it's the same thing whether I'm okay or not. We can't wiggle out of it now, unless there's some health crisis by tomorrow morning, because she's made her preparations... but I still feel iffy and would rather stay home.

Lucky Little Sod

Spawn sure as hell has oodles of luck. How else can I explain that he ran, tumbled and slid down the stairs holding a pair of embroidery scissors and ended up at the bottom, with the point almost touching his eye, unharmed in any way?

I have to watch him better, and I don't know if I have enough eyes for that!

Now I want to go clubbing (again), to see about pumping up some adrenaline to keep up...

Epic Ninja Fail

If the pen is mightier than the sword, it's only fair that the pencil is potentially lethal, right?

Trainee NinjaSpawn botched his Dex roll earlier today, when he grabbed one of his sister's pencils, ran along the hall from their room to ours (that's mine and Grumpy's) and threw himself down on our bed... getting himself a nice bloody gash in the face.

Naturally, he cried and flailed, giving me hell before I could cleanse the cut... but then relented and actually sat prettily for me to smear antibiotic cream on. He was his usual chatty, chirpy self within five minutes, without needing as much as an extra cuddle (he goes for them when he's feeling ill, but injuries roll off his back as soon as the pain recedes, it seems).

In the end, I was the one who was left rattled, imagining all sorts of horrors that might have happened - if the pencil had actually been sharpened, if it had slid upwards instead of sideways. Spawn could have been blinded or dead in the blink of an eye, without me being able to do a thing.

I really should be getting him out, even in the rain, at least to blow off some steam.

Room Rearrangements

The Sky man was in today. Unhappy with our phone and broadband service with TalkTalk, we've arranged to move to Sky for both, as well as upgrading to HD, so we got our new box and connection.

That meant moving things out of the way for the technician to work. The front room looks much less cluttered, with several piles of books gone, but the downside is that Spawn can wander freely all over the place, and consequently get yelled at for reaching for the plugs/dragging DVDs off the racks/trying to climb wherever.

At least he found his woolly hat, scarf and mittens set, and put them on by himself, while last year he wouldn't suffer them to be put on him at all. Go figure.

Oh, and there's nothing like a good nap (between 1 hour and 90 minutes) to get rid of a headache. Just saying.

Oh Sheeeet!

I'm quite happy to put this week behind. The troubles afflicting Grumpy and myself at the beginning were brief, but when Spawn joined in the fun, things went down fast, and that's not a euphemism. I haven't had to change so many splodgy nappies since he was a newborn.

Enough said, and here's something completely adult, for a change (argh!). I feel like some late 60s-early 70s aesthetics, and a nod back to Delta 99. If you spot that rather obscure Jodorowsky comic anywhere, give me a holler, kay?