Glimpsesofcolour

School has been a sensitive subject for Genius Brat lately. He is actually doing incredibly well, but feeling overwhelmed by the mountain of coursework and other homework to catch up on. In fact in the two weeks before half term (which was last week), he only went to school four or five times: three days the school was closed because of snow, one or maybe two days he wasn’t well, and one day I let him stay home to catch up on coursework and get over a panic about it.

After the half term rest I thought things would be getting back to normal, but having been feeling ill on Sunday, he was not much better yesterday (Monday) so I kept him home another day, and left a message on  the Attendance Officer’s voicemail to say he was unwell. I really think he was fighting a bug, as he slept till 2.30 pm! (although this could be  normal teenage behaviour…). Then today he woke up in a big panic about a piece of German coursework he hadn’t done which was due today. Just to make sure he really had a German lesson today I checked the school newsletter online to see which week of his two-week timetable we were in. Imagine my embarrassment to find that yesterday was in fact an INSET (staff training) day and so there hadn’t been  school yesterday in any case!

On the strength of that, it didn’t seem so bad to be missing today, so he stayed home and we worked together on his German. The irony is, he’d already done a quarter of the work to a really high standard, and didn’t need all that much help from me. He gets in such a state over the work but when he actually gets down to doing it, he always does it absolutely brilliantly. I wonder how we can get over the panic factor?

With reference to which, I am currently reading a book called The Explosive Child, which came highly recommended by a US Shipmate whose kids, like mine, have neurological deficits. It is indeed amazingly helpful, but I am waiting for the sequel: The Explosive Parent.

By the way, did I ever say I loved my church? I love my church…  rush of love occasioned by a really fantastic ‘members’ communion’ (agape meal) last Tuesday. I don’t know how I’d survive without these lovely people.

It’s funny how little things can brighten one’s day. Today on the way home from the therapist, I popped into Tesco for some DVD-RWs and to have a bite of lunch, and on my way out I bumped into (almost literally) the Extremely Beautiful Old Man whom I occasionally encounter in Tesco. He is definitely old, over 70 I’d say, but his face is relatively unlined and he is just gorgeous:  tall, film star looks, with swept back white hair, a little white moustache and deep blue eyes with laugh lines round them. I didn’t have the courage to smile at him (The Grouch has nothing to worry about here), but our arms  brushed as I passed him. It has made me smile ever since.

Last Wednesday night I had an acey-pacey brilliant pain in the foot, as Adrian Plass would say. I tried my best to rejoice in my trials and count it all joy, but basically it was the worst pain I have ever had, including gallstones and labour, so it wasn’t long before I was yelling for someone to come and amputate my foot to make it better. The NHS Direct doctor told me to keep taking the Ibuprofen and if it was still bad tomorrow, to see a doctor. However I knocked myself out with a sleeping tablet and by the morning my foot was 99% back to normal. Now people are mentioning a four letter word to me – gout – and I am wondering whether I ought to get it checked out although I now have zero pain and my foot is working totally fine.  Surely one has to drink a lot of port to get gout?

Meanwhile I failed to join the gym yet again, because I thought I shouldn’t do aqua aerobics two days after having such a bad foot pain. However I did get to all my other social appointments: Friday night I went with a friend to be in the audience for a live recording of the Radio3 literature panel ‘The Verb’, Saturday night I went with a man from church to a show of Noel Coward’s songs which was brilliant, Sunday afternoon I attended a parents’ meeting on greater participation in the borough’s decisions about special needs, and then afterwards I drove straight to church, arriving just in time for tea, and found that good friends from Canada were visiting so we all had an impromptu party with takeaway curry to celebrate their presence. I can’t think why, but I was a little tired last night…

Finally some more medical news: I have worn the jaw splint thingy that is supposed to stop my sleep apnoea for two nights running, managed not to puke when putting it in my mouth, and most important of all, managed to sleep both times. I have no idea yet whether it’s working – hubby will have to monitor that – but it seems to be doing a better job of stopping me grinding my teeth, than the BRA (Bite Raising Appliance!) which I used before. It was certainly a big improvement on the C-PAP machine which kept me awake all night.

Austriangrocery.com must have realized that they had sent me a voucher for 0.00 Euros, as they have now sent me one for 2.50 Euros (sorry, no idea how to do a euro symbol on my computer). I must say I am underwhelmed, as last time I ordered from them, the postage came to well over 10 Euros, so I don’t think a 2.50 voucher is going to get me far.

The rest of the last week or so can be summed up as sleep and snow, not necessarily in that order. Nothing much else to report.