Moving

In my desperation over my current employment situation, mum came up with a totally unexpected, and much appreciated, act of kindness. I now have the funding I need to start searching for another job, without worrying about the financial implications of leaving my current one.

First stop, buy a suit, and more importantly, convince my co-workers that I'm only attempting to smarten myself up.

Er, yeah... This could be more difficult than I thought.

Changes

Since the Easter break, I've noticed two changes in my journey to work.

Firstly, the annoying on-train announcements have reduced to those identifying the train and next station. Apparently South West Trains eradicated their problem with beggars over the Easter weekend, no longer see unattended articles as an issue and plan to do no more weekend engineering work. If it weren't for the other passengers, my journey would be incredibly peaceful.

Secondly, since they did works on the track over the weekend, the stretch between Clapham Junction and Vauxhall has become much more bumpy. A problem when this tends to be where you do your mascara!

Barbequing in the snow and a diamond ring.

Saturday saw Yuri's birthday party. We all trekked down to his mum's house in Kent to barbeque food in the freezing cold and generally eat too much. True to the forecast, it snowed, but instead of sending us running inside, we were huddled round the barbeque enjoying it's warmth. Unfortunately, though, it didn't settle, and just stayed cold, even when we'd long since gone inside.

Yesterday we drove up past Birmingham, to visit nan. We started off in the snow, which gradually gave way to greyness, and then sunshine. On the way home, TB decided that he absolutely loved Sherl Crow's song, diamond ring. After singing along once, we had to listen to the song on repeat from the M4 back to Wimbledon so the boy could sing along, and Yuri could screech. But it was so cute you couldn't hold it against them. Although I may never want to hear the song again.

Half a goat and a broiling chicken

This afternoon we took a trip to Peckham to get supplies for Yuri's birthday party (barbeque!) tomorrow. We among the large quantities of meat needed (because it is, after all, a Brasilian barbeque), we also needed mandoica (cassava). Try getting that in Wimbledon. Having lived in Wimbledon for the past two years (and Elephant for a year before that), Peckham is now a completely different world, albeit one I remember much more fondly now than I ever did when living there.

We started by getting rained on, then the sleet started. A huge shower of the stuff, which had be believing that if he rain would only stop, the snow would come at last. But that, is not our cultural education.

What I really miss about Peckham is the food shops. To be precise about it, the grocers and butchers. We managed to get guavas. In the past, I've only been able to find them in Church Street Market, and they're wrong. The outside is too light in colour and the inside is white. They just don't taste the same as the Brasilian ones which are darker on the outside and a deep pink on the inside.

Best of all, though, was our trip to the butchers we used to get all our meat from. We got chicken wings, chicken drumsticks and steak. On asking for a few bacgs of drumsticks, we were presented with a sack, being told that there were probably about 50 in it; more than enough to take tomorrow and chuck some in the freezer for later. The beef we chose looked big enough for two portions, and at £5, was a bit cheaper than the supermarket. We spent £18 in total.

TB loved it. The chickens hanging from the racks, heads still on. Half whole goats. Chicken feet. Cows feet. I'm sure if we'd gone into one shop we could've shown him a sheep's head. Fish of different colours and sizes, scales and stripes. A crab and still live electric eels. The entire trip fascinated him.

When we got home, I cut up the beef, only to find enough for six steaks and some chunks. On opening the sack of drumsticks, it appeared that there were rather more than 50. I took the time to count them. 109.

Then I checked on the online supermarket. That little lot would've cost the best part of £50 from Tesco. I feel we've had a successful afternoon.

Educational Drama

Today we found out the results of TB's primary school application. It's damning.

Of the three schools we applied to, he has got into none. This leaves us with two choices: attempt to find another school or appeal. It remains to be seen whether we can do both, one as a backup for the other. Despite being able to view ties application results online, we have to wait for a letter telling us what we should do next.

The problem is, we've now exhausted our three nearest schools (not counting the catholic and c of e schools which we don't want him going to). Both of our first two choices are 700m away. He already attends one of these schools and we were perfectly happy to keep him there. The other would have been a compromise, but one we would gladly have accepted. The third school on our application is 1.2km away, and chosen purely because it's the next closest. We never even contemplated that we might even have needed that backup choice.

The chances of appeal don't look good. For an
appeal to be allowed, it has to be based on an unreasonable decision (the rules as to what constitute an unreasonable decision are incredibly stringent) or an error in the selection process. It seems like our only hope is that one of TB's friends, who lives further away from the school, has gotten a place. Mounting an appeal will involved considerable playground subterfuge.

So now TB's on the waiting list for all three schools. And all we can do is wait. And hope.

An Announcement From London Buses

This bus will terminate at Holborn. This is because there's a lot of traffic across London.

Well no shit sherlock. What planet have you been living on for this to be news to you? And how am I supposed to get to work if you're not going to take me there?

Green

When TB doesn't want to finish eating something, he's taken to saying 'it's going green'. We've had no idea what he meant by this, other than that there was no way on earth he was going to eat the rest of whatever it was.

Now, all has been revealed.

He was watching Charlie & Lola this morning, when Lola said "but I can't drink my pink milk, it's too green".

Is that seat free?

Every so often, in papers and train company promotional magazines, you see complaints of people who leave their bag on the seat next to them, thus preventing the less bold of us from taking a seat.

Now I have seen it all.

Next time you'd prefer there was no-one sitting on the seat next to you, carefully place your snarling pitbull there instead of your bag. You can guarantee nobody will ask you to move it.

How much is too much?

A moment I've been dreading for almost four years has now arrived. It is less than two months until TB's fourth birthday.

It's not the marking of time that I'm dreading, but more the celebration of it. The party.

In the past we've managed to get away with family affairs. What better for a small child to be surrounded by good food and doting family members bearing large quantities of gifts. But now he's at school, and all his friends are having birthday parties, it seems this era has come to an end. I'm going to have to bite the bullet and organise a kids birthday party.

Our first problem is a venue. As children, our parties nearly always took place (in part or in their entirity) in our house. We didn't have an overly large house, but it was big enough to hold 30 screaming kids for a few hours of games and food. Well our flat can barely contain ten seated adults, so 20 to 30 kids is most definately out of the question. It also appears that Wimbledon doesn't have too many of these venues.

The next problem is cost, i.e. we don't have any money. Of the venues I have found, the prices seem to be anything between £12 and £17 per child. I'm a little vague on exactly how many kids there are in Tommy's class, but even ten seems to cost a lot at those prices, many of which don't include food.

The best I've found so far (which is starting to look like the most attractive option) is the wacky warehouse. At £5.99 a kid, it's a bargain in comparison to everywhere else, and seems to include absolutely everything I could think of (or more likely, forget).

Of course all this assumes that the boy will be back at school by then.

Microbiologists

TB went down to the hospital to see the microbiologist, amongst others. His samples are still showing E.coli, but otherwise he's completely fine. The various doctors have said there's absolutely no reason why he shouldn't return to school, and have even argued this with environmental health.

However, their policy is that he has to have two clear tests before he can return. It's incredibly frustrating, especially as the best thing they can suggest is probiotic yoghurt (I know!). They're incredibly reluctant to prescribe antibiotics because of the potential side effects, and it's an opinion I'm inclined to agree with. But, in the meantime, the poor boy is desperate to go to school, and there's nothing we can do about it.

dig dig dig

For the past few weeks, someone's decided it would be a good idea to dig up our road*. First it was gas, then BT, and now they're resurfacing.

The first two attempts at digging brought bedlam. How could the area's car-going commuters cope with the worst stretch of their journey being reduced to one lane, weaving all over the place, and irresponsible placement of temporary traffic lights. It didn't matter to us, we don't tend to drive and it certainly made crossing the road easier.

Last night, 8 o'clock came, diversion signs went up and traffic cones were laid, blocking the road. The people who had left their cars in the car park across the road were blocked in. Then the noise started.

Between the sound of reversing vehicles and the general removing of the road surface, I was ready for it to end by 10. Then there were the buses and cars, stopping to argue with the workmen because they couldn't take their chosen route. Funnily enough, it was the buses that were the worst. In some ways, it was a relief to go to bed and shut the noise out.

And we have it all again tonight.

*We live on the corner of the one way system through the town and the main route into the town from the South. It's chaos every morning, or any other time the traffic starts to build, for that matter.

Multiple Choice

You're on a train and your three year old tells you he needs to pee. Do you:

a) tell him to wait, knowing full well he won't make the half hour journey home, and will consequently wet himself whilst still on the train;

b) get off the train at the next stop so he can pee (probably on the platform as the likelihood of there being open toilets is slim to none) and then wait half an hour to an hour for the next train to come through; or

c) take his empty juice bottle and let him pee in it.

Guess what my option was.

I wonder if my boss would consider this a valid excuse?

More e.coli

When we were irst told that TB had the bug, we were also told that it should go on it's own. A week and two samples later, it appears that we were mis-advised. He still has the bug (yet more absence from school) and will need to start taking some form of medicine. He's on a fast-track to an appointment first thing this morning, we just have to call when they open. The worst of it is, this could be over already; the doctor who saw him last time should've prescribed the medicine there and then, we've now been told. It seemed like we were being treated so well throughout this incident, until we hear this.

On the plus side, this week's been an idea chance for TB to get to know his new nanny, G. Every day when I've gotten home, he's said he's been to the park and tells me all sorts of things they've been doing. This weekend I want to get lots of craft things they can do together. He was making monsters with ribbons last weekend and really enjoyed it. She's also going to attempt to teach him Portuguese, which is another bonus. Yuri seems much happier too, now he can get work done more easily.

So, I guess while this week has had it's down sides, it's also been a good one too.

Choking

Unfortunately, last night, we had a rather nasty incident with TB choking on his dinner. Fortunately I knew exactly what to do (it's the first time since I did my first aid course that I've actually had reason to put what I've learnt into action) and Tommy was fine. He quite happily went back to eating straight away, like nothing had ever happened.

I later asked Yuri what he would've done if it'd happened whilst he was on his own. His answer: hang him upside down?

On recent trips out, TB's been quite excited bythe Thomas and Friends posters on the tube. I thought that it might be a good idea o take him to see the show. Until I found out how much it cost, that is. For one adult and one child, it worked out as £45.50. I'd rather buy him the DVD, at least he'll get more use from it.