Posted by Joyce
It's been a long day

I gave up trying to sleep at about 5am, which given that I was up watching the combined sun rise/sun set we get here meant I really wasn't in bed for long. So I messed around with the blog till Hannah got up - I'd been planning on using blogskins or something different, but after several attempts to get something I liked, I opted for dear old blogger again.

We then had a fairly productive day. First we made some super- strong bubbles with an old bottle of glycerin I had lying about, and talked about the science behind it. Then I read Romeo and Juliet from Shakespeare for kids. And she seemed to enjoy it, as she even asked for the Winter's Tale afterwards. I was really drooping by then so we cuddled on the sofa and watched some schools TV, while I half dozed, and after lunch we played Uno for ages, and Hannah read me some of the Flower Fairy poems that we got from the Book People ages ago. Then out of the blue she asked about what a circuit was, so we dug out a John Adams electronic kit I bought in the sales the Xmas before last, and she's been fiddling with that for over two hours now. I had to explain to Bob though when he came home that he would *have* to wait for his turn ;-) She is so engrossed that she didn't even want to join Bob on his run tonight, which is a first, so he has gone without her. And talking about that, did anyone watch Pushy Parents last night? Creepy.

Posted by Joyce

My new camera arrived, and it is so much better than the old one. I'm still fiddling with it, but it seems to have lots of options within it. It's bigger than I expected, so not yet gone down to toy size :-), but I think I like it. The old one still isn't back, and is it me, or is 4 weeks plus not a very long time for them to take, given its still under warranty? I'm still trying to make my choice with a laptop. Funny how there is always a discrepancy between budget available, and spec wanted ;-). I would really like to get it before we go on holiday though, to give us a DVD player.

Other than that. Went swimming. Played Zoombinis. Clicked from site to site just so we could admire the Broadband experience. Did some sums and reading. Generally slobbed out. I'm working all weekend and staying in a hotel, so no blogging till Monday.

Posted by Joyce

Broadband bliss:)

I bought broadband just before HESFES, and just couldn't get it to install. Modem went back three times, following lengthy calls to the helpline on each occasion. "Have you tried switching it off and starting again?" Err, yes, actually, I have - and is that really the kind of advice I'm paying national rates for? Anyway, eventually they decided maybe the telephone exchange (do they have these still?) was the problem (though I knew it wasn't as the connection wizard never got that far), and agreed to cancel the contract without penalty. Anyway, as I was packing the modem up to go back again this morning, I decided to have one more go, and phoned the helpline again. The guy I spoke to asked one question when I explained the error message "do you have a packard bell computer?" I do, he told me it was a known hardware incompatibility, gave me the link for a patch - and 2 mins later, my internet is faster than the speed of sound. Well almost......how did I live without it :))

Posted by Joyce

Quite a nice day today. I determinedly ignored emails from work all day, and left the answer machine on. I'll be working all weekend, (though I do intend to claim that time back to go to camp), and I just wanted a quiet day. So left Hannah with DH this morning, and went to have my hair cut - which was rather blissful without having to entertain Hannah throughout. Came home to find that Bob had made a compass with her, done a whole lot of experiments with magnetism, mapped the back garden (not a mammoth task, LOL), and devised a maze that I had to do round the garden by taking compass readings, to find the treasure. So that was an educational morning :)

We all had lunch outside together before Bob went to work, and then Hannah and I lazed about on the rug inventing maths problems, and then I read Rebus, and she read some more Horrible Histories. She even made me tea! Even in that short while though, I've picked up another dose of sunburn :-(

Late afternoon Hannah had a hair appointment, and we had a bit of an excitement as a (fairly new)car had burst into flames at the end of our road. I'm not convinced really that it was the most sensible thing to do if you see smoke coming from your engine - drive into a residential area, stop right outside someone's house with kids in the garden, and immediately lift the bonnet. Even Hannah mentioned that she thought the fire was getting a lot of Oxygen. And not helped by the kids from the local school, standing in the road shouting "burn,burn"

As we were passing Ottackers on the way home, Hannah noticed that they had "buy one get one free" on Horrible Histories, so I let her jump out, while I drove round the block again, and she choose "Rotten Romans" and "Terrible Tudors". I think she was pleased with the independence as well.

So now I'm just about to open the wine. Work tomorrow, and probably won't be around much now till next Monday. My camera has already been dispatched from Amazon though, so hopefully it will arrive soon :-)

Posted by Joyce

OK, all you readers in Devon and environs :)

I'm looking for recomendations for days out while we are in North Devon this summer (near Barnstaple). In the past we've tended to head further South and West, and done things like Eden and the Lost Garedens, but wondered what there was heading more in the Exeter direction that was worth a day trip. And goes without saying if anyone wants to visit us while we are there, I can supply all the contact details off-blog - and also if anyone wants to meet up at anything. I'm a little in advance of myself with this forward planning, (the usual pattern is fling everything including the sink in the car, and drive non stop) but Hannah wants to do a project about things to do in Devon before we leave.

Posted by Joyce

Retail therapy :)

After hours of consideration and research ;-), bought myself a Pentax Optio 33LF. I've been dithering about a new camera since we were on holiday, and my old one is still not back from Morgan Computers, and is likely to be at least another 10 days. I decided that I would let Hannah have the old one when it came back, and have something new (and smaller) for me. I really wanted an optical zoom, whereas the old one only had a digital zoom, and 2MP, so it wasn't really good enough to replace my 35mm. I was very tempted by the Kodak 6490DX, but tbh, I just couldn't justify the money, no matter how good it is. And in fact, I did get put off by some of the negative reviews on some other sites. So the pentax it is. What did amaze me was that Amazon it was £99, and at Argos it was £229 (which was more expensive even than the Kodak from Amazon. Anyway. I actually posted the names as links initially, but I deleted it, as they took you to my own page at Amazon, and it made me a bit nervous. Password protected, I know, but even so.

Otherwise, really quiet. I'm working hard on the final touches for a big project I have coming off at the weekend, and we are all a bit blue as Bob had been more or less promised a job off shift, but it's fallen through.

I've been really happy with Hannah's reading. Tonight she is in my bed (DH on nights), reading Vile Victorians. I never though I would see the day. See what the EP says next week, but I am just amazed with her progress. If only we could crack the writing/spelling bit.

Posted by Joyce

Feel obliged to at least make an effort to think about the last couple of weeks. FH&M has knocked me for six. I'm totally exhausted all the time, and seem to just drag myself through the days. And my tongue leaves a LOT to be desired :-(
Really feel like I'm not giving Hannah enough attention, but there have been a few highlights:

Loads of craft, including a model of Queen Elizabeth 1.
Hama bead mania has been resurrected, and we have all sorts of hearts, animals and abstract designs.
Anna's blog promoted the Lego coming out again, and we built some HP stuff she got at Xmas.
One afternoon she got me to write down the recipe for bolognaise, and made it from scratch with minimal supervision, and no help. She was very proud of that one.:-)
We finally seem to have caught Zoombini addiction (well, I have, anyway ;-)), and we've spend ages playing that together. We are only on the easiest level of maths journey atm, but its challenging me!
We picked up a set of three Jump Ahead CDs in the charity shop: discovering nature, discovering history, and discovering geography, and though they are pretty unsophisticated content-wise, they've got her interested in the computer, and built up some skills with that, as I suspect its an area where just about any other HE kid in the country would leave us both standing.
DH brought home a copy of Carmen Sandiego that he got for £1.50 from TJ Maxx, but we haven't been able to get it to run, even with the compatibility wizard, so I was vaguely disappointed with that one.
Hannah has read a few more of the Weather Fairy series, and some of the Famous People, Famous lives books: Mary Seacole, Martin Luther King, Florence Nightingale, Boudicca and Beatrix Potter. An eclectic mix :-)

Think that's about it. No camera, so no pix. Really looking forward to Lowestoft, though hoping I feel a great deal better than this, or the drive will be a total nightmare. I can't believe how a nothing kid's illness has flattened me beyond belief. Also got to have my thyroid function checked next week. Had my thyroid out years ago, but they left a small piece behind, so I've managed without thyroxin till now, but I'm feeling so bad GP thinks we should check it out again. Think that's it :-)

Posted by Joyce

Getting better all the time :-(

Had a dentist appointment today, and despite feeling really crap, dragged myself there rather than pay the cancellation fee. He took one look in my mouth (very sore for a couple of days), and told me I'd need to make another appointment as I had Hand Foot and Mouth disease. Came home - Bob had picked Hannah up early from the childminder, as she hadn't been feeling well, and since he got home, he hadn't been feeling so good either. Looked in their mouths - same as me. Lovely. Hannah already has the hand spots, but apart from one on my toe, we've still to get them. Ho hum. And tomorrow is our 23 wedding aniversary. We'll probably be divorced by the weekend, so I won't be too self congratulatory but nice to know that whirlwind marriages (met, fancied him, slept with him, married him a couple of months later) can stay the course.