Reality Bites

I was greeted this morning by 2 playful headlice jumping around on Tess's head. I managed to grab them, slide them out of her hair and bash the little bastards to death with the hairbrush handle. I then scraped her hair into a tight ponytail with a promise to nit-comb her this evening. Obviously she was pleased about this prospect and spent the whole day looking forward to it...

Next I spent a rather long time coping with an awful <ahem> "bathroom problem" brought on by codeine - even though I've stopped taking it now. The less said about that the better...

Then, after fighting with fridge, freezer and cupboard space to put the shopping delivery away, much juggling and rearranging, I found it to be nearly lunchtime.

What a jolly fun morning!


My throat is still hurting constantly and the pain has spread to my ear. I guess it's only fair to spread the love. The poor lonely ear was probably feeling left out. Taking a couple of aspirin seemed to have no effect at all.

So because of that earache it made perfect sense to go out in the bitter, howling wind and walk along the beach with the onshore gale blowing straight into my ear, didn't it?
Gawd that was fun too...
The clouds were looking pretty impressive at home so I set off with the express intention of photographing clouds, but it was so unpleasant I couldn't wait to get home.

Back home, I went mad with eardrops, echinacea throat spray and vitamin supplements, then answered some emails and booked a couple of appointments with Joel's teachers at next week's parents' evening. We're only going to see the ones who've asked to see us - and we only found out about those last night, instead of last Friday when he was supposed to give us his report! I'm not keen on parents' evenings to be honest, and have had some experiences I'd rather not repeat, but that's a long story...

The nit-combing and hair-washing took up a good portion of the evening. Tess was very good and patient and she had had a fun day after all - they went to "big school" for some sporty thing.

Gemma came home an hour or so ago with the beginnings of her new tattoo. It's one she designed herself of a horse and it's being done in 2 stages. We said when she reached 18 she could do what she liked with her body. I said if I allowed her to get tattoos and piercings before 18 and then she ended up regretting them that it would feel like my fault. So she waited and now it's her fault ;o)

I'm now sitting on the sofa with Richard, trying - and failing - to pretend tomorrow isn't going to happen. We've got to get up early because Rich is off to hospital at 7am to have an operation to have his polyps removed. He's also going to have his nose straightened - for practical rather than cosmetic reasons. It was broken at some stage in his youth (possibly due to getting headbutted after too much falling down juice one night).
I'm going to be dealing with Tess, dog and house and worrying about him all day.

I want so much to hear that he will be coming home and not staying in. We've been together so long it feels like part of me is missing when he's not here.


I'm off to put my anxiety in a tight box with a big heavy lid now, because it's that easy...