[bemused...] Woke up this morning to find Bumblebee parked outside my house...

My life is surreal.

Labels: Bumblebee, Camaro, Transformers

Kai's MMR was last Friday, and it left him feeling a bit rough from Sunday onwards, although it's easing off today. We did manage to see The Martian in the evening (only showings were 19.10 and 22.10 so we walked there and back in the dark, which is a rare treat). Really enjoyed it, very well made and to Kai's delight all the science was accurate. For me, it isn't as good as Interstellar - I love the breadth of vision of the latter - but it's still a terrific film. And the Martian landscapes are glorious (and a great inspiration for Poppy...)

Went swimming on Monday - only managed 12 lengths before the shoulder started complaining so left it at that. Walked up in the sunrise (too bright for a photo!) and came back in full sun, wonderfully uplifting. Physio on Tues was a bit meh as I've only been managing at most two repetitions of the exercises per day, instead of the recommended three, and usually only one, but young Adam said that was fine, not to do more than I can without it hurting. He didn't give me any new ones, as I want to try to get into the routine of two a day to start with, and reassess next appt, but my hip is moving further without pain now, so they are working and he's pleased with progress. So YAY!

What else has happened? Um... busyness? As usual. A lot of shopping. And Wendy came to visit for the day yesterday, which was great fun! [GLOMPS!]

I've reached episode 117 (of 150) in Jupiter Moon so should finish the ep summaries before Yule. Aiming to do the last two of Beast Wars this afternoon, then I can make a start on Beast Machines.

The garden looks fantastic at this time of year!

Labels: busyness, films, medical matters, swimming, visits

[sigh] Over a week this time. I really must make time to update more often - I keep forgetting what's happened!

Let's see...

Can't say I'm enjoying the physio: I'm sure it is working, but it's leaving my leg and hip aching. At my appt on Mon the dr said the swollen elbow and pain is bursitis, as I'd thought ('tennis elbow' as it's commonly called). I'm booked in to see a consultant again, when they have an appt, but to be honest I think I think it'll be OK. It's not a load-bearing limb, I've stopped carrying anything with my left arm, and adjusted the level of my keyboard, and it's a little better already. Although the swelling is quite bad (dr said it was a severe case), the literature does say with care and a little physio it will usually go away by itself. It's going to make gardening difficult though. With Ken at work all week and so tired when he gets home I don't like asking him for help at weekends when all he wants to do is get out of Bristol for some peace and fresh air... At least it's now nearly winter and everything is tailing off in the garden.

On the less good front, dr also insisted on taking my BP, which is high again, and has put me back on the meds. Oh joy. Fingers crossed I can get it down a bit before I see her again in 5 weeks. Half the problem is white coat syndrome and the horrible new BP machine, which hurts like hell and makes my arm go completely numb.

Not sure if I said, but my old book Perfume Power is now out, slightly revised, in e-book and PoD format as The Power of Perfume. I was always very happy with this little work, and am pleased they went with the cover I chose. Anyway, it's now much more easily available to anyone that would like it!

Made the Bristol Astronomy Society lecture on the History of Astroparticle Physics (the first one is free to non-members to give them a taste). I was rather surprised to find I actually knew everything that was covered (apart from the timeline, history not being my forté!) and everyone was very friendly. However, as of next month they're moving the venue from Bristol Grammar School (very easy to get to as it's on the no 1 bus route) to the Photographic Society's home at Montpelier which is far more difficult for me to get to (two buses and a walk over James Barton roundabout then under the buildings at the bottom of Gloucester Rd. That's anxiety-making in daylight - in the dark I really don't want to do it). I'll check out the possibility of a train from Temple Meads - there's a local station at Montpelier - but I'd be far more restricted for times. All very annoying. Ken said he'd be happy to come with me for one meeting, just to see how difficult it is, so we may go to the lecture on Globular Clusters next month...

So far things are going quite well for Kai. So far. He's tired all the time, and feeling meeply (the bugs are having the time of their nasty little lives), but he's finding all the walking easier and the aches are slowly going, so his stamina is increasing and looks like the vit D tablets are helping. His first two lots of grades are first class degree level, which is fantastic, but we're not sure if that's because he's ahead of his peers (he's had two years to read the coursebooks and teach himself C) or if it's natural brilliance. He still thinks he may have a touch of chemo brain. No doubt time will tell...

Lugging his 8 kilo + Lenovo laptop around with him was getting to be a real chore, so last week we went over to Staples and he treated himself to a Micro$oft Surface (just over 1 kilo in weight, I believe). They didn't have the Pro version he really wanted, which has double the memory for only another £80 more, but we were assured that if he took it back within two weeks he could change it for the more powerful machine. In the meantime he's absolutely fallen in love with it, but really does need the extra memory, so I rang to make sure they would have one for us, arranged to meet him after his lecture yesterday, treat him to lunch, and go over and exchange them.

Of course, we went to The Crazy Fox...

We had wraps with chicken, roasted peppers, aioli, tomatoes and something else I forget and wasn't familiar with but which tasted wonderful! Kai loved his latte with the heart in it (I was boring and just had diet Coke). It was all extremely civilised, the food great (I was sooo tempted by the little lemon loaf cakes but the wrap was filling and I couldn't manage anything else) and upstairs was very quiet and pleasant. We are definitely going back!

That's the window where our table was.

The café is at the end of the old Arcade in Broadmead.

The walk over to Staples took us through Cabot Circus, the now not-so-new mall. I really like the design: for all that it's not that big, you can still get lost in it!

Surface successfully swapped (and they didn't charge us anything extra as the Pro had been taken out of its box and the assistant had started setting it up when the customer who bought it suddenly realised it wasn't the Ipad they wanted and changed their mind. Heh. 'Surreal Я Us' indeed...) He spent yesterday evening getting it all set up as he wanted it while we played Back to the Future 2.

This morning he had a maths test - self-assessed, I gather so they can all see how they're doing and their strengths and weaknesses so they know what to focus on. Tomorrow am he has his first MMR inoculation: nurse Lindsay assured us that he will then be protected, which will be a significant worry off our minds. He can have the second one in six weeks, so they'll all be done before Yule!

Hoping to finally go and see The Martian at the weekend - it's nearly at the end of its run and we want to see the 3D version. Kai is wholly immersed in the exploration of space at the moment.

Alas, I don't have time to go for a swim this week - plus dr said it wouldn't be helping the bursitis - but still determined to keep going. Will adjust the strokes I use to put less stress on my arms when I go next week.

Right! I think that's all the major news. I'll try to update more regularly but at the moment everything is still manically busy. It should ease off at the beginning of November - but I've said that before!

And post has just arrived with my hospital appt - first week of Nov with the same consultant I saw before, so that's OK.

Labels: astronomy, foxes, fun stuff, medical matters, university

OK... What have we been up to?

It's been busy as ever - even more fiddly as we (I) adapt to Kai's timetable. He's in til 5 three days a week (strictly speaking 4 days but the last Fri session is optional and he knows it all so far so is skipping it), and only has two early (9 or 10) starts. On Wed he's in for just one hour for a tutorial, 10 - 11. And it's all going OK - enjoying the actual computing part, less so the maths, but he's keeping up OK so far. I had a call from the BHOC so say he is vitamin D deficient, which is most likely what's causing the aches and pains and fatigue, so I picked up one a day tablets from Tesco last Wed, and I think they may be beginning to work...

I couldn't make time for a swim last week, so went yesterday morning (at 7) and managed 16 lengths without difficulty. These early mornings are lovely - I usually get to see the sunrise...

Taken with my phone camera so not great. And yes, that's the hill I have to walk up to get to the pool. You can just see a car disappearing down the incline.

We've been nibbling away at the garden - Ken's had a couple of flexi day Fridays - clearing up some of the excess ivy and deciding which of the fruit branches to prune. Ken also mowed, and we're less than happy to find that the lawnmower is broken, same problem as the last one we had - both of them Flymos. Going to see if there's a fix, if other people have had the same problem. Luckily we shouldn't need to mow now until next spring.

This last weekend was mostly getting client stuff done (and missed the Vulcan flypast as I was so focused on an urgent bit of work - very miffed about that. But at least Kai saw it, and I heard that glorious roar - and I've been asked to take over the BCHS website. That wooden fence will be the first thing to go!

I've almost finished running down the freezer too - we're getting a new one, hopefully one of these, in a couple of week's time when the manic rushing around to appts is over. (I have a drs appt next week to try to sort out what the hell is wrong with my left arm: hurts from neck to fingertips and my elbow is swollen. I fall to bits...)

And I've started getting organised for Yule. Wrapped the first presents today! It'll be relatively quiet, as usual, but I want to make it really nice. Kai is looking forward to it - so am I, this time year before last we didn't even know if he'd be with us, and last year we were desperately hoping the transplant would be a success. Not exactly conducive to a pleasant Yule, either circumstance.

So that's all the most significant news. Still haven't found time to write, but that should come beginning of November at the latest. Fingers crossed anyway!

Labels: domesticity, Kai, medical matters, swimming, university, Yule

Lutra lobbed me loadsa loot!!

Insanely, the only place I've found that has brought out the RiD boxed set is Australia. Shout!Factory are selling individual DVDs with maybe four eps on them, which works out really expensive. And I'm not entirely sure they're in the right order: their Rescue Bots DVDs aren't.

The little square thing is apparently a facewasher. I shall soak it and see what happens in a day or so!

Sounds like sorcery to me!

[GLOMPS!!] Thank you!

You can tell the season is changing.

Rosa doing her bum in the air thing again...

Labels: Lutra, presents, spiders, Transformers, Tyjer

Well, Kai's first week went OK. Not perfect, but he managed, and although he was exhausted on Fri night, he slept well and went out with Ken on Sat. Really enjoyed himself, recharged the batteries, and is now tackling his maths homework (with a bunch of friends on skype: I think they're all helping each other as the subject matter is something most of them aren't familiar with). Overall I think it's going to be just fine!

I had my first physiotherapist appt on Wed: ouchouchouch. But he thinks the most recent problem (with the front and inside of my left thigh) is probably muscular, which is much easier to sort out than tendons. I have exercises to do every day, and am to use a heat pack and take baths with epsom salts! I haven't had a bath in nearly 20 years, so that's going to be... interesting... I go back in two weeks for a check up and some more exercises. Oh, and I'm not to sit at my desk for more than half an hour without taking a break. Oh joy...

Kai had his last DTP/P inoculation Fri morning (went in for a 9 am class, met me at Broadwalk at 10.30ish, we had early lunch at Subway then went back over to the surgery: afterwards we explored Redcatch Park as it was too early for Kai to head back for his pm classes. All very civilised!) One more meningitis and his MMR and he's done.

Back to writing tomorrow...

Labels: medical matters, university