Yes, despite my blog entries, I HAVE done other things besides play darts and watch football Work has settled and I’m much less stressed now – not because the workload has eased, but because I’ve changed my attitude and accepted that I am only human. Now, whatever’s going on, I just smile and deal with [...]

I woke at about 6.30 am as usual on Saturday morning, and immediately had a shower (pinching A’s towel which was the only one I could see) and dressed as we needed to get away early back to Bristol. The plan was for Raji to drive us there, and go to Rani’s flat so we [...]

We had arranged to breakfast with H,M,A and J at 7.30 on the Friday morning so I was up early enough to shower and dry my hair first, then Billy had his. We both put on yesterday’s clothes for breakfast though – just in case of accidents. Once again Billy’s cousins helped make the meal [...]

On Thursday, having had to wait for Raji’s suit to be dry cleaned, we finally set off for Bristol in the afternoon, which meant, of course, that we hit Birmingham at the wrong time! We had also encountered roadworks along the way and eventually arrived in Bristol 7.5 hours later, and were then faced with [...]

but a quick mention of what else has been happening for the past week: Saturday – I went to City v Boro (1-0) and on the way down passed the time of day with a mini-bus full of young lads going to the match. Then saw the same lot at the last services (only ‘cos [...]

Well, as you will have seen from my Twitter/Brightkite updates in the left panel, Billy and Raji’s mum, Rani has passed away after losing her battle with cancer. This was the latest crisis that had hit us – well, her sudden worsening, and I simply haven’t had a chance to write properly about it before [...]

Sorry I’ve been AWOL. As you possibly guessed from the silence (apart from the couple of protected posts) we’ve been having a bit of a crisis. We’re not out of the woods yet but think we may have started clearing undergrowth to show the path through. Other than all that, life has carried on regardless, [...]

Welcome back – I hope you have had a good Christmas with families and friends. Ours was fairly quiet but enjoyable, and certainly I appreciated a bit of relaxation after such a busy build up. Tuesday 23rd Dec: The children and I went to Chester to stay with my Mum for Christmas, whilst Billy and [...]

Laura: We went to Laura’s Parents’ Evening on Thursday and as usual, managed to see some, but not all, teachers due to the 5 minute times slots. We are pleased with her over all and she has achieved well, particularly in the subjects in which we know she’s always struggled. She has already taken some [...]

• I’ve encountered yet more idiots on the road, including the middle aged (Tweed suit wearing type) driving a huge BMW who tried to run me off the road then blamed me! (click to enlarge) Coming off the A1 onto the slip road leading to a roundabout, she was in front of me. The slip [...]