Busyknitter

What can I say, we had a completely awesome time. Huge thanks to my good friend who came to help out with T; couldn’t have done it without you. It was also great to spend some time with my brother, who is a Greenbelt old lag (compared to me that is)

As for the little fella, he loved it! Quite the little autistic party animal he was. He especially enjoyed any event with music.

As Greenbelt newbie, it took me a day or so to work out what was going on and when. But we still did loads. Beer’n Hymns was a particular highlight (two nights in a row!) As was a talk by John Swinton on the theology of disability. Also one by a bloke who walked the entire route of the M62 and wrote a book and a blog about it. And then there was the Taize worship. And the dinner I had from the Pie Minister stall (almost a religious experience in itself). Oh, and the Iona Big Sing. I could go on.

Camping with T was not too bad at all. The first night’s sleep was a bit rubbish; we went to bed at 1am and T woke us up before 4 and that was that. But Saturday and Sunday were a lot better.

And I spent a small fortune on books

Here’s a few pictures. There will be more on facebook.

Took T to the church holiday club for a little while in the morning. I couldn’t leave him there as they aren’t set up with enough workers to give him the attention (but I think I will start asking for them to lay something on next year).

He really enjoyed it. When we arrived, there was just one chair placed in the middle of the school hall with all the activity going on around it. T plonked himself in the chair as if he were waiting for church or school assembly to start and just sat there happily waiting. It was very sweet.

Then some girly shopping; face cream, mascara and a new nail varnish. I also got collared in the street by someone flogging a promotion for a local hair salon and Oh My Goodness I signed up for it (which is quite out of character). essentially I’ve prepaid for six months worth of hair treatments - cuts colour, head massages, styling etc. If I use everything, i’ll have paid £55 for £350 of treatment. Now I know I won’t do that, but even if i get two cuts and a colour out of the deal, I’ll be quids in. They’d better be good.

And here is some free advertising for them Spencer Hair Company

T’s respite carer thinks he is starting to echo back simple phrases that people say to him.

Watched the Ingmar Bergman movie in the afternoon.

Carried on working in the evening. It’s very dull but I am making good progress with what i need to do.

Ooh, and I made a huge batch of cauliflower cheese for tea and the freezer. Though i say so myself, I make the best cauli cheese on this planet.

Not much reading going on this week, though I have finished Buddenbrooks at last (Poor Hanno!). Must look out a good stock of books to take away next week.

I have a sore throat.

I am very excited.

Following the success of our trip to Newcastle, we are planning two nights in London, hopefully staying in an apartment hotel somewhere central. We’ll do fun stuff with the boys during the day and take turns to go out in the evenings. Mr. BK is planning a night out with some of his pals. But I’m plotting to go to a Prom, which is something I haven’t done for over twenty years. Wheeeeee!

T is up to his old tricks. It’s 11pm, he’s been officially “in bed” for four hours now but he’s nowhere near asleep.

And he’s back in furniture removal mode. Well, there isn’t actually any furniture in his room except for a mattress, but I’ve just been up there to check on him and found it on the other side of the (fairly large) room.

Never mind; hopefully we will soon have his new bed installed and fixed to the floor (made by these folks). That’ll settle his hash.

Wish he’d go to sleep a bit earlier though, he’ll be impossible to wake in the morning.

The past six weeks have been a bit busy, to say the least. Things have calmed down a bit, so I guess it’s time to get back into the blog. Here are some of the things that have been keeping me occupied.

-Work, work, work, work, work. I won’t go into detail (this blog is about my real life after all…..) but the past few weeks have been consumed with the preparatory phase of a Seriously Big Project. We get a little break for a few weeks, so it’s back to just doing the day job for a while.

- My choir had it’s summer buffet concert.

- I knitted my first Baby Surprise Jacket. Does anyone know any surprise babies needing one?

- My beloved (but admittedly rather knackered) old wooden Adler treble recorder finally gave up the ghost. It split in four places. So I have finally succumbed to the world of recorder consumerism and am now the happy owner of a Moeck Rottenburg in Palisander from the rather wonderful Early Music Shop and a Moeck Tuju in maplewood bagged on Ebay. I’m playing them in now.

And I had two holidays at half term!
-For the bank holiday weekend, T and I went on a specialist weekend for autistic families organised by Through the Roof. It was just so relaxing, and fun. T was looked after for much of the weekend by the incomparable Vicky and had an absolute ball. I mostly sat around drinking tea and nattering. Which was just what I needed, given that the deadline for all that work I’d been doing was lunchtime on the day that the holiday started.

-We got back home on the Monday evening and on Tuesday morning, all four of us set off for the wilds of Ardnamurchan for what turned out to be the first successful family holiday we’ve had for four years. Define success? Well everyone enjoyed it and we didn’t come back thinking that it would have been easier to not bother taking T away from home. Nice weather, too.

And Mr. BK went to Poland and brought me back a picture of JPII as a present! And S did his Year9 SATs. And he had his 14th birthday. And I had to go to a beancounters conference that night so missed it. And T had his annual statement review - all presented on the smartboard with the lad doing cute and clever things like buying bananas in Sainsburys or parallel playing with a classmate.

Cor, I haven’t been doing much blogging lately. RL verrrrrrry busy right now.

But I just have to pause for a minute or two to record that T is finally getting the hang of this toilet training mularkey!

What a clever fellow.

I am in love. Big Time. With this building:

The outside is gorgeous enough. But it’s the concert hall that really took my breath away (however, i didn’t think to take a photo. duh.)

So what were we doing in Newcastle? Well, it was time to pay a visit to my MIL. The North-East is really a bit far for a day trip for us, so we decided to risk an overnight visit, splashing out on a funky urban apartment on the Quayside.

Here is the view from our window

And here it is at night

How many bridges can you count in this picture?

The whole trip went really well. T coped with a night away from home brilliantly and a good time was had by all

A new motto coined by my husband in response to a complaint that my teenage son had got to the shower before me.

My 13 year old son, that is.

This afternoon I put a Thomas DVD on for T (the 5-year old autistic one). With nothing better to do at the time, S my super cool adolescent lad settled down to watch it with him.

T wandered off after about 15 minutes. An hour later I realised S was still up there, glued to the box. So I walked into the room, brandishing the vacuum cleaner. His reaction……….

“Awwww, Mum! Can’t you wait till the end of this episode!”

Hee hee

I really need to get this off my chest.

Someone bought me a goat for Christmas.

Now, please don’t get me wrong. I do not begrudge the lady in the Tanzania her goat.

And this is not a rant (or even an attempt to discuss) the pros and cons of development aid; what works, what doesn’t, how much of the cash given gets siphoned off in bribes, kickbacks and the cost of administration. I’m not even going to attempt to question the patronising attitude of the development agencies in the way they seem to mark being a subsistence farmer as the highest possible aspiration of someone who happens to have been born in South-Saharan Africa.

But what’s really got my goat (sorry) is that my someone else’s donation to charity has to be packaged up as a present to me!

I really, honestly wouldn’t have minded if they’d said - “Actually, Busyknitter - I’d rather we didnt exchange presents this year. I’m going to give the money I would have spent to Oxfam”

But no, in this materialistic, consumerist society presents must be given, even if you can’t think of anything that the other person actually wants or needs. And what can be better than to give a present with moral intent, one that will help the receiver become a better person, more aware of people less fortunate than herself.

Smug, sanctimonious claptrap!