Parents evening

I suddenly felt very grown up when I realised what was going on. I had simply been invited to Js nursery with MK to discuss how he is getting on but when we started talking, I realised that this was, in fact a parents evening thing.

Throughout my school career, parent evening was something that I more or less dreaded. It was the time when all of your mediocrity would be analysed in detail and the conclusion would more or less always be the same: "Could do better..." "should do better if he tried harder" and so on. As an aside, it has taken me about 20 years and a little help to realise that being told that you are lazy throughout your school life does not mean that you need to believe that you really are lazy and that everyone else in the world works better/harder than you do simply because they are not you.

Of course we are not measuring academic performance here but it was nice to hear that J is a pretty normal little guy. He's a bit shy and scared of the bigger boys although he's not afraid to tell them if he doesn't like what they're doing. His social skills are improving and he is basically doing fine.

At last

Almost smiling
Tigers are out

Dragon catching ninjas are in.

Sunshine at last

Well the snow has gone and the sun has been shining for a few days. It not come a moment too soon and it is even getting lighter in the mornings and evenings. All I need now is some time to enjoy it.

Work continues to be very busy (see posts below relating to stress induced neck problems) and there seems to be no end to the demands of 2 small children.

Last night we had our Sunday stew on Monday this week because MK was too busy making some special cakey things on Sunday to get the stew going in time. The reason for the cakes was Feste Lavn (I have no idea what that is or how to spell it) but it meant that all the kids were in fancy dress in the nursery yesterday. J went as a dragon catcher. We had planned that he should be a tiger but he didn't fancy that in the end. (" We bought the tiger suit in a bicycle shop in Cairo...")

Thankfully T had bought him a Ninja suit last week so he went for that instead. Given that J has no idea what a Ninja is and there is a dragon on the front of the suit, MK had the ingenious idea to tell him that it was a dragon catcher suit. And so it was.
The cakes were great too.
Pics to follow...

Neck bolt removal

It is something of a painful process that involves a small activator that punches you in the neck repeatedly and then wrenching your head to one side and then the other apparently. The result is a lot of clicking and a measure of relief when it is completed.

Apparently my problem is a nerve trapped between the 2nd and 3rd vertebrae and is a classical stress problem. The Chiro-dude tells me that economic down turns are good new for him and psychotherapists alike, I'm not surprised!

Anyway we all had a relaxed weekend. MK kindly let me sleep a little longer than she did and I managed to end it feeling a little more relaxed and happy that I managed 2½ hours on my bike on Sunday.

Now I have to survive until Wednesday when I go for another wrenching session...

Getting the bolt out

of my neck this afternoon I hope.

I have had a stiff neck since Monday although it is getting better on it's own now. I think that the problems are all stress related, but I am going to the Chiropractor to get it straightened out and to make sure that it is not a recurrence of the trapped nerve that I had a few years ago.

Yesterday was a very long day, 18 hours from leaving the house to getting home and both drives to and from the airport were, dark, snowy and unpleasant. I am looking forward to the weekend. A lot.

Belgium

Today I am in Puurs in Belgium. I got up at 4:30 and it has been a loooong day.
The meeting has been pretty good and in a few minutes we'll head to the airport for a long beer and a long wait for the plane. I should be home around midnight and rather tired with it!

Brass Monkey

It was -11 C this morning on the way to work. That is COLD.

Thankfully the sun is shining and reflecting off the snow so it is bright and significantly more cheerful feeling that it has been for the last month or so. It also feels less cold as the dampness has been removed from the air by the cold dry winds from the north.

We are now feeling more rested from the weekend and starting to get excited about our skiing holiday. It certainly looks like there will be plenty of snow in Livigno

A big weekend

We have had a busy weekend, guests and DK's christening have really kept us out of mischief.


Without going into the details (yet) all went well and we had a lovely time, it was great to see all of our friends and family and thanks a lot to them for coming and for bringing DK such great gifts.

The family and god parents

Cake and bubbly with the sun shining through the window

It was quite a cake!

Week ending

I have had a busy morning and am now trying to have an afternoon at home, so far it is not going well, I am home but still working and it is nearly 2 o'clock.

Harry has arrived safe and sound so we are ready for a weekend of relaxing and celebrating little DK...

Late night visitors

J had a day with T&B yesterday. I am told that they went to a circus of some sort, but he adamantly denies it all. The only thing he would 'fess up to was drinking cocoa.

DK seems to be making great progress with his 10 day constipation and managed half a room full of poop shortly after his bath last night, I suspect that the 7.3kg he weighed in at on Tuesday is now something closer to 6.8kg... Better out than in as they say.

The final crowning point of our evening came at about 4 this morning when J came into our room to tell us that he felt siiiccckkkeeeuuuuugggghhhh......

Oh yes, he felt sick all over the floor and the clothes that were sitting on the chair in the corner. He actually banged his head rather hard on the table earlier in the evening when he fell over so I hope it is not concussion. However, he seemed better this morning, but is staying home to await the arrival of G & G.

D-day -2... and counting

We are getting ready, plates are to be delivered along with the all important coffee spoon, cake forks and folding chairs. There is truly no limit to the lengths to which one must go when the comfort of a Dane eating cake and drinking coffee is concerned. We will be READY!

So far this week I have done 3 days work in 2 days and unfortunately no days workouts in the same period. That means that tonight I have to do 2 days worth of workouts and maybe even 3 if I am going to be ready to miss some more exercise whilst entertaining guests at the weekend. I suppose I'll be on the trainer for a couple of hours tonight...

The promised snow arrived last night so everything was a bit of a mess this morning, but having seen what happened in the UK with a few inches of snow, I suppose this was all pretty smooth really.

Yesterday we had a meeting with the Dr at the hospital who is following DK. He is doing really well - growing, eating and apparently developing normally. He still wanted a few more tests to be done and still wants the MRI to check that everything in his head is how it should be given that the outside is not absolutely perfect (it is to us, but that is another matter!).
As MK said it is rather depressing that they just focus on what is wrong, but I suppose that is their job and if they do it properly, that will leave us free to focus on all the good stuff.

Early riser

I have a lot to do at the moment so I was working after dinner last night until I went to bed at 11:00. I could have carried on working because I had a lot to prepare before 9 this morning, but decided on a new approach to the problem:
I got up at 5:30 and was out of the house by 6 meaning that I could be in the office at 6:30 giving me plenty of time (without anyone else asking me annoying questions) to get my work done.
Now I feel smug... and tired.

Out of the frying pan...

...into the fire on a Monday morning.

We had a lovely relaxing weekend, I took J swimming on Saturday for the first time in a while and was really impressed. He was happily swimming from one side of the pool to another with the support of his arm-bands and a floatation belt thingy. At first he was scared to let go of me, but then he got distracted by a frog in a tug boat and forgot all about me.

On Sunday he went to handball practice with MK and apparently had great fun running around and throwing balls. The catching comes later hopefully...

I managed an hour on the trainer on Saturday evening and then nearly 3 hours mountain biking yesterday afternoon so it was basically a nice weekend. This week is looking as hectic and busy as last week was at work, but hopefully it will calm down in time...

Grey Weather

I don't care about the weather because it's Friday and that means that I can have 2 days off! However, it is getting a bit boring to have to look at the Danish winter every time I look out of the window or leave the house. The sun shone for 37 second 2 weekends ago and that has been it since November I think (there may have been a clear day or so in December, but I can't remember)
Today is J's big haircut day, hopefully he will come home looking better than when I cut his hair and perhaps more importantly he will have somehow enjoyed the experience.

It has been a tough time for J since DK arrived in July. A lot of our time and emotional resources have been taken up dealing with DKs assorted problems and he has had to deal with less of us, a month in England and changing daycare institute.

He has coped pretty well, but at the moment seems a bit down and isn't enjoying nursery. We are hoping that it is just a temporary thing as the teacher (?) suggests rather than some of the other kids being mean to him. A couple of times he has come home and complained that the others put sand in his clothes and things. It probably doesn't help that he still seems to wet himself fairly often as well.

I guess it's all part of growing up for him, but it is a part of being a parent that I hadn't seen coming and it is not nice to slowly realise that something is making your child unhappy and you can't seem to do a lot about it. We'll persevere.

An unusual thing...

Today turned out much better than I had expected. Someone came up from Holland to help me out at work and was VERY helpful - Thanks ROB. I ended up having a productive day that almost qualified as fun.

I got home to find everyone happy and eating so all in all, a good day.

It's tough to find something to write about when all you have done is work but that's life sometimes. We are looking forward to the weekend so that we can get on with the preparation for DKs Christening and take it easy.

I'll try to think of something interesting to write about tomorrow!

Finding your limits

This week has been an unusual one in that I have been overwhelmed to the point that I have not known which way to turn. Tomorrow someone is coming to help me with getting my work back on track and I am left feeling like I have messed up.
Have I?
I don't really know, with hindsight I can of course see why things have happened and what I could have done differently, but I really want to think that I have been put in an impossible position.

Anyway who knows what the outcome will be in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned.

I have just cleared up dinner and the kids are in bed. I am going to eat something sweet if I am allowed and then cycle a bit before bed.

Crazy dayz

I have been very busy and more than a little stressed at work for the last few days and it looks like it will continue for the foreseeable future...
I'll be back on the bike tomorrow evening and continuing looking forward to the weekend.

Unpuncturable tyres

I rode my bike on Saturday for the first time in over a week and I am still not really fully recovered from my colds. I was short of breath and really SLOW.

Of course when I got home, one of my tyres was deflating so now I have a dirty bike with a flat tyre waiting for my attention.

On Sunday I rode for half an hour on the trainer without a flat tyre which was a pleasant change and during that brief period of exertion I decided that I will minimise my outside riding for at least another month. In the meantime, I am going to invest in some Continental touring tyres that come with a one year - no puncture guarantee. According to my calculations, they will pay for themselves in 16 rides on the grounds that I get at least 1 flat per ride and I pay 25kr (£2.50 ish) per inner tube.

One ride without a puncture is enough to justify it to be honest seeing as I have only ridden outside once without a flat so far this year. (I think I have had 7 flats in January)