I'm the world's worst employer....

Because the staff never turn up....still waiting for the scaffolders, and in turn the builders. Keep thinking of suitable punishments - outing the rubbish company, not recommending them, keeping half the money until they are finished, letting the dog take sips of their tea and so on.

Off to visit a couple of dog kennels this morning, part of the deal in getting a dog was knowing we'd have to put her in kennels sometimes. Very anxious about it, almost feel like I won't like any of them but am trying to stay positive. Largely because we'll have to put her in one on Friday for our Big Trip to...wait for it....Disneyland Paris. Children are, understandably very excited about it all. At the moment I'm just worried about all the logistics but am sure will do like the advert and get up early when we are there.

In other exciting family news, Lily dog has a bit of an eye infection (bit yucky), J's continuing to struggle to learn to read, Ol's reading very well but writing is a bit more casual.

Chimney don't fall down yet...

So we're having our chimney taken down, and re-built as it is lopsided. Been a bit of a back burner worry for the last four years, particularly as it is on the side of the house that gets the sea storms first.

It's one of those annoying jobs though that need two sets of tradespeople - the roofer, and the scaffolders. As they seem to be friends, or at least work together frequently I assumed it would all go smoothly. Not the case. The scaffolders turned up at lunchtime yesterday, built a bit, had a cup of tea, then had to 'get on with something else' at two. I bumped in to them in town at three in bhs, so goodness knows what they were up to. Knicker shopping?

Then the roofer was supposed to come today, but we've put him off until Thursday as the scaffolding is nowhere near the roof yet. But he now says he might be busy until Monday (how does that work?).

And to cap it all it is raining today, the scaffolders were not due until lunchtime again (something to do with vans and strikes that I didn't understand). But I bet rain stops play again. Although they might squeeze in a cup of tea. Sadly I didn't offer biscuits yesterday, this may be the root of the problem.

Eurovision of course....

Ah, so Austria are our friends too. Surprised about Austria to be honest...but not about the others. Perhaps next year we could do some specific promotional work in the former Eastern block, plus perhaps do some positive discrimination and have a singer originally from there who could garner a bit of home support. Come on UK!

Evil Spike of Doom

So -lovely weekend mostly, spent the morning yesterday at a car boot sale. Lily dog is a bit unsure about the delights of car booting, think she gets a bit overwhelmed by the number of people and smells there. She spent a fair bit of time trying to hide under random cars which was a bit pitiful.

Then after a quick dash around Asda (not keen on their cheese and onion rolls as picnic food) just time to put together a lunch and head off to the East Hill for a friend's birthday picnic. Had a lovely hour or two, children climbing trees, dads playing rounders, me sitting on a camping chair I bought with me (very pleased with that decision) and just chilling out. Then Ollie ran across a bit of the barbecue area, and right over a massive spike. It went through his shoe and sock and up in to his foot. Luckily it wasn't stuck in, so to speak but there was an awful lot of blood for one small ish boy.

So we went straight off to A&E, fortunately despite the chairs being totally full up, the wait was only two hours. Two hours of waiting in a small room crowded with other (sick) people not perfect with two primary aged children who don't have 'DS's or are not allowed to 'play on your phone'. There was an even smaller children's room, with very nice murals on the walls. But sadly with only two toys, one of which was nailed down to a table. Do intend to ask the hospital if they need local people to donate toys and books, or if perhaps they have been removed due to risk of germs or something. Books and magazines definitely would have been most welcome.

Then Ol saw a lovely nurse practitioner who cleaned his foot (he was very brave), commented on seeing bit of 'white fat' in the cut. Unsure about the meaning of that actually. She told Ol to stay off his foot for at least forty eight hours, and gave him some crutches. Which he got the hang of very quickly. I was very impressed with her ability to procure the right size crutches immediately from a side room, have a feeling in London/big cities it would not be that simple.

So here we are - Ollie incapable of doing just about anything on his own, other than reading, watching telly and playing Wii (of course doing school work should be on that list). Not sure how he will be able to cope with school in a day or so when he is supposed to go back as he can't even go to the loo on his own. Maybe the magical quick healing power of the young will work though and his foot will get better speedily.

And even better, a friend of ours dug the spike put from the ground to save it for Ol.