What's been happening at our place.....

Firstly thank you for the suggestions re my blog photos, I will Google around for some answers. As the photos were uploaded from different places, some Picasa, some directly from my PC, I don't know what's going on. And more pics are disappearing from very old posts too - so strange! But thank you for taking the time to comment.

I don't really know where to start, life has been incredibly busy and not just with the cricket for a change. The Builder is nearing the end of a project he's been on for a while and whilst we are stony broke just now the money will be released very soon, so the pressure was on to get it complete. That in itself is a little bit of stress but added to that he has been having various aches and pains for a while now which means he works slower and finds some jobs more difficult than he used to.

He is after all 54 later this year and can't expect to have the energy of an 18 year old

(do they have energy, our actual, real-life 18 year old is mostly asleep!).

On Christmas eve he had a hospital appointment to discuss treatment for the partially slipped disc which had been discovered, that appointment was a mixture of emotions as they started to discuss injections into the disc and possible surgery but ended the appointment by saying as he had the reflexes of an 18 year old (and yes I'll never hear the end of that)

they wouldn't be doing anything other than prescribe painkillers!

As luck would have it he plays cricket with an orthopaedic surgeon who,

on seeing his bow-legged shuffle, said he should get his hips looked at as well, the result of this showed a certain amount of arthritis in his hip joint as well as the slipped/bulging disc.

Fast forward to half term when he played cricket on Saturday and Sunday, mostly as a wicket keeper (crouched down on his haunches for several hours - as you do with a slipped disc and arthritis??) and ended up in extreme pain. He soldiered on until the following Thursday, when he couldn't move and was in agony. At midnight (how like children some men are!) he announced that I needed to drive him to A & E in Norwich as he was worried something very strange had happened in his back - you can imagine the scenarios we went through.

I had to dress The Builder as he could barely move, wake Number 1 son to let him know he was in charge, wedged The Builder into the car and drove into our nearest Accident and Emergency.

He was instructed to stay in the cubicle allocated and wear a gown, so embarrassing to have to undress and dress him again and at this point we realised I'd put his pants on backwards! It made the Doctor (aged about 15) laugh anyway. I wasn't going to whip them off and turn them round, not when the cubicle curtain could have been thrown wide open at any time

to find me with his pants in my hand!

At 5am he was prescribed very strong painkillers and sent home to a very deep sleep for the rest of the day. I stayed awake with the help of coffee as there was a school run to do then there seemed no point in sleeping until an early night beckoned.

Last week he had an official appointment (as appose to a consultation in the cricket club bar) with our surgeon friend who x-rayed his hips once again and was a little bemused by the arrangement and distribution of arthritis in his hip, apparently it's only usually seen in women! - Cue an excuse to rib him forever more! The Tourettes in me wanted to ask if this arthritis could have been caused by him wearing ladies underwear but I wasn't sure, in the formal hospital surroundings,

if he'd have realised I was joking!

So you can imagine how happy I was when The Builder announced he would be fine to play cricket this weekend as he felt the problem was much improved!

 I refuse to take him to A & E again!

On top of that Number 1 son is mid exams, the A levels which will determine whether he gets into the university of his choice, Loughborough. He feels they haven't been going too well and is already talking about other options, it's so tough and there is absolutely nothing we can do to help

other than try to be supportive.

Number 2 son continues to give us grief at every opportunity, only of the verbal kind but hard to take none the less - note to self I must stop "being such an idiot", I'm sure that would help the situation.

Little Miss seems to have been lost in the midst of all this stress and worry which isn't fair. Hopefully her turn to shine will be later today when she takes part in a club gymnastics competition, I'm keeping everything crossed for her. The boys are dotted around the county at cricket so it just leaves me to watch; and cheer!

Oh and I should just mention that in the middle of all this a young New Zealander moved into the garage! Those who've been reading my blog from the start may remember this and the reprieve I had last year. In the intervening time our garage has become full of "stuff", the usual garage type clutter plus those things only a Builder come hoarder would have like a collection of rusty nails

and 3 (non-working) fridges!

The proposition was put to me by telephone in the middle of Tesco by a committee member who said he'd rather speak directly to the organ grinder not the monkey! Apparently this years overseas player who had been staying with another family had only been allowed to stay with them for the first few weeks and now needed new accommodation. It was fine if I said no, I mustn't worry....but he'd be homeless!! Hands up those who think The Builder knew I was about to get that call??

What can you say to that.... the plus side is that a team of people arrived and cleaned the garage and took a load of junk to the tip for us, it's now back to a penthouse suite!

So I have another rent-free lodger............can anyone offer me a place to stay til September??