"Don't you forget about me...."

This may well be the last post for a couple of weeks. We move this Friday and the pressure of packing is getting greater and I can have less excuse to be sat in the library. Once the phone line is active at the new house my ISP say it could take up to 5 working days for our broadband to become active again. Once we're in a set-up and sorted I will be back like the proverbial bad penny but there won't be anything new here until at least the 20-somethingth of this month unless I just have to blog about something specific! Catch you on the other side, you wonderful people, you!

You can't have your cake and eat it!

So. We have a new PC, contentedly sitting in its box. There the contentment ends, I fear. The temptation to unpack it and set it up is almost overwhelming but I can (unfortunately) see the wisdom in not doing so until after we've moved. Roll on the 16th.....

Just perfect...

So the computer has died. Just what I need with less than two weeks to go until we move! We'd been talking about buying a new one after we're settled in at the new place but it looks now like we might be hitting the electrical superstores on Bank Holiday Monday looking for good deal. It'd be silly to buy one and unpack it for a week before having to pack it again so until the 16th, at least, I'll be confined to using the PCs in the local library. Apologies to anyone who mails and doesn't get get a reply or who comments and doesn't get any kind of acknowledgement. Have started packing in earnest this morning, not having the distraction of a functioning PC! Umm, think that's about it really. I don't have the time to sit in here contemplating the inscrutable riddle of the Universe and you really don't need to hear about my Interwebnet withdrawal symptoms. Missing you all, though!

All Systems Go!

So it's definitely on. We have a completion date for the new house, have handed in a "termination of tenancy" notice and booked a removals company. Of course, it doesn't hurt that the gentleman who turned up from the removals company is an old school friend of mine! So now we do the packing thing. Despite the fact that we've got lots of "stuff" I'm not too panicked about it (yet) and am confident that it won't entail too much grief. The biggest hurdle, I think, is going to be getting rid of the stuff that we don't want to take with us. The hiring of a skip may be required. It's going to be strange. We've been here for about 8 years and got used to it. Being somewhere else in town is just going to be a little...weird.

Addiction and Affliction

I seem to have a new addiction. Old Jamaica Ginger Beer. I know it's got loads of sugar in it but it's just so Goddamned tasty! I blame Enid Blyton, myself. All those years of reading about the Famous Five having "lashings of Ginger beer" with everything obviously affected me. I loved those stories. A simpler time and possibly all the better for it. Life today is too complicated for me sometimes. Or maybe I'm just getting old! I discovered yesterday that I just can't get excited about light fittings or kitchen bins that co-ordinate with the rest of the kitchen. A Dalek-shaped bin would float my boat a little more than one that blends in, I think. I always thought I was quite "in touch with my feminine side" but clearly that doesn't extend to home furnishings. Horrifically, I appear to have picked up a bad case of "bloke" from somewhere!

New Toy!

It's pathetic really. The little things that bring excitement into our lives. As I may have mentioned before I have a Facebook presence. On logging into it today I was greeted with a new feature. They have installed a "chat" feature as standard, rather as one of the many and varied applications one can voluntarily add. Consequently, I've been whiling the morning away by playing with it and chatting with friends who I wouldn't normally chat to, we not being on one another's MSN or Yahoo messengers. It's new, obviously (duh!) and a few improvements spring to mind but it works and is fairly reliable, it seems. I'd like to formally apologise here to anyone who I may have startled by "popping up" in a chat window when they weren't even aware that such a thing was possible! Of course, that's not to say that I won't do exactly the same thing again later. Or tomorrow. Or whenever. As a very erudite person once said - "little things please little minds"!

Just testing...

...the latest release of the Scribefire extension for Firefox. Don't mind me. Kindly go about your business!

Spirit Of Radio

I was talking to my Elder Daughter the other day about radio. Apparently "no-one listens to the radio anymore". This is patently not true; she just means that amongst her friends and contemporaries radio is less popular. I find this depressing, possibly because radio has always been part of my life. It will have started back in 1970's. Dad used to work shifts and Mum worked part-time in the mornings. If dad had been on "nights" and needed to get to bed or was on "earlies" then as Mum went for the bus to work she'd drop me at my grandparents who only lived a few doors away. Nan would invariably have the radio on. BBC radio 2, I believe, although she still referred to it as "the Light Programme". I can clearly remember both Sam Costa and Pete Murray being on although none of the music that they played has stayed with me. Once I started school I remember getting ready to Terry Wogan in the mornings. How little some things have changed! Some of what Wogan played has clearly seeped into my consciousness and remains with me to this day. I love The Carpenters (Karen's voice was pure honey!) and can also blame this period for my fondness for musicals - I remember having songs from Jesus Christ Superstar stuck in my head for days when I heard them played. I can't be arsed to do links to all the artists but songs from the early to mid '70s by people like The Detroit Emeralds, Kiki Dee, Helen Reddy, Glen Campbell and Gilbert O'Sullivan always remind me of getting ready for school. I remember how grown-up I felt when I was allowed a radio in my bedroom to listen to as I read before snuggling down. I was largely a Radio Luxembourg guy, although thanks to my sisters' influence Radio Caroline would make an appearance from time to time. This was also the time that I discovered the joys of sports commentary on radio and developed my love for Test Match Special. I also clearly remember listening to England failing to qualify for the 1974 World Cup! I've always kept a distance from the UK's "pop" channel, Radio 1, largely because it doesn't play the sort pf music I like to listen to. Over the years there've been exceptions, however. The late, lamented Friday Rock Show kept me out of the pubs for one night a week and "Into The Night" with Nicky Campbell was interesting if I was at home. I have conflicting memories of his being followed by Whispering Bob Harris and some Canadian (?) lady who used to go on at length about Moonbathing! These days my radio habit is largely defined by Planet Rock (a whole station playing the music I love!) and Radio 5live for news and sport. I can't imagine being without at least one radio in the house, particularly a digital model now I've been converted. Television I could fairly cheerfully live without - as long as I had radio!

Outpouring

I'd almost forgotten what it was like but this came pouring out, very much as you see it, yesterday. I had a post for here prepared yesterday and then closed my blog editor without saving or publishing it. I can't be arsed to try to resurrect it so I'll just note that I'm currently fielding so many "important" telephone calls I feel that I should be getting paid P.A. rates! [Listening to: Drowning by All About Eve]

The Longest Day

So. Yesterday came and went. I don't think that we forgot to pack anything for Younger Daughter except for family pictures which I'll get in the post to her ASAP. Everything else that she might want or need has gone with her - mountains of clothes and favourite toys. An 8 o'clock start meant an early start for all of us. I couldn't get Younger Daughter to have any breakfast before we set off but was confident that she'd snack in the car if hungry. As it turned out in the whole journey, which we managed in 3 and a half hours, she had a couple of bags of crisps and a little drink. She was too excited by the journey itself. I'd almost forgotten how much she enjoys car travel over long distance. I'd been fine in the days leading up to yesterday. I was reassuring everyone else that Younger Daughter would be fine at her new school, that she'd thrive and prosper under the one-to-one attention she'd get. It's still true, I know she'll do well there. What I didn't reckon on was that she loves long-distance car travel so much when we drew up at the school and I got her out of the car and took her inside she started wailing and crying and lashing out at anyone who came near her. I didn't cope with this very well and as we set of for a tour of some of the school with one of the classroom assistants from Y.D.'s class I could barely see for tears and my voice was cracked and unreliable. The hardest thing I ever remember having to do was not break down completely in "tons of sobs". Sometimes a Dad just has to swallow his tears and keep going, y'know? After looking in a few empty classrooms she wasn't calming down at all. It wasn't until we went in a room where a group of three of the kids were working with their class team that she quietened and seemed to show an interest. Seeing other students doing something that was, maybe. familiar from her previous school seemed to "trip a switch" somewhere in her mind. When we approached the main staircase to go and have a look at her bedroom she pulled me up the stairs by my hand before waiting calmly at the top for for the classroom assistant to catch us up. Her room was decorated in the colours and fabrics that Wife and Elder daughter chose. There was only on picture on the wall but apparently the others that the school had ordered for her had arrived that morning and would go up that afternoon. A nice touch was a "Welcome" helium-filled balloon on her bed which Y.D. went straight for to start it bobbing in the air. The classroom assistant suggested that one of Y.D.'s toys might help to keep hr calm so I fished her favourite electronic musical toy out of one of her bags and she was all smiles and giggles. Carrying it, she was content to be led back down to her classroom, which by now had the other 3 kids in it. The laughing, singing and dancing with her toy continued until one of the other kids sat down closer to her than she wanted. A wave of relief swept over me when she ran to stand next to the classroom assistant for support rather than running to me. I couldn't think of a better moment to leave sp rather than make a big drama out it all I waved, gave the cheriest "Bye, babe. See you soon." that I could muster and walked out of the room, nearly breaking down completely on the rather startled Chief Bursar who had come down to take me to the Head Of Care's office to sign some paperwork. Luckily, they're used to parents being a little emotional when their kids start there and gave me a cup of tea (how very English!) and a tissue. Half an hour later I was on the way home, leaving my littlest girl in a wonderful place with a fabulous bunch of people. Home to a house that's now far too quiet to try to hide the gaping hole in my heart from the rest of my family. I know it's the right thing to do, but it's so hard... I'm sure that things will get easier as time goes on.

Landmarks

I was a little emotional yesterday. This is quite unusual for me as I'm usually able to keep quite a tight lid on everything for the sake of the rest of the family. I've mentioned previously that Younger Daughter is starting at a new school, one that specialises in children with varying degrees of Autism, is "residential" and on the other side of the country. It's getting close now - she starts there on Monday. Yesterday, I picked her up for the last time from the respite centre where she's spent a lot of happy times over the last (at a guess) 7 or 8 years. The times that she's spent with them have enabled us to go on for much longer than we would have otherwise. They've always tried to be flexible about bookings so that they could accommodate events that the rest of us wanted/needed to go to. Obviously with Y.D. spending 7 nights a month over there we've got to know some of the staff quite well and they've got to know her very well. Yesterday when I was let in through the door, Y.D. was dancing with one of the ladies there whose eyes were brimming with tears. The staff had bought Y.D. and lovely soft, fluffy dressing gown as a goodbye present and prepared a photo album of her time over there for us. They'd had a party tea the night before and one of the other disabled lads who goes there had made a speech wishing my daughter good luck at her new school. Nothing we could give them would adequately illustrate the thanks we feel for the times that they've had her over there. We've known that she was safe, cared for and happy there and have never had any reason to be concerned for her when she's been staying with them. As a token gesture of gratitude we got a "nice" box of chocs and a "thank you" card which I presented to one of the ladies as a representative of the staff in general. In response, she sprang up and threw her arms around my neck. For an instant I thought she was going to burst into tears! It was just another in the line of "last time I do this"s which we're going through. I have a long journey to make on Monday and I don't just mean the miles on the road.

Procrastination

It's very easy to put off blogging when you haven't really got anything to blog about! It's been raining lots but today's been sunny. The kids are still on Easter holidays (which seem to be very long this year) and Younger Daughter starts her new school a week tomorrow. Did I mention that we're moving too? Not out of town just to a rather more salubrious part of it. Allegedly, at least. We'll see. This means of course that we have to do the ghastly "packing" thing! I'm quite excited at the prospect of actually being moved but the whole "moving thing" scares the bejeezus out of me. We've been here about 8 years now (I think) and the amount of crap a family can accumulate in that long is frightening. So as not to disturb her routine any more than necessary the actual packing won't be starting until Y.D. is at her new school. This should leave us the best part of 3 weeks to sort it all. The bigger problem is that items of furniture for the new house have already been bought and we need to fit them in here alongside what we already have until some of the older stuff can be unloaded. So space is at even more of a premium than usual. This is a salutary lesson for me. I started out by saying I had nothing to blog about and then realised that I hadn't yet mentioned the move. I must remember that sometimes the best thing to do is just start an entry and see where the keyboard takes me. I'll try and be more regular in future. I'm still enjoying this blogging lark, believe it or not and through it have "met" some wonderful people! [Listening to: Paint It Black by The Rolling Stones]