Poking your brain, circuits, Sylvanian aprons

Last weekend:

I was at mum's - she is not doing too badly but, you know, it's a horrible sad thing and hangs over me all the time. But at least she is happy and comfortable. I watched Strictly with her and the soap omnibuses, which she enjoyed - she can't put her telly on any more, sometimes the carers put it on for her, but they have to 'offer' and if she says 'no' then they can't. Also she will switch it off when a trailer or ad comes on and not be able to put it back on. She can't do cooking reliably any more either so is having hot lunches delivered from this Monday. She can still get herself bread and butter, meat, cheese, fruit, salady bits from the fridge. She can't really do hot drinks any more either, so carers do those, but that's only twice a day. Fortunately her house is nice and warm. She enjoys feeding the birds and watching them. And reading Daily Mail headlines repeatedly!

Not sure what J and F did, J had to do computer stuff on the Sunday but he and F did stuff together on Saturday. I missed them loads and it was bliss to get home on Sunday.

Monday: dentist's check-up for all of us. Freya was really anxious about it as last time she had to have a filling and found it a very distressing experience. This time, with a different dentist (I made sure our appts were with him as I've had the same procedure done by him and the other dentist and there was a huge difference), it was all fine and none of us needed any work done anyway. Massive relief, phew! He says that Freya now has lost all her baby teeth and is 'dentally mature'! Hung out in Costa and did a bit of shopping.

Tuesday: we went to the V and A for a brief visit before an RI lecture. V and A was great, must go there for a proper explore sometime. Freya spent a lot of time on a ring-design interactive. RI lecture was very good, about how your brain processes sensory information and can be fooled: Poking your brain

Good optical and other sensory illusions. I particularly liked a picture of a castle - we all stared at one version of the picture in very bright light colours for a minute, then stared at the proper black and white picture of the castle and it looked as though it was in colour because the colours in the first picture were the negatives of the correct colours for the picture, so when your eyes stopped seeing the negative colours, your brain made the 'right' colours.

Wednesday: Freya went to Forest School and came back with a lovely little Christmas Tree model made from wood rounds and twigs, they had worked on them over the last 2 sessions. In the afternoon we watched Ice Age 3.

Thursday: a day at home, I tidied a bit and cleared out the top half of our craft storage unit, got rid of and consolidated stuff to make room for some lovely new supplies and kits that I'd ordered - most of them have now arrived and it all looks really tempting - just need a bit more time at home now to be able to use some of it! Struggling to remember what else we did, oops!

Friday: had an annoying bit of work to finish that kept generating new problems even though I was right at the end of it, so that dragged on too long. Freya got the electronics kits out and constructed circuits with switches, motors and lights. Then time for riding, they went out on a short walk and Freya is now able to do the 'steering' - C and I debated whether it's really called that. Was a nice chatty time at riding actually, chilly but at least dry.

Other things days went to but I can't locate which days: 

lots of work (HOORAY! BECAUSE MONEY! and Boo! Because Time! But still, right now, we do need that money, so mainly HOORAY!). 

interesting conversations about all sorts but can't remember them, snuggles and giggles

Freya making aprons for Sylvanians - decorated with fabric pens in a choice of 3 patterns and 4 colours - the Sylvanians (hers and her friend's) are going to be having some kind of Christmas late-night shopping and Fayre event, so the aprons are to be sold there I think.