October and November Catch-up

Covering nearly 2 months so not really going to be very satisfactory at all, and also not going to be in any particular order, so there. But there are pictures.

My mum was in and out of hospital in October and it was frightening and horrible and stressful at times. Also much of each day was taken up with the bus trips to hospital and back and never quite knowing what I would find. Things seem to be stable and OK now.
Bonfire - Freya and I went to procession and J and Freya went to fireworks, but the one they went to was not so good, sadly, also a very long wait. We met the M-As up there and the children sat on the green junction box thing, as is traditional. We assisted a couple of photographers who had come specifically to get a shot of the David Cameron and Pig effigy. Freya also went to the East Hoathly bonfire night and stayed over with some friends.

J's birthday - we had a lovely day out in Brighton, went to see Pan, which we all enjoyed, at the cinema, and then for food at Terre a Terre, delicious!

We attended a local "Refugees Welcome" march, good to be part of that, and I did bucket-shaking, which is lovely when you see that there are nice people who stop and give money. 
We went on another PGL weekend with a different group and Freya did the "All Aboard" challenge, climbing up to a small platform and then doing group challenges up there with 3 other people.

Halloween - Freya went up to the M-As and did her Trick or Treating up there as a zombie and stayed for a sleepover too, as it feels that she is now stable enough on her medication to be able to have sleepovers again. At ours I had about 180 kids, mostly over a 2 hour period, had to get emergency backup treats out of the cupboard. We also had a gathering at ours the day before, playing various games and watching "Clue". 

Other than that, visits from or to friends, a Script and Drama session, a Book Club session that had to turn into brunch club and a good day up at Spring Barn with L and the Rs.

And ongoing Maths, Geography, Creative Writing, English, Art, Sociology, Friday Club and Guides. Freya now goes to fortnightly Senior Section Guides, which seems good, too.

 

September catch-up

Oh dear more than 3 weeks, this won't really be very satisfactory.

Days have gone to:
Term starting, including The Buying of Stationery
A trip to Hastings to go to the cinema with J's mum
Me having an Achilles tendon sore thing that is annoying and slows me right down
Lots of paid work (also doing paid Maths GCSE tutoring for group of 3 including Freya)
Not sure what else!
Have some pictures:

 

Oh yes that jogs my memory, nice long walk along the Ouse, 2 Not Back To School Picnics, Freya went to a party (Harry Potter/Divergent/Hunger Games theme) dressed as Professor McGonagall, last weekend she cut her hair, and one afternoon I made garlic parathas.

Friday Club so far this term has been volleyball, women's studies (1 of 3 - inspiring women) and book club today.

And we've played Pandemic several times and achieved complete cure last time but not eradication.

Freya has also done going into Brighton and back on her own, to meet a friend, walking places after dark. And been swimming a couple of times. 
And no seizures.

Banana bread, Pandemic

Wednesday 26th August
I think KayB came over and they played Wii, not sure what else, and she stayed for dinner, so that was nice.

Thursday 27th August
Freya had a proper lie-in, which was needed, and we watched quite a few TBBT episodes, then she went out and met up with J and D in town for a short time in the afternoon. 
J got chips and spring rolls and mushy peas after work for our dinner.

Friday 28th August
Had a quiet day at home and we made banana bread with walnuts, sultanas, seeds and grains in. Delicious! And toasted some nuts with soy and paprika too. Watched some Glee.

Later J and I watched the Walking Dead new prequel thing, was good but gave me nightmares!

Bank Holiday Weekend
Saturday we slept in and had a quiet day I think, I made a big salad in the evening. 
Freya went swimming on Sunday with friends
Monday we played Pandemic, which I really like, but we didn't succeed in eradicating disease.

Birthday, Exam Results, PGL, Clinic

Friday 14th August
My Birthday! Enjoyed it, we stayed home in the day, I had a bath, lovely cards and presents and relaxed day, then we all went to the local curry place, which is very good, and had a delicious meal.

Saturday and Sunday 15th and 16th August
A bit of this and that and not much I think. We had takeaway from the place we had eaten at the night before (Shanaz in Lewes, very good food).
J did a lot of work setting up my new laptop - he helped me buy it, partly as a birthday gift. By the time it had arrived, the old one was really on its knees, so it was lucky he was able to help me so that I didn't have to wait, as I was in the middle of work and laptop was at that 'only charge if charger is in one single difficult to duplicate position' stage). Also a very strange visual problem with the screen getting worse. So phew and thanks J, very much x
On Sunday Freya went over to G's, with K and L, for a nice day there. I started my day sharing one of last night's poppadoms with the cat as she was out in a sunshiney yard and I opened the living room door up. 
Can't remember much, think I was working most of that day. Oh we watched Children of the Stones!

Monday 17th August
Freya went into Brighton with L to see Minions again, all went fine. 
Finished Children of the Stones in the evening.

Tuesday 18th August
Yay! J's mum joined us and we went to play crazy golf in Brighton, lovely! Rumble Jungle Adventure Golf. And then a drink at cafe, slow walk along front and dinner at Terre a Terre. Wonderful! Bit of extended birthday.

Wednesday 19th August
Quiet day at home, we watched a couple of films, think it was Bruce Almighty and The Road to Eldorado, which interestingly had humans as deities as a shared theme, accidentally.
Finished a big document, bar proofreading.
 
Thursday 20th August
Freya went with a group of friends into Brighton to see Paper Towns at the cinema. They had a good time.
Exam results day! Freya passed her IGCSEs in Chemistry and Physics, very pleased for her and proud. It's great to have been through one whole cycle of exams and now know how it all works.

Friday 21st to Monday 24th August
PGL for 3rd year. This time our group was 9 girls, with C and I as the 2 adults. Unfortunately I forgot my phone! So I have no photos (and had no clock, book, connectivity or alarm most of the time!).
On Friday we arrived and settled in, had dinner and the evening activity was Passport to the World (as ever for first night). 
Not a great night's sleep for most of us, for various reasons...
Saturday: breakfast, then Abseiling and Archery - think everyone managed Abseiling this year, where last year a couple couldn't quite face it, so that was great. Lunch, then Giant Swing and Orienteering. All went fine, very hot sunny day. After dinner, their activity was Spacehopper Football.
Better night's sleep!
Sunday: breakfast, then Zipwire and Trapeze - again everyone managed Trapeze, whereas last year they didn't all. Freya did it for the first time, yay! I didn't do Zipwire this year (or anything in fact!).
In the afternoon they did Canoeing in lovely sunshine after rainy Trapeze earlier, then Aeroball.
Evening activity was Splash - producing a protective shell for a water balloon to be tested. Sounded good.
I didn't sleep well, not sure about others.
In the morning a bit of birthdaying for D in our group, complete with two times singing and a cake.
Then Freya and I had to leave early as we had her clinic appointment at hospital.
A bit of travelling in rain and then the clinic - slow going but eventually we were with consultant and she okayed medication to start very slowly on low dose. MRI had gone wandering, but EEG had just enough on it for her to feel able.

Tuesday 25th August
R came for a few hours, for Minecraft and watching Simpsons maybe. I got a lot of washing and some work done, among other tasks.

Olave, EEG, MRI

Friday 31st July 
M came for the day and we went up to Spring Barn for the afternoon, which was good. Freya and M did Water Wars again. M came with a bounteous picnic and I bought ice creams I think. Back at home they played Wii for a while before pick-up.
In the night Freya had had a frightening dream, possibly even hallucination, and had called out something like "I'm going to die" or "Am I going to die?". She then had similar dreams/incidents for another two nights out of the next 3 or 4, but since then has stopped, thank goodness.
 
Saturday 1st August
was when Freya would have been going off to Olave, the week-long international Guide camp near East Grinstead, attended by Guides from all over the place, but instead she and I went into Lewes to buy some blue clothes for the days that she would be able to attend, in the following week, and then in the evening we went to Proms in the Paddock but left early. Saw the fireworks from our bedroom window later.

Sunday 2nd August
A relaxing Sunday, had a bath at some point, and did a nice burger, chips and salad dinner.

Monday 3rd August
Went up to London, where Freya joined the Olave 2015 Purple subcamp for a Monopoly challenge and then a London Zoo visit. I was there too as an honorary Guide helper (with a different small group to the one Freya was in). It was so great that she was able to join them, very kind of them to arrange it and make it work for us.

Tired tired Freya on way home. It was quite an exhausting day. But great!

Tuesday 4th to Thursday 6th August
Each of these days we got up early and a very kind woman who was doing a geocaching activity at Olave came and picked Freya up and took her to camp for the day, where she took part in activities themed around fire, water, earth and air, creativity and sport. She did all sorts: raft-building, cooking, crafts of many kinds including tile-painting, rocket-making, geocaching, zip wire, ice skating, fencing, cricket and quite a few more. She had a lovely busy time and came back with lots of potential penpal addresses in a special book they were given.

   

Official Olave T-shirt!

Friday 7th August
Got up at a more normal-for-us time, flopped around watching a few things and went on a lovely walk, finding some blackberries and enjoying views and butterflies and everything.

That evening had curry and cider and watched the last 2 episodes of Humans, which we had all been watching together every night all week. Mostly very good.

Saturday 8th August
Took Freya to see K in Brighton, a very last-minute thing. Managed to arrange to see Nigel at same time, in Pavilion Gardens, and also bumped into Lucy and Kathy and lovely Jan, who I've never actually met but have known of and hovered in the same area as forever! Really good to catch up with Nigel and be silly and very very old together.
Picked Freya up, managed to stop myself taking a kitten home with me, and we came home and had burgers, chips and salad I think, and watched Insurgent, which just suited me right.

Sunday 9th August
Was a lazy day, Freya had come down with a cold, which turned out quite a nasty one.
I attempted a lentil and mushroom loaf but it didn't work out, I suspect I left something out, the texture was all wrong. Taste was good though, but not what I wanted to produce.
And the roast potatoes I did with it just sat in oven not roasting!
So ARSE.
J and Freya ate it all and thought it was quite nice, I guess having not shared my vision of how it could have been.

Monday 10th August
Day at home, think we watched a Studio Ghibli film "From Up on Poppy Hill" and something else? Not sure. Freya was coughing a lot and quite tired.

Tuesday 11th August
Was going to be a day having a friend visit, but Freya wasn't really well enough, still coughing quite a bit, so another day at home, think we watched "Whisper of the Heart" and Madagascar 2. And I did some work. Not much else, I had Freya's cold by then too.

Wednesday 12th August
J had first day of a week off, we all headed off to a neurophysiology centre in Haywards Heath for Freya to have her EEG done. Fortunately her cold was mostly better, much less coughing than Monday and Tues. J went in with her and I read my friend Caron's poems in this book which was just the thing. Some fantastic voices in there. EEG went smoothly and we all then headed to Brighton, had falafels and went to see Inside Out, which was good.

Thursday 13th August
We got up not too early, some shopping came (I got paid on Tuesday hooray!) and then we headed into Brighton attended by torrential rain and stormy skies.
Freya had her MRI at the Royal Alex. My turn to sit in with her. All went smoothly.

When we emerged after all that banging and whirring, the sun was coming out. I got the bus home and Freya and J stayed in Brighton to do some shopping related to my birthday, which is officially now in fact. Happy Birthday me, I am a prime times a prime, which has to be good.

Another seizure, L's birthday, Walk on the Downs

Monday July 20th
Watched a comedy film, was a rainy day so home stuff, this and that. EEG appointment date obtained.

Tuesday July 21st
Home day again, think I was knackered from various things.

Wednesday July 22nd
Last Forest School. I took Freya by taxi and came back as was under time pressure for 3 different other things. Went to visit my mum and had a happy visit on the whole, a bit of singing and hand holding and a giggly mum.
Then got a lift back to Forest School picnic, which included shoe/mud excitement, rounders, what are they doing behind the tree? and a flour fight. Plus the Starley Bs and we (all of us covered in flour, some of us with a garnish of mud) managed to actually catch the bus together after a recent failed attempt.
So a lovely relaxed fun day for Freya, unfortunately followed by another night seizure, when there was no clear trigger or cause that we could identify, which makes it much more difficult to live with really. It was quite similar to the last one back in May.

Thursday July 23rd
Recovery day, did take Freya to GP but shouldn't have really, sleep and rest would have been better for her. We went to Costa and also bought birthday presents for upcoming friend's party.
Decided Freya couldn't go to various things that involve nights away until there is more stability about these seizures. Hoping that comes soon.
 
Friday July 24th
L's sleepover - Freya was able to stay very late despite not actually sleeping over, thanks to C helpfully offering lifts. So she was there for most of it except the actual sleepover part.
J and I had curry and watched Ex Machina, which was good

Saturday July 25th
L's sleepover continued - Freya went up early, again picked up by kind C. Then they went for a swim, had a nice time. I went to pick her up half twoish.
KayB came back with us and stayed for pizza and we watched Home, which had been looking forward to, but slightly spoiled for me by poor J having a work call and ongoing activity resulting from that, immediately after dishing up pizza and just as film was started, so he couldn't join us properly. Worse as he had paid for pizza and for DVD, so felt so sorry for him.
Freya and I walked KayB up to the bus stop and she got the last bus before it would get dark.


Sunday July 26th
Home day, lazy, did a bit of work I think, trying to keep on top of deadlines.
In the evening we watched Pride, an excellent film, liked it a lot. I did vaguely Mexican food - enchiladas (filled with mushrooms, broccoli and peas in a basil sauce and topped with tomato and cheezly, home-made guacamole and spicy potatoes.
 
Monday July 27th
Went into town for a few things, and did various chores involving phone and snail mail and such.
In the afternoon A and L visited, good to see them, had a good chat with A. L and Freya did decorating night light holders as L had missed out on doing that at Freya's birthday weekend sleepover.

Tuesday July 28th
Think it was a home day, don't have much recall!
 
Wednesday July 29th
We went for a long walk up on the Downs, with a picnic and some sketching. It was lovely, really did me good to spend that time there. Everything was good, the cloud and occasional sunshine passing over the golden slopes, the butterflies and birds and life all around us. We did get a bit lost, my fault, but it was overall just a joy really.

Thursday July 30th
Home day, Freya did some writing, and later Geography homework, and we watched a lot of episodes of Outnumbered on Netflix. Relaxed day.

Chessington, Freya's Birthday

Catching up again so will do a fairly compact version I think

Days have gone to:

A fab Chessington day with L and the Rs. I decided not to go on any rides - hayfever has been a weird cumulative thing this year and I am at the point where I'm often breathless and lacking in oxygen and headachey, which put me off the idea of being thrown around. We had such a nice day again (went last year with them). Last year Freya went on the Vampire for the first tme (and 2nd, 3rd...) and this year she (and everyone except me) went on Dragon's Fury, which looked very exciting. It wasn't massively busy, they only had to queue a bit for the most popular things and were able to go on the rides lots of times. L and I had lots of chatting time and we all had chips near the end of the day.

Freya's birthday celebrations
Last year we had a sleepover of a single huge group of girls (10 including F?) - we took almost all furniture out of F's room, but it still ended up being a bit too tight a squeeze for comfort I think. So I had to work out what to do this year. In the end, after considering various options involving tents and other such malarkey, it came down to splitting the group into 2 smaller groups and having 2 consecutive sleepovers on a Friday and Saturday, with the whole group doing daytime stuff together on the Saturday between the 2 nights.
So we had 6 for Friday evening, 5 staying the night, did pizza, ice-cream, hot chocolate, they decorated night-light holders with stick-on sparkly bits and letters (good for quotes, someone did "but what if you fly?" I think, and names), then watched The Hunger Games, then went up and were awake till half one ish I think, mostly watching Friends.
Saturday 11th In the morning they had pain au chocolat and fruit,  one went to her dance class and returned, then the next shift arrived and we all walked up to Spring Barn Farm Park, picking one up on the way.

Earlier this year I had thought a few times how Spring Barn is a good place for easy days out but it was a shame it didn't have anything water-related for hot days - we went up to find they have now got "Water Wars". Turned out to be excellent fun, firing water bombs at each other on a big inflatable thing with cleverly designed walls to reduce impact but allow splashage.

They also went on drop slides, jumping pillow, and many other such things, and had chips. 

We walked home again and I finished off printing stuff for the next thing which was a treasure hunt around Lewes - time was running out so this got simplified somewhat and involved a lot of going up and down steep twittens on a hot day but they were remarkably uncomplaining about it and succeeded in finding all the little hidden bags of treasure (various small novelties, sweets, etc.). 
Back home we had the changeover slightly later than advertised. Sleepover Krew 2 started on their night-light holder decorating and I did pizzas, ice-cream and hot chocolate again. The chosen film for this group was The Fault in our Stars, though some would have liked to have The Hunger Games again, but I didn't want to watch the same film two nights in a row. Afterwards we ended up watching old home videos for a while, great fun. Next morning, pain au chocolat and fruit again and we all watched If I Stay.
It was a really good weekend, though mad busy at times - the food bit is my least favourite, having to juggle pizzas around in my tiny oven. Knackering! I enjoy the other stuff, they're a lovely lot of girls and good company on the whole.
Sunday after they had gone and Freya's new bed had been delivered, we went out with J's dad and had pizza not cooked by me (hooray!). 
Monday 13th was Freya's actual birthday and a more relaxed day. She opened her presents and we went out to the cinema - for various reasons we ended up seeing Terminator: Genisys, not exactly Freya's choice. I really enjoyed it tbh, was a bit of Terminator fun and kept me watching, love anything with time travel anyway!
Tuesday 14th Freya went to C's writing group and when she came home, J's mum came and we played Cluedo and watched Into the Woods together and J did lovely pasta.

Other days went to:
Friday Club session at Pells Pool, open to all local home-ed people, which was good - they had a much better day for it than last year (think it was morning after F's birthday sleepover and rained non-stop)
Other trips to Pells Pool on warm days with various people
A nice afternoon at the Level for Jayden's birthday (9) where there were lots of people I don't see often.
A slightly ill-fated trip to cinema - the 3 of us plus the Starley Bs - we all just about managed to get to the cinema in time to see the Minions film together, but then there was some sort of technical glitch and they offered us the 5pm 3D showing instead, which meant J couldn't stay - I was sad. It was still fun though, and we did get various refunds and free tickets. The film was ridiculous bonkers and random fun. Little Mini's first cinema trip and she seemed to enjoy it, though the delay to starting meant she fell asleep bless her.
Forest School, Geography, Art, Guides, etc. think term has finally ended now, it has seemed to go on a bit long this one!