Blooms

 My pal and I had a delightful morning, the sun shone as we walked to the duck pond through the local cemetery and fed the geese and ducks the right stuff (not bread). We nattered away as we wandered around and then had a very enjoyable lunch at Fieldseat, then more walking and we found all the blooms blooming in the park. Slightly strange that those spring flowers are just 500 meters away from my garden but not in my garden. Anyway, after that pleasant surprise we saw Bruce Castle museum was open so we popped in. It's free. We were so impressed with the newly curated exhibitions. Well worth a visit, I didn't take much in but loved it and would happily go again. They've obviously put time into linking the history to the local area. 

We had a pal over for dinner and enjoyed chatting away. I made one of my favourite meals, various Mexican inspired stuff and tried a new version of a recipe for a yoghurt based drizzle thing. BigA was sadly coming down with a cold so he wasn't really up for a late evening. He still got up the next day to go out with friends and a full afternoon off frisbee. 

After BigA had set off I lazily got up and then decided to make myself a luxury breakfast - smoked salmon with poached egg on sourdough with green leaves, beetroot with gravlax and a bit of my left over yoghurt dip. Absolutely delicious and very quick to do. All this while looking out at the drizzly weather. It was a mega scrim day at roller derby, which I'm not doing yet as it's full contact so I stayed home and did some exercise and then watched a bit of TV. 

This week A had her exhibition of the mini model she designed and she and her team had made it into a life size set. She has handled the pressure so well. I was a little jealous that, M and D and BigA and E could go and see it. I know she really appreciated having those she loves coming. I made sure one of my classes knew I wanted to be there and they appreciated my sacrifice in teaching them. I'm always feeling such pride of what she's doing. My students must get bored of me referring to just how great she is. It sounds like she's really had to dig deep to keep her team on track, and complete the job. I'm told it was very good, although very disappointing that some school children broke one of her puppets. She now has one of her meds monsters (the puppet) and some other bits of set in her house. Because they have to destroy the whole project once done and she saved some bits from the skip. She also loved being taken out for food and seeing you. Student life dreams! 

I had an online parents evening this week too - it's always the parents who can get on line quickly that you speak to as it's a first come first served booking system. It was year 7 and so it was essentially just saying how lovely they are and parents telling me their kids live drama. Very nice. I gave another online coaching session, which I really enjoyed and am contemplating if it's worth doing it properly and charging although I have no idea how much and if I could face the self assessment tax forms that would go with it. . 

BigA made bread with a gift he got from my sister at Christmas, it smelt amazing as it was cooking and made me so hungry. But it was a almost total disaster so I was left hungry. The middle the only edible bit and only just! 

And of course clinic yesterday, I knew in my heart that it was going to be a good year, but I have to admit to a bit of a wobble last week when I seemed to be getting a lot of hiccups. Had a good chat with Dominic (one of my Drs) and I'm happy to report that there are no new nasties in my brain or spine. I'll need an abdominal scan in a few months to keep up the routine screening. I had my bloods done too because after a discussion about my reduced salt intake he wants to check that my body is working as it should with my replacement steroid therapy. I've always had good salt levels so it's worth making sure that the diet change isn't an issue. I feel very looked after and as always, so very grateful to have the NHS and the care I get. The Dr from Moorefields who comes over has also arranged for me to have an appointment because the angioma in my right eye looks 'active' so he wants to compare old scans. He was very casual about it. There are treatment options if it is, but because it's on my optic nerve they aren't without risk of further sight loss. We'll cross that bridge and all that. 

BigA and I went to a pals for dinner last night, braving the rain and we still have managed not to drink. Helped in part by us doing it together and because his eye has improved a bit so it feels worth it. 

Millie popped in to get some of her stuff, sadly I didn't get to see her. She's staying with her dad at the moment. We think this means she's moving out but as she hasn't said that explicitly, we will wait and see if she gets the job she went for near her dad's home. It will be so good for her to spend time with her dad before uni. 

BigA got up at 6 to head off to a sauna with his friend. Madness. 

Enjoy the longer days and hopefully warmer ones too. No sign of snowdrops in my garden yet, well stems, we've hardly had any sun, lots of rain. 

Love