How are you today?

[sound world]

Lovely to hear from you Sara-with some albeit shocking news.It was reported here in England.It's so terrible that our society creates situations where people flip out and do such things.I can imagine how your partner is feeling...

[RobB]

Here, the move to Australia is a bit heavy on our teen-age daughter, not surprisingly! She will get over it, but it is difficult! She now has some very good friends here, 6 years after moving down from Sweden. [b)]

I don't envy you,moving is pretty stressful at the best of times without relocating to the other side of the planet. Good luck with the move and I hope everyone will settle down fine.
Hopefully your daughter will be able to keep in touch with her old mates via web-cams/internet and perhaps invite some over for holidays in the future?

sara,
i didn't see the Netherlands tragedy on the news but i read all about the incident on the AOL news page.
I'm not surprised your partner has been deeply effected.Its a terrible shock when something like this happens unexpectedly to someone you know. I hope the daughter makes a speedy recovery.

Have a nice time at the MBV gig....its only right that you should treat yourself once in a while.

[witchy]

Hi guys, thanks for the kind words.
I feel spent today. I've been sleeping too little since we're back and my body has relaxed too much. I feel really tired and bloated, food-hangover from the last months. I biked to and from work and gosh, I wish I was a well trained person, I am aching like a 70 years old! The good part was the view during the trip of course, people, farms, animals, very soothing. I thought I could ease in at work, but I realized I have to start rushing again, a presentation needs to be perfected and given next week and I have no clue how am I gonna fit it in tomorrow [b)] There is a pluspoint though: a spanish ex-colleague who moved back to Madrid some years ago is visiting and we'll have dinner together tomorrow right after work, it makes me smile.

I haven't had much of a chance to talk about the funeral with my man, he's out for a concert, his way to free his mind. He only said it was a nice ceremony and he had some kind of closure. I don't know. I hope the music will help him and that he won't drink too much. I see him much better that some days ago anyway, I think Monday, when he went back to school, was the worst day. I still feel like I haven't really grabbed this thing, the truth of it, I feel like I'm reading about this somehow...

Sipping a beer before tidying up a bit. Will try to write at least one review tonight. I love the fox pix Rob, I want more! I hope I won't be disappointed by MBV, you know, meeting your idols can be a disaster sometimes. It is a real treat though, I have almost 0 time for myself since I have the crazy children in my life!!! I just wish I could go with Tjeerd, too bad we have no baby-sitter

[RobB]

I biked to and from work and gosh, I wish I was a well trained person, I am aching like a 70 years old!

Yeah, Dave knows the feeling !

I love the fox pix Rob, I want more!

I havn't been able to take any more photos unfortunately so here's an 'outtake'



The fox cubs appear to emerge from their den when the light has fallen to a certain level. So,on a bright day they are out around 8.45pm but when its overcast,they come out earlier. They seem to be fairly consistant too as the light levels are never quite good enough to get a decent photo.

And here's the last one I have:

[witchy]

I am in total shock
My oldest son almost cut off his brother left hand's thumb, closing the garden door while Ryuu's hand was in between the post and the door. Blood gushing everywhere, we didn't even have the time to think, we just ran to the auto to bring Ryuu to the E.R., a neighbour who ran outside scared by the screaming took care of Iker while we were at the hospital.
It was a blood bath, we arrived totally covered in it as well, the tip of his thumb barely attached...they gave him local anaestesia and 3 doses of a sedative that should erase his memory but he just wouldn't let go to sleepiness, we had to hold him down in 3 to allow the doc to stich him...he got 4 stiches! [b)] [b)]
We'll have to go to the children poli on Monday, a surgeon must check it is all right and tell me if there's gonna be nerve-damage or whatever...right now I can only think at the worst-case scenario of course, it was a very very very deep cut and the doc of the E.R. was worried about it too under his calm. I wonder if Ryuu's gonna make it through the night without pulling bandage and stitches away, he just can't stand this kind of stuff on him. We're allowed to give him 6 painkillers a day, so I foresee more pain and more crying [:xx] [:xx]
I mean, come on, what is going on lately...

[kuhn]

hope everything is going to be fine. I can only imagine the horror of it all

[RobB]

A dreadful experience for you all but kids will be kids and it won't be the only time you'll be rushing up to hospital for some drama or other.
When I was about three I slammed our family car door shut (and like a lot of late fifties/early sixties cars,the doors were very heavy),whilst not taking the precaution of removing my other hand from the door frame beforehand.
That little event nearly lost me my thumb....it certainly lost me my thumb nail which was black for weeks afterwards.
I can still remember the incident after all these years.

[sound world]

Ouch,Sara.Life happens,eh.Sorry to hear you're going through it.
Like Rob says,kids will be kids.My son was rescued from certain drowning when he was 2,a terrifying experience.
Lots of love to you,keep talking to Tjeerd and helping each other.

[witchy]

I know, I know, shit happens, with kids it's never ending accidents. I had a pretty share myself back in time and I really hoped I could spare my little ones...of course, that millisecond you're not on top of things, it's when it happens, out of the blue. I'm not squeamish either. But I'm still in some kind of symbiosis with the little one, I felt like my body was falling to pieces....I think the stuff they gave him yesterday has worked, today he was in his usual merry mood and he was pretty surprised by the sight of his thumb, but he didn't try to destroy all the bendage as usual. He was slightly calmer an slower than usual, carefully avoiding to use his left hand too much, wanting to be in my arms quite a lot. I had some nightmares but I am trying to cool off, let's see what they tell me tomorrow at the hospital, that's the real important thing, a good check-up and guidelines for the next days.
Apart from the initial shock, I realized how isolated we are here. Our safety net are basically my in-laws, who had just left for holidays. The neighbours who took care of Iker, well, I didn't know their name. There is a family of friends nearby, with 3 children and a lot of commitments, Iker knows them well, but that's it. I really really missed my own family and friends... [b)]

[paul-pgss]

Sara, I hope everyhting went well in the hospital. I applaud you for not fainting yourself in that situation.

Totally different, but last weekend I was on a live action roleplaying (larp) weekend near Nijmegen. Since a year or so I'm working in the bar there. It is very much a fun thing to do. You see all kind of cool costumes of elves, lizzards, wizards and other weird creatures.

With a friend I run the bar on the playing field, we have very cool characters to play. My friend plays 'rooie riet' (which means redhead Riet) a middle-aged woman which to many children, who earns her money by running the bar and by entertaining men behind the bar with some good old love. She is much of a filthmouth (I'm not sure if this is the correct word, but you'll get the idea).

I'm playing her son, her eigtheenth or nineteenth child, she's not completely sure because she lost count. My role is to get my mother out of business, so I can take over the bar. So I'm constantly trying to scare away the customers by saying that they better can hire me for the night because my mustache is smaller than the one of my mother (and more nasty comments).

This is the perfect place to get away from everyday life and to set my mind on other things. And it's fun to do.

[RobB]

Paul,you'll have to get someone to film the performance and stick it up on youtube for us all to see.

[blue]

Hi people, sorry for the lack of contribution recently, I haven't had internet since my daughter moved out two weeks ago. Hopefully I can get something organised soon, but for the moment I'm dependent on the PCs at the local community centre, so I'll be popping in when I can.

Sara, don't worry too much about the little one - like Dave and Rob said, it won't be the last time you have to run to the emergency department with the kids! That is the nature of children, if they weren't giving their mothers heart failure every so often they wouldn't be doing their job.

Paul, your roleplaying thing sounds hilarious. Filthmouth is my new favourite word.

Love the foxcubs, Rob. Your garden looks amazing, by the way.

[RobB]

Love the foxcubs, Rob. Your garden looks amazing, by the way.

.....and they say the camera never lies?
I hope you don't become to dependent on those police constables? You'll be getting yourself arrested on purpose next?

[sound world]

Actually your garden looks rather like mine,RobB,lots of wild flowers (or weeds, depending on your point of view)
I had two Great Spotted woodpeckers on the birdnuts today,tried to get a pic but the slightest movement and they're off...

[RobB]

The garden has been taken over this year by the spread of the Brunnera Macophyllas (false-forget- me- nots) but they do produce really pretty little blue flowers and the bees certainly like them.
Originally I thought they were weeds but actually gardeners can go out and buy them.



I usually only get to see a woodpecker, going around the apple tree, about once a year.

My tenants moved out last weekend so this morning I checked over my place in readiness to the new tenants moving in next week. Thankfully they've really looked after the place and really all i had to do this morning was to give the oven a good clean (with a little help from ajax ) and make an adjustment to the back door which was catching.