I'm so tired

I'm losing it.

Somehow it all worked

I was at work for 9:00 this morning - everybody pulled together, and I managed to catch an earlier bus; then my colleague for whom I'd covered this morning gave me a lift home - sadly, we saw the aftermath of an accident, which had occurred on the road he would have taken if he'd been going straight home, instead of giving me a lift.

Sorry to harp on

I'm desperately tired - I would go to bed now (20:10 GMT), but our daughter is still out at her club, won't be back until nearer 21:00 - and then we have to persuade those who don't want to go straight to bed that they should.

It seems never ending

Work was hard, mainly because of the after effects of yet another tiring week-end; and I've just spent some time helping my daughter with her homework - which I'm happy to do, but I just wish I wasn't so tired.

More driving

To-day, I drove to my mum's and back - a round trip of around 80 miles. My mother has just moved house - from a medium-sized house to which she and my father moved when he retired, to a smaller house, more suited to one, elderly person. So there is sadness, but I think that what my mother wanted to make to-day was a positive statement, as she and my brother and I had lunch in a local restaurant, that she is making a fresh start. The house is one of a group of sheltered houses - it's peaceful; there is a community; there is the support of a warden. And it's right next to the river, with a pleasing view out the back.

I should say that it is nearly 10 years now since my father died. For those 10 years my mother has lived in the old house, and maintained it. But she has felt over the past months that the time has come to move on; to simplify her life. So to-day has been a particularly significant day in the story of our family.

Don't blog when drunk

So I'm blogging now, before I drink any more.

To-day, I've driven 60 miles. I took my daughter to her ballet class; later, collected her and brought her home. This afternoon I drove my son to the next town, met my wife and daughter there, and we bought shoes for each of our children, before 'doing a shop' in the supermarket. Then I drove everyone home.

We bought a DVD for our son in the supermarket. When we got home, the DVD wouldn't play in his DVD player, so I drove back to the supermarket, and exchanged the DVD. The second DVD also didn't play in his DVD player, but it does play in the DVD player in the lounge (so I guess that the first one would have played in the lounge also - I tried to phone the supermarket to impart to them this gem of information, but the only number I could get for the supermarket was an 0845 number, which didn't seem to be taking me to the actual store, so I abandoned that attempt).

I do try to minimise our carbon footprint, but not one of the trips I made to-day was because I wanted to ...

Fireworks

An early, municipal celebration of Guy Fawkes' Night. Daughter was in the lantern parade; son, to get a better view, spent the duration of the display sitting on my shoulders - I spent the duration of the display wishing that I could think of a way to persuade him to come down.

Why

Why do people feel the need to criticise? Are they just trying to underline how good they are? Of course, at times we do go wrong, and somebody who puts us right is doing us a favour, but so much criticism just seems thoughtless, at best, and cruel, at worst.

Hallowe'en

At the last moment, went out with the children - trick-or-treat-ing. People were kind. The funny thing was - there is a cat which has got into the habit of visiting us - it turned up, and tagged along ...

Suddenly, it's dark

The clocks went back on Sunday (reminds me - the central heating is still in summer time), bringing a welcome lightening to the mornings. But my journey home now takes place in darkness.

Loaded performance

I put the radio on in the kitchen; I recognised (eventually) the music - it was Britten's "Cello Symphony". I can't listen to this music without thinking of two things - that the theme of the last movement sounds suspiciously like part of "Three Blind Mice" - and that the piece was introduced to me by a lad who died of an aneurism when he was just 18.

I waited until the end, and was interested to learn that the cellist on this occasion was Alban Gerhardt, whose career I have followed since he was a BBC New Generation Artist, and that the conductor was John Adams, one of the few contemporary composers who can actually write music that I can listen to.

Like a teenager

As my son (who is not yet a teenager) said to me on Friday, "You don't understand my life!"

I've been, with my family, to a ceilidh. Other people appear to enjoy ceilidhs; in fact, to the other people there it probably appeared that I was enjoying myself. But at this point I feel so utterly drained that ... well, you probably don't want to hear the rest. I'm not sick; I'm not ill. It's just that these events work differently for me - I have to put so much effort in that by the end I have nothing left.

I'll be OK; this'll pass. I don't mind enduring something that is recognised as being horrible - like going to the dentist. But it seems so unfair to have to endure something that, I assume, is meant to be fun.

Sometimes Web 2.0 just baffles me

I've just come across picnik, which offers online editing of photos. It looks really nice, and does a good job.

One of my cameras, recently purchased, is an Olympus mu 760 (I believe that in the States it is called a Stylus). On the whole, I'm impressed, but I notice (and this appears to be a 'feature' of Olympus cameras) that the blues are somewhat intense. Until now, and I want to retain the policy, my 365 photos have been unedited, but this makes me wonder ...

Before:


After:

Waterfall

I took this picture several days ago, in a riverside garden in Perth, Scotland.

Another time related question

How are we to start the 'getting to bed' process at 8 o'clock if daughter finishes Guides at 9 o'clock?

A long day

I leave the house at about a quarter to eight in the morning, and get back at around a quarter to seven in the evening - why?

What about

... a stress free evening? (meaning, of course, that this one wasn't - although the whisky helped)

Back to questioning the sustainability of it all

Just about got through the day, though not feeling great, possibly due to a virus, then home to a son who seems determined to be disobedient in every circumstance.

Autumn sunshine

Back to work to-morrow - difficult to think about anything else ...

On the spur of the moment

A letter from our local theatre arrived in the post this morning, encouraging us to come out this evening to a dance performance. At the insistence of our children, we did, and, on the whole, enjoyed the event, especially the second half. Our son attends a hip-hop class, so we hope that he found the experience inspiring.