Be Excellent To Each Other

Almost, but I’d prefer not to mislay things in the first place.

I have a lot of things in that bag that I might need on site, and everything is in a particular place, e.g. a USB stick with apps for configuring various devices, cables to connect devices to my laptop, my tablet that has all the documentation for all the repair jobs we do, a couple magnetic of LED torches to help find stuff hidden away under counters, a couple of nut spinners for removing gender changers from PC Ports, etc. Mislaying any one of them would be a nuisance, but some are essential for certain tasks. I have to be very methodical in checking that I’ve collected anything I’ve used on site and put it back in the same place in the bag. I do get stressed and annoyed with myself when I can’t find something and then wonder if I’ve left it behind somewhere.

There have been a couple of occasions when I’ve gone from one site to another and realise I’ve left something behind. This is OK if it’s only a few miles away, but sometimes it can be anything up to 100 miles between sites, and I wouldn’t have time to go back to collect it. The worst ever was when I was based in Glasgow for a few weeks and left my laptop in a public area at a store in Edinburgh at the end of the day. I only realised when I got back to the hotel and rang the store in a panic to ask them to look for it. Incredibly, it was still there and I was able to collect it the following day.

A friend from work [1] who has what’s basically a seriously f**ked heart has caught coronavirus despite being double vaccinated.
I’ve been messaging him this week and he didn’t sound good at all so I’d told him not to take any chances and get to hospital.

Fortunately he has now listened and ended up being admitted, put on oxygen and various monitors. They’ve found he has an infection in both lungs as well, so is on some strong antibiotics which should help. He’s definitely where he needs to be so hopefully he’ll be out next week but I’m still worried.

I doubt it applies to anyone here, but if you don’t take this virus seriously, try getting a text from someone who says that they are in hospital but think they might be dead before they see a doctor.

[1] He has worked for me for four years now, and has at times driven me nuts with his ability to get not only the wrong end of the stick but entirely misplace the stick and the tree it came from. That said, he’s a really genuinely nice chap who will always do everything he can to help other people and despite us having nothing in common I’ve realised that he is one of a fairly small list of people I’d consider a friend.

Oh no! I hope he's on the mend soon. X

Sorry to hear that, hope they're feeling better ASAP.

Best wishes for your friend, Zoidberg. Glad you convinced him to get proper help, you did the right thing there.

I hope he recovers quick and well done getting him to to the right thing...

Well, he’s just let me know he’s no longer on oxygen and may be going home today.
Yay!

Fabulous news. Really positive x

That's great news, hope the rest of his recovery is just as quick.

that is fab

Yet another cock up at work. I was on call all last week and was supposed to be on leave on Monday and rest days Tuesday and Wednesday. Last week my manager emailed to ask if I could work on Wednesday, to which I agreed.

This morning at about 9:30 my work phone rang and i could see see that someone from dispatch was trying to call me. As I wasn't supposed to be working I didn't answer. Then I thought I'd better check my mail in case I've missed something important and found that dispatch had mailed to ask why I hadn't started work. I mailed back, enclosing the email from my manager asking me to work on Wednesday, with no mention of Tuesday. Dispatch replied saying that I was on the rota to work today and that we would miss several deadlines if I didn't work. Then I also received an email from my manager asking if I could work today day because of the call volume. She said she tried to contact me about this over the weekend but there is no record of this at all.

I agreed to work, and the yay part what is that I'll get time and a half for today day, double time for tomorrow and I'm also working an extra shift on Sunday which will also be at double time. Show me the money.

It was. He was back at work on Monday which is oddly keen.

Too keen! Glad he's better though.

There’s no visitors allowed in most hospitals at the moment so he may be starved of company a bit.

The Leeds Building Society, decided not to offer me a mortgage, after I spent Monday sorting all the paper work out.

Halifax have said yes, back on track now (The said yes before, but my broker has got a better rate)..

Does that mean I need to sign more stuff?

Not sure yet... I will find out.

my remortgage is taking forever (and they downvalued the house by £10k, which was very annoying), however my broker sent me a text yesterday saying that as it has taken over 5 days for them to respond, they are sending me £100. So that's nice.

I'm going to flip the order - yay, I can haz hambooster jab! Nay, I still don't know what it is in my records that makes me eligible for the priority lane at check in.

Thought let's be honest, it's the fatty liver.

Nay! I had an endoscope rammed down my throat again, in out in out swivel it all about, but yay! No varices, again!

Today is not going to plan. I got woken up at 1am, after Julie passed out and tried to knock herself out on a door. I needed new doors anyway.

We have spent most of today in A&E getting her checked, CT scan and bloods. Just waiting the results.

The Yay, the double big mac is quite good

Sorry to hear that. Best wishes to J.

Yes it was a reaction to the anaesthetic. Just a lot of rest needed..

We’ve all been pretty ill this past week with what I think is ‘flu rather than a cold. We’ve all had pretty severe chest infections. I’ve had no sense of taste or smell for over a week now, and cracking headaches, and we’ve all got a terrible cough and chest tightness, and crackling lungs. Then the night before last I had a terrible night of it. My core temperature was ok but my skin temperature shot right up, and every single muscle and joint in my body aches and burned. Every joint in every finger and toe.

It all got a bit worrying as Darwin brought the infection home from school, and the little boy he sits next to has Covid, but we’ve all been PCR tested twice, and LF tested loads, and it’s not that. So that’s one positive. And today I think we are all feeling better. I think the infection has actually passed and we just have the residual breathing difficulty in our lungs from where they have been inflamed. But I could barely walk ten steps a few days ago, and today we all managed a little family walk. Slow and steady, but a huge improvement.

I think you should get retested, mate.

We were PCR tested (again) on Wednesday and it was still negative. We’ve all been PCR tested twice. And we’ve each had two negative PCR tests each at the height of our symptoms. D and I did lateral flow tests today (we always do them on a Saturday) and Russell did one yesterday. If we’ve had Covid and six PCR tests and 12 or maybe 15 lateral flow tests all missed it, then the tests do not work. I think it’s just a horrid flu with some crossover symptoms (and I’ve had all these same symptoms in past years with other bad, in fact far worse, bouts of ‘flu).

I had a gastroscopy on October 14th and was told, third year in a row, there's nothing wrong... yet out of the blue I got an appointment for a gastroscopy on December 16th.

I've had zero contact with/from anyone else in the intervening time... The booking hospital looked me up, got confused, went away for half an hour, rang me back and said "honestly no clue because your notes are fine so I've sent emails, if you don't hear back from me don't turn up".

At this point I think the gastroenterologist I didn't ask to be referred to is just harassing me but at least the holidays I'm burning before year's end aren't being ruined.

They've probably got a quota to fill. "That BikNorton fellow seems to like gastroscopies! Get him in for another couple before the end of the quarter!"

Or they really like BikNorton's gastrointestinal tract. Maybe it looks really nice, how would we know?

I was late up today and then found I'd left the ignition switched on all weekend, so the car battery was super flat this morning. Not ideal when I had to drop off youngest at preschool before work.

Lady T had already left, so that ruled out a jumpstart (fnarr)

So I walked youngest to preschool, then walked back home, then rode my bike to work. I was about 2 and a bit hours late after all that but:

a - my boss didn't really care
b - it was such a beautiful lovely morning to walk with my youngest (he's 5).
c - I feel quite good after doing some excercise.

Kind of a nay but yay, but it’s beautiful and cute, so stick with it.

A while ago Darwin had an inset day off school in the middle of term, so we thought we’d take him to the safari park to meet Santa as it would be practically empty that day.

We got there and Darwin was beside himself to see real elves (we’d watched Santa Claus: The Movie so he thought that elves were just full human sized. He’s wide eyed and buzzing at seeing them in real life).

We get met at the gates by an elf who walks with us all the way through the zoo and personally introduces us to the elf running the sleigh ride.

We all get on the magical sleigh ride and the elf tells us that it’s magic and will take us to the North Pole. So we pass the candy cane fields and lollipop lanes until we reach the grotto.

We walk through a grotto which was really nicely done with a babrbershop quarter of penguins and that kind of thing. Elves are EVERYWHERE, and they are all fab. All really in character.

Then we get to a big red door and Darwin knocks, Santa answers. Santa is ace. Really lovely manner and he looks fab. Lovely authentic suit.

We have a long chat with Santa as there is no one else there, then he says we can visit the elves in their workshop.

Side note: this was ace as you get to pick a really decent quality toy from the workshop. They aren’t wrapped, just laid out in the shelves so the child can really pick something that they like.

Anyway, fossil excavating kit in hand, we go and see Mrs Claus in her kitchen. Hot chocolate with cream and sprinkles, mince pies and gingerbread. All fab.

Anyway, Darwin’s eyes are wide like saucers. He tells us that it was the REAL Santa, not just a helper (like at the NT a few years ago). This was actually him!.

He said ‘I can’t believe the magic worked to even fly our car all the way to the North Pole!!’ He is fully into it. I said we were lucky it wasn’t so cold at the North Pole that day!

Over the next few days he talks about it all of the time. About how he actually got to meet ELVES.

Anyway, one day, I’m getting his pyjamas on and we are talking about the time we had at the North Pole when he says ‘we’ll… mummy, it wasn’t the REAL North Pole’.

I was genuinely confused now. We never told him it was, he was the one insistent that was the case.
I said ‘oh? Who said that?’
He said ‘Well… I did. Obviously we didn’t really go all the way to the North Pole’.

He looks at my face and sees me looking probably a little unsure of what to say, puts his tiny hand on my knee, and says:

‘It’s ok Mummy. It doesn’t matter which one of us is right. It’s ok if you really believe we were, mummy. I love you’.

And then he hugged me. And I was humbled, and did not know whether to cry (nay) or laugh, (yay). The compassion and love and humour and everything were kind of overwhelming.

I hope I remember that bittersweet moment forever.

That's beautiful Mimi. You are doing such a marvelous job of raising a kind, sweet boy

That is so lovely. What a fab little boy.

Aww. It's a little sad when they stop believing in santa altogether. Our daughter is 8 and she says outright that it's all just made up now but still likes to play along with some of it and we're only too happy to hold on to that bit of childhood for as long as we can.

I still haven't recovered from when - having told my daughter that the 'magic' of Christmas was about giving gifts, spending time with loved ones etc and that Santa was in all of us - she told me I'd ruined her life.

I think Darwin is still fully invested in the Father Christmas myth, and it was just the ‘we’re actually at the North Pole’ bit that he went along with (to be fair, we did at no point suggest that we were… it was just the elf that said we were, and I don’t think he intended for kids to believe it), but when Darwin seemed to accept that, we let him.

To be fair, I’ve never really gone wholly in for the Santa thing, but they learn about it at nursery and you kind of get pulled along

We have all the gifts from family, but one gift from Santa in our house (rather than all gifts from Santa, which I think some families do), so I’m not sure if that ‘contains’ it a little? That’s not why I did it that way, but rather because I grew up really poor, and it was important to me that he realised that there were family and friends behind these acts of love, but still the magic of a Santa gift.

When Darwin was in nursery he asked for a play house, but the last two years he’s written to Santa he’s asked for ‘three lego minifigs’ (last year) and ‘a pot of black play doh’ (this year), so he doesn’t seem to ask for a big thing necessarily.

My hope is that when Darwin is fully aware he just moves into halfway stage something like your daughter has, MarkG, where we can play along, a bit like Darwin did with the North Pole idea.

How long did your girl stay angry with you/the situation, Jem? Hopefully not too long. Was it around Christmas time that she found/worked it out?

If my kids (10 and very nearly 9) don't believe in Santa, they're doing a really bloody good job of hiding it. We're still doing the bloody elf every night.

I'm 99.9% sure they're just playing along now... just in case they don't get any presents.

But that’s a gentle thing in itself! I have a vague memory of playing along in the same way and fit the same reasons. I definitely remember my Nan creeping in to put the Christmas stocking on my bed.

In this house the gifts under the tree are from us / family etc and then the stocking is from Santa. For similar reasons to you I guess Mimi.


She was angry for a long time - but that's nothing new, she's always annoyed about something The funny thing is that by the following Christmas she'd either forgotten the conversation or blocked it out of her head and was adamant that Santa was real again. She was still very into Santa as a concept last year (aged 11) and so it will be interesting to see how it develops this year.

Olly was 6-7 when he decided Santa wasn't real, I think, but is also happy to go along for other people's sakes. I think he figured it out when I accidentally used the same wrapping paper on the stocking bits as on the tree presents and wasn't quick enough with an explanation

Maybe Izzy just feels better allowing that magic to still be part of Christmas. Before we had Darwin Russell and I would still buy each other stocking gifts from Father Christmas, because it was fun and cute.

I realised the other day that as Darwin had been helping me do the gift wrapping he’d seen all of my wrapping paper, so Ma stepped in and gave us a roll of wrap for his Santa gift!

We also do have a stocking for him from Santa. Mostly consumables (chocolate and bubble bath, type things… things I can order on Ocado )

We go all in on the magic of Santa etc regardless because I love Christmas and always have, but I think she genuinely still believes (or did last year) rather than being "let's pretend for the fun". Same applied to the tooth fairy until quite recently. She's quite naive and I haven't decided if that's a good thing or not yet (it's sweet, but worries me that she'll be taken advantage of). I imagine being at secondary school now will probably undo any wonder though.

When we were kids, one of the grandparents used to mark their gift as from Father Christmas, and all the others were from named stakeholders and board members.
Cue one christmas that was a total "hold the fucking phone!" moment, when we realised we were being stiffed by one half of the family as they never sent us a present.
The jig was up! The whole charade tumbled down that year.

My daughter is nearly 5 and she's pretty sure it was actual Santa that came to nursery. It's such a classic dilemma, I don't want to build it up too much (stockings only from Santa) but she enjoys it so much. If she asks direct questions I always tell her the truth though, she knows tooth fairy, Jack frost, unicorns, magic is all pretend-but-still-fun and she must be pretty close to making the leap to include Santa in that.

She sounds like my old next door neighbour, who is a year older. She found the right friends who support and cherish her, and she is absolutely thriving. Hopefully Izzy will find the same.

To be honest, it sounds like me. I was always so naive (all the way through adulthood, too, really). I had a best friend growing up who was the opposite, so strong but also very caring. She always said we were Pooh and Piglet. We still have that relationship.

I’ve had friendships with people who were just as strong, but also bullies. I think the best you can do is guide her as to how to tell one from another and the difference between support and encouragement, and coerciveness. You do wonderful things so she’ll always have your amazing support, too.

Do you mean that you realised that the ‘Father Christmas’ grandparent never sent you anything, so explanations had to be made?

"Oh look, MiniPaz! Father Christmas must have got lost and delivered some presents to Nannie's house by mistake!"

We always end up with two (or three) present openings

Smart Cookie, Wookie!

We haven’t yet had any encounters with the tooth fairy. The only rescission I’ve made on that front is that I will 100% not be keeping his teeth in a box. Straight in the bin for me, thank you.

Aw!!! Haha. That’s cute.

I don't know what MrsPaz has done with the teeth. They're around the house somewhere... creeplily