Yearly Archives: 2006

With a previously untested morning schedule that, somehow, went without a hitch, Elisha started nursery school on Wednesday, while Fliss went back to work for the first time in a year.

I was a bit nervous dropping Elisha off, to be honest, as she’d started teething again the day before, and I didn’t know how she was going to take to being left with strangers. I was worried that she’d have a really bad day and be miserable with her sore gums, and that might spoil the experience and put her off for the following days.

All day long at work I checked and re-checked my phone, waiting for a call that would tell me she’d gone postal and was holding one of the assistants hostage in the milk prep room with a loaded water pistol.

Even though the call never came, I was out of the door and on the way to collect her the moment it was half past five. When I got there I could see her through the window as I waited at the door, and she didn’t look like she’d had a particularly harrowing day. Once I got inside and she saw me, she seemed to understand that it was time to go home, even if she didn’t appear to be elated to see me.

The nursery school lady gave me a bit of paper that outlined what Elisha had been up to during the day – looks like kids these days enjoy playing with blocks and “singing action songs” – whatever they are. The activities had taken it out of her, though, and once she was in her seat in the car she slept all the way home.

Day two was similarly successful, with the new morning routine proving to be much less challenging than it appeared beforehand, and the drop-off and pick-up’s going smoothly. Sadly, when I dropped her off this morning, she started crying when I went to leave, but hopefully she got over it and had fun with the rest of the activities after that.

I’m quite glad she’s dealing with it well, plus the dropping and collecting process makes me feel all grown up and responsible (a false sense of maturity, I suspect!), so that’s an added bonus.

Before we left for the trip back home on Monday, we visited my mum in Rowatt’s – the furniture shop she works in. This is a regular thing, actually – we’ve picked up all sorts of odds and ends from the shop before we’ve headed back in the past, from bedside tables, to a mattress for the spare room.

On this occasion we each took a new pillow, with Fliss opting for a fancy memory foam one, and me taking an orthopaedic style to see if it would help me sleep and breathe at the same time.

Soon after we’d got home that night we introduced the new pillows to our bed and I was quite looking forward to mine bringing instant teleportation to the Land of Nod.

Instead it brought neck ache, and lots of it. I woke up feeling like I’d rolled over a couple of times and left my head behind. Figuring that this was due to me not being used to such a cutting edge pillow, I hoped that the following nights would bring some improvement.

So far that’s not the case. My neck still aches and I’m just not sleeping well at all. Part of that was due to Elisha screaming her head off in the middle of the night for no apparent reason last night, I’ll concede, but the new techno pillow isn’t exactly helping, either.

Maybe it’s all the years of sleeping in a non–ideal position that are now being undone by the techno pillow?

Or perhaps the new pillow is, in fact, crap, and I’ve thrown away the best part of thirty quid on a torture device, while Fliss is snoozing it up on her utopian memory foam pillow.

This is just like when we get take away food delivered, you know. I take time and care over ordering something I’ll like, and when it arrives the meal that Fliss ordered is always much better than mine.

Still, I’m going to give it another few days before I give up on it. Probably until I’m hallucinating with tiredness, but before I have a permanent crick in my neck.

Last week I drove up to Millport in some of the worst weather I’ve ever experienced as a driver. The Jazz isn’t the most planted of cars when it gets windy, so if you throw in lashing rain and gale force winds it can be downright scarey at motorway speeds.

By the time I arrived at Largs and waited for the ferry across to Millport I’d had just about enough of it. Fortunately the ferry trip was reasonably swift and uneventful, given the conditions, although the last leg round the coast of the island to Ted’s new flat had me feeling a bit exposed to the elements.

Speaking of Ted’s new joint; it’s very nice indeed – if I was him I’d stick it out in the cozy new flat until spring time, rather than making his annual trek to Malta for only marginally better weather.

The next day the stormy weather had blown itself out, leaving it clear and dry with a crisp chill in the air. Perfect weather for a fresh walk, actually, so we made our way along the esplanade before meeting up with Ted when he’d finished work, then walked back to the flat for lunch. The weather was beginning to turn again by the time we got indoors, and it was back to wind and rain by the time we were on the road to Aunty Mary’s place later on that afternoon.

The short stop in Uplawmoor was time well spent. Elisha had good fun climbing the stairs, and Auntie Mary hade made us some tasty merengue’s, before treating us to dinner in the Uplawmoor Hotel across the road. The food there was great – I had some bream, while Fliss and Aunty Mary had chicken and seafood salad respectively. Elisha had her first taste of prawns, courtesy of her great aunty Mary, and even enjoyed a slice of lemon that she gave her.

We had to head off after the meal, as it was getting on and we were staying with Ian, Hazel and baby Abigail for the weekend, so we didn’t want to be back too late.