Archive for the ‘Friends’ Category

On Monday we went to portmerion, with one of Asha’s little friends, X and her Mum.
It was LOVELY as the sun was out, for most of the day and the two girls played well all afternoon, though by the end the tiredness did start to show!

I remembered to take bird food with us this time, so the girls both dropped loads in the play area, and we all enjoyed sitting outside in the sunlight to eat our lunch.. Yes in JANUARY! Must be a first!

We dropped into the shops on the way home and I bought some of that jussroll pastry. So we could bung a top on some vegetables and have veggie pie for dinner.. Yummy!

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For some time, I have been looking for something which would help me to understand the moons cycles.

I then came across a link on a friends web site, for a diary, which claimed to do such a thing.

Inspired, last week, I asked Steve to get me one. £10 felt an awful lot for a diary, so i was naturally rather worried about it. This morning my diary arrived. Its wonderful. I cannot explain to you the satisfaction of having the different calendars at ones fingertips. Knowing what celebrations are coming up for all my friends, and myself.. and the lunar cycle explained so well.

http://www.moonwise.co.uk/diary.php

Its a limited edition, but well worth still trying to get as well, i only bought mine last week!

I wish we had enough for the calendar as well, but we dont need it this year, but for any of my OU friends who are studing astronomy I can only recommend you take a look at it.

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Having a bad fortnight. I have lost three friends in such time.

M posted this on facebook .  Thankyou.

Madam Butterfly

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Its Saturday. Steve and I had uni this morning, Asha went on a play date to J. She loves playing with A , E and K. Asha is one of these children, who when she is content, and feels safe somewhere, she will just get on with playing. Like me, Asha feels safe at J’s house.

After our rather successfull, but demading tutorial, for our welsh course, Steve and I both took it in turns to fall asleep at home. I needed it. Read the rest of this entry »

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Asha had a new friend round today. She had a lovely time playing with N and his little brother.

I enjoyed the time to sit and chat as well. Thursdays often end up quite slow and sluggish for Asha, as we are all exhausted after a Wednesday, so for someone to come around, for a few hours, was good. I wouldnt have managed to get her out the house, as she needs her home on a Thursday time.

During the play date, asha dressed up.. into this!

Asha... the red indian.

smile

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Ginger is a spice from Indo-Malaysia. The ginger root was believed to sooth an upset stomach or to prevent a cold.

Each ginger species has a different culinary usage; for example, myoga is valued for the stem and flowers.

Myoga ginger

Garden ginger’s rhizome is the classic spice “ginger”, and may be used whole,

candied (known commonly as crystallized ginger), or dried and powdered. Other popular gingers used in cooking include cardamom and turmeric, though neither of these examples is a “true ginger” – they belong to different genera in the Zingiberaceae family.

More ….

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Dawn here Maldwyn Jones’ Daughter the fisherman who went missing back in April. i’m after a favour, i’m doing a walk up Snowdon 2 May 09 and wonder if you could post it on here for me to get the sponsorship money up, i’m doing it for the Porthdinllaen Lifeboat who were out looking for my day, it was also printed in the Caernarfon Herald today

For more information on the walk, or to donate money, email Dawn at mcfc_76@hotmail.com

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We have moved house. We have space to play and privacy to do what we want.

Asha is 100 times happier than we have seen her for a long time.

We have painted, played bump, fed the birds, made magic gardens, cleaned the cat tray, done the vacume cleaning, had friends around to play and basically had a ball of a time so far.

I hope to get some pictures up soon. However we have fantastic views to the front, and a mountain garden to the back.

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Steve and I were invited to some friends tonight. It was a lovely evening, but a couple of things occured which we are both gutted about.

I don’t really know how we can resolve the issues, for ourselves, as much as for those involved.

But we both feel we have let our friends down badly. We are truly sorry.

Asha however had a great time, and it was great to see her running around with the other kids so happily. The food and company was fantastic, and we all had a great “oganised” bonfire party.

It probably is the best “organised” party we have been to for a long time – J yours on bonfire night, was the best “unorganised” one I have ever been too as well.. !

When we got home Asha went straight to bed, but I am struggling to resolve my own issues from tonight. I think its going to take me some time.

Vicki xx

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Today was a little boring, if your four.. well I thought it would be, but tonight Asha informed me she enjoyed herself.. So what did she do that was so much fun?

Watched one noddy video, only one programme though.

She then enjoyed winnie the pooh for a while.. But her real enjoyment came from a musical playtime video which someone bought her for christmas 2 years ago! She got all her musical instuments out. Her teddys and did jo jingles for about 40 minutes unsupervised in the lounge.

After that she “helped” daddy make lunch, then she played in what remains of her bed room for a while.

At 4 pm, FF and D turned up for a play, so we got balloons down and they played with them for 1 1/2 hrs. Dinner and bed.

Not sure on outcome of today for A, but she enjoyed herself.

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I have been lent some cuisenaire rods by a good friend on an extended lend for Asha.

Has anyone any of the game books they could lend me for a couple of weeks? Or just some ideas?

Vicki

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for the last few weeks Asha has not wanted to play out or anything on a sunday as she has been very tired, after very busy weeks. But this afternoon she has enjoyed playing with two little ones who also live in the road.

After running around outside and riding there bikes they came inside and took over the living room. Blankets out and tucked in they sat and watched some camberwick green for a while, whilst playing with the fuzzy felts I finally got out of the loft yesterday for Asha. You would think it was some really expensive present the amount she has been playing with them. I love toy rotations!

They then found all her toy cars – also just out of the loft, and once again they played and played so for about 4 hours today I have had three children aged, 2, 3 and 4 playing in our front room. And they were so happy!

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Asha had her first sleep over last night. I now sit here very foggy eyed and exhausted.

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Asha at Penrhyn

A photograph a friend took earlier in the year at Penrhyn Castle

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I got up, early with daddy, and then when you got up mummy you and I had a bath mummy. I wanted one, so you poped me into you rs with you. I then got dressed and we went to Julies. You left me with my friends for an hour whilst you and daddy did some thing else.

After that you had to call in somewhere then we came home and I played with ff for a bit. I then did some maths and english colouring in sheets. You read me a few stories and we talked. I went to bed after a story from you and daddy.

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What a little hero she is. She loves it.

She rolled around, jumped around, followed the line around, played tick, and went on the horse thingy. She smiles, and lands with her hands together and has a great time.

I just hope she keeps on loving it!

The rest of the day wasnt as sucessfull, we think Asha is stuggling with milk and gluten in her diet, and as such is being a number one cling on. Which is tireing and hard work. Though she did play outside for a while with daddy, and she did have a small rest when we went for a drive, as she was so tired.

Education done today. Not loads, but we have talked, we have read a few stories and we did look at a big plan of a human body, and talk about teeth, blood cells and veins. We also looked at where our hearts were… My child is 4, and knows more biology than I knew at 16!

Its actually very hard for Asha not to get an education in our house, as we have SO many books of all kinds lieing around.. and with her toys as well!!!!

Oh we also melted some chocolate and added corn flakes to it. We then made some pepermint iceing up, and dropped it into the chocolate crispy cakes. Its really interesting what then happens.. you have after eight choclate crisp cakes!

Oh and before bath, Asha also played with ff.
Vicki xx

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Cogs.

A friend of mine son wanted to know how a cog worked and why..

His experiment : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rciNzT_7bBI

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If you are a junior doctor, you now belong to the only profession in the developed world where you can be REQUIRED by contract to work a basic 90 – 100 hours in a week ‘on-call’. When you work nights over Christmas and New Years you might be the lowest paid person in the whole hospital per hour (roughly minimum wage).

This group is for everyone who has been on call, on ward cover, or carrying a bleep/pager of any kind. At medical school you longed for the day when you could carry one, and be a REAL doctor, didn’t you?! Now you think of a few places you would like to shove the irritating, noisy bleeping thing…

We all love nurses, because they do the jobs we hate, and look out for us when we are just learning. They also gave the correct dose of drugs when you accidentally wrote milligrams instead of micrograms on your first day. We need them. But…

…there are a few points of etiquette that are unwritten, unspoken, but you just wish every nurse read, understood and inwardly digested:

1. Bleeping/paging is not a spinal reflex. Please take a few seconds to breathe, think and organise your thoughts, and stop flapping about. Half the time you may realise you didn’t even need to pick up the phone.

2. Mention what ward you are on. I don’t have the whole hospital directory of numbers memorised. If you hang up before telling me, chances are I won’t come along. This is called the ‘bingo-bleep’.

3. If you bleep/page someone, please wait by the phone. How can there be no-one picking up the phone at your end when I ring back?! This is called the ‘bleep-and-run’ and is exceptionally irritating.

4. Have the notes, obs chart and drug chart in front of you. Chances are I need to know what the obs were without waiting for you to run over to the bed and look, then run back over to the trolley to get the notes when I ask the next question. This is called the ‘relay-bleep’ and is probably not fun for you.

5. Please mention the name, age, and working diagnosis of the patient. The following is not acceptable: “Hello doctor, please see patient in 4, 6, she has chest pain”. That is ‘bleep-spam’

6. All patients with chest pain need an ECG. Don’t bleep/page me until one is being done or there in front of you.

7. If I’m in theatre (surgery), leave a clear message. The following is not acceptable: “Can you come to the ward afterwards, there are a few things to do”. This also counts as ‘bleep-spam’

8. Once in a while I will not respond to my bleep/pager. This is because I am jumping on top of someone’s chest trying to save their life. I am NOT ‘on break’. Doctors don’t have these.

9. Please check with the other nurses that you aren’t asking the same question as them. I really hate being bleeped/paged from the same ward from two phones and two nurses for same patient. This is called the ‘déjà-bleep’ and is distinctly un-fun

10. You spend twenty times as much time with each patient than we do. We appreciate your opinion and pertinent information. The following is not acceptable: “Well you’re the doctor, you should know”. Well actually I’m on call and have never met this patient who has spent 5 weeks with you.

11. Please be cheery on the phone and perhaps even flirt a little. I’ve just spent 12 hours running around the hospital doing mundane tasks, talking to angry relatives, putting my finger up bums, taking blood and ordering xrays. You will get your way far easier by making me smile.

12. When I answer the bleep/page please don’t say ‘Oops, sorry I had a question but not any more”. This is called the ‘fart-bleep’ and gets on my nerves (See also point 1).

13. Please don’t ask me to see virtually every patient on your ward when I’m on call. That’s called a ward round.

14. If you do cannulae on the ward regularly you will be my favourite nurse and I will do anything you say.

15. If I answer my bleep/pager and the line is engaged because you are bleeping/paging me from that phone again, I may well explode. This is called the ‘torpedo-bleep’ because of its incessant battle with my morale. Three hits and the boat may sink.

16. If a patient has died, he/she no longer cares how long it takes me to get to the ward. That’s a medical fact. Chances are I can do a few other jobs on my way there. If you bleep me again for this patient it better be because they have miraculously come back to life. This is called the ‘Lazarus-bleep’

17. The ‘MEWS / EWS / EWSS / PARS / MET’ score is a trigger for you to call me and is useless after that. I don’t give a crap what the score is. Tell me WHY the patient has scored it (e.g. respiratory rate? BP? heart rate?).

18. Please don’t start a sentence “Just to let you know…” or “Just so you know…” I hear this 50 times per shift. This is called the ‘zombie-bleep’ and you have just inadvertently disengaged my brain.

19. Please don’t bleep/page me and then instantly walk over to the other side of the ward to continue washing a patient behind a curtain. That makes the person who picks up the phone have to search for you miles away from the phone. This is called the ‘bleep-and-hide’ (See also point 3).

20. Don’t have someone else (e.g. a student) bleep/page for you. It’s cruel to them, and they are not your secretary. This is called the ‘kamikaze-bleep’ (see also points 4, 5 and 19)

21. Dosing a patient’s warfarin (whom you have never met and don’t know their history) at 4am is horrible, tedious, legally dubious and just plain bad for the patient. Please slap the day team round their faces when they arrive the next morning and don’t let it happen again.

22. Sit down! You may be surprised with how much this helps points 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 11, and 19

23a. If you happen to have a spare moment, eavesdrop when a doctor bleeps/pages another doctor. The majority of the time you will see how it should be done.

23b. Sometimes point 23a doesn’t work because the doctor is a week old and still learning the ‘etiquette’. He/she will learn very quickly as their senior on the other end shouts them down!

24. When a patient is in an ACUTE confusional state, please do not repeatedly ask me for, or demand sedation. This is not the year 1912. I might give sedation AFTER ruling out an infection, over-medication, drug withdrawal, metabolic cause, trauma, neurological, hypoxic, endocrine, and vascular causes, and AFTER using every other method of calming down the patient.

25. Read the latest entry/entries in the medical notes. Your question may be answered already (see also points 1, 4, 12, 13)

26. Please don’t bleep me half way through a ward round to ask whether we will be seeing a patient on the ward round. The answer is yes, and I’ve just missed what my Consultant said because I had to answer the phone to tell you that.

27. If I’ve told you I’m on my way to your ward, please don’t bleep again. Chances are that you have actually STOPPED me getting there while I went to the nearest phone. This is called the ‘road-block-bleep’

Source :David Naumann yahoo group Bleep Etiquette

Fantastic

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Asha and mummy went to Piggery Pottery this morning, near Cwm Y Glo.

Umm. The play area is currently out of use, so that was a disapoitment, but we went to llanberis for that instead.

It cost £4.50 to buy a pig to paint. Then you pay £1 to paint.

So that was £5.50 to paint a pig which I can buy 6 for £7.58  bakerross

Umm.. Will i be going again? Probably, as Asha enjoyed it.. but value for money? I dont feel it is. If the Play area had been working, and she had been offered the chance to paint a stone or do the pottery wheel I may be more positive about it, but we wernt.

The staff however on the whole were very friendly and helpfull. The cafe was clean and the coffee was o.k.

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Steve woke me in a panic, as he had forgotten we needed to catch the post office van this morning. We made it although I dont know how focused I was on the very short drive there.

Anyway, we then headed off to Bangor, and by the time I left the post office van car park, I was awake and ready for the August rain drive.  Its a beautifull drive through some of the most beautifull scenery in north wales (if you go via snowdonia) or its a stop start nightmare, if you follow the main roads around. Guess what i did.. Yep, I was in the stop start .. Untill brain cell kicked in, and off onto the back roads we went,,, Yes. It may be wet, windy, dull and horrid out. But even then Wales can look fantastic.

50 mins later, and the rain had eased off enough for us to get Asha’s play mate for the day, and we headed home and to Parc Glasfryn. Asha and L had a lovely afternoon on the soft play area. Then the two of them played in Asha’s play room – which she had spent time tidying for the occasion

I even managed a bath whilst the two of them were playing. My first uniterrupted bath for I really dont know how long!

Four o’clock and its back out into the madness, to return L to his parents, and the tourists, then to Tescos – well for S anyway, A and I sat in the car.

Home at last we explored another incredibably fast tea.. I really didnt realise how much freedom gluten and wheat gives you.. Chicken nuggets, peas and bread for tea!

I am seriously narked now, as I realise we spent about 40 mins a day extra careing for Asha than most parents do,.. as we have to home make EVERY meal normally!

Vicki xx

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