Life is a roller coaster, apparently!

It's been a funny week in this house, so many ups and downs that I'm starting to feel a little queasy; and I want to get off, please.

The two boys have both finished school for the summer break and are spending their days sleeping, when they're not playing or practising cricket. Little Miss is due to leave primary school on Wednesday but is a little under the weather and home with me today. High temperature and a sore throat, I think this is the first time this year she's been off poorly. I hope she doesn't have to miss the leavers assembly tomorrow and the disco on Wednesday, although after loving our village primary school and helping and volunteering to fund raise there over the past 17 years we have had to make a complaint about them in the last couple of weeks. I NEVER complain about school, I'm very laid back and tend to tell the kids to rise above issues and get over it. Maybe I've been too laid back in the past but once I get a bee in my bonnet (yes the wasps nest is still outside my bedroom door if you were wondering) I don't let it go. I have telephoned, written and emailed the head teacher and failed to get any response, so now I'm really cross! Only two more days to go, so I should try to keep calm!

Number 2 son, who captained his club Under 15's cricket team to a win in the Norfolk ECB cup (I think that was it's title, I pay very little attention!) took them to the next round and won again. They now have to go to a National finals day in Warwickshire next Monday. So that was a huge achievement and we all get a day out on a coach!! (that reminds me of coach trips to the seaside when I was a child with my two elderly Grandparents!)

Number 2, mid-bowl

But then I made yet another balls up at work and have spent the week worrying about the consequences! I was given a new job to do many months ago and have not really had any training so I keep making mistakes, and when I get things right I worry that they are actually wrong but no one is there to help. I'm not good at this anymore and actually want to leave and lock myself in the kitchen at home baking cakes!

But we did have the cricket club boat trip and that was a bit of fun on a very warm evening. The whole family went but, much to their embarrassment, I decided to drink a whole bottle of wine and giggle a lot. The stress of the week finally got to me, and I don't normally drink at all!

 Some of the lovely riverside houses, you can see what they're watching on TV from the boat!

Some of the photos got decidedly wobbly after this!

On the river we passed St. Benet's Abbey, a very picturesque spot with lots of history attached.

Although not much remains this was apparently the only Abbey not closed down by Henry VIII during the Dissolution of the Monasteries 

The history of the Abbey goes back much further than that and attracts many visitors. 

You get a very good view from the river and there were walkers around it that evening too.

 The wildlife is suburb around these fields too.

But then my Dad arrived for a brief visit from Wales, my Gran, his Mum, who you may remember from previous posts has now become quite frail, over the past 12 months. She left her home in Devon and moved into a care home in Suffolk, to be nearer to family as none of us lived anywhere near her in Devon.

Since she's been in the home and had no responsibility and no work to do, she seems to have gone down hill, I guess it's not surprising she is, after all, 94. But it is surprising to those who know her, and upsetting.

Anyway she had been taken into hospital with one or two issues, which in itself confused her enormously. Dad arrived to stay with us and visit her daily, although being in Ipswich hospital she was a good hour and a half from us. He visited her 4 days on the trot and I went with him twice, 

each day the hospital advised she would be discharged and each day they changed their minds! 

On Saturday we visited and she seemed so much better, she even made a speech to thank everyone for their help and support! We waved her off in the ambulance as she was discharged and being taken back to the care home, we watched her leave as she waved and blew kisses to us.

 After a two hour journey where we got stuck some way behind an accident, we were 20 minutes from home when we received a call to say the ambulance had turned around and taken her

 back to hospital as she wasn't well again, with what we do not know!

So poor Gran is back in hospital until maybe later today or tomorrow, or maybe longer I suppose.

I'll try to visit again this week, either the hospital or the home, but I wish she was her old fun loving self again.

taken in 2005

So it's been an uppy downy kind of week or so. 

And I'm a bit tired. 

If you need me I'll be under the kitchen table rocking backwards and forwards!!