It’s been a week of drama and dashing around crazily. When I say ‘week’ I really mean around a week-and-a-half which began last Thursday night when I got a phonecall from Brown Owl to say the girl had had an accident. The Brownies meet in a local hall and had been playing a game called Fish, Chips & Peas (which apparently requires them to run around like mad). My girl was going at top speed, tripped over one of her friends and crashed head first into a metal pipe (probably one connected to one of the old fashioned metal radiators in the hall). Anyway, I grabbed the boy and together we rushed over to the hall to retrieve the casualty to find her sobbing her heart out with an ice pack placed on her forehead.

Once she calmed down she seemed fine and deep down I thought she was fine (although a little sore – it was quite a crack she gave herself), but a colleague of mine had suffered a fractured skull a few weeks before (falling from a ladder as she tried to put her parents’ Christmas tree away in the loft) and my girl complained of not being able to see properly, so I took her up to our local hospital. Linda, the nurse there, checked her out and was fantastic with her. My girl, now recovered from her ordeal, talked the ears off the poor woman. About half an hour and a few tests later, the girl was allowed home and me and hubby spent a bit of a sleepless night getting up to check on her every few hours. She is absolutely fine and only had a scratch to show for her ordeal. My colleague – after a couple of nights spent in hospital – is also recovered now.

Over the weekend, everything was fine until the boy developed a high temperature on Sunday and was sick (thankfully he was standing next to the toilet when it happened and was able to be sick there instead of – as usually happens – all over the carpet or on a hard to clean soft furnishing). We dosed him up with Calpol and Ibruprofen (marvellous stuff) and hoped he’d be fine the next day.

He wasn’t and managed to bring up a glass of water all over our bed. Sigh. He had to spend that day off school as he still had a temperature. By teatime, though, it was as if he’d never been sick – he was bouncing. It’s funny how illnesses that normally floor an adult for days only trouble kids for a couple. The boy is still a bit sniffy, but is fine despite falling and bumping his head off the doorframe on Tuesday morning. Sigh.

The other drama of the week happened last night as I was stretched out on the sofa happily watching a recording of Father Brown (which I am enjoying immensely). I had Darcy (my Guinea Pig) lying at my neck enjoying being stroked when the little ****** leapt up, grabbed my pearl earring, yanked it out of my ear and chomped on it. Five minutes and two bitten fingers later, I hadn’t retrieved my earring and the wee besom just sat there looking extremely pleased with himself. I was worried on two counts: firstly the earring was part of a pair hubby had given me for my 30th birthday, secondly I did not think the little creature would survive it going through his system. Luckily, after about ten minutes of chewing he spat out first the pearl and then the stem. The pearl survived intact, the stem is all chewed. I’ll see if I can restore it, but I think I may have to visit a jewellers soon!

What I’m reading right now – just finished Alan Clark Diaries and loved it. Alan Clark was such a character and probably the only person in the Govt of the 1980s who had any kind of personality. I’m not a Tory – never will be – but I liked him. Excellent book. Highly entertaining. Anyway, towards the end of the book he mentioned Virginia Woolf and I’ve been hearing her name or reading about her a lot recently so for my next book I decided to read my copy of To the Lighthouse. I’d tried reading this before and hadn’t liked it. This time is better, but it’s annoying me that the narrator’s point of view seems to be jumping all over the place…reading from an omniscient point of view can be quite challenging, I think. It’s also difficult for the writer to create a good book doing it that way. I shall reserve judgement for now except to say that it’s so far so good.

What I’ve been watching – I watched that programme about Rabbie Burns last week just to see what he would look like when they recreated his head and face from a casting of his skull. I am (and always will be) exceptionally curious. The programme was really good talking about Burns’ rise to fame and eventual death. Then came the unveiling of the bust – is it just me or did that reconstructed head look a bit odd? Also did you spot the guy standing beside it who could have been a descendent cos he looked so like the Bard?

Talking of Burns, I totally forgot that last Friday night was Burns Night, despite the fact I had bought a Haggis (MacSween’s – the best haggis EVER). We had pizza instead and are having the haggis tonight with neeps and tatties…yum.

On that note, I’m awa’ tae dae somethin’!! Am awa’ tae pit oan tha haggis!

Dawn xxx

PS Game of Thrones series 3 starts in March or April! Wooohoooo!