Seven weeks + 4

It's OK panic over, everything has returned to normal, Will and Xander fell out, Will refused to eat any salad yesterday and they were both still in bed when I got up this morning. I feel much more comforted when everyone behaves in their natural way. I don't think getting Xander up tomorrow is going to be an issue, however, as he turns 11 in the morning. We are having bacon and brie paninis for his birthday breakfast, and pizza hut for dinner, so the day will have a slightly continental feel. He had his proper present from us in the 6 week holiday as we bought him a BMX bike, but I'm going to go to Merry Hill today and pick him a little something up, so at least he has a present to open in the morning. Wow, my youngest son will be 11 tomorrow, the years have gone by fast.

As for me, I went on a stroppy grump last night, Neil walked into a grumpy Maxine trying to cook dinner, he does have a knack of doing that. I can trundle along, in my own cheery way for days at an end, looking after the boys, my horse, the dog and Neil, not necessarily  in that order. Then I drop into a real funk of a mood, I know why, it's depressing, I'm not depressed that would be different. It's because I shouldn't be doing all these things with Cyril, I should be planning to go back to Uni (alone), thinking about lunging Malarky (alone), even going to Merry Hill or to the Summerhill School (alone). It's called feeling sorry for yourself, it passes, usually after a good nights sleep, but it lurks there in the background. So this morning I'm back to normal (cough) and planning on making everything perfect for Xander tomorrow and not thinking about my friend Cyril at all.

I hope the new look of my blog is OK with everyone, I've put links on for some cancer related websites, and some for places we've visited. I did check that they worked as for a little while the Bowel Cancer UK link kept sending me to a Japanese website, it was quite confusing. I was doing it myself though, as when I asked Will to help me he turned everything dark and black, he said it looked cool, that would be my fault for asking a 15 year old to help me. I still have some things to do, I have to put "tags", on it, or something but I'm not really sure that's within my limited capabilities. I could have put a survey on to ask if people liked my blog, but that seems silly as surely you'd all just stop reading it if it got that bad. So that's as fancy as it gets, for now.

Carla dropped off the lunging equipment yesterday, it's a special head collar called a cavesson with rings on the nose part that you can attach a lunge line to, this is a really long rope/rein for lunging a horse. Lunging is when you (the person) stand in the middle of a circle and the horse moves in a large orbit around you. It sounds a bit odd, but its a good way to get a horse fit, and you are using your voice to send them forward, and slow down. I could tell you that forward means faster, but it doesn't as in the horse world you should actually go forward into a halt. I can see this is getting too technical and confusing so I'll stop now. Anyway Malarky can go round and round, in both directions (otherwise you build up the muscles in one side more than the other), and get a little fitter and it gives my something more to do with him whilst I'm unable to ride. 

I had better go and get ready to go out now, I think today should be my actual celebration "I've got my house back" day, don't you. Merry Hill here I come.