It started so well.

It really did start so well.

Awake early, two children sleeping peacefully so a nice bath, and a nice clean refreshed and alert me, ready to start the day. It got better; two girls up, one carer getting things organised, and a pan of porridge bubbling on the hob, time even for Little Fish and I to sit down and eat together.

And then...

One parcel to be posted; throw it into a plastic bag and get the girls coated up and ready for school. Remember physio coming to school to sort out standing frame; ransack house for Allen keys, screwdriver, and instruction manual. Check time, panic slightly, grab school bags and scrawl in books, locate door keys and realise parcel has vanished.

Double check time, realise school bus now ten minutes late, consider walking Mog to school with Little Fish but thankfully bus turns up. Push her into the arms of the bus escorts, chase Little Fish out of the house and ask her to start walking to school whilst I relocate my doorkeys and phone. Give up on parcel.

Walk Little Fish to school, past the post office. Squeak into the classroom seconds before the door is locked, drop her off and walk home, past the post office. Search house for parcel, fail to find it, but lose sanity spare doorkeys in process. Walk back to school, past the post office.

Spend the next hour and a half trying to reassemble Little Fish's Rabbit.

She's grown a little since she first had it


Remove chest piece, hip piece, brakes, knee blocks. Lower foot plates. Realise footplates were in lowest position, reassemble foot plates. Replace knee blocks. Replace brakes. Realise now no space for hip piece. Remove brakes. Remove knee blocks, invert knee blocks, replace knee blocks. Replace brakes. Attempt to replace hip piece. Realise small but crucial metal block has slipped down inside the frame and is now under the knee blocks. Remove brakes. Remove knee blocks. Remove small blocks. Replace knee blocks. Replace brakes. Replace hip piece. Invert chest piece, replace chest piece. Widen hip and chest pieces. Insert small child. Watch as child leans into a backwards banana to avoid touching chest piece with gastrostomy. Tweak chest piece. Decide to contact R82 rep.

Walk home, past the post office. Wash up, turn house upside down and still fail to relocate parcel. Check bins and washing machine. Give up, sit down. Discover parcel. Consider dashing to the post office, but receive text that friend on her way. Put parcel into shopping bag, grab handbag, realise keys no longer in bag. Tear through house hunting for keys. Find keys, grab bags just as friend appears. Exit house. Sit in friend's car. Realise telephone not in bag. Race back into house, fail to find phone. Call phone from landline, watch as friend locates telephone in her car, and finally leave. Decide to find pub for lunch rather than go into town.

Breathe.

Have fantastic lunch - steak sandwich for anyone interested - and put the world to rights, formulating plans for radical overhaul of various services and institutions. We really should be in charge, we'd do so much better. Honest.

Realise lunch has taken too long, race home late. Collect equipment from kind nurse who has been waiting in car park. Realise cleaner is now due in twenty minutes, and the house looks as though it has been ransacked several times in search of keys, phone, parcel, and so on. Tear around house picking up whatever isn't screwed down, and throwing most of it into my bedroom. Realise finally have time to post parcel.

Walk to post office. Queue in one shop to buy cardboard box for parcel. Pay. Queue at post office. Ask for parcel to be delivered as soon as possible, and have lengthy and unhelpful conversation about whether Saturday comes before Monday or not. Should this really have to be debated? Eventually pay, then return to main shop to buy macaroni. Race home.

Sit down for three minutes before Little Fish arrives home, slightly early to avoid imminent rain. spend an hour chasing Little Fish who is chasing the cleaner, before deciding LF must be tired and starting her bedtime routine instead.

And finally, time to sit down. Mog sitting here watching Mamma Mia and coughing. And laughing whenever I grab the suction. Is it bedtime yet? Oh, and where are my keys now?
Tia