What's all this, then?

 Theo's 16 months old now.

When he saw his Dad through the window yesterday, he went and picked up his socks, shoes and jacket ready to put them on :)

He has a couple of 'proto' words now.  I think 'ah da' may mean 'grandad', and 'duh' is duck.

He's got diarrhoea this week (really on the spectacular, lots of laundry, level) and hence can't go to nursery until it clears up.  So we've been looking after him.  Luckily, he's in a good mood in spite of the horrendous nappies and is happy to play and to have books read to him.

He goes through phases with books.  Sometimes, he isn't interested at all, and some days it's book after book, with favourites on repeat.

'Hairy Maclary From Donaldson's Dairy' is one of the best children's books ever!

 I just got a subscription to Amazon and the extra for Apple TV, so that I could watch Murderbot - which was every bit as good as I had hoped.

Though I'm not sure the 20min episode format was the right choice.  I'd have liked them a bit longer.

Having got the subscription for a three month trial, I'm seeing what else are must-watches.

I've just watched the musical 'Come From Away' which was brilliant, and I highly recommend.  I had no idea what it was about, just took a punt on it.

It followed what happened in Gander, Newfoundland, when masses of planes got diverted after 9/11.  

It's a stage production, hardly any scenery apart from a dozen chairs, but some great singers!

'Pluribus' is probably next on my list - any other suggestions?

 I've not posted in the last couple of weeks, as my bike skidded on a patch of hard frost and I took  a nasty tumble - and then went down with flu not long after.

I'm gradually getting back to normal, but still fairly ouchy in places...

However, the good news is that both my kids now have jobs. And both in the fields that they wanted to work in.  It's been a while - unemployment really sucks.

Henry's now working as a 'requirements manager', (think that was the title) which basically means he's working on the part of a project that really appealed to him - not coding, but working on what the code actually needs to do. eg.  One that came up during is interview - what are the requirements for a traffic control system?

You need to think about negative requirements, not just positive ones. He, correctly, came up with "It should not send speeding tickets to emergency serviced vehicles."

Took nine months out of work after being made redundant, and several training courses that he paid for himself, but he's there now.

Lindsey just had a successful interview with a specialised haulage company doing scheduling.  Scheduling is her best job skill, but vacancies don't come up that often.  She can do a limited amount of driving work - did some before Christmas, but that was a temporary job - too many tight corners trigger vertigo attacks.

I'm impressed that she managed to haggle her hours for this new job to allow her to pick up Oswin from school!  Don't yet know if it's work from home or office. 

Henry's new job is hybrid, which allows him and his wife to plan their respective days at home to allow for Theo (now one year old) emergencies/delivering to nursery/etc.

It's good that both kids live close to us and to each other.  We normally take Theo on Fridays, but last week, we were still too wiped from the flu.  Lindsey went round and took Theo for the morning, and then we took him for the afternoon (four hours we could manage, but not all day).

Looking back, I do not know how I managed with two young children and no family within a hundred miles....

And I feel sorry for how much their grandparents missed out on the joy (and occasional panic,etc.) of having the young members of the family around regularly.  Being involved in Theo and Oswin's lives so closely is a gift beyond price.