Busy busy. I've been quite sociable this week.

There was Thea Gilmore last Sunday, which was good, but with an eerily quiet audience. It didn't help that before it started we'd been told no talking as it could disturb others' enjoyment and no buying drinks except in the interval. (The venue was the Glee Club Birmingham, and the rules make more sense if you're about to watch stand-up, which we weren't).

Her warm-up man was good, but more suited to chill-out. And we'd already been waiting an hour. The lucky ones obtained chairs from storage before the management noticed, and taped up the curtain. I saw people being asked not to sit on the floor. It was all very surreal, like a rather subdued party where no-one knows anyone else, so they all just stand around looking a bit awkward.

So by the time Thea actually came on two hours later, we'd all been hypnotised into an obedient trance. She kept commenting on how quiet we were being. It must have spooked her out.

It was a really good evening, but I couldn't help thinking that it would have been a lot more fun to have seen her in Liverpool the previous night!

So... Tuesday, Dad and Cath came up for a meal. They brought Granny. Euan was predictably hyper, and thoroughly enjoyed showing off. We went to the Plas Coch - cheap, cheerful, and unlikely to object to the boy standing in the middle of the room saying clearly, "I want a poo now."

Wednesday I went for a meal with Rob, in the Nags Head. Euan was even more hyper. Luckily the pub was quite empty, and he managed to endear himself to the landlady. It makes things easier when strangers go "Aww, isn't he lovely?" because it makes him go quiet and shy (i.e. less likely to cause chaos). Was good to see Rob for a catch-up, although he did bring soapy stuff with him, so maybe he only came over because he thought I could do with a wash and didn't know how to tell me.

Thursday was... well, Thursday. It's always been my least favourite day of the week, and this particular Thursday didn't really inspire or thrill me in any way. There was a bomb scare in Wrexham at lunchtime, but since it turned out to be a hoax perpetrated by wankers, the incident just added to the general Thursdayness in the air.

Friday has been good, and dominated by food. Lunch was with Steve and his colleagues because it's his last day before his knee operation, so I stuffed my face in Frankie and Benny's. And shared a bottle of wine with Helen. Well, it was a stressful day!

(I'm not allowed Special Leave to help Steve when he's in hospital or when he comes home, because he's not a "dependant". So that's coming out of my annual leave. Fair enough, I've seen the rules read differently, but respect for managers' judgment and all that. But I also pointed out that I can't physically work my contracted hours if I have to catch buses every day when Steve's off, so I asked for a temporary reduction in hours. Not allowed. We're too short-staffed and the Business Need must be prioritised. So my flexi will be fucked, I'll have no annual leave left, and I really wouldn't mind all this if I hadn't seen so many people brazenly taking the piss out of the system that I've just tried to use honestly. It wasn't the best of days.)

So I had a mildly tipsy afternoon. So frustrating sitting there obediently doing whatever work they throw at me, being the smiling doormat, and on the one occasion when I need to use the "caring for staff" policies, they seem to have swapped them for "fuck the staff, work faster bitch" policies.

So then I met John for tea. We had a drink first in 1to5 (I was still quite full of pizza) then went to Sher Khan for a nice meal. I was commenting how much I liked the decor - very modern, but comfy chairs, nice lighting - and that there were nice Indian touches like the music and the paintings. And how they weren't your typical Kama Sutra-style line drawings but more subtle Indian-themed pictures. Of course then I looked closer, and realised that several of them were quite suggestive and one was downright rude. There was evidence of nipples. Quite distracting, but it didn't detract from the food.

I told John that since I now have every Friday free, and I've been extra-crap at social stuff lately, we should meet up every week. Encouragingly, he didn't look too scared. I said we could have tea, or go to the cinema, or watch DVDs, and we could invite people like Rob, Nicola or Andrea. Or maybe even some of John's friends, so I can tell them what he says about them when they're not there! The possibilities are endless.

Oh, and I realised in my last Babble when I mentioned about the parachute jump, I forgot to say I'm doing it for charity. Hence the target amount and stuff. Oxfam, since you ask. I'll do a proper blurb about it at some point. No rush, eh? I mean, I can't wait to see the ground rushing towards me at speed and everything but no need to get all enthusiastic yet. Argh.

Ooh, look, an update! It's been ages. This had better be good...

So, Euan started school. I found this far more turbulent than I had expected. There was the "Aw, he looks so cute but when did the ickle baby turn into this grown-up boy?" and also the frantic "Has he got everything he needs?" and then the worried "How am I ever going to get him ready for 8.45am every day?"

Euan was far less bothered. He just sauntered along in , and instead of turning round for a tearful goodbye, he gave me a look as if to say, "What are you still doing here?"

He seems to be enjoying it so far. We've been there on time every day except one, where I woke up at 10am going, "Aaaaargh!" and had to phone the school to apologise. They didn't seem to mind - it must happen a lot. It wasn't Euan's fault; he was already downstairs happily munching on Coco Pops straight from the box. He can never tell me what he's done at school though. Whenever I ask him he says, "I can't remember. Can you?"

It's quite entertaining just to stand in the playground and watch the people. There are the children - I know it's bad to judge on appearances, but with kids everything seems to be closer to the surface, so you can tell which ones are the bullies, the loud ones, the bossy ones, the naughty ones, the cute ones. And then there are the parents. I was quite proud of myself today, I said hello to someone, and there was definitely a flicker of vague recognition in their eyes as they nodded politely.

But mostly the parents are either rushing to work, or planning the rest of their sedentary days, neither of which I can really fit in with, so I'm happy just to wave goodbye to Euan and walk off. You have to time it right or you get stuck behind the double-buggies up the hill. It's nice to be able to walk Euan to school though. It's a little stroll we both enjoy and as we get to the crest of the hill, any sleepy cobwebs are blasted away by the wind. I suspect I won't cherish the walk as much in Winter!

So apart from adjusting to this new routine, what else have I been up to?

Went to Alton Towers with Steve and Nicola. Euan enjoyed it far more than his previous visits because he understood what was going on a bit more. He did keep calling it "Bolton Towers" though, bit of confusion there.

I wrote extensively about it here, so I won't go over the same ground for a similar audience, and I won't bore my non-geek readers with all the detail. I'll put a photo album in the Photos section though. It was a lot of fun.

In other news, I couldn't decide what to do for my birthday, and had kind of decided on a night out in Liverpool. But thinking about it, I decided I couldn't really be bothered. So instead I'm going to put the money I would have spent (£60) towards a parachute jump, and use my birthday as a kick-start for fundraising. I won't go for a meal with my team, instead I'll ask them to consider sponsoring me a fiver or so. My personal target is £600, higher than the standard amount, and I'm sure that in due course I'll post more about it here. I expect it will take a while to raise the money anyway!