Friday 27th February

Son number three has already been gone a whole week, we had a text sent from someone else’s mobile to say he had arrived safely, and would try and contact us at later date. At the beginning of the week Tom and Jack both had Facebook messages, saying he had been ‘gorge jumping’, white water rafting and flown in a micro light over Victoria Falls, and even taken control from the ‘pilot’; apparently flying over some hippos “like a boss”.

Crocodile Dundee about to head off to the airport.....

Its fair to say that he seems to be having the time of his life, although he did send a photo of the vehicle that was to be his transport from South to North Zambia, and his brothers said it looks like those vans they transport prisoners in, a square box with small windows at the top!

On the day that Dan left (a touch emotional for me) hubby and I had a DDuites at a local restaurant, with an early start of 6:45pm. Not having heard from Jack, I text to see if he was going to be around for supper, to which he replied, “No” and “Sorry”. Unbeknown to me he sent this text while his cousin was driving him to hospital. Forgive me if the tale gets a little sketchy from here on in, but I didn’t and still don’t really grasp what happened.

The pair of them were in the Young Farmers Club, hard at work (!) getting the stage ready for the forthcoming concert. Matt was sawing some wood, as one does, and Jack was holding it steady (clamp? Vice?), the saw became pinched in the wood, and sprang back slashing a three-inch gash on Jacks left forearm. There being no first aid kit, bandage or any clean towels around, Jack held his hand to his arm, and held it up, instructing Matt who was more than a little traumatised that the best course of action was a trip to hospital.

Earlier on when he sent me the text he thought he’d just take a little photo of the wound…. he also was Mr Cool at the hospital, and discussed the injury very calmly with the doctors, (both very pretty females). The senior doctor upon examining the slash told him it had just started to shred the muscle, and it was “just short of being spectacular”…. Five stitches later…

I didn’t find any of this out until we arrived back home at 11:30 pm, and after being told the news by Tom, went straight upstairs to find out how Jack was, and to tell him he was a “stupid boy” (which ironically Tom said that’s exactly what I would say with a slight inflection of a Suffolk accent).

Matt came home the next day to check on the ‘patient’, and bring him some AI (artificial insemination) gloves. To enlighten you all, these are extremely long, fairly thick plastic gloves, that are worn by the vet or farmer to assist them whilst examining the cow. I’ll not explain further, if you’re that interested, look it up!These were to keep his arm dry whilst bathing, and not for any other purpose!!

One week later and Jack was supposed to have the stitches out, but it hasn’t fully healed, so he has to wait until next Tuesday before their removal. At least he can go back to work next week, but will probably be on ‘light duties’.

One other person in our family who is a little morose, and that is Jessie, her playground of fields have been swathed in silvery plastic, this has seriously narrowed down her freedom…. but it is excellent news for the farmers who at last are planting potatoes at lightening speed.

Sunday 16th February

I think it's fair to say that Valentine 2014 will be a day to remember , not necessarily for the reasons that you maybe thinking. It started off well enough, the card exchange and reminder that the walking boots were my Valentine gift, plus I was being taken out to a restaurant for supper, all perfectly lovely.













Homemade card , beautifully presented....

The day progressed in a fairly normal fashion, the usual dog walk in the rain, and a trip to St Ouen to visit a friend, and her gorgeous baby....
It was only in the evening that the fun really started, it began with a phone call from Tom, saying he wasn't coming home for supper as a friend was cooking steak and would he like to join him ?Very nice, I replied, but I wasn't cooking anyway as we were eating out! A phone call from him to his sister followed shortly after as he wanted her to find out why the traffic was at a standstill heading out west. The weather had worsened considerably during the day and with the high tide, the esplanade had been shut, confining all the traffic onto the inner road. This bit of my story explains why Tom, was working his way across country on a foul night in his dad's car....about 6:30 we received another call from Tom, talking about 'fuel injection' ......which basically means he had run out of diesel.

Fortunately for him he has two brothers, unfortunately for him one of them was in the pub, and the other was asleep, however the call to arms was heard, and Dan went off in the car to collect Jack with the empty cans to fill with diesel. They headed off to the local garage but they had already shut, the storm was worsening and people were advised to stay indoors, undeterred the duo headed off to another garage they knew would be open, dropping off a friend at his house on the way. Diesel collected they carried on, but their journey was stopped abruptly by a large fallen tree, and the fact they were first on scene, shows they were scarily close to having been crushed .......
To be continued....

Friday 21st February ......

Once again the Thunderbirds boys rose to the occasion, directing traffic, trying to get hold of various Honorarys etc, phone call home to explain the situation led to another call being made to Tom-except his phone was dead. So, with the weather worsening, the parents on their way out for a relaxing candle lit meal for two, and two brothers/policeman/ tree surgeons ( Dan had been sent home to retrieve the especially sharpened chain saw just ready for this event) it was left to 'lady Penelope' to brave the elements, pack up a food survival pack plus a flask of coffee and go to rescue Tom!!
Needless to say, the first part of our dinning experience was far from relaxing, the last thing we wanted to do was send lady P off in her little Nissan micra in storm force 9 , but she duly found her eldest brother in the depths of St Lawrence! I then believe they travelled back to the fallen tree, and then, finally trekked back to the ' broken ' car in true "Thunderbirds are go!" style!

As you can see this blog was started with good intentions last week, but never got finished, and there is yet another fraught week of madness and mayhem that I have to report about in the not so distant future ..........never a dull moment !







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Friday 7th February

Well, I'm just in from painting the cross on the door, son no 1 now stricken with a virus and needed a visit to the doctor. ( I took myself yesterday after realising that not only was I not getting better after a week but actually feeling worse!) Big bad chest infection! heavy duty antibiotics, huge sigh! just about had enough......

Thinking about the dynamics in this household and how most of the time we all mange to rub along together, and help each other out. Like when one son after working on his car (on and off) for two years finally got it one the road, and took it for a test drive. All seemed well, so he decided to venture a bit further. Another son received a phone call from him asking for help.....he had just driven around the corner near to Gorey castle and fortunately for him (and unusually for him was going-slowly) when he became aware of his front wheel passing him on the drivers side........

The eldest son has bought a lot of tools for his work shop and gets understandably upset if they get borrowed or worse broken, as was the case over the drill piece. It transpired that it was used to drill concrete not wood as it was intended and subsequently snapped. A replacement was found but not the correct size, this episode caused a certain degree of friction, but resolved itself.

Son no 3 took possession of his brand new rucksack, ready for his Zambia travel in just over two weeks, he has practiced filling it with cushions and parading around the kitchen. Not exactly a dry run for his hiking jaunts in malaria infested jungles.

Jess had a visit last night from her small boyfriend, she had fun rolling around for an hour on the carpet, he was, for a 10year old quite amorous !!



Bex is out tonight bowling with 30 work colleagues , bowling is not really her thing, unless she uses the lightest ball and has the sides up, considering the other 29 folk are all men, I think she has little chance of them granting her wish. They are more likely to stand her sideways at the end of the lane and use her as a skittle!!

I had to do an emergency run to the vet this morning, poor Billy came in limping last night with an obvious gash on his hind leg. It turns out that he had been bitten and gashed several times, and required antibiotics and a clean up.





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