Talking Heads

What a HOT day it’s been. Spent most of the morning (in fact from about 9 am to 12.45) in the schoolroom, painting. It was fun today though, as Steve and Maureen came by the church for Steve to practice organ, and then Maureen entertained the boys for a while by chatting and telling stories, and eventually took them home and read library books to them. I was so pleased, because they have been a bit neglected of late! Nick also did some painting, and then when Steve had finished his practicing he donned paintbrush and paint too, so we got a lot done today. Almost finished the biggest one, and of the two smaller ones, one still needs a lot of work but the other is also nearing completion.

Nick sorted out the bullseyes, outside, with an axe! The boys thought it all very funny to see heads flying about and the eyes (the eyes are only firm on the first day, but after a day of refrigeration the jelly softens and they’re very wobbly), and the mouths which Nick benignly manipulated to make the fish heads look like they were talking. We had some words over who should clean out the insides, but then discovered that they had already been cleaned. Now they are in the freezer.

For lunch, we asked Steve and Maureen if they’d like to join us at Ardees, which they did, and we went dutch. But boy was it hot in the market. The restaurant is upstairs, with little apparent ventilation, so it was exhausting. After lunch Nick dropped the boys and me off at the hospital, because Caleb is really poorly today and Aaron was up in the night with earache (although otherwise is fine, and his foot has returned to normal). I didn’t have an appointment, but after waiting for about half an hour, Dr Topliss saw us. He looked in the boys’ ears with his light, and in Caleb’s mouth, and listened to Caleb’s chest, and has prescribed antibiotics for both (one for Miss Erin Clevely), and a cough linctus and pain killer as well. We have had to postpone Caleb’s surgery for about a month’s time, what with him being on antibiotics now. I don’t have a date yet, but the hospital will let me know when it is. We walked home. The boys normally run on the pavements where they can, but Caleb, after running a little way, had to sit down to rest. Shame man. Caleb wanted me to teach him some English, so we did some more dipthongs – ay, ar, er, ir, ur, and or, and then words with “all” – tall, ball, call etc. Then he drew pictures related to the words I had shown him. We had done some abstract words like ‘clever’, ‘bigger’, ‘hurt’ and he drew little scenarios. One word was ‘farm’ and he drew a block with some tiny sheep and a little man with a drooping head – “because he’s very tired, so he’s hanging his head”. He spelled out “market” – “m o c t”.

We are having a games evening tonight, and we’re just waiting for the people to arrive. I thought Nick had said 7 pm, but it’s now almost 7.30 and no one is here yet. Hopefully they haven’t forgotten! We are going to play Balderdash again.