Monday 1st September
It’s September! Greg’s is back at therapies today and there are clouds in the sky. It’s almost as if the weather knows that school is due to start next week!
I fell back into the roll of taxi driver as if the four weeks off hadn’t happened! I took Greg’s to speech therapy. Waited. Chatted with the therapist. Made a mad dash home to pick up Catherine and her friend to drive back into town to drop them off, so they could have a wander round. Catherine was a bit torn as to whether or not she should cancel as we are meeting up with everyone for a drink tonight and she would have liked to have come too, but she didn’t want to let her friend down either. I am glad she stuck to her arrangements, she can see everyone tomorrow.
We did have a nice evening, although we met up later than I would have liked. I am no night owl that’s for sure, but we have to face the facts that tonight may well have been the last night that Neal see’s Chris. The likely hood of Chris being able to travel over here next summer is not looking great, but we can only hope.
As we arrived, we passed Clair pushing Chris up the road in his wheelchair, so Neal went down to help. Me and Greg’s went into sort a table out in the bar. I did feel a bit of a burk when she asked how many were we expecting and I told her anywhere between five and thirteen of us; I wasn’t sure if Mum Dad, Jack and her lot were coming, but they did; the more the merrier!
Neal got dragged into pushing Chris around the leather shop on the way up, so it actually looked like me and Greg’s had been stood up for the first twenty minutes…
I’m not sure if it’s actually wise for Greg’s to sleep outside tonight as storms have been forecast and it is looking decidedly dodgy out there! He knows to come in and bed down on the sofa if it starts to rain, but whether he does or not is another thing!
Tuesday 2nd September
The weather forecast was right. We had horrendous storms last night, the thunder was right overhead and the house seemed to rock with every thunder clap and the rain was torrential. The dogs were very unsettled and kept barging into the bedroom…It was a long night.
Greg’s slept on the couch and as we had things to do early I had to wake him up at 6am, which wasn’t an easy task. We had to head into town early as I wanted to check if there is a problem with our therapy payments from the government. We have given in four months of receipts and not received anything yet. We didn’t want to mount up a huge bill and not be able to pay it.
The lady in the IKA office was pleasant enough and said that there was no problem with our application and that our paperwork had probably got stuck at the bottom of the pile. She made a note to look for and process our paperwork as soon as she can…Hope she wasn’t fobbing me off…We will see!…It doesn’t make sense that they work from the top of the pile, but what do I know?
The morning actually went really smoothly, Greg’s had cognitive therapy today, but I can’t say I feel good about it. His therapist has said she will see him once a month??…Nowhere near the amount that he needs….I also didn’t like the way his occupational therapist spoke to me today. She is very condescending and to be honest is only used to working with younger children and I am getting the distinct impression that she is not taking the fact that Greg’s is seventeen into account…To put it politely she appears to have her head up her bum and seem to communicate with Greg’s main therapist.
I also managed to get Greg’s’ signed into school before the rush, which was something I had not expected to be able to do today. He has the same form teacher as last year, which is nice, but at the moment she is unaware of exactly why Greg’s is like he is, but the medical center have said they will arrange a meeting with the school, which should make life easier for him.
School opens on Thursday 11th September, but the time is not known for sure at the moment as it is only open for the priests blessing and they are not sure what time he will get there…We are probably looking at ten o’clock – ish….
Managed to catch up with everyone at the Rainbow for lunch. It’s Chris, Clair’s and Katie’s last day tomorrow, the week has flown by! Jack and family still have another week, which will probably fly by too, but at least they leave on the day the children go back to school.
Having my niece and nephew for a sleepover tomorrow. They are excited. We are excited. And Jack and Andy are excited… I really miss being a real Auntie. I love living here, but I do miss not having my sister and her family close by…Who knows, maybe one day?
Wednesday 3rd September
Spent the entire morning and half the afternoon cleaning and de-furring the house. We’ve got Maddie and Finlay tonight and are having the family up for a barbecue tomorrow evening, so it’s going to be a busy couple of days. Jack said that sometimes Finners skin gets a bit itchy when around animals, which is why we had to try and get rid of as much dog hair as possible. I did notice him scratching a little tonight, but I think that was nerves as he was pretty scared of Roxy, who’s a rather large German Shepherd. She was outside most of the time and she will sleep in our room tonight.
I must say that I was rather impressed at the way Greg’s and Catherine stepped up to the mark today. They helped clean the house and balcony with minimum of fuss. They have even stepped into the roles of big cousins like they have been doing it all their lives. Which makes me sad that we don’t live nearer my sister and her lot… I do miss family and I have no doubt that she does too.
We picked up Maddie and Finlay at the pool and said our goodbyes to Chris, Clair and Katie. We have to face the facts that we may not see Chris again…So, so sad, words fail me.
After introducing the children to the dogs, we played Happy Families and a bit of Wii before getting the children ready for bed. Then settled down to watch Despicable Me whilst eating pizza and Pringles…Finners was sooo excited to be having Pringles, his little old man face lit right up, like it was Christmas…It was so cute!
As we don’t have much room in the house, Greg’s was giving up his bed so the children could top and tail and he was going to sleep on the couch…But those plans went out the window as Finlay wanted to sleep near his big cousin and Maddie wanted to sleep with Catherine. So we made a makeshift bed on the floor beside Finlay for Greg’s and Catherine said she would top and tail with Maddie. Fingers crossed that they all manage to sleep. Catherine does throw her weight around when she sleeps, so I just hope she doesn’t end up squashing Maddie in the night….But the little ones were so happy and excited to be with their ‘big cousins’, that I am sure it will work out fine.
Need to go to bed and recharge my batteries as I have a feeling that tomorrow is going to be just as crazy!…Bring it on!
Thursday 4th September
I didn’t hear a squeak out of the children all night, which was a surprise. I expect the day at the pool and the excitement of being here knackered them out. Catherine said she didn’t sleep so well as she was worried about disturbing Maddie. Topping and tailing in a bed is all very well when both children are small, but when one is 5ft 6ins, it’s not such a cosy experience!
I got up early to try and get on with some reading and commenting on blogs, but just as I settled down to get on with it the four of them traipsed out of the bedroom, looking all cute and bedheaded.
Spent the day playing, feeding the little ones and preparing for the barbecue. Made my first batch ever of zucchini bread following Jen from JENerally Informed’s recipe and it went down well. It’s not a cake/bread that is popular in the UK, so it was totally new to all of us. It has a texture very similar to carrot cake.
Everyone tuned up at about six o’clock for the barbecue and Neal managed to finish work a little early too which was nice. Jack and Andy had walked to Lagana and had a few drinks in the day – just as they used to before children – so they were very merry when they rocked up!.
We had a really enjoyable evening, sat around talking rubbish and playing a close up picture guessing game on Jacks tablet. It was just really nice that my two children got to spend some time with my sister, their Auntie. They can now see that it is not just me who speaks rubbish and that it is a family thing that comes naturally to all of us.
I had actually forgotten how time consuming small children are. Thinking of what to feed them and then preparing it takes time…That does not mean that I don’t feed my two. I do. I cook a main meal once a day, but my to are old enough and more than capable of preparing themselves food when they are hungry and that gives me time to do other things.
Won’t be seeing them tomorrow, although Greg’s is staying at Mums tomorrow night as she is having the little ones over and he wants to be there too. We have to head into town and buy jeans for school….I am dreading it!
Friday 5th September
They say that June 21st is the longest day of the year, but I beg to differ. I was dreading shopping for Jeans for the children and I was right to…What a nightmare! The price of jeans is ridiculous, we ended up paying half price and that was still €40 a pair – and they are not name brand jeans either. I saw name brand jeans being sold for between €140 and €180!…Who pays that for jeans??!!!
One major problem we have is that Greg’s is so skinny, the shop assistants call him slender, but he is even slimmer than that! We did manage to get him one pair, but they aren’t denim, they are canvas, but look nice. He did like another pair, but they were drainpipes and made his legs look REALLY skinny. I can see we will end up having to pay full price for a pair of jeans for him as they don’t get many mens jeans with a 25/26cm waist and he finds belts fiddly, so it’s best to avoid them if we can.
Finally got home at 5.30pm, then went back in to town to pick up a pair of jeans that Catherine tried on, but I was reluctant to part with another €50 for a pair of jeans. Like hubby dearest says, if that’s what they cost then we don’t have much choice. It’s all part of living on a Greek island, the shop keepers get a little greedy and charge more than we would pay on the mainland. Buying jeans online isn’t really an option for us as they really have to be tried on, but we may have to seriously think about going over to the mainland to do clothes shopping in the future!
We finally settled down to watch Hollyoaks and have our ‘Friday’ night at gone 9pm. In my mind today felt a lot longer that June 21st ever has….Oh and the orthodontist is here this weekend, so Neal made an appointment for Sunday morning at 11am! I would much rather he came after Jack and family leaves, but another down side of living on an Greek island is that we don’t have a choice, as the orthodontist only comes once a month!
Saturday 6th September
At last a quiet-ish day! Which was great as it gave me time to try and catch up with things at home. I’m not the most organized person at the best of times, but with Jack and family being here on their hols, everything has gone out the window…Good times though!
Greg’s stayed at Mum’s last night with his cousins, which he loved. It was also a help for Mum and Dad as he helped to keep Maddie and Finlay occupied.
It did hammer down this morning, so me and Catherine didn’t rush to get to the Rainbow apartments pool; where Mum and Dad were taking the children and meeting up with Jack and Andy. By the time we got there at 4pm, they had eaten and even been in for a swim!…Which would have been freezing after the cloud burst of rain we had this morning.
Had a quiet evening in and watched an old Sandra Bullock film…It was good, but I can’t remember the name of it…Things have got bad!…I think the film was called Murder By Numbers, but don’t quote me on that!
Sunday 7th September
Took the children for their orthodontist appointments, which will totally put my days out of sync as we normally go on a Saturday. I can see me getting the children to school a day late!…They’d love that.
Ate far too much today! Spent the afternoon at the pool with the family and ate lunch. I had a chicken fillet burger which totally filled me up and would normally have seen me through until the morning with just a light nibble this evening, but oh no! Mum cooked a full three course meal at theirs this evening and we totally overate. A friend of Mum’s, who is a photographer came and took some family photos of us all, as who knows the next time we will all be together again. Have yet to see the photographs, if he got a good shot of me then he is good!
Spent the rest of the evening playing this daft game that Jack and Andy has got us all playing. It’s a close up picture game played on a tablet or smart phone and it’s totally addictive. We had it going on Mum and Jacks tablets and on Neal’s phone. Some of the pictures are a bit silly as you get to the harder levels, but it really gets the brain thinking and everyone can play. It’s amazing how some people see things differently. Even the children were seeing things that the adults couldn’t see.
A good evening was had by all and it was yet another late night… Tomorrow night we are meeting up, so the men can watch the football together….Sooooo tired!
I hope you enjoyed the glimpse into my everyday life. Please feel free to leave a comment below.
If you did enjoy this post; Debs Diary will be a weekly post published every Monday for a trial period. If it seems popular I will keep it going indefinitely.
Copyright © 2014 Debbie Roberts
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