Japan's proximity to China, physio & bipolar

I didn't realise my Chinese five year old had really thought in depth about Japan invading China in WWII. We were looking at where China is whilst discussing Chinese New Year today and I happened to point out where Japan is on the map. Well you should have seen his face! He asked me, "Is Japan that close to China?" and when I said yes he looked horrified. Oh dear, we will have to work on Chinese-Japanese relations. I need to find a nice Japanese five year old for him to meet. My student was able to tell me which zodiac sign it will be this new year and he even knew what both his and mine were.

Went and got air drying modelling clay for tomorrow's lesson and then had physio. I seem to have a spider bite right on my sore tendon - of all places. My physio told me to watch it and if it turns any darker in colour to go see my GP. During the session she asked me about what I do and I told her I tutor mostly. She asked if it was what I had always wanted to do and I said no I had originally studied ecology. The conversation swung as it invariably does to why I'm not still doing that and so I said how I had developed bad depression and had to stop. It came up that I had had depressive episodes since I was 15 and I haven't really thought about the fact that it took 12 years to diagnose and treat it. That's a long time! Turns out my physio had post natal depression and she described the inability to get out of bed in the morning some days so well by saying it's like feeling you're under your bed and you're trying to push up through the base and the mattress but it just is too heavy and is pushing you down. She said I can put a flyer up for my depression support group at the physio reception.

We also talked about why I haven't tried again at a PhD. I do still feel intimidated after failing at my first attempt and I am not sure if academia is the healthiest environment for mental health challenges. It can be a very lonely experience and you have to have high self esteem. I like teaching in that I can daily see progress and feel rewarded and I interact with people all the time. I have just been offered a place on the National Institute for Learning Development (NILD) course to help with learning difficulties in maths. Will see about doing the educational therapist course in August.