Surviving

We started parent consultations this afternoon. My one dear, darling, delightful student for reasons only known to him, decided to tell his mother I was seeing her on Thursday - NO, I was supposed to see her first this afternoon and it now means I have to slot her in as a third consultation on Wednesday and will only go home at 4.30. He wondered why I wasn't enamoured with him the rest of the day and why I seemed grumpy. Hmm, I wonder why? The only parent I had this afternoon went fairly well but had to say her son needs to be assessed to see if he is on the autistic spectrum and no, an educational psychologist wasn't going to cut it. Saying that, I am doing an online course through the University of Kent on autism and I think I have a few of the characteristics to a degree. I definitely express myself better in writing than through oral communication and there are a few other things.

I finish where I am house sitting currently tomorrow and then go home for one night, before going to Ballantyne Park til Saturday or possibly Sunday. I will be taking on the biggest menagerie of animals I have looked after to date and one dog is special needs. The friend told me about an armed robbery last night in the area so I may be grateful for having five dogs on the alert. I have the choice of whether they share my room with me or not - we'll see!

Ventured to Arundel to get some Christmas prezzies and I must applaud Inside Out gift shop as they are the only people I know who have kept their prices the same with all the Zim madness. Guess where I will be doing most of my Christmas shopping. It's a clever move in a way, as it means people will still patronise them and probably buy more (well I don't know, but it does seem clever and I am not complaining at all). They had run out of BirdLife calendars though so I must try find those. From there I went to Pick'N'Pay and I was so excited to see olive oil I scooped up a bottle only to nearly drop it again when I checked the price - er, will make do for now with what I have. Hoarder tendencies are breaking through as you see things that you haven't for a bit and you think, I better get at least two!

Driving to pick my mum up from HIS there was a large cloud of smoke which looked suspiciously like it was from Pomona Dump. Really hope not!

Pomona Dump on fire in November 2016 (photo from John Culley)