Manky Bites Got Mankier (by sarah)

Friday the bites that Al had had the 'I can't walk' reaction too seemed to be under control if he took antihystimine to stop his calfs swelling but they started to get red swellings around them. We thought they might be a bit infected from scratching or something and went off for our busy weekend of travel putting savlon on them. Saturday though Al wouldn't dance at the wedding as the legs felt 'heavy' and they didn't look too good and I was worried they were getting bigger so I drew a line around one of the areas. Then today (Sunday) on the way home from London Al started to complain that there were shooting pains in his legs. This is what they looked like when we got home.

They are so hot and mottled and have yellow/white rings in the middle of them.

So I have sent him off to A&E on his own as I am here with kids. I am quiet worried about him. It may well be an over reaction on my part but I really think he needs antibiotics.

The Bitten Alaric (by sarah)

I was awoken this morning by Alaric crawling on his hands and knees saying, 'Wifey there is something terribly wrong, I can't stand up.'

It was said sort of jovially so I thought he was winding me up and was not impressed as I'd had a late night but he wasn't. It was as if his calves were in spasm except they weren't - I massaged them incase it was just cramp but there was no knotty muscles or anything.

He had no temperature or anything, the only thing that was unusual was the insect bites or stings or what ever they are. They are all over the bottom half of his legs and I didn't like the look of them the day before - I think they are from Wednesday when he took the cubs out for a wide game on the common but they could be from the weekend when we were amping and they have just gotten worse over the week.

His legs had been feeling weird during the night, trying to straighten them as you would for walking caused extreme pain or the panting variety. Of course the first thing that popped into my head was 'oh my god he's got lymes disease' but it looks like it is probably an allergic reaction to the bites.

So he has taken antihystamines and anti-flamatories and that should sort him out.

On a purely selfish note, apart from working out how I was going to orginise stuff if he was really ill, like children and money and hospital trips etc... part of me was thinking - why a Friday? Basically Monday and Friday are my getting stuff done days as it is a nursery day etc... it was a stupid thought but a real on none the less.

Jeany got ready for school for me and was as good as gold - as she always is when there is a crisis and the school car share people were happy to drop the kids off at school which was Al's job. I'm keeping an eye on him but am hoping that the tablets work and I will be able to go to Jean's exhibition still as she has worked so hard on it and me and Al eel these things are important - obviously if he doesn't she a marked improvement I wont go.

Science, Knitting and Dr Who! (by sarah)

Yesterday was amazing, I came up with a solution to Matt Smiths retirement from Dr Who - it was simple really Alaric's cubs think he is an incarnation of the Dr anyway! I think we should petition the BBC 😉

Then I turned up as a last minute recruit to the Cheltenham Science Festival - I'm doing impact research - basically walking around with shiny tech asking questions for Warick University. The team are lovely - if anyone is about - come over and say hello!

Then I met a lady from Surrey University who is using knitting to explain chemistry - similar to my knitted molecules she is crowd sourcing knitting to create a giant models of minerals 🙂

She is giving out the patterns 🙂 And I am going to be knitting up all my blue wool for the project! I am also hoping to catch the lovely Lizzy Burns who's molecular jewellery and glass ware I had on display in March for Science and Engineering week 🙂

Then to cap it all I found a welcome to UWE email in my in box - it is still stuff about processing applications but it made my day 🙂

For the knit wits out there it is The Perovskite Project and they are looking for more knitters 🙂

Muppet or Mr Men? (by sarah)

Yesterday Alaric awoke looking like this - well the hair not the face. The face came latter when he looked into the bathroom mirror and in horror began this conversation:

Al: ARRRRG!!!!! What the hell has happened to my hair? What have you done to it? You sprayed it in the night didn't you?

Me: It's boufont People pay money for that

Al: Yeah in the 80's!

I have since shared it on facebook a couple of times - the last asking the question Muppet or Mr Man?

I was already thinking of adding captions to this but serval people have suggest Lolcatz type captions and I also think he looks remarkably like grumpy cat who he happens to share a birthday with. For those who do not know who grumpy cat is check out the link.

If anybody has any caption suggestions popped them underneith in the comments section 🙂

Poetry Riot (by sarah)

Unfortunately we only caught an hour or so of the final night party Poetry Riot of the Cheltenham Poetry Festival - but what an hour with Trevor Meaney (yes not good photos but light levels were really low by this point as was my energy!):

And the sadly hilarious Clayton Blizzard with his whispered poetry and folk/rap songs that you are either going to laugh or cry or both too.

It was great fun though we sadly missed Mark Neil performing though I almost crashed into him at the top of the stairs and said my normal hello and he responded with his (I can't remember who you are) smile like normal 🙂 - Alaric appears to have transmogrified into Luke Skywalker from Return of the Jedi.

No really look!

I took embarrassing photos of the interns 🙂 (who should start a comedy show up!)

And I took arty pics of people taking much better pictures than me!

Other photos of events can be found at Write Out Loud and Bilt Photography (which is where my current profile picture on FB comes from!).

You can probably tell that I really really enjoyed the festival 🙂