FIRST SANTA MEETING

We had our brigade Christmas party last Saturday. Daniel, Ben, Xavier and I all went along and had a great time.

The party's theme was a beach party. They had a jumping castle for the kids, unfortunately Ben was too big and Xavier was to small to go on....next year for Xavier at least. Ben and I were hanging out for the little kids to get off so we could have a go but by the time the guy came at 7pm to dismantle it most kids had to be dragged off screaming so we missed out. They also set up a large blow up pool in the front carpark which proved to be no end of fun for the kids even though it was quite a cool day.

A pinata was organised for the kiddies in the shape of a Santa, there are some very troubled kids who obviously have Santa issues as some of the faces pulled whilst whacking santa were quite disturbing! Santa held out though and dispite losing his head and then having to hang by his feet he eventually had to be broken open by Bec and the sweeties tossed up for the kids.

Straight after the Santa beating came the visit from Santa riding on the back of the Cat 7 fire truck!

There is something wrong about letting kids whack santa and then have them all lining up to get a present from him! Xavier had his first Santa experience and was not phased at all, sitting on Santa's lap I think he found the kids more interesting. He got a little ducky rattle that he seems to like.

All in all we had a lovely day/evening (3pm to midnight), Xavier was very good and seemed to enjoy cuddles and coos from everyone, Ben had a ball despite being in the company of either under 10 year olds or adults.

No, this is not baby Jesus, it's Xavier partying on into the wee hours!!

Xavier wondering why Daddy had Santa's tummy on his head.

HOWS DAT!!!!!!!

He, He He He He............more bragging photos...........................hows dat for a poo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So,do you still think I'm cute now??

SMILES, CHECK UPS AND IMMUNISATIONS!

Hi,

Mummy took me to the doctors 3 weeks back where I had my 6 week check up. I passed with flying colours. I weighed in at 5.28kgs, the doctor measured me at 52cm which meant I had shrunk since I was born but because I was a bit of a wiggle they said they will try again at my next visit in two weeks. Everything else was great and I am sitting just above the average line on all my growth charts.

I have started smiling now too! Everyone sticks their faces in my face and pull funny looks and make funny sounds. At the moment I think Ben is the funniest!

Last Thursday, Mummy took me to work and I had to have a needle in each leg and to top it off they dropped some disgusting stuff in my mouth too..............supposed to be good for me. I had my height and weight checked again, I now weigh 5.8kgs and I am 58cm (1ft 11inch) tall. Anyway, Mummy had a bit of work to do as they were having an accreditation visit so I decided to be on my best behaviour and went to sleep for a while. Once we got home I had had enough of being good. My legs were sore, I didn't feel very well and didn't feel like eating either. Mummy cuddled me to sleep and then I managed to get a good 8 hours in..................felt great in the morning! Mum still looked a bit tired, I think she was waiting for me to wake up in the night.

Aunty Heidi and Ishbel came to visit the other week. I managed a few smiles for Miss Ish and got lots of cuddles.

On Saturday night we went to my cousins house for Mummy's birthday tea. Aunty Heidi had cooked a yummy tandoori chicken - Mummy said it was delicious.

I've just added an extra picture to brag at how well I am doing at tummy time. Sorry I am not looking at the camera, I haven't quite mastered that yet. I had just finished having a shower with Daddy, I enjoy that as it relaxes me and I manage to sleep very well after.

Thats all for now, chat again soon,

Love Xavier

XXXXXXXX

New Paintings

Hi All. I have done some more paintings. Landscapes this time. Take a look...

RFS update

Hi all. Just a quick update on what I have been up to with the RFS. As promised in a previous post I said I would let you know how I went with my Advanced Fire fighting assessment. It went well. We had our practical pumping assessment first which presented a couple of scenarios that we had to interpret, identify the best action and execute our techniques to the satisfaction of the assessors. The guy I was partnered with from Winmalee had no problems. Next was the theory. There were three separate exam papers. One was Advanced Firefighting Principles, Advanced Firefighting Technical and Mapping & Weather. I forgot a couple of things on my first quick pass, but after spending some time mulling it all over it all came to me. When my theory papers were "marked" by Steve from Valley Heights he said it was refreshing to see someone had spent the time to learn their stuff properly and that my assessment was the best of the day!! Cool! So I passed, which is a relief as I didn't spend as much time preparing as desired due to the arrival of you know who.

On Tuesday I attended an inter agency terrorist response exercise with about three hundred other members of the RFS from far and wide, including Heidi. It was a 4:30am pick up at Faulconbridge and then off to Holsworthy army base. I will not go into all the details, but people were made to look like they had been in an explosion on either a bus or a train. Both a train carriage and a bus were blown up for the exercise. Pig carcasses were placed in each and when I asked about this apparently they are put in there to gauge the effects of the blast on a body. It looked quite strange to see a pig carcass dangling over the back of a seat in an exploded bus! There was a lot of time spent sitting around waiting but the actual exercise itself and the makeup efforts were very impressive. I took a couple of sneaky photos of one of the "blast injuries" of a guy that played one of the dead.

Well that's all for know. I will update again soon...

DADDY'S FIRST FEED

We bought a new breast pump so I can practice expressing and get it down pat before going back to work. This meant that Daniel was able to give Xavier his first bottle feed. We were a bit worried that he may not take to it but after screwing up his face initially he decided that all was OK. He has now had two feeds with his Daddy which has been very special for Daniel (good for the bonding) although he did give Daniel a few strange looks initially as if to say "hang on, this isn't right". Ben's turn next time.

WELCOME TO OUR NEW ADDITION

Sorry it has been so long since we last blogged. A lot has been happening as you know.

Firstly, we have to welcome baby Xavier to the family.

He came just one day after his due date, although this was driving his Daddy mad - he was eagerly waiting the arrival of his new bubba. Things were made worse by baby Fraser Colquhoun arriving promptly on his due date!

Never the less, the wait was worth it and Xavier Christian Hale was born;

Sunday 12 October 2008

Time: 9.52pm

Weight: 8lb 71/2 oz or 3.845Kg

Length: 54cm

All went well and both Xavier and myself were fine - so good in fact that we left hospital on the Tuesday - desperate to get home to the peace and quiet and away from the noisy hospital. We took the early discharge option where the midwife will come to your house for the next 7-10 days and check on you and bub.

So far he is settling in well, we haven't found a routine yet but he generally manages up to 5 hours a sleep over night and daytime sleeps vary. Just when I think we have some sort of routine he changes again. He is very alert and very good a lifting his head. He is starting to make eye contact with us and hopefully won't be long before the "wind" smiles turn into real smiles - can't wait.

Ben has been a fantastic big brother and is quite happy to cuddle his little baby brother even when he is howling his head off. He has been good at being able to settle his baby brother too! Ben was in Townsville the two weeks leading up to Xavier's birth, he flew back on the 12th October. Heidi and Ian offered to pick Ben up on the day just in case Xavier decided to make his grand entrance...........good job they did. At the time that Heidi would have been at the airport collecting Ben, we were headed for the hospital! What a nightmare it could have been, the airport is about 2 hours from the hospital. Ben ended up staying the night with his cousins, Daniel did call him after Xavier was born but he was already in bed asleep, although he did talk briefly to Daniel he doesn't remember the call!

Daniel took the first 3 weeks off work to spend time with Xavier and I, it was nice to have the support. He is a very devoted Daddy and I think he wishes he could have longer but he has organised to have two weeks off again at Christmas which will be nice. The only thing he doesn't seem to handle well are the poopy nappies!

In between sleeps I have managed to keep in touch with work and do a few jobs from home for them, I arranged to have remote access so I can dial in and do work at home. It helps keep the brain functioning and also helps keep my business manager, Claire, sane as she also has to look after a couple of other centres too. I'm doing things like the rosters and did the banking reconciliation - something Claire hates as I can usually balance mine and she never could prior to me starting at the centre. Down the track I will do a few more things and if I keep track of my hours I can get paid for them once my paid leave runs out (in about 4 weeks).

Well that's about it for now, sorry it's taken so long and I'm not sure when the next blog will be but we will do our best.

Long time no blog...

Well, it has been a while since there have been any updates from this neck of the woods. We have been busily getting ready for the impending arrival of the baby. Ben is in Townsville to see his dad at the moment. He is due back on the 12th of October. Baby is due on the 11th. That should make things interesting.... I have some photos of the babies' room all finished and a couple of photos Karen thought would be funny of me in the cot. (Not sleeping of course, just painting it.)

Ben has completed his basic fire fighting course and assessment, so he is a qualified cadet now. He got 100% on his theory exam and did very well on the practical side of things too! He did better than we did. Now he is eagerly awaiting his certificate, badges and his own uniform as he has been wearing Karen's for the past 5 months!!

I have been doing my advanced fire fighting course work. This goes into more detail on the mechanics of fire and fire fighting such as weather prediction, fire behaviour, pumping and (boring) community education. It has been a really good course and the assessment is at the end of November. I will let you know how I go. Karen has warned me that next year is her year to get stuck into all of the courses she missed while she has been pregnant, so I will be spending a lot of weekends being a house husband.


Bub's cot and canopy.



Bub's change table and wardrobe.

Bub's room from the door.

Me in the cot.

Me in the cot.

Well, this has been a quick update. I will endeavour to be a bit more prompt in my posts now that the preparation for the baby is done, although I am sure he will keep us very busy when he arrives. I will post photos of him when he arrives....

Talk soon!

For the record

For the record, the stripy top has been worn all of 3 times! It is reserved purely for the viewing pleasure of the Colquhouns!

Love the new google earth thing with the houses, Daniel said we can view ours too, how cool is that?

What's up?

Well, it has been a busy week, or at least weekend. The week itself was the same as usual. Work for Karen and I and school for Ben. Ben went to football training on Thursday night and clashed heads with one of his another boy from his team. Here is the resulting injury. We thought it was quite cool, but Ben did not share our enthusiasm.

The weekend was an entirely different story. On Saturday I hired a floor sander to strip back the floor in the babies room and polish it. I had done about ten minutes work on the sander when my phone rang and it was Stuart, the captain of the brigade asking me to be on a crew to assist with storm damage. I raced off to the station at about the same time Karen and Ben were leaving to go to Ben's football game. Ben's team were up against the top of the ladder and were beaten by a mile, but he had fun.

We ended up only having to attend to two houses on our call outs. No damaged homes, but a couple of crushed fences. The second house we were at fed us toasted cheese sandwiches and tea and coffee before they would let us leave. Once that was done we went back to the shed, cleaned up the truck and left for the afternoon. (Only to return later in the evening..read below.)

When I got home, Karen and Ben were back from football. I resumed sanding and found that the floor boards came up very nicely. I put the first coat of varnish on and left it to dry. (12 hours!) Over the remainder of the weekend I put the second and third coats on. We are really happy with the way it all turned out. The first photo is the bare boards and the second photo is the finished product.

On Saturday night we had a social function at the fire brigade. We have been having a deck built at the back of the shed for social gatherings. This is now complete and we had a deck warming/card night. We got there at about 6:30pm and started on the nibbles. We did an "official" opening of the deck later on with champagne and a ribbon cutting. After that we got down to playing cards, eating pizza and partaking in some "beverages". It was not for money, just for fun. We played poker, Blackjack and a couple of other games. It was great fun and most of us may have had a few more drinks than we should have! Karen, Ben and I left at about 2am and the rest of the guys assure me they left at about 3.

Sunday was a bit slower. We slept in until 11am! (Guess that won't be happening for much longer!) I got ready and went to the fire brigade for a maintenance day. I Spent about 2 hours there doing some gardening and tidying before coming home again. We spent the rest of the day on the couch watching stuff recorded over the week.

Karen and I both took Monday off so that we could take Ben to Blacktown to compete in the regional athletics championships. He was selected to represent the region in javelin. We got there an hour before his 10:45am event only to find that it was actually at 11:30, so we watched for a while. Ben did his best but was up against some stiff competition. He was a bit disappointed in himself, but we are very proud of his achievements. He got a Sydney West Athletics jumper for his troubles. This is Ben in action...

Well, that is it in a nutshell. One last photo to leave you with. A progress photo of Karen's "alien growth"...

Ben's BF training...

Well, Ben started his BF training with the Rural Fire Service on the weekend. It started at 8:30 am on Saturday at a place called Bell which is at the western end of the Blue Mountains. When we got there it was -2 degrees and ice was falling off the trees and power lines. Very cold.

Saturday was quite a boring day for Ben as it was all theory, so he was in a classroom all day. I caught him nodding off at one stage, but I can't say much about that as I nodded off in our classroom sessions myself! He finished at 3:30pm and we trekked back home to get some rest for the night as we had to be back there again at 8:30 on Sunday.

If at all possible, it was colder there on Sunday. Threatening clouds came over throughout the morning while Ben was inside doing more theory. When his class came out to do the practical work it started to snow! It is funny to think that everyone was running around in the snow and the cold learning how to fight fires in the heat of summer! The first thing the recruits had to do was learn how to use fire extinguishers. Everyone managed that without any problems. Below is a video of the extinguisher work.

The class then learnt about hoses. The helpers (me and a few other guys) built a large fire, started it and threw a container of drip torch fuel on it to really get it blazing. The class then got to put it out with a hose and extinguisher. Fun for all! See the below video for the fire. Ben is to the right of the fire in the background.

Next the group learnt about drip torches. For those of you that don't know, a drip torch is a canister with a wand and a wick that drips a fuel mix, usually 25% unleaded and 75% diesel, on a burning wick. It is used to start fires for hazard reductions and back burning. (and BBQ's) The class was split into 3 groups and I took one of the groups and explained how a drip torch operates and tutored each of the people in my group on how to use it and got them all to have a go. Here is Ben having his turn...

The groups were then shown how to use hand tools and I taught the group I had, which included Ben, how to use a rake-hoe and a fern hook. I then got them to create a section of fire trail about ten metres long. Ben did quite well.

Once this was done, the day was over. We packed up all of the tables and chairs and hit the road again. Ben seems to have thoroughly enjoyed the experience and is looking forward to using his new found knowledge. He is back there again on August 10 for the last day of training and then his assessment is on September 21. I will let you all know how he goes on the last day of training. He will get to play with pumps and big hoses....

More sport for Ben...

A few weeks ago Ben competed in the school athletics carnival. He competed in a number of events, but it turns out he is quite good at javelin. He won the event and went on to represent Springwood High in the inter-school competition. He did well at that too, so now he is off to represent the region in the Sydney West Championships. Well done Bippo!! We will let you know how he goes.

New Painting..

Hello all. Here is another painting I have put the finishing touches on. Let me know what you think...

Ben's Rugby...

Well another game today. The game was due to start at 11:50am, but due to an injury from the previous game and the ambulance being on the pitch the game was shortened to two 15 minute halves. The team went out hard and scored two tries and one conversion in rapid succession. We though that they had the other team from Rooty Hill cornered but they fought back and ended up beating Ben's team by two tries. It was still a valiant effort because the other team was, yet again, filled with huge islanders. Ben did really well catching all the kicks that came his way and throwing himself into some big tackles against some huge contenders. We thought he did well and it turns out the coaches thought the same thing as he was awarded player of the week. For his troubles he gets to hang onto the trophy for a week (a lump of wood with a plaque on it) and a ten dollar voucher for the canteen. Well done Ben! His last game before the break for school holidays is a night game next Friday that he is looking forward to very much, although it is against one of the top teams. I will let you know how he goes.

Winter Magic Festival...

Well, we finally made it to the winter magic festival in Katoomba after living here for these past few years. It was on the 21st, the solstice. It always seemed that one or both of us were working. Well this time I wasn't working, Ben's rugby match got postponed and although Karen was working the morning, she was working in thick of the festival. Ben and I went up at about 11am and dropped in at the gallery where my paintings are on show and had a quick look around and then we went to Karen's work. We hung around there for half an hour or so and then all three of us went for wander down the main street. It was closed to traffic and there were thousands of people. Lots of street performers and stalls and as you would expect quite a number of strange folk.
When we made to the bottom of the street there was a street performance of Brazilian drumming. It was very good and at the first (loud) strike of the drum the baby started doing somersaults in Karen's belly!!! Either he really approved or was not happy about being woken up. The lady next to us who was pregnant said her baby was doing the same thing! As it turned out half of the performers were faculty from Ben's school. I will try to load a video I took, but the file is huge so it may take some time. After that we wandered back up the street and we saw one of my paintings in the street exhibition. The owner of the gallery had put a number of works in the public exhibition and some of mine were in it. Cool. After that we had had our fill and went home. Next year we want to make a day of it and see the official parade and the fireworks at the end, but what we saw was still fun.

Another week that was..........

Wow, another week gone already........

Ben had his first crew day last Sunday. They were up and out the door early and came back about 1pm - with a big grin on his face.

He'd had fun, they had gone out to do some pump work and ended up drafting out of a creek. They let him play with the different hoses etc too. The only thing missing was the usual bacon and egg sandwich for brekkie, they didn't do it that Sunday. When he got home he went to jump in the shower only to come out fairly quickly with a leech stuck to his thigh! Yuck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He was very brave, Daniel dowsed it in vinegar and it quickly fell off. A trophy for his first crew day!

There was no footy this weekend as it is our Queen's Birthday public holiday weekend.

Saturday, Daniel joined other members of the Brigade who were taking part in a documentary about psychics and how they are used to find missing people, help with crimes etc. The incident they were covering was about a little girl who went missing about four years ago, she had gone for a walk with her dog and a massive search and rescue was involved looking for her - in the end they found her along the railway line not far from her house, apparently the dog was taking her home - it was hungry!!

The brigade was involved in the search, on Saturday they went up to the helipad (no where near where the little girl went missing) and were doing "bush setting" interviews with various members from State Emergency that were involved in the incident, when we rocked up they were interviewing a guy from Police Search and Rescue and National Parks were waiting their turn.

It was all quite funny to watch, they set Stewart our captain up with a truck in the foreground next to him.

Then in the background they had the PC with the guys from the Brigade pretending to read maps and take it in turns to walk backwards and forwards to look like they were being active.
Next the camera man did some shots of the crew driving up in the truck and jumping out - after the first take they were asked to do it again but with feeling!!

For those Aussies out there, the show will be airing on Channel 7 some time in early July and is going to be called "The One".

Quiet week................

It's been quiet this week.

Ben had Thursday off due to another teacher's strike and with some of his school mates went to Penrith to see Iron Man - we figured that the teacher's strike wasn't his fault so they might as well take advantage of it. I am now having Thursdays off - but obviously the movies were more exciting than Mum being home! I caught up briefly with Heidi and Co in the afternoon for a cuppa.

Friday Ben was off sick - sore throat, complaining of aching chest and was running quite a high temperature - fortunately, Daniel was having that day off so he had someone home with him.

Daniel was suppose to be going to the "Easter Bunny" event for the RFS. It is a mystery course that different brigades undertake and they have different exercises to do. As there wasn't many from Faulco going, Daniel and Toby were going to be buddied up with Woodford but it turned out it was going to have to be an overnight thing so Daniel changed his mind. I guess that's why other brigade members didn't go either. It's called the "Easter Bunny" because it used to be held over Easter but now it's done at the end of May out of fire season.

Saturday there was no rugby due to other team forfeiting! Not that Ben would have been playing as he was still unwell. Apparently at least half of the other team play rep rugby for South West Sydney under 14s and had other commitments so Ben's team won by default - 28 - 0 (how do they work out a score if they never played??) !! Probably just as well as this appears to be one of the top teams and the only way to beat them would be for them not to turn up - very convenient!

Sunday I took the pups for a walk and we met a steam train along the way! I don' t think they (the pups) were too impressed - I thought it was quite cool though.

I only got the one photo, I have a new phone and couldn't reset quick enough to get another photo.

It came past quicker that I expected and was cheating - it has a diesel engine on the back pushing it along!

It goes from Central Station up to Katoomba and then back again later in the day. According to the web site it is due back again in July.

I can hear it now heading back down the mountains.

And that's it for this week!

Birthday Boys Weekend

Well another birthday has come and gone. Ben's birthday was Friday - he had the usual school to go to, it was also school photo day.

In the evening it was our Brigade's general meeting where Ben signed up as a new cadet in the Rural Fire Service - they can join officially at 12 yrs but our Brigade has a age ruling of 14yrs. He had to stand up in front of a room full of Brigade members and introduce himself and give a brief bio on himself. He did very well especially considering there were quite a few members there that night - we were passing our new Brigade constitution before the Annual General Meeting due next month, so attendance was higher than usual. Afterwards we took off for pizza (Ben's requested meal) and a DVD.

Saturday we had to travel to Baulkham Hills for Ben's rugby game - the team they played this week was Hills Black, they had played them before in a pre-season trial game and as per the trial game they were beaten again. Quite a rough team and some of their tactics quite questionable, they were also a much bigger team too - a lot of Ben's team (including Ben) tend to resemble stick insects rather than big rough rugby player! The final score was 39 - 14. Ben and another Ben on his team both got special mentions for their great defence so he came away with head held high! No injuries to report for this week either.

In the afternoon he had his mate Andrew over for a sleep over. He had also asked Sean and Bradley but both of them managed to get themselves grounded - must be a teenage thing! He seemed happy enough with just Andrew though, we had a barbeque tea, loaded up on DVD's and the pair of them were asleep before Dan came to bed - so much for them staying awake all night as planned.

Sunday morning they had arranged to go to the movies with Beth (Ben's girlfriend) and her friend. Beth's dad picked the boys up from here and took them to Penrith where they saw the Spiderwick Chronicles, then did a bit of shopping before Beth's dad dropped the boys off here again. Andrew and Ben then went off straight away with skateboards in hand and we never saw him again until about 5.30pm!

I think he enjoyed his weekend. He is already tucked up in bed exhausted. Poor Granny Di tried to have a conversation with him but could barely get a yes out of him - not sure if that comes from being tired or being 14yrs old!

That's all for now - love Karen

In the gallery...

Well, on Tuesday I took 14 of my paintings to the Bowerbird Gallery in Katoomba. We went up today to take a quick look at an international exhibition that opened this afternoon and the gallery owner has already put some of my paintings up on show!! It felt pretty weird to see them on a wall other than ours at home. I was also asked to do a short bio and send through some more photos of my paintings as well as a photo of me so that I can be added to the website. That is pretty cool because only a few of the artists on show in the gallery are featured on the website!!



Anyway, below is a photo of me in front of one of my paintings on show in the gallery....

My paintings...

Well there has been an intersting development. I spoke to the owner of one of the galleries in Katoomba last week and she asked if I could send through some photos of my work to her. I did so on Wednesday night. On Thursday morning I received an email and it turns out she likes my work and, I quote, "I have only just now logged in and they (the paintings) are super, I would like to see them now and I believe you would be added value to the gallery as your style of work is quite unique." I gave her a call on Thursday afternoon and she came to the house at about 5:30 that evening and liked what she saw.

So, on Tuesday I am taking as many paintings as possible to the gallery after work and she is going to put them up on display and for sale!!

Came as a big surprise to me, so fingers crossed all goes well.

I will let you know how it goes and will add some photos once the paintings are in the gallery....

Here is the link to the gallery if you are interested in taking a look: http://www.bowerbirdgallery.com.au/

Ok. Adios doritos.

Master Bubba (the peanut) Hale

Hi again,

We had our 18 week ultrasound today, no pictures available yet as they were having trouble with their printer but hopefully we can collect on Thursday.

So far all is well, Bubba appears happy and healthy and everything was where it should be.

We found out the sex - couldn't avoid it really - as it turns out Bubba is a bit of an exhibitionist (much like his father) and all was revealed to us quite clearly!!

So get knitting those BLUE booties!!!

Will update with picture soon - hopefully.

Ben's Parent/Teacher Night

I was just reading Heidi's blog about Robbie's parent/teacher night, it was also Ben's so Daniel and I trotted down with heavy feet dreading the outcome - or was it just that feeling of having to go to school? Ben was already there, he had gone up earlier to catch up with some friends - goodness knows why he was so keen to go back to school after being there all day but I have a feeling it was more about social contact with friends than school.

As it happens we have a "lovely boy" too (must be standard repertoire for Springwood High), he was a bit unsettled in the beginning but seems to be sorting himself out now. His science teacher and maths teacher spoke quite favourably about him and he has been doing surprising quite well in test etc - not that he had told us! Turns out he is in the top 10 in his class for maths - a big shock for us.

I think Ben was dreading his report from his English teacher as the first term report card was not very favourable but Mr Saltis (what a flake that guy is - reminded me of my chemistry teacher @ Tomlinscote) said that over the past few weeks Ben had made significant improvement and if he had to write that report now it would be totally different. Ben had actually come home from school that afternoon with a Bronze Award for showing significant improvement in English - that's his third Bronze Award now! When they reach 5 Bronze Awards I think they get some sort of formal acknowledgement from the school - I think.

Ben too has Ms Martin for history, she spoke very favourably about Ben and turns out she lives in our street! Not only that, I worked with her son Mark @ Penrith Imagining!! I ended up giving her a report on what a lovely boy Mark was to work with - quite funny!!

Ms Fodor, his technology teacher, guessed who I was before we even sat down! She said I couldn't be anyone else's mum bar Ben Sapwells - she thinks he looks just like me!

So we left with a huge sigh of relief - not what we expected at all. We made sure Ben knew we were happy with the outcome as I know he was dreading certain teachers reports.