So Tom managed to avoid isolations during the last two weeks at school, however, he still missed a week because his hayfever / asthma made him so ill. He has been getting better - but it has been slow...very slow, he is still coughing A LOT! I took him to the GP but got a locum who didn't look up his history and told me it was a viral cough and to come back in 6 weeks if he still has it. We already had an appointment booked in with the allergy specialist for the last day of term - so as he wasn't at death's door anymore, thought it best to wait to discuss it with her - as she would understand. So, we might as well have been in isolation because we didn't really move from the house. Tom was a sorry sight!
After a week off school, he went back for a half day (it was parents' evening) and then it was an inset day on the Friday. Parents' evening was...interesting! It is a zoom meeting style set up, you get 4 minutes with each teacher before getting cut off. 4 teachers bowed out on the day! First teacher was science, we connected fine but then her voice was a robot voice which we could barely understand. So we were reduced to sign language to try to get to understand her. After a minute and a half her voice became normal so we got 2 mins of being able to hear her! Not great. This carried on for all teaches - oh joy. The worse (ironically) was the IT teacher - we only got 1 minute where we could understand him! After the majority, we had a 10 minute rest due to the teachers who couldn't make it so we set up another device - and yay - it worked. So for the last 4 teachers we were able to have a proper conversation and 4 minutes was ok.
So the gist of the conversations was that Tom is a good pupil, he engages well, tries his best and is a valued member of the class - works well in teams or by himself. No-one said anything negative at all (although you do wonder if teachers are allowed these days, plus with all the home schooling that has taken place, I'm guessing the teachers won't be negative because every parent has the perfect comeback to them) We asked about the grading system - asking if Tom was where he needed to be for his year group. All said that the grading system was ridiculous / pointless but not to worry about him, he was doing fine.
Most of the teachers were young and enthusiastic - made us feel better about the school. I think the top management are pretty weak, but the teachers we saw gave us hope that the actual teaching is ok. For Year 8 his year get randomly split into 3 populations: A, B & C and then those populations get split into 3 classes. For Maths, Science and Languages they get streamed. We got a letter through in his last week saying that he was in the top set for all 3 subjects - so the home schooling and nagging to do revision worked. Hoping that he will get to be in classes with well behaved pupils for those (he's always complaining about disruptive kids!).
The Friday after parent's evening was an inset day - strange time to have one, but it meant that wherever we went it would be empty. We decided to head to Dalton zoo. We haven't been there for ages. We had a very nice day out, most of the animals behaved themselves, but mainly we were away from home, doing something different and it wasn't busy.
It was also the Euros, we allowed Tom to stay up to watch the matches even though he was ill because we didn't want him to miss out. As you can see from the photo of him with his (new) Rhino he didn't actually manage to stay the course, but he was in front of the telly. It was exciting because England got to the final, however, they lost to Italy on penalties (3-2) - usual story. I have learnt the names of a new generation of footballers and got quite swept up in it all too.
The last week of school was pretty manic with isolations here there and everywhere. On Wednesday they told the whole of Year 9 not to go back in whilst they worked out who should / shouldn't isolate.
The next day all of Year 10 were sent home. When Tom got home he announced that the school had said they were closing early and not to go back in. As usual, no email, nothing on the the website but other parents said their children were saying the same, so we figured it was true. Don't blame them - it was getting completely out of control - still can't believe Tom managed to dodge them all!
On Friday we headed down to Manchester for Tom's appointment at the Children's Hospital about his hayfever. As I said before, this was good timing. We all went as Adam and Karen said they would put us up for the night. Matt dropped us off (only one parent allowed at the moment), we had an M&S lunch in the gardens and headed in for our 2pm appointment. Between us we explained what had happened over the previous weeks and (thankfully) Tom coughed. As soon as he did - they were, oh - we need to do something here, that's not good! He's been put on a brown inhaler twice a day and they have approved him for immunotherapy which is 3 years of 4 injections. It isn't a cure, it isn't successful for all, but if it works it will take the edge off and make his quality of life in the summer better. I got a little told off about not taking him to A&E when he got really bad. She said if it happens again that he should go and we should use her name to make them take us seriously! She gave us a prescription there and then which we could take to the hospital pharmacy to process - she wanted him on it asap! We did that and then got the bus to Adam and Karen's (very posh executive seated double decker bus - and we got the best seat!).
We had a very pleasant evening: chatting, drinking, BBQ and watching the cricket in their new hot tub. Leia and Rosa were pretty good company too - surprisingly as we were told that Leia (14) is hard work now.
We came home on Saturday after a shopping trip: Aldi and Wing Yip. It was the Gala in Ingleton - so we headed across, it was packing up as we got there, but Tom found Annabel and hung out with her for a good 4 hours - mainly helping with the duck race in the river.
Sunday we had a quiet day, Matt was playing cricket. We went over to watch for a while. Tom went for a dip in the river. He then stayed to watch Ingleton bat, whilst I visited Janine for a birthday gin.
Monday Luca came round at 2, they went off on their bikes for an hour or so, then went for a swim in the pool. Unfortunately it was too much for Tom, he came back from the pool looking 'wrong' and then he burst into tears saying he felt awful. He was supposed to do cricket training, but he didn't want to which is pretty extreme for him. He had a shower, watched the cricket on the telly and slowly got a bit happier. Oh hum!
Oh I haven't said but were are in the middle of a heat wave - it is roasting here at the moment. Not great - I have a wedding cake going out this weekend and it is so hot that buttercream is melting, fondant is sticky. I got up at 5am this morning to do the baking. I'm going to have to get up around 4am tomorrow to start doing the fondant work!
Tuesday we had a slow start, then Tom met up with Ellis to do some cricket in the field. They then went to the new ice-cream shop where Tom fainted. Luckily the owner was a nurse, so she looked after him and someone called us to go and get him. Oh dear.
He seemed fine - actually that was his first ever faint (that I can remember anyway) so he's doing much better than me - I used to faint all the time as a kid / young adult. In the afternoon the farmer came to cut the meadow behind us so we hopped into the campervan and headed to Hess Bank to do some train spotting. Was very civilised - we put the pop top up so Tom watched from 'upstairs'. I went for a long walk on the beach as there was no water in the bay at all (the height of low tide) - tried to take some arty photos - didn't really succeed!
Wednesday - I was up at 4.30am to ganache and ice the cakes. Took an age - it's been over a year since I last ganached a cake - forgotten how to do it - my skill level was down for sure! Because I knew I would be caking the boys had arranged a train day out on the vacation express: Skipton to Carlisle and back. I believe they had a grand day out - good food to be had in Carlisle!
Thursday - I was up at 5am to decorate the cakes - it went well, but I still couldn't stack them as the icing still wasn't set enough. Tom joined up with Jack Bickerstaff and they headed over to the salmon runs together to have some fun. They aren't exactly friends, more acquaintances but no-one else was around. I thought they would be back after an hour...over 3 hours later a very happy Tom arrived back - Craig had gone to get them as Jack had another appointment. I even got some video...
There was a cloud inversion going on which was amazing, made the mountain really mysterious. There was a waterfall of clouds falling down on us. We had breakfast, hung around to watch the clouds and then headed down. We were back home by 9am.
Saturday, wedding cake day! We were in Settle for 10.30 to deliver the cake. I had to stack it there which was a nightmare, however, it all went well and an hour after arriving it was all ready and no problems, phew! We headed back to Ingleton, had lunch at the new Bernies and then went to the church to see Harriet and Richard come out, so so nice to see a wedding - everyone looked amazing & happy, gave me a real lift. We then had a quiet afternoon.
Oh, good news, Tom seems to be almost recovered from his hayfever / asthma, hardly coughing now which is just lovely. We are still taking things easy though just in case...
Sunday morning, Tom and I went for a bike ride, once again to test out his breathing - he did grand. We just did the Cold Coates loop - so I could pick up some duck eggs and we could see if the Fosters were in - they were. They invited us in for a drink and before we knew it we had been there for about an hour just nattering away! We came back, had lunch and then Tom made a cake whilst Matt played cricket. We then headed across to the field to watch Matt in the sunshine. Wasn't the best match but was a pleasant way to pass the afternoon.
Monday, a morning of faffing and then Tom did a session of cricket nets with Ethan, Luca and Charlie for 2 hours. Tom was looking tired so he was in bed early tonight, still not 100%!
Tuesday, Matt took Tom to Netherfield for some county hardball training, whilst I stayed at home and did some chocolate work and baked some gingerbread medals ready for summer business.
We had breakfast and then headed over towards Middeton and then up to High Force - never been before and we found ourselves a good walk to view it from all angles. We then went in search of lunch and found some in a converted church. It felt like a proper holiday - eating in cafes and exploring new places.
Once fed, we headed to High Carlingill for another night in the van. We were in luck - no-one else was there (only really space for one). We were in hearing distance to the M6 - but it was just white noise so that was fine, and guess what...we could see the West Coast Mainline, so once again Matt disappeared to train spot and I put my feet up. Another van tea, and we were in bed early (about 9.30) exhausted with the fact we had managed a whole day out!
Friday morning we woke up, had breakfast and headed straight home as Tom was being deposited with us at 10am. It was Matt's birthday. Tom arrived about 5 mins after we got home, so we did birthday things straight away. Tom was supposed to have another hardball session with Cumbria Cricket, but it got rained off. Instead, we stayed at home and watched O'Brother together. We then went to the Highway Man for tea. Not the most exciting of birthdays for Matt, but we had just had 2 days in the van.
Saturday, a grey day. Didn't do much. Matt worked, Tom retrieve his Roger Moore James Bond collection from the Mannings, so he could watch them again. However, I then went in his room - and had a 'mother' attack. It was really really messy. Stuff stuffed every which way, so I put my foot down - everything came out from under his bed and then we delved into the dark depths of his wardrobe and 'found' all the clothes that had gone missing over the last couple of months - all screwed up and stuffed in the back corner of it. That was it - I saw red. Closed the door, and then made him pull EVERYthing out and then made him try EVERYthing on to see what still fitted. We ended up with two bin liners of discarded clothes, and his T-shirt drawer went from only having 4 T-shirts in (that's all I have Mummy) to having about 15 T-shirts in it as well as about 10 discarded T-shirts (that's how many were screwed up in the depths of his wardrobe). We both did loose the will to live, but it needed doing, however by 3pm we were down, watching James Bond to recover!
And that was July!
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