After working hard to stay safe for almost two years, the plague has finally reached my inner circle. Layla-May had exactly two days back in school last week, developed symptoms on Sunday while she was with me, and then tested positive for covid on Tuesday.

Her mum doesn't usually see her at the weekend, but she made a point of coming down for ( Read more... )

Today I attended my first in-person funeral in over two years. I've done a whole bunch of streamed funerals in that time, including for my own cousin, which I desperately wanted to attend but couldn't, so it felt like quite a big deal to be able to attend in person today.

Today's funeral was for the husband of my dad's cousin, which doesn't sound ( Read more... )

Congratulations to my baby sister, who has secured a flat to move into with the girl friend she won't admit is her girlfriend (you know, they just live together and sleep in the same bed and do everything together and are planning a whole future together...).

Sis is autistic with a slight learning disability and has been unable to parent her child, ( Read more... )

It's been a while since I posted, which means it's about time for an update. Where to begin? With today's news, I suppose.

Some of my friends will know all about the ups and downs we've experienced with my little sister, tempestuous force of nature that she is. For the last two years or so, C has been living with her best friend, K, and K's dad, who ( Read more... )

We lost my cousin Gareth this week, Wednesday night. We knew it was coming, we’d known for a year, he lived a good six months longer than originally predicted, but in the end it was really fast. I was watching an American presidential inauguration for the first time in my life when the message came through that he'd developed serious breathing ( Read more... )

Today, the 5yo should have been seeing Santa.

The event was organised by a local community group, based out of an old stately home near where I live. The initial plan was a masked-and-distanced in-person meeting in the very beautiful reading room at the house, but then with covid cases locally beginning to spiral, that plan shifted into a ( Read more... )

After almost three years slogging through a system that at times has seemed almost designed to thwart them at every turn, my sister and brother-in-law finally made it to their final adoption hearing this morning, which lasted all of ten minutes. It was a formality. The birth family offered no objection - in fact, the birth father submitted a letter ( Read more... )