Guineapigmum moves on

It is time to grow up, venture into the world alone, stand on my own two feet. The guineapigs are guineapigs no more. They’ve left school and are off doing other things. So I called in a PR company and, just as British Petroleum became BP and Environment and Resource Technology became ERT, I paid them many thousands of pounds to change Guineapigmum to GPM; I have, after all, become attached to it.

I’m relaunching my blog which has languished unloved for some time, partly because I want to share my plans for this summer’s Big Adventure, the Shin Swim. A friend and I are planning to swim coast to coast across Scotland. Well, swim and cycle – we can’t really swim upstream and crossing Scotland does mean crossing a watershed as any self respecting geographer will tell you.

Before closing this blog, I do plan to write a post with an update on the guineapigs, for those Edubuzz readers who have been with me all this time. But please don’t leave me – drop in at GPM goes wild!

Joining in the fun

Why do so many mums write blogs?  And such entertaining ones at that.  Anyhow, I’m joining in the fun over at Part Mummy Part Me. Head on over there to find some bloggers you may not have encountered before. Read. Enjoy. Vote.

 

And while you’re here, try this link, courtesy of Blethers, for yet another form of displacement activity.  It’ll only take you away for a minute or two from that pile of Christmas cards you should be writing…

A bloggy good idea

I don’t often post about the work I do, having been jumped on from an enormously great height early on in my blogging career.  Yesterday I was in Inverness presenting some work I’ve been involved in to the relevant SNH staff; this post isn’t about that work, before anyone gets excited, but is about some discussions en route.   Five of us in a car from Perth, thanks to the rail strike (for once I had bought a ticket ahead of schedule  🙁    ), did prompt a certain amount of chatter.

The guys were discussing the problems of an internal newletter they were planning to produce.  Once a month? Every 2 weeks? How long? Paper or email? Would people read it?  “Why don’t you make it a blog?” said I.  “Blog?” they chorused, as though I had just suggested Continue reading

Life goes on

In fact, it goes on at such a pace there doesn’t seem to be time to write blog posts.  And that’s with no significant work to do for a week or so.  Bliss!  Christmas shopping and meeting fellow bloggers without feeling that there’s something else I should be doing.  Make the most of it.  It won’t last.

So, in the last ten days I’ve had my second round of chemo, which was no problem, although I think it took a little longer to get over than the first.  I did manage to get myself along to the EduBuzz meeting but was feeling slightly spaced out so I’m not sure I contributed anything coherent.  In fact, I may have agreed to write something; it’s rather akin to agreeing to something at a party or with a pint in your hand.  You wake up the next morning thinking “I said I’d do what?”.  Anyhow, as I’m fairly certain I haven’t said I’d swim the channel for charity, I’m sure it’ll be fine.

I also met up with fellow bloggers Helen, Vanessa and Erica at an Edinburgh coffee shop and then visited the Children’s Bookshop in Morningside.  Continue reading

Should I stay or should I go?

My blog is fast approaching its first anniversary and I find myself in a place I couldn’t have dreamt of a year ago.  As a family, we seem to have experienced a Series of Unfortunate Events this year, starting with the death of my father-in-law in January (we all hated those books, by the way).  On the other hand, there have been plenty of highlights – that whoop! when GP1 saw his Standard Grade results, doughnutting on Coll, learning (perhaps too generous a term in my case) to surf, the end of week concert at NYBBS – there were lots more. 

Whilst my blog began as a commentary on the boys’ goings on at school, it has evolved into a much more personal online diary, with random mutterings about family, work and, more recently, illness.  Whether or not anyone else reads what I write, I have found being able to write extremely therapeutic

Continue reading