Writing practice … first time he has wanted to all holiday…. taken Sep 01, 2017 @ 13:30
Well we have just purchased new caravan – T having passed extra license a fortnight ago. Pick up in 5 weeks… same dealer as we brought from 3 years ago… taken Sep 03, 2017 @ 13:23
My current view …. someone hungry it appears…. taken Sep 16, 2017 @ 09:53
Fire bathing cat … taken Sep 23, 2017 @ 20:54
So proud of Sqk- getting this at end of week 3. Good listening 🙂 taken Sep 23, 2017 @ 21:22
One Happy Lily-Cat …. taken Sep 23, 2017 @ 21:44
Tag: adoption
Reflections
Yesterday after sorting out a few things at work I got back to my office at work to discover the news that Gareth Marr has passed away. It has surprised me how much the loss of a man who I met three times in total – and heard speak twice has affected me. I was teary-eyed at the news – and in tears talking about it with T last night. I really do feel like I have lost a friend – and as the many tributes on twitter have shown so do so many of us in the adoption community.
I first met Gareth at the Adoption UK conference in November 2014 although we’d been corresponding on Twitter before then about adoption and education. Education has always been something I have a passion about due to growing up as the daughter of a teacher and now bothe the sister of a teacher and working in higher education myself. I am former school governor with special interest in PP and Gareth and I connected discussing the #adoptionschooltrain.
Every time I met him he was always well turned out with his trademark hat and that deep voice. When he talked you listened. Having met him in Birmingham when I heard he would be up to speak at the Yorkshire & Humber Adoption Consortium educaiton conference in May 2015 I immeidately invite dhim to speak to the local Adoption UK support group. We even got Ralph berry – a Bradford councillor with an interest in education and social services to come along. It is an evening that will live long in my memory and one that empowered a lot of us to go and talk to our schools. He certainly inspried me – my one regret is that T never had a the chance I had to engage with him.
When the education white paper came out earlier in this year and I realised that finally it would be recognised that our children in education terms have very similar outcomes to those in care (KS2 pass rate: 49% previously in care; 46% in care compared to 75% average nationally) I thought immediately how please Gareth would be. It was a bright spot for me in what has been a pretty horrible few months – little things with Sqk and major things with my work that I will blog about another time.
Now as I said on twitter yesterday we need to ensure that his legacy lives on.
Look how far we’ve come
Currently sat on my laptop in a  lodge at Center Parcs in Cumbria with a sleeping Sqk upstairs and a yawning DH behind me on sofa. Almost a year since we took Sqk on his first holiday – also to Center Parcs (Sherwood Forest that time). Not had any swans visiting us this time but still had a great 3 days.
Reasons to be Cheerful
I know I know – other than Instagram posts I haven’t updated in ages (last post in November to be precise). Blame work then Christmas then work – second half of semester 1 is always busier and I came back on 5th January straight into exams – then a week in Tenerife then back to semester 2 and marking. However getting some semblance of normality back and Sqk is settled again after the aggro of changing childminder and Christmas. I am finding it interesting this semester balancing work and life – it is my 14 hours a week in the lab + 1 hr seminar semester so busy. Once you add in new PhD student (which a reason to be cheerful in itself – helps on promotion quest), research project kicking into high gear, 4 final year project students and two PGT students – well you can see why I wonder where my week goes – along with meetings galore (I do no have a Wednesday afternoon free to late March).
However, enough of work – on the other side of life Sqk is doing well although seemingly settled at nursery given he is pushing boundaries now – and apparently being defiant (getting ‘no’ lots end of this week). He is doing really well with new childminder who is working with us and hopefully helping us get there on toilet training. He did really well on our week away in Tenerife.
Instagram: Images December 2014
Hard to believe this is 4 years ago. I’d walked home previous day as uni shut. T had walked from his pharmacy as car was stuck & walked back in morning. Ricki just sank in the snow… taken Dec 02, 2014 @ 09:20
Lots and lots of engines required…. taken Dec 12, 2014 @ 17:53
We decided we wanted all our trains & carriages & trucks on track…. taken Dec 13, 2014 @ 16:19
It’s starting to look rather Christmasy taken Dec 13, 2014 @ 16:21
My current view….Snowman recorded on our PVR last Christmas. taken Dec 24, 2014 @ 17:39
DH’s evening task….one spoilt little boy… taken Dec 24, 2014 @ 20:34
All our trains including Toby who came today… taken Dec 27, 2014 @ 15:48
Remembrance
Today has been Remembrance Sunday in the UK which has some poignance for me. Of my grandparents, two served in Navy late in WW2 (well Granny in Wrens) which is how they met on a wireless operators course. My other grandfather was a radar boffin from 1939 – which I did not know till I was doing my MSc in 1997/8. I knew he had been in Air Ministry on a summer placement in 1939 before returning to Queens’ College, Cambridge to do a PhD in Physics but until then had always been told he was in RAF. I am incredibly proud of the work he did as well as the work his brother did as an engineer involved in jet engine research. Unusual family in that both brothers were not in uniform, but both contributed greatly in their own ways although never really talked much about it. My Wren Granny I have in the last year discovered was actually in Y service acting as a listener to enemy transmissions which went to Bletchley Park for decoding so again an important role. My other grandmother was a cook and housewife – they married during war and my aunt was born in 1943.
Where has a year gone….
On this date (Tuesday) a year ago, I was doing anything I could to keep busy & distracted – as we had all bank holiday weekend. We’d had the meeting on the Friday afternoon with Sqk’s social worker and were waiting to be told whether we were going to be linked to the little boy who by this time we both had invested a lot of our hearts into. It was late in the day when I got a phonecall from DH to say it was official as the Timehop of my second twitter post of the day shows. Continue reading “Where has a year gone….”
Instagram: Images July 2014
Last morning coffee of leave. Back to work on Monday…time has flown by. taken Jul 18, 2014 @ 08:23
Sqk’s presents & cards thus far. Ready for morning…. taken Jul 18, 2014 @ 22:35
