It *was* a long drive home, made somewhat longer because I HAD to pause in Balinasloe for a sleep. It was either sleep in a car park in Balinasloe or sleep in the middle of the road doing 100kmph, and the former seemed more sensible than the latter.

...and the man who was supposed to be here today for a demo rang me at 8.00am this morning to tell me his wife just had a baby, so that's postponed now. It's a funny old week, this one.

I have to take Annie for one of her developmental checkup thingies on Monday. I took her for the last one when she was about 2 (I think) and apart from the fact she couldn't *jump* she pretty much aced everything, stacking all the blocks in the box instead of just the three or four she was required to, holding a conversation with the nurse person rather than just being able to remember approximately 20 words etc. She's good, you only have to look at her in comparison to her cousins and playmates to tell that. And she's big, not overweight or anything but just really tall and therefore big. She's wearing all 5-6 year old clothes even though she's now just under 3 1/2 (she actually insists she's 4...there's no point in arguing the point, she's very firm on the matter).

But she used to be very unsure on her feet. At the time we just thought that's the way she was - and to some extent I still think that's the case - but since her eyes have been sorted out she is a lot more confident, running faster, climbing more, better on steps etc. She was a little late to walk, preferring to shuffle around on her knees for a long time, but apparently I was much the same as a small child, and she makes up for the physical side of things in so many other ways that we're not concerned; but the slightly odd thing was that she couldn't/wouldn't jump. She'd do all of the motions, the swinging arms, bending knees, poised for take-off, release for the jump etc...but wouldn't actually leave the ground.

_shrug_

More laser surgery is required in about a month's time to clear more cataract that's formed on the capsule. They're not too sure how many more times this will happen but it'll be her third laser job since the original operation so we'd kinda hope it would sort itself out soon.

We were also given a prescription for her glasses this week. She'll only need them for reading and should grow out of them by the time she's in her teens..."should"..."hopefully"...

I don't really like it when people use those sorts of words.

No real plans for the weekend yet, although it'd be nice to *really* relax for a change...not sure exactly what that means, but it'd be nice. Pretty certain my wife thinks I do nothing else *other* than relax...it's not tactful to remind her she's just had three months off work...

I've been thinking about getting some of this off my chest for a while. For some reason (probably because I have the time today) now is the time.

If you weren't involved in Diddlysquat this probably is of no interest to you, and you probably won't understand what it's all about anyway. But what is behind this cut is the complete story of Diddlysquat, uncut, un-expurgated, warts and all. Mostly detailing *how* and *why* it all fell apart complete with the aftermath. It's not pretty, it's not funny, but I had to spill it.


( The painful truth )