Author Archives: sarasiobhan

Reversing the car

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I got a copy of LB’s medical records at the end of last year.  It’s a mixture of letters, reports, results and comments and is peculiar reading. The number of different diagnoses he had, over the years, is a bit of a surprise, and the earlier use of language is a bit shocking. The ‘Chinese whispers’ effect is also interesting; the story shifts with different professionals. That is a bit disappointing considering a major bugbear for most parents I know, is the constant repetition of the basic background details. I wonder at what point, in the doctor patient communication, those details go awry.  Continue reading →

Moroccan weekend away: Part 1

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I’ve decided I’ve got to do this story in sections, otherwise it will be too long (and unbelievable… I’ve already blogged about the very end).  I’ll start with the background and beginnings.  Richy Rich and I booked a mammoth weekend away last November. Three nights in Marrakech.  As I kept boring everyone I came across beforehand, even spending time with Richy in the airport was gonna be amazing, let alone the actual trip.   Continue reading →

“A picture of Mum?”

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One thing that doesn’t happen so much now that Laughing Boy is sixteen, is endless (often meaningless) appointments with professionals.  Countless hours have been spent travelling, waiting and meeting a range of different people in different settings.  One series of appointments, four years ago,  was with a psychologist geezer (Psych Sid*) about LB’s ‘challenging’ behaviour.  These appointments seemed particularly pointless as Psych didn’t want LB present.   Continue reading →

First class from Birmingham

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Earlier this year I went straight from a meeting in London to an overnight work gig in Birmingham. It was all a bit surreal (involving Alan Bryman and Angry Birds impressions). The following lunchtime after an intense focus group workshoppy thing, I rushed off to catch the train back home. In the short walk from the hotel to Birmingham New Street, I thought I was in Manchester.  That really threw me when I got into the station and couldn’t find the ticket machines, and the trains/platforms had all disappeared.   Continue reading →

The glasses and the toilet bend

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My eyesight has got much worse over the past couple of years. I’ve gone from wearing glasses to watch tv, to wearing glasses to stop banging into things.  I take em off every night and leave them on top of the toilet.  One Sunday morning I got up early, did my biz and flushed the toilet. My dressing gown sleeve caught my glasses just at that point and whizzled them down the toilet.

“AAARRRGGHHHHHH!!!!!”, I screamed in horror… “Whassup?” said a sleepy Richy Rich… “I flushed my glasses down the toilet..” I gibbered.     Continue reading →

The mystery of the couple and the baby

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Another totally random happening. I’ve reconstructed it using soft toys, because again I didn’t think to take a picture at the time.  Mind you, they might have got a bit angry if I did.

It was a lovely sunny afternoon and I was at home with all the windows open.  I noticed a car pull up on the pavement in front of our house. A couple got out with a baby and came into our front garden.  I went to open the door thinking they were calling round for some reason.  Instead of coming to knock on the door, they sat down on the grass. “Oh”, I said. “Er, sorry, did you want something?” “Oh, no”, he replied.  “Ok, I just wondered what you were doing?” I said, totally puzzled.  “We just came off the motorway and my wife needs to feed the baby”, he replied.    Continue reading →

Flight dyscalculexia

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In line with the responsibility angle of a lot of these blog posts, I’ve invented a new pseudo condition – dyscalculexia.  This, for the less medically inclined is a (made up) mixture of difficulties reading both words and numbers.  It isn’t a medically recognised disorder, but it can only be a matter of time.  It is possibly also a way of avoiding hate mail.   Continue reading →

British Airways and the pig toilets

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That Danish trip again (see also)..this is a long, long one.  These flight stories are going to sound made up, I’m sure but it’s all true (well apart from officials’ swearing).

Travelled from seaside town to Copenhagen airport with the lovely Cornish Debbie I’d met at the conference. We laughed our socks off remembering pig toilets in India in the 1980’s.  She left me at the BA check in as she wasn’t flying back for several hours.   Continue reading →

The tannoy

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I was shopping in Ikea with little sis, Sammy Seal, when an announcement came over the tannoy; ‘Would Sarasiobhan please make her way to Customer Services. Sarasiobhan to Customer Services’.

‘OMG! This is it! I’ve won a prize!’ I said to the Seal. ‘Whoo hoooo!!! Probably the millionth customer, or maybe the billionth globally!’ She didn’t seem overly excited as we went to find Customer Services. Would it be a cash prize or a supermarket sweep type jobby, I wondered. How funny. Five minutes ago I was an ordinary shopper, now I could have a lifetime’s supply of Billy bookcases.

‘I’m Sarasiobhan’, I said to the woman at Customer Services. ‘Oh’, she replied, ‘You left your purse in the toilet’.

The language of life

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This story will, eventually, evolve into a flight nightmare post but before then, other stuff happened. I flew to Copenhagen two years ago to go to a conference somewhere by the sea in Denmark. Not a good trip.

I caught the train from the airport into Copenhagen. It was like the London underground with seats long ways on each side. A gang of kids got on at the same time. One of the boys sat next to me, while the rest performed some elaborate, loud distraction routine at the end of the carriage, trying to engage with other passengers.  I don’t speak Danish but I do speak the language of life. My suspicions were aroused. I looked down and saw the little bastard had his hand in my coat pocket, millimetres from my purse.   Continue reading →