Have been mostly enjoying beers I already like, and the weather has been cooler so I have brought some of the rich, dark brews back into circulation. Last night I had a Guinness West Indies Porter, Badger Poachers Choice and Wychwood King Goblin. Rather nice.
Due to recent time constraints and lack of organisation I haven't got back on my own brewing schedule yet, though I have bought ingredients and a new fermenter and paddle, and got a load of pop bottles ready. Hopefully I can get on with that soon.
Next few weeks will be somewhat stressful, term time starts properly for all of them the week after next and its fucking DRAGGING. Nice to spend time with them but the lack of head space and a productive routine tells on all of us as the holidays drag on, and I always end up sleeping too late and drinking too much so am tireder and fatter by the time its over.
Ok, so an attempt to catch up a bit - I might already have mentioned some of this.
First up, daughter is doing better. She did pretty well in her GCSEs so is starting at the same FE college as her brother for A-levels and getting out of that shithole of a school, so huge sigh of relief at that - no more tears or snotty attendance letters.
Second, Xan is starting at a specialist school for kids with good academic ability but severe emotional/behavioural needs, mostly autistic, however it is over 30 miles away in the next county. He's excited to be going but it will require some changes in our routine as he will be going in a taxi and not arriving home until about 4.30.
Third, due to Xan's changes I will be changing job within the organisation I work for in a few weeks also. I am moving to a 9-5 shift pattern so that I can be home on an evening again after nearly two years on lates - this is fantastic and the whole family are looking forward to it, my own health has suffered due to the lack of energy caused by having to get up early and then not get home for tea until 11pm and stay up too late. Mel has also struggled to cope with being on her own with Xan (and missy) all evening, and once Xan starts at his new school he will be arriving after I set off to work so he won't see me from 7.45am until (briefly) 11pm during the week on my current shift, he won't cope well with that. Hence the move.
I spent three days last week shadowing one of the day teams in the department so I could try on the role and make sure I liked it and could cope with the higher degree of structure required (well duh) and social/sensory input (busy, with some phone work, but overall manageable) - I can't wait to go back and made sure the manager of my department knows it. More money will be nice (more hours), and though I'll have to go back into training for a while to cover the aspects of the job I haven't been doing, all shifts are on a schedule for upskilling anyway so there is a pretty good plan in place for the next couple of years. its all good.
Finally, we recently added two house rabbits called Willow and Buffy to the chaos. Its as nuts as it sounds, a hutch and a large run have been squeezed into the living room and they have free range time also, which is usually entertaining - one of them was grooming the dog last night.
Think that'll do for now.
