of cabbages and kings.

As the walrus said.

It's been so long mes amis. 

I'll start with the biggest news.

A few weekends ago we travelled to Birmingham NEC, where Oliver competed in the UK National Pokémon Trading Card Game Tournament.   You can see Oliver, wearing the black hat, in this clip at about 1 minute 25 seconds along. 

To cut a veerrrry long day short, he won!  He didn't drop a game all day and took the Junior title.  It was all a bit of an adrenaline-fuelled blur at the end, with overhead cameras filming the finalists' every move, and endless camera shots being taken by a professional photographer.  As well as the massive thrill of being UK Champion, he has won an expenses paid invitation to the World Championships in Vancouver in August. 

I know.

Scream scream.

Pokémon.inc will pay for Oliver plus parent to travel there (and back, thankfully) and hotel accommodation for 5 nights at this hotel.

Some prize huh?

Forgive the crappy photos, because of course, I left my camera at home and had to use my mobile.  Of which I am not Master.

 

 

 

 

This also means his player ranking has been boosted to 2nd in the UK, and 100th Globally.  I am amazed at his ability to play such a game under the kind of pressure there was on the day.  I was, quite frankly but not literally, shitting myself.  It was a day filled with squirmy tummies and caffeine-packed lattes.  Mark had to keep 'going off for a walk' as he couldn't stand sitting still and waiting for the more crucial games to finish. 

The day culminated in an near anxiety attack on the way home for me - something which has not happened to me for almost twenty years.  I blame the excess of caffeine (I have massively cut down in the last couple of weeks) and my seeming inability to distinguish between excitement and anxiety.  This is now my ongoing project to deal with - ending my swift descent into fear and anxiety in situations where a normal person would feel joy and excitement. 

The following weekend saw us flying off to Lanzarote for a week with my parents.

It was quite lovely, and a balm to my soul after the jitters of the previous week. 

Oliver enjoyed his 11th birthday, and grew tanned and taller. (that last bit may just be my imagination).

 

View late afternoon from the cool shade of my sunbed on our terrace.  Ahhh, be still and soothed, my troubled mind.

 

Mark and I are growing thinner, which is a very weird thing to be part of, having suffered with the podges for several years.  The 5/2 is really working well for both of us.  I have now lost a stone - a whole stone, which I thought I would get nowhere near - but it has been a fairly painless - only suffering intense dieting boredom for my waking hours on two days a week is a very bearable price to pay.

In a moment of weakness, I have succumbed to the bunting frenzy. 

Truthfully I have been 'working' on bunting for a while, with a seasonal project in mind, but kept shelving it.  So I gave in to the quick fix bunting here.  Sigh.

Some other good news is that Oliver had one of his regular hospital check ups and his HbA1c result is the best it has been since he was diagnosed.  The consultant said that this was 'as good as it gets' for a diabetic child -  and all is 'well'.  I use the inverted commas for obvious reasons there.  I feel ridiculously pleased that he is still emotionally coping admirably with his condition and that we are managing his diabetes well.

There is probably other major stuff I have omitted, but I haven't typed this much in weeks, so must rest a-while. 

Gadzooks.

Edited to add:  We have coughed up the extra zillion quid to go for a few extra days and for us both to go with him.  Judging by the cost of flying to Canada, I cannot see us ever going there again so we will make a bit of a holiday of it this time!