Great start to the week….

Vicky managed to get a socially distant vet appointment for Fred since his left rear leg is not getting any better.

A 5 minute checkup gave the wonderful news 🙁 Accordingly he has torn a ligament in his knee and it sadly won’t repair itself. In fact it likely will get worse as it rips completely and in a strange turn it will be less painful once it tears fully. However he will become totally lame in that leg at that time.

His option really is about an operation that essentially will remove the ligament and fix the knee to have a replacement architected “joint” that will repair the knee, allowing near full operation and remove the pain. The great news is that it is super likely that the other knee on his rear right leg will do the same in a couple years – oh and the not so great news – £3,000 a knee !!!! Nice 👍 

HSBC win

When we finally got the boys setup with HSBC bank accounts last year, we couldn’t get a current account for Oliver because he was only 10.

Just last week we we’re talking about how painful it will be to get one arranged for him (as he is now at 11, old enough for the account ) given the measures in place due to Coronavirus.

All that was in vain as he got an email stating that his new debit card was on the way. It arrived this morning and lo they have automagically created an account for him and sent the card out to him. Brilliant automatic service that has him delighted and a small pressure off our to do list.

👍

Panic and tears….

Last night, Oliver came home from his maths tutor session asking to go get his phone from dad’s car. Dad did not think that he had seen the phone in the car, which is when the panic began…. That 10 minute trip home took about an hour for Olly as his determination of the phone’s location waned….

Basically, he had got out of the car at school that morning with his bluetooth headphones in, music still playing and it soon cut out, having him believe that the phone must have stayed in the car when he got out (the phone accordingly had been placed in his pocket along with the case for the ear phones and the battery backup supply…) and of course the connection cut once the car left the area.

Dad was pretty certain that he had not seen the phone when he got home, suggesting that maybe the phone had dropped out of the car unnoticed when Oliver disembarked…

When we finally got home, it became very clear that maybe that particular outcome was indeed the one that had played out some 12 hours earlier in the day, potentially leaving the phone on the road ready for smashing by the next SUV to drop off their children for their day at school.

This is of course when the tears came as there was a realisation that the phone was not going to be replaced and that his watch and bluetooth headphones were less useful without the central component – the phone…

Dad went into school with Oliver this morning to see if by some small slither of chance, somebody had indeed seen the phone and handed it into the school office. Sadly, there was nobody in reception to ask and so Dad called Elliot for advice as to where they could find lost property within the school. At the same time, a lady was walking up towards the School Reception and Oliver had already engaged in conversation to ask if she knew of a lost / found telephone from yesterday. Incredibly, she did recall a found phone and that it was covered in little dogs – at this point the excitement in Oliver’s face became very apparent and perhaps a huge wash of relief was about to wash over him.

Within 5 or so minutes the lady had located the key to the nurse’s office and we were reunited with the phone and that relief was well and truly submersing Oliver.

We really hope that this is a lesson that he does not forget any time soon as he (and his brother incidentally) are very lackadaisical about their things and looking after them. We will be reminding Oliver of the feeling that he had the time his lost his phone….

First BBQ of the year…

Believe it or not we only had our first BBQ of the year last night for dinner…

The requirement and weather have really only just aligned for us so some super tasty chicken was on the menu 👌

Sadly we did not enjoy the food outside as the temperature had dropped off enough to potentially cause unnecessary whinging from the younger members of the Rust clan.

Looking forward to (and hoping for) more opportunities in the coming weeks and months for more of the same 🙂