Level 2 Chi Kung.

Knackered. I made a rather newby error last night – it must have been close to 10pm when I finally got the Christmas cake in the oven, and since Edmond’s no 2 cake takes 4.5 hours… There was a point – when the butter and sugar were creamed, the fruit was prepped and steeped in brandy, and the flour was sifted – when I looked at the time and realised that continuing would mean a very late night, but I decided to plough on. I took this decision partly on the basis that, provided all the children went to school, I would be able to have a nap at some point today. Unfortunately I was forgetting that the new cleaner would be here from 10 am to 2:30 pm, thereby effectively wiping out any napping opportunities. No sooner had I farewelled the cleaner, than I got a call from Katie’s school. They are obviously aware of how anxious-making calls from the school are for parents, because they always start the conversation with ‘Nothing’s wrong. Your daughter is fine.’, then, presumably when they hear you breathe, they continue with the purpose of the call. Today it was to ask if I could possibly pick up Agnes, a little autistic girl in Katie’s year, as her family had called to say that they had had a medical emergency and ask if the school could keep Agnes for a couple of hours. The staff, who haven’t a clue how to handle Agnes, were disinclined to do this and asked James, Agnes’ father, if there was any parent he would trust to take Agnes home. I was happy to help out – Agnes is a lovely wee girl and Katie is fond of her – but I could have wished it wasn’t on a day when I was running on less than four hours sleep!