Tomorrow, that is. At 4am... urgh! Mostly packed and have a nice dose of flu / bad cold to contend with which isn't helping on the final preparation front, let alone the looking-after-the-kids front. I woke up at 6am burning up and with a throat so swollen I could barely swallow - and I don't have any tonsils.
To make things even more pleasant it's currently 512 billion degrees outside. Well, it was 95 yesterday and today it's 82 degrees at 10am so goodness knows what it'll be like later on. Our portable air conditioning unit is blasting away this morning and how I wish I had it built in all rooms!
Oh well - off to a wonderful air conditioned hotel in Cancun tomorrow - hurrah! Don't think I'll have internet access while we're there, so see you in 10 days :)
One of the joys of living in the Pacific North West is the wildlife and the vegetation. Except that which is in your garden, that is.
We basically live in a Forest.... a tree covered mountainous area which has had houses and all the other things which make up modern living built within. They haven't razed everything to the ground in order to build on it, they've built within it, which means it looks wonderful and lush 52 weeks a year. The downside to this is the weeds. They're everywhere, and extremely plentiful. Our garden is beginning to become a problem and needs some serious work done on it to cut back the jungle at the bottom & rid us of the enormous amount of wild plants that quickly creep forward every day.
Today in the garden Dylan came running and said 'Mom! There's a raccoon in the tree!' I went to look and sure enough, in one of the trees by the side of our house, a raccon was staring rather menacingly down at us. We also get visited by Squirrels several times a day and Deer are not unheard of. There are birds nesting in the eaves of the house, and we see all kinds of wildlife on a daily basis. Including the dreaded ones. SPIDERS.
I'm not averse to gardening particularly - it's not my favourite pastime but I don't mind the thought of doing it to make it look nice. However, I also loathe it because it means SPIDERS. I can't relax and tidy the garden or pull any weeds out without being freaked at the thought that some gargantuan tarantula sized nasty thing will run out or worse UP MY ARM. I am totally phobic and just can't do it........ today I rather wimpily pulled one weed out and saw this monster scurry away in the opposite direction and I nearly had heart failure.
Not sure what this is going to mean for the long term prospects of the garden here, the garden which is full of wildlife. Getting a man in is pretty expensive ... I'm thinking several gallons of weedkiller spray might be in order.
This is the last but one monthly update I'm going to be doing little man! I figure when you get to 2 and most of the huge changes that happen on a monthly basis have slowed down, we'll switch to annual letters like I do for your brother :-)
Today I am a bad parent. We were in Target (reason enough to be a bad parent I suppose) and you were doing exactly what we were not supposed to do in a trolley which is a) stand up and b) be in the main body of the trolley and c) be unattended by a parent - your brother was watching you instead. You took a dive head first out of the trolley on to your head where you screamed and screamed, threw up, had blood streaming from your mouth, and generally scared the living daylights out of me. I now feel absolutely awful that it was my fault of course, and am watching you closely for any further signs of concussion or similar.
Aside from head injuries you've cheered up this month and you're not nearly so grizzly as you were last month! You're still incredibly strong willed and stubborn but we are avoiding 'The Fury' alot more and bed time is no longer a battle ground (touch wood!).
Next week you are going on your very first beach holiday and I cannot wait to take you to play in the sea and with a bucket and spade. If your behaviour in sand pits at the park is anything to go by, you're going to love it!
Speech wise we're still slowly getting there - you've delighted in pointing out BIRRRRRRRRRRRD and other such delights this month. You still babble double dutch incessantly, and your favourite word is MUMMEEEEEEEEE which is nice! We took you for a 2nd outing to the cinema (yes we are certifiably insane after the last experience) but with the help of a booster seat into which you were strapped, a ton of popcorn and some chocolate raisins, you sat quietly through it - hurrah!
Dylan is still your absolute idol. I like to see how you act with your brother and any other big kids that are around - they're just the bees knees. You want to play with them, hang with them, do things that they do, entertain them and generally be stuck in with them! You play very nicely with other kids, something I've noticed which is very different to only children, including how your brother was. You love to play *with* other kids not just along side.
Unlike your brother was at this age you're also into more traditional playthings such as Thomas the Tank Engine, Cars, and Lego blocks. You'll happily sit and build towers out of lego and you're very proud of your results. Dylan would never sit still long enough to do this! You also love colouring. If I give you some crayons and paper it'll keep you amused for ages! Again totally unlike your big bro used to be. I'm hoping that crayons will be a good thing while we're on our plane journey next week - 4 hours of entertaining you after waking you up at 3.30 am is going to be challenging, I'm sure!
You're still loving your daycare time at the gym. On the wall on the way down to the daycare are pictures of all the hundreds of employees that they have. You've discovered 'Josie' - your favourite - picture, and every time we go down there you run up and scream SIEEEE SIEEEE and point to her. Very cute!
Can't wait to take you to England next month too, your family are going to love you :-)
Time for me to sign off little man - love you lots
Mummy xxxxx
Caffeine withdrawal migraine in full force. Started yesterday, hasn't stopped, no amount of painkillers will touch it. Arghghgh.
The Mediterranean Diet that is. It was recommended to G by his endocrinologist as good for diabetics as it regulates all your insulin production, etc, and obviously you lose weight too. I signed up to eDiets.com and have a plan of what I'm allowed to eat all week. I started this morning & I seem to have eaten for England so far. I had oatmeal with some wheatgerm and almonds stirred in, followed by a ton of yoghurt, followed by an apple... and that was just breakfast. Lunch was some brown rice / fish / veggie concoction followed by a forest worth of spinach salad that I just couldn't eat, and now I'm meant to eat a cup of Strawberries. I never eat that much in the first half of the day so I"ve really struggled to get it all down me!
Separately to the diet I've come off Caffeine. The diet doesn't say I have to but as my boobs were really bloody hurting I figured I really didn't have a choice. Plus obviously I'm something of a slave to it so coming off free's me up somewhat. I did have one cup yesterday morning but nothing else all day and by 2pm I had a stonking headache. Today I've had decaf and my head is pounding a good'un.
Ugh.
Why oh why can't we eat sweets and chocolate and cakes and they be good for us!
G, that is. He got back from Boston late Thursday night.
One of my friends husbands was away at the same conference and she remarked to me as they left that she loved it when he went as she didn't have anyone to bother her about what she watched on TV in the evening or to leave things lying around the house. I laughed but didn't really identify with what she said as I was more concerned about who would take out the rubbish, who would make me a cuppa in the evening, who would do the morning school run & who would give me that precious hour off in the late afternoon by playing with the kids and put them to bed.
However! You just cope with these things when you have to. It's a luxury to have someone else to do them for you but when they're not there you just get on with it. No big deal. And I'm not really as hopeless as I like to be when G is around ;o)
When he got back though, the house immediately became a total mess with crap lying around everywhere in places crap just doesn't belong. His laptop bag should NOT live in the middle of the living room floor. His shoes should NOT live under the sofa! Used glasses do not stay where they were last put down! Dirty laundry does not live where one steps out of it on the floor! And last night I had to pause the TV 54 times while he went off to do various things. He needs to go back to Boston!
(It is nice to have him back, honest!)
Dylan was born at the beginning of 1999, right in the middle of the MMR scare that came about after a publication suggested a link between the vaccine and Autism. As a result of all the publicity I was something of a nervous wreck when it came to making the decision about whether to vaccinate him. I did a ton of research at the time and the conclusion I came to was that I couldn't reach a conclusion which I was 100% happy with.
When you're a first time parent to a new born baby - not being 100% happy with a decision is something incredibly frightening. I just didn't know what to do. I talked to everyone I could talk to, I read everything I could read. Eventually I decided to go privately & have the separate dose vaccines as they became available - which involved something of a waiting list.
Unfortunately we moved to Canada before we got to the top of that waiting list. There, the Montessori School that we enrolled Dylan had a very strict policy on vaccinations and refused to admit him unless we had it done. As he was now 2.5 and past the age where Autism generally becomes apparent - I reluctantly took him in to have his MMR. Thankfully there was no subsequent problem to doing so. I have to say that going and having that vaccine done was a horrid thing for me, it didn't sit well with me at all what with all the scares going on, but I also didn't want him to get any of the 3 diseases and single dose vaccines were not available in Ontario.
After that the MMR issue obviously was no longer present in my mind until it became time for Harry to be vaccinated at age 1. With my 5 year old information in mind I decided to wait until Harry was 2.5, as I had done with Dylan. Also present in mind was that where we lived in Canada there seemed to be a high number of boys with Autism disorders. 4 on our street alone, including the boy that used to live in our house. As there's concern that there are environmental factors triggering the disorder I was quite petrified and really determined not to have the MMR until Harry was past the age of concern.
Moving to the Seattle area I took Harry to register at the Pediatrician and was immediately foisted upon with requests to vaccinate him against all sorts of things. Chicken Pox, Ear Infections, Hepititis A, MMR, etc. I refused all of them at the appointment and wasn't very popular for doing so. I definitely don't agree with the Chicken Pox vaccine. It's a mild disease which if you are vaccinated against as a child does not protect you as an adult and is far more serious to catch as an adult and can lead to shingles. The Ear Infection vaccine is for a rare type of infection. Hep A? Maybe later. MMR? Same.
When we booked our vacation to Mexico I had a look at the Tourist advisory and it recommended being up to date with Measles vaccines. I became a little concerned that Harry wouldn't be covered. We'd be taking him into a third world country and through airports. I dithered. Then I thought well, we're going to a 4 star hotel and we're not going to be travelling through backwaters so it'll probably be OK. But then this week I happened to be listening to the Womens Hour Podcast from Radio 4 and there was a discussion about the MMR. They said that there are alarming numbers of Measles in Sussex and Surrey in the UK - almost an epidemic - due to poor takeup of the MMR. Those counties were advising parents to bring forward the MMR vaccine to 9 months old and have the booster at 15 months! I listened with some horror until they had an expert come in and explain that the age reasons were really only there for convenience and also because of the fact that until 1 most babies will be covered maternally. They also went into some detail about the Autism scare and (obviously) said it was rubbish.
Whether I believe that or not, and maybe I am beginning to, my fear then grew because not only will we be going to Mexico this summer but we'll also be visiting my sister in Sussex (and again going through the airports) so I decided maybe I would just bite the bullet and get him vaccinated with his MMR. Which I did. This morning. He cried. I cried. It's done.
This shoulder pain hasn't been improving much and although I was fairly convinced that it is weather related inflammation I thought I should go and see the Doc -- also because I ran out of Vicodin which were the only things that would touch the pain!
Going to the Doc here is such a different experience to any that I've had before. First thing is you're greeted by a nurse who weighs you and takes your temperature. She then escorts you into a room where she takes your blood pressure and pulse, and notes down all of the results into the computer notes..... all things which are useful to have a record of for many reasons.
Then, you explain to the nurse what the problem is and she notes it down on your computer file for the Doc to see when she comes in. As I explained what the problem was the nurse got concerned and announced that she'd give me an EKG - to make sure that I wasn't having a heart attack! Obviously I got a little nervous and asked why she thought I was having a heart attack and she said that with my clotting history and some chest pain - which in women often presents in the back shoulder area - it was standard to check. Scary! Anyway, I was not having a heart attack - thankfully!
When the Doc came in - she's great, I've seen her before - she and I had a long talk and she said that she thinks, as I do, that this is scar tissue which inflames now & again, perhaps due to the changes in the climate, and especially when it becomes more humid. She said unfortunately it might be something I have to live with but that it might improve over the years. Bugger.
I also asked her about the breast pain I went to the Doc for last week. I don't think I blogged this but it was very amusing. I had been having pain in the top left part of my left boob.... so I visited the Doc and the above wonderful lady wasn't available so I saw a crap man Doc. He had me lie on the table while he examined my chest and he paused, then announced quite seriously 'You have large breasts', then continued to examine me! I nearly cracked up laughing and it was another while before he qualified the statement which was just too bizarre for words. Anyway he diagnosed fibrocystic tissue which he said would hurt more before my period and then go away afterwards. Well it hasn't.
This (good) doc had a feel and she came up with the same diagnosis but seeing as the pain hasn't gone, she feels that there could be a cyst in there which is causing the pain. She gave me the choice between leaving it to see what happened or going for an ultrasound on it. I chose to leave it for now and she said if it doesn't improve or gets worse, call and schedule the tests. She also said I have to give up caffiene because it aggravates it :-(
I've got very into Podcasts, specifically BBC Radio Podcasts. I bought an iPod last weekend so that I could listen to music and watch video at the gym - Regis & Kelly on the gym TV just wasn't doing it for me any more. I am the last person in the world to discover podcasts I'm sure, but I'm loving R4's 'Womens Hour' daily downloads, not to mention the best of Moyles & Scott Mills!
This post I made about Canadian Baby Photographers makes an interesting read, not for what I wrote really but more for the hundreds of comments from people finding this site and voicing their own experiences.
Completely bizarrely, I received an email from this company yesterday. They've obviously been stalking this blog and have taken a frightening interest in where I live and what I'm doing. Anyway, it was interesting if more than a little odd (maybe they were trying to buy me off to remove my post about them?)
Here's what they wrote, and my responses (read from bottom up)
Dear Katie:
Thank you for your prompt response.
Sorry we are not able to accommodate you as the purpose of our business is
bringing joy to our clients. However, we respect your right to voice your
honest opinion.
Sincerely
Phyllis Casados
President
Judy Caine
Customer Service Manager
-----Original Message-----
From: Katie Jones
Sent: Monday, June 12, 2006 4:55 PM
To: [redacted]
Subject: Re: Canadian Baby Photographers
Dear Phyllis / Judy
Thank you for your somewhat unexpected email.
I did have a very unpleasant experience with Canadian Baby Photographers
almost 2 years ago when Harry was born. I guess, from your remarks about
where I live, you've been reading my blog and are aware of the
complaints I had at the time. Obviously I wasn't alone as the number of
comments left by other individuals is quite staggering, and some of them
quite disturbing. You also may or may not be aware that false positive
comments were posted by your organization on my blog too from one of
your offices in Ontario.
I do sincerely hope that your services have improved, for the sake of
all new mothers out there. Not least because (in my experience) the
sales tactics were incredibly inappropriate and the services offered
were not in any way worth the money that you were charging. You came
across as exploitative of the emotional and hormonally unbalanced
parents of newborn babies.
I do not live in Canada any more and I'm not sure that this gift
certificate is of any use to me.
Regards
Katie Jones
Judy Caine wrote:
> > Dear Katie:
> > On behalf of Canadian Baby Photographers, we want to say that we are sorry
> > that you were unhappy with our services over 2 1/2 years ago.
> > Since Harry had his portraits taken, many changes have taken place. We
would
> > like you to see these changes first hand. We know that you are now in the
> > Seattle area and we hope you are happy there in spite of the rain. If you
> > know anyone residing in Vancouver or any of our serviced areas throughout
> > Canada, please feel free to use a $250 gift certificate from Canadian Baby
> > Photographers. We look forward to your seeing for yourself our upgraded,
> > present quality of services provided by Canadian Baby Photographers.
> >
> > Sincerely Yours
> >
> > Phyllis Casados
> > President
> > Judy Caine
> > Customer Service Manager
> > CANADIANBABY PHOTOGRAPHERS
> >
> >
> >
I have to say that I'm usually moping around when G's gone away but this time I'm not (so far!).
Sunday afternoon was fairly horrendous as expected. It turned out to be 10298301298 bazillion degrees at the park where Dylan's friend's birthday took place and the kids all got soaked in the sprinklers and later by swimming fully clothed in the lake. Harry was grizzly so I drove him home to fetch spare clothes for Dylan which got him out of the heat for a bit. When we got home I put both boys down to bed early and Harry surprisingly went off to sleep without fuss and slept right through without waking and screaming... despite some fairly horrendous nappy rash which is currently bothering him. So I was able to have a relaxing evening and go to bed before 11 for a change!
This morning we all got up early and this allowed us plenty of time to get Dylan off to school (rather than the usual G snoozing the alarm 15 times and then having a mad panic to get out of here in 10 mins flat). H woke up in a good mood for once and I took him then to the gym where he had a fine time in the daycare and I had my first workout whilst watching video on my new iPod (fun, made the time pass much quicker!)
H's good mood continued enough to see us through a visit to the post office and the supermarket on the way home and then home for a sleep...(him not me) before friends came over for a play and dinner...... so all in all the last couple of days have gone by well and smoothly.... may it continue!
I think the *difference* is how much more settled we are here. I have friends - and a good few of them too, and we hang out. Alot. Every day. So there is no time to be lonely or miserable, instead plenty of filled hours of conversation and pleasure which is something I've lacked for the longest time. Even the last year in Canada when we'd finally made some good friends was nowhere near as sociable ...... just in terms of quantity (not quality as those were great friends there too !). I'm seeing friends every day, doing things every day, going out lots in the evenings and generally living. Living!
So yes, I am missing G, but I'm not hopelessly lonely in his absence.
One downside, however, is that I've finished watching Greys Anatomy (SOB SOB) so I have no idea what I'm going to do in the evening for the rest of the week! I need a new obsession, but I don't know what is going to top McDreamy!
My darling husband, that is. He's gone to Boston for a week to some kind of piss up conference. Would be rapists, burglars, murderers need not come round in his absence but tea makers and rubbish-taker-outers / spider killers are welcome.
As well as the fact that I hate him going away anyway, my general wellbeing is somewhat compromised by the pain in my left shoulder / lung area, so I am not over the moon about him being AWOL. On top of that we've got Sir Screams Alot and Never Sleeps to deal with.
Last night the horror woke at 1am having done a poo and with a very very sore bottom..... and (naturally) Screamed. Alot. I finally got him back off half an hour later only to be woken again at 3am with Yet More Screaming with no obvious reason but which a dose of Tylenol seemed to do the trick for after half an hour or so. Then we all had to get up at the crack of dawn to get ready for both boys swimming lessons, which this week included me going into the pool with H... then get back, get lunch, get him down for a nap and ignore More Screaming (the sleep content of this nap will total a grand 35 mins by the time I have to wake him up again) and go off to take Dylan to a friends birthday party, during which I have to hang around for 2 hours in the park. Then home for no doubt Yet More Screaming and Not Sleeping before I can flop onto the sofa and try to get some rest myself.
Argh.
I do hate it when G goes away! Another 4 days after this one to go.
At PCC today we were approached by a stand of people promoting a new line of nappies called gDiapers.
I am always in 2 minds about the environment issues with nappies. On the one hand the thought of the landfill scares me, as do the chemicals and components that go into making Pampers and similar. I also think that it's probably harder to potty train children who's waste is so far removed from them into the depths of the silicone contained in disposables that they are far from bothered about being wet.
On the other hand, I don't really like the alternatives. I did buy one lot of cloth nappies to test for Harry and he leaked everywhere so that was the end of that. I loathe the concept of Nappy services, the idea of my child wearing something that another child has shat in .. .urgh! And not to mention keeping buckets of stinking crap around the house ponging the place...... shudder..... no thanks. Oh and let's also not forget the nappy rash -everyone I know whose children used cloth got very serious nappy rash!
And chlorine free envirnomentally friendly disposables are basically so expensive that you need to take a 2nd mortgage out to pay for them, plus they leak everywhere anyway.
Lastly I don't think that the odd few people making the stand makes the slightest bit of difference. Disposables are easier, cheaper, far more pleasant to use, and until there's some kind of huge change in environmental law there really isn't a reason to be 1 person against zillions taking a stand. That's just my opinion, I know people feel strongly to take that stand anyway, but I just don't think it's worthwhile putting yourself or your baby through it for little to no consequence.
Anyway - back to this trip to PCC today. They were promoting these new nappies. They're kind of a cross between disposables and washables..... you have this cute fuzzy bum outer part and you have an inner part which absorbs all the wee & poo and is disposable,....but disposable by flushing down the loo (or composting if you are so inclined). After we listened to their sales pitch, we were convinced enough to buy a starter pack and I have to say I'm quite excited by them...... and hope that they work! I'd enjoy being able to flush the icky bit away and not have it stinking out the bins, and I think they look adorable....and if they do what they say on the tin, and not leak everywhere, I'm sold. The best bit? once you've bought your outer bits the inner disposable bits cost little more than a pack of disposables. I think a pack of 42 pampers premium costs $18.99 here, and 32 of these things costs $14.99 so that's not at all bad.
Well, we've not tried these out yet so I will let you know once we do.... H is currently snoozing!
When I take Dylan to the cinema I often see parents bringing younger children, sometimes even babies. Noise doesn't seem to be an issue, it's even somewhat expected within reason when you're watching a kiddie friendly cartoon movie such as 'Cars', which Dylan wanted to go and see this week.
So anyway, I decided that maybe Harry would enjoy going. He'd never been before and I was rather in two minds about whether he'd enjoy it. On the one hand the other children who go to these things seem to enjoy it, and if you put a DVD on in the car he'll sit fixated and watch it for long periods of time........ but on the other, well...... he's Harry.... y'know?
Anyway, it was, indeed, a HUGE MISTAKE. He sat still and ate popcorn for the trailers and then when the movie started proceeded to make noise, struggle, get down from his seat, and ended up RUNNING around the ENTIRE CINEMA for 2 HOURS NON STOP, with me behind him. Absolutely bloody awful........ he is not going again for at least 3 years!
Suffering that pain where I had the blood clot in my lung again. Seems to crop up once or twice a year and when it does it bloody hurts. Regular readers will remember last October I ended up having a CT scan to check it was nothing sinister and it wasn't, but it is scar tissue and internal scar tissue can, apparently, hurt like a bastard. Well, it does.
Seems to come hand in hand with either a change in the weather from dry to humid, or with the onset of a cold / virus. We certainly had the former, to an extent, last week..... and the latter seems to be lurking.
Bring on the Vicodin.
I am no longer Mmmmmmmmmm or Mummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm or even 'Daddy'...... or as pronounced by my darling eldest 'Mom'.........but finally once more the most delicious of all : 'Mum 'meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee'!
I've been going out alot in the evenings recently. Alot. At least twice a week if not more. Sometimes with G and sometimes with girlfriends, our social life has taken off in a big way.
I was until last week beating myself up a bit about it too because I've been so tired as a result! Often it'd be a Wednesday night and I'd be due to meet friends in town and thinking 'I'd really like to stay at home and relax & watch TV' then berating myself for being dull. Or leaving early because I'm so tired and then feeling bad for doing so.
I had thought it was the anti-social gene in me finally coming through but then I had something of an epiphany when I realised that I am not, infact, antisocial but ..... 34!! I can't do the going out every night thing that I used to do at 24, I'm older and my body can't take it. I'm also a mother of 2 small kids who keep me on my toes & get me up early every morning without leaving me much opportunity to rest other than the evenings, so I think I have to be a bit less hard on myself about what I should be doing socially.
On the other hand, isn't that depressing? To be getting that much older that I can't go out clubbing it every night? Even though I don't want to, I want the option goddamnit.
I was also driving home on Saturday night and saw some blue flashing lights and instinctively hit the brakes and looked down at my speedo, my reflexes automatically thinking 'shit, am I going to get caught' when I realised that I was actually driving at the speed limit anyway. I'm definitely getting old.
On top of that I've got loads of grey hairs coming through. And my body just doesn't work as well as it used to.
God, I hate getting old.
Last night Dylan had his school musical. His class and another class performed a musical which basically involved lots of singing and the kids one by one stepping up to the microphone center stage to deliver their lines. It took place at 7.30pm and we showed up along with several hundred other parents and took our places in the auditorium.
The kids filed on to the risers at the side of the stage, and as Dylan came on and I knew he was so nervous, he'd been nervous for days about his line. I saw him frantically searching the large audience for us and when he figured out where we were he relaxed a little and grinned, it was so lovely.
I can't sit in an audience and watch children sing without finding myself in floods of tears. I don't know why but it seems to tug at something so deep within me, maybe bringing back long ago memories of my own participation in such events as a little girl, but I get so emotional as soon as they open their mouths and sing... and sure enough once the first song started I found myself blurry eyed and desperately trying to hold it together!
Harry was being a little difficult (to say the least) and we were struggling to keep him quiet. 7.30pm is past his bedtime and he's also not one for sitting still. We managed quite well until Dylan came onto the stage to say his line.
As he walked on, I could see that he was shaking with nerves. He took his place at the microphone along with another couple of kids and the audience was quiet waiting for them to speak.
Harry was being a little loud so I pointed to the stage and whispered 'look!'. BIG MISTAKE. Harry shouted at the top of his voice.... DYLAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and then took off down the center aisle at top speed, running through the audience, all the way to the front of the stage, and attempted to climb up and get to his brother.
Everyone in the audience and all the kids on the stage cracked up laughing. I could not even see for crying with laughter and embarassment and overall emotional mess while G ran up to rescue him.
On the plus side, Dylan was laughing so much he forgot to be nervous and delivered his lines with aplomb, making me very proud indeed!