First Full Week
8 March

And so with a lovely four day break behind me, I started my first full week of part time work.

And it went reasonably well. It's good to working on the training room again. My co-partner Dave and I work well off each other and I was glad to be part of a team and working with other humans free from the loneliness of the administrative work.

The time flashed by and was soured only by the presence of one obnoxious individual about whose behaviour I have complained.

The world has been full of light for some time now. As well as the lengthening days, the skies have been clear and diamond sharp. On Sunday, after I had been to Quaker meeting, Ross and I took a picnic to the waterfront and sat in the brightness for an hour and soaked up the sun.

I've been trying to read through Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy again. I lapped up the first book, enjoyed the second book but have become totally bogged down with the third book once more. I just find it overly complicated with too many richly drawn narrative strands.

Ross has had difficulties recently. A while back his care assistant, Sue, injured herself and has been off work. She's been due to return twice now but the date has kept being put back. Anyhow, after a little persuading from me and from others, he has girded his loins and has organised for some care cover. This is entirely unlike his old self who would have simply capitulated and decided that the world was a bad place where bad things happened to him. Now, he seems quite happy that he has needs that may or may not be met but that it is OK for him to ask for what he requires. This is a big step in the right direction.

We finished off our long weekend with another trip to our local cinema, the Plaza, to see the latest Tim Burton film, Big Fish. This was the latest in a string of three star films which we have seen this year. Like Down With Love and Calendar Girls, it was exceptionally good entertainment. And Ewan McGregor proved his versatility moving away from high comedy in Down With Love to light character acting in this film.

And Tim Burton is a master of the modern fairy tale. I was just entranced for the length of the movie. And it spoke to me about communication between the generations and the father/son relationship. Lovely, lovely, lovely.