Friday, May 01, 2009

May 1, 2009

***UPDATED*** Ooh - I am LOVING this new Layout blog lark! I've even managed to make one of those ubiquitous little blog 'buttons' that blog readers can copy and paste onto their own blogs! Feel free to grab Charlie's button from the sidebar if you want to! I had no idea how to do this before (and I happily admit the button I've made isn't particularly fancy) but I found a really useful blog here that told me how to do it!

Hi everybody - well, what do you reckon? I finally bit the bullet and upgraded the template of Charlie's blog to the new 'Layout' format. I've been wary of doing it before, because I'm no computer whizz, and was terrified of somehow losing the whole thing, but it seems to have worked ok!
I know it doesn't look particularly different, but it should make it much easier for me to add all the lovely new widgetty things that I love so much (which I've previously had to add by fiddling with the html code, which REALLY isn't my thing at all!)
I think I've put back all the bits and bobs that were lost during the upgrade and have added a new picture in the header (which I'm sure you've already noticed!) although the whole thing seems to be a bit narrower than before... I know a few bloggers who have got three-column templates though, so maybe I can get some tips on how to do that! If any readers know how I can add another sidebar down the left side, please let me know!
Not much more news at the moment really - Charlie's on top form and is still loving school (and school dinners!).
I bought him a new shortie wetsuit the other day, so we've been looking for somewhere to taking him swimming. The problem is, all the council pools are only heated to about 27 degrees which is too cold for Chas, even in a wetsuit, and he'd be blue and shivering in no time. However, we've discovered that the big, new International Pool in Cardiff heats it's water to a toasty 31 degrees (88 fahrenheit) which is perfect. So all being well, we're hoping to go for a splash this weekend. Charlie likes the water, but can't swim properly yet, so maybe we could make this a regular thing for him, as swimming (in warm enough water) is a sport that he should be able to do without too much trouble.
Talking of sport, my Race for Life training is still going really well - I can run 5km (without stopping or walking) without any trouble, although I've still only been training on the treadmill - I need to get up the courage to hit the roads! I've hit my fundraising target (again!) so I'm up to an amazing £200 now. There's still just over a month to go, so I'm going to increase it a bit more... you know what you have to do! Just click here and sponsor me!
We've been out in the garden loads lately - still hacking back our massively overgrown hedges - but it's all starting to come together a bit now, which is nice. Still a long way to go, but at least we can sort of see where we're heading now! Nanny and Grandpa just bought Chas a new swing for the garden because his old one has broken, so we're going to put that up this weekend. He's also decided he's going to break into his bank account to buy himself a new slide.
He only has a little toddler slide at the moment, and he's so tall now that when he sits down at the top, his feet reach the bottom! He loves playing in the garden, so we know that he'll really make good use of a new slide.
The only other news that I can think of is that we've booked a holiday for next month - we're renting a little cottage on Holy Island in Anglesey (North Wales). It should be a lovely week - there are lots of lovely things to do and places to see... but we're just hoping the weather will be ok, because North Wales is not well-known for its tropical temperatures! There's a boat trip we're planning to take to Puffin Island, so Charlie will be able to take his 'binocliers' and see all the sea birds, as well as the seal colony on the other side of the island. We're all really looking forward to a leisurely week. (Or at least, Pete and I are looking forward to a leisurely week - I'm not sure if 'leisurely' is in Charlie's vocabulary!)
I just realised I haven't updated on the latest on my dad - further to being told he would be starting on Dacarbazine chemotherapy, when he saw the consultant the following week, the consultant told him that he wasn't going to start Dad on the treatment straight away - primarily because the cancer isn't giving him any symptoms at all, and (according to the doctor!) Dad is remarkably fit and well for a man of his age, and the chemo is likely to make him feel pretty rotten. So he'll go back in a couple of weeks and have repeat scans. If the cancer has obviously grown, they will start treatment straight away. Likewise, if Dad becomes symptomatic, they will start treatment straight away. But if it hasn't spread any further, they may give him another month's grace.
This has worked out very well because they are still in the process of moving house, so it would have been very difficult if Dad had felt rotten throughout. All being well, they should be moving at the end of next week, but we don't know for sure yet.
Anyway - I'd better fly, I need to go for a run, and I've just spent over an hour fiddling with this new blog template!
Back soon!

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