Sending gentle soothe-the-fellow-mathematician~ma waves out for you, Hil. May you sleep restfully but not too long when you get there.

And just because it needs saying now and again: We love you an awful lot, you know.

Thanks, Karl.

Getting better quickly~ma for Shir.

{{Hil}}

Slightly more awake now.

{{Hil}}

Some people are being really extra nice to me the past few days, and I truly find this confusing, in the "what do you want from me?" way. I don't know how to react to this. I know it sounds mad and I should just be thankful (with a healthy dose of "wtf?" suspicion), but I'm used to certain balance of crap/kindness in my life, and some emails in the past 48 hours made me grin like mad and wonder what's going on. I didn't reply yet to one of them, because hey, since when strangers who barely knows me from the other side of the world are going above and beyond for me, for stuff I didn't ask for?

Grateful and all, just... don't know how to react. And hoping this doesn't precede a spoon full of life crap.

< /controlfreak >

I'm still at the office and am hoping to leave by 2. I'm parked in the secured lot, though, so I'm good to go.

I think my dog is going to forget who I am.

Oh, javachik. Good luck.

Thanks, Shir. :)

You know that after you posted that, every NYC-ista simultaneously thought, "That's NOT a bagel!"

Bwah! EAMW is such a good phrase. Also, this just gave me a flashback to when Herself was over in London, and we popped out to get breakfast and she opted for a random generic Bagel place. Which, being random & generic, wasn't up to NYC standards, natch.

(Mind you, I pointed out that we could have got the tube to Golders Green if she'd wanted proper bagels.)

I do hope Teppy's vertigo & ear pain is over. That sounded ick.

(Also, now I crave good cheddar and nice, cold, tart apple pie. Nom nom nom...)

Things that make your heart go !!!!!!!!!!:

Fay returns to school with lunch* clutched in hand. Strides through courtyard staffroomwards. Sees outrageously cute wee girl standing looking a bit bemused.

Fay: Hi Isabel! Everything okay?

Isabel:(whose English is very very limited indeed) No Friends!

Fay: !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Isabel: (looks sorrowful)

Fay: Er....do you know that kid over there?

Isabel: No!

Fay: How about him? Do you know him?

Isabel: (face lighting up) YES!

Fay: Go play with him!

Isabel runs after the wee boy in question. He runs away, in the time-honoured tradition of small boys. So does Miss Fay.

...I like to hope that Isabel and the small boy played together, although I have a sinking worry that maybe they didn't. She's OMG outrageously adorable, bless her - 6 or 7 years old, and she was adopted a year or 2 ago by a Farang couple, but she's originally from Burma. Very limited English, and appears to have fairly major SEN issues in terms of cognition, but she's sweeter than a sweet thing - just the most totally disarming big smile EVAH.

*Vegetarian stir fried somethingorother, from the food court across the road, which is celebrating the Vegetarian Festival season.

I have my grammar book! Thank you, Cathy!

You are very welcome.

I'm glad it got there, Connie! I hope it helps. If there is anything else I can offer, please let me know. Of course it goes without saying that I'm sending you generous amounts of interview ~ma and grammar ~ma.

safe travels Sparky!

Teppy - I hope the vertigo is better today.