A Hospital Visit... Or Two!

Where to even begin with this nightmare of a week...

It started last Saturday, with me getting home from the gym to a zillion missed calls from two friends.  Turns out, Matt was walking off the cricket pitch during half time, and the other team were throwing a ball around, and one managed to clonk Matt on the back of the head with the cricket ball = concussion = another doctors surgery ticked off our list in our very own version of 'Shanghai Hospital Monopoly'!  We really seem to spend a ridiculous amount of time in hospitals here.

Anyway, more than a week later, and Matt is absolutely fine.  He was off school the following day, and didn't loose his 'hangover' until Thursday, but he is fine and well now.

Then, this Sunday (why is it always a Sunday???), was my turn.  I had another seizure, and ended up in my usual hospital over night.  I actually recovered much quicker than previously, which is good.  I have now been officially diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, but what that means for my future, i'm not quite sure yet.  We thought that it had been ruled out from the spinal fluid tests last time, but apparently there is no decisive test to confirm MS. Based on the multiple lesions (or sclerosis) on my brain, and the seizures, there is now no other possible explanation according to my doctors.  The reason I had another seizure was because I had reduced my medication since Christmas to 'see what happened' on the advice of an epilepsy specialist.  That obviously hasn't gone very well, so now i'm back up to 15 pills per day again, which is much more than I was on last week, but less that I was in the summer.  I'm back on a low-ish dose of steroids, which should be low enough not to give me any nasty side effects again.

It's been difficult receiving the diagnosis, but we remain strong and positive.  I'm not going to let this stop me from living my life, or building my business or let it change me in any way at all.  Matt has been wonderful, as always in supporting me, and we continue to grow stronger together.  I'm going back to work tomorrow just for the morning, just to prove I can really.  I have recovered much quicker this time, and just want to get back to normal as quick as possible.  I'd rather go in and face everyone being nice to me (which I hate) now, rather than wait until after half term next week.  So a positive outlook all around really.

... on Saturday, I made a cat fort to keep the kitties entertained, since all they do is sleep all day!  They seem to quite like it...

The usual hospital selfies...

Matt and I went for a wander yesterday to get some fresh air and spring sunshine. We ended up having lunch at Wagas across the road. Yum!

Peace Centre Quiz Night

This is how we spent our Friday night!

Quizzembard Kingdom Brunel was Matt's team.  They even had a bridge that one of his team members had build during a lesson.

My team was the Fallen Beauty Queens.  I was Miss Guided.

The evening was a quiz night in our school gym.  72 teams, made up of teachers, students and parents. It was all in aid of The Peace Centre, a school in Uganda that our older students have visited and helped build every year for the last 5.  All the money made from entry, raffle tickets, a painting auction, food and drink goes to the centre.  There is also a big fancy dress thing.

There were too many people in my office for one team, so we split in half - the competitive ones (including me) and the non competitive ones.  We came in a very respectable 6th out of 72 teams.  Our office colleagues came in 60th.  And Matt's team won.  He's been insufferable ever since.  There is a cracking video of them being announced as the winners.  They are so nervous and then are suddenly jumping around screaming like kids, chanting about their (home made) bridge.

There is also a costume competition, which we were not happy about at all.  My office had the best costumes BY FAR!  Any other year we would have won.  But this year, we have had a visitor in school for a month, who is all about sustainability.  He judged the costumes.  If we had been told that the theme was sustainability, we would have dressed accordingly.  But instead, a team of students won who were in normal clothes, with the name of a spice girl on paper, sellotaped to their tops won.  This man then proceeded to have a go at everyone who ordered any part of their costume online.  We were all there to raise money for charity and he is ranting about the most fun part of the evening.  Not. Impressed.

Lots of people, including random strangers, as well as the quiz organizers came up to us afterwards and said that they had wanted us to win. :-(  We're just a tad annoyed about this, as you can tell! Haha!  Still, we had fun, and raised lots of money and that's what's important.

Becky and I went to Pistoleras for dinner and a cheeky coconut margarita first...

The boys celebrating...

People kept not recognising me because of my contacts and long black hair. It was funny speaking to people and then watching them suddenly realise who they were talking to!

Matt and I went for brunch this morning to celebrate his win.

The rest of the week has been the usual busy days.  We had top level school management visiting this week and talking to lots of students, including our EAL students.  The feedback has been really good.  The one student they spoke to who I teach was telling them how much she loves EAL and how wonderful I am!  So I was very pleased!

Matt is playing cricket tomorrow, but other than that, we have no weekend plans.  How nice.  Just a relaxing couple of days working on my cross stitch and cuddling the kitties.

Brunch, Crafting and Cupcakes

This week went by very quickly.  Much quicker than usual.  We're half way through this half term already. Only 3 more weeks until the April holiday.  We're not going away anywhere, and will be cat sitting for some friends who live in our compound. They have just rescued a third cat, so it should be fun.

This week, I had my craft group over one evening.  One of the group members is the one who fostered our Sooty cat when he was a tiny abandoned kitten.  He was very friendly towards his foster mum, so I think he remembered her.  He decided to take a nap in her handbag, and was fussing about the group all evening. Very unusual for our mostly unsociable Sooty!

On Saturday, I went for brunch at the Bull&Claw with my office friends, which was lovely. It was a rainy, miserable day, so it was nice to get out and do something fun.  Matt very much enjoyed his lazy day on the playstation.

Today, Matt is playing football for the England team (against the Welsh team), and i'm having my lazy day with the kitties, and waiting for two food shops to be delivered.  The weather at the moment seems to be either heavy rain, or awful pollution, since the February holiday, so everyone is just waiting for the weather to clear, and in the meantime, not doing much of anything.  Matt did go to the pub on Friday night too.

Friday was international women's day.  We celebrated at school with cupcakes, and by giving out 4 school houses joint, famous leaders for the week.  Our leaders are all male (Shakleton, Wing, Anand and Howard), but this week we also had Pankhurst, Parks and two Chinese Nobel prize winners from throughout history.

We, of course had some lovely chocolate pancakes on Tuesday made by Matt, who is a whiz in the kitchen

Shanghai Museum and A Visitor

A busy week as usual at school.  On Tuesday, I went on the year 4 trip to the Shanghai Museum, which has some lovely sculptures, statues, pottery and masks from throughout Chinese history.  Some kids love it and some find it really boring!  I, of course, love museums, so i'm always happy to go, even though it's exhausting.  I still had to teach a lesson before we left and as soon as we got back, so I was very busy. Plus I then had my Archaeology club after school.  Tuesday is normally my quiet day!

Otherwise in the office, it's been business as usual.  Our wigs and crowns arrived for our costumes for the quiz that's coming up in a couple of weeks. I wanted to go for a Cher look with mine.  I'm pleased with it, although it does look exactly like my colleague's actual hair from the back! 

Anyway, we spent a fun half hour trying on all the colours.  We are going to look great for the quiz!

My friend from when I worked at the MCA in Southampton is in Shanghai for business this week, so we arranged to meet for dinner at Sichuan Citizen (of course) on Friday night, where Amy was introduced to our lovely friends and to the wonderful cocktail Basil Drops!

On Saturday, we planned a whistle-stop highlights tour of Shanghai, since it was Amy's only free day to sightsee. We really packed things in, and weren't put off by the cold and rain.

We started at Jing'an temple, with a lesson on how to use Amy's new DSLR camera.  Then we went to the fake market and some lunch, then back to Amy's hotel to drop off her many purchases...

This was followed by a walk to the Yuyuan Gardens and Bazarre...

Then onto the Bund.  Unfortunately, the sky scrapers were almost entirely covered by clouds. It was very cold by this point, so we stopped for hot chocolate and cake in Costa Coffee.  By the time we'd warmed up, the weather was starting to clear...

We decided to take the inappropriately named 'Sightseeing tunnel' under the river to the financial district.  The tunnel is all neon light and glow in the dark sharks.  I loved it! So tacky!

Then a few photos around the Pearl Tower and the skyscrapers, before heading up Jinmao Tower to the fabulous Cloud 9 bar, where we had our birthday party back in August.  The weather cleared, and we had prosecco overlooking a fantastic view of the bund.  Then Yang's Dumplings for dinner, before heading home. I was out for a good 12 hours!

I'm exhausted today!  I can't believe how much we packed in on Saturday! Amy enjoyed herself and I did too, gaining back a bit of enthusiasm for Shanghai in the Winter.  It's amazing what a difference seeing the city through a newcomer's eyes can make.

Matt had a lazy Saturday with the cats (also known as Caturday), before going out in the evening to a sports quiz in a bar with a few of his friends.  He's been very sociable this week, going for a catch up on Thursday and Friday evenings with various friends.  Today, he's out playing football with his England team.  The pollution has been bad all week, so his student's football match was cancelled on Friday. At least it cleared up for the weekend, so he was able to play today.  The rain tends to clear out the pollution quite well.