ailbhe | You put your right leg in -

Linnea slept in her own room from about 9 pm to about 3:30 am. Then she came into our bed, because really, we can't be bothered soothing her back to sleep in her cot; everyone gets much more sleep if she comes to bed.

But her first night not in our room she slept six and a half hours uninterrupted. That's pretty amazing. I consider myself lucky to sleep three hours uninterrupted.

This morning, I discovered that she can dance the Hokey Cokey. She does "You put your right leg in, you put your right leg out, in out in out shake it all about," and then for "You do the hokey cokey and you turn around" she spins on the spot. She keeps turning for the "Oh hokey cokey cokey" refrain, then at the end there's this weird bit I never had as a child but all the Brits seem to know, which is "Arms straight knees bend rah rah rah" and she bends her knees, stretches her arms up, and wiggles appropriately.

She can also dance the "Dingle Dangle Scarecrow".

These important developmental milestones aren't in any of my "How to be a baby" books! Nor is "can carry a tune as long as it's a variant of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".

NOLA horror stories continue to pour in. I appear to be out of weep. I'm getting quite big on rage though. I tried to watch TV news today for the first time in months and as soon as Bush showed up in a casual open-necked shirt, saluting people as though he was in the actual army, I was suppressing violent throw-things-at-the-telly urges.

Whoops, there goes my entry visa.

Anyway. I'm trying to decide whether to attempt to go on holiday to Barcelona this winter. I can't see any reason not to, really, except that it's an unjustifiable luxury when there is so much suffering in the world, which also applies to the bunch of hothouse flowers on my dining table. And to most things I do, really. Perhaps I have an overactive conscience.

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What exactly would you do with the time, money and energy to relieve some of the suffering in the world if you *didn't* use it on going to Barcelona? Either make up your mind to do it, or go to Barcelona with a clear conscience. Simply refusing to accept/enjoy pleasant luxuries doesn't actually help anyone.

I have, on occasion, plumped my holiday budget for the year into a charitable cause all at once because I felt it was desperately needed right then, and then not gone on holiday. But I don't do it often; going nuts and not being able to keep up my own responsibilities isn't useful to the world either.

If I were in your shoes, I'd probably use the money to get *private* medical care for the stuff you're having endless trouble getting the system to handle tolerably, but I'm not really used to the whole socialized medicine thing (either its good points or its bad points) in the first place, and am probably more easily driven nuts by it even vicariously than anyone who's lived in the UK for any length of time.

It's "hokey cokey" there? We have the hokey pokey. :) We don't do "arms straight," though. "You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around," then (clapping) "that's what it's all about."

I wish Bush were doing something actually illegal, as I'll bet it'd be easy to impeach him right now if he were. Folks are pissed off here, too, even other Republicans.

I grew up on the American version, being Irish, but the parent and toddler groups we attend use the British version (which I suppose is reasonable enough, given that we're in Britain, though I'd love to see a nationalities list for some of them...)

What would happen if Bush was inundated with slightly overripe peaches? Since the Superdome isn't full enough to drop him into it, which was what I *really* wanted to do two days ago.

I'd nourish and cherish my Irish Catholic Guilt Complex, of course. All mod cons, hot and cold running paranoia and all.

The medical care - going private is way down the list of things to do, because my in-laws will kick up such a stink about the cost, and I'm too tired to fight my in-laws over what Rob and I do with our money. The public route is considerably clearer than it was last month, which helps.

I just stopped telling my mother what I do with my money. That way she has fewer reasons to criticise me.

I think it's "knees bend" first, then "arms stretch, ra ra ra".

Wasn't the hokey cokey one of those songs by a 70s band? I know it always turns up at discos that involve my dad's family. Along with "Brown Girl In the Ring" by Boney M, which makes more sense when the family is brown, and "New York New York" by Frank Sinatra.

As usual, Wikipedia is your friend. Allegedly, it is mimicking Latin mass. Supposedly, 'Hokey Cokey' is a parody of the Latin phrase "Hoc est corpus' spoken during Mass at the point of consecration. The stand up, sit down stuff is mimicking the congregation.

Also, here.

Many have fought so that we could live the lives we lead now. Suffragettes, soldiers, lots of people. So I think the best thing we can do is to make the most of that life and that includes things like enjoying holidays in Barcelona. As long as we don't forget the less fortunate and somehow I don't think you're in any danger of that.

If you're not convinced by the above then consider 1) you will be supporting Barcelona's economy and 2) most importantly, the break will be therapeutic for you and enable you to deal with the health crap better. Hell, they should write you a prescription for it.

Ah, the hokey-cokey. Brings back memories of... er, a couple of months ago, atch. Though if you want to see something truly hysterical, watch Bill Bailey's Half Man Half Troll dvd and see the Kraftwerk version.

Your in-laws would presume to tell you and Rob not to spend your money on making you well? Good grief, and I thought *my* mother-in-law was annoying.

I'm glad the public route is looking like it has potential once again. Much luck.

There are always going to be horrors in the world.
I think you should find beauty wherever you can. It prepares you better for the things that are not so pretty.

Go to Barcelona. As you've noticed, if you go down the "unjustifiable luxury" road, you'll end up being unable to justify anything about your life. Which implies that your life isn't worth something on its own. Which is wrong.

Rob finds it difficult not to answer direct questions about his finances when his parents ask. They also like to give us money, which I object to on the grounds that they are already telling us what to do with our own money, and I hate to think what they'd say about money they'd given us.

We still do whatever the hell we like, but only if I can stand to put up with the carping.

Gods. Lean is one of the most fabarooney (technical term - parental vocabulary - ref. Tweenies, sub ref. Milo) mothers I know. Wow.

All mothers think they are terrible mothers. It's a Rule.

wot he sed (re Bill Bailey)

You put your right leg in -

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