Scarface

An afternoon in Glenrothes today, buying some things for a celebration surprise for a friend. Went to see my cousin afterwards and had a cup of tea in her lovely back garden. Took some photos of her Border Terriers to blip for today but then J stood beside me and his skin looked so freckly and perfect in the sunshine, and his hair so shiny, that I started snapping him. He tried to hide himself with his hand and he looked so beautiful with half his face teeting out from behind his fingers and his long fringe hanging down. It was only when I was viewing the photos on the PC that I noticed how large and obvious his chicken pox scar looks. We are so used to it that we are blind to it, and forget it's there - it's been part of him for so long - since 2000 when he was six months old. In fact it was probably almost exactly 11 years ago now when he gave himself this scar. He developed chicken pox in the summer and I really didn't know how I felt about it. On the one hand my precious baby had this unsightly infection, but on the other hand at least he was too young to think about scratching the spots, so wouldn't get any scars. This spot between his eyes was enormous and crusty as could be, and one day - I remember it so well, we were in the car park at Morrisons in Inverness - I was reaching in the back seat to unclip him from his car seat and he raised an arm up and drew the back of his fist over his forehead, and the scab dislodged. I froze. For there, now revealed, was a conical hole that seemed to be so deep that I actually couldn't quite fathom how it could manage to be so big - surely the thickness of his skin wasn't as deep as this crater was? I think I wept - I was certainly very upset - for I knew that my previously flawless child was now going to have a permanent scar that would remain on his face for the rest of his life. After a short while I calmed down a bit though, for I realised that everybody has scars of some sort, whether they be physical or emotional, and that this was only going to be the first of many that my boy would gather as he made his way through life. Yes, it was a shame that he acquired such a cracker at the age of only six months but at least only a circular mark would remain, there would be no lasting, long term serious damage. Some people are not so lucky with the scars they acquire.

Anyway, after a rather uneventful day really, there were strange happenings this evening. I was driving home and I felt the power in my car dip as I was driving along a straight about a mile or so from the house, and a light came on - EPS. The car was still going but I didn't want to stop it to check out what EPS indicated in case the car wouldn't start again so waited till I was home and got the manual out. Seems if this light comes on while the car is moving you have to take it to a "Specialist Technician" as soon as possible. Bang goes my planned day out with friends to Scotland's south-east coast tomorrow then. Damn! Phoned both sets of friends and wonderful souls that they are, they are now going to come and pick me up and we are going to have a day on the north side of the Tay estuary instead. Will have to now sweet talk J's dad to go to the garage next door tomorrow morning and ask if they can look at my car while I'm away.

Then before tea, I was showing J how my new electric fly swatter worked (I'd bought one in Poundland today as there were two annoying bluebottles buzzing about the kitchen this morning ). He was concerned about the possibility of getting a shock from it if, for example, you dropped it on your foot while it was on. The swatter has a net of safety wire on both sides of the racquet to protect humans from the live net sandwiched between them, plus there is a button you have to keep depressed in order for the current to go through - soon as your finger comes off that button, the current stops, so if you dropped it, it would automatically switch off. I switched the button on and showed him the red light that comes on when it's live, then took my finger off the button and said, at the same time as touching the racquet itself, "And it has a safety net...", when "BZZZZZZ" I got a shock from it! Owww! So not only was it still live when the red light was off and my finger wasn't even on the button, but the so-called "safety" nets were live too. J's dad was laughing going "That's what you get from buying it from Poundland".