It has been one of those weeks where I've lost track of the days because there's so much been going on. From second prize in a poetry comp to my younger son being ill and having three GP visits, two hospital visits, an X-ray and an ultrasound in just four days!

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My two year old has developed a temperature and massive lump in the glands on one side of his neck, and I mean massive. Theories have alternated from mumps (though he has had his MMR) or bacterial infection to abcess, cyst or tumour. When we came home from the hospital on Thursday night (they almost kept him in), it was with the expectation that he might have to have surgery to remove a cyst or tumour, and first thing Friday they were saying they might also need to sedate him for an MMRI!

Fortunately, his ultrasound didn't show anything other than extremely enlarged lymph glands so they have ruled out cysts or a tumour and he's being treated for an atypical bacteriological infection. We're just hoping they are right (it doesn't seem to be going down much) and that it doesn't form an abcess!

On a more cheerful note, I heard this week that I have won second prize in the Earlyworks Web Poetry contest. Hurrah! You can check my poem (and the other winners) out here.
I also received my latest copy of the new writer and was delighted to find one of my poems in there. Through the kitchen window was accepted a while ago but there has been a backlog and I have had more recently submitted poems published first, so it was nice to know it hadn't been forgotten!

With all this going on, I have also found a new hobby: belly dancing. I went to my first class with a friend on Friday. It's great fun, good exercise and a fantastic excuse for dressing up in some fab clothes. Hence a bit of a clothes shopping spree yesterday. Well, I was going out last night too.

So what's the whining/wining? Well, last night I organised a meal for a group of friends. I hate organising at the best of times, but it's not made any easier by the fact that some of my friends fell out major time about eighteen months/two years ago and won't go out to the same places together! I spent ages deciding how to tackle this and who to invite in what order, and, of course, in the end none of the ones that fell out came!

Still, it was a great girls' night for the rest of us, with lots of wining. In fact, if my post reads dyslexically that's probably because of the alcohol still in my system! Three of us ended up at a club in Worcester. Now, I haven't been clubbing for years. I love dancing but my husband doesn't. Anyway, we spent the whole night boogieing and it was great. As we're all married, it was also very amusing watching as an outsider, so to speak, the mating rituals going on around us. And then, before we knew it, it was nearly four in the morning, and, of course Remembrance Sunday. Needless to say, I didn't make church this morning, but I do have my poppy and will be wearing it with pride.