girlofprey

We had a bit of a palaver today. Contact has been getting established again for my nephews and the rest of the family, as I said my parents went through to Cumbria last weekend to see my youngest nephew. They were supposed to see my middle nephew in Lancashire sometime this week - and then got a call on Sunday, I think, asking if they were coming down tomorrow. Which was a surprise to them. In the end they arranged to see him this weekend - then the new restrictions came in. Mum got a call from my MN's home yesterday to say they'd have to cancel the visit. She asked who had said that, whether it was them or Social Services, and they said they had to follow the national guidelines. She pointed out that the national guidelines didn't actually say family couldn't meet up outside, and the guy at the home said he would ask the kids' social worker for a final decision.

They called this morning, before I got up, to say the social worker had okayed it and we could go see him on Saturday. Then - possibly because I was worrying a bit about travelling, using public toilets and going to cafes - mum actually looked up the current guidelines, and realised that the place my MN is in is currently under one of the North-East lockdowns. And it explicitly said, in a regional newspaper article, that people cannot socialise outside their own households in the area, and that people from outside the area shouldn't visit. Which is pretty clear-cut, and since my mum is in one of the more vulnerable groups, she wasn't comfortable going anyway. So then they had to call the home and cancel the trip, after the home had told my MN they would be coming. Which was a real shame. But it feels like they and the social worker should have been a bit more on-the-ball about their own local restrictions. But anyway, it's done now.

And the social worker was possibly busy, because it turns out the hearing for my sister's custody of the kids has been moved up to tomorrow. She currently has 50% custody, as she voluntarily agreed to give them up into care. The court case will determine whether the kids go back to her, or whether Social Services gets 100% custody, for I don't know how long. We can't really see the kids going back to her, so we're expecting a very particular outcome for the case. The hearing was supposed to be held in August, and then the lockdown meant it was pushed back to October, and then my mum heard it might have been pushed back again to December, and then today we found out it was tomorrow. Straightforward.

Still nothing from my boss, but train journeys have now appeared online for me, at pretty much exactly the same times and schedules as before. I went through an interesting period last night of trying to look at different train journeys, just in case they were somehow just cancelling mine. I found a couple of others, but then realised they were with different train companies than Northern Rail. I told my parents about it though, and mum started doing some research of her own, and found that there was a schedule up for w/c 8th June, just not this week. But that week also had a note saying that new timetables were coming in, and none of the journeys they were showing were guaranteed. Which is also what every journey with trains other than Northern Rail was saying. It was very confusing, is my point. But now things seem to be up and confirmed, and I can still get from my local station to Leeds, if they confirm they want me to come in. But they haven't confirmed they want me to come in so far.

This whole re-opening thing looks pretty shaky, doesn't it?

Meanwhile, my parents (and I) are still pretty devastated about what's happening with my YN, but we got a call a few days ago about my MN, and when mum called back she found out that the centre he's at had asked to terminate his placement there in February - which they haven't mentioned on any of the calls my dad's been making to them since then - but they're now moving him to a place in Barnsley. Which is still not super close to our house, but much much closer than Birmingham. So the lord giveth and the lord taketh away, I guess?

Playstation have announced a showcase of games coming to the Playstation 5 for this Thursday, which is something I've been waiting for for a very long time. The new Sims expansion is out on Thursday night, also, and I'll definitely be able to play it by Friday. And on the 1st of June there'll be new bugs and fish to catch in Animal Crossing, which I'll be able to look for day 1 if I'm not required to go into work, and who knows whether I will be. So I am excite.

Well, my MN is in trouble again. Running away from the unit where he's staying to hang out with older boys. The staff are having a meeting on Tuesday to decide whether or not he can stay there. Which is a shame.

So. My nephews' dad lost his job on Friday, and it wasn't even anything to do with his troubles apparently - or even anything to do with the actual firm he works for. He 'had a disagreement' with someone who works on the site where they're building right now, and now he's not allowed back.

So now he's not having the kids on Sundays, because he's feeling terrible I guess, and because he can't afford to. So my sister has asked my parents to have them on Sundays instead. The kids' dad generally - at my sister's insistence - had them from 11am to 7pm. She certainly insisted my mum have them at 11am this morning, because I half-woke up hearing my mum talking to her on the phone about it, and then I half-woke up at half 11 because I could hear the kids downstairs (I sleep in on weekends, shush, don't judge me). My dad intended to take my MN and YN to a skate park in Rothwell - the oldest one was much happier to stay here and play on the computer. But my dad and the other two came back after about two hours, because apparently a bunch of kids started yelling and swearing at my dad because he was taking videos of my nephews on their scooters - and then it got close to my MN having a fight with them about it - and then none of them were having fun so they just came back. Apparently, the kids followed them back to the car, until my dad chased them off, and then stood across the exit to the car park, so my dad didn't slow down when he drove towards it, and they all scattered. He came back saying "I almost went to prison, but other than that it was great".

So then it was just us and the kids in the house, while my mum made Sunday dinner, and while we ate Sunday dinner, and to be fair up till then it was okay, and then my MN and YN just started getting giddy and running around and wrestling, and all I heard from downstairs was shouting and maniacal child laughter.

My mum texted my sister around 6-ish to say "your dad will be setting off to bring them home at 7pm, please be in the house", and my sister said "okay", and then "can we make it 7:30?", and then "why haven't you answered?", because apparently she's using two phones at once and doesn't always keep track of which one she's using, and then when my mum criticised her for pushing it to 7:30, she said "it definitely won't be any later than 8". And the kids were definitely still here at half 8. Because my sister is a horrible person.

So yeah. I'm exhausted. And I'm not even really the one who did anything.

I just spent 40 minutes trying to download a Windows 10 installation file to hopefully use on my new PC tomorrow, with my netbook struggling to load everything and unable to use a mouse because I only have one USB port and I needed it for the flash drive - figuring out the download tool, deciding which edition of Windows I wanted, researching my CPU to see whether I needed a 32-bit or 64-bit version - only for the download tool to repeatedly tell me I didn't have a flash drive attached to my computer, when I did, I could see it.

alskdjsalkfjaskdlvmnmd.

Also my MN spent quite a lot of today calling us all fat pigs and telling us he was going to kill everyone of us, merry Christmas.

My sister has gone to Blackpool for the night for her friend's birthday, so we're currently trying to coax my YN to sleeping here for the night, which he's never done before. So we'll see how that goes.

My computer building has hit a slight snag, in that I asked my dad if there was any chance I could get my last £1000 back that they borrowed from me. The build I'm looking at is about a grand, and my mum recently renewed her passport and started talking about how she and dad might book a holiday soon, and I was like '......?...'. I mean, they deserve a holiday. But I really thought they would be paying me back the money they borrowed from me as soon as they reasonably could. And if I take another grand out of my ISA, it's going to start getting to the point where I can't replace it within this tax year, because of ISA rules and everything. So I said to dad it would be easier if I could just use the £1000 of mine that's already out. He agreed, though, and he's going to give me the money. But I asked today, and he said he'd need another week at least to get it to me. So...I can't really do anything until I have the money, so I can buy the parts. So nothing will be happening for at least a week. I will have to stick with my netbook. Which is lovely, but occasionally lags when I try to type sentences too fast, and tends to stop and start when playing Youtube videos. Hmm.

Also, I noticed that the internet went down this morning. That was interesting.

ETA: My nephew has agreed to stay for the night. Once again, we'll see how this goes.

I was interrupted from a video game about an hour ago by a call from security at our local bus station. My ON had been fighting, or someone had been hitting him, on his school bus, and he either called the only number he knew off by heart or just decided to call my mum instead of his. Unfortunately, my mum's at work all day, so I took the bus station's number and passed it on to my sister instead.

Ten minutes ago, he knocked on our door. I thought he was distraught over the fight or something, but actually he just wanted to play competitive Minecraft at our house, since he 'usually' comes down on a Friday to do it (and a Tuesday, and a Monday.) I told him no, and to go home and talk to his mother about this fight, perhaps.

Being an aunt is suddenly a bit like being a mother, and I'm not enjoying it very much.

My nephew is back.

Every day I think "I'll make an LJ post today". Every day I think "I'll make the effort". And every day all I really want to talk about is the house I'm building in Fallout 4, and how much I love Deacon. I'm looking forward to God Eater: Resurrection for the PS Vita, are you looking forward to God Eater Resurrection on the PS Vita? And so on.

It's nearly Christmas. I'm nearly done with my Christmas shopping. I only have my dad left to buy for, and my plan was to get him a bottle of booze, as usual. Then mum showed me the many, many bottles he's already bought for the both of them. I'm still planning on getting him one though - I'm going to try to get one of those fancy 'gift' ones from Marks and Spencers. It's too late to look for anything else. And then a ten pound note for my sister, and I'm done. It's weird that it's so close, and I've only just started feeling festive. It's weird and a little unnerving how not cold it's been lately. But I'm getting there at least. In usual fashion, I haven't done anything else like sent Christmas cards or put up any decorations in my room. But I'm wearing my sugar plum earrings, and I might put up a glittery reindeer before the week is out.

I'm supposed to be going to the cinema with my MN tomorrow. He's been having...he's been having a lot of problems lately. For about six months now he's been going to a special unit two days a week instead of his usual school, because of his behavioural problems. And then a few months ago, he nearly got expelled from his actual school. He had a huge tantrum, started throwing rocks and broke a glass door, and then started throwing them into the infants' playground at the school. He got suspended and then my sister got a letter from the school saying he'd been permanently excluded. And THEN it turned out, you can't just expel a pupil like that - there's a process, and they hadn't done it, just sent a letter. So then the governors all met, and decided he wasn't suspended. But he had to go to the unit five days a week instead of going to his regular school (at all), until after the Easter holidays. Which was a shame, but we kind of assumed at least there's be no problems, since my nephew loves it at the unit and said he wished he could go there all the time. But now he is there all the time, he's started playing up there as well. My mum's had to go collect him a couple of times, and it's not as close as his old school. And then last week, the final week of term, he was suspended for two days for attacking a teacher. Scratched her arm and drew blood. We'd already planned to go the cinema, so I called and said if he misbehaved again I couldn't take him, and he didn't. So.

I'm sure he sounds like a little monster from all that. And he is, some of the time. But he's so lovely when he's with us, and so sad when he gets left out of trips. If he had gotten into trouble again I would have refused to take him, but. I'm glad I get to take him. I don't know why - he barely ever sits through things, and I actually want to see the film tomorrow (it's the new Snoopy one). And I don't think he's particularly interested in the film, he didn't even want to see the trailer, he just wanted to go to the cinema. I'm hoping Snoopy catches his attention, it looks like the film's going to be fun. But then my mum said something about taking my ON too, so she could be around if my nephew starts acting up and could take him out of the screen for me - and when my ON heard that he started insisting he wanted to see the film. So we might have both of them tomorrow - and then when I was talking to my MN on the phone tonight about both of them coming, my YN overheard him and said he wanted to come. Which we could maybe do - if my dad comes along, so there's an adult there to look after every child. My dad's doing something so he can try to become a chartered engineer, but apparently he should be done by tomorrow morning. He didn't sound enthusiastic about coming to the cinema with us, but you never know. It might be a proper family outing. Minus, um, the kids' parents. But you get the idea. It's Christmas.

I'm having to keep an eye on my money at the moment, though. It's fine, but I do keep forgetting a little bit and having less than I think I do. I'm going to the cinema tomorrow, and it'd be nice to pay my own way even if my mum or dad do come. Then the Nutcracker's on in Leeds, at the Grand Theatre, and I've been trying to get to see that for the last few years. I haven't finished my Christmas shopping. And I'm going to Lancaster for New Year's. And computer games continue uncheap. But it's fine. I can control myself. I'm getting paid again on Wednesday anyway. I also need to remember to buy a calender. I was looking at them the other day, and then thought "no, it's too soon". And then I realised.

Another fun Christmas activity: trying to get my prescription refilled so I have enough to last me over Christmas. I called today. I called multiple times. It was always engaged, until 3.15, when the automated message informed me the prescription line was only open from until 3pm. Will try again tomorrow! Hopefully with better luck.