3Y1M 1Y4M 自分の時間 Time for myself

仕事が一段落したので、休暇を取り、ブックキーピング（簿記）の試験を受けることにした。子供がナーサリーに行っている間に集中して勉強する。しばらく持てなかった「自分のための時間。」厳しかった仕事を終えた自分への贅沢なご褒美という、うっとりした響き。

ま、試験日の一週間前からやればいいやという甘い見込みが元々の原因だが、やはり子供がいると予定通りにはいかない。試験範囲を網羅するにはその全ての時間が必要だったのだが、こういう時に限って子供って病気になる。今日は一日缶詰だという試験前日にはアラタは嘔吐＆熱のためナーサリーはお休み。試験当日にはタカラにも移っていて二人ともお休み。数日前から副鼻腔炎で体調を崩していたJasonも熱でふらふらしているのに。

とりあえず試験は受けたが、終了直後から私も発熱。そして久しぶりの激しい偏頭痛と48時間戦った（＝吐きまくり）。典型的な「週末偏頭痛」だ。先月末まで続いた仕事のストレスから開放される前に、試験勉強に突入する事でストレスが継続。試験終了と共に全てから開放されて発病。Jasonの具合が悪いのに子供の面倒をお願いしなければならないストレスも相当なものだった。

偏頭痛の間、目をつぶると簿記のバランスシートが頭にフラッシュバックする。それが丸2日間、絶対にスイッチオフできず、そのたびに痛みが増幅して吐き気を催していた。熱は数日下がらず、加えて、激しい喉痛で食欲も無し。一時は冷蔵庫の食料も尽きたラムニー家だが、頼りにならないアウディはとっくに鉄屑屋に売ってしまっていたから、医者に行く手段も、第一、気力も体力もない。悲惨な一週間でした。

バレンタインはそんな訳で、最高にアンロマンチックだったのだが、タカラがナーサリーでマミィへのバレンタインカードを作った。糊でいろいろな素材を貼るところを1才児がやったのだと思うが、なかなか素敵。（この写真を撮った数日後には製作者本人によりびりびりに破かれてしまいました。）そして、ナーサリーの入り口には、チャイニーズニューイヤーに因んで、アラタのクラスの子供達で作ったドラゴンが置かれていて、子供達が描いた自画像も貼ってある。これはアラタの作品。

As the project I was in at work finished, I decided to take a week off from work to take a book-keeping exam. Aratakara still go to nursery and I can concentrate on my study. It's my reward for over 3 months hard work. But it didn't go as I planned. The main reason is I thought I only need a week to prepare for the exam. But what I learnt was if you have small children, nothing goes as you planned. I needed every single minute of my time without children to go through the subjects which the exam covers. But the day before the exam, Arata got sick and had a temperature. He stayed home. On the exam day, Takara had the same symptoms and both of them didn't go to nursery. Of course, it's really difficult to study while kids are around and I was so stressed. Jason had also been unwell with sinuses and had a temperature as well.

I sat the exam anyway. But as soon as it finished, I also developed a temperature and I had a most terrible migraine for a long time. It didn't go for 48 hours and I kept getting sick. It was a typical 'weekend migraine'. Immidiately after the project at work, I started exam preparation. This kept my strain going on until the exam finished. When everything was at last over, I was released from the tension and migraine started. It was also a huge stress for me to ask Jason to look after Aratakara when he was unwell.

While I had migraine, whenever I closed my eyes, the balance sheet of book-keeping kept flashing back to my brain. And I couldn't switch it off at all. Whenever I saw it (in my brain), the pain worsened and I felt more sick. My temperature didn't drop for a couple of days, either. I've also had a terrible sore throat since and I lost an appetite because I couldn't swallow much food. We at one stage even had nothing in the fridge. We couldn't either going shopping or going to see doctors because our unreliable Audi had been sold to a scrap yard a while ago. Anyway, we didn't have any strength to go out. It was a quite terrible week.

Valentine's day this year was very unromantic like this. But Takara made a Valentine's card to mummy at nursery. I think he only put these colourful pieces of different small materials on a hart shaped red paper but it was very good! (Unfortunately, the card was torn up by the person who made it a day after this photo was taken.) At the entrance of the nursery, there is a big dragon for Chinese New Year. It was made by the children in Arata's class. And some self portrait paintings are also at the door. This is Arata's.