I had planned to spend the day with my son on mothers’ day.
MOTH went off to work – he doesn’t usually work Sundays, in fact has NEVER worked a Sunday so I was bewildered that he had to work this one!
Anyway I was up early, armed with loads of knitting and LHM and we made our way to pretty Upper Beaconsfield “A” by 09:00 so that he could umpire U/14 MEN in a footy game. OMG these boys were enormous, I swear some of them were shaving already! They were also fast and poor LHM had a little bit of trouble keeping up – but all in all he did quite well. This is his first year umpiring.
WARNING!!! THIS IS THE ONLY KNITTING CONTENT IN THIS POST!
While keeping one eye on LHM, I cast on for a throw rug – 238 stitches and the pattern is a leafy textured throw out of a Patons Zhivago-Homebook….it’s the green one – but as yet the pictures are not showing up for me on the Patons website. I”m not knitting it out of Zhivago, I’m using something else I picked up somewhere else but haven’t photographed yet – it’s red/brown variegated. More Autumn leaves I suspect 
. I have 20 skeins, and I am not sure it will be enough….so either I need to go find some more of un-rememberable yarn, or get something else and start again….casting on 238 stitches was a drag though!
So umpiring went off swimmingly. He really enjoys it and he gets paid too – so it’s a litle bit of independence for him without having a REAL job.
(As an aside, at around 10:40, MOTH calls me to tell me he’s left his ID tags in the console of my car and can I drop them off to him at work after umpiring – in Cheltenham (3 on the map – but my “B”)…….!!!! So LHM’s game finished around 11:15 – I had to have him at “C” by 12:15 for his game at 1:00 pm and somehow or other I had to just drop by Cheltenham “on my way”. Was sooo not going to happen. MOTH called me back a half hour or so later to say he got to work and got spare ID out of the safe adn not to worry…thank goodness.
My Mothers' Day Travels - E-A-B (luckily I got out of that one!)-C-D-E
After that it was across to “C” where LHM was playing in his Under 13 team against the biggest 12 and 13 year olds I have EVER seen. Now LHM is not little – he’s quite tall, but like most ‘average’ almost 13 year old boys, he is lean….VERY lean. Some of these other kids are already muscular and one at least was over 6 foot with size 14 feet!!! Eeeeeek!
During the final quarter, LHM was knocked unconscious by a knee to the back of the head from an opposition player and was laying motionless on the ground. Now, parents are not allowed on the ground, and it was all I could do to just stand there. There was no stretcher on the ground (by law it is supposed to be there) and it took a good five minutes for the stretcher to come, but the umpire of that game balled it up right next to LHM on the ground and continued the game while he was laying there. Then no one called an ambulance (I had to – and there’s a funny story about that – will give you that at the end!) and some stupid person had parked across the emergency vehicle access!
I was beside myself – but behaving very well in all this. LHM was pale and confused and had lost consciousness for a little while (less than a minute) but was already shivering and going into shock a bit. So we wrapped him up and waited…..and waited…..and waited. It took a good 20-30 minutes for the Paramedics to arrive.
The ambulance came and as a precaution collared him up and took him to the the local hospital (“D”) – he wasn’t badly injured enough to warrant lights and sirens so that was good – but all in all a very scary event. The hospital kept him for a few hours for observation and he’s home now with a headache the size of Tasmania! I might also add here that he’s covered in bruises and marks from footy boots etc! This football caper is just so dangerous….especially at this age group when there is such a disparity between the size of one 13 year old to the next!
In the hospital, LHM apologised for ruining my day, but you know – all in all it was good – I got to spend the entire day with my boy – he knows I love him to bits and I know he loves me too. You can’t ask for much more than that!
After the hospital – back home to “E” and bed….very early….that was my Mothers’ Day!
FUNNY AMBULANCE STORY.
When I called for the ambulance, I said that my 12-year-old had been injured playing football, however apparently when the job came through to the vehicle it said 12-MONTH-old and the dispatcher had to call me back and ask me whether LHM was 12 years old or 12 months old….hard to imagine a baby playing football!
