Jesus Army and Ramadan noise-off

I live next door to a mosque and next to them is the Jesus Army (I may have mentioned this before). Well today is the the last day of Ramadan and I've had to complain a couple of times about the noise of people leaving the mosque at 11 at night. One time someone from the Jesus Army even knocked on my door to ask if I was finding the prayers too noisy. So anyway an hour ago there's a load of muslims milling around outside and you can hear their chatter but then I can hear the sound of singing so I look out my door and the Jesus Army guys are standing in the road in a circle, holding hands and singing. Someone is even playing a guitar! Good grief!

Anyway, so we had THE VISIT today. They were here for over an hour and a half. Craig says it went well, whilst one never spoke (as promised) the other was nice nice and very sympathetic although didn't seem to be able to handle it very well when he pushed the questions. ie why do we have to go through an assessment from the Disabled Childrens Team when it's already known that Seth is disabled and there have been various assessments, or what exactly is the difference between them and the previous group we were dealing with, or why do we have to go through all this beurocracy? Anyway, we've jumped through that hoop and shall wait and see what happens next.

I'm definitely in a better mental state than last week. Craig was away in Barcelona this weekend on a stag thing. I was pretty apprehensive about being on my own with Seth for 4 days but actually we had a great time. I managed to lose one of his shoes which is a real pain but that gave me the excuse to put his wellies on him and take him walking in the rain. We stood in a puddle stomping and splashing. Seth thought it was very funny! Plus I got pressies :)

The professionals are now scared of me!

We were supposed to get our initial assessment by the Disabled Childrens Team yesterday to assess our needs and whether we can get Direct Payments, which I had asked for. I had had a rather frustrating telephone conversation with the women due to visit where she told me that I couldn't use Direct Payments for childcare,even though I knew 2 mums who used it for that very reason and one person who was paid for babysitting through it. After my previous post/rant on this subject someone sent me the link to Directgov which spelled out that Direct Payments could be used for this reason so I was feeling pretty antsy about this woman coming into our house and assessing us. Anyway, it didn't happen. 10 minutes before the appointment I got a phone call from her team leader telling me that she had been called away on an emergency and they would need to reschedule. I'd already waited over a month for this appointment and I've been feeling pretty stressed anyway so you can imagine how pleased I was about that!!!!

Anyway this woman phoned back today and we arranged the new appointment for next Tuesday (happily Craig is home that day so he will deal with her, rather than me)but this time she insisted that it had to be an accompanied visit. She had already phoned last week and asked if she could bring a trainee with her and I had refused - I've allowed plenty of observers over the last 3 years and frankly I'm sick of Seth being someone's lesson. I'm also sick of strangers coming into my house. Now she's telling me that I have no choice because her visit has to be accompanied.

So I phoned the Carers helpline. The woman on the helpline explained that the confusion stems from me using the phrase 'childcare' which is meant for when you want to go to work, not for when you want someone to babysit so you can get a break. Okay, so now I understand not to use that phrase. And the reason why the assessor will no longer come on her own?......because she doesn't like me. She didn't like the way I spoke to her on the phone and she will only come if someone is with her. Good grief! Oh well, an even better reason for Craig to meet with her next week and not me!!!