Happiness is...

Seeing my boy smile.

This was the highlight of an otherwise very nondescript day.

Alan had just eaten all his dinner for the first time in ages, had been full of the joys and "conversation" at the dinner table and was mad keen to show his support worker Ashleigh his pool.

Once dinner was over Alan, Ashleigh, David and I went though to check the water level in the pool (unlike yesterday he now accepts he can't get in the pool till the end of next week at the earliest)  

 Unbeknown to Alan, David had Christmas music playing through the six speakers in the ceiling of the pool room so when we opened the door he was greeted by a pool full of water and The Fairytale of New York blasting out!   He was a very happy lad!

The pool guy was here this afternoon and the plant room is now "doing something."  I assume over the next few days the water and pool room itself with warm up (the room was at 21 degrees and the pool water at a rather shivery 12 degrees.  It has to heat up to three times that amount!)  

We will receive full training on the running of the pool next week (David's already on the ball as part of his previous job had an element of pool management in it) but when I asked the guy today how we deal with the water level dropping due to splashing/evaporation, he explained the pool knows what level it should be and when the level drops, it will auto fill, just like a toilet cistern. It's apparently draining and autofilling at a minute rate all the time so in effect, every so many months, it's actually fully drained and re-filled itself ensuring the water doesn't get stale.  Clever stuff!