Skating penguins could be the way forward.

Baggy had to take Hormonal Hannah to counselling Session No. 2 this morning. The fifty minutes went in five minutes, as Clever Bird once again tried to get Hannah to be quiet long enough for the counsellor to speak. It has become apparent that Baggy has been coping with stress for way too long - but, she's done it by avoiding issues; apparently the worst thing that one can do, as it feeds the fears and the stress. So, the counsellor attempted to get Baggy to agree that they need to focus on just two of the big issues. Firstly, Baggy's Mum leaving her when she was eight. Secondly, her stepmother's influence on her, that has caused Baggy to unravel, since she died last December. Clever Bird agrees that these two things are the crux of the matter. She's known that for most of her life.  She understands what influence they've had on her. She knows that some of Baggy's behaviour is a little odd, as a direct result of these things. What she doesn't know, is how to stop that influence. And unless Hannah shuts up long enough to get anywhere logical in her ramblings and let the counsellor help her, she might not find out either. So next Tuesday, Baggy will attempt to breathe between her hysterical crying and nose-blowing, which might allow the counsellor a few seconds to a) make some sense of her ramblings and b) help Baggy deal with it.

Furry Mama took Minty and Baggy for a swift walk when she got back, before gobbling some lunch and heading to Hannah's Stress Management course. Now, Clever Bird isn't sure whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, that their "change your thinking" lecture held absolutely nothing new for Baggy.

The good news was that actually, when she's not shutting down and ignoring her issues, she already uses all of the techniques that they advise. So she just needs to stop with the "shutting down" and deal with the fears. As a result, Clever Bird had Baggy bored and distracted by the totally out-of-date slides (stats. from 2004!!), and the typos. "Imagine a penguin ice-skating with it's woolly scarf tied round it's neck and it's woolly hat on it's head". Grrrrrrr! And the patronising (but understandable, explanation to the "lowest common denominator"), that went on for ten minutes about how to visualise your penguin, when Baggy's (whose name was Ernie by the way), was already doing a triple salco, the second she was told to imagine him. The moment the speaker told everyone to now ignore their penguin, (by which time, Baggy's was eating an ice cream talking to a polar bear and going nowhere), she got the point. Five minutes later, with slides of penguins on the screen as the speaker continued to tell people not to think about their penguin, he then said, "Of course that's a silly way of making a very big point" ;with no explanation! Now Freda Fretter glanced round the room and it was pretty obvious that at least a third of the people had literally no clue what his point actually was.

As she left, Baggy had to stop Clever Bird from telling the speakers to update their slides and think a little bit more about their presentation techniques, as it was pretty clear to Clever Bird that rather a lot of those people were probably now thinking that every time they get stressed they need to think of a penguin skating - mind you, it might work, it made Hannah chuckle!

Driving home, relating this to Calum, Baggy was in the village next to the yard, when Grotty screamed at her that she wanted to see the horses. Baggy did a skid turn to accommodate her, but started to have a panic attack, the closer she got to the yard as she was scared of bumping into "the people". The horses were already out, so in her soft hippy shoes and maxi-dress, Baggy took Grotty on the ten-minute walk to their paddocks. Joey didn't even look up, but Wessles started to walk to Grotty as soon as he spotted her. Baggy's spirits lifted instantly. They lifted even more after a cuddle, a snuggle and a scratch with mutual blowing up nostrils.  Clever Bird confirmed to Baggy, as if it needed further confirmation, that for her own sake, she has to find a way of spending more time with her horses. Even her counsellor picked up on this (from something Hannah must have rambled), this morning. The counsellor's suggestion was to consider whether Grotty could move the horses to another yard, but for the Boys' sakes, Calum and particularly Baggy's sakes, Clever Bird really doesn't want her to do that. Even Hormonal Hannah has recognised that it's high time that Baggy stood up for herself and Grotty, so Clever Bird's number one priority of "fears" to face, is to sort this issue out one way or another. Baggy continues to work on her inner grrrrrrr!!.........