The day got off to a slow start with my finding it hard to `drum up business`. The first little girl (3 yrs) I approached had to lie flat on her back. I spent a little time with her trying to find a way in, showing her films other children had made and talking to her bears, but she was really not up for it and spent much of the day sleeping. An attempt to engage another little girl (4 years but with a developmental age of 2 and a half) was also short lived, although she was to join in in the corridor for a short while later. The doctors were still doing their rounds so I needed to be careful of where I went, but the three year old boy I have worked with each week was soon available and he and his mum and I repaired to the corridor corner where we had worked last week, and we were joined by a 6 month old and his mum who wanted to make him a puppet. The three year old`s puppet from the previous week had not survived so we made another, using double-sided tape instead of glue so that it could be played with immediately. We also used the funky foam precut in squares so children could draw faces, clothes etc and cut them out. Afterwards I attempted to get the puppet to take me on a journey through the ward showing me his favorite places, and we took photos, but although I am finding it easier to understand this child I am not sure that this was relevant to him.

It was approaching web link time and luckily I was able to return to the 7 year old I had worked with the first week but had been too ill the second - an ideal candidate. I started by showing her her bear`s pictures up on the web-site and then a charming sock puppet in Wicklow attempted to engage him in conversation. The bear was suffering from its owner`s early hunger for lunch and just wanted to nap however. It also transpired that she didn`t at first realise the puppet was not her bear`s picture also (the quality of the image was quite poor) I also gradually gathered that she was more interested in making a puppet than using the bear, so we started to do this and were lucky enough that the others were still online when we finished so the puppet had a chance to participate, and the echo in communications became a great source of entertainment. 

A Highlight for me was when she found it hard to think of a name for her puppet and I asked her to pick a number, but she wouldn`t! Then I asked her her age and we used that to pick the letter G as the seventh letter of the alphabet. I think your puppet`s name begins with G I said. Her face lit up: "His name is Grass head!" and he did have lovely hay-coloured spiky hair. My mentor this week was suggesting that I focus on the thing that excites me about this kind of work, and make sure I am able to access it somehow. For me I think it is these little Eureka moments that you get to share with someone - watching them surprise themselves.

Unfortunately a 12 year old who shared the room with her, and to whom she proudly showed her puppet, declined on several occasions invitations that we might do something together. Another three year old,very unhappy and unwell, also declined on a couple of occasions.

Another thing I find important, particularly in this context, is being part of the pleasure and fun of creative play. Another highlight was the fun the next boy (4 years, and confined to his back) had playing with his mother. He made a character called Mr Dolly who immediately demanded the bus keys from my puppet from last week (operated by his mother, soon named Mr Woman). The engine noises he made were very convincing (I gather his father is a mechanic) and when Mr Woman tried to put the brakes on the vigorous bus driving in circles around his head by exclaiming "Oh no! we`re out of petrol! We have to stop now" the puppet returned "It`s ok this bus uses diesel". They were quite a double act and I wish I could have filmed them but the angle at which the boy had to work and his absorption made this impossible. They were having such a good time, I excused myself and left them at it.

I used for the next three and a half year old the same device that had contributed to the birth of Mr Dolly, telling him about the bus, and that someone had left something behind on it and would he like to see this `evidence`. I asked him to pick a number and then retrieved the CD folder containing this numbered `clue` - a purple balloon (not inflated). "What is it do you think? Is it a balloon? or something else?" I wondered. "Something else" he whispered. He thought awhile - "A Dinosaur". And so began the process of creating Chloe Pete, the kind of person who leaves (or meets?) dinosaurs on buses.

Working with both these boys provided my `creative` highlights of the day as they were so imaginative, albeit in such different ways, one so outgoing, the other often communicating through his mother. However I also experienced my most difficult moments with them, as both had to endure a lot of pain, as nurses changed lines etc. In each case, with agreement of the nurse, I attempted to be a useful distraction, but unfortunately at both times the boy`s discomfort was such that I myself was sweating from witnessing and beginning to wonder whether I should not leave. Luckily discomfort was short-lived and we were soon able to continue. In the case of the first one he was soon pealing with laughter again. But with the second I began to wind up as he was exhausted, although he did ask to make a short film first, delighting me to find that Chloe Pete found it easier to talk to me than his owner had. I left him some paper and pastels to draw the bus with later or tomorrow as he told me he loved drawing.

The boy I had hoped to do the last link with returned late from physio and was too tired but I was pleased to see he still had his puppet from the previous week and had played with it a bit in between. When I went back to the bus drivers they were pleased at the option of `talking to puppets in Cork`. In fact we could see nothing from Cork (where a boy was apparently to shy) and sound seemed to come and go, but they would have had a job getting a word in anyway I think, Mr Dolly is quite a character and there was a lot of canoodling going on with Mr Woman. As I left them they were discussing painting the bus and putting wheels on it and driving down to Cork tomorrow.

A good and crazy day.

6 puppets, 7 children (+ a few `failed` attempts) interactions with approx 8 staff members and 10-12 parents, 2 brief interactions with siblings.