Making it up

I’ve become fascinated with skies since I started trying to draw and paint. Not that I’ve tried very hard to reproduce them, but it gives something to muse about as I drive home in an evening, pondering on the colours in a sunset and wondering whether I’ve the pastels to try. That’s while avoiding the complete idiots on the M1 you understand, who seem to get more suicidal as the traffic gets less.

It’s been a long day today, as my boss was preparing a handover - she’s off for the next 2 1/2 weeks. This meant that I was there from just after 8 this morning til 7.30 tonight - be the last time I do that for a while though, as it’s Tim’s first day tomorrow, so the childcare would be a bit more difficult to arrange. This will not be a bad thing - I will have to cram my work into my hours rather than sprawling my hours to fit my work, and my life will benefit from this balance, although I may fray a few nerve ends while I’m trying to figure it out.

Big appears to have cooked again today, though you’d have to ask Tim for further details. She also answered the phone and held a conversation with me in a most adult manner - most pleasant. Small, by contrast has only had one drink while I’ve been out. Tim was quite surprised to hear this, and may be considering making notes or taking pictures in future

So to another era tomorrow - but first, I need to have some tea and some sleep.

“The BBC plans to launch an on-demand tv service which uses software that will only be available to Windows users. The BBC should not be allowed to show commercial bias in this way, or to exclude certain groups of the population from using its services. The BBC say that they provide ’services for everyone, free of commercial interests and political bias’. Locking the new service’s users into Microsoft Windows whilst ignoring those members of society who use other operating systems should does not fit in with the BBC’s ethos and should not be allowed.”

(I must admit I have been pretty annoyed that the BBC has got involved with Real Media, who produce thoroughly unpleasant software.)

sign up by: 20 August 2007

A beautiful sunny day in West Yorkshire. We had a house viewing, a walk, food, some conversation, and …

… a TV movie Mist: The Tale of a Sheepdog Puppy for the children. Who were, obviously, transfixed.

Another lovely day Off T’Path.

Yesterday we got on to the lemonade game when we were trying to explain profit to Big. That in itself was a diversion after she’d declared herself unable to add 10p and 5p together. What with one thing and another though, she was off and about practising practical maths skills all day. After lots of time on the lemonade game herself, we took turns playing while she was haring about outside - Small spent most of his day in the garden, dressed in a bewildering assortment of clothes that arrived in a parcel from the portico (and thanks very much for that, he adores pretty much all of it )

Some time later in the day we got onto cooking again, as mentioned elsewhere, Big cooked Hole to go beside her Toad I was slightly nervous about this as I’ve heard that yorkshire puddings are notoriously difficult, and as I don’t like them (not being from yorkshire you see) I’ve never cooked them before. Nevertheless we had a go, and I’m told they turned out well. I’d retired to bed for a lie down by this point - I’m not good at my first day of period pain.

Can’t really think what else the day consisted of, I know I waded through loads of paperwork and threw out a bin load of envelopes. Oh, and I think I voted as well, do enjoy this postal voting business, although I could do without them making it so complicated. What’s with having a part of the paper that is perforated but you aren’t supposed to remove?

Today has been slightly more hectic. We stirred ourselves early this morning to go over to look at a house in West Yorkshire - it was OK, and also had a large enough garden that the children could hurl themselves around it screaming. On the way over we took a stab at explaining average to Big - I’m never sure how much of this she takes in, but discussion of the tortoise and the hare seemed to get us somewhere.

After house viewing and some more exploring, we had a quick trip to Morrisons, and then went off the path to join in a bring and share lunch. Turned out that two of the other guest families there lived on the same road as the house we’d been viewing, so we got lots more background information Lovely afternoon - went out for a walk with the latest addition to the off the path menagerie, and the kids as usual had a wail of a time in the garden.

We stopped for tea, and haven’t been back terribly long - just long enough to pour exhausted children into bed. I’m not going to be terribly far behind them - I just want to read a little of First Meetings: In the Enderverse that I’ve borrowed. Been a weekend of prequels - on Friday my signed copies of Falling Free and Cordelia’s Honor arrived, and I enjoyed the first last night, as well as watching a terrible film, which I won’t recommend Despite that, it’s been a good weekend.

From Hitler to Pinochet and beyond, history shows there are certain steps that any would-be dictator must take to destroy constitutional freedoms. And, argues Naomi Wolf, George Bush and his administration seem to be taking them all

Today, we are mostly playing Lemonade Game

Big has cooked her own dinner (scrambled eggs a la Delia) this evening. She has been getting her own food for ages, but this is the first time she has ever cooked it.

Went a bit lumpy, but never mind.

Fascinating site

Aside from satellite aberrations, and features on some fascinating places, prize for all round weirdness goes to the Flying Doughnut

(Google has improved the definition of images since this was posted, if anything it gets weirder close up)

“The property has sceptic tank drainage.”

Idiot.

Spammers, eh?

Anyway, we have bluebells in our garden. Self seeded. So it is now a nature reserve, SSI or something and I am henceforth exonerated from mowing the grass. I adore bluebells.

Now I need to find out how you tell the Spanish ones from the proper English ones. Hmm, I think we are being invaded.

She said she wanted to learn to cook. Delia seems a good way to go to me.

I had thought is might be desperately over-technical, in fact she seems to be managing the writing rather well, .

just became even more popular here.

Great article from Orson Scott Card, author of Ender’s Game, among others. HT to O’DonnellWeb for the original link.

It’s been a good weekend. Unfortunately I had to go into the office on Friday, so it didn’t start quite as early as I’d hoped it might, but when I got back at about 8, we got into the swing of it straight away. T-B and A had come to visit, and the kids were already on their way into bed, so we got pretty much straight into beer and take-away. Watched James Bond - Casino Royale (Daniel Craig) [2006], which was rather fun, and stayed up way too late chatting.

Not nearly such a late morning as I usually enjoy on a weekend - we pottered about and then got out the sewing machine that T-B had come to help us with. It seems to be quite a good one, but having sat for rather a lot of years with no attention, it really didn’t want to play. We’ll see if we can get it serviced and try again some time. Then we popped out to Dunelm mills for a lesson about fabrics, but that was rather disappointing, as they really didn’t have much in in the way of dress making stuff. Much time taken up later photographing my stash - I thought maybe if I had piccies I could start picking out patterns to make headway working through it. Chose a couple of new projects to start on, and decided that I’m going to have to frog the tapestry purse and start again, it’s just too misshapen atm.

Another evening of light entertainment, with Buffy, Once More with feeling, and Doctor who on the cards, and a much earlier night. The children slept in this morning, and then A wasn’t really up to anything much, so regretfully they decamped home. We’ve had a quiet afternoon since, with me trying to do a bit of work, but not really getting anywhere, while playing fantasy house buying games in my head. Don’t suppose anyone has half a mill they don’t need right now?

“Set within an idyllic location between the Rochdale Canal and the river…”

That’ll be on the flood plain then.

On the bright side, when the market crashes, the owner of this house won’t be left high and dry.

Five Children And It / Two Brothers / James And The Giant Peach - Live Action / Animated [1996] in the coop, and I’m going back to get it. It’ll be another good one to tempt her into further reading indulgences

Yesterday morning, alone in the car for my quick run up to work, I got tired of the usual inanities of early morning virgin radio, and I switched instead to Classic FM. I arrived at work in a different mood, feeling somehow more centred I supposed.

This morning I asked the kids if they’d like to listen along, and they were game to give it a go. It was an interesting journey - Big was extremely displeased that Small wouldn’t play with her as he was too busy being completely entranced by the music. Guess I’ll be doing that again then!

This evening Small fell asleep. Big wanted to know why my clock in the car said 18:58 which led to some interesting conversations around 24 hour clocks, why when there are 60 seconds and 60 minutes but only 24 hours in a day (and also which hour is the 24th hour - quite diffficult to explain while driving down the motorway, I’m never going to be a car ed fan). Somehow this then became mental arithmetic (started with how to get from 19:07 to a time she would recognise and then I was giving her subtractions to do and we were talking through tens and units and so on) and a recitation of her times tables. I just love the way these conversations evolve although I’d really love for it not to happen on the M1.

Once home, I scooped the sleeping Small into bed - he woke up just long enough to take his cardigan off and then fall asleep on the landing again Big got herself some supper and then went up to continue reading The Secret Garden (Wordsworth’s Children’s Classics). I passed by and she asked for some help with some of the yorkshire dialect, which then led into a discussion of what was meant by the term ‘heathen’ and somehow into a discussion of the British Empire. Must have been bed time, can’t think why else she’d have been encouraging me to ramble

So I’ve no idea what they’ve done in school, but I do know there’s been a fair amount of education to and from today.

Oh, and in more personal news, the missing front tooth has started to come through. This is the one coming in to replace the one that was damaged at camp a couple of years ago, it’s taken absolutely ages to show as the one next to it fell out and has grown through since the first fell out. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like it’s coming through straight Guess I’d better get us sorted out with a dentist fairly quickly then.

This morning I did. I saw a badger by the side of the road, and I didn’t stop to check he was dead. Should I have done? I don’t know.

This evening, as I left work, I drove out of the industrial estate towards the main road. I saw a young girl sitting on the pavement at the opposite side of the road, all curled up on herself in that exhausted or saddened way they have. I drove past, in the left hand lane, intending to take the second turn up the hill. Somewhere in the matter of yards before the decision was irreversibly made (it’s a sliproad onto a dual carriageway and the next junction is over a mile away) I swung over into the outside lane, around the bizarre double roundabout and back into the industrial estate.

I pulled up next to the slightly startled girl, leant across and wound down the window. “I’m just checking, are you alright? You just look a bit abandoned, that’s all.”
She gave me a beautiful smile “yes, I’m fine.”
“OK then.”

And I drove off again. I didn’t have to drive home wondering. I don’t know what I’ve have done if she’d said no, I guess I’d have made it up at that point (no point in having a motto if you don’t live by it ) but I guess in that split second of decision where I changed lane and drove back around, I’d managed to think ‘what if that was Big out there, and she wasn’t OK’ and I guess I’d hope at that point, that there would be someone who wouldn’t drive by.

first seen at Starchild searching

“She displays the wisdom of a battle hardened warrior.”

“She’s a mother. Close enough.”

Anyone guess which sci-fi show we’ve been watching?