Making it up

Big has found herself the next book she wanted to read - Ramona and Her Mother It came from a set I got her from the book people for christmas last year, so looks like stashing her shelves is a good plan Also think I should make sure some of my Noel Streatfield’s are nearer the front, I think she might really enjoy some of them.

So that was good. So was the phone ringing this afternoon and it being my youngest sister. We haven’t seen each other or spoken this year, so it was good to catch up. She’d rung because she’d heard my news (from another sister, who was helping out by picking the kids up today) and wanted to say sorry. I can take that.

And the less good - that would have started this morning when I stopped off to fill up the tank with petrol, paid for the tank of petrol, then got back to the car to find it running out over the garage forecourt. I have to say I was very impressed with the reaction of the Sainsbury’s petrol station staff - they had a protocol, they followed it, and they were polite, friendly and helpful to the person who’d shut their shop! Then the RAC guy was fantastic - arrived in 15 minutes instead of the quoted 45, diagnosed the car, followed me to a garage, gave me a lift home, and all without being the slightest bit patronising.

Of course, it would have helped if there had been a mechanic at the garage to fix the car

Managed to get Tim’s car and technical stuff dropped off, picked up the kitten, and got back home in time for my doctor’s appt this aft. I’m still feeling pretty terrible - now I have antibiotics, and I have a follow up appt first thing in the morning.

Kids were brought home by second sister of the day, happy to see the kitten, and in excellent moods. Somewhere in the afternoon I snatched half an hour to chat with the school principal about my two favourite topics, and that was good too.

So we managed to end with the good too. Not such a bad day after all.

(no idea what this is all about - but it looks pretty)

and the film is out on my birthday too! Think I know what I’m doing this year then.

arrived at our house on Thursday late morning, in the form of my best friend from school, who it turned out I hadn’t seen for nearly two years. I can’t find a mention of our last visit up her way on the blog even, which is bad. Anyway, as ever, it was as if we’d seen each other everyday for the last two years, and some several before that, and the kids adore her, so that was good too. Sat up looking through piccies (on the puter obviously) and catching up on families, and drinking wine.

Oh, and she is very handy with a needle, so she made cloaks, while I did a tabard, and Tim did more armour related making.

Got kids’ hair cut on Friday, and A stayed over another night - we introduced her to Eureka which we’re currently enjoying. Costumes pretty much finished by this point - we knocked up a little extra for Kirsty’s M and Frog, as well as sorting something out for Tim. I did some of the packing that evening as well, then somehow, despite a late night, managed to get up and organised so early that Tim was able to blog about it.

Got to the beans for about 12, which was what I was aiming for - there were a fair few ppl already there, but plenty more to come too. Twitter was going mad - but in a very belated way, I got 10 texts all at once at one point, and at no stage got any from mazportico, which I didn’t quite understand. The weather held remarkably well for the day, and most ppl stayed outside - I got a drink and then retreated to the playroom, and stayed there.

I found the day surprisingly difficult, in that I hadn’t expected to find it difficult at all. Instead, I kept having to blink away tears, or stare fixedly at the picture on the opposite wall, hoping that no one would say anything too kind (everyone was incredibly thoughtful and caring). Got to make friends with the youngest deep ender, who is a particularly gorgeous little person, and had some very interesting chats with various ppl.

Stayed up far too late, and only got up this morning with the aid of painkillers. Don’t know why I’m in pain again at this point, but will be taking myself off to the doctor to discuss it tomorrow.

Big and Small had a fabulous time. Small kept his costume on all day, and was next to no bother, Big had occasional wails/ tantrums, but mainly didn’t want to waste playing time. Today was rather more difficult as all the children had stayed up late last night, but Tim and I got the car packed up so that we could leave at the drop of a tantrum, and eventually managed to stay for lunch. After pancakes for breakfast of course!

Decent drive home, and I’ve bathed the offspring, while Tim is now storying and tucking in. I’ve an urge to create something crafty, so I’m perusing pattern books, of which I have a pretty decent array now, and trying to work out which bit of my stash I’d like to bust. Keep checking my place in the ravelry sign up list, but there’s a way to go before I get to play there!

Looks like we might actually set off for the party today on time!

That’ll be a first.

Proof that Jax has, finally, made it to Bolsover Castle (and revelled in the delights of the garçons pis).

Must say that some of the detail in the figures is perturbing - there is one of a satyr(?) or the like holding a duck which appears to be peeing on his lap and this rather peculiar and well endowed dragon-like thing.

I think this would be great for going camping with, even at Kessingland, or Gloucester city centre.

See War relic aids flood-hit county

Jax is watching Anthea Turner: Perfect Housewife.

I put it on for her, so she can have some rant therapy.

one of those waves of sadness is washing over me this afternoon. I still have some residual aches and pains, and I’m getting tired of sleeping all the time, but the bit that’s bothering me most is the lack of purpose I’m feeling atm. The rest of this post is self indulgent waffle, so don’t feel you need to read it if you don’t want to. (more…)

You are The Moon

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Moon is a card of magic and mystery - when prominent you know that nothing is as it seems, particularly when it concerns relationships. All logic is thrown out the window.

The Moon is all about visions and illusions, madness, genius and poetry. This is a card that has to do with sleep, and so with both dreams and nightmares. It is a scary card in that it warns that there might be hidden enemies, tricks and falsehoods. But it should also be remembered that this is a card of great creativity, of powerful magic, primal feelings and intuition. You may be going through a time of emotional and mental trial; if you have any past mental problems, you must be vigilant in taking your medication but avoid drugs or alcohol, as abuse of either will cause them irreparable damage. This time however, can also result in great creativity, psychic powers, visions and insight. You can and should trust your intuition.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Or what did your now beyond 7 year old read when they were 7? or thereabouts?

Tim and I were talking about reading earlier. We do a lot of talking about education - yesterday we were debating how much you learn about history from visiting places like Bolsover Castle, frozen in time by English Heritage. I’m tempted to the idea that rebuilding bits of it doesn’t help what you can learn from it, but as Tim says, if they didn’t repair it, there wouldn’t be anything left to learn from in quite a short space of time.

Anyway, Big has finally finished The Railway Children (thank goodness they don’t have fines on children’s books at our library!), and I think she might be nearly there with The Secret Garden as well. She has savoured these books rather than devouring them, and it may well be a better way to read than my blink and you’ve missed it approach. Although I do go back and reread books that I’ve enjoyed - I’ve reread a whole bunch of Pern stories in the last week or so, as well as finally getting around to The Time Traveler’s Wife (possibly not the best timed exposure to that particular story, but I enjoyed it anyway).

But back to Big. She has a shelf in her room of children’s books that I’ve acquired over the years, some dating back to my own childhood, but also books that I’ve picked up for my children to enjoy. She’s got some Rumer Godden, Noel Streatfield, there’s Goodnight Mr Tom that I bought for her on holiday, amongst others that I can’t remember now, and don’t want to go upstairs to look at given that Tim’s trying to have a nap just now. But there aren’t very many recent books, as I’ve not done a lot of reading of children’s fiction recently. I know of authors like Anne Fine, Jacqueline Wilson, Michael Morpugo, Philip Pullman (him I have read), and I do even have a couple of Harry Potters should she wish to indulge, although we’ve rather missed the boat on the whole phenomenon there. So I was hoping that any of you with children around or slightly above this age group could either offer from your own experience, or perhaps even ask your children what sort of stuff they’d recommend, and either drop us a line in the comment box, or blog about it yourself and drop us a link back instead.

Ta.

“I looked up. It was a short, bearded cock of a man, swathed in self-righteousness. More to the point, he was an American.”
Day Of The Zealots (Times)

“This website showcases thousands of items from the British Library. You can browse our collections, tours and exhibitions, or search the site in many different ways.”
Welcome to Collect Britain!

This is gorgeous. Mind, having had a scan through her past items, not sure I can afford her work!

to Bolsover castle. Rather embarassing to have lived here as long as I have and never been previously, although Tim and the kids know their way around it pretty well. They were very happy to show me about, although I couldn’t even try to keep up with them, and once we got back after less than an hour of walking about the place, I needed to go lie down, and slept for nearly 3 hours.

Small has a sword now, he’s thrilled with it, although apparently he’d prefer it to be white. We’ve ordered Big’s dress - the site has a special offer on premium rate postage due to the postal strike this week.

Right, must have something to eat now.

been to the doctors this morning, as I’m now out of self-certification time frames. Slightly surprised when he gave me a three week sick note (although I can go back sooner than that if I get tired of staring at the walls, he’ll sign me off he said). Need to post that in to work - certainly don’t feel up to an office today, would be very offputting for my team members for me to keep bursting into tears all over the place. Or needing a lie down every hour or so.

So we’re all at home - Big is making a big effort to be better behaved today, while Small seems to have picked up some excellent tantrumming techniques. Think we’ll pop up to Bolsover this afternoon to look at swords - although Small is determined we should make one for him. Not sure how effective it would be though, as he wants it made out of modelling foam. Should stop him belting anyone over the head as he was attempting to this morning though!

Small has had 30 minutes by timer on the ‘puter, and now Big is having her turn. She did some Mr Men activity book while he was having his turn, and now he’s putting stickers into a Big Trucks book. He’s just recognised that it’s like Snap. We’ve found a press out castle book that we’ll bring with us this weekend, then Small can have a castle too. Saw a rather good hamster fort in a petshop yesterday that was tempting too - it was only £5 and had about 9 rooms I think.

Made a Barbie cloak last night with the pattern I’m planning on using for the kids cloaks. Did I blog that we went shopping for cloak material? Scenic tour of Sheffield - Tim didn’t recognise the road we were driving down, although it’s the one he went down everytime he dropped me off or picked me up for nearly 6 years, as they’ve demolished large numbers of the buildings and rerouted the traffic. Took ages to find our way into Fabric warehouse, though it was worth it for the red and purple velvet stuff we found. Bought myself some rather nice bamboo knitting needles as well, though if I’d seen the price beforehand, I think I’d have resisted! They are easier to knit with, might manage to knit up a couple of items with them, although the crochet chain mail is still preferred.

This whole preparing for castle day is very educational, although I think at the moment it’s Tim and I who are learning the most. Still, I’m sure some of it will stick with the kids as well.

People who use internet networking sites are being warned that they could be at risk of identity theft.

Credit information group Equifax said members of sites such as MySpace, Bebo and Facebook may be putting too many details about themselves online.

bbc

The suggestion is to be careful how much information you put on there, and limit what is available to the general public. Worth thinking about, anyway.

The cry should go up in Europe: more babies, please

“Of all the bogeys you might have thought well and truly nailed in the past decade or so, the population control movement seemed most obviously to have a stake through its heart. At a time when we – I mean, anyone over 35 – are all horribly conscious that there won’t be enough taxpayers to support us in gin and cigarettes in our old age, the very last thing we need to worry about is excess population growth. On the contrary: as seen from the dinner party circuit, the real crisis is the difficulty for female graduates in getting anyone to breed with. Forty per cent of women graduates don’t have a single baby at the age of 35…..more” Times

Are we a free country any more?

“In his first statement to Parliament as Prime Minister, Gordon Brown said: “Britain is rightly proud to be the pioneer of the modern liberties of the individual.” Little noticed among the cascade of pronouncements about constitutional reform, was a promise to reconsider the ban on unlicensed political protest in the vicinity of the Palace of Westminster. Mr Brown implied that when it came to balancing the need for public order with the right to public dissent, this was a law too far…… more” Times

BBC news appears to have noticed flooding in the south - just had the most pointless phone interview ever with some woman who didn’t appear to have noticed she was on national news, and wasn’t being terribly forthcoming with information (not that she seemed to have an awful lot).

The Story of the World has arrived, wondering whether I should have splurged for the activity book, but at least the first chapter is covered from our 120 Great History Projects as it talks about a shaduf, and I’m sure that there is a project in there that does one. So I’m thinking we’ll read the chapter today, then look at the project and see what we’ve got, plan to get anything else we need, and maybe do the shaduf tomorrow.

That’s probably all I’m up to today - depressed myself beyond recognition by reading NI in which everything in the world is the fault of ppl living the way we live. I really should know better, especially when I’m already fragile. More chain mail to crochet though, and that helps - doing something practical (however impractical it may be) does seem to calm me, or at least stop me thinking so much.

Hoping against hope that Big and I can work through a project together - she’s upset that we’re putting so much effort into Small’s costume and considering buying hers, but there are things we can make for a knight, and nothing that I could make for a medieval princess. Although I’m wondering if I can find any jewellry designs that would be suitable - we have plenty of beads after all.

Actor Pierce Brosnan has signed on as the narrator of Thomas the Tank Engine - a role previously taken by ex-Beatle Ringo Starr and US star Alec Baldwin.

bbc

Cool, I’ll enjoy those then