Making it up

the ones like me that is

Can I drive a minibus? More, am I allowed to? My licence predates 1997 (quite considerably actually) so according to this page I think I can, as long as it’s not for “hire or reward”. Does driving a bus for school count as hire or reward? I’m thinking not, but I’m also thinking it’s not very clear.

After Merry left precipitously, the fimo she had donated to the cause came out to play, and Small spent quite literally hours making things. Have decided that obviously I have been depriving him of modelling equipment, so am going to have to indulge his fledgling talents by visiting Playmerrily and buying him much fimo to get him going.

I don’t have to wait til he’s 8 though do I?

First time we went to Melrose there was Small, who really was small, and Big, who wasn’t. We went when he was toddling, and before he was talking, then missed last year as Big said she’d rather go to school. She changed her mind on that weeks later (oops) and had been looking forward to this for months.

First departure from the norm was our departure - within the timescale I was hoping for, and therefore despite the best efforts of well hidden petrol stations and nearly closed A1s, we arrived at a very decent time in daylight. The children instantly departed while I lugged bags up to the top floor, and I barely saw them until Small came and asked to go to bed. Only time all week he did that mind you!

Got first bottle of wine open, crochet out, and then Matt came up with a laptop and a page full of C code, resulting in me twittering to ask Andrea/ Ron the syntax for pulling something out of a 2D C array. (It’s been a long time. ) Had a really pleasant evening just chatting and fiddling with code.

Monday I went out into town to get saline solution and forgot that I was supposed to be buying baby lotion so that Big could do facepainting. She was very unhappy with me That might have been the first night that I cleaned pans and played blokus as well, though I can’t really remember now. That’s one of the drawbacks to not blogging throughout, being completely incapable of remembering which activity belonged to which day.

Tuesday was orchestra in the morning (my children did not join) and computer game workshop in the afternoon (which you couldn’t have dragged them away from with the proverbial wild horses). I think all children not in quarantine of age 4 and up joined in with the game workshop tbh, Matt looked a little overwhelmed at times as he disappeared under piles of pictures of good guys, bad guys and backgrounds He chose Small’s pictures for the first level to be demonstrated and Small bounced throughout the demo of his work appearing in a game projected onto a wall. I think the workshop will really stand out for all the kids when they remember this Melrose, that and the crimped hair that just about every little girl had. Small spent at least one day dressed as a pirate chasing any girl with crimped hair - it worked better after he’d explained that was what he was doing. He really looks unbearably cute in the captain hook outfit, most ppl thought he was Prince Charming though!

Weds I’d hoped to swim, but instead, Big went to dynamic earth with t-bird and family and Small and I went into town again, this time to buy fabric to make the hood from the batman costume that we’d bought the pattern for the day before. (Which means that somewhere along the line I’ve missed a trip to town -should have got a discount in that fabric shop tbh!) I then spent the whole morning agonising about cutting out fabric - give me yarn and hook or needles and I’m fine, but sewing really isn’t my forte. Determined to crack that this year, very inspired by the craftzine blog that I’m following on twitter, with links to books like Jeaneology: Crafty Ways to Reinvent Your Old Blues. Skirt on the front cover is actually one I could consider wearing…

anyway, I’ve digressed rather. Let’s see, I also did more knitting sessions, with SB, and Michelle’s C, a crochet session with Maddy, played much Blokus (have added to amazon wishlist as mentioned previously), drank wine, chatted with ppl, stayed up far too late washing pans (and the skin on my hands is letting me know about it, vaseline intensive care here we come) and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Don’t know whether we’ll get to come again, given that it’s highly unlikely we’ll be even flexi-schooling by next year, but at least it was a good one to go out on.

Oh, I left early as had developed nasty head cold and just wanted to be home in my own bed (where I stayed until 12.30 today, so right decision methinks) and cleaned my room before we left. I found two false nails and a stray earring, so I’m looking forward to hearing that the warden was impressed at how clean the hostel was as we left, given it was obviously much cleaner than when we arrived!

travelling around author’s blogs again tonight and found a link from someone called Ann Aguirre. Followed it back to discover that her book, Grimspace, just published has a lead character called Jax! Wow, I’m famous. Well, not really, But I’ve added it to my amazon wish list, along with Blokus which I thoroughly enjoyed this week.

Can’t get my head around blogging the whole week at all yet, not least as I’ve just realised that, having decided to leave unpacking the car til tomorrow, I’m going to have to change my mind and go bring all the bags in, as I need my lens stuff and I can’t remember which bag it’s in. Bleargh. So I’ll just talk about this afternoon in the metrocentre.

We got there at just after half one, with me preparing to drag them into the foodcourt so that they could eat whatever and I could have chinese, to discover that the foodcourt is temporarily closed, so the alternative was obviously McDs I really hate their spciy veggie thing, and I’m tired of explaining to their staff that filet of fish is not vegetarian. And I understand how come so many ppl (or at the very least McDs customers) are fat - that grotty meal had very nearly full calorie requirements for a woman for a day, and yet it was completely unsatisfying and I could quite easily have forgotten I’d eaten it at all. But at least they had carrot sticks (no more garlic bread fingers ) so Small got to have something to eat with his fish fingers.

After McDs I dragged them halfway around the centre to find the hawkin’s shop that was listed in the leaflet. It had shutdown So then I took them back to Poundworld and Small chose a car and a marvel heroes sticker book, which he then proceeded to read as he walked. (All of this was after the bit where he dragged me across the aisle to look at a film poster and tell me it was for a film called The Water Horse - how did you know that? I read it.) We went into primark and he sat down in the middle of the aisle to continue reading, so I had to move him next to a pillar. Three ppl asked me if he was mine, as a lost child was announced over the tannoy as he was perched - he was completely unconcerned. When we eventually got home, he started writing out the names of the characters, X-Men and Storm, Captin (sic) America. And this time he could still read them after he’d written them, which seemed like a huge leap forward.

He’s slightly worried that we’ve come home without a copy of his game, I’ve explained that this will be sorted, hopefully over the weekend. And now I think I should go to bed. My bed. And a lie in in the morning - Tim is taking the day off as he’s done his hours pretty much already this week

shall be blogging melrose later (once I’ve unpacked the car and sent the children off to bed), but for the moment:

The Recipe For Jax

3 parts Flirtation 2 parts Allure 1 part Sweetness Splash of Whimsy Shake vigorously

from Kris.

except for my scissors. Can’t find my scissors. Or my ball of string. Or the bead book that explains how to make lizards (which is what I need the string for, so maybe that’s no bad thing). I don’t have baking to take, and I’m not taking resources (kind of hard to pack up a school ) so I will be bringing wine and yarn crafts. I’ve got about another box full of games and kids crafts and books, and then it’s going to be running clothes through the dryer. The fact that we don’t have to pack bedding and so on might mean we’re still ready to leave just after lunch, which is my target.

This time tomorrow I will have wine and be with friends, it will be fine.

Before then I will have course pulled all my hair out, got lost and various other bits, but there will be wine (one of my most enduring memories of holidays is arriving at Kessingland for Layla to greet me with Pimms with strawberries in it…mmmm….) and it will be fine.

Don’t get me wrong, I want to be at Melrose. I want to be a long way away from my work computer and with friends and children and wine. I just don’t want to have to pack, organise, tidy, wash, plan and drive beforehand. So I’ve been in a bad mood today, made worse by the fact that Tim has suffered a sleep injury and can do nothing to help, being in rather a lot of pain, and also by the fact that the children are in pre holiday mood (over excited, uncooperative and stressed). However, I have managed to do two loads of washing (which haven’t dried yet, so may be in the dryer in the morning), make fudge with Big (we’ve the rolling out to do yet), and shop. So I got a few bits done.

Spent far too much time farting around online and then ate chocolate to cheer myself up, which instantly made me feel worse for having no self control. I’m not dieting (I don’t really do dieting) but I’ve been trying to eat meals instead of snacks and chocolate, and it irritated me to slip twice this week. I really should resist buying chocolate for myself - I don’t really like the dairy milk that Tim eats, so it’s much easier to resist temptation on that.

Also didn’t resist temptation on book buying this week, indulging in two signed Orson Scott Card books from hatrack. I got The Dragon Quintet and Magic Street, and tried to salve my conscience by buying them with the balance of my paypal account, basically money from doing surveys. Very aware that this change of jobs is going to have an adverse affect on our cash flow in the short term - hopeful that longer term plans might make it a worthwhile investment, but still stressing over it nevertheless.

Children are being horrid and aggressive to each other - think they are watching too much Batman. Might have to ban it if they can’t tone the games down at the very least when they are asked.

Bleargh. Must go and roll out fudge with Big and then send them for a bath - might as well bring them clean. Is anyone else dreading the travelling or is it just me? Why oh why are we going to a youth hostel in Scotland??

Feeding the children. [half done, see below for happenings with Big, who then stormed off to her room]
Sorting things out to take on holiday tomorrow.
Excavating the lounge so that Tim isn’t living in a tip on his own for a week. [started on this by instructing children to remove their belongings from the sofa and making Big cry]
Hanging up the second load of washing.
Having some lunch.
Scrubbing the kitchen floor.
Finding the floor in here.
Dealing with websites complaining about bandwidth and storage (this website. Guess a lot of you read it, huh?)
Dealing with bank accounts that unaccountably have locked themselves against internet usage. Again.
Writing letters to send to car insurance companies.
Shopping, or writing shopping list in the hope Tim’s shoulder will be better when he gets out of the bath so that he will go shopping.
Making fudge and breakfast bars with Big to take on holiday with us.

Things I’m actually doing: vegetating on computer, finishing paperwork for work (strange slightly lost feeling there at handing over problems and my team to someone else on a permanent basis!), feeling a little mournful, reading blogs, twitter, playing scrabulous. Looking forward to a week without computers

The Bookseller magazine has announced the shortlist for the Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year:

I Was Tortured By the Pygmy Love Queen
How to Write a How to Write Book
Are Women Human? And Other International Dialogues
Cheese Problems Solved
If You Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs
People who Mattered in Southend and Beyond: From King Canute to Dr Feelgood

One For Jax

The Amazing Booklined Staircase.

Discovered I’m not the only one to have put my notice in this week - the guy who started a month or so after me will be leaving two days before me. Sooner or later they are going to notice that they aren’t doing so well at keeping staff - there’s a lot of ppl left in the last few months. But there you go. Two of my team are on holiday this week and so don’t even know yet - the project managers who have found out have been uniformly annoyed while understanding, which at least makes me feel I did make a little difference there.

But I’m going to get to get my hands on all those cool montessori materials, how could playing with a computer all day possibly compare? I was drooling over the maths corner last night and it became rapidly clear that having a member of staff who likes maths and feel comfortable with it is going to be a popular idea with the other children’s house staff

Last night was a very disrupted night for sleep - Big had come home with a headache, and she isn’t used to them so was being very weepy and pathetic about it all. She was up a couple of times in the night and then one of our beloved neighbours was picked up by a mate at 6.11am who decided he couldn’t possibly get out of the car (it was probably cold) but instead just leaned on the horn. All of this meant that when Big came in to say she still didn’t feel well, I was really happy to roll over and go back to sleep for a bit and then work from home while they vegged watching tv all day. I think they are working on memorising the batman scripts Small did a lot of creative things with duplo as well, making batcopters, batcars, robin, batman (have you spotted the theme yet?)

And now I’m going to go run them a bath and hope I can shake myself out of this odd mood. Not cheerful tonight, and I’m not altogether sure why. Hohum.

so time for a change don’t you think?

It’s 10 years this March since I stopped being a social worker (residential, unqualified but at one point heading towards being assistant unit manager nevertheless) and moved into IT. Before that I did teacher training, though I didn’t get my PGCE. (I did do a year of degree level maths in order to have the relevant level of maths knowledge to be a maths teacher.) This March I will stop being a whatever it is I currently am in IT, and move back into education, training to be a Montessori teacher and taking up a role at Mill Cottage working towards being deputy head/principal/manager whatever you may call it.

What a decision it’s been to make. Unsurprisingly it’s a bit of a pay cut , and it’s a massive leap into the unknown in terms of training and working with young children. I did do a few stints in primary schools as part of my pgce and obviously there have been these periods of home education of my own offspring, but neither is going to have prepared me for a Montessori children’s house. Still, I’m looking forward to it - my gut feeling is that it’s the right decision, and since the evening it was offered to me I’ve felt more relaxed and more in tune with both myself and my family.

It does mean that I will be hibernating this blog on the ring - the children can no longer even be described as flexi-schooling (not while Tim is in a full time contract at the very least, and even if they drop hours at school as and when he’s not in those, it won’t be me home educating at that point!) although we will still be home education friendly (several of the children in both the children’s house and elementary are flexi-schooled, I don’t think any of them are there full time actually), and I hope we will still be welcome at home education gatherings. (Especially as we’re going to Melrose next week LOL.)

So there you go. Time for a change. Mid life crisis? Nah, think I’m heading back the way I wanted to tbh. The children are behind me 100% as is Tim, and those of our extended family (read, Tim’s family) that we’ve mentioned it to thought it sounded like a perfectly reasonable idea. In fact, pretty much everyone who has heard about it thinks it’s a reasonable idea, with the exception of my manager at work who said “congratulations! What am I going to do without you?” in tones of joy and despair pretty much evenly intermingled

and found her results from this:

Mine are below. I don’t think I’ve drifted too much from the last time I did this tbh.

1. Secular Humanism (100%)
2. Unitarian Universalism (99%)
3. Liberal Quakers (95%)
4. Nontheist (83%)
5. Theravada Buddhism (82%)
6. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (76%)
7. Taoism (76%)
8. Neo-Pagan (76%)
9. New Age (72%)
10. Orthodox Quaker (65%)

I actually went to ask her a question about potatoes, lol. Have just been out to buy seed potatoes for school (yes, I know we’re running a bit late, but not horrendously so I don’t think) with Big. We got two first earlies and a second early, and Big asked where seed potatoes come from. I kind of assume that they are just potatoes from the relevant plants, but I didn’t want to say that and that be wrong, so I was going to Kris’s to ask, as I know she knows lots about potatoes.

Must go and rescue some clothes from the line or we’re going to be interestingly dressed tomorrow - think I need to bring in a couple of days worth at least. I probably should have gone out first thing this morning and beat the ice off them, they’d be a lot dryer by now. But I didn’t. First thing this morning I was trying to ignore the small ppl who kept running in and out and shouting. Eventually I did rise and shine and we’ve managed a few more errands today - Tim took a bunch of stuff to the tip household waste recycling centre while I took the kids out to bank cheques and shop. This latter expedition would have been so much more successful if I’d taken my purse with me (cue cursing and turning around and coming back) and then if the cheque paying in machine had been working. (I wonder if they’ve fixed it in between and had it break again or whether it’s just been broken all week?) But we did go on to the coop and get the shopping down - resisted temptation much better this week and dropped the bill by £20 and that was even with buying beer. Can’t quite figure out what was so expensive last week, must pay more attention.

Children appear to have benefited from the half hour separation of the potato buying expedition - Small had been being deeply horrid before that but it sounds much calmer now. Oh, so tired again. Is it bedtime yet?

Big: Daddy, can you knock things over with your voice?
Tim: In theory, you can.
Big: Small, we’re not in theory, so you can’t knock things over with your voice.
Me: LOL!

Moira J Moore to be exact

I’ve also linked to Robin McKinley (I’m going to go on about her until I get you all reading her books…)

Gotta say I love teh internets. Being able to glance into other ppl’s lives like this never wears out for me.

today I emptied the storage container - it took just one trip with the merc, had taken three trips with the fiesta to put that much in. I tried to do it yesterday, but obviously the message that I’d paid up hadn’t filtered through to the idiot in charge who has been harassing me despite me paying for weeks. The woman who works there is obviously on top of it all, but the two blokes couldn’t arrange the proverbial in a brewery. Looked like I’d got my stuff out just in time as well - some bizarre happening of our freak weather at the moment was causing massive amounts of condensation that were then freezing as lumps of ice inside the roof of the container and then through the day melting and dripping. My boxes were dry, but I wouldn’t have given them much chance over the course of a week. The guy opposite me was busy emptying his container too - suspect that it’s quickly going to be a very empty storage yard.

So this afternoon, we sorted loads of stuff out of the garage, binned a lot, put three bags and a box together to go to the tip and sorted room for a pallet with my boxes of books on it. It also has a mouse repeller on it, and I think I’ll take the cat in there regularly to see if I can disrupt their routines. The kids have amused themselves - Small has been computing and I found Big her disembodied barbie head, so she’s been practising her face painting. I’ll be very surprised if she doesn’t bring it to Melrose - fair warning to all reading adults - tell your children to very specifically request nothing round the eyes! I will be telling Big as well, but I can see her getting overruled if ppl really want a specific design.

Tim’s now gone up for a bath to thaw out, and I’m going to nick it after him - it is really cold out there. I’m going to wash up some crockery (and my vase - been looking for that) that we’ve rescued and then sit somewhere quiet until it’s my turn in the hot water. Better not be too quiet, I could oh so easily fall asleep just now.

on blog, because it hasn’t been IRL. Tim’s new contract has started, so we’ve both been upping and outing at 7.30 in the morning, with him driving past me and on to the outskirts of Manchester. This week has been bearable traffic wise (apart from Monday and the fog) as it’s been half term, I’m expecting next week to be a lot tougher. (Then of course me and the kids are off for a week - joy!)

Work has been horrendously hectic - I don’t like to say no to project managers with urgent issues, but I’ve had the situation where every single member of the team, even the trainee programmer, has been flat out on priority golive issues and I’ve just not had anyone to reassign. not helped by the fact that my most experienced team member is off on hols, next most experienced is off next week (before the first one gets back) and ppl keep keeling over with a variety of bugs. Oh well, another week and I’m on hols Oh, and I’m not actually working right now, I’m on shift this evening, although I couldn’t resist the temptation to log on and check mails. Big mistake, I’m now having three mail conversations that I should have stayed out of…

right, have much to get done today, not least emptying the storage container of my books and finding somewhere to stash them in the garage. Have done washing up, have washing on, and am about to ruin the kids’ day by telling them they’ve got to get dressed to come in the car back and forth while I get boxes from one place to put them in another. Did try last week to get my mother to come round for a bit, but she’s never responded to any of the messages I’ve left on her phone (she may be away of course).

Hoping that after this weekend, may be able to organise renting somewhere nearer to school and works, which would cut down on the commute and allow us to empty this house in preparation to selling it. Yes, I know I’ve been hoping that for a while, but I’m trying to be an optimist, OK?

I am so unfit. I’ve just done the introduction to my dirty dancing fitness thing twice through (well, tried to anyway) and I’m very confused and have achy knees and hips, but at least I feel like I’ve tried. Does 10 minutes of exercise after a complete sedentary day count for anything? Probably not, but hey, it’s a start.

Very tired children tonight - Small didn’t even want supper (;) ) before going up to bed. He wanted the rest of his book read to him though. Think Big is on another Tale of Emily Windsnapper (or some such) and they were both asleep when I went up to change into sloppy clothes. Not long before we eat pizza and then I follow them - it feels like it should be about Thursday, something to do with getting calls from work both days at the weekend.

Found craft on twitter the other night, and am now drooling over a variety of dinky craft patterns. Must finish various projects already on needles or hooks though! Think I might have my go in any scrabulous game that is waiting for me then get a craft project out and do that while watching telly and eating tea. (Well, probably not quite all at the same time, but rather than coming back on the computer tonight!)

Small is thrilled with his book, and especially with the idea that it is something he can learn to read. I’ve a feeling what he’s actually going to do is memorise it, but I’m sure it all helps. Big was reasonably pleased with her book, but left it to me to read first. Hm. And I’m not sure I’m convinced by the dance workout at all - I was expecting routines to songs from the film, not clips from songs from the film underneath exhortations from ludicrously fit ppl to do dance routines that are going to half kill me. But Big liked the look of it, and maybe it will be fun.

Hm. Did anyone else notice the fog this morning? Apparently you can’t see fog if you drive either a silver car or white van - or at least, you don’t need lights. Grr. Idiots. And less restrained words, but only if the children aren’t listening. Another member of my team wrote his car off this morning, apparently he’s OK (will see him tomorrow to check, no idea how he is planning on getting to work, and he’s one of the shift workers as well, so having a car rather important ) but both the wall and the car suffered somewhat. We assume that the patch of ice has gone elsewhere to recover as well by now.

Other than that it was an uneventful morning, and a ludicrously hectic day. Only managed to break for minutes for lunch, and still ended up with emails to send when I got home. But I managed to take the children to bed and read to them, and Big stayed awake most of the way home - she’d like to know how ppl managed to learn things when they didn’t have computers to look them up on. She refers to this as the Olden Days - it’s quite humbling to realise that my daughter thinks of me as some kind of strange artefact from the past. Is our “Before the internet” equivalent to “Before the war”? She’d like to find out how school was done then - she decided that my primary school without so much as a personal computer in sight wasn’t quite far enough back to interest her, she wants to learn about the victorians. She also wants to make a Victorian dress as her previous one is too small for her, and she’d like to visit a victorian house and live a day here without electricity. No computers, she said in awe, no lights (we could use candles), no TV!

Could be an interesting little project. She might do some of it at school, except it’s holiday club this week, and was like a ghost town this morning. We’ll see how interested she is in the idea at the weekend - she’s already got lots of other plans for then as well.

Right, must make sure there aren’t any scrabulous games with my move on them, and then clear off to bed. I keep doing this, staying up far too late, and I’m knackered by the end of the week. Given that my week finishes at 12.30 am Sat morning this week, I could do without stretching out the first few days quite so drastically!

Although bless him, the project manager on site with a problem held off on calling until gone ten, which considering he’s four hours ahead of us, must have required considerable self-restraint. And this time I was already up, courtesy of Big crashing into our room only just after 8 to say she’d tidied the end of her bed and was going down for breakfast. Oh good.

So I got up and came down, and managed to sort and tidy enough to find homes for the books that Tim brought back from his dad’s - just as well I’ve put illustrated knitting away as I think it was giving Big ideas, and I’m really not up to it. Hoping to get brush up lessons at Melrose to speed my needles, at the moment I’m a thrower rather than a flicker (if you don’t already know what that means, you probably don’t want to) and it’s oh sooo slooooowwww.

So then, there was the call, and 20 minutes of frantic activity, at the end of which we all got stood down as the guy in Australia figured it out. Which still means that me, my boss, and the dba had been rousted on a Sunday morning for no good reason, but there you. I *will* be charging overtime.

Bit more sorting and tidying and made pretty fairy fudge with Big (again) from this, Fairy Cooking (Usborne Activities), of course. Yesterday’s cheese scones were out of it too. I do hope the teacher at school wasn’t fibbing when she said it was the only fudge she’d ever liked as that’s why Big made it - aforementioned teacher isn’t very well and Big wants to help her feel better.

After lunch (belated, as it always seems to be on a Sunday) I tripped out to Morrisons to pay in some cheques and look for socks for Tim. Just as well they had socks, as the paying in machine was out of order. Three ppl approached it in the couple of minutes I was there, but there were no hsbc staff on hand to make soothing noises, so we all had to go away unsatisfied.

Then I came home, and went to bed. So tired again. Got up to assist Big with rolling and cutting the fudge - we now have two containers worth in the fridge. Did make me think that possibly we could do some pre-Melrose baking together though, that might be fun. Might have to find some proper cutters though! And then I’ve been scrabulousing and bloghopping - reading more about the US voting thingy (can’t call it a system, it seems far from systematic) and ended up on Wil Wheaton’s blog. Less than heartened to discover even Americans don’t seem to understand their bizarre build up, and it seems even less democratic that ours (so embarrassing that our countries that go around promoting democracy don’t actually seem to believe in it themselves. Oh, and on the aforementioned blog I found mention of a book that really interested me but it doesn’t seem to be available on Amazon com or co.uk. Don’t suppose anyone has already read it?

Oh well. Must go off and forage - haven’t done desperately well on the eating vegetables this weekend, so will attempt to remedy tonight. It’s going to be a long and hectic week, Tim engages in paid employment tomorrow, so we’re doing yet more juggling of the whole living process. One day we might sort it out, but I really wouldn’t recommend holding your breath.

The phone rang at half nine this morning and I catapulted myself out of bed, aware that I was signed up for emergency support this weekend, but that it wasn’t supposed to be needed. It was, but there was nothing I could do, but by then I was well and truly up. Made time to bake with both children - I have pictures, but it’ll have to wait until I can be bothered to get them off the camera. Small baked scoobie snacks and Big made cheese scones - they were both very happy with this.

The programming below was with small - not sure how much he is grasping of the concepts behind what he’s doing, but some of it is certainly going in, and he was thrilled to see it on both our blogs. Big wants to do more on her blog, but I’m not sure she’s got round to any of it today. She’d also like ppl to read it, but I’m hesitent to just link direct, as her reading is far more capable than her understanding of issues like spam. So if any of you known to us have children who would like to read it, I’m happy to send a link on, please leave a comment

(This might also encourage her to write in it more - vicious circle at the moment in that she wants to write, but can’t see the point when there’s noone reading it, and I can quite get where she is coming from).

Retired to bed shattered again around 4 ish, slept for a while, then woke up and read Temeraire: Throne of Jade (Temeraire 2) Excellent book, really recommend it, although Tim laughed at me when I suggested he read it

Enjoying reading the blog of another favourite author - Robin Mckinley can be found on livejournal. If you haven’t found her books yet and you enjoy fantasy at all, I can’t think where you’ve been, and you ought to rectify the matter immediately. I’ve no idea why she has such a low profile tbh, it’s confused me for years, and from what she writes, it confuses her too. That’s what is behind her launching the blog apparently, so please go read, and go read her books as well

Tim says he’s found a petition for me to sign, think I’ll go investigate.