Date posted: 12 May 2013

Not quite the relaxing summer I hoped for

That about sums it up. We ended the academic year with the threat of redundancies in our department. This soon turned out to not be a threat but reality. Two of our seven and a half members of teaching staff were made redundant. We all had to re-apply for our jobs and generally justify our existence. I was OK but it was a very stressful time

We started the summer holidays with himself in hospital. A fairly major infection which took a while to sort out kept him in for 10 days. My peaceful few days at home before the school holidays started didn't happen as I was in and out to the hospital, visiting and delivering supplies.

After that, I was working a couple of days every week to get things organised for the new academic year. My mother was here for a week but we didn't do much, which included several things I had meant to do. We have a new kitten (number 2 son's birthday present) which is fun but time-consuming, expecially cleaning up after it or chasing number 2 son to clean up after it.

Our main holiday was spent camping just south of the Lake District at Bolton-le-Sands. It was good, the first three days especially so, as it was warm and sunny and there was no wind! That last point is significant. By the Wednesday of our stay, the wind was getting up a bit. On the Thursday night I got very little sleep because of the noise. Not too worried about the tent falling down, but the noise was awful. Not only was everything flapping about but there was heavy rain as well. Even light rain makes a fair amount of noise on a tent roof. The boys, of course, slept through most of it, even number 2 son who managed to forget to do a BM before he had his bedtime snack and had a hypo about 10 minutes after he'd finished. So we were up quite late while he ate a couple of bowls of breakfast cereal. I woke him up every few hours to check he was actually asleep and not in a coma, but he was fine. The last night of our stay we came back to the tent after a day out and the back had blown in. One of the guys had snapped and the pegs across the back attaching it to the ground were out. Luckily we had some spare pegs so we double pegged the back and tied the guy together and survived the night. Another night without much sleep.

Number 1 son has been working a lot this summer. He has been doing split shifts and zooming back and forth on the train. He had a great time and is enjoying spending some of his income. Of course, it's not much fun for us when he phones at just after 11pm to say he's missed the last train (or it has been cancelled) and he needs to be collected (him and his bike - which is actually my bike). He got his GCSE results this week and they are OK. Not as good as we had hoped, but a lot better than we feared. We did the school supplies shopping this week, he starts 6th form in ten days time.

Number 2 son is just starting his GCSEs this year. It will be a tough couple of years all round because he's not known for doing homework or coursework so it could be a complete nightmare. Almost every negative comment on his reports for the last three years have been for lack of homework, now it's a lot more important. He wants to get better results than Number 1 son. It's possible, but not if he doesn't get his act together. We have still to get his school stuff sorted out, including new shoes which isn't easy, given he's a size 13 already, just like his brother.

At the moment my mother is in hospital having been admitted in the middle of the night by ambulance. Chest pains. It seems not to have been anything serious and she may go home today. I will still need to nip up there (over a 100 miles each way) to make sure she has everything she needs, like food and milk and to see that she's OK. Good timing Mum, I really need to be doing that on a Bank Holiday Weekend when the world and his family will be driving somewhere. I'm not even thinking about the M25 roadworks which took me almost an hour to get through last time I went.

I still have some things I need to sort out before starting back at work properly but they won't take long, I hope. I went in one day this week and did nothing but go to meetings and do student enrolments. I hate meetings!

Maybe next term will be a little less activity packed. I can hope I suppose.

Date posted: 28 Aug 2010

As good a time to start as any

The new year started with a bang in the Madwoman's household. Onfortunately it wasn't celebratory fireworks.

Himself, having been living with a dormant malignant melanoma in his eye for a few years was told that the melanoma had somehow managed to reattach itself to a blood supply and was growing. The only option really was to remove the whole eye and the cancer with it. He was in and out of hospital within 3 days. The surgeon says they got the whole tumour out and there was no evidence that it had spread elsewhere. At the moment we are waiting for an appointment for a prosthetic eye that isn't blank. Himself has to wear an eye patch when he goes out so as to avoid scaring small children and making people feel a bit icky. We are used to it now, but it's going to be Easter before the new "eye" is ready.

All this was going on in late January, some time after the Madwonan's mother fell and cracked her head open on a door. It was on the first day we had really heavy snow round here, but this was an indoor accident. The police had to use their big red key to get in. Luckily the worst damage was to the doors. A few days in hospital and 7 stitches later and mother was returned home, somewhat shaky still, but definitely on the mend. As to how she managed to pass out in the first place, the jury is still out. It wasn't a stroke, that much is certain as they have tested and scanned and poked everything that might tell them. The current theory is that it was a stress reaction, so now she's on tranquilisers and sedatives and whatnot. If nothing else Mum is sleeping better than she was, which has to be a good thing.

On the home front No. 1 son trundled happily through his GCSE mock exams and decided which A levels he wants to do and where he wants to do them. The current selection is Drama, Spanish, French and English with Critical Thinking as the top-up. He is worried that the school won't want him to go back if his results aren't good enough so is now doing some work. The other option was to do Music, but all the slacking off has taken its toll and his Music teacher won't have him until he's at Grade 5 in at least one instrument. Even then she won't be very happy.

No. 2 son did his SATs. On the basis of no visible work and no revision he came 11th out of all the kids in his year in Science and achieved level 7 in Maths. Brat. Feedback from Parent's Evening is that he's bright but lazy and disorganised. No change there then. He has chosen his GCSE subjects now, I dread to think what he is going to do about his coursework.

The Madwoman herself has just moved buildings at the place she works. It's an educational establishment so of course moving offices and classrooms and equipment across from one building to another during term time and half way through the academic year is a brilliant idea (not). I have no idea which moron came up with that plan, but you may be surprised to learn that all did not go according to plan and chaos reigns. It wouldn't be so bad but exactly the same thing happened last academic year.Some people never learn. Oh well, the washing and ironing are still with us, not that I do a great deal of the latter, just look at the ironing basket and think I might get round to it one day, but not today.

Date posted: 28 Feb 2010

Driving Wheels get tired too

All is chaos in the Madwoman's family. First day back at school after a rather unexpected break and nobody is ready. That's no surprise. Getting anything done round here is not unlike kicking a dead whale uphill.

So today we have no 1 son who was, when I asked last night, 'ready for school' who hadn't packed his bag or his clarinet - and he has a lesson today. This evening he asked me to wash and repair his school trousers but has yet to produce them. It's nearly bed time. My bed time!

Number 2 son woke up claiming he felt ill, wasted an hour wandering round claiming to be ill and saying he felt sick, and then went back to bed. If he isn't chased every five minutes from 9pm until 10pm he will sit up. Just telling him to go to bed doesn't get the slightest response. I wonder whether removing his Internet access at 9pm might help.

I just warned both of them that it's time to get ready for bed. Did I get a response, yes they both said "in a minute" and did nothing. Battle has been joined!

Date posted: 11 Jan 2010

Tension Mounts

Will it snow enough for there to be no school again tomorrow? That's the question. My sons are looking out of the window and wishing hard, but I think they will be massively disappointed. Snow is falling, but not a lot, and it's not expected to last for long either. It is noticeably warmer than it was yesterday. Not that it's exactly hot out there, but the snow that we had before is no longer covered by a sheet of ice. This has to be an improvement.

It has been an interesting few days, one way and another, culminating in a quick trip from here to my Mother's house to take her some food. She had a fall at home on Monday and was hospitalised for a few days. Originally they were to keep her there until tomorrow but sent her home on Thursday - to a cold, empty house with limited food supplies. Since she isn't yet well enough to go out by herself to get any food and the pavement outside her house is sheet ice (or was when I was there on Monday, on Tuesday and on Saturday) I had to take her some essentials. She is 89 years old. Many shops in her area aren't doing deliveries because it's too risky, what other option was there but to go shopping and take it up to her? A 200+ mile round trip for some bread, milk, vegetables, fish and toilet paper. Going was fine, coming back was less so. The M2 was down to one lane and I had to drive in the tracks of the car in front as the snow blew horizontally across the road. Not the best journey on the planet, but I survived.

They say this winter will be pretty bad for a while yet with more severe weather in a couple of weeks. Deep joy. I wonder if they will get enough supplies of grit and salt to replenish what they have used this time before they need it again.

Date posted: 10 Jan 2010

If You Are Innocent You Have Nothing To Fear

Oh yes? Yeah right.

That's the argument we get when anybody protests about the growing surveillance that's happening in our society. Standard response "If you are innocent you have nothing to fear". How about "BECAUSE" I am innocent I have plenty to fear? Because if I happen to be coming home late at night on my own the nice protective camera operatives (you know the untrained, unregistered, potential pervert ones) can "keep an eye on me" to make sure I get home safely. Nothing wrong with that? Except that now, they know where I live. Think about that. Pick any person going about their lawful business, causing no trouble for anybody, all innocent and above board and anybody can use the surveillance cameras to find out where they live and, if it's after dark they'll have a pretty good idea whether they person they are watching is going home to an empty house. Then they tell me I have nothing to fear.

What about my kids, and all the other nice innocent little kiddies on their way to school, or to the park to play with their friends? Being watched by some pervert on CCTV, because no harm will come to them will it? Except somebody knows where they live, where they go to school, and where they are right now. I don't know who's watching my kids, my innocent kids, who have nothing to fear.

Right now somebody you don't know is watching somebody you care about, your kids, your mum, your boyfriend, your girlfriend, your aunty, your granny. They know where they are and then know who they are with, they know where they have been and they can probably make a guess where they are going. They can watch who goes into your home and who comes out. They can guess when you are alone and when you have company, they can see when you go to bed, they can see when your home is empty. If they watch long enough they can build up a picture of your routine, and they can make sure the CCTV cameras are pointing away from your home when they want them to.

Nothing to fear? I think not.

Date posted: 05 Apr 2009

Ooops, Sorry guys!

I knew I should have kept my mouth shut! See what I mean about being a jinx?

Date posted: 16 Nov 2008

Come on you Spurs!

Oh wow! I'm a Tottenham Hotspur supporter, I have always been one, when you grow up in Tottenham as I did it kind of goes with the territory. It has been, as they say, a season of two halves. In mid-September (before things got really bad) I was discussing Spurs' awful start to the season with my mother, who is also a Spurs supporter. I said "You watch, they won't win anything until about the end of October and then they won't lose for the rest of the season." Don't you just love being right?

Of course it took a new manager to get it sorted out and it's now too late for them to finish top of the Premiership there are just too many points to make up, but things are heading in the right direction.

I just hope I haven't jinxed them by saying that. I'm a jinx in cup matches, which is why I never watch them. I haven't seen Spurs win a cup match since about 1971. Not because I don't want to watch, but because I know that if I do they will lose, so I deliberately avoid watching them. I have been known to switch channels on TV for 30 seconds to check progress only to see them concede a goal. Some risks aren't worth taking. Spurs can lose (as we have seen) without me, but they never seem to win with me unless I'm actually there. Given ticket prices that's not likely to happen very much.

Date posted: 13 Nov 2008

Ick

The weather here's disgusting. Wet, windy and not very warm. The forcasters have been saying that the wind's gusting up to 70mph, so I'm glad I don't have to go out in it today. Even more glad that I'm not teaching today because this kind of weather makes even the most docile child a little bit wild. It's amazing how much children are affected by the weather, even older children who you might expect to be able to deal with it an carry on as normal.

My main gripe now, (apart from the leaky roof) is that my Japanese Maple tree has lost all of its leaves, about 3 days after they finally turned red! Isn't that just the way? Oh well, it could be worse - at least they aren't lying around on our lawn waiting for me to clear them up - I've got somebody else's leaves!

Date posted: 10 Nov 2008

The politics of envy

There's a debate on about whether people who have diseases for which the NHS can't/won't fund drugs that might cure them or at least prolong their life should be allowed to pay for medications not available on the NHS and continue to get NHS treatment for their illness.

The government has, until recently, decided that they shouldn't and that if you pay for medication not provided on the NHS then you should have to pay for all of your treatment from then on. Now they have announced a review and plans to allow people to pay for the medication - if they pay for the costs associated with any extra facilities that then need to be made available (scans and such like).

This morning on the news they had a woman from the Unison trade union saying that top-ups shouldn't be allowed because it disadvantaged "poorer people" Who cares? I don't. I think I count as "poorer people" in this situation. When some drugs can cost as much as £3,000 per treatment I won't be paying for them (though of course I hope never to be in a situation where this might be necessary). That doesn't mean that I don't want other people to have them. If they can afford to do that and it's going to help them, then good luck to them, I don't have a problem with that. Clearly some people do. It's envy.

Yesterday on my way to work I followed along behind an Aston Martin DB9 with personal plates. Nice car. I wouldn't mind one of those (though I doubt they are very practical for going to the supermarket for the weekly shop). I can't afford one. I drive a Ford. It's fine, does what I want it to do, gets me from A to B reliably. I don't want to stop other people owning fancy cars, but that's essentially what the anti- self payment people are saying. "I can't afford it, so you shouldn't be allowed to have it either".

Date posted: 04 Nov 2008

Life goes on

I was at my cousin Lizzie's funeral yesterday. Not a bad day, as things go. Since my cousin died I have been thinking back remembering some of the things we did as children. I can remember her right back to when I was about 4 years old. They came to visit and I remember being quite fed up because I was sent to bed and she wasn't. When I was a bit older we used to go to Southend, where my aunt and uncle lived, on the bus. Simple trip since the bus passed the end of our road and went all the way to Southend and no changes. It was a relatively cheap day out at the seaside I suppose. Another time we went as a family to visit and my uncle took us all out for a walk somewhere, no idea where, but there were fields and fields of peas and we walked for what seemed like miles, munching on freshly picked peas as we went. That was a good day. I remember Lizzie and Sue were there then. Later on we used to see something of Pete, Lizzie's older brother, and his family but Lizzie was married and busy with her own family then. That's the way it goes. Somehow the world seems a different, slightly worse, place today than it did before Lizzie left it. There's a difference between "we will get together sometime soon"and knowing that chance of that has gone forever.

I have included a link in the side bar to what we refer to as "Lizzie's charity" Lizzie was a very positive life force, and the people whose lives she touched are the better for it, no doubt about that. Her life wasn't what you would conventionally call "easy" but she lived it and she lived it well. The injuries she received in her accident in 1993 probably contributed to her untimely death, but she herself said she wouldn't go back. Lizzie was a great believer in moving on, and she certainly did that. Of course she left a lot of people saddened by her passing; a lot of people rocked back on their heels and wishing they had said or done something before, while they still had the chance. Lots of people loved her, lots of people admired her and she will never be replaced, but her legacy lives on in the work she did and in her family, partner children and grandchildren. Talking to one of her sons yesterday I could see Lizzie in him, not in looks but in attitude. That's the bit of Lizzie that will go on through the generations and out into the wider world through TBPI and the people who support her work in that. Our loss is the world's loss, but we have all gained by knowing Lizzie.

So, if you thinking that you should phone, or arrange to meet, or write to somebody you haven't seen for ages do it now. You never know. Do it in tribute to a lovely lady, and because you can, because it's not, now, too late but tomorrow it might be.

Date posted: 24 Oct 2008

Why?

Lots of fuss here about the experiment they are starting in CERN today. The end of the world is nigh and all that, as well as people trying to explain the physics of it and how it's really very safe. One thing I haven't yet discovered from the coverage I have seen; why are they doing it? I mean, what's the point? I suspect it's the usual thing with men and bits of fancy equipment, they are doing it because they can. Given that at some point they will have had to justify the expense of setting the thing up, there must have been a reason given at some stage but I'd like to know what the reason is and why people think it's important. As far as I can see the only useful thing to have come out of that project is the World Wide Web and I rather suspect that Sir Tim would have come up with that wherever he worked. If we are all here tomorrow then maybe somebody will explain it. Maybe.

Date posted: 10 Sep 2008

Mum's Rules

Devised by me for the smooth running of the household and the continued survival of parents and offspring. They come in several sections.

1. Take your tablets.
2. Get dressed - even if you aren't planning on going anywhere. Pajamas are not day clothes.
3. Brush your teeth and wash your face every day.
4. No playing games before school.
5. Eat breakfast.
6. If Mum says the kitchen's closed, then it's closed, and you have to get your own breakfast - no arguing.

1. Take your school uniform OFF, fold it up neatly and put it where it won't get creased up or dirty (this means not on the floor).
2. Put your dirty shirt in the washing as soon as you take it off.
3. Unpack your bag and hand over any notes from school.
4. Put your lunch box in the kitchen.
5. No TV or games until homework is finished.
6. Do homework the day it is given, not the day before it is due in (unless they are the same).
7. First person home cooks dinner. See kitchen noticeboard to find out what it is you have to cook.

1. Sort your school bag out for the next day (if you are going to school the next day).
2. Clean your teeth.
3. Turn off your computer.
4. If it's not a school day tomorrow turn your alarm clock OFF!
5. Make sure you have clean underwear ready for the morning.

1. Come to the table fully dressed.
2. One fork full or one spoon full = one mouth full.
3. If you have food in your mouth keep your mouth closed. No talking, no putting more food in until your mouth is empty.
4. Chew!

1. Do not fight.
2. If what you are wearing is not good enough to answer the door in then it's not good enough to sit round at home in.
3. If you use the last one/bit of whatever it is - replace it, do not leave the empty container lying around.
4. If you get the last one/packet of whatever it is out from the cupboard or off the shelf - write it on the shopping list.
5. If you drop it, you pick it up.
6. If you got it out, you put it away.
7. If you turned it on, you turn it off (this applies especially to the bathroom light and the TV).
8. On the floor is not the same as "put away".
9. If you spill it, you clean it up (this includes stuff that myteriously gets on the floor when you are cooking).
10. Do not hit him (unless you are both kitted out in fencing gear and you are on the piste).
11. Keep out of your brother's bedroom.
12. If you cook something share it.
13. Don't eat the last one - it's Mum's.
14. If you aren't sure, ask someone.
15. If there's nobody around to ask then think what the normal answer might be if you did ask and do that. If in doubt, "No you can't" is the normal answer.
16. If Mum or Dad tell you to do (or stop doing) something, do it - now is good.
17. No poking fingers up your nose in public (regardless of how juicy the bogey is). Mum counts as public.
18. Keep all digits out of your mouth (this include toes).
19. No cooking when there are no adults in the house.
20. If Mum or Dad say it's your turn then it's your turn - even if it isn't.
21. Do not booby trap the downstairs toilet.
22. Put dirty clothes in the washing pile, if it's not in the washing pile it won't get washed.
23. Empty toilet roll inners go in the bin, not on top of the radiator.
24. Your bed, you make it.
25. Your decision. You live with it.

I think that covers most situations for our family but this is more a work in progress than a definitive list. It follows on from a guide for new Mums that some friends and I devised when our own babies (all born around the same time) were tiny.

Date posted: 04 Sep 2008

A Day in the life of a Supply Teacher

This is how it goes, drought to plenty. Remind me to get a "proper" job. Soon!

Yesterday I had no work to go to when term starts. Term starts tomorrow. I had contacted several people and they were all in the "we'll let you know" mode. Well, OK I could do with another few days off to clear the debris from the holidays. Maybe. I wasn't expecting anything this week. The rules say that a teacher can be off from school for 3 days before the school has to bring in a supply teacher so probably nobody will need cover until next week at the earliest.

Then this morning I got an email - can I do Friday at X College? I did the same thing last year, one day per week. This will be the same units as last year, but with a slight change to the syllabus due to an update and there's possibly an Introduction to Programming unit as well if there are enough students to make it viable. So yes, I'll do that. No problem.

About an hour after that I got another email, can I do Friday morning at Y College? Nope. Then it was can I do Thursday morning at Y? Well, I'd rather not because it's only a half day they are offering me and relatively low rates at that, so I suggest maybe late afternoon sessions on other days. At 6pm I get a call from a different department at Y College, can I do the Monday-Wednesday course I was doing last year, for the whole year? Yep. We'll haggle over pay later. I start tomorrow. I need to be there by about 8am to find out what I am teaching and to organise the room and resources and make sure I have supplies and equipment for the new students. I also have to get the Health and Safety stuff for the first session on what you can and can't do and when. I taught this course for about 6 weeks last year so I have at least a rough idea what to expect.

Then, about 90 minutes ago I got an email from the organising tutor at Z University where I do some assessment and tutoring, can I do some more tutoring and schools visits for them? Yep. They will let me know who and where next week.

I just applied for a part time (1 day per week permanent) at X College in a different department from the one I work for on Fridays (Teacher Education as opposed to Engineering) so if that comes off I will be working 4 different jobs (at least). Given the economic situation and all the doom and gloom going round about recessions and whatnot, the more work the better.

This isn't a great deal different from last year, so hopefully it will all mesh together. It keeps me on my toes if nothing else and the variety is good. It looks like the boys will be picking up more of their own stuff and not leaving it all to Mum. Time to institute a new version of "Mum's Rules".

Date posted: 02 Sep 2008

Madonna Dressed as Lamb

I had the misfortune to see a video of one of Madonna's recent efforts. Mrs Ritchie doesn't improve with keeping does she? Worryingly she's the same age as I am (more or less) but she doesn't seem to have matured at all in the last 30 or so years. She may be a lot slimmer and fitter than I am but her skin's in no better shape. With all that throwing her legs around and suggestive writhing she is turning into a grotesque - it suggests nothing other than desperation. She isn't Peter Pan, how ever much she may try to convince herself. She reminds me of Norma Desmond more than anything else. Madonna may be ready for her close up - but we aren't.

Date posted: 30 Aug 2008

Simply Perfect

What I like about birthdays is that most people realise that I am practically impossible to buy for. I own more books than is totally reasonable - at the last count, which was a couple of years ago, we had over 4,000 books in this house and I have bought more than I have thrown out since (scarily, apart from the newest ones and the reference, they have all been read at least once and many of them more than once). I seldom buy clothes (I knit a lot), I don't do "girly" stuff and I have such weird (as in varied) musical tastes that nobody dares buy me CDs any more.

As a result I get a lot of tokens for my birthday. Book tokens and Amazon gift certificates mainly. Lovely. Half the fun is deciding what to buy with them and being able to spend them without feeling guilty that it's the food budget or the holiday budget that's being deprived and the money could be better spent (though other than essentials it's hard to see what it could be better spent on than books and music).

My birthday is in July (I may have mentioned it) so I had some Amazon certificates which I spent. Some on books to feed my knitting and crochet habit and the rest on CDs. I saw that Harry Christophers and the Sixteen have a CD of Palestrina and Allegri, with the Allegri Miserere. The Allegri is just fantastic. I was listening to it this evening while cooking dinner. Actually I wasn't listening while cooking dinner, all dinner activities stopped while I listened. It's just perfect. One of those pieces that make the hair on the back of your neck stand up and cause you to stop whatever you are doing just to listen. Amazing to think that a human voice can produce that sound.

There probably aren't many pieces that do that to me. The Elgar cello concerto, the Lux Aeterna from the Verdi Requiem, Rhapsody in Blue, the Bach cello suites and the Goldberg Variations and a few other pieces. To some extent it depends on what mood I am in and what I am doing as to what I will play and I often have music on the the car. Beethoven, Saint-Saens, Tchaikovski. Sometimes I even have the window down and the volume up. It must make a change for by-standers not to get blasted with hip-hop or whatever as I pass by.

Date posted: 29 Aug 2008

Back home

We finally got home a couple of days ago. While we were away I drove over 900 miles, which was quite scary. Luckily the fuel economy wasn't too bad, average was 65 mpg, which is lower than usual but then I had a top box and a full car to contend with. It took 2 tanks full of diesel to get us there and back. Comparing that to the cost of doing everything by public transport (if public transport exists for where you want to go) it's pretty good going. That's without working out how to transport sufficient camping equipment for 3 people for a week as well.

Of course it rained every day we were away, and most nights as well. The campsite was muddy all the time we were there. The first two nights we hardly got any sleep (though probably more than we thought) because of the noise of the rain and the wind. I say "we" but that's me and No. 1 son. No. 2 son slept though the whole thing. After that the weather calmed down a bit and there was less rain and more sleeping going on, but it never got really hot. This was probably a good thing.

We hardly went into any tourist type shops, though we visited several tourist areas - in the Lake District how can you not? We were with my mother, sister and brother-in-law and their son most of the time. We don't see my sister and her family very much as they live so far away so it was good to be able to spend time with them.

Highlights of the trip for the boys were visiting a cave somewhere between Caton and Dent and our day round WIndermere when we visited Bowness and fed the birds and then walked up Gommer's How. I wasn't sure I was going to make it, but I did a bit, then the next bit and then the next bit and then I was there. I need to get more exercise! The boys are already talking about a "next time" and I'm sure there will be one, though it would be nice not to have to stomp everywhere in wellies and waterproofs.

The whole camping experience was better than I expected, having known in advance that it was going to rain I thought we would be colder and damper. The campsite we stayed on was on a working organic farm. Only basic facilities were available and that was fine. We didn't want to go to one of the bigger all singing, all dancing campsites - there didn't seem to be much point. Of course they are also much more expensive, which might have had something to do with it. We had read the reviews of the campsite beforehand and followed the advice. We pitched with the back of the tent close to the hedge with the prevailing wind behind us. Not that we could have determined the prevailing wind when we arrived since it was quite still. We didn't get the views down Morecombe Bay but we did get the views up the valley and into the Lake District.

Lessons learned?

• My car certainly isn't big enough for 4 people plus their luggage and camping gear. We had my mother with us on the way home and that made the car seriously loaded. Not dangerously so (I did the calculations before we left) but not far short. We travelled back relatively slowly, 60mph or less down the M6 and A14. It took a long while, but we made it.
• Motorway service stations are ruinously expensive. I knew that, but we had to stop for coffee (next time remember to take a flask!) a couple of times.
• The boys can be together without fighting and arguing all the time - which I was seriously beginning to doubt before we went.
• We need a brighter lamp for the evenings - torches are OK but too wobbly about to use comfortably to read by in the tent.
• We need a stand so that next time we can get one of those portable barbeque things. Lots of people had them on site but you have to keep them off the grass.

Since we got back we have been remarkably idle. Of course having the Olympics on every morning doesn't help. More about that another time. The boys have been pottering around doing a bit of this and a bit of that. They went to the cinema a couple of times and have had friends round to play. No.1 son and I have an appointment with the BBC on Monday (Bank Holiday) to play in the Proms Family Orchestra. We are looking forward to that.

Before we went away I recall mumbling something about Russian Imperilalism. I wonder just how many Hungarians are remembering when the Russians sent "peacekeepers" to their country. It took a while to get rid of them if I recall. Looks like Georgia is beginning to have a similar problem. What else could we expect with Puppetmaster Putin's attitude. I just can't work out if he's planning to become King or President for life (and don't tell me the Constitution doesn't allow it - they can be changed). Either way I'm glad we live a way distant from Russia and don't depend on them for oil or gas supplies. If I was Polish I wouldn't be sleeping well in my bed. What the West needs to remember is that in Russia they growp up playing chess, not baseball.

Date posted: 20 Aug 2008

How not to make a cup of tea

This is for real. This is how I spent my morning - well some of it.

I do quite a bit of knitting (machine mainly but some hand knitting) and crochet. I recently came by a fairly large quantity of coned yarn suitable for machine knitting. Too much for me ever to use really, so I listed some on ebay. Sold a few cones. No problem with that except of course with ebay you often have to post stuff. So today, since I wasn't working, I started wrapping the cones ready for the post. First though I had to pick the cones I had sold and sort them out. So I spent a while doing that. By which time I was thirsty. Off to the kitchen to put the kettle on. After that it got silly. Roughly it went like this

• Put water in kettle, turn kettle on
• Notice washing machine has finished cycle.
• Empty washing machine
• Hang washing on the clothes dryer
• Think "I am hungry"
• Go to kitchen to find something to eat
• Notice that number 2 son has left a couple of lancets on the worktop
• Remove lancets to sharps box
• Remember that there is more washing upstairs
• Go to get washing from upstairs
• While upstairs remember something that I need to look up on the computer - go and look it up
• Check email
• Have a quick look at Ebay
• Take washing downstairs
• Dump washing by the machine
• Sort washing and put a load on
• Go into living room to get cup for tea
• Notice a cone of yarn on my chair and try to remember if it has been sold and who bought it if so
• Go upstairs to computer to check
• Discover that it hasn't been sold
• Come back down stairs and put cone of yarn in box to give to a friend
• Go into kitchen to make tea
• Realise that I didn't bring the cup back before
• Go to get cup
• Turn kettle on again
• Notice disturbance at front door
• Check door and find that postman has been and brought a book for me and some letters (one of which is for somebody who lives at the same number as us but in a different road - that happens far too often)
• Unwrap book and put to one side to read while drinking tea
• Take rest of post upstairs to office
• Talk to cat and play tummy tickling games until she gets bored, which doesn't take long
• Notice curtains closed in bedroom so open curtains
• Check knitting on machine and what comes next in pattern
• Go back to kitchen, eat last slice of birthday cake
• Remember I promised to see if I have some small balls of wool I don't need that can be passed on to somebody who teaches knitting
• Rummage through several boxes extracting various balls of wool
• Find plastic bag and put wool into bag
• Take wool into living room and add to pile of stuff that will be posted
• Go back into kitchen
• Put kettle on again
• Put tea bag in cup
• Remember I need to take a loaf out of the freezer
• Take loaf out of freezer
• Finish making cup of tea
• Take tea into living room
• Sit down in chair
• Get up again and go to find new book
• Sit down and open book
• Realise that my glasses aren't here by my chair but over there
• Get glasses
• Drink tea

Elapsed time was something like an hour.

Next time I'll ignore the washing machine!

Date posted: 17 Jul 2008

It's amazing

how long it can take to just do a simple thing. Bedtime for the boys is, at least in theory, 9pm. By that time they should both be in bed, though No. 1 son often sits up reading after he's actually in bed. He probably doesn't need as much sleep as No.2 son. So tonight we had dinner early so they should both be in bed in plenty of time. Did it happen? Nope.

At about 8:30 No.1 son comes and asks that I cut his hair. We have a set of those clippers which mean that even I can manage to produce a halfway decent looking trim. It's not what you might call styling but it's tidy, which is all I ask and all No.1 son wants. Of course by the time I'd actually finished it was almost 9pm and he was all hairy so he needed a bath. No. 2 son came and did his BM and then somehow managed to watch some TV. Then he was hungry and wanted to eat. Of course with him being diabetic that wasn't the best idea on the planet. He's just switched to a new insulin regime and hasn't quite got it organised yet so we are tying to impose a bit of routine until everything is under control. He just had an appointment with the Consultant yesterday and the message is quite clear - no more snacks. He ate some cheese (low carbohydrate and likely to fill you up relatively fast) and that seemed to be OK. So what with that and No.1 son's bath, and then quelling rebellion on the reading in bed front it was well past 10pm by the time I got No.2 son to bed.

Tomorrow No.1 son has some kind of presentation to do as part of his business project. That's why he wanted his hair cut. He's been flitting about doing last minute things for that, though why he had to leave them until after bedtime is anybody's guess. He was mumbling something about somebody was supposed to have sent him an electronic copy of their presentation so he could practice, so it might have been that. Anyway, 2 hours after bedtime they are actually both in bed and lying down. Not sure how No.1 son will be in the morning. He scraped a sizeable chunk of skin off his leg at the weekend. It was bleeding quite a lot on Monday night (he pulled his fencing socks over the bandage and it rubbed badly) but now it seems to be starting to go septic. The whole house smells of antiseptic stuff now. We will have to keep an eye on that.

I have been working 3 days per week in what they call a Skills Studio. Working with kids who are doing vocational courses (construction, motor vehicle etc) that their schools can't offer. It has been quite good fun but today was my last day there. I wouldn't mind going back on a long-term basis, if they were to increase the pay. The location itself is on the edge of town so it's easy to get to from where I live, less than 30 minutes most days. The drive is quite pleasant as well, a quick bit of dual carriageway and then 5 miles or so cross-country. It has been interesting watching things change over the 5 weeks I have been there. When I started the fields were mostly green - even the wheat fields. By today one of the wheat fields had been harvested and many of the others were brown or almost brown. An interesting colour not quite ripe wheat, not brown and not green. The crops were also taller. When I started I could easily see over them at the small junction where I get to the last small bit of my travels. Today I couldn't I had to stretch up quite a bit to see clearly. I'm lucky to live in a place where such things are possible. I grew up in the middle of London (more or less) and I don't want to live there any more. Here I still live in a town but it's easy to get out of it.

Date posted: 16 Jul 2008

Happy Birthday to me!

Today is my birthday. Not telling how old I am, but I'm pushing on a bit. I have been doing a bit of thinking about this and that. Passing years and so on. I don't tend to make New Year's Resolutions but round about this time of year I might consider a few things. This is the time of year to make a few resolutions, make a few plans. The main thing is more me time. Not time to "find myself" or anything weird like that (I know who I am) but to make time to do things like get more exercise. I am overweight. I am not getting enough exercise for the amount I eat and I like to eat, so I need to get more exercise and maybe eat less as well. My target is down 2 dress sizes by Christmas. I have a dress hanging in my wardrobe right now that I bought a few years ago for a specific occasion and which was too tight when I got it and which is even more tight now. Actually it's not too tight - I can't get it done up at all! I haven't put on any weight this year (I think - I don't ever weigh myself) so all my last year's clothes still fit me, but they are getting old and faded and scruffy. I don't want to buy any more clothes that size when I have stuff in my wardrobe that is too small but which isn't old and faded and scruffy. Look on it as a money saving exercise.

Anyway, that's my target for the year. I'll worry about the weight more in a couple of days - after the cake and the birthday dinner.

Date posted: 11 Jul 2008

They got something Right!

Or Have They?. There was an item on the morning news programme on the BBC today about how some parents are allegedly "confused" about whether they can leave their children at home alone. This issue raises its ugly head every year. Parents work, kids are off school, what is a parent supposed to do? Of course they got the usual prat "If you can't look after your children until they are 16 years old then you shouldn't have them" who quite fails to grasp the reality of life these days. My kids will be paying for that person's NHS treatment and their pensions when they have retired. With the way the economy is these days and has been for years the number of people who can afford to stay at home with their kids is tiny. I wish I could, but having had the kids it is my responsibility to make sure that they are fed and have a roof over their heads, to do that I have to go to work.

Anyway, back to the point. Some children's charity (of course nobody would suspect them of having a vested interest in this - not) has asked for specific legal guidelines because at the moment there aren't any and parents are "confused". How the heck can you be confused about whether it is safe to leave your kids unsupervised or not? I mean, they are your kids. You should know them well enough to be able to determine if it's safe. With us we have sometimes left No. 1 son at home on his own for maybe an hour or two at a time since he was about 11 years old. We checked back with him by phone quite a lot but he was OK and we were OK. He knew that he could go to a neighbour's house if he wasn't happy. We wouldn't do that for No. 2 son even now and he's 12. No. 1 son is a bit of a scaredy cat and also quite thoughtful. He thinks before he acts and is generally aware of safety in a way that the other one doesn't and isn't. Not that No. 2 son is a risk taker but he gets focused in on a task and gets carried away and then he gets into trouble or awkward situations. What we wouldn't do is leave them at home together for any length of time without permission to play computer games and watch TV as much as they like. When they are together they bicker and fight, games and TV at least keeps them in separate rooms or gives them something they can do together without bickering and fighting. It's enough of a rarity that they don't want that privilege taken away and they behave.

Of course what this is really about is fear and, sickeningly, it's not fear that something might happen to your child when they aren't supervised, but that somebody (read Social Services or some children's charity or some other bunch of interfering no-good time wasters who can't get a real job and who have nothing better to do) will take your children away for no reason because you can't point to a law that says' it's OK. That's the scary thing.

This is the real reason we have feral children. Parents are so scared by Social Services and the do-gooders that they won't discipline their children in case "somebody" complains and the children are taken into care.

Every so often we get stories in the press about kids who were taken into care for no real reason, because somebody thought that something had happened that hadn't and then refused to listen to sense, or fact or anything else. We hear about people who have their kids taken into care on the basis of no evidence at all and then are threatened that if they talk about it with anybody they will never see their kids again. It takes a lot of guts and real desperation before anybody will go against that. You could end up in prison for contempt of court and then Social services have a "reason" for taking your kids away because now you have a criminal record. Social Services have targets for adoptions. They have a target number of adoptions they have to process each year. If nobody wants the kids they have already got in care (or if social services deem the available parents unsuitable because they aren't the "right" colour) it seems like they go and find some child that they can, basically, steal so that they hit their targets.

The law is fine as it is. What we need to change is the attitude of some parents and most Social Service departments. The key part of the name I would suggest is the second part Service. They are paid, by us, to Serve, not to hinder, not to terrify, not to threaten, not to bully but to serve. If they concentrated on doing their job properly maybe parents could concentrate on doing their job of parenting and we wouldn't have so many problems.

Date posted: 11 Jul 2008

A bit of an odd week

It has been a strange week in lots of ways. Probably because the weekend went by so fast. I have been having a clear out and have listed tons of stuff on ebay and on Amazon. I spent most of the weekend doing that I think. Taking pictures, uploading them, writing descriptions and so on. The usual stuff really. The boys have been quite busy but still at home which in itself is unusual. Often they will go out with their friends at the weekend, swimming or to the skate park or to the park to play tennis. This weekend the weather was a bit iffy and they wanted to watch the tennis, not play it, so they stayed at home. I was supposed to be listing stuff on Sunday afternoon, but the TV was on and I was watching the tennis at the same time. I had to stop listing and sit and watch in the end. That was I think what everytbody was hoping for (well possibly not Federer and Nadal). A fantastic match with some really great tennis that actually went the distance. I'm sure Roger Federer wasn't the only one who breathed a sigh of relief when he won the third set, it was such a good match I just wanted it to last longer. Well we certainly got our wish there. The boys had to sit up past their bedtime to see the end, but on a one-off occasion like that they are sometimes allowed. It would have been cruel to send them to bed at their usual 9pm. After all that great tennis we also got a couple of good interviews. Such grace from both men, absolute respect for their opponent and not even a hint of anything other than great sportsmanship and both of them speaking in a foreign language. Something to be learned for all of us I think. Now of course I am looking forward to a re-match in the final next year.

Congratulations too to Laura Robson. I pointed out to No 1 son that if he wants to be a great tennis player then it's probably already too late! Then tonight on local TV an item about two small children, sisters, who are both the best in the county for their age. Of course they say they want to be just like Venus and Serena Williams, which isn't surprising. I wonder if they will, or even if they will continue to play. While I was watching the womens' final it found it interesting to see how the Williams sisters looked. At the start Venus just looked almost as if she wasn't in it. Serena was clearly the more focused of the two, her face was stiller, she was inward-looking during the breaks and changeovers then Venus seemed to get to grips with herself and she also started to seem better focused and then she started playing better. Then about two changeovers after that it was Serena who's eyes were all over the place and who wasn't concentrating. Venus was more inward facing, and she stayed that way.

When I wasn't ebaying last week I was marking. All my students produce a folder of evidence to show that they have achieved a certain level of work. That's fine in theory but for various reasons many of the folders haven't been marked - at all. I started working with them only last month (on a short term contract) and there is work there that was handed in in September that hasn't been marked. I am the fourth teacher they have had this year, and it looks like the marking has just been left. I set the students lots of work and then sat and marked almost all day every day I was working last week, but I didn't get it all finished until yesterday. By that time I was in pain from the constant hunching over the desk and my shoulder is still sore. Of course all this means that I will have more marking to do this week as the students finish off the work they have been doing and add it to their folders as well. Oh well, end of term next week.

Himself has an appointment for laser surgery on his eye tomorrow. Scary stuff, but it's relatively minor. The problem the surgery is designed to solve was caused by him having a malignant melanoma on his retina. We were lucky that it was in a place where it affected his vision so he could get early treatment. I know a lot more about ocular melanoma than I wanted to. In fact if you'd asked me two years or so ago I wouldn't have known it even existed. All the treatment has been done on the NHS, and it couldn't have been better. This trip tomorrow will, we hope, be the last of it. Obviously he will still have to "keep and eye on it" but if all goes well he's out of the woods and with most of his sight intact. My only quibble, if you can even call it that, is that we had to travel to London for all the treatments. We managed OK but I wonder how some people could afford the trip. We go to Barts hospital and have met people there from all over the UK, some of them travel hundreds of miles to get there. It's not a cheap option but, in the end, it's just money. I don't know if there is some scheme for people to reclaim their expenses.

We drive up to the hospital from home, it's just as quick by car as by train and a whole lot cheaper - about half the price if you include the congestion charges, a bit more than half if you include car parking. People aren't going to give up their cars while that's true.

Public transport has to get a lot cheaper and more reliable and more frequent before people start using it in preference to their car. Not only that it has to go where people actually want to go. Which is one (only one) of my major objections to the new Eurostar terminal at Ebbsfleet. They are apprently using that in preference to the station at Ashford. For me to get to Ashford I can either drive or I can go by public transport. The car's quicker but at the end of a holiday there's something nice about sitting and watching the countryside pass by and not having to make a great effort. You can get to Ashford International by train from almost anywhere in the south-east. train connections to Ashford are really quite good and the old station and the International are on the same site so moving between them involves a short walk of maybe 500 ft. To get to Ebbsfleet International you almost have to go by car. There isn't a train station anywhere near. You can get a bus from Gravesend and from Dartford, but it takes a long time and doesn't go very often. From here that journey would take maybe 2 hours door to door. That's twice as long as from Ashford. To drive would take about 40 minutes. At the end of a holiday with suitcases and so on what would you rather do? You can get a bus to the railway station then a train to another station where you change trains (sometimes with quite a long wait) and then sit on that train for 50 or so minutes even if you don't have to change trains again, or you can get into your car and drive for 40 minutes. It's a bit of a no brainer really. If that applies for me, how much more so for people from further down the coast, or people who live the other side of Ashford or in Eastbourne? People who live in the area of the new station will benefit of course, but there really aren't many of them. You have to wonder who makes these decisions. Nobody I know prefers Ebbsfleet to Ashford, it's just too inconvenient.

Date posted: 09 Jul 2008

Almost an oops again

After writing a few days ago about a near miss with a sheep I almost had another one today, though not, this time, with a sheep. In fact there were two near misses. The first one was when I was on my way into Canterbury just after lunchtime today. I was trundling along behind a local bus whan a black cat shot out into the road from the left hand side and almost went under the wheels of the bus. I have never seen a cat turn round quite so quickly as that one did. One second it was headed for almost certain death and the next it was heading in the opposite direction. I'm sure it must have lost at least 1 of its lives there.

Then, on my way back from Canterbury, I was on a different road, winding up hill out of the Stour Valley to join the main road back home. I had just got to the spot where the hill starts to level out and the 30mph limit starts when two peacocks walked out into the road. Actually, that's not true, one was a peahen, but still there were two of them and they were pretty big. Of course I screeched to a halt while they ambled about a bit and then they went off into somebody's garden so I and the driver of the car behind me could go on our way.Funny how these things happen, nothing for a while then two at once. Like the local buses really.

Date posted: 03 Jul 2008

Tent Testing

The boys and I spent the weekend "camping" the quotes are because we didn't actually go any further than the back garden.

The original plan was to camp out there a couple of weeks ago, but wouldn't you know it has been wet and windy the last two weekends? So this weekend was, the first one the weather has been good enough for me to want to try it out. I mean, I don't mind camping in the wet, but it can be pretty dismal, and I didn't want to put the boys off before they'd even started properly. The plan is to spend a week camping in the English Lake District this summer, so I wanted them to be looking forward to it. They said they had a good time.

We learned a few things though - like if you take a deck of cards to entertain yourselves in the evening, it's quite a good idea to take all of them and not leave the ten of diamonds somewhere else. That caused a little disruption, but we had the jokers and a suitable substitution was made. We also learned that No.2 son can be quite brave when in need of the toilet. He woke up at 3am today, needing to go. He was in such a hurry that he just grabbed the back door key and went, without even taking the torch with him. Admittedly it wasn't far, maybe 10 feet to the back door and another six or so to the toilet, but this is the boy who tells me he has to have the light on in his room all night because he's scared of the dark. It wasn't that dark last night though, a nice clear night so we could see The Plough and lots of other stars quite clearly, plus of course there's the usual light pollution, enough to make it quite light even without stars and moon. It made me think though. If we are so desparate to save energy, why do they leave street lights on all night? Not many people are around after about 2am, and the majority of them would be in cars I'd think, so why do we need streetlights? People who live outside towns don't have lights they have torches, so why do we need streetlights in towns? Don't get me started on motorway lights. You can drive, legally, at 60mph down narrow country lanes where at any second an animal might run out in front of you and where the road surface isn't always as good as it might be, but somehow people need to have wide, straight, flat motorways to be lit by millions of lamps. Do motorway drivers not know how to use their headlights?

Talking about that reminds me of a narrow escape I had a while back on one of the country roads round here. It's a road I use quite often, runs through woodland and farmland, but is quite twisty and too narrow to merit white lines. I had been somewhere and was coming home reasonably late at night. It was dark but not as late as throwing out time at the pub, but late enough for there to be very little traffic. I have a small car, quite nippy but not designed or built for racing. As I was going along (quite quickly - I know that road very well) I noticed the lights of another car behind me, coming up fast. Turned out he was one of those drivers who drive fast but who don't manage bends very well. On the straight bits he was right close behind me but on the bends he dropped back a bit. After a couple of miles or so I was getting a bit tired of that but we were coming to the last mile of the road. Just to make a point I took one particular corner a bit quick, safely but quick. Don't think the driver behind me was very happy because as we got to the next bend he was clearly preparing to overtake me as soon as we were round. In fact, think he wasn't going to wait until we were round that bend before he passed me (I assume male here). It was his bad luck (or maybe his good luck) that as I came round the first part of the curve there was a sheep in the middle of the road, so the only thing I could do was swerve round the sheep, hold tight to the steering wheel and pray, because I knew from my mirrors and the engine noise that the driver behind me had already started to accelerate to get past and I was swerving right out in front of him. There was a squeal of brakes and sound of skidding behind me, but no crash or bang but that sheep scared the both of us rigid I think. The other car caught up with me just as we came into the edge of the town, but he stayed behind me at the legal speed limit until I turned off.

When I got home I phoned the farmer who owned the farm and told him about his sheep but I never heard anything else.

Date posted: 29 Jun 2008

This is what we need more of

I saw an interview on TV this morning about this device. The interview was with one of the people who developed the device and the person in the article who has been fitted with one. Heart warming stuff, that so many people who have lost hands and arms will be able to have access to something which will make their quality of life much better.

The interview with Mr Edwards was most impressive, not only for the technology, but also because of the person he appears to be. I can't even begin to imagine how he has managed to deal with being a quadruple amputee. I don't know how people manage to deal with that level of personal devastation and survive as a person. I am rather afraid that I don't have that, I don't know, determination, strength, spark, the thing that keeps you going when everything seems bleak and disastrous. My Edwards clearly does have that whatever it is. He came across as a humorous, sane individual and while I dare say he has had some times when he has wanted to give up it was clear today just how positive he feels about this prosthesis.

Three cheers for him and for all the people who will benefit from this developemnt and a huge three cheers for the team who developed it. It bugs me that we undervalue engineering in the UK, and that people who are no more than parts fitters call themselves engineers while real engineers are very often unsung heroes and heroines.

Date posted: 10 Jun 2008

Telectroscope

A Telectroscope has been set up between London and New York. I've never heard of one, never seen one but this looks like real fun. If I get up to London before they take it away I will certainly go and have a look.
There's quite a stir about the London art scene just now, especially along the south bank of the river between Tower Bridge and Tate Modern. The Tate Modern itself has had a bit of a revamp with massive artworks on the outside of the building. Unfortunately, since it's a listed building the life of the murals is limited, but even seen via the TV they look pretty spectacular.

Date posted: 26 May 2008

Eurovision - predictable or what?

We have been watching (as in the TV was on and we were in the same room)the Eurovision Song Contest. That's a stupid name now isn't it? I mean, I get the Eurovision bit, EBU membership and all that (though I'd be interested to know how Israel got in) but "Song Contest" who are they kidding? There was nothing in the voting even vaguely relating to the musical quality of the song. In fact there was nothing in many of the presentations even vaguely related to music.

Terry Wogan is absolutely right. My husband didn't watch any of the competition, but did watch the voting. He averaged more than 80% accuracy in predicting the top three votes based purely on geography and politics.

I have no idea why the Russian "singer" was getting so excited about winning. The first place didn't belong to the song or the singer but to Vladimir Putin. He should have been there to collect the prize, he's earned it.

Date posted: 25 May 2008

Saviour Siblings

I don't really have an opinion about the rights and wrongs of this, it's a very personal decision and if it was me I would probably try whatever I could to find a cure for my child. But here's a question for those in favour of saviour siblings. How do you tell a child that you actually didn't want them as a person, but had them just so you could save another child's life? How does the saviour sibling deal with that? How does the recipient deal with that? What do you do if the first attempt doesn't work? How many "saviour siblings" does it take?

Date posted: 20 May 2008