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1.10.05 23:15


Cheer me up Scotty

The Boy was playing at the Stoop
today for the Curtain Raiser event. Rugby as a spectator sport suits
me, it's a great opportunity to oggle men in shorts while having a
healthy lunch of chips and beer. It is also suited to fidgets like me
since it is considered ok to mill around rather than stay glued to the
seats.

Him Indoors had a moment of slight worry when he returned
to the stand before the match started and I wasn't where he had left
me. In itself it would have not made him bat an eyelid - he would have
been surprised if I had been - but the other rugby mums mentioned that
Will Greenwood had just walked past and hinted that the 2 events might
be linked. Before you ask, no they were not linked and no, I did not
take a close up, like the other rugby mums I was too busy concentrating
on trying not to dribble on my shoes as it would have been most
unsightly.

As usual photos are on Flickr, just click on one of the thumbnails below if you want to have a look.
1.10.05 23:31


Quote of the day


"I prefer Rugby League. The shorts are much, much tighter"
3.10.05 16:50


School woes

The Boy's school is not particularly
friendly to working parents and after attempting to book a slot for
parents evening and being told I had to come in and write my name on
the sheet myself I decided to weigh the next options up.

  • I
    could write a letter to the head teacher and cc the chair of governors
    voicing my disappointment that despite numerous complaints in the past
    from myself and other working parents, no arrangements have been made
    to take into account the fact that some of us might not be able to take
    some time off work for the sole purpose of writing my name down on a
    piece of paper.
  • I could try calling again, ask to speak to the
    headteacher and make enough of a fuss that I get the appointment sorted
    over the phone. I am sure my name is already on the difficult parents
    list so it shouldn't take too much of an effort.
  • I could
    explain to The Boy's Father that it's his turn to do the parents'
    evening thing and let him battle with the pomposity of the Head.
  • Alternatively I could just join the ranks of parents who do not attend parents evening.

I
have opted for the later option. Why? Because my child has been taught
by a number of supply teachers since the beginning of term and cannot
tell me the name of his teacher. Hence I wonder how insightful their
comments on my child would be. What would they tell me that I do not
already know? I may not be on the award list for mother of the year but
I pretty much know he is clever enough to be doing fine, that he does
not feel the need to go the extra mile to produce outstanding work when
he can do good stuff with no or little effort, that school bores him
and he'd rather be playing outside or reading his books, that he has an
impressive memory, that he likes things just so and that his geek
potential is high.

I am not worried. Why not? Because coming home
from after school club and riding pillon on my bike we talk about our
days, and good days are filled with filling pockets up with conkers,
having custard with pudding or hundreds and thousands on sponge cake,
fielding and batting and scoring runs, weird and wonderfull facts about
animals and rocks, building a den in the woods and getting to a scary
bit or a funny bit in a book. Yes he'll be fine, and his favourite
cloud is "the one over there, the fluffy one which looks just like a
map of Japan and the top bit, sorry mummy the northern bit is quite
detailed isn't it?".
5.10.05 21:24


Salad with added protein

The drawback of getting
your salad leaves from the garden, especially if you can't really be
bothered to put slug pellets down because it's the end of the season
and there is no way you will eat it all before it bolts is that you end
up with little visitors like these in your kitchen

snail on kitchen worktop

Not
sure if I should own up to it but I thought I would have my dinner
first then release Mr Escargot back to the garden for the birds to eat.
These things are a lot faster than I thought. Couln't find him when I
went back to dish up pudding. Ooops
10.10.05 22:35


Aspirin, music channels, QVC, UK Gold and ads for ringtones and rip-off loans.

I
don't normaly "do" sick. I tend to hit whatever bug it attempting to
bring me down with the help of the good fairy apirin, she of the
magical cure all powers and complain a lot about feeling rubbish. This
time though I had to give in and abandon myself to the welcoming arms
of the sofa the mind numbingness of daytime TV.

Him Indoors got
moaned at for waking me up everytime he called especially when he
called to make sure I was awake to go and pick up The Boy from after
school club. He also questioned why he could hear the music which
accompanies the "This channel is currently off air" screen - probably
because it was the best quality programme available at the time.

The
Boy told me in no uncertain terms that he would rather I was dressed to
take him on the school run, didn't complain at having to eat frozen
pizza and maintained a steady supply of drinks to my sofa side.

*makes
mental note to get over paranoia that the child will scald himself if
let lose with a kettle so said child can keep her in steady supply of
tea when Him Indoors is away*

I am now worrying about how much
work I'll have to catch up with on Monday and moaning a lot about
feeling rubbish... I must be a lot better.
15.10.05 09:24


Cycling to Ealing I found that the towpath along the Grand Union
Canal was closed at the High street end. I didn't get close enough to
read the sign and just went the long way round to the access next to
the C&W building on the Great West Road. There was another sign
there for people who wanted to go towards the Brentford High Street.

Now here is a picture of the sign, can you spot anything wrong with this sign?

 towpath closure sign

Yep,
it says "Please follow the suggested alternative route below". And
nope, there aren't any alternative routes suggested below.

Yep,
it is attached to the one side which people can see as they walk down
the steps. Nope it is not visible to those who are just walking past
the barrier from The Glaxo Buidling side.

I hope British
Waterways' engineering is better thought out than its signposting. I
also really like the non commital end of project date "mid-October", so
it will be some time between the 15th and the 16th then? No can't be, today *IS* the 16th...
16.10.05 22:28


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