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The skills the parenting books don't tell you you need to play Mum The Boy has found a way of spending his birthday money. It involves gluing little models of fantasy creatures, decorating them, learning some intricate rules of engagement and battling on a table top with similarly minded character owners. Before he can start playing all the characters need to be put together and while I have seen people play with plain base-coated unadorned models The Boy is adamant that he couldn't do that. Somewhere in his little 10 year old rather scatty little brain lies a strong sense of what order things should be done in. His models have to be painted first, play is for later. Fair enough. He has sat through the lessons at the shop. He has also worked out that if I help him paint them he can start playing sooner, he is no longer satisfied with my current contribution which is limited to spray painting the black base coat on (spray cans, solvents and 10 year olds didn't seem a good match in my head for some reason). Today I purchased some extra brushes and under the guidance of The Boy I painted my first space marine. It was rather cute to se him take on his serious face to tell me not to load the brush so much and every so often "you are doing well". Anyway considering I was somebody who once sat at parent's evening in front of an art teacher who just laughed when my mum asked how I was doing (and considering the quality of the work I had produced I couldn't even blame her or call her mean for it, it WAS consistently bad, not even the option to put it down to "not having found my medium yet" like a very kind friend once put it), I don't think I did too bad. 
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6.10.07 18:31 |
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Canadian thanksgiving Because it takes longer than a couple of hours for thick steak to defrost. Because sweet potatoes don't really keep more than 2 months after their best before date. Because a whole roast turkey and pumpkin pie are rather much for just 2 people and on a work day it isn't particularly practical to have the equivalent of a small army come round to eat a full on roast dinner. I give you turkey steak with mushroom sauce and butternut squash risotto. Will it do?
I forgot the main bit, the thankful thing. Aside from the obvious roof over head, food in bellies, healthy bodies and wolf from the door sort of thing, I am thankful that MFC gets why I find the T-shirt in the charity shop window, the red one with the dachshund rather funny. |
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9.10.07 08:03 |
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The week in a few words Boy away; ginger and rye in a flask (I am such a classy lush me), pretty cocktails; catching up with the gossip (midlife crisis, babies, Brazilian floozie, life and builders and windows and oven doors and men of course); 2 girlie nights in complete with diner and chocolate pudding; memorial service, plus ça change et plus ça reste pareils, the hold habit, the friendhips, the caring, the bitching and the back stabbing; busy, busy, busy. 
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12.10.07 08:22 |
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Let the countdown begin That's it, the main form has been submitted, the 3 choices that Surrey allows have been picked, the supplementary forms for the schools which require it have been filled in and sent. Now all we have to do is wait for the exam dates for the schools which have an entry exam and then sit and wait some more for the email from Surrey County Council in March to tell me if The Boy was given a provisional place in any of the chosen Secondary Schools in the pick or if we were unlucky and just missed the coveted place. Any hope that the media's reporting of the race for a Secondary place is slightly hyped up is quickly dispelled by the little notes accompanying the supplementary forms: "The second photograph (...) will be used for an identity check during the examination." You mean to say there are people out there who will pimp the talents of their 11 year old to pass exams on behalf of less academically able pupils? Do they have an obligation of result and a no pass-no fee clause in their contract? The mind boggles.
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15.10.07 23:11 |
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Music ramble Memory works in funny ways. Take tonight for example as I listened to music on shuffle a tune came on and I found myself thinking of ice and mint and wondering if there's any rhum in the drinks cupboard. Somehow my brain has associated the song with mojitos . I guess it's not much of a surprise. The first time I remember hearing it was in Barcelona. I was sipping the most heavily rhum loaded mojito I'd ever drunk. A Few songs later, having ascertained that the music was coming from an ipod deck I got the barman's attention and attempted to explain I wanted to know who the band was, not the previous song, no, no, or the one before but the one before that I think or maybe the other one I'm not too sure and isn't it loud and yes you are right I can't speak Spanish or Catalan and lovely mojito by the way... you get the idea. I wasn't making myself awfully clear. The barman obliged... the band, sure he knows, it was Linkin Park. Once I'd recovered from the surprise (it didn't sound much like Linkin Park to me but hey what did I know) I joined MFC in his hilarity at the idea that *I* liked a Linkin Park song. Me, the queen of twee and sop, how could this be? Once I stopped laughing I put this momentary warp of my musical preferences to the booze and the holiday feel.
So as per usual I confused MFC with something along the lines of "that's the song, you know, Barcelong, don't you remember and you thought it was funny because it was a band I shouldn't like except it wasn't, it was them". Eventually I made myself clearer and MFC googled the chorus hoping the lyrics would reveal who the band was since there was no way it was Linkin Park. See the mojito link? So I guess it explains why after hearing the song I was in my kitchen trying to work out how I'll make up for the lack of rhum and fresh mint in the store cupboard and came up with putting a tiny dash of mint vodka in a shot glass, with an ice cube and topped it up with dry ginger ale. It tasted rather nice, if I may say so myself. Oh I nearly forgot the song and the band. It was Young Folks by Peter, Bjorn and John, catchy but it's a bit like those chocolate pringles, they get a bit sickly after a while, couldn't eat a whole tube of them. |
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16.10.07 22:14 |
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Ramdom The thing with shuffle mode is that sometimes something comes up that you haven't listened to in an age and a line stands out that you don't remember noticing before or that you had forgotten. This week's such line is brought to you by the Frank and Walters :
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18.10.07 15:09 |
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I've done me a little radiator bleedin' and now the flat is no longer feezin'.
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25.10.07 20:10 |
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