Sea-gulls Crying

Well, hello November!

October was just a mite stressful which is a shame because it's my favourite month. We had lots of events squished together all at once- all fun things we wanted to do but having a gig, a wrestling show and a comic convention all on the same weekend took its toll.

Saurus was due to go to American to visit his girlfriend and indeed, got halfway to the airport before it was discovered he didn't have all the documentation he needed to get in. Luckily he and his girlfriend were able to cancel the flights and get the money back as she had got insurance on the purchase, phew! After much discussion and scrutinisation of all the rules and regulations they've decided to postpone the trip until next summer, giving him time to get more funds together and iron out all the other little details like phone network provision and health insurance. Yes these are all things we mentioned and discussed with him well beforehand but oh well, he's living and learning!

Roo had his parents evening and got a glowing report from his tutor who is very happy with him. I am not, now, so happy with his tutor as we've just discovered Roo's been told to organise his work experience. Himself. No guidance, no list of approved sites, nothing. Utter madness! This is a class of sixteen year olds who have been told, essentially, to cold call building sites to get themselves on them! No risk assessment, no insurance, no health and safety regs, nothing. To say I am fuming is an understatement.

Wig seems to be doing fine at school, still enjoying it, still eager to go. I have doubts as to how much quality education actually goes on during the school day but he seems to be thriving and they seem very happy with him so I'm not getting pushy about it. He does seem to have hit the typical grumbly teen phaze, but that's to be expected.

Here at home we've moved on from Ivan the Terrible's fascinating life to the history and origins of language. So far we've investigated Nicaraguan sign language, started reading Gilgamesh and are looking into the development of anatomy that allows speech. We're enjoying Strictly Come Dancing, Blue Planet 2 and the new series of Robot Wars. Ballet, football and karate continue, as do forest school, minecraft club and various meets. Hoof does all his alphabet flash cards by himself now and needs very little assistance. He knows each letter's name and sound and we're just beginning to put them together to make words. Dot has discovered the Dairy of a Whimpy kid and Captain Underpants, Fluff is onto the second book of Lord of the Rings and Petal and I have a date to go shopping for crop tops. They're all growing up so fast!

I'm involved in a dance show with the adult dance school I take classes with. It seemed like a fabulous fun idea back in April but in fact has become something I've begun dragging myself to with dread, mostly because the classes I am in are really above my ability. Still, now there's only the dress rehearsal and performances to go, so I only have to survive two more days. I say survive advisedly, I have a stinking cold and sore throat and feel dire and I've managed to pick up a massive burn on my chin from eating pizza, would you believe!

Grey Mist

It's rainy and windy this morning. It just about held yesterday so that we could play in the outdoor bits at the Science Center which was fortunate as the water tables and the Discovery Park are definitely our favourite spaces there! It was lovely to catch-up with lots of other Home Edders too, people from all over go to the discount days so it's a good opportunity to chat with people I don't get to see often. Plus things are inevitably quieter in the summer with our usual meets grinding to a halt, people going away on holiday and general hiding from the crowds, so it was nice to see how everyone was and share news on what we had all been up to over the summer.

Today our weekly home ed meet starts up again and Petal is excited to talk about her Book Club plans. Ballet, too, although Saurus is taking them as I'm working. Then we're gearing up for the great bedroom reshuffle of 2017...

Windy day

The seasons are inescapably turning here. Despite the fact it's still officially summer until the solstice, summer is definitely over. Jumpers are required for a start, sometimes even coats- though admittedly more for the rain than for the cold.

Conkers are in the park. We're blessed with a great many horse chestnut trees... it's a square really, originally belonging to the adjacent Victorian houses and the Victorians did like their trees! The place is stuffed full of them, including a truly splendid copper beech but it's the horse chestnuts we gather under now, scanning about bent over almost double, searching for small, brown, shiny objects or, even better, prickly green cases to stamp on and liberate the contents. They are still white and soft in places but there are plenty of ready ones to find if only you look carefully and it's almost impossible not to, to seek them out and start a collection is simply irresistible.

Mind you, not that we play conkers in this house. It's not banned, exactly, although one particular person is banned for life for getting waaaaay too competitive.... *cough* Papacrow *cough*

Vagrant Gypsy Life

It's going to be all move again... though admittedly only inside the house!

Hoof really needs a full size bed. Petal really needs her own room. After much discussion, Papacrow has come up with a solution!

Saurus and Roo are coming down from the upstairs bedroom to the downstairs bedroom and Wig is joining them. We will separate the bunk-beds in the downstairs room and buy another full size bed from our local second hand furniture shop. The piano is going out into the hall, the cupboard set there back into the front room. The toy cupboard and clothes cupboards in the downstairs bedroom will be used to divide up the space and to store their clothes.

Dot and Hoof are going upstairs. The bunk-beds in that room are currently separated so will be put back on top of each other, most of the toy boxes will go up to the fitted cupboard, some will go in the front room. Their clothes will go in the chest of drawers in the fitted cupboard and they'll take one bookcase from the downstairs bedroom with them (giving them two, the downstairs bedroom one).

Petal is going into Wig's room. It needs a thorough tidy up and I'll probably take out the broken white shelves. We need to go through the children's dvds anyway and make some decisions, we don't use them much anymore.

Fluff is staying where he is, as he's quite happy in his little room (though it could do with a tidy!), there'll be lots of pictures and shelves to move around, the upstairs bedroom needs repainting and the downstairs one needs sound insulation putting under the carpet.

The move, painting and sound insulation is scheduled to be done next weekend and the jury's still out as to where the monks bench, coat hooks and shoe rack from the downstairs bedroom are going...