When I was a teenager, and saw things in black and white, I recall thinking that death was too good for Ian Paisley. Many years later, I almost met him. One of our ministers was doing a speech on the School Fruit and Veg Scheme. I remember she was nervous about it and gave her young speech writer hell because he had used the phrase ‘suite of measures’ five or six times in the course of a fairly short speech! Because she was anxious about it, she wanted us in the box in case supplementary questions came up, but things ran late and she didn’t finally get to make the speech until about 10pm, by which time there were only half a dozen left in the house – Ian Paisley was the one who snored loudly throughout!
Month: September 2014
Day 91
Level 2 Chi Kung. Microcosmic orbit (very impressive light effects).
Unfortunately the promising-looking archive boxes at Tiger turned out to be shoe-box-sized so useless for documents, so I ended up on something of a Great Hort Hunt for something more appropriate. Didn’t find anything so I decided to make do with whatever boxes we have lying around the house and then wandered around the supermarket and bought some salmon, and a nice organic chicken to roast over the weekend. Got a bit more of the filing-cabinet purge done but still a lot to go – in “darkness before the dawn” terms, it is still pretty bloody dark!
NT Live screening of Skylight (with Carey Mulligan and Bill Nighy) this evening. We missed out on the live production as we were already either booked up or on holiday every single Thursday (the only night we have a babysitter) of its run. For those in France and NZ, note that there will be an international screening on the 23rd of October. As well as the play – which is brilliant, you get to see an interesting little interview with David Hare in the interval. Asked why he thought everybody was still saying that the play was relevant 18 years on, he said something like: “Well, when I wrote it we had just had 15 years of an elitist government that had completely lost touch with real life and was so in love with entrepreneurs that it completely devalued people like nurses and teachers and people in public service who actually do real work. And now of course we have just had four years of a government that has done exactly the same thing.”. Made me remember seeing another David Hare play, The Absence of War, back in the 90s, with the wonderful John Thaw as the Neil Kinnock character. I remember at the time, friends in the Labour Party couldn’t bring themselves to go to the play as it was just too heartbreaking.
Day 90
Level 2 Chi Kung. Microcosmic orbit (really fabulous – amazing light show in blues and violets).
In the normal way of things, I’m not much of a procrastinator – I used to be, but not for the last ten years – for good or ill, the NLP procrastination cure works like a bastard. So I have been surprised over the last few days to have that procrastination feeling. And because I hadn’t really planned any particular activity for these first weeks that the children were back in school, it was hard to tell what exactly I was avoiding. Well today I decided, on a whim, to clear out the racks in the kitchen where newspapers and magazines and assorted other bits and pieces go to die – or rather to spend a while in purgatory before their ultimate fate is decided. Well about 80% of it went straight into the recycling bin, various school library books were set aside to be sent back to the appropriate school tomorrow, a few bits and pieces went into piles for action by either Nick or myself, but the remainder was, inevitably, filing. At which point I discovered what I have been avoiding. It has reached the point where it is no longer possible to get another document into the filing cabinet, which means I need to do my least favourite job and go through and purge it. I hate this partly because Nick and I are a long way from being on the same page when it comes to what should be kept (Nick: everything, me: as little as possible). However it has occurred to me that, now that we have an attic, there is a third way! I can ‘archive’ stuff that isn’t immediately useful and stash it in the loft. I think I recall seeing some suitable A4-sized boxes cheap as chips in Tiger, so I will be down there tomorrow to stock up.
Day 89
Level 2 Chi Kung. Microcosmic orbit.
Another gorgeous day in beautiful Blackheath. Today was the first day of the collaborative art workshop run by the rather fabulously-named Felly Mistweave, the same person who ran the printmaking workshop I attended in June. Today’s session was mostly introductions and set up. The idea of the project (to bring a group of strangers together to create art collaboratively) is interesting and some interesting people showed up, including a couple of young au pairs, from Finland and Romania respectively, and an Italian translator who is into origami. However I’m not feeling optimistic as, part way through the session, Felly warned us that next week Karen, the resthome-worker who suddenly showed up in the middle of a print-making session with a very distressed dementia patient last time around, will be bringing five similar patients next week. This is problematic on a number of levels. Firstly, the seminar room is simply not big enough for ten people to comfortably and safely use paints, inks, sharp cutting tools and hot irons. Secondly, Karen is the epitome of everything you wouldn’t want in someone caring for vulnerable elderly people: rude, patronising, bad-tempered, inconsiderate. And finally, it is typical that, having decided to bring people to this course, the dates of which have been organised for months, she has nevertheless decided to skip the first day, meaning that most of the second day will now be spent repeating the introductions and admin stuff for the five newcomers. My normal behaviour in this type of situation would be to stick with it, come what may, (a kind of ‘I’ve started, so I’ll finish’ mentality), becoming increasingly frustrated on the way. My promise to myself this time is that, if next week looks like becoming the total shambles I am now half-expecting, I will make my excuses and depart at the first tea break – time is too precious to waste.
Day 88
Level 2 Chi Kung. Microcosmic orbit.
An beautiful warm sunny autumn day, spent doing various minor bits and pieces, which somehow added up to a very satisfying day. Did some laundry, cleared up some bits and pieces of admin, collected Katie from school and had a great time scrunching through autumn leaves on the way home. Sat out in the garden with Kate and Dash, cuddling Sherlock and enjoying the sunshine. Supervised homework. Made dinner.
It’s such luxury not to have to try to fit all this stuff into the cracks left by a full-time job.
Day 87
Level 2 Chi Kung. Microcosmic orbit.
Nick was off on one of his long cycle trips, so I was on morning duty. One consequence of this is that I tend to have little visitors when I’m doing Chi Kung. Katie and Dash have long been fascinated due to the similarity to the actions in ‘Tree Fu Tom’ – a favourite cartoon. Katie even does the microcosmic orbit with me sometimes and it is hilarious watching her very seriously doing bellows breaths, stroking her tiny nipples etc. But today was the first time Jack has shown an interest. This is very exciting as I would love to get Jack to the point where he would do it with me. I’m sure it would be very good for him.
I forgot to mention yesterday that we saw a woodpecker in the back garden. We have heard them many times but normally they are completely hidden by foliage so this is the first time we have seen one.
Katie organised a party today just for the two of us, with a long list of activities for us to complete together, including gardening, dancing, cuddling Sherlock, her reading me The Gruffalo, drawing decorations and party food.
Although it’s years since I lived in the southern hemisphere, I still feel the urge to spring clean at this time of year, so today I bit the bullet and started going through the children’s drawers, sorting out what still fits them, what needs mending and what needs to go to the charity shop or in the recycling bin. Now that Katie is showing an interest in patchwork, I also have a fifth category: stuff that might be useful to cut up for future projects. I will be picking up conkers over the next few days to pack in with the clothes that will go to the attic. Conkers are a natural moth repellent and I really wish more people would cotton on to this as, at this time of year, public transport is made almost unbearable by the stench of mothballs as people get last year’s coats out of storage – very unpleasant!
I had a much more comfortable sleep last night with very little knee pain, which confirms my feeling that taking it quietly yesterday was a good idea. I worked out that I was walking around 3.5 to 4 miles each day getting Dash to and from school, and I think it was just a bit too much at this stage of recovery.
Day 86
Level 2 Chi Kung. Microcosmic orbit.
Was woken every couple of hours through the night with knee pain – whatever position I fall asleep in, I seem to end up in positions where there is torque on the kneecap, wake up in agony and have to wander around for a bit before I can get back to sleep – so decided to have a quiet day today: a bit of tidying, some laundry, and helped Katie get started on the patchwork cushion she has been dying to make. She had her heart set on making a duvet for her first project but, given that she is using pieces about 3cm square, I thought a cushion might be more achievable.
Day 85
Level 2 Chi Kung.
Last day of taking Dash to school – the people who run the transport service have confirmed that he definitely has a place on the bus on Monday – thank heavens!
Realised today that, with the kids only back at school a few days, the Christmas posting deadline for surface mail to NZ is looming, so I had better get organised and get to the post office. Really tired this week, so looking forward to a sleep in tomorrow (my turn!) and a last cruisy weekend before drama etc restart next week.
Day 84
Level 2 Chi Kung. Microcosmic orbit.
Another day, another borrowed baby… On the way to Dashi’s school, the bus driver was again turning away people with buggies. The two available buggy spaces had obviously been taken at the first stop (I get on at the second stop) which means people in the middle of the route have no chance. Considering that the number 75 only runs every 15 minutes and one could quite easily miss out on several buses in a row, it’s no wonder people get a bit desperate. This time the desperate mummy was from Eastern Europe, and, I guess because this time the baby’s colouring matched mine a bit more, I was soon graciously accepting compliments on the baby’s physical beauty and placid nature! I was wholeheartedly agreeing with the baby’s admirers (including a policewoman), when it occurred to me that I should really point out that the child didn’t belong to me!
Baby-cuddling opportunities aside, spending 4 hours a day on public transport gets old quite fast, so I was relieved to hear from the LEA that transport via the school bus is arranged from Monday.
90 harrowing minutes spent watching Helen McCrory butcher her children in Medea. I thought McCrory was wonderful but found Danny Sapani an unconvincing, and irritatingly sweaty, Jason. He had a silk hanky in his breast pocket and I was simply willing him to pull it out and give his face a wipe down.
A disappointing meal at the usually reliable Rivington Grill – lambs sweetbreads so devilled you couldn’t taste the sweetbreads, followed by lacklustre sausages and mash, finally redeemed by a wonderful plum pie for pud.
Day 83
Level 2 Chi Kung (tightness in left thigh now getting really annoying). Micocosmic orbit.
Beautiful warm sunny weather, which only made it more frustrating that almost four hours of it were taken up dropping Dash at school and picking him up. In spite of having asked for, and received, the necessary information on the 7th of July, the local education authority have still not managed to arrange Dashi’s transport to school. Yesterday, because Jack hadn’t started back to school and is uneasy on public transport, we had to take taxis and clocked up a bill of over £70 for the two trips – and came close to an even higher bill when Katie vomited in the taxi on the way home! Fortunately I managed to catch most of it in a carrier bag so the driver didn’t charge us the vomit clean up fee, which can be up to £100.
Today, with Jack at school, we were able to take the bus – a great deal cheaper, but also a great deal slower, hotter and less comfortable. The LEA promised yesterday that they would phone me at 11 am today to give me an update on progress but of course they didn’t call, nor did they answer any of my many phone calls to them, so it looks like we’ll be doing the whole thing over again tomorrow.
One plus note is that I did get an opportunity to do my absolute favourite kind of good deed – i.e. one that helps someone else and is also really fun for me! I was on the bus on the way to collect Dash this afternoon, when a young woman struggled onto the bus with a sleeping baby in one arm and a buggy in the other. The bus was crowded and there were already several buggies on board, so she was going to end up with the near-impossible task of trying to fold the damn buggy one-handed, as the bus lurched wildly along (in my experience, bus drivers are generally grumpy and unhelpful and particularly hostile to mums with buggies – I think the grumpiness is probably something to do with the fact that there are hardly any public toilets in London and bus drivers aren’t allowed to just nip into the nearest pub like the rest of us). As she went past, I asked if she wanted me to hold the baby while she got herself sorted out. She looked me over and I must have looked trustworthy because she gratefully handed over the child and went off to stow the buggy. Well, she took ages to come back, so I got a good long cuddle, as well as a few strange looks from people getting on at the next stop, possibly on account of the baby being as dark-skinned as I am pale.