Author: edgeofchaos

Day 207

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Level 2 Chi Kung.

Back to school for Dash, so back to early starts in order to have him ready for the school bus by 0730. Meanwhile back at the ranch… a last day chilling with Katie before she goes back to school tomorrow. Feeling quietly satisfied with the results of all my work organising the children’s clothes – it is a pleasure to put the clean laundry away into such nicely organised drawers and cupboards and easy to choose clothes in the morning, knowing that everything that is still there fits and is not in need of mending.

A phone call from the Conservatoire, to apologetically inform me that Dash’s digital photography course has been cancelled, had the happy side-effect of reminding me that Katie’s Art-venture classes start today. Realising that this meant I would be away at crucial ‘getting-dinner-on-the-table’ time, I whipped up a big batch of pasta sauce so that Nick could just boil up some penne when he wanted to eat.

Delivering Katie to the Art-venture studio very slightly late (having had a two week break from having to do anything to a timetable, the children have slipped back into the mode of feeling that the whereabouts of their coats, scarves, gloves and shoes is a mystical and mysterious matter – and certainly not one for which any responsibility could possibly rest with them) we found the tutor with a bunch of 7 to 12 year olds clustered around a life-sized skeleton, discussing proportion. Collecting her at 6:15, parents were invited in to look at the children’s work. Katie pointed out a rough sketch she had done but my eyes immediately went to a drawing which I would, if given the chance, buy and hang on the wall. While dutifully admiring the sketch she had indicated, I was covertly looking at the pastel figure, thinking ‘Why couldn’t my child have done that one?’ (I hope I’m not the only parent who does this?), when Katie suddenly gestured casually to the object of my admiration and said ‘Oh, and I did that one too.’ The tutor then came over and picked up the pastel, pointing out in technical terms how nicely proportioned it was and what a lovely sense of movement. [SFX Beams]. We couldn’t bring it home as, being pastel, it apparently needs some fixative process. I will look forward to getting it safely home and on the wall.

Day 206

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Level 2 Chi Kung.

Made the children pancakes and maple syrup for breakfast, in honour of the last day of the holiday. Jack and Katie have one more day off but Dash goes back tomorrow. Began climbing the laundry mountain…

Over the last few days I have become mildly addicted to a very cool little language-learning app called Duolingo. My aim is to learn enough Italian to converse a bit with our Italian nanny when she arrives back from Thailand at the end of January.

Day 205

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Level 2 Chi Kung.

Freezing cold, so a good day for a baking marathon: a double-mixture of shortbread, half flavoured with cardamom and half with caraway seeds, all heart-shaped; a batch of Nigella’s chocolate cookies (yummy – though I left off the sprinkles as no one in my house likes them); a tray of Bette’s chocolate coconut slice (iced with melted chocolate instead of chocolate icing – very good indeed).

Nice three way Skype with Sarah Alderson , so that Sarah could watch the children opening the Christmas parcel she sent (we tend to drag present-opening out over the 12 days of Christmas – it extends the excitement and the children enjoy and appreciate the individual gifts much more than if they open them all in a ten minute frenzy on Christmas morning). The parcel contained a lovely surprise for me, in the form of a late birthday present: a photocopy of Mum’s hand-written book of recipes, so lots of things I want to make asap! Joined by our brother Graeme halfway through the call – lovely to talk to him and see him looking well.

Day 204

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Level 2 Chi Kung.

A couple of days ago, after the booked cleaner failed to show up or respond to text messages, I decided to try contacting the next person down on the short-list. She came today and was a revelation after glacier-girl. She is a smoker and has to nip out to her car for desperate fag breaks but is like a nicotine-fuelled whirlwind. It is unfortunate that she is a smoker as, in my experience, while she will no doubt smoke only outdoors or in her car when I am home, it is likely to be a different story when I’m not there. Nevertheless, I think I will give her a chance. With the help of the cleaner and a few hours of organising on my part, the children’s bedrooms are looking much more civilised.

Lovely Skype with Ann Eade in the evening.

Day 203

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Level 2 Chi Kung.

A quiet start to the new year, cosied up at home, doing not much of anything, other than making truffles and listening to radio 4’s superb 10 hour production of War and Peace.

Almost all the remaining Christmas cake now reborn as 5 (5!) batches of Christmas pudding truffles, some flavoured with cointreau, the rest with brandy. I have tucked half of them away in the freezer, as otherwise my true love is inclined to hoover them up at an alarming rate.

Day 202

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Level 2 Chi Kung.

Katie was determined, in spite of the freezing weather, to have a picnic on the heath. We all walked up towards Greenwich Park with Sherlock, then I took Sherlock home while Nick carried on with the children to picnic and then visit the observatory.

Nick moved the chest of drawers and I took the opportunity to tidy and re-organise Katie and Jack’s drawers and wardrobes, sorting out all the clothes that no longer fit anyone. Unfortunately, on the last day of the year, we are still very much in the ‘darkness before the dawn’ phase. That, together with the cleaner not showing up, means that we are approaching the New Year with a rather messy house.

In the evening we all watched the DVD of Prince Caspian (one of Katie’s Christmas presents), then walked to a vantage point of the heath to watch the fireworks.

Day 201

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Level 2 Chi Kung.

Some more progress on the great room reorganisation. The next hurdle was to move Katie’s wardrobe to her new room. We decided that, although it would be a close run thing, we should be able to move it from one room to another without dismantling it. Many hours later, after manoeuvring the heavy wardrobe into the hall and discovering that we were 5 mm short of space to get it past the radiator, and lifting the bloody thing onto the arms of a wheeled office chair, and easing it past the radiator… only to find that, try as we might, we didn’t have quite enough space to get it through the door of Katie’s new room… we finally gave up and took the damn thing apart.

Day 200

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Level 2 Chi Kung.

Waiting around for an hour this morning but the cleaner didn’t show up and, when I tracked down her mobile number, didn’t respond to texts. Hey ho.

For some time we have been thinking about moving Katie into her own room and having Jack and Dash share, not to separate the genders particularly, but because Kate is such a night owl, she keeps poor Dash awake long after they are put to bed. We began the process today.

In the evening, I had a ticket to an ‘opera gala’ at the Barbican. Not my usual thing – a performance of the well-known bits from a bunch of different operas – and, when it was so damn cold, I was heartily regretting buying the ticket. In the end it was ok – a bit like eating trifle for breakfast – which I also did today!

Day 199

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Level 2 Chi Kung.

The first app Dash installed on his new phone is one which allows you to film your family and then use special effects to give them superpowers. He appeared at my bedroom door this morning wanting to film me teleporting or shooting laser beams out of my eyes. I told him I didn’t want to be filmed while I was still in my robe (you never know what might find it’s way onto YouTube). He appeared again just as I was getting out of the shower and tried again. I guess technically I wasn’t in my robe any more…

The Christmas cake I have been diligently feeding with brandy since stir-up Sunday was nevertheless disappointingly dry. Not to worry though, as it can be reborn into a more delicious existence as several batches of Nigella’s Christmas pudding truffles. Yum.

As well as being press-ganged into starring in multiple superhero films, my other must-do today was to get stir-crazy Sherlock out for a walk. Not as much fun since he broke his lead when we were out walking on Christmas morning. We haven’t been able to fix it and the spare lead (short and not extendable) is a very poor substitute. We managed a walk to the dog park in Manor House Gardens, where I was very relieved to let the maniac off the lead to run with a couple of other dogs for half an hour. He is much calmer this evening, though still up to his sock-stealing mischief.

It’s not even 10:30 pm yet but I might have to hit the hay. I was making another trifle this evening (Nick suggested that, since the trifle I made for Christmas day was close to perfect, needing only a slightly heavier hand with the alcohol, I might as well make another and see if I could get it even better!) when I noticed a recipe on the bottle of lychee liqueur for a lychee champagne cocktail. I only had one, honest, but I feel half lit.

Day 198

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Level 2 Chi Kung – back on track 🙂

One of my Christmas presents this year was a new iPhone. Nick has been suggesting for several years now that I upgrade from my now ancient (in mobile phone terms) iPhone 3GS but I a) don’t believe in getting rid of anything that still does the job and b) didn’t like the look of the iPhone 4 or 5. The iPhone 6 however, was a horse of a different colour – not only was it beauteous to behold but it’s arrival coincided with my faithful 3GS refusing to take photos on the grounds that it was groaning under the weight of a full load of books, audiobooks and (mostly) music. And at the same time, my lovely Dashi was desperate for the family trickle-down economics to trickle in his direction so that he could have my old phone…

When we passed Nick’s old 3GS on to Katie, it had been sitting around unused for months and we had plenty of time to tidy it up (and put it in a pink case studded with sequins!) before handing it over on her birthday. This time we were attempting to do the transfer much more quickly as both phones were Christmas presents. As a result, much time has been spent over the last few days trying to get the new phone set up and the old phone ready for Dashi. All of which was complicated by the fact that I had never quite got around to getting my old phone to sync with the new iMac I got back in March, because every time I tried to connect the phone to the computer I got a message asking if I was sure I wanted to completely wipe Jessamine’s iPhone. I finally worked out how to authorise the new computer and then went through the tedious process of setting up the old computer, doing a sync and back up (just in case) and then authorising and syncing the old phone with the new computer. At which point I discovered that it had somehow lost over 700 tracks! After hours of pfaffing around, we got it to the point where only 42 tracks were missing, at which point we decided near enough was good enough, and I was able to put the old phone in it’s new (lion-patterned!) case, and hand it over to a grateful Dashi.