7/12/10

A return to the Day Book formula! Once I wrote a weekly diary but I found that a bit restricted. Since then I've been haphazzard, and that doesn't work either because it's all too easy to say 'I'll do it tomorrow'. I find writing poetry on http://rinklyrimes.blogspot.com/ more to my taste, but I enjoy other peoples' journals so I feel I must make the effort.

Outside my window... all is dark because this is mid-winter. Our 'dusk' time is almost non-existent though, compared with the UK. In both winter and summer the change from night to day is much more sudden. When we were over in the UK on holiday I really enjoyed the long, long evenings.

I am thinking......that I hope all goes well for our little Harry tomorrow. He has a slight turn in his eye and tomorrow he goes to have a muscle tightened. I'm not concerned about the operation as such, but I'm worried that he'll be frightened at being put to sleep and also concerned that he'll rub his eye once it's done. He hasn't got to stay in hospital, though, so it can't be considered too tricky.

This is a recent picture of Harry and his little brother Max, ready for soccer practice.

I am thankful for... all the good friends I have. Yesterday one of them had a 70th birthday party and about twenty of us got together to celebrate with her.  Her name is Betty Druzina and she's forever jetting off to far distant places with her boyfriend! It must be right what they say...... that 70 is the new 50!

Here Betty is about to cut the cake!

And here am I with the Guest of Honour.

From the kitchen..... I surprised everyone a the party by actually taking along something I'd made myself! I'm normally renowned for turning up with a packet of biscuits. I'd only made Rock Cakes, but they really were quite nice, and they were cut in half so everyone could have a taste. While I was in the kitchen making them I also put the slow cooker on again and made several meals for next week. I don't really mind cooking, but I'm not crash hot at it and I do get bored with the daily necessity to produce a meal! If I lived alone I'd buy one big cooked chicken a week and just gnaw on it till it was all gone, and then go out and buy a slap-up meal.

I am wearing...  A beige jacket with matching trousers, a purple jumper and cream necklace and earrings. We've just been out to my friend, Joy's for tea. Her daughter teaches Aboriginal children in a remote part of the state, but she was home for the holidays, and I wanted to share some thoughts with her about teaching reading. It turned out she'd already got my book on the subject though, and I don't think it will help her circumstances. I had ideas about how to involve a native language with English, but it turns out her pupils are some of the saddest among Aborignal  people. They have lost their own language and have just picked up the very worst of European 'culture'! In other words, swearing and walking out of the classroom are commonplace! She's passionate about teaching them, although she lives in relative isolation and her Mother worries about her.

I am creating... well, tidying-up three plays for a festival. It's called 'Short and Sweet' and no play must be longer than ten minutes! One of my plays is my old faithful 'Unhand Me' a ridiculous melodrama in verse, that I've shortened for the purpose. The other two are a monologue called 'Naked Ambition', and a thriller called 'The Old Block'. I don't suppose I stand much of a chance but I'm going to give it a try.

I am going... wherever my daughter, Rebecca, wants to go tomorrow. She's got a day off work because it's the school holidays and she's bringing Blake (11) over for the day. I suggested we could go shopping but she said Blake would hate that, so we'll see what transpires. We'll go out for lunch anyway. There's a new chef at The Leagues Club and we hear good reports of him. Blake will be easy to entertain as he's lost in some electronic gadget a lot of the time! I'm giving Rebecca a rug I no longer need as she has a cold floor in her office. She works for an Income Tax Assessment firm in the season and they've just moved premises.

I am reading... 'Year of Wonders', a novel built around the Plague Village of the 1600s. It's based on fact and very welll researched and I'm enjoying it very much. When I say 'enjoy' consider the fact that life was very harsh in those days. There are gruesome scenes of witches being drowned and people dying of the plague but the story is good and very well told.

I am hoping...my next Melodrama performance will go well. Most of the cast are off to the Blue Mountains for a Xmas in July excursion, so I've had to rustle up an alternative cast, some of them new to the game. Still, it doesn't really matter how we go. We had a great show last week at a VIEW club. We made an awful lot of mistakes but the ad libbing and asides made it funnier than ever and the audience was very receptive.

Here is Maisie (Me) being carted off to prison

I am hearing... a ringing in my ears! It sounds such like cicadas a long way away. The doctor says it probably means I'm going deaf! No sign of that yet, though, although both Malcolm and I put the sub-titles on for shows in which people 'mumble'!!!!!

Around the house.....we gave the two single beds to the Salvation Army and we now have a double bed in our spare bedroom. When I came home yesterday I found Malcolm had bought a bed-head for it. He was worried I might not like it but I think it's quite nice. I like anything wicker.

The new bedhead

One of my favorite things... is helping Harry with his school-work. I really do miss teaching even after twenty years of retirement. As soon as I start talking about it I get goose-bumps!

A few plans for the rest of the week:  A fairly quiet week this week. I should have Choir Practice tomorrow but I'm having a day with Becca instead. Then, on Wednesday it's the monthly Scrabble get-together but it's not at my house this time. Then the only other thing is the 'Tiddly Pom' rehearsal on Friday.

 Photograph and a Thought

A magnolia (?) tree in my daughter's garden this week! Mid-winter in Australia!

For some reason old comments have attached themselves to this new blog! And I don't know how to get rid of them!

7/1/10

A great day today! And all grandmothers will realise it needs few words to describe it! I spent time with all three of my grandsons!

I spent time at Harry's school, where I prepared the take-home readers and supervised some of the tables. I'd forgotten what an exhausting task it is, teaching five year-olds! Not for me, but for the teacher. She organised one table to chalk on old-fashioned blackboards only to discover some little darling had crayoned all over the boards so that they were unusable! Things like that! And the children are so ......lively! I posed Harry in front of the model Post Office van that's been made for a concert at the end of the week. I'd love to see the concert, but there are only two tickets per family so, of course, Greg and Michelle are going.

Then I went on to my daughter, Rebecca's. She was minding Greg's other son, Max, as she usually does on Thursdays. After lunch we drove to the Reserve and had a great time rambling in the woods. As you can see, Max looks very cheerful and healthy but there are a few worries about his health at the moment. He often gets very pale and listless, and his innards don't always work well so his parents are trying him on a gluten-free diet. It certainly seemed to work well today. If he really does have a problem with gluten he'll have it for life, but at least it can be managed easily. 

Finally, Rebecca's own son, eleven year-old Blake arrived home from school. He was clad in his pyjamas which seemed odd until I learned that pyjamas had been worn at school in aid of Stewart House! This is a holiday cottage for deprived children run by the Education Dept, and all the children in Blake's class had had to pay for the privilege of wearing night-attire. He then started riding his old trike, which had been unearthed for Max! The whole effect was rather circus-like! It was his own mother who said he looked like a clown! But a handsome one, you must admit!