Well, here I am - comandeering the computer and loving just relaxing.  Have been up since so early that I was gutted, but it is all good when there is no rush to be anywhere or do anything.  E has read to my Mum and shown her all the writing she was doing in her self-made book before she came over here yesterday.  There is so much to catch up on since we have not seen Mum since the summer holidays, and even then it was a shortish visit.  This is the way life goes sometimes - I thank the Lord for email, instant messaging and telephones by which we can keep in constant contact in palce of being physically together more often - also works for those family members overseas of course which has been a great pleasure recently as my sil now has a computer at home and we can chat through the evenings. 

This afternoon it seems we may be heading off for a walk somewhere beautifully cold and colourful to collect some leaves of different shapes, sizes and autumnal colour so we can make a collage tomorrow when we are all together again. 

Best be getting on ... this keyboard feels very different to mine and clacks away!!  Have a great weekend everyone and keep your smiles on!

Peace
EF.x

Spoke to the top man on Wednesday afternoon, he said he knows nothing about this 'meeting' so he is going to go and find out and get back to me about it next week.  He appreciates my confusion and I am glad to have let it go finally, it is his issue/problem to deal with now, not mine.  Unless of course he comes back with something that I have done wrong - but then I am sure there would have been no confusion initially had there been an accusation of substance!

I am relieved andlooking forward to spending the weekend with my family now.  Hope everyone is as well as can be expected and that the weekend is a good one for you all

Peace
EF.x

Last week one of the mothers at shool asked me to tutor her son in reading.  I agreed thinking that I would manage this just fine.  Yesterday the family came to visit us in our home to discuss the when's and how's of this proposal. I am quite excited about this.

Background:  This boy has a good command of English though it is his second language which is why the parents have asked me to help.  The parents are SriLankan and while they both have good English they feel their son deserves more support out of school to help him excel in school. 

I understand and appreciate this, so have agreed to help.  It will be 2 hours after school three days a week.  as well as rading with him I will be feeding him his evening meal and playing games with him to help him develop his other skills such as math and science. 

Mainly I will be douing with him what I am doing with E already, but E and I manage around each other and if I am tired and have to sleep she amuses herself, writes books, draws pictures and reads etc.  I am already missing that luxury. 

I need help.  I have called the jobcentre as I have a lady there who as advised me in the past about jobs and so on, she is not there until Thursday this week.  This is fine, but I am starting with this boy today, so will have completed two sessions before she gets back to me.  It makes sense to charge his parents for this assistance, and they are willing to pay out.  But how much should I charge them?

I will be child minder (they are both working for the two hours he is with me)

I will be feeding him (could cost me a pretty penny)

I will be instructing him in reading, writing, math and other things that come up in the course of an afternoon.

I will be supporting him in his spoken english and encouraging him (note to self:  must stop using slang)

I will be providing time online to improve his IT skills.

I might even teach him music.

I am also losing out on time which has been devoted to E up to this time.  How will this impact on her? 

We have discussed this, and E is happy to have him over, though they do not play together at school and she is happy to share the time with him.  It is going to be a bit of a juggling act as they are both at different stages of the different subjects they do at school.

All of it I am happy and competent to do though I have no training or official qualification.  This is a private arrangement which is fine, but what should I charge?  If I were trained in any one of the above I would be able to charge up to £15 a half hour for some of the more skilled aspects like music and IT.  Child-minding is on average £4 an hour.  I will be doing this for 6 hours a week.

Currently my income is paid by the state as they messed up big time and I have been advised not to take a job unless I can get off the system completely, then they cannot mess me around again(I have massive debt incurred by them for 'clerical errors').  I cannot afford to earn too little as this will make it not worth earning anything at all.  But oh how I would love to be earning in my own right again knowing that I can afford this.  Maybe I should start a little after school service, though I guess I would have to have credentials to do that?? 

hmm

Well, any ideas will be gratefully considered.  I am waiting on my lady calling me back on Thursday.  In the meantime I am about to write menus and design activities so taht there is something fun to do each afternoon but that it is packed with leanring and they are getting their time/money worth.

Peace
EF.x

It seems we have managed to block one of our drains.  I was wondering if anyone here can offer me a non-chemical solution to this nuisance.  I shall take a proper look around the internet after school today, but I want to deal with it quite quickly so shall appreciate any ideas or tips.

I am not sure of the cause, but do have a couple of ideas regarding the amount of toilet paper and so on that has made its way down there while E plays in the bathroom with the water.  Having said that I may be way off base as to my knowledge she hasn't done that in a long long while (since I found out and explained to her that using newspaper is not preferable etc).

It is not smelly, just slow to drain, but I want to avoid smelly if that is what we have coming should we not address this now. 

Thankee
EF.x

What an amazing snippet of film-journalism I just saw.  It was on BBC4 at 9:55pm and was incredible.  Sadly it is not available online (I was going to provide the link).  But basically it was this:

"In 1953 the BBC made a point-of-view film from the London to Brighton train. In 1983 they did the same again. This is a film made of both runs at once with every bridge, siding, tunnel and station running side by side in unlikely synchronisation."

I found it fascinating seeing something like this unfold in front of me.  Just had to marvel

Peace
EF.x

 ... or should I say 'Rant of the day'?  I am not ranting much this week - must be too much magic left in my life from the ball last weekend...lol.  Good to know I am consistent.  This is only a short rant, but it is something that really gets under my skin

Cyclists on the pavement

ugh!  The footpath is there for people to walk opn, unless there is a cycle-path along the footpath they should keep their bikes off it!  I am truly annoyed at the number of people in my local area who think it is ok to cycle on the pavement.  Adults and teenagers.  I walk everywhere I go, and at all times of day, but I only encounter this problem during the school rush. 

What is with these people?  I mean, there are children walking along these paths at this time of day, some of them are little and only learning to walk!  The roads in our area are busy, but have adequate to the point of plentiful pedestrian crossings, so if these cyclists were concerned about using proper road etiquette and were too scared to cross using hand signals they could use these, but no.  They cycle on the pavement and then cut across in front of cars causing tyres to squeal against brakes as they cross the road. 

Surely if they can be that daft they can have the gumption to cycle on the road in the first place.  What really made me upset was a lady today who was cycling on the pavement slowly with her toddler in the attachment on the back.  Although I think she should also be on the road I felt she had more reason than anyone else to be on the pavement.  She was going way slower than us, and we were walking.  But some other man, on his bike was ducking and weaving and nearly collided with her.  He had absolutely no right nor reason to be off the road. 

I sure wish the police would enforce this particular law.  I am so cautious about taking E out on her bike these past 6-8 months because of this.  Avoiding people walking is enough for her to be getting on with and working out how to keep her feet going around, let alone the whole avoiding fast moving obstacles that shouldnt be there. 

Well, maybe that is not so short after all.  But this man who caused the danger this afternoon has no concern for others at all and he does this all the time to people walking alone, but this child today - my heart was in my mouth!  I was sure that regardless of how secure and safe those little things are that one can attach to the back of their bike for the children, I was still convinced that it would overturn, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.  I just clutched E like a fussy old mother hen in my panic so that she didnt get knocked over or hurt either. 

ugh!

So it is my bedtime now, at least I shall sleep well with this not preying on my mind any more

Peace
EF.x

As with all things in my life Saturday was drama from go to woe, some good, some bad, and some just to fill in the between spots. 

In the morning I set off to find myself someone to help with my make-up for the evening.  Not used to wearing anything more than lipstick once in a while (and even more occasionally eye-liner and mascara - which I have finally worked out how to do PTL)  anyhow, no-one was available at such short notice.  So E became my chief helper.  Knowing how tired I get I lay down and slept for an hour in the afternoon, then got up and tidied a bit around the house so my brother could find stuff. 

By 4pm I had not heard from him, so I called him, he is still at his place (on the other side of the country.  He will be at mine about 8:30pm.  huh?  NO GOOD BRUV!!!  I need to be gone by 6pm to meet the others at 6:30.  I do a frantic call around to see if I can find anyone to have E for me for 2 hours, not happening though, so I call brother again and berate him roundly before his phone loses reception.  Frustrated I call my father to get a quote for a taxi.  By the time I talk to Dad and brother again they have decided that he will ride on his new motorbike, in the rain and dark the 90 mins to my place. 

It is exactly 90 mins till i have to leave, so I know that he has to have a good journey, so I pray my socks off.  Meanwhlie I get the bath ready, hang up the washing, have my bath, get E into the bath where she plays while I make Chocolate Brownies for her to share whlie she watches movies with my brother before bedtime.  Then with E still in the bath and Brownies baking I go put on makeup - including foundation (it is years since I have worn foundation and I am impressed that it had not dried out, and that it is not going on orange!!). 

E takes a look at my face, admires the colour of my lipstick and says she cant see any other make up on me.  I am relieved as I prefer understated and kinda feel strange wearing any.  Timing was perfect as far as getting ready went, I got the Brownies out of the oven at 6:15, got dressed at 6:20 and then jewellery on in time for the car rolling up at 6:30.

Problem:  Brother still somewhere on the road between his place and mine.  We wait for half an hour - we are going to be late if we wait longer, E tells me that I look like Cinderella as I am considering just sending the others on and not going at all.  Instead I get E dressed over her PJ's, make sure her bed on the sofa is ready and take her to a friends place with my house keys to wait for my brother.  Noone is answering his phone, so logic dictates that he is still riding and not had an accident somewhere else paramedics would be answering for me...

He does get to collect E safely and they walk home (20 mins) to my place in the rain.  Go figure.  Meanwhlie I am blissfully aware that they are safe and well and that I am dressed up to the nines with my gorgeous friends.  It is a masked ball and the masks my friends have are incredible!  Food was excellent, drink was naturally flowing - more in some cases than others (I think somehow our whole table remained sober if not tee-total!), music was varied and band live! (YAY!)

The presentation of the charity was wonderful and the orphanage is nearly built.  The roof should be on and it should be habitable by Christmas which is very exciting news for 12 months work (the charity was only set up 1 year ago).   Dancing happened lots!!  hehe, and there were the photos which I am hoping to get copies of anytime this week.  We got home about 1am and E woke up and wanted to hear all about it so finally exhausted her by about 2am and then had to sleep well before church as I had to be there to sign people up for a conference at the end of the month. 

My brother came to church with us which was lovely as it meant we got time to chat and catch up a little - a rare privilege for us.  I practically slept the afternoon away before realising that I was meant to have been to visit a friend ... oops.  Now am trying hard to make things up to her.  Thankfully she mostly understands and is very kind.

Well, although there are many great memories and warm feeling about such a wonderful weekend there seesm little else to say.  My brother is amazing, and I am so pleased he came through for us.  It was great to see him, and I hope that there will be many more visits like this.  As for being Cinderella for a night - I hope I get to do that again - it is so much fun dressing up and being pretty for a while.

I must go off to rest now, else I wont be awake when I am collecting E after school

Peace
EF.x

OK.  So this evening a friend called and came over for dinner.  We caught up and it was fantastic, it had been simply ages!! 

Later I was talking to her on Facebook and she said she needed to call me. 

{Friend} "Hi ... I know this is short notice but do you want to come to a ball with me tomorrow night?"

{Me} "um ... huh?"

{Friend} "You there?"

{me} "Yea, um, you mean like ... a ball?  Like a Prom ... like a ... um"

{Friend} "Yes.  I know it is short notice.  You will need to find a baby sitter and something to wear.  Are you interested?"

{Me} "OK"

{Friend} "Would you like to scream now?"

lol .... ok, so the convo continued a bit on after that.  She ended up coming over to help me find something to wear (my graduation dress which I never actually wore) and I called my brother (on the other side of the country) to see if he would be able to babysit for me. 

Friend arrives.  She is serious.  Do I want to go to a Charity Ball with her?? 

Dress fits. Shoes are in good nick and perfect height.  Jewellery and make-up all are still where I left them all those years ago.  Friend and I sit down with bottle of wine and nail kit to beautify ourselves slightly.  Brother doesn't call back. 

Brother does call.  (finally) He can do it.  He will travel all the way here, just so I can go out to some Charity Ball Fundraiser.  He is even not going to a good firends birthday bash which is also tomorrow night.  What a total amazing brother I have!!! 

Whew!  I am exhausted now!!  Must get my beauty sleep - and clear my bed so I can actually sleep in it ... it is covered in the detritus of 'possibilities' to wear until I happened upon the long forgotten Ball Gown.  I shall endeavour to get a picture to post up and share

Peace
EF.x

Early this morning E woke me to inform me that there are 100 pennies in a Pound.  Like any dutiful loving mother I grunted something along the lines of "Well done, go back to sleep" (well I hope that is what she heard - it is what I meant to say!!) before rolling over and going back to sleep myself.

Just now she informed me the same again while showing me the Pound symbol on a piece of paper that she just drew for me with a '1' beside it.  Rashly I said I would give her a Pound coin next time I had one if she could identify it, and then my memory returned and I realised I had a pocket full of coins already!!!  lol.  So I laid them all out in my hand and asked her what they all were. 

First off she picked up the £1 coin.  Studied it, couldnt decide what it was so put it back and Oh!  The relief!  how beautiful it was, if not short lived.  She then quickly identified the 50p, 1p, 10p, 5p and 20p, picked up the Pound again and considered that it might be 100p alternatively called a quid  (English slang for 'Pound').  So I lose my £1 coin after all.  How cool is that - maybe she can do the shopping for me soon.  OK.  Dream on, but still;  I am impressed.

Peace
EF.x