We have had a full house this week. Half term started off with a beautiful weekend, where I climbed to Malverns with Donny and Pal. We managed it in T-shirts, only putting our jumpers on when we got over the ridge at the top, and the wind hit us. It was glorious.
Then the weather closed in and it's been damp pretty much all holiday. On Monday our first set of Couchsurfers arrived - a mother and son from Lyon, France. She's German, he's half Japanese. They are staying for a week. The son, Nao, is all of 9, half the size of a grasshopper, speaks four languages fluently and can give me a run for my money on scientific facts. Whew! I'll look forward to seeing his name on the Nobel Prize list or similar in the next 20 years or so.
The mother, Anne, is incredibly easy to get on with. She loves to sew, and has been scouring my house for things with holes in. She's even converted two rabbit skins I tanned and then forgot about, into a kind of cushion.
The second set of CSers arrived on Tuesday. Dominique and her two daughters come from Calais. They only stayed one night, but they managed to fit in, do the cooking and come swimming with us in that time. Maybe we will go and visit them in France sometime.
Meanwhile, I saw a job I wanted to apply for. It is the first scientific job I've seen, that I fancied doing, for about ten years. It is about modelling climate change and species population reactions to it, amongst other things. It is the sort of job I would have walked into, if I'd seen it straight after my PhD. Now, I can only keep my fingers crossed that I will get an interview.
The thing is, of course, I love doing the Bikeability stuff, but you just can't live on it. If there was a chance of being able to make ends meet and still do Bikeability, then I wouldn't have spent the whole of Saturday afternoon filling in an application form for the Science post. On the other hand, I haven't felt 'alive' since I left science, in terms of doing a job. Just imagining dealing with data and being allowed to be precise and meticulous again fills me with a thrill, when most people would shudder! Being stretched intellectually, instead of being pushed to the limit by stress, is such an exciting possibility, that I couldn't sleep on Thursday night. I ended up reading until 2.30am before I could calm myself enough to doze off.
On Friday we went to Queenswood. It is just gorgeous at this time of year - the colours of the leaves are like flames on the trees. We wondered up and down for an hour, while the kids tried to fill in a quiz on the shapes of leaves. After that, and lunch at a cafe, we went and put flowers on the family grave in Eardisland. My grandmother would have been 100 a few weeks ago. Anyway, Hallowe'en or Samhain is a good time to honour the ancestors, and it felt good to do that.
I turned up on Monday to cycle train a bunch of kids from Year 5 at a local school. I do love doing this job. It is spending time outdoors playing on bikes. You get the best out of the kids and they think they are just escaping from the classroom, when in fact, they are learning a skill that, who knows, may save their life.
So, I turn up, but my colleague - the other instructor - doesn't. This particular instructor (let's call him Mr Pro-4x) is a little difficult to pin down. He only likes to do jobs on his own terms, which doesn't really make it easy to synch with school timetables. He doesn't answer his e-mail much either, so you have to wait a long time for confirmation, about whether he can do a training session or not. All that being said, he had confirmed that he would be doing four days with me at this particular school this week.
But he wasn't there. I don't have a phone number for him.
I started the session on my own and hoped he was just a bit late. After half an hour, the class teacher came out and asked if she could phone someone for me. For the next hour, I tried to run a session alone, whilst fielding enquiries, phone calls and a stressed looking TA. To say we were made to look incompetent is an understatement. I was annoyed and embarrassed, not to mention run off my feet.
My break was spent trying to find another instructor that could come at short notice - I failed. Just before lunch, the co-ordinator from the council called, which meant I had to leave the entire group of kids, and their cycles, to finish up without me. It was a major snafu.
We had to cancel the second part of the course (which is on the road) and re-arrange it. That's 15 sets of parents that have paid for something, which is now post-poned for a month. 15 sets of inconvenienced parents, who have to transport their kids' bikes back and forth from school again.
I got home to a message from Mr Pro-4x, which was sent after I left in the morning. He said he couldn't access his e-mails, couldn't make the dates for training anymore and was sorry to have left it so late.
I checked his other accounts - it seems he could access Twitter and Facebook during the period his e-mails had been inaccessible. It also seems that while I was doing the job of two people and fending off an unhappy school, Mr Pro-4x was getting wet and muddy on a BMX track somewhere. Maybe I am just a cynic and there is a very good reason why getting muddy was important enough to let down so many people. Right now, I can't for the life of me think of it.
So I says to the doctor.. Look me shoulder is so much better... and he says... No thanks to us! I'm quitting the NHS!
It all started a year ago, when the chiropractor ripped the ligaments in my shoulder. I may have mentioned it before. Eventually, I got to see a specialist. I didn't know it at the time, but this 'shoulder specialist' was actually a locum on loan from the eye department.
She recommended physio, and I waited several months for the appointment to come through. When it finally did, it arrived while we were on holiday. It said: Please call within two weeks or we will assume you no longer need the service. By the time I got the letter, the two weeks were up.
So I went to the follow up appointment, which had been booked in March for September. It was supposed to be about how much the physio had improved my shoulder. Laughably, of course, I hadn't had any physio. But, by this time I had hip pain, so I thought I would ask about that, on the off chance that Mr Shoulder Consultant knew anything about hips.
It turns out he knew more about hips than the eye specialist knew about shoulders. I got an X-ray and a diagnosis. No treatment, though, but you can't have everything.
I knew the start of the term would be tough. The kids are having to get used to early mornings again. The big kids are overloaded with homework, piano, violin, climbing, sports club, science club, scouts and getting the bus and a thousand new things to get their heads around. They had a weekend away with the scouts doing a Cycle Camp too. They came back shattered and covered in mud. They had a great time! The little ones have swimming at school, piano, cello, sports club, choir... I bounce from one thing to another, hoping I haven't forgotten anything.
So, bearing that in mind, the three weekends in a row that I ended up being mostly absent, was not all that helpful. You already know about the Malvern and bowling trip. You know about the Snowdonia trip. This weekend it was the turn of the Mensa AGM in Coventry.
I had offered to help out and so I ended up on the reception desk most of the weekend. I do prefer to be part of the help committee, mostly because otherwise I'm a wallflower, who shies away into the corner and gets bored. Helping out gives me something to do while I'm getting to know people. As it happened, there were lots of people I knew, so it turned into quite a social time. I got to do a bit of networking too, which was great.
I went to a very interesting lecture on self-publishing, which is a route I may well go down, now I understand it. I went to a lecture on bees, which was nice. My dad used to keep bees, so it was all familiar stuff. I knew enough not to get lost in the technicalities. In the quiet moments, I went for a walk around Coventry and took a look at the cathedral, which got bombed to pieces during the WW2 blitz. The replacement is a bit of a 1950s monstrosity, but maybe it is indicative of the era's zeitgeist.
I ended up talking to a strange Mensan (let's face it, most of us are quite strange), who told me about his friend Eleanor. Eleanor is starting up a Pagan Radio - world wide internet broadcast. (Sorry folks, I really am coming out of the closet these days). Anyhow http://www.paganradio.co.uk/ is launching in February 2012 and I'm interested in getting involved, time permitting. We'll have to see, what with everything else. It sounds like a fun project if it gets off the ground.
Work wise, I have some bike stuff coming up, though not a lot. I have a few kids I'm tutoring, though again, not a lot. I have had to replace my printer, and my mouse because.. erm, they stopped working. The printer was under guarantee, so I just swapped it for a better one and paid the difference. I bet the mouse was too, though I didn't think about it when I bought a new one. It feels better to have all the techno stuff working properly.
Blah blah. Minutiae.
No, I haven't suddenly dug up my overgrown lawn and started growing vegetables. I wish I had time to tend a garden. Maybe I should be careful what I wish for. I have had a pair of Swedes camping in my garden. They arrived on Wednesday by bike and left again yesterday. They were really nice, easy-going people and we enjoyed having them to stay.
On Thursday I got all the kids out on their bikes, with the Swedes, and we cycled nine miles altogether. We visited Great Witley Church, with its restored painted ceiling and beautiful gold trim. We had ice-creams and a drink at the tea rooms. It was lovely.
Naturally, the kids started to flag on the way back, so Nick came and rescued them in the car. My bike got a flat tyre too, so rescue was just in time for me too.
Yesterday, I had the day to myself, more or less. Donny and Mel went off to their friend's house. They spent the day tickling for trout or something. Naturally, Mel came back soaked, having fallen in the River Teme.
Saskia and Eartha, on the other hand, went off with one of their friends to record a charity Christmas CD. Whilst Saskia has perfect pitch and is very musical, Eartha is the performer, so this was right up their street. They had a fabulous time and came home very tired.
Donny is troubled by warts. I had them too, when I was a child, and they are very common. They hang around for a while, then disappear as mysteriously as they came. The over-the-counter remedies won't work because the offending growths are too close together, so the doctor suggested gaffer tape. I know, don't ask. I think it is supposed to suffocate the damn things. Meanwhile, my poor daughter is wandering round with silver sticky-tape on her fingers, feeling a right nana.
My computer mouse is not working. The spring has gone so I can't click anything. I have had to requisition Mel's laptop. I shall have to get a new one. It really is a pain in the neck.
While my kids were out enjoying themselves with friends, I have been reading the Twilight series, by Stephanie Meyer. I know, you all probably read them years ago. I was certainly recommended them years ago, and somehow never got around to reading them. It is a hugely popular series, particularly in the teen-fiction section.
So, what do I think? Erm, they are quite addictive, lite reading. I want to read more and find out what happens to the characters. This is good. On the other hand, I don't get the attraction of the main character - Edward Cullen - you've probably heard of him. He is moody, icy cold and has an unyielding stony body. Sorry, ladies, this does nothing for me. I could go for the werewolf though... he's hot.
As far as the literary style goes - it is very simplistic stuff. The entire story appears to be told through the reactions in his liquid gold eyes and her fluttering heart. Not much else happens. The plot is made up of micro-plots based on emotion and tiny scenes. When I saw the film before reading the book, I thought the books were so popular because Edward was protective towards Bella (the heroine). And what woman doesn't want a man that protects her? This doesn't stand out in the books though. There's a lot of teenage angst going on.
I will read the rest of them, but I'm actually kind of disappointed. I keep comparing the plot to something like Steig Larsson's "Girl with a Dragon Tattoo" and it just doesn't hold a candle. Mind you, maybe a simplistic plot is enough for most teen minds. Teens live in such a sea of emotion. My 11 year olds have got to that overly touchy stage. We have conversations like:
"Have you seen my phone?" is answered at top volume with
"Stop picking on me! I haven't had it!"
or
"Can you put your shoes on?" is answered with
"I'm doing it already!" followed by slamming doors and stamping feet.
Sigh. Only another decade or so of yelling to go.
Then the weather closed in and it's been damp pretty much all holiday. On Monday our first set of Couchsurfers arrived - a mother and son from Lyon, France. She's German, he's half Japanese. They are staying for a week. The son, Nao, is all of 9, half the size of a grasshopper, speaks four languages fluently and can give me a run for my money on scientific facts. Whew! I'll look forward to seeing his name on the Nobel Prize list or similar in the next 20 years or so.
The mother, Anne, is incredibly easy to get on with. She loves to sew, and has been scouring my house for things with holes in. She's even converted two rabbit skins I tanned and then forgot about, into a kind of cushion.
The second set of CSers arrived on Tuesday. Dominique and her two daughters come from Calais. They only stayed one night, but they managed to fit in, do the cooking and come swimming with us in that time. Maybe we will go and visit them in France sometime.
Meanwhile, I saw a job I wanted to apply for. It is the first scientific job I've seen, that I fancied doing, for about ten years. It is about modelling climate change and species population reactions to it, amongst other things. It is the sort of job I would have walked into, if I'd seen it straight after my PhD. Now, I can only keep my fingers crossed that I will get an interview.
The thing is, of course, I love doing the Bikeability stuff, but you just can't live on it. If there was a chance of being able to make ends meet and still do Bikeability, then I wouldn't have spent the whole of Saturday afternoon filling in an application form for the Science post. On the other hand, I haven't felt 'alive' since I left science, in terms of doing a job. Just imagining dealing with data and being allowed to be precise and meticulous again fills me with a thrill, when most people would shudder! Being stretched intellectually, instead of being pushed to the limit by stress, is such an exciting possibility, that I couldn't sleep on Thursday night. I ended up reading until 2.30am before I could calm myself enough to doze off.
On Friday we went to Queenswood. It is just gorgeous at this time of year - the colours of the leaves are like flames on the trees. We wondered up and down for an hour, while the kids tried to fill in a quiz on the shapes of leaves. After that, and lunch at a cafe, we went and put flowers on the family grave in Eardisland. My grandmother would have been 100 a few weeks ago. Anyway, Hallowe'en or Samhain is a good time to honour the ancestors, and it felt good to do that.
