gordon ramsey...

say what you like about him but he writes a clear recipe that comes out pretty good :) Except the quantities were a bit off, no way was there enough rice for the 6 of us, lol. Malaysian chicken curry was tonight's offering... dd1 said that she expected it to be quicker but uhm that means *hurrying* at certain points...

autonomous living and mornings!

We don't do mornings well here. We seem to have a strong 'evening' meme that leads to people staying up later and later and then obviously not getting up in the morning. So we've imposed (it's been in place a long time) a suppertime so that ostensibly dd3 goes to bed. Not v autonomous at all and I'm a bit uncomfy about it but without it...

Last night was a case in point, my mum came round to look after the kids while we went out, and even though I had a fixed bedtime of 9pm myself when I was little, for some reason Mum doesn't think it's a good thing to continue when she's here. So I rang at 11 to find myself talking to A, and then my mum, and then M who was just about to have supper.

This morning, I got M up at 8.30 to go to drama class and she said she was too tired, so I said she needed to sleep and to go back to bed. And she really was too tired, even though after a few minutes she got up again and we dashed through getting dressed and she went, she's been really whiny and hard work all day, because she's tired.

So what to do? Forget about doing stuff in the morning? Hope it will all balance out? Just not have my mum to babysit in future???

How do bedtimes work in autonomous houses? Does it make a difference if people are sharing rooms and does it make a difference how many adults there are in the house?

I'm Luna Lovegood!

You scored as Luna Lovegood. You're an extreme introvert and because of this, are also a deep thinker. You ponder things others would never dream of pondering and stand with your beliefs without backing down. You find it more valuable to daydream than to socialize, because there's so much more going on in your head than others'. Most people don't understand it, but you seem to prefer it that way. Luna Lovegood 69% Albus Dumbledore 63% Ron Weasley 59% Sirius Black 59% Harry Potter 59% Hermione Granger 53% Neville Longbottom 50% Bellatrix Lestrange 47% Percy Weasley 44% Oliver Wood 38% Severus Snape 38% Remus Lupin 38% Draco Malfoy 28% Lord Voldemort 25% Harry Potter Character Combatibility Test created with QuizFarm.com

Could have been worse I guess :-|

My ears are still ringing

went to a gig this afternoon to see a friend's band, they're called HD7 and they were playing at Marsden Band Club. They do 'classic rock,' the sets ranged from Pink Floyd through the Who to ACDC with a bit of Ocean Colour Scene and they're pretty good for hammer-chewers *grin* But I think I was sat a little too close as I can still hear whistling :S Dd1 enjoyed it but didn't recognise most of the music, I must dust off the albums and rescue the turntable from under the laundry...

snarky? moi?

You're Totally Sarcastic

You sarcastic? Never! You're as sweet as a baby bunny. Seriously, though, you have a sharp tongue - and you aren't afraid to use it. And if people are too wimpy to deal with your attitutde, then too bad. So sad.

How Sarcastic Are You?

Lucy the Multipla's Adventures

Lucy the Multipla has many adventures. It comes of being an MPV I suppose, she gets used for various purposes other than your usual taxi-ing and shopping. Today she's carried doors. Interior house doors. This was acheived by folding the back seats forward, the middle front seat forward and the passenger-side front seat back as far as it would go. The doors were put in through the boot, shoved under the boot cover flap thingy and wedged in place by the headrest on the front passenger-side seat. Dh drove from the door shop in town to Brighouse to a meeting and back home again, with his very sore rib* and then we rang for chinese takeaway from our lovely local where they write down the order in sinography and know us because we order meals with beansprouts in place of the onions. Really who likes that much onion?? So a phone-call, a 'discussion' with dd4, I forget what about, a trip to the co-op to use the cash machine and buy essential supplies (milk, beer, viennese whirls...) while swearing at the sloppy parking in one of the village car-parks here meaning that I had to walk another 40 feet, lol, and then up to the lovely takeaway. Another lovely thing they do is pack big-ish orders in boxes. V handy. Except when the only place you have to put said box is on a flat door. From the takeaway to home it's 3 or 4 lefts and 3 or 4 rights, great fun stopping the box from sliding into the boot, heh. And she's back to being the family bus now, with the seats back up and the doors inside ready for the joiner to call tomorrow.

*Dh in his infinite wisdom was sawing up some bits of MDF that have been in our house for 2 and a half years waiting to be used for skirting and doorframing. Don't get me started on offgassing, really. He did one piece, then turned and somehow fell on the pile and we think he cracked a rib, or at least badly bruised it. I do keep shoving him where the arnica and symphytum tablets live...

Happiest town in the North

Happiest town in the North

Not sure how long the link will stay active, they only used to stay for a day. BBC Dorset have their crow about Bournemouth.

Funny thing, happiness, and 6,000 people doesn't seem like there would be enough people in each town to make it representative. Still, I like it here :-)

Please sign this petition

Independent Midwives Petition

Edited to clean up ramblings... I was a bit ill and rambly when I wrote what was here before!

We have all this public/private partnership stuff going on. Now fair enough this is all so much pocket-lining for cronies, but I think it's less pocket-lining than the old system of the public sector deciding to build something and some big company building it... there's more opportunity for profit with PPP but the companies have to get more involved... but that's entirely by the by.

Really the issue is this: what does this govt have against choice? And in particular, it seems, choice for parents. Home-ed, indy schools, indy midwives, anything else? Oh yes, childminding regulations mean that I would have to register if I was to do a child-swap with a friend on a regular basis, which would mean a whole load of unnecesary-to-us safety provision, so it's a non-starter. The people at the top are parents themselves, don't they see it?

Must get that shrug smiley sorted...

rude? moi?

Apparently the following statement is rude:

"I personally believe school is, in itself, coercive and damaging and only of benefit to children who would be more damaged at home, of which there are thankfully very few."

What do you think? Does it say 'I think parents who send their children to school have problems at home' as I've been told today, at length? Or do you think that perhaps the assumption that that is what I meant also assumes that I'm a judgemental person?

IOW is it me or is it them??

rock on South Ashford Priest!

The guy has got the point exactly.

Interesting stuff about Canon Law supporting the parental authority.

interesting concept, the library...

while at the library, once we'd located dd1 (anyone who knows Huddersfield library will know it's a bit sprawly with lots of different bits to it so when she wasn't where we expected her to be the locating bit took some time... eventually found her tucked in a corner reading Jurassic Park...) we were looking at the sci-fi section and dd2 found a Doctor Who novel. Dd1 put it back saying 'ah I could just buy it from Waterstones' Now I understand the book collection thing but... well... I dunno. Just seems a bit of a waste to decide to buy it, or something, when it was right there to borrow. Maybe it's just from being skinter when I was growing up.

We did already have 7 books between us and only one ticket at the time though, lol. But not the book that I really wanted to borrow because they had nearly every other book in the series but not the one after the ones I read the other weekend when I was too ill to do anything else. Grr. I'll have to get the online thing sorted so I can find out where it is.

Stationery Box are closing down so we managed to spend £50. Funny how that happens... Legit business expenses too, mostly. But perhaps not the sweets.