I refuse to eat meat!

Currently in the latter stages of an epic weekend involving Freya's school disco, several dinners out, a trip to the movies (grownups only - woo hoo!), several catching-ups and a halloween party.  Am completely wrecked.  Today we caught up with Kate, Chloe & Henry for lunch, and the girls had hot dogs for lunch.  As the eating progressed Kate suddenly realized that the plates had been swapped, and Freya was happily munching away on Chloe's non-vegetarian hot dog (insofar as any of them contain any actual meat, rather than meat related animal by-products).  Chloe didn't like her (vegetarian) one and Rebecca tactfully suggested that she swap it with Freya.  She didn't want to, and Freya announced "I refuse to eat meat!".

I think this is one of those occasions were a small omission of the truth is quite reasonable!

Is it wrong to hope one's child is ill on Monday so you can take the day off work?

Not sure on that one.  Ask me tomorrow?

On a more excellent note, was in the local bookshop and wondered when the next Iain M. Banks was likely to arrive.  I looked on the shelf and Lo!  There it was.  Purchased promptly, and will read it instead of doing important stuff like marking homework.

In other good news, Freya's ballet rehearsal was on Saturday and wasn't anywhere near as bad as I was expecting.

You appreciate t3h intarwebs more when you can't get them!

Stupid phone company appears to have unplugged our phone line from the exchange.  Happened a couple of days back while we were out at the Melbourne show.  Most inconvenient as it also kills the phone... grrrr.  Vaguely remember that this is what things were like in the early 1990s before the internet becamevery widespread.

Currently writing from the super-slow wireless hotspot at the nearest McDonalds to home... how sad.

Other than that the holidays are going OK... too short tho!

I am starting to think that there is too much junk in my shed...

However I could be wrong.

Made some good progress on the Goblin powered vehicles... perhaps because there were no Goblins involved.  Am having a few cunning plans about them too... with a few months left before the big event for this year I might even get some of them done.

Wobbly tooth!

Boog has a wobbly tooth!  How exciting.  Now if only she can get over the 39 degree temperature she's had all week...

Oh cr*p!

Fairly disappointing non-result in the election, although the Labour party should probably be thankful that they didn't get completely slaughtered.  Fingers Xed that things will improve over the next few days.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!

The sound I make when marking mid year exams.  See the following graph for further enlightenment:

Two tier education system.

While there is much ado in the media about various highly visible (and lucrative to some folks) projects such as this and this, I am feeling rather cynical (perhaps more than usual) and am inclined to suggest that it's another case of all the King's men trying to patch up old Humpty Dumpty at the bottom of the wall.  Trying to teach into the soul-sucking vacuum of disinterest and disengagement that is all too common at my place of employment, I can only conclude that the damage has been done a long time ago.  Reading a bit about some of the D's (ADHD, ODD etc) reinforces that view.  I think we already have a two tier system: parents who genuinely care about their childrens' education, and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT, and those who don't, or more rarely, can't.  Everything else is just polishing the brass on the Titanic, unless sufficient resources can be put in really early, before so many of these kids are messed up and put so far behind that their options are virtually eliminated before they even hit high school.  And I'm not blaming the primary schools here - it's the parents and families that it all begins from.

That's a bit of a rambling grumble about my current state of mind.  Need to sort it out in my noggin a bit better.

Looking forward to writing reports soon, after my kiddies all fail their exams.

Is that the time?

OMG, six whole months have passed since I last blogged!  How time flies.  There was some fun involved.