I've been playing with the keyboard and am gradually discovering how to get it to do the things that I want it to do rather than the things that someone in Japan thought would be the best things for me to do. Everything is controllable, but sometimes the point is to work out how to actually get to the controlling menu... It has a really good set of guitars and organs, the piano is perfectly adequate, but the orchestral wind instruments suck a bit. And it is possible to sound really very cheesy with some of the accompaniments
Went out to a friends this morning which was nice. They have one of those table soccer games, and we had a lot of fun playing each other with that. They were definitely more aggressive than we were, so it was a good thing we split up the marriage partnerships, or R and I would have been totally wasted in about 20 seconds. They play a lot of sport and we do not - perhaps the competitiveness helps in sport? (sarcasm)
I've bought a lot of things off Trademe lately. I've bought a keyboard, and an amplifier and a music stand and a foot spa. And a DVD too. Actually. Ahem.
Anyway, I'm now in the habit of 'just looking' to see what is happening when I log on in the bits where I like to look. It's interesting. And also, Russ is thinking about selling stuff, so there are more excuses to keep in touch with Trademe.
As to Christmas - I played keyboards for the vigil Mass, which has about 400 people there, and that was kind of fun, but it made me realize I don't like playing on tinny crappy instruments. Which I was. But I did console myself with the fact that this was likely to be very temporary, and lo and behold by Boxing Day I owned a non-crappy keyboard.
Do you know, just owning an amplifier is making me feel like a cooler person? Even if I don't really know how to run the thing. It took a wee while to work out how to get noise out of it - much plugging in and unplugging, twiddling of knobs and plunking of keys. I have asked a couple of other people and they too felt cooler when they owned amps. So it must be in the circuitry.
Summer is going well even if the weather is nothing like summer. We are growing a new lawn out the back and the cool and the wet suits the baby grass plants. Christmas with the in-laws was fine, and considering this is their first Christmas since Nigel died, they were brilliant. Very brave. There was sufficient loot that the kids were excited but not so much that their mother was grumpy. Also there is a lot of spreading out of presents this year, which suits us all. More days of new toys for them...
Right, I'm still waking up early instead of sleeping in so am also getting to bed early so I don't get too tired. So I'm off, see you again soon
At church today we prayed for the people that work on the ambulances and fire trucks and also the police. I don't know if R was even listening at the time, but he was very keen to go out on the ambulance tonight.
Getting there is half the fun though. He starts his new job tomorrow, and will be driving over to Palmy to get there. So he needs to load up all his crap into the car and make lunches tonight to be ready for the big first drive, and he wants to go out on the ambulances. But does he just come to me like a grown up and say "Could you please make the lunches for me?". No, he sulks in the house, saying things like I would be going out if I didn't have all this work... I wish I didn't have to do the lunches... Did you forget I have a shift tonight?... So finally I said to him that I was sick of him not just asking for what he wants. That it would be quicker and easier if he said "Could you please help me out, and make the lunches?" and then I could say "Yes, no problem", or "Sorry but I have to ... tonight and I can't". The whole thing would be sorted out so quickly if he could say what he wanted, instead of hinting hinting HINTING until I just tell him to feck off.
I must have finally got through to him, because he asked (rhetorically) later, "Why do I make my life so difficult? Why don't I just ask for what I want?" Hopefully this is the start of a change in his behavior - and a change in our relationship. It would actually mean he was behaving like a grown up instead of my oldest child (at times). That would be quite cool, but then I would have to start liaising instead of just giving orders!
At church today we prayed for the people that work on the ambulances and fire trucks and also the police. I don't know if R was even listening at the time, but he was very keen to go out on the ambulance tonight.
Getting there is half the fun though. He starts his new job tomorrow, and will be driving over to Palmy to get there. So he needs to load up all his crap into the car and make lunches tonight to be ready for the big first drive, and he wants to go out on the ambulances. But does he just come to me like a grown up and say "Could you please make the lunches for me?". No, he sulks in the house, saying things like I would be going out if I didn't have all this work... I wish I didn't have to do the lunches... Did you forget I have a shift tonight?... So finally I said to him that I was sick of him not just asking for what he wants. That it would be quicker and easier if he said "Could you please help me out, and make the lunches?" and then I could say "Yes, no problem", or "Sorry but I have to ... tonight and I can't". The whole thing would be sorted out so quickly if he could say what he wanted, instead of hinting hinting HINTING until I just tell him to feck off.
I must have finally got through to him, because he asked (rhetorically) later, "Why do I make my life so difficult? Why don't I just ask for what I want?" Hopefully this is the start of a change in his behavior - and a change in our relationship. It would actually mean he was behaving like a grown up instead of my oldest child (at times). That would be quite cool, but then I would have to start liaising instead of just giving orders!
I not only the dean of year 10 (don't they always give the new people the BEST jobs) but also now an assistant HOD. They really didn't want me to apply for another job...
We are off on year 10 camp sort of starting tomorrow. We are all going as a family, which may or may not work out. But we are taking a car so if it doesn't work out we will have plan B. The kids and dad go home after the tramp (which I can't do because of a dicky ankle).
Strange ankle which allows me to run but not to pick things up from the floor.
Its the end of the year and the senior exams are over. They didn't have too many surprises in the exam which was good, and I haven't had any abusive phone calls, so looks like they didn't hate it too much. I don't think many of the year 13 kids even came to the exam, but that will not change their marks, so I am not feeling hurt by that...
I have finished some of my reports and am now starting on the next pile. And I nearly lost my one and only free period I have today.
I also have to come up with relief for all of next week because I am on camp. I'm not confident my work will ever be done, and that's before I even go home to get on the mother trip!
Had a fun period last playing a trick on a boy who loves to play tricks on all of the rest of us. We played pass his phone round the room. None of us had to lie about having the phone, he never did work out who had it at any time. Experiments are good for that because so many of the students are moving around during the lesson, it is easy to get a phone moving along!
Poor Ken, but he did get it back by the end of the lesson.