Bus, coffee, book, repeat :)
Starting to like Deliberate Idleness on my Fridays; although I still tend to succumb to the paperwork eventually, at least it's all via laptop and only for an hour or so at a time. Usually accomplished somewhere nice and warm with coffee to hand. [1]
Explored Tuggeranong a bit - lovely big Vinnies; unpromising book selection atm, but I got a very nice Banjara batik caftan-y sort of thing which should be lovely for lazing about in. Am going to go back next week and buy lots of colourful spangly clothes for our preschool dress-ups. *My* but our boys love sequins. They're much more likely to bash each other up over a turn with the sparkly dresses than any of the toys.
Bought Lego for school (car and tractor sets to slow down the inevitable Wheels Wars) and for me. Since nobody's stocking the Technic bulldozer (chiz) I'll have to make do with the City version :) Quite amused to see the new "caravan" set - little Maui-type camper van with a teensy tiny bicycle wobbling about on top. Resisted it, today. Watch this space :)
Saw Disgrace; enjoyed it, for a given value of enjoy - it's good stuff; but I'm not going to comment on it in any detail until I've read the book to clarify the author's thinking around Lucy's pregnancy - not her choosing to continue it per se, but the implications of her justification line: "I'm a woman... "[therefore how can she possibly decide not to have a baby got by a little bitty rape, aw diddums] - is giving me great big skanky Issues for a number of reasons and I want to be a LOT clearer on authorial intent and Lucy-on-the-page and the overall original text/David's gaze etc and what's said about her beliefs prior to that and whether that particular line is an adaptation issue or what before I risk talking about it in public - tbh I really can't think past the red hot angry/feeling rotten dirty at even having to HEAR those words right now; no, not remotely rational I agree, so I'm just going to shut up until I can be sensible about it. ... Which should be fairly soon, I promise (it's in the pile somewhere, but I got Dobbs-ed unexpectedly :).
Managed to avoid all the Transformers first-night crowd, thankfully.
Good reading day :) finished I Am The Cheese; read Carry Me Down, started Whispers of Betrayal.
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[1] That said, I actually miss the end-of-day pasting-photos-writing-by-hand I was doing in the portfolios. Not the time it took, perhaps, but it was quite zen and relaxing on a physical level. Good emotional downtime, in a way - a chance to evaluate and inhabit the time one has spent with the kids in a way you just *can't* on the floor. That probably sounds stupid :) but - for example - it's a lot easier to think yourself into the kids' headspace at leisure, particularly in terms of tracking the creative/play "narrative", than it is on the floor, when eight hands/ears/eyes wouldn't be enough. JoJo wants a bandaid, Sally's hit Peter, Epi/Aut's trying to eat the library, the phone's ringing, RAH's disappeared, the smallest toddler's beating up the biggest preschooler, the decibels are astronomical, and you're trying to deal with all that, track Mr ADHD/ODD, *and* listen while the one chap you REALLY need obs on TODAY tells you how the Fart Robots in his painting got "spine flu"...
Rather pleased; managed to devise an observed social skill profile for And Then We Shooted Him, the angle having clicked into place when our Special Needs person had remarked upon his incapabilities. It's a switching problem. It's not like he doesn't know *what* to do/not, but the rules just aren't internalised. Once you prompt him to turn them on, he's okay (for that session or instance of play), but then the switch seems to be re-set and he's completely oblivious to the effect he's having on others. Iiiiiiiiinteresting.
Explored Tuggeranong a bit - lovely big Vinnies; unpromising book selection atm, but I got a very nice Banjara batik caftan-y sort of thing which should be lovely for lazing about in. Am going to go back next week and buy lots of colourful spangly clothes for our preschool dress-ups. *My* but our boys love sequins. They're much more likely to bash each other up over a turn with the sparkly dresses than any of the toys.
Bought Lego for school (car and tractor sets to slow down the inevitable Wheels Wars) and for me. Since nobody's stocking the Technic bulldozer (chiz) I'll have to make do with the City version :) Quite amused to see the new "caravan" set - little Maui-type camper van with a teensy tiny bicycle wobbling about on top. Resisted it, today. Watch this space :)
Saw Disgrace; enjoyed it, for a given value of enjoy - it's good stuff; but I'm not going to comment on it in any detail until I've read the book to clarify the author's thinking around Lucy's pregnancy - not her choosing to continue it per se, but the implications of her justification line: "I'm a woman... "[therefore how can she possibly decide not to have a baby got by a little bitty rape, aw diddums] - is giving me great big skanky Issues for a number of reasons and I want to be a LOT clearer on authorial intent and Lucy-on-the-page and the overall original text/David's gaze etc and what's said about her beliefs prior to that and whether that particular line is an adaptation issue or what before I risk talking about it in public - tbh I really can't think past the red hot angry/feeling rotten dirty at even having to HEAR those words right now; no, not remotely rational I agree, so I'm just going to shut up until I can be sensible about it. ... Which should be fairly soon, I promise (it's in the pile somewhere, but I got Dobbs-ed unexpectedly :).
Managed to avoid all the Transformers first-night crowd, thankfully.
Good reading day :) finished I Am The Cheese; read Carry Me Down, started Whispers of Betrayal.
===
[1] That said, I actually miss the end-of-day pasting-photos-writing-by-hand I was doing in the portfolios. Not the time it took, perhaps, but it was quite zen and relaxing on a physical level. Good emotional downtime, in a way - a chance to evaluate and inhabit the time one has spent with the kids in a way you just *can't* on the floor. That probably sounds stupid :) but - for example - it's a lot easier to think yourself into the kids' headspace at leisure, particularly in terms of tracking the creative/play "narrative", than it is on the floor, when eight hands/ears/eyes wouldn't be enough. JoJo wants a bandaid, Sally's hit Peter, Epi/Aut's trying to eat the library, the phone's ringing, RAH's disappeared, the smallest toddler's beating up the biggest preschooler, the decibels are astronomical, and you're trying to deal with all that, track Mr ADHD/ODD, *and* listen while the one chap you REALLY need obs on TODAY tells you how the Fart Robots in his painting got "spine flu"...
Rather pleased; managed to devise an observed social skill profile for And Then We Shooted Him, the angle having clicked into place when our Special Needs person had remarked upon his incapabilities. It's a switching problem. It's not like he doesn't know *what* to do/not, but the rules just aren't internalised. Once you prompt him to turn them on, he's okay (for that session or instance of play), but then the switch seems to be re-set and he's completely oblivious to the effect he's having on others. Iiiiiiiiinteresting.