Nature notes
Yesterday I contrived to blink my way unto the great outdoors, complete with "He who still smiles inanely". Well, I say outdoors but after the brief shock of natural daylight the reality was a field trip to the hell that is the land of Blue and Yellow during the school hols. This was necessitated by the failure of a raid on the home cupboards to yield enough spare kit for the imminent departure to pastures new.
I was expecting the usual holiday crowds of mothers and smaller children. What we found was a high density population of older teenagers lurking with glazed expressions. Some were in severe danger of looking almost interested, despite the magnificent effort to remain loftily above it all. The ritual slightly dragging feet transitioned smoothly into the 'uber cool' step sequence each time they moved within a metre or two of another member of their tribe.
Seemingly I had the same idea as a large number of other mothers. All of us striking whilst the post results iron was hot, before full uber-coolness returned to the offspring. We were dragging them out to stock up on those thrilling basics of spare sheets and basic kitchen kit in the faint hope that the dears will actually cook and just occasionally, change the beds. As I moved around, I observed a surprisingly clear gender difference of the type I'd normally associate with younger age groups.
Male trolleys were slightly less full and blackish quilt covers, black or dark crockery, metallic implements and CD racks predominated. Behaviourly, an extremely interesting sequence of fidgety steps appeared as the end of the "Market Place" section was in sight. At this point mothers caused quite unnecessary delays by insisting on dropping in the odd exotic such as the 'washing up brush'. Occasionally the odd cry of "No I don't need bloody pot plants" would arise when a foolish parent attempted to sneak something in the trolley which resembled a 'girly home comfort'.
Female trolleys by contrast were notable for the inclusion of picture frames, candles, prettily patterned biscuit tins, roughly double the amount of actual 'stuff' but a similar lack of the exotic 'washing up brush'. At least one of the females felt she couldn't possibly go to college without two sizes of whisk. "What will you use them for?" asked her confused mother, struggling under the weight of two trolleys stacked with the core essentials (scented candles, chinese teapots, floral bedlinen, rugs and multi coloured biscuit tins but no washing up brush). "I might need to make Yorkshire puddings or Souffles" came Treasures's lofty response, complete with raised eyebrows as she shared the moment with other equally pained tribe members. Simultaneously several of the more elderly pairs of eyes met in a moment of mutual compassion. We admired the incredible restraint with which Treasure's mother, scanning the trolleys, held back "you would have to find the kitchen first!". She merely repeated the word "need?" with the faintest of question marks and a eyebrow movement to which Treasure could only aspire. The second whisk went back to the shelf.
I do like teenagers. I particularly like their touching faith in the ability of a small bedroom to take on Tardis capabilities and I like their touching faith in the likelihood of their cooking anything which requires more than one pan, a knife and a bag of pasta shapes.
On a similar theme, Netbooks - I've seen lots of recommendations for the Samsung (in particular for robustness, battery life etc) but not met one yet. I've also see very varied feedback on the EEEs in terms of reliability and cost of repairs when things go wrong. Opinions would be welcome - it doesn't need to be a wannabe laptop, just a basic, functional netbook is more than enough. (although I'm guessing ethernet ports are actually quite useful and most netbooks don't seem to have them)
I should post something on the state of the 'patia this year on 'why I have continued to not exist' but that is all quite tedious and must wait for another day. I didn't buy a season ticket in the end, just as well as I've not made it to a single concert this year. Must try harder.
I was expecting the usual holiday crowds of mothers and smaller children. What we found was a high density population of older teenagers lurking with glazed expressions. Some were in severe danger of looking almost interested, despite the magnificent effort to remain loftily above it all. The ritual slightly dragging feet transitioned smoothly into the 'uber cool' step sequence each time they moved within a metre or two of another member of their tribe.
Seemingly I had the same idea as a large number of other mothers. All of us striking whilst the post results iron was hot, before full uber-coolness returned to the offspring. We were dragging them out to stock up on those thrilling basics of spare sheets and basic kitchen kit in the faint hope that the dears will actually cook and just occasionally, change the beds. As I moved around, I observed a surprisingly clear gender difference of the type I'd normally associate with younger age groups.
Male trolleys were slightly less full and blackish quilt covers, black or dark crockery, metallic implements and CD racks predominated. Behaviourly, an extremely interesting sequence of fidgety steps appeared as the end of the "Market Place" section was in sight. At this point mothers caused quite unnecessary delays by insisting on dropping in the odd exotic such as the 'washing up brush'. Occasionally the odd cry of "No I don't need bloody pot plants" would arise when a foolish parent attempted to sneak something in the trolley which resembled a 'girly home comfort'.
Female trolleys by contrast were notable for the inclusion of picture frames, candles, prettily patterned biscuit tins, roughly double the amount of actual 'stuff' but a similar lack of the exotic 'washing up brush'. At least one of the females felt she couldn't possibly go to college without two sizes of whisk. "What will you use them for?" asked her confused mother, struggling under the weight of two trolleys stacked with the core essentials (scented candles, chinese teapots, floral bedlinen, rugs and multi coloured biscuit tins but no washing up brush). "I might need to make Yorkshire puddings or Souffles" came Treasures's lofty response, complete with raised eyebrows as she shared the moment with other equally pained tribe members. Simultaneously several of the more elderly pairs of eyes met in a moment of mutual compassion. We admired the incredible restraint with which Treasure's mother, scanning the trolleys, held back "you would have to find the kitchen first!". She merely repeated the word "need?" with the faintest of question marks and a eyebrow movement to which Treasure could only aspire. The second whisk went back to the shelf.
I do like teenagers. I particularly like their touching faith in the ability of a small bedroom to take on Tardis capabilities and I like their touching faith in the likelihood of their cooking anything which requires more than one pan, a knife and a bag of pasta shapes.
On a similar theme, Netbooks - I've seen lots of recommendations for the Samsung (in particular for robustness, battery life etc) but not met one yet. I've also see very varied feedback on the EEEs in terms of reliability and cost of repairs when things go wrong. Opinions would be welcome - it doesn't need to be a wannabe laptop, just a basic, functional netbook is more than enough. (although I'm guessing ethernet ports are actually quite useful and most netbooks don't seem to have them)
I should post something on the state of the 'patia this year on 'why I have continued to not exist' but that is all quite tedious and must wait for another day. I didn't buy a season ticket in the end, just as well as I've not made it to a single concert this year. Must try harder.