Feral kids

To look at, there is something quite feral about our kids isn't there! With Phoebe its skin deep, Matilda on the other hand is the real thing. I imagine that if you found Tarzan, as a boy, and brought him back to civilisation, it would be like it is with Matilda. Imagine if he was a bright and inquisitive kid, fascinated by the new things around him, and soaking up the information that he came across like a sponge, that's how I find her. She's interested in everything, but only on her own terms. She sniffs things, pokes them, twiddles them, studies them, and then pounces like a dervish on the task of making something that has been seeded by the observation. She's computer savvy, reads as well as some adults I know, and has good fine motor skills, yet her coarse motor skills like dancing are, well...lacking finesse! One thing that I found out this weekend is that she can discern quite fine differences in pitch.

Last Monday, when I called to her to take her to school, she was, as usual, busy building something last minute. It was a Tupperware box with elastic bands across it.... and she had remembered that she needed something for 'show and tell'. When I asked her what it was, she gave me a 'what are you dumb?' kind of look and declared that it was 'a guitar of course!' I decided that this weekend I'd make one with her that had a fret-board and sound box. I envisaged a simple arrangement, with a square box, and simple neck. In the end, it was a bit more than that at the sound box end... but she helped me go and get the fishing lines, position the frets, sand the box, eye up the string anchors etc. We worked out where the frets should go by Matilda telling me if the note was sharp or flat...and she was pretty good.



Its not THAT clean a sound, but its fine for her. She's chuffed with it anyway. Phoebe has actually played with it more today though, and she loves to play anything....and sing. ALWAYS singing... much to Matilda's lament.

The boat that I put on here a couple of days ago didn't happen. The guy reneged on me when he'd said he'd be able to show me the boat this Saturday. He didn't answer his phone. So I went back on line, and found this one. This boat is 35 years old, but it has a 35hp Mercury motor, and steering via a wheel. Plenty of room for the various members of the family too.











Slight drawback is the price, which is more than I intended to spend at $2,800, but it says its negotiable. Lets see how this one goes.

Earlier today, Daile and I went down to the dump with a trailer load of junk and rubbish. You'll remember that you have to back up the trailer to the concrete wall and sling the stuff over....

Well we did that, and as I was standing in the trailer slinging out the old Dell monitor that I've just replaced, the lead got snagged on my arm. Trouble was that it did this as I was already committed to the throw, and it ripped off my watch. (This is the one that Daile bought me with here insurance money...that cost shed loads) But the thing was that I didn't realise it had happened. I noticed a sharp pain as something caught my finger a whack... but that was it. In fact it was only after Daile had driven the trailer away from the wall, and I bent down to scoop up the bits of crap that had fallen onto the floor, that I saw my watch, totally separated from the strap, on the floor under bits of old soggy cardboard and bits of old mank. How lucky was that?

We went back home via the shopping centre to get a new strap. They didn't have anything that really suited it. I'd like a really chunky leather one. All they have are poncy leather ones, and all the steel straps look too cheap for it...

So I bought a divers one for now...which should at least be almost impossible to get off my wrist as the strap is about a million feet long and wraps itself under and over and under again...



...I don't want THAT to happen again!

Aside from that, all's well down here at the bottom.