Tonight we went to the parent teacher(s) thingies at the school. They both have 3 teacher classes...one permanent and two part time.
First we went to Matilda's class. I asked 'OK what's she doing wrong?' They grinned, hesitating, and looking a little uneasy. Then they pulled out a test she did this week that shows she has a reading age of 14! I asked if there's anything she's weak on and they said she talks too fast when public speaking, and her desk is a tip! That's it! I looked over at her desk and sure enough, it was crammed with so much stuff it barely shut. There was a pair of shorts hanging out of it, and stuff bundled onto the chair, hidden under the desk. She's got several books on the go, and Mr Manning mentioned that she borrowed 'Danny the Champion of the World' last Thursday, and brought it back to him on Friday, read!
Then they didn't really have much more to say - just grinned!
So we went to Phoebe's class to wait for our appointment. We were invited in to wait, and read some of her cute stuff whilst we were waiting. When we came to our turn, we were the last, they all gathered round and we ended up having a bit of good laugh and a chat. We knew Phoebe was doing OK, but I at least wasn't expecting her to be doing much more than keeping up. Remember that last year she started off in prep, was moved up to year 1 and this year she's in a year 2 stroke 3 class. They've got her in the year 3 end and they said she didn't even struggle with reading stuff that would be typically given to 8 and 9 year olds! Mrs George reckoned that she could have given her the next test up (I guess 9 to 10 year olds?) and she'd have been able to hold her own. This was a bit of surprise to be honest... her reading style can be a bit wooden. They said that, understandably, because she's two years younger than the kids she's learning with, she's not as 'organised' as they are, (are we seeing a family trait here?) but academically is well capable and reckon that next year, once she's learnt the ropes about organising herself, are wondering what she could pull out of the hat!
Mrs Bird (a lovely, motherly lady) recounted an occurrence recently where they were talking to the kids about wishes. They said to write down what they would wish for if they could wish for anything. Lots of kids wrote stuff like 'Wish I had a Nintendo DS' or other kid type things like that. Phoebe wrote 'I wish I could feel the cool chill of the breeze on my face at the stepping stones'. (This was one of her favourite places in the UK, a little spot where there were stepping stones across the river Brue in Bruton in Somerset, where Molly and Josh used to live). Daile and I had to blink back a tear. I looked at Mrs Bird and she was doing the same! Talk about empathy!
Great to have such nice teachers, and they've both got the same classes next year so we're set for a while.
Wednesday, 28 July 2010
Tuesday, 20 July 2010
Here I am!
Lots has happened since my last entry, and I'll do my best to get the best bits. I've been pretty much interested elsewhere, and because my Mum and Dad have been off line, (my primary audience) I've been less diligent in this process of systematically boring them with my pointless ramblings. Now they're back on again, I feel the need once again to write a bit. Making the effort to visit a blog only to find that it's not changed since the last time you looked is pretty frustrating.
The week after the last but one entry about the art gallery, we went into town again to meet up with Matilda's pen friend from Pennsylvania, Mary Kate (or MK as she's known) at the museum. This was a first meeting, and MK's mum and teacher had come over with her for a visit to the school. Matilda's teacher has set up a fairly full on relationship with MK's class, and their teacher Ms Fonte (fontay), and all the kids have been paired off with a contemporary in the States. Mr Manning (Tild's teach) has even taught the American class on a Skype link up on a couple of occasions.
As it turns out, the two girls got on like a house on fire. They're both pretty significant contributors to their respective classes, being enthusiastic learners and mentors to other kids their ages. The assembled adults (Mr Manning, Anne Marie (the mum) Ms Fonte, Daile and I) just sort of milled about, watching what they were up to, and playing with the Feeb. I felt a bit weird about this after a while, and wanted to go and have a cup of tea somewhere, but despite several pointed suggestions to do same, we all just hung around. Mr Manning and Ms Fonte in particular seemed really caught up in the interaction between their favoured pupils and so we had to forgo the tea. I'm afraid my tolerance for public spaces is not massively high. Nevertheless, it was very enjoyable, and we did eventually go to the library cafe, one of our favourite haunts as a family, and all 3 of the girls went to hang out in the very good bookshop that is adjacent to it.
In one of my earlier conversations with MK's mum, I ventured to ask her what she did for a job. I did actually consider asking her what her husband did for a job before I'd asked her what she did for a job, but something about her made me avoid that particular faux pas and I'm glad it did. She's the financial controller for Pfizer the drug company - responsible for Europe, A&NZ and Africa. She goes out more times than the gas... according to her daughter. Her husband is the primary carer, and he was at home with their other 3 kids. Sounds like a good set up. I told Daile that was what we should be doing! She gave me one of those grins that's not a grin... a kind of dream on kind of grin. That said, she IS planning on letting me retire at some point. She does come from a family that live to be a million years old, and she IS a full 7 years younger than I am, so she needs to get a decent job at some point before I'm too old to enjoy the fruits of her considerable intelligence. The wonderful thing about being a stay at home Dad when I finally get to be one, will be that there wont be any kids here! Ha ha. (Unless you count me that is!)
What else? Oh yeah... the day after the MK meet up, we went up to see a house that our builder is building up in a place called Pullenvale. This is an area in the North West of Brisbane that is about half an hour out of the centre (The CBD (Central Business District) as they call it here). The house the couple (Bart and Caroline) there are having him build is very similar to the one that he lives in called a 'Ballinger'. I'd actually been up to see the house on the previous Wednesday because I'd been practicing being a stay at home dad whilst Daile had to go to work. It's a fantastic looking house and the location is awesome. This couple bought the land when they had no kids 7 years ago. It's a 20 acre hillside forest plot, so they are totally surrounded by mature trees, and they paid the princely sum of 150 thousand dollars!!!! Aaaaargh! It's bloody beautiful and they paid the cost of fast car for it! Nowadays, the land is almost certainly worth something like 6 or 7 hundred thousand, so not a bad gain. Not that they're thinking of selling it... they now have 3 lovely children and a fantastic wooden house.
They're considering selling us their shed... which kinda spoils the look they reckon.
If you're interested, this is a link to one of their time lapse construction movies that they've posted on the web. (I was going to do this when we build too). Dad, this one has no sound, but you may want to turn the volume down a bit if you check out any of the other 'the haven' vids ... they seem to like techno-techno-technotronic. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm22AqoMjik&feature=related
We've reconceive the roof line of our house and we're waiting for a re-price. Alan, the builder, is the one with the red blue and black shirt you can see about 51 seconds into the timelapse on the link.
On the following Monday, we had visitors from NZ. Adele, Bernie and Gina Lee from Christchurch (Sarf island), who are related to us in some way that non of us could figure out. Adele is Rene's daughter, and Rene is the daughter of someone that was my Nana's cousin... I think. Anyway, they like red wine, I like red wine, so no worries! They were actually really nice people and we got on very well. Adele is a tailor, so we had that interest in common, and Bernie is a mechanic, so we had that to avoid discussing...Ha ha. Bernie has been a mechanic for the same company for 40 years! I felt it was imperative NOT to discuss cars with him. We talked about everything but that... pretty much! They stayed Monday and Tuesday night, then went to stay in a tower on the Gold Coast while they submitted themselves to the purgatory of Sea World and the other 'World' that isn't 'Movie World' or 'Wet and Wild World' or something. They're all a pain in the nads if you ask me. They came back briefly on Saturday arvo on the way back to the airport. We took them for a walk, as if they weren't sick of that already, and Bernie and I stole the kids bikes and chased each other down the steepest part of the track... about 1 in 5.. with bumps! (Whilst we're on the subject of Nads!) The kids (except Matilda) were too chicken to go down it!
On Sunday, I was going to grease up my car, which has nipples at all the UJ's. There are four on the two part prop shaft, and two for each of the four drive shafts as well as an extra lot on the four wheel drive gear box. I've been putting this job off for nearly 2 months, and they're getting quite noisy. (I didn't clean off the truck after the girls and I went to Straddie last time and drove through the surf....my pressure washer hose had sprung a leak). The other thing I was going to do was tidy my workshop and do some more on the painting I'm doing of Matilda. I didn't do any of those things in the end, because I figured out how to make a cnc panel saw out of my router table, so I did that instead! Now I have a computer controlled rip saw! Taddar!
Lastly, I must tell you about the rather stirling effort that Matilda and Phoebe and Tara and Carly from down the road are making to thwart the development of a piece of land not far from where we live. They've made a petition up and the four of them have collected over a hundred signatures by going door to door locally to protest at the loss of habitat for the wildlife. Totally off their own bats. Power to the lasses... ! The school have been targeted too, and Matilda's teach is right behind her!
The week after the last but one entry about the art gallery, we went into town again to meet up with Matilda's pen friend from Pennsylvania, Mary Kate (or MK as she's known) at the museum. This was a first meeting, and MK's mum and teacher had come over with her for a visit to the school. Matilda's teacher has set up a fairly full on relationship with MK's class, and their teacher Ms Fonte (fontay), and all the kids have been paired off with a contemporary in the States. Mr Manning (Tild's teach) has even taught the American class on a Skype link up on a couple of occasions.
As it turns out, the two girls got on like a house on fire. They're both pretty significant contributors to their respective classes, being enthusiastic learners and mentors to other kids their ages. The assembled adults (Mr Manning, Anne Marie (the mum) Ms Fonte, Daile and I) just sort of milled about, watching what they were up to, and playing with the Feeb. I felt a bit weird about this after a while, and wanted to go and have a cup of tea somewhere, but despite several pointed suggestions to do same, we all just hung around. Mr Manning and Ms Fonte in particular seemed really caught up in the interaction between their favoured pupils and so we had to forgo the tea. I'm afraid my tolerance for public spaces is not massively high. Nevertheless, it was very enjoyable, and we did eventually go to the library cafe, one of our favourite haunts as a family, and all 3 of the girls went to hang out in the very good bookshop that is adjacent to it.
In one of my earlier conversations with MK's mum, I ventured to ask her what she did for a job. I did actually consider asking her what her husband did for a job before I'd asked her what she did for a job, but something about her made me avoid that particular faux pas and I'm glad it did. She's the financial controller for Pfizer the drug company - responsible for Europe, A&NZ and Africa. She goes out more times than the gas... according to her daughter. Her husband is the primary carer, and he was at home with their other 3 kids. Sounds like a good set up. I told Daile that was what we should be doing! She gave me one of those grins that's not a grin... a kind of dream on kind of grin. That said, she IS planning on letting me retire at some point. She does come from a family that live to be a million years old, and she IS a full 7 years younger than I am, so she needs to get a decent job at some point before I'm too old to enjoy the fruits of her considerable intelligence. The wonderful thing about being a stay at home Dad when I finally get to be one, will be that there wont be any kids here! Ha ha. (Unless you count me that is!)
What else? Oh yeah... the day after the MK meet up, we went up to see a house that our builder is building up in a place called Pullenvale. This is an area in the North West of Brisbane that is about half an hour out of the centre (The CBD (Central Business District) as they call it here). The house the couple (Bart and Caroline) there are having him build is very similar to the one that he lives in called a 'Ballinger'. I'd actually been up to see the house on the previous Wednesday because I'd been practicing being a stay at home dad whilst Daile had to go to work. It's a fantastic looking house and the location is awesome. This couple bought the land when they had no kids 7 years ago. It's a 20 acre hillside forest plot, so they are totally surrounded by mature trees, and they paid the princely sum of 150 thousand dollars!!!! Aaaaargh! It's bloody beautiful and they paid the cost of fast car for it! Nowadays, the land is almost certainly worth something like 6 or 7 hundred thousand, so not a bad gain. Not that they're thinking of selling it... they now have 3 lovely children and a fantastic wooden house.
They're considering selling us their shed... which kinda spoils the look they reckon.
If you're interested, this is a link to one of their time lapse construction movies that they've posted on the web. (I was going to do this when we build too). Dad, this one has no sound, but you may want to turn the volume down a bit if you check out any of the other 'the haven' vids ... they seem to like techno-techno-technotronic. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm22AqoMjik&feature=related
We've reconceive the roof line of our house and we're waiting for a re-price. Alan, the builder, is the one with the red blue and black shirt you can see about 51 seconds into the timelapse on the link.
On the following Monday, we had visitors from NZ. Adele, Bernie and Gina Lee from Christchurch (Sarf island), who are related to us in some way that non of us could figure out. Adele is Rene's daughter, and Rene is the daughter of someone that was my Nana's cousin... I think. Anyway, they like red wine, I like red wine, so no worries! They were actually really nice people and we got on very well. Adele is a tailor, so we had that interest in common, and Bernie is a mechanic, so we had that to avoid discussing...Ha ha. Bernie has been a mechanic for the same company for 40 years! I felt it was imperative NOT to discuss cars with him. We talked about everything but that... pretty much! They stayed Monday and Tuesday night, then went to stay in a tower on the Gold Coast while they submitted themselves to the purgatory of Sea World and the other 'World' that isn't 'Movie World' or 'Wet and Wild World' or something. They're all a pain in the nads if you ask me. They came back briefly on Saturday arvo on the way back to the airport. We took them for a walk, as if they weren't sick of that already, and Bernie and I stole the kids bikes and chased each other down the steepest part of the track... about 1 in 5.. with bumps! (Whilst we're on the subject of Nads!) The kids (except Matilda) were too chicken to go down it!
On Sunday, I was going to grease up my car, which has nipples at all the UJ's. There are four on the two part prop shaft, and two for each of the four drive shafts as well as an extra lot on the four wheel drive gear box. I've been putting this job off for nearly 2 months, and they're getting quite noisy. (I didn't clean off the truck after the girls and I went to Straddie last time and drove through the surf....my pressure washer hose had sprung a leak). The other thing I was going to do was tidy my workshop and do some more on the painting I'm doing of Matilda. I didn't do any of those things in the end, because I figured out how to make a cnc panel saw out of my router table, so I did that instead! Now I have a computer controlled rip saw! Taddar!
Lastly, I must tell you about the rather stirling effort that Matilda and Phoebe and Tara and Carly from down the road are making to thwart the development of a piece of land not far from where we live. They've made a petition up and the four of them have collected over a hundred signatures by going door to door locally to protest at the loss of habitat for the wildlife. Totally off their own bats. Power to the lasses... ! The school have been targeted too, and Matilda's teach is right behind her!
Monday, 12 July 2010
The Australian Male....
A plane passed through a severe storm. The turbulence was awful, and things went from bad to worse when one wing was struck by lightning. A woman near the front lost it completely and stood up screaming, 'I'm too young to die and if I'm going to die, I want my last minutes on earth to be memorable!....Is there anyone on this plane who can make me feel like a WOMAN?'
For a moment, there was silence. Everyone stared at the desperate woman as she stood there shaking. Then a man from Australia stood up in the rear of the plane. He was handsome, tall, well built, with dark brown hair and hazel eyes. Slowly, he started to walk up the aisle, unbuttoning his shirt as he went, one button at a time. No one moved. He removed his shirt. Muscles rippled across his chest. She gasped... Then, he spoke... 'Iron this -- and then get me a beer.'
For a moment, there was silence. Everyone stared at the desperate woman as she stood there shaking. Then a man from Australia stood up in the rear of the plane. He was handsome, tall, well built, with dark brown hair and hazel eyes. Slowly, he started to walk up the aisle, unbuttoning his shirt as he went, one button at a time. No one moved. He removed his shirt. Muscles rippled across his chest. She gasped... Then, he spoke... 'Iron this -- and then get me a beer.'
Sunday, 4 July 2010
(F)art gallery
We all went to the art gallery to see the Ron Mueck show today. We went early, cos the Feeb had a sleepover date with one of her mates this evening and we wanted to be able to wash our hands of her nice and early! It was a good job we did because even though there was hardly a queue when we arrived, there were far too many people there for my liking, and as we left, there were really really long queues going in. You often couldn't really get all that close to the pieces, but we could if we waited, squeeze close enough to marvel at their intricacies and brilliant execution. The Feeb was especially interested in the uncovered male tackle in the sculpts.. and was happily snapping away with Daile's camera.
You can understand that she's curious about that stuff, and as a young kid, hasn't learned to be subtle about it... but then she snapped this one whilst I lifted her up to see the contents of this boat. Check out the sneaky glance from the woman in purple...ha ha.
There were of course, lots of serious punters trying to look knowledgeable and there were even guided parties! The guides were so full of hot air! We tried to look at the exhibits before or after they arrived with their cohorts. If ever there were art that didn't need any explanation, this must surely be it! Having said that, the best bit was the movie that you could see of how he made the pregnant woman. Fascinating.
Anyway, we left and had a bite to eat before heading back. When we got into the car, I had to make this little movie in dedication to the wisdom of the tour guides! (Turn up the sound)
Good eh?
You can understand that she's curious about that stuff, and as a young kid, hasn't learned to be subtle about it... but then she snapped this one whilst I lifted her up to see the contents of this boat. Check out the sneaky glance from the woman in purple...ha ha.
There were of course, lots of serious punters trying to look knowledgeable and there were even guided parties! The guides were so full of hot air! We tried to look at the exhibits before or after they arrived with their cohorts. If ever there were art that didn't need any explanation, this must surely be it! Having said that, the best bit was the movie that you could see of how he made the pregnant woman. Fascinating.
Anyway, we left and had a bite to eat before heading back. When we got into the car, I had to make this little movie in dedication to the wisdom of the tour guides! (Turn up the sound)
Good eh?
Saturday, 3 July 2010
Shortbread comes up trumps
This Saturday arvo (as they say in Oz) the girls had Tara over. Daile was out at work. Matilda came into the garage and told me that they were trying to think of something they could do to make some money. She had several ideas, and one of them was to make some shortbread biscuits and sell them down near the shops. I said that would be OK so the three of them set about making a super large batch and took turns with the various jobs. They opted for simple star shapes, and ended up with about 30.
Phoebe made some little flag like posters to go on some long clamps I have that we clamped onto Tara's wooden kart that I made. It looked quite good. Sadly, it wasn't until we got to the shops and they were standing behind the kart, biscuits laid out attractively on three plates on the kart seat, and sprinkled with icing sugar, that I suddenly realised I'd left the camera.
They just looked sheepish at first, it was so sweet... and then I suggested that they call out their wares. They started calling out 'shortbread biscuits... 50c'. Bless, they looked incredibly cute.
It was a BIG success! They were getting lots of smiles, and within a very short time, perhaps half an hour, they'd sold out! Some people just gave them money, and some people over paid.. most of them smiled at me.. (I was just sitting against a barrier a little way away from them). The thing that was most brilliant about it was that they were not only selling their biscuits, but they were also making everyone happy!
They sold the last ones and went back to the car... deciding that we should go to get a MacDonald's, partially to celebrate and partially for me to avoid the cooking later. They were thrilled and we had a count up of the takings whilst we were digging into our happy meals. They made $26! Given that the biscuits were 50c each, that was $11 more than they should have made... I'm sure Sir Alan Sugar would have been impressed.
I was!
Phoebe made some little flag like posters to go on some long clamps I have that we clamped onto Tara's wooden kart that I made. It looked quite good. Sadly, it wasn't until we got to the shops and they were standing behind the kart, biscuits laid out attractively on three plates on the kart seat, and sprinkled with icing sugar, that I suddenly realised I'd left the camera.
They just looked sheepish at first, it was so sweet... and then I suggested that they call out their wares. They started calling out 'shortbread biscuits... 50c'. Bless, they looked incredibly cute.
It was a BIG success! They were getting lots of smiles, and within a very short time, perhaps half an hour, they'd sold out! Some people just gave them money, and some people over paid.. most of them smiled at me.. (I was just sitting against a barrier a little way away from them). The thing that was most brilliant about it was that they were not only selling their biscuits, but they were also making everyone happy!
They sold the last ones and went back to the car... deciding that we should go to get a MacDonald's, partially to celebrate and partially for me to avoid the cooking later. They were thrilled and we had a count up of the takings whilst we were digging into our happy meals. They made $26! Given that the biscuits were 50c each, that was $11 more than they should have made... I'm sure Sir Alan Sugar would have been impressed.
I was!
Friday, 2 July 2010
Thought i'd have a go at painting the little one. It's difficult to get it right, not just the likeness, which has always been the perenial problem, but also the use of paint. I'm trying to learn more about the way that colours go in shadows. This needs to be darker in the shadows, and perhaps warmer. On the otherhand, I don't like them overpainted... Trying to keep the bits that aren't face...loose.
I reckon if you can keep the shadows simple (Like Loomis says in that post a couple of months ago) and pay attention to the quality of the light, you stand a better chance... I'll repost this when I've got closer.
Ok .. this is a couple of days later.. i think I'll stop with that.
Interesting how different it looks inside the house. I have a neon tube in the garage (where I painted it). The colour is actually more like the first one i posted, but this one is more finished. I can't be bothered to take it down to the garage and take another pic, i've got to sort out the nippers for bed.
I reckon if you can keep the shadows simple (Like Loomis says in that post a couple of months ago) and pay attention to the quality of the light, you stand a better chance... I'll repost this when I've got closer.
Ok .. this is a couple of days later.. i think I'll stop with that.
Interesting how different it looks inside the house. I have a neon tube in the garage (where I painted it). The colour is actually more like the first one i posted, but this one is more finished. I can't be bothered to take it down to the garage and take another pic, i've got to sort out the nippers for bed.
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