ELEVENSES HERE *****************************************************************************************

[MaryAnnSingleton]

think we've been deleted,so shall we put ourselves here in other subjects ?
Sleepless night fretting about T and loos and lunches at big school - how neurotic am I ?!

where can hippi be ?

Hi guys, I am here
It has been a busy few days, I have been invigilating the mocks at the local secondary. Luckily today is a day off so I can be on MN all day get the housework done.

Sorry to hear about your ear hotcross, what a bummer! And poor dh in plaster too, you really are going through it at teh moment

MAS, I think you should say something to the school because it does sound like they are taking advantage of you and S. Especially if you two no longer have childre there - it is great to help out, but that is all it should be surely - help?
Great news about your parent's imminent move though, how exciting!!

Woohoo for Obama btw Am very very happy!

hooray you're here !!
yes,you're right about the school thing - I don't mind doing some drawings as it was my idea - maybe they'd pay for materials, but S has really put a lot of time and effort into doing several plans,so she really should be recompensed. Anyway,will encourage her !
I'd forgotten about the invigilating - hope it's going well.
We're off to meet T's tutor later - a quick visit to introduce parents to tutors..
T is choosing activities for Activities week in July - there are various things going on from PGL trips and a sailing/watersports thing in the Dordogne to more locally based things..an animal care activity, Literary tour,golf for beginners,US sports,child care...he has chosen the curry making week for his 1st choice,followed by days out in the south east and third choice is a pick'n'mix week with first aid,art and crafts,outings etc.. think he hopes he'll get the cooking one !!

morning ! just back from dentist and will have filling fixed on 24th,along with another small chipped filling above which I hadn't noticed...asked how much and it's not horrendous but even so... told him I can't afford hygienist too - I am quite capable of flossing properly and they just make your teeth bleed ! Beside,reckon the dentist should throw in a complementary polish
Went to school to meet T's tutor - she seems very nice,young Science teacher - says T seems happy and settled...have retrieved his padlock from locker which has locked itself open - locksmith in town is trying to fix it.

Well done on going to the dentist, and hooray for T at school

As you know I have been invigilating this week and it struck me how young the Y7's are. You can see them walking down the corridor, in their blazers, with their huge bags, and still with such baby faces....

The Y11's by contrast - wow some of the boys look like men!!
They are a really nice lot again this year - I do really like the children there

yes,they are still little in yr7,compared with the 'men' of yr 11 ! It sounds as though it's all going very well hippi

It is going very well. The more time I spend there, the more I like the school

Having a crisis re O's costume for the school play'

He needs a ballgown which I customise with tacky bows etc
He needs a blonde wig
He needs a pink bow (large)
He needs a pink feather boa
I have a week to find this
eeeeeekkkkk

crikey ! is he being an ugly sister or something ??
good luck with costume hunt ! if I spy anything I'll let you know.
T tells me that a boy in his year asked him whether he'd like to join the choir (an afterschool thing) and he seems keen to do this - probably because he was asked by this boy - it makes me h appy because he is responding to another's friendship and because I'd love him to join the choir !

Excellent news about T It is fab how they end up finding their feet And friendship with this boy is great too, because they both enjoy choir and singing

O is an ugly sister dancer
(only Y6 get speaking part the other years are dancers or chorus) There are 6 Ugly Sister Dancers, he is the only boy.
Have just been into Woking and bought him a ladies size 14 ballgown thing in MKOne for £5. It has a black bodice bit adn a full black and white checkered skirt in that shiny silky material. Will try to take it in and accesorize it with ghastly glittery bows etc.
No feather boa though....

is there such a thing as a Barbie boa,it strikes me that it's the kind of girly thing you'd find in a toyshop...Woollies too maybe ? he'll be fab - I am imagining him in red lipstick and a beauty spot and pink cheeks !
Went to Winchester today to buy some presents and bumped into a friend who I haven't seen for ages...she lives in Winch. and grew up opposite us...

There was a boa in Toys R Us, but it is £5, and a bit on the short side...
Have found a fantastic fancy dress website where I can get a boa and wig for O and a witches costume for E for book character day (not for a few months but it helps to plan ahead ). She wants to go as Titchy Witch, so it is more of a black cape thing rather than the witches costumes found at Halloween....

We went to the Scouts bonfire and fireworks tonight. It is their main fundraiser. Poor dh was in charge of building the bonfire - he spent all afternoon on it in the pouring rain Luckily he had plenty of helpers and O had fun running around with some of the sons of the other Scout comittee members (his fave being two boys now in Y8 who used to be at his school) - he has been initiated into all things BMX

But it was a great success. I was accosted by a group of teenage girls (gulp) who asked me if I was 'the invigilator'
They were lovely. Funnily enough on Friday I was invigilating their English exam and helped two of them and thought how nice they were....

hippi is... The Invigilator !!!

I know, it made me and then

They were truly lovely girls though

Poor dh stayed behind to help clear up after the bonfire and fell over tearing some tendons in his ankle. He is hobbeling along right now (quite funny really, but it is painful so I should not laugh...) Poor thing!

O and E have just come back from the Rememberance Day church parade at the church at the top of our road.

Will do lunch in a mo and then O needs to be at a farm in Claygate for drama club and E needs to go to her friend S's house for a horse-riding party. (My friend is transporting the 6 girls to the stables and back to her house for food adn games )

Hope you are having a good weekend.

Hotcross I hope all is well

poor Mr Hippi ! T and dh watched the Remembrance Day ceremony on telly and I listened on the radio...Flowers of the Forest and Nimrod so moving - reminded me of FIL - he'd have been parading at the memorial in their town - eldest BIL is going instead and wearing FIL's medals.
Helped T paint his African mask -they have been doing a project in art and music and it all results in African dance workshops,music etc tomorrow and Tuesday at school,with an African theatre company. T's mask is way too heavy to wear as his clay was very solid,so he's in a pickle about that..but it looks good,once I'd persuaded him to think about interesting decorations (' I can't do patterns' -he said crossly)
It's all going to be a huge whirl tom orrow as he has DT where they're meant to be baking scones,then the workshops and his singing lesson.

Wow, sounds like T has a fab day ahead of him
O did an African Drumming workshop as part of his drama club last year - he absolutely loved it!

T says they have to wear mask and play drums at same time !! but he'll have to hold his mask up to his face with one hand I think

Oh love him Am sure he'll be fine, even if his drumming is going to be one-handed!

thank you hippi ! well,he's gone off carrying a rucksack full of scone ingredients and mask as well as PE kit - so heavy !
Are you invigilating this week ?
How are things hotcross ?

Phew, just come in from invigilating. No more now until Thursday adn Friday, and then Thursday next week, and that's the mocks done

Just grabbing a quick (late) lunch before swimming to school to collect E and little S. (O needs collecting at 4 after drama rehearsal)

oh that's good,it sounds as though it's going well..
well done hippi
T brought back v good scones (with cranberries in) but mask got broken - he thinks it can be stuck together, but it was very heavy and the string likely to give way. His purse was empty when I checked it and it appears that he lent someone (a boy from his old school) the rest of his money - about a pound or so,after he'd spent his lunch money- not sure whether this boy will pay it back or not - perhaps I am judging him unfairly,but he was one of the boys who wasn't nice to T in the past. I quizzed him about whether he'd been made to hand over money or just asked,and think he was just asked, no menaces. But the point is you can just hand out your (my !) money willy nilly. I did go on about it a bit,trying to impress upon him that it is kind of him but he must make a judgement about whether someone intends to return it or whether they're trying it on..and anyway,money isn't in his purse for him to just give out. Makes me sound mean, but...

Oh MAS, O would have done exactly the same. Always trying to be kind - it is a nice thing about those boys of ours
But yes, of course they cannot just give money away willy nilly so hopefully a lesson learnt.

O has got himself into a bit of a pickle at school. He signed himself up for lunchtime choir rehearsals for the carrol concert, his dance rehearsals are one lunchtime per week, and he signed himself up to be servery helper at lunchtime.
Last night he told us he had dropped out of choir adn that Miss S was disappointed in him (not because she will lose a great singing voice but because he signed up adn then dropped out)
He just has too much on at lunchtime. I have asked him to think about dropping the servery helper thing (after all it is not as worthwhile pouring water for schoolmates as it is to rehearse a play or sing in a choir.)

I wish he had not given up the choir without speaking to us first. We were a bit disappointed in him for giving up something so worthwhile and fun in favour of being an unpaid waitress....

ARgh!

Boys, can't live with them, can't live without them!!

oh poor O being in a quandary I expect...perhaps he can rethink and drop the servery instead ?
T is meeting E after school,hope they actually meet in the right place - am sure they will,then coming home for tea. Really hope T hangs on to his money today - he only has a £2 coin in his purse, enough for lunch and a bit over. gah !

He does not want to drop the servery all-tp-gether (even though dh and I think he should) so he is going to ask if he can just do it 1 day a week.
I have also told him to speak with Miss S, not to get back onto the choir (because he cannot keep messing her about) but because when he dropped out he told her 'I don't want to do it anymore'. I have told him to apologize to her and explain his reasons for giving up.

He came out of dance rehearsal for the play all downhearted last night because the nice teacher who had been coaching them has taken over the fairy dancers and the new teacher coaching O and his fellow Ugly Sisters is apparently a real slavedriver. They did not get a chance to have a drink adn she kept making them do the routing faster and faster adn telling them off for getting it wrong.
I feel like reminding her it is meant to be fun.....

I do feel for O. He seems to have the weight of the world on his shoulders at teh moment...
Mind you, it must be even worse when they go to secondary school...

oh poor O - it all seems a big burden for little ones...do you think dance teacher is being competitive teacher or something ? don't fret, secondary really isn't so bad (so far !) - there are things like T and his philanthropy and other pickles, but on the whole it's alright !

You may be onto something - the teacher coaching the Ugly Sister Dancers is new to the school. So perhaps feels she has to 'make her mark' so to speak?

I just get into a pickle regarding O. I find it hard to rely on him to sort his own life out. I am not used to him making decisions about activities/clubs without consulting us. And then when it all goes pear-shaped I want to rush in and sort it out adn find it hard to sit back adn let him sort it out himself.

Urgh, must let go!!!!!