Monday 23 April 2012

Homework blues

It seems to me that my 7 year old daughter gets a ridiculous amount of homework for a child of that age.  I know, I know the SATS are looming but I don't remember having homework at that age (OK admittedly it was 1980 but still).  In the last holidays they had spellings, comprehension, maths, an old SATS paper AND a project to complete. 

I find it painful cajoling her into doing said homework. Although usually after at least one argument we get it done & handed in on time.  What is really beginning to irk me is the fact that we have just been informed that they now have one less say to do the work because 'some people don't hand it in on time'*.
WTF?  So because some parents don't support their kids to do it, all of us that do are penalised? Really?  Is that fair? GRRR.

I do find the very subject of homework gets my heckles up.  It always seems to fall into my remit (as do most other things) as isn't even on Mr DOMADQ's radar (well except to tut & make sympathetic noises when he hears the ensuing row about not just sitting down & getting on with it and not disappearing to investigate what her sister is up to/daydreaming/telling me in minute detail about Sponge Bob/hovering around her chair etc etc etc.)

I then I think about my writing homework & the poem still unfinished in my book that keeps winking at me and I hang my head in shame.  I am just as bad as girl 1.  I think that's why I get so cross about the homework thing.  I am a daydreamer.  I am a procrastinator.  These traits she has inherited from me.  I look at her & see myself and THAT is why I am frustrated. 






*admittedly this explanation has come from my 7 year old so may not be entirely accurate!

Wednesday 18 April 2012

20 questions....well 11 actually

So to get back into this blogging malarky I thought I should maybe answer the questions I got tagged with by the rather lovely Lakota from Faith, Hope & Charity Shopping last month...

So the questions...
1. Favourite game you played as a kid a) at home b) at school?
I used to really love board games when I was younger, we as a family loved Monopoly, but we also had a game called 'Ratrace' which was about moving up & down the class system.  The more I think about it the stranger it probably was but it was a favourite. 
I also loved a game called 'Go for Broke' where you have to end up skint at the end - a game I would probably be great at these days.




At school there were loads of crazes like swapping stickers or playing marbles or french elastic (a huge loop of elastic that girls would string between 2 girls ankles and then you'd do some funny jumping game playing kind of cats cradle with your feet).  But what I really really loved was when our whole class would play British Bulldog against another class.  No matter who was and wasn't friends you always felt part of a team as we really stuck together when we played it.

2. Personality trait which secretly really irritates you in a close friend or partner?
Hmmn.  That is a tricky one.  I guess being a grown up you learn to love people and accept them flaws and all as it makes them, them....who am I kidding?! 

I 'av a cuple of frends who snd Irvine Walsh stle txts n it tks 4ever 2 wrk out wht the fck thyr sying!
I hate text speak.  I write in full sentences ,at all times, with punctuation!


Reading that back that isn't a personality trait is it?!  I hate it when people cop out of answering questions!!

3. You get to choose one TV channel only - what do you go for?
If it was the only channel my family could watch it would have to be something like Nick Jr as my kids would drive me crazy.  But what would I watch...a couple of years ago I might have said E4 but endless How I Met Your Mother or Big Bang Theory I may love to dip in & out of but for ever and ever?  This is hard...see I love America's Next Top Model but Sky Living?  No...
So possibly Channel 4 or BBC 2 (god I'm taking this far too seriously)..well there's always iPlayer for the rest isn't there?!

4. Would you rather be really beautiful, or really funny? Why?
Really funny.  Beauty fades.  I also think that if you've been beautiful it must be particularly hard to lose your shine.  But wit and wisdom are hopefully there for a while longer. 

5. What's your Native American totem animal?
Sloth

6. Which fictional character do you most relate to?
I wish I could say someone like Catherine Earnshaw from Wuthering Heights, because despite being a complete drama queen/pain in the arse she is passionate and wild....but I'm sadly probably more like Bridget Jones or some other chick lit heroine.

7. Music which you couldn't be paid to listen to?
I like most music, my taste is fairly eclectic...quick scan through itunes to see if I hate any of my husband's CD collection.....nothing really offends me musically.  Maybe Thrash Metal?  I went to watch Roger Waters 'The Wall' last year and it was OK, not really my cup of tea.  Sounded just like noise at the end. (I know sacrilege, but I think it's more of a blokes thing...)

8. Who would play you in the film version of your life story? 
Probably no one famous, my life's too dull for a cinema release, would probably go straight to DVD, so it would be a relative of someone famous who's trying to hang off the family name.  So probably Julia Roberts 2nd cousin. 

9. Best band you've ever seen live?
Pulp - I think you have to see them live to really get the whole Jarvis is a sex god thing.  Or INXS - Michael Hutchins was amazingly charismatic.  I went to see Live Baby Live at Wembley when I was 17.  Before I went I didn't even fancy him.  They came on stage and I heard loads of screaming.  And it was me!


10. Most annoying thing about blogging or bloggers?
The ones that take themselves too seriously.  The ones that blog too much.  Dear god, is there nothing that happens in your day that isn't recorded??!

11. What is or would be your Superhero talent?
Talking at great speed.

I think the rules dictate that I now share 11 'interesting' facts about me, well I can't promise that they're interesting but here goes...

1. Made in Chelsea is a guilty pleasure of mine. I know, I know they're all posh knobs but I can't help it, I find it amusing.  It is known as 'Posh Totty' in my house.

2. Listening to The Beatles makes me cry. They remind me of my Dad who loved them.  And they remind me how much I miss him. Particularly this one...



3. I can't spell restaurant, it's one of those words I just never have mastered.  Thank god for spell check eh?

4.  I hate sweetcorn.  I hate the taste, the smell & the texture.  No matter how many times I have told Mr DOMADQ he always says to me 'You don't like it?' even though we have been together 16 years.

5.  I have 3 piercings.  2 in my right ear and 1 in my left.  The 2nd one in my right ear I had done when I was a student & it was probably my only act of rebellion.  I wish I had been a bit naughtier when I was younger.

6. I occasionally still stuck my thumb. Aged 38. If I am very tired or upset I sometimes realise that I'm doing it.

7. I am very very scared of heights.  On a visit to New York I cried with fear whilst queueing/going up the steps to the crown of the Statue of Liberty

8.  I have just discovered Flat Whites & am a convert

9. I love green jelly sweets, they are the best

10. If I had been a boy I would have been called James Alexander, although being that I am a twin (& my parents did not know they were having twins) I guess I would have been called James.

11. I would love to live my the sea.

And finally I need to think of some other questions to then ask others...

1. If you HAD to have a tattoo (if you haven't already got one) what would you have and where would you have it? (I have to admit that if I had ever been on 'Blind Date' that would have been one of my questions)

2. What is your favourite joke? (another Blind Date question!!)

3. What annoys you most about yourself?

4. If you had a 'hall pass' would you use it& who would you use it on?

5. What would you be doing in an alternate universe?

6.  What are your top  5 favourite films?

7. When was the last time you cried?

8. Beatles or Stones?

9. What was the last book you read?

10. What makes you blush? 

11. What keeps you awake at night?

So if anyone fancy answering these please do & then let me know

x

Wednesday 11 April 2012

Why so quiet?

I must admit I have been a pretty terrible blogger recently.  Partly because I've been focusing on my creative writing & getting my 1st short story ready to be entered into a competition (Yikes.  And now I know they've definitely received it as my cheques been cashed so in 4 to 6 weeks I'll be receiving the critique back from them, double yikes).  Also my day job has kind of swamped me a bit.  Damn you crust earning.  
(Does that  just sound like excuses to you, it does to me) 


And possibly because I started following some more blogs & I think I became a little intimidated. Particularly as a couple I've started to follow by email & they seem to blog several times daily.  (When on earth do they get the time to do this??)  They are very well written & funny but when yet ANOTHER blog post from a pings into my in box I am beginning to feel like dear god, another one?! Think I began to worry that maybe I might illicit that response from someone else which made me stop for a moment and think about why do I blog...


Hmmn, good question....


I think I tend to do it when the mood takes me or I have something I really need to get out. The reason I started doing this in the first place was because I needed an outlet for something and so, having children & having little time or money for therapy I thought anonymous venting would be cheap therapy.    And so it has been, although it is becoming less & less anonymous since I have told a few people where to find me.


Maybe it's time to just shut up moaning & get on with it again....