Today I've mostly bin...

[Bunnylump]

I didn't have that, but I did have a pixie outfit and a pink cinderella outfit my mum made me! I used to get cross because I wanted chaps a star and a cowboy hat!!

[LAT]

Mine had a skirt instead of chaps. But I did have a star and a hat - and a little waistcoat too.

Guess what the other outfit I had was?

[Bunnylump]

Noddy??

[Laura]

We invented a game (ok then, adapted rounders) for our back garden. You'd have a batter, a bowler and a backstop, and you scored runs between the washing line posts. Which was fine until the ball went over the fence, or on the garage roof. You sort of had to judge it right, and hit hard, but not too hard, and you each got 5 balls before everyone swapped around. The best place to aim for was under the rabbit hutches, cos if the ball went under their, it took ages for the opposition to get it out again!

[tricia]

Had friends round for Dinner yesterday which had been postponed from the week before becaus I and one of our friends had the dreaded lurgy . We had a lovely time we had a family consisting of grandparents (our age ) parents and gransone aged two and a half. They had a full day already so he was zonked when he came in - we left him sleeping on the setee while we had our meal. Poor little fellow rolled off and gave himself a fright. e put on Thomas the Tank Once we calmed him down we put on Thomas the tank.....it was great fun. Then he spotted Olly -and Olly not renowned fro beeing a patient cat Surprisingly he soicall allowed E to stroke him.

All in all a very nice day - anyone want left over lemon cheesecake or Raspberry ripple meingue ice cream!

Tricia

[dramaticat]

Up and down the stairs on my bum attempting to look after Ian who's in bed. He tripped and fell during the panto performance on Friday night and his back went out yesterday.

I'm feeling exhausted and it's depressing always having to think of ways to carry things upstairs when you can't carry things - particularly hot food. My ankle keeps swelling up too - not painfully but it's uncomfortable in the cast.

If anyone's got any jokes to cheer me up, bring 'em on!

[gill216]

Make OH lie on the floor- he got up there so he can get down again - and its better for his back

[Bunnylump]

Oh, for goodness sake, Dramaticat, whatever did you do to upset the "Gods of vengeance"??? You poor love, you must be completely fed up. So sorry to hear you've got yet more on your plate!! Could Ian not lie downstairs? Then at least you wouldn't have to be up and down... and actually, come to think of it, having a bad back myself HONESTLY it's always been better to NOT stay in one place for a long time. I'd say keep moving is much better advice personally.

[dramaticat]

He can't move very far! He can get to the loo but can't sit there for very long, and certainly can't stand. I wouldn't feel good about asking him to come downstairs and lie on the laminate floor

He's actually a bit better today - I'm so glad because last time he was in bed for four days and in absolute agony for the first few days. He's quite spritely this time compared to that.

We did contact the out of hours doctor and a panto friend ran over and picked up a prescription for painkillers for us. We thought we were getting a small amount to tide us over until tomorrow, but they gave us 60, so at least we don't have to ask someone else to go to the doctors and pick up more for us.

[LAT]

Dear oh dear Dramaticat. It never rains but it pours doesn't it?

Vacuum flasks of hot soup and stew, carried up in a bag round your neck?

Hope Ian improves soon and gets back to looking after you again!

[Bunnylump]

Yes, me too.

I went to visit my sister in law and her husband this afternoon. Apparently he had advertised a "chicken milking machine" on You Tube. (It was actually some very small scientific equipment he had, little glass funnel, tubing, tiny test tubes etc.) Apparently he had lots of humorous comments and questions posted on there (eg "does it come with its own stool?" "Can you milk cockerels with it too?") and the bidding had already gone up to £10!! Sadly, because one respondee decided to swear, the post got removed from the site. (Spoilsports!!)

Yes, he is mad.

I seem to have come across some very unusual people in the past few days...for example, one of the girlfriends who was down in Poole was moaning about us walking so far. When we asked why, she said "well, I have to be a fairy tomorrow for 20 three year olds...! It transpires she runs fairy parties and fairy workshops. Yes, you did hear me right, fairy workshops. Learning how to be a fairy - how to make fairy dust, wand technique, fairy dancing etc. AND she has to dress up as a fairy, wings and all. Although she did make me laugh. Apparently one of the fairy helpers has a fairy costume which is a bit low cut. Apparently there has been a big rise in the number of Dads who are keen to accompany their daughters on the fairy workshops...

[dramaticat]

Mad inventor or fairy workshop leader - there you are, Bunny, there's plenty of alternative careers out there for you

[Bunnylump]

Don't think I would make a convincing fairy. Troll, maybe...

I had a really interesting school trip this morning. We visited the Synogogue in Northwood for a holocaust memorial day. They had a lady speaker who had witnessed krystalnacht (saw the shops with their windows all smashed in and the burning synogogues). Her family eventually went on the run as friends and neighbours started to "disappear". Finally, her family decided to send her to England on the Kindertransport in the hope that they would eventually be able to join her. She showed slide scans of her passport, complete with the big red JUDEN stamped all over it, and her compulsory name change (they inserted the name Sarah as a middle name just to make sure that Jews could be identified). She also showed some examples of the heavily censored letters she had received from her family (which were only allowed to be 25 words to start with). You could see how her family were trying to remain upbeat with her so as not to frighten her. She only found out that her mother had been taken to Auschwitz by accidentally finding a letter which had been sent to her "Aunties" (the ladies who had taken her in). The poignant moment was when she showed the last letter she ever got from her father - he'd tried to write to her in Latin to get past the censors. He told her to be happy, to live her life to the full and that she mustn't grieve.

The thing which amazed me was that she said she had never spoken at all about her experiences, even to her children, until her grand daughter was 10 (the age she was when she left Germany). It was only then that she realised how important it was to spread her story to try to promote racial tollerance, in the hope that it should not happen again. The other thing which I thought was remarkable was how she was still able to focus on the positives of her life - the kindness of her Aunties, her gratefulness to this country for letting her come here, her family, her children and her subsequent life.

She was such a good and interesting speaker that she managed to keep the rapt attention of 150 year 9s. At the end she asked if there were any questions (this is the terrifying bit, you never know what they might come up with). Amazingly, the children asked lots of intelligent questions. Their behaviour and the level of respect they showed today was exemplary. I was so proud of them.

What a very brave lady.

[eirian]

wow. That's what school trips should be about. Learning things you just can't learn any other way.

[Wulfruna]

That is an amazing story. I seem to remember from an earlier post that you were not particularly relishing this visit - but the reality of the Holocaust must never be forgotten and there are now fewer and fewer people with such a personal memory of it. I have never forgotten visiting the Buchenwald Concentration Camp site, which was a life-changing experience.
Yet I also speak as someone who has also visited Israel (including the devastatingly moving Yad Vashem holocaust museum in Jerusalem) and there been horrified by Israeli government policy which oppresses Palestinians by similarly treating them as sub-human - it is somehow unbelievable the the Israelis can do this to another ethnic group, bearing in mind their own history. But when I try to raise the questions I am blasted as being antisemitic and anti-Jewish, which is deeply offensive and hurtful when all you are talking about is basic human rights.
Interestingly, I am just now involved in a translation project for a German video film narrating the life of a Swiss lady who married into a German aristocratic family during the Hitler period. It records the dilemmas of those few who were part of the German "establishment" of the time who tried to challenge Hitler but were sidelined and clearly felt helpless. The impression is that they just withdrew from the scene and kept their heads down - it would simply have been suicide to stand up and be counted. And at least they did seem to retain their integrity in that in the later post-war Germany her brother-in-law later became the State President (von Weiszäcker)

[LAT]

That sounds a really good and interesting trip Bunny. The lady obviously made a strong impression on the kids. Let's hope they remember it and take some of those thoughts into adulthood.

.....today I've been packing. Off in the morning. Hope you all behave yourselves without me.
Oh and we had champagne when I got home from work. I'm not sure if my OH was celebrating the fact that our son has been offered a job for when he gets back from his travels or that he has got nearly two weeks without me.

[Scurra]

After the DVP works outing to Bletchley Park, I told several of my teacher friends that they had to make sure to take the children there to hear first-hand from the last few remaining cryptographers before it was too late - and it really was "history". Personal testimony has a way of staying with you long after other things fade away.

[LAT]

Yes, that was really interesting wasn't it? And the woman who showed us round didn't look old enough to have been there during the war either. It is definitely on my list of places to go back to.

[Bunnylump]

That's all well and good just as long as it isn't YOU who is the "historical object". I found myself being quizzed by year 10s when they were learning about the Watergate Scandal. And I had to admit, yes I DID have a maxi length purple wet look coat and white boots JUST like the girl on the film had... That made me feel REALLY old!!

[dramaticat]

... excited about receiving one of those thermos mug thingies with the secure lid. I'm quite capable of making a cup of tea, but have to drink it where I made it. Now I can sit in front of the TV with one without having to ask someone else to make it for me.

Yes, I have used the thermos flask before, but Ian's been hogging that while he's confined to bed.