Today I've mostly bin...

[chazzie]

Thanks Bunny - you have just reminded me - of the PB meet you arranged - when we were re-enacting a scene from the Sound of Music !! great day....

[LAT]

I second all that - have a wonderful time Chazzie, looking forward to hearing about it.

And Giraffe, tricky one but as you say, hopefully there will be future occasions for you to see Lally in school concerts.

[Bunnylump]

Yes, that is tricky, but I'm sure she will understand, Giraffe. Is there any way you could get a video of it? When my kids were at school there was invariably a recording going on...

[giraffe]

I don't think they video it, and they said no film or pictures from the audience, so hard to ask a friend to risk being sneaky with a camera. Lally won't mind, but I do.

[SparkOut]

I'm also sure Lally will understand when you skip her school performance in future to attend K's premiere virtuoso solo at the Royal Albert Hall one day. Before too long.

[giraffe]

She had her Royal Albert Hall debut a couple of weeks ago, but not as a soloist.

[Bunnylump]

Speaking to my son, who reckons he might have just discovered 5 new potential antibiotics*!! Maybe he isn't as stupid as he appears, after all?? Mind you, he tried to explain to me how he had done this, and I might as well have had a bubble above my head with a picture of sheep and a big question mark in it!!

*And not even by testing his own kitchen work surfaces!

[Bunnylump]

Putting up the rest of the Christmas decorations, mostly with a cat attached to the end of each string of lights, ribbon, or piece of tinsel!!

[MBH]

*And not even by testing his own kitchen work surfaces!

Trust you to get that comment in. I was going to ask if he was clearing out sheds again

Well done him, anyway.

[Bunnylump]

...getting my year 8 Extra English group to "make their own opoly" I wanted to give them a bit of fun in the last lesson before Christmas, and the powers that be have said we have to keep them working right to the bitter end. So...I printed them out a "Monopoly" board (without the places on it and with blocks they can write their own versions in) and had them, without them realising it, revising ALL of the spelling rules they have learned this term. Basically, they had to make the "properties" all fit one spelling rule, with different examples for each one, then had to write out "Good cards" and "Bad cards" - thus practising their handwriting and punctuation. They had things like:

"You forgot to do your homework. Mrs. E sends you back to start."
"You got caught trying to tell Mrs. E. that the dog ate your pencil case. Go straight to the detention room and miss a turn." (the detention room is where the JAIL was!)
"You have raised your reading level by 6 months, congratulations. Collect £200."

Then the last 5 minutes was spent honing their technology skills to make the playing pieces out of foam. The kids had a great time and didn't even realise they were learning and reinforcing what we had already learned all lesson. Result.

After Christmas we'll play the game so they can not only remember the spellings, but also get to do some adding up!!

I did think I really ought to have invited Scurra along as a consultant!!

[LAT]

...making fudge and honeycomb. Trouble is I can't resist eating all the bits that end up stuck to the pan or spoon, or are too broken to keep so I've probably doubled my calorie intake for the day!

And feeling happy because yesterday I got a Christmas card from my daughter and today we got the latest lengthy update email from her.
edited extract which made me laugh

Have you eaten? I love that this is a normal (well...) Chinese greeting. Took a few weeks to realise – devastatingly – that it wasn’t in any way a comment on my waistline, but despite being armed with this assurance I still find it difficult to answer.... How on earth do you respond appropriately in the event that your interrogatee hasn’t eaten? Is sympathy enough or should you somehow produce some food? It’s a minefield. And even more so in translation: one of the porter-type chaps who ‘guard’ my block of flats often tries to talk to me. We’ve managed mini, incredibly stilted conversations about the weather, what I do, what I like and where I work, and he’s also asked me to teach him one or two phrases in English, ‘Have you eaten?’ being one of them (my linguistic abilities fall far short of explaining that it’s not really proper English). Anyway, despite what you’d hope for the sake of the kids out here, I’m obviously not that great a teacher, because he sometimes seems to confuse ‘eaten’ with ‘easy’. ‘Have you easy?’ is fine, I know what he means, but I won’t pretend not to have been caught by surprise the time this unfortunately became ‘Are you easy?’... I took the opportunity to correct and reteach.

[Bunnylump]

Brilliant!

[SparkOut]

Be prepared for lots of questions between now and next June/July

[MBH]

Have you eaten? I love that this is a normal (well...) Chinese greeting.

Connections between China and Scotland, eh?

"Hamish". "Dougal". "You'll have had your tea"

[SparkOut]

Ah, but the difference is

China: have you eaten? [implying as a good host I'll feed you if not]

Scotland: ye'll have had your tea? [implying that as a good guest you won't impose the burden of feeding you on your host]

[MBH]

I know - but think of the cultural faux pas that are possible.

Speaking of such, is it true that if you are a good little English guest and clear your plate then an Oriental host will think they haven't fed you enough and give you more? The cycle being repeated until the guest explodes??

[LAT]

Well I haven't heard that anyone has exploded...........

Mind you with some of the items K has found on menus I'm not surprised. "Tasteless kiosk" is the one that made me laugh the most.

When Looby and I were there we were offered "Old Beijing garlic bowel" one day at breakfast. It should go without saying that we both decided to forego the pleasure of trying that!

[Bunnylump]

... doing a massive Christmas shop
...accompanyintg K's year 3 class to the pantomime in Watford
...going out for work Christmas do and dancing all night and drinking too much

...realising I'm too old for all of the above...

[Bunnylump]

Cooking, cooking, cooking...
So far have
windmill shaped, maple syrup glazed mince pies
an extremely random Christmas cake, half decorated with glazed nuts and fruits, half with snow scene!!
blackcurrant cheesecake made with amaretti biscuits and rum

now moving on to Scottish tablet and honeycomb...

and the REALLY stupid thing is that I probably won't actually EAT any of the above!! Hey ho.

Don't you just love Christmas? Hope you are all getting things under control / on your way to loved ones etc. Oh, and in case I don't "see" anyone beforehand - Merry Christmas one and all!

[Scurra]

You won't eat it because you don't like it or because the gannets will get there first?