Thursday, September 27, 2012

It's entirely possible that the roads here in central Texas were not as safe as they could have been last Saturday. Running around with the kiddoes on my usual Saturday morning errands, I decided to block out the mellifluous tones of my darling offspring talking peacably and equably amongst themselves in the back seat (not) and treat myself to a podcast from my favorite Aunty Beeb. Saturday's choice was The Food Program, about, well, food, you guessed right! To be more precise, the topic of conversation was breakfast, a meal I had skipped that day, being too overwhelmed by the plethora of chores presenting themselves, in favor a of  strong and sweet cup of coffee.

Now, as someone who tries to present a balanced life to kiddoes 1, 2 and 3 and by balanced I mean half English and half American, I about drove off the road when I realized that I had never, ever, ever considered offering them the full British breakfast experience. Now, I'm not talking about lightly toasted bread with Cooper's shredded marmalade with a cup of milky tea, or even toast and Marmite, I'm talking the bacon buttie or the fried eggs,fried  sausages, fried bacon, fried black pudding,fried kidneys, fried bread, fried tomatoes and possibly baked beans. I was mortified. Poor kiddoes! What kind of a derelict mother have I been? To rectify matters I am going to attack this problem head on this weekend during the birthday celebrations for kiddo #3 whose 5th birthday passed just yesterday in a blur of Star Wars Lego building. I will blog the results of this coronary on a plate on Monday :)

On a side note, thought I would be heading to England this summer. Am sad to say it will not now happen in 2013. Bummer.

If you want to know the relevance of this picture, check out Captain Ahab!!!
On a side, side note, hear that J.K. Rowling has been at it again and that her new best seller is hitting the shelves today with nairy a wizard or patronus in sight. If you are missing that whimsical and magical world of Harry and his chums, please do check out my debut children's book for 5 through 8 year olds, Captain Ahab. See the top right hand tab on my blog? Click on it and read it! Just to prove you have done so, shoot me an email with your (acclamatory) remarks and the phone number of a children's publisher who you just know will be interested! Go on - I dare you - prove to me you really read my blog!!

Have a great day - back to cleaning the house for this weekend's Star Wars invasion party!! As Yoda might say "cleaning I hate!"

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Meet the Romans

My supervisor from Cambridge, Mary Beard, has just finished a series for BBC2 called, Meet the Romans. Seeing as all I ever watch is episodes of Disney TV shows or Star Wars, all blurred as I race by with armfuls of laundry or toting piles of grading, I would never have known about this pheonomenon unless my mum, watching the TV series in Australia had alerted me to it. She said that several of her colleagues had been addicted to this documentary and discussing it was the first and most animated conversation held in her office every Monday after the show aired the night before. One colleague even went as far as to opine that a week spent in Rome with Mary would be his idea of heaven.....which just goes to show what an esoteric brain box he is. Personally I imagine a week in Rome with Mary might be a bit intellectually exhausting. A once a week supervision with her used to leave me feeling wrung out and inadequate. A week might kick me off this planet much as I admire her.


Mary Beard on subject of Roman tombs. If you find her as compulsive viewing as my family and friends she is to be found in great abundance on YouTube!

So, other than that, what's new? Nothing teribly exciting. We came back from summer (actually coldest winter in twenty Queenslander years) in Australia and came straight back to a new house at the camp where beloved works. Old house still hasn't sold and new house bears striking resemblance to Little House in the Big Woods a la Laura Ingells Wilder. Laura I-W didn't have to drive 70 miles to work one way though. She had more common sense :)

Kiddoes 1, 2 and 3 doing great. Kiddo #1 is playing volleyball this year and is studying Latin. Hear she has a fab Latin teacher :) Kiddo #2 sharper than several tacks and kiddo #3 going to be a theologian. Today's conversation. "Mum, why is it raining today". Mum, driving the car and feeling rather jaded thanks to self same son's inconsiderately timed 2:30 a.m. asthma attack says weakly, "because God wants it to rain today." To which angelic son says "then if God knows I get asthma when it rains, why does he want me to have asthma?" ermmmmmmmmmm............

Thank you and Goodnight!