The weather was starting to be all lovely and warm here in Nottingham last week, and yet we woke up to grey fog this morning. Despite that, it was overly warm as I came back from campus and I’m looking forward to some more sunshine. Sun makes me feel all happy inside 🙂
I haven’t got much interesting to say, except that I’m toddling along to an event on Friday for International Women’s Day at Trent Bridge with a couple of people from Guiding. It should be a good experience, and I always enjoy being involved in things like this. It’s not quite a protest, more a display. Also there’s a ceilidh on Saturday that I’m dragging Hairy along too – nothing like a few hours whirling around a hall 😀
Monday night was Guides, and it was good and scary in equal measures. Our girls are working towards the cookery badge and had to make spaghetti with tomato sauce, so they could compare it to a shop bought sauce; they also had to make a fruit salad. I don’t think I’ve ever seen more incompetence in one room ever before! I was supervising the group of the youngest girls – they were maybe eleven at the oldest, but even so I would have expected more from them!
Think back on it my dearies, do you remember when you first started to cook? Did you know that you had to boil pasta before you could eat it? Did you know what to do when the pan started to boil over? Did you turn to a person of authority for all the answers, without even trying to think about it for yourself? Well, to be fair to them I was (and am still!) guilty of the last one, but I couldn’t believe how little these girls knew or were able to do without being told EXACTLY what to do. It was a terrible chore to get them to make anything at all, and it took over an hour for a pan of spaghetti and a tomato sauce to be made. After that they took forever to get anything tidied up, and I could hear one of the other leaders getting more and more frustrated at them while the other ended up doing all the washing up for the unit.
I’ve always said that when I have children they will be taught to do everything around the house, whether they are boys or girls. Hairy hates ironing, isn’t very good at it either, but I’m not doing it for him because I’m not his mother. I feel sorry for his mother – she raised six boys, and did most of the housework it sounds. I’m also in awe of her – her boys have all turned out pretty well, and some of them are at least vaguely capable 😀 I think Hairy’s the best of the bunch, and not just because he’s my other half. He’s a very good cook, doesn’t send my baking tins up in flames or end up charring everything to the bottom of the pots!
Erm, I had a point there. Basically, my children will be brought up able to bake, cook for themselves and know how to change a lightbulb and do their own laundry. I’d rather be seen as a mean mum who makes my kids help out at home, than be stressed and resentful the entire time they’re at home and not know if they could cope when they move out.
Good news on the EDF front – lots of complaining later, and they’ve given us £30 recompense which doesn’t sound like much until you realise that’s half our monthly bill. I hate complaining, or making a nuisance of myself but this was a right thorn in my side and I’m glad we’ve got a proper apology from them at least.
I’ve fallen off the wagon with so much that I was trying to do – no sugar, no shampoo and being properly on top of my university work, which is really disappointing. I’ve been a bit doolally recently as hormone swings have been taking their toll, but starting today I’m going to use my overactive conscience again and hopefully this time it’ll last a little bit longer! I caved last night, bought chocolate and then felt horribly guilty for eating it but couldn’t stop myself. Next time, a very small bar of chocolate will suffice!
I’m also over halfway through the third Game of Thrones book by George R R Martin – “A Storm of Swords”, and I swear he’s just gone on a killing spree for no real reason and killed off half the major players of Westeros! I’m somewhat dismayed, I’m not going to lie! I’m not even sure if I want to pick it up again (of course I will, I want to finish this sodding series!), but there we go.
Also as a follow-up, I’m looking into careers in charity work and non profit organisations. It’s appealing to me at the moment – I’ve had years of experience in Guiding, I’d feel like I was doing something worthwhile with my time and energy and some of the jobs aren’t too badly paid. In an ironic turn of events, the Aldi near our flat is hiring again: if I started there, I’d be earning 50p an hour less than Hairy in his managerial role. After my probationary period, I’d be earning 50p more than him.
Contemplating a very early lunch before cracking on with my seminar write-up on Anglo-Saxon conversion, and then my essay on women in Anglo-Saxon society. And more reading, and more translating. Then going to give blood because it’s been ages since I was last able to give blood – piercings mean you can’t get it done for at least four months I think, if not half a year.
Runes and Rhinestones 