Three children in Daniel’s class were put together for a geography project. One of them took the lead and developed the presentation and did the work. The other two had a brief look over it and declared it to be good. Alas, for them, when the moment came to present to the class, the student who had actually done all the work was out so the other two had to present. As Daniel said, it’s hard to spontaneously deliver someone else’s presentation on Cambodia. I imagine it is.
Daniel
Wednesday, November 11, 2020
I am indebted to the school Twitter account for the information that Daniel and some class mates won a school science competition and for sight of the video that accompanied it. They tell me nothing. I cross-questioned Daniel looking for further information on his school life. “I applied for the Green school committee, but I didn’t get on,” he told me. I was outraged. As herself explained on her siblings’ behalf, “This is why we can’t tell you things.” I see.
In other news, I got absolutely soaked on the way home from work. I see new rain gear coming up on my exciting Christmas present list. My waterproof trousers let in water at the back of the knee. How does that even work from a physics perspective?
Tuesday, November 10, 2020
The boys had a session with Roddy Doyle today as part of Transition Year. They liked it. We had a debrief over dinner. He’s 62 and bald and he answered all their questions. A boy from Dan’s class’s mother grew up next door to the house where one of the families lived in the film of “The Snapper” or possibly “The Commitments”.
I did not get the job I interviewed for and I feel a bit sorry for myself. As Monica so memorably said all those years ago in Friends, “Why can’t a learning experience ever be fun?”
I am treasurer to the parents’ council in school and we had the parents’ council AGM via zoom this evening. Underwhelming and not really welcomed by anyone after a day in the office.
And how was your own Tuesday?
Sunday, November 8
I fell off the wagon again and stayed up until 3 in the morning looking at my phone. Why, why? I’ve been pretty good generally at putting it away in the evening and not going back to it but once I do, disaster. I blame Joe Biden. As a result of my late night, I got up relatively late and then, with pretty limited enthusiasm threw myself into work.
Herself helped Daniel with his physics work for this Thursday course outside school that he’s doing which was terrific as his parents are absolutely useless to him. Then he cycled up to GAA training. When he came home, he asked me whether there was a cleaning rota and I said, “No”. “Well,” said he, “I’ll hoover the house anyway, it needs it.” What a hero, in fairness, and his father did the bathrooms again so we are approaching clean. Very gratifying.
Herself spent the afternoon in an endless hideous zoom call with a national student representative body. After some consideration she decided she had enough on her plate and that she wouldn’t put herself forward for office. Good call.
I finished working about 3.30 and myself and Michael and Mr. Waffle went out for a cycle to the Botanic gardens. Michael is sick of the Botanic Gardens but is resigned to his fate. We saw lots of squirrels. I love a squirrel, very exciting.
The Irish Times produces this magazine called “The Gloss” every couple of months. It’s strangely compelling in a dreadful kind of way. Herself was reading it this morning and announced that she is not going to have Christmas dinner outdoors. Apparently this is what all the cool kids are doing.
This evening we played online games with the relatives in London; reasonably successful. Uncle A in London is good at finding games that work for all ages which is not easy.
Finally, and this could be my most boring factlet to date (and worse, one which I may have already shared), I bought a woollen throw for the end of the bed and I am absolutely delighted with it. Pulling it up over the duvet at night is like slipping into a warm bath. I should have got one years ago.
Finally, finally, I mentioned previously that Heather is blogging every day and you really should have a read. Her posts are a delight. I particularly enjoyed today’s post.
Perspective
Are you familiar with the world of DOMs and TOMs ? They are bits of France overseas and they are more or less closely linked to the mother ship. Herself tells me that the, very right on, young French woman who does French conversation classes with her heard a lecturer in UCD (her Irish university) refer to them as French colonies and she was shocked to the core of her being. I mean to the rest of us, they sound a lot like colonies but as a French person, she had never heard of them being referred to in that way or thought of them in that way. On reflection, she found there was much to agree with in the lecturer’s throwaway comment. It appears travel is broadening.
In other news, not much happened today but the American election count continues. Daniel had a long day in front of his laptop, attending his virtual course. It is so grim that they can’t go in person. And I am exhausted from working. Exhausted. And now I’m going to bed. Daily blog updates may yet be the death of me.
Updates from the Coalface
Herself went to a “Higher Options” online conference today from the comfort of her own bedroom. In previous years it has been in physical form and the various third level institutions manned stalls for hordes of 6th year students to descend on and ask questions. The online version appeared to be entirely non-interactive. “No interaction at all?” I asked. “No,” she said, “except for the school group chat which is hopping as we all feel we’ve been scammed out of a tenner.” It subsequently transpired that there was a chat function which had been overwhelmed by bored sixth years typing in the letter T. You’d think they might have ensured against that.
More generally she is quite pleased with herself as she applied for a writing mentorship scheme and has been accepted.
I was off work today for various logistical domestic reasons and was able to greet the boys as they came in the door from school. They were both in great form having had excellent days in school. Very pleasing.
For those of you following filtered permeability updates, our bollards have been replaced by planters with trees. The street whatsapp group was largely very pleased. We’re all basically incomers, even the people who moved here 40 years ago. The one woman who was born and bred on the street (75 and very active) and remembers it before trees were planted at all (the first gentrifiers starting the rot 40 years ago) was a bit less positive than the rest of us welcoming the trees with the following: “Ah Jesus, they can’t look after the ones that are here.” As she is regularly out clearing the storm drains of leaves, I do see where she is coming from but I, for one, welcome our leafy overlords.
And finally, the weather has turned and it is cold enough to turn on the Aga. Thrills.
