Skeleton

Skeleton
Originally uploaded by Lee Carson

Happy Hallowe'en! My concession this year has been to buy a bucket of sweets to hurl at children who come to the door tonight, but judging by the dearth of previous years I won't have too much to worry about. And then I can eat the sweets. Asda was horrible yesterday, with grubby people clamouring to buy the remaining grubby plastic Hallowe'en tat. Even Sainsbury's only had a handful of foosty pumpkins on Thursday, so I might carve a potato tonight instead.
Last night there was a big staff gathering in Bo'ness to start saying farewell to Sheilah, our nearly retired headteacher. It was fun, though as a designated driver I was not as keen to stay on as I usually might have been. And it was Bo'ness, so you don't want to hang about in general.
Tonight is Samhuinn, a firey / drummy festival procession leaving the Castle at 9pm and promising to be a fantastic photo opportunity. A colleague from QPS, Jennifer, is a drummer taking part and was talking this week of fur costumes and leather masks... I will be wearing a raincoat and stout shoes I think.

Highland Graffiti

Highland Graffiti
Originally uploaded by Lee Carson

Today I was All Man as before me child after child dissolved into tears at some personal crisis or another, some real and some imagined. See Exhibit A glaring at me in tears because she was unable to fold some paper. (18 others had successfully folded their paper but I was still an evil teacher for not folding hers for her.) And Exhibit B, crying as the rest of her group shouted at her for not pulling her weight. It was difficult to be truly sympathetic when I had deliberately put her in the group to be shouted at, to save me doing it. And it's only February, imagine the carnage by June.

On a brighter note we had proper snow today - thick, fluffy, cold and icy enough to leave two of my class with semi-permanent facial scars after only half an hour of snowball fighting. Cycling was actually very peaceful through the drifts. I think I saw 3 other bikes the whole day, and two of them were the same guy twice.

I went on a spending spree yesterday, within the boundaries of being a tightwad. I bought a few books - one by Sudhri Venkatesh, the Californian sociology student mentioned in Freakonomics. He spent a few years with the Black Kings, a gang who he discovered had a hierarchy and financial structure to rival any other big corporation. His book fleshes out the summary found in Freakonomics and is an easy and compelling read. In my head he sounds like Louis Theroux.

The accompanying picture was taken in Tain, the underpass from St Vincent Road under the bypass. Jon was impressed by its simple message of peace and its accurate punctuation.

Nearly Christmas

Susan Was Here
Originally uploaded by Lee Carson

In service day today, frighteningly concerning the Hallowe'en disco, nativity play and arrangements for decorating the gym hall with festive doors. Yes, festive doors.
Back to cycling tomorrow, and I'm battened down for the winter with all lights and thermals, brr. Edinburgh continues to be in the grip of tram roadworks - only the most hardened of drivers dare venture onto the roads these mornings. The end of our road is blocked off just now, and despite three huge yellow signs warning drivers not to try to use it they still drive along before making angry u-turns while waving their tiny fists at the barriers in their way.
Lorna has a cold and is off to bed with her book and a hot water bottle. Kit (Dr. NO) was using the "pooter" mouse today but still can't get in my Bookmarks to track down the Balamory sing-a-long website. Thank goodness.

It's here, incase you feel the need for a Hoolie.

Get a bicycle. You will not regret it. If you live.

Hmmm, haven't been here for a while. Nothing to blame except bone-idleness but let's move on... I am staying late in school tonight to sign-off the old School Board and usher in the new Parents' Forum. I would actually welcome anything which gets more parents involved in their children's education, and I think the School Board has for long been a shadowy closed shop arguing eternally about the cleanliness of toilets and parking outside the school gates. I reckon a published agenda, given to all parents well in advance of a meeting, could draw some in. Then we can pounce on them and tell them to help their child learn to read...

Christopher has grown loads since the last post, of course. He now does pulling up, fast crawling, opening doors, teeth (2) and a nice routine of babbling sounds most of which, I have to be honest, resemble "dada". That didn't go down too well on Mother's Day, mind you. He is now a well established member of nursery and the daily report we get is always filled with tales of trampolines, toast and treasure boxes. My half day Fridays means I can usually collect him and it's always nice when he recognises me and gives me his smile. Nice touches like a Mother's Day card, home baking (eh? he baked?) and walks along the canal side have confirmed we chose the right kennel. I mean nursery.

Of course, his big news is being nearly one - gulp. It's too boring to say "The time goes so quickly" but there you go, I said it. Spring is definately my favourite time of year and now reminds me of joking with Lorna about giving birth to a lamb, and watching as the daffodils began to flower, her signal that baby was nearly here. So we are off to Applecross for his birthday, though that may be the last time we stay at the inn - they have put their prices up from £30pp per night to £45 - an increase of £60 for the two nights B&B. Too rich for us I'm afraid.

Speaking of holidays we have 2 more planned for the year, but I have to confess I'm not brave enough to venture abroad with the boy yet so we are strictly Scotland based which I have no problem with. The biker couples have booked a 10 person cottage in Appin for a week in April, so we are going to do one of the weekends. The exciting news? It has a pool table, woo! Of course it is the ride up I'm looking forward to...but more bike grumps in a moment... Our summer holiday is to be a week at a cottage on Mull, with at least one visit to Iona but mainly to get "away from it all"...meaning it has no TV and certainly no computer. Betting on who will murder who first will begin in June, with Lorna being the hot tip to smother me on night 3.

Bike woes? Well the Suzuki has been back at the dealers for 5 weeks after refusing to start and flashing me a "fuel injection" warning! After exploratory surgery they told me the throttle bodies needed to be replaced! This is very serious, especially on a 1000 mile / 5 month old bike. What's more, while they were in there they discovered the wiring loom had "lost its integrity" - what? Well, apparently part of the wiring looked like it had acid spilt on it, exposing the bare wires...the battery was intact, so who know what all that is about. Anyway, Suzuki keep all their spare parts on an asteroid past Saturn, so getting them takes weeks of patience and phone calls. I have a loan bike from them, but that's not really the point, is it? I wrote a nice stroppy letter to them last night so we'll see what comes of that.

And on the other bike front - I still cycle to and from school, and I'm enjoying feeling fitter and stronger as I cycle breezily up hills that previously used to make me want to puke. And I'm getting a new bike, a nice off-road suspension job for summer evenings I hope. Toys toys toys.

Ok, that's the update. If anyone is still there drop me a comment to encourage me to keep the blog going :-)