How was your day? (Random off topic chat)

I've just spent half an hour standing on a chair with a torch in my mouth trying to rewire a fluorescent lighting fixture that had a loose connection. I thought the ballast had failed at first, but when I was examining it a wire came loose so I guess that was the problem. I think my wiring must have been made out of snakes because none of the wires would stay where I put them when I was trying to refit everything and they kept sticking out the side of the fitting.

Got to see Eddie Izzard last night from second row of the tiny Glee Club. Made my otherwise fairly rubbish week (highlight hearing his heels clicking along right next to me the other side of the curtain!)

hahaha kathryn yes me too!

Highlight of this current tour is his 'Dressage' routine...especially as I'm always one of the only people in the audience to a) understand b) have done dressage and I still agree with his rant on the absurdity of it all! (also his impression of a horse in those heels is fabulous!)

I just drove two hours (to and fro) to pick up an original chair from the Starlight Express theatre in Germany as they are getting new chairs in for the 30th anniversary and me being a nostalgic sap. Lugged the heavy thing up the stairs to my 4th floor flat and am now giving it a thorough cleaning. Which makes me realize I shouldn't think too much about the state of the chairs when I sit down in a theatre.

Some highlights copied from this week's menu in my workplace's staff restaurant:

"Sheppard’s Pie"
"TRADISHIONAL Suffolk Sausage -Toad in the Whole"

And this is an exam board that is supposed to assess other people's English skills!

Mixed day for me. Great opportunities ahead work wise and on the opposite side my partners worsening health and thinking about the problems that presents and the impact it has on our daughter who doesnt fully understand.
Additionally realising that in 5 weeks the walking season starts and I've not covered many miles yet training and walking half way round the Isle of Wight at night feels quite daunting right now.

May I be permitted a little rantette?

Apparently parents are up in arms as to what to do with their toddlers if they are not allowed electronic devices on aeroplanes.

A couple of helpful suggestions:

a) talk to them
b) go to Skegness

I thank you.

My parents first suspected something was wrong with me when they pointed out a cricket match that we drove past and I couldn't see it but saw white blurs and said that I'd thought they were sheep.

I can still remember the unspoken, meaningful look between my parents, which I wasn't meant to see.

This important parental realisation wouldn't have happened had I been engrossed in an electronic device.

However, my parents interpreted the incident as an example of my poor observation skills and interest.

It took the school nurse, over a year later, to reveal that I was very short-sighted.

Before then, in the regular school "apparatus" sessions, I would run up the ramp then stop dead and peer downwards before eventually being coaxed to leap off.

This was interpreted by the teacher as evidence of psychological trauma.

One afternoon, at the school I have just left, one of my 10 year olds had received his first ever gold certificate.  A massive achievement.  He wanted me to come with him to tell his dad at the end of the day.  We approached dad who was on the phone in the playground.  I waited, politely, while the boy horsed around with his little brother.  Conversation goes thus:

"Eh?  wha'?  'ang on mate, I'll 'ave to find somewhere quieter........
Fo' fk's sake you lot...."

Dad storms off to corner of playground.

When he eventually comes back the boy, bouncing, says:

"Dad, I got a gold certificate."
"Eh? Wassat then?  I was on the fking phone."


I stayed 2 years for those kids.  Eventually the parents and the powers that be did it for me and enough was enough.  Leafy suburb by the way.