Lurgified! March 28, 2012
Posted by phoenixaeon in A330, Art, OU, Sick again, The Principessa Files, TMA04, TMA05.add a comment
Ugh. Struck down by illness again. I hate being sick.
Over the last week I’ve been feeling so eugh. Sore throat, stuffed up nose, hackity-mcyackity cough, and just generally washed out. Which means I haven’t been able to properly celebrate another fab result for the mythology course or get down to writing the next essay. OK, the next essay – “Does classical mythology reflect a disposition to explore the realities of the world or a desire to escape from them?” - isn’t due in until April 20-something or other, but I wanted it done by Friday as that is when Princi breaks for Easter. I have got to hope I can tease 1,600 words into a stylish ‘do in two days whilst my sinuses feel like a full nappy! *Sob* But try I will.
Talking of Easter, today was Princi’s Easter Bonnet parade, so we have spent the last two afternoons constructing a monster bonnet:
The crazy, monster Easter bonnet.
Princi did a lot of the work on this herself – all I really did was build the skullcap base (made from half an old football and a piece of card) and attach the basket. Princi made the flowers, sewed the bunny, spelled out and threaded the ‘Happy Easter’ bead banners, and stuck the eggs and chicks on. Nanny kindly made the pompom chick for her. And to top it all off, she won ‘Best Bonnet’ in her class too! Rock on, Principessa!
Anyway, I poured my creative brain into helping Princi with her bonnet, so I apologise for the rather dull post. Hopefully, next time I’m here, it’ll be a bit more exciting.
And breathe…. March 10, 2012
Posted by phoenixaeon in A330, Art, iPhone, OU, Principessa art, Proud Mummy, reading, The Principessa Files, TMA04, TMA05.2 comments
Well. After the rigmarole of last week, this week has been a steady, squeaky parp of air from a slowly let down balloon. The essay finally ripped its way from my brain and was submitted to the cyber-sewage works on Monday. It also saw Princi and I reunited with our favourite technologies – DVD and computer for Princi, iPhone for me. Yay! And there endeth the good times.
Wednesday brought the news that the NSPCC had decided they didn’t want to use Princi in their advert. And there is where the deflation of said balloon increased as it screamed around the room and flopped to the floor in a mass of flaccid finality. (Yeah, I used a few f words…) How would I tell Princi? She was so excited about it. I even thought about not telling her and hoping that she’d just forget about it. But that would be wrong, so when she got in from school I called her for a hug and told her the bad news. I needn’t have been worried. She gave me a wide-O shocked face, then shrugged, jumped out of the hug, and went to do some drawing and watch Dexter’s Laboratory. Whereas my disappointment for Princi sent me moping, it didn’t phase her at all. That is one quality that I really hope she keeps.
The Garden of Dexter.
On an up point, I’ve only two more essays to complete and that’s another course towards the degree finished. I can’t believe that this time next year I’ll be nearly done with the last course and the degree. I’m almost excited about it! Though what I’ll do afterwards is still a burning question. I’m still thinking about the MA in children’s literature, but I’m worried about making a fool of myself. At the same time, I’m hankering for the addiction that was sparked during the kidlit course. Sometimes, I hate being indecisive.
Anyways, time to bog off and read some more on muthos and logos, and the beginnings of Ancient Greek cosmology. Oh, to be a foetus living inside a fish-like creature, living on an earth made up of moisture surrounded by thorny bark…
But here is evolution of a different kind:
Evolution of a Cybergirl.
What a week! March 4, 2012
Posted by phoenixaeon in A330, OU, The Principessa Files, TMA04.2 comments
This last week has been a tough’un. No, the last two weeks have been tough…
It started off with me panicking about my latest essay. The wealth of information I had to cram into my walnut completely overwhelmed me and I couldn’t see the wood for the trees. Or, as the case was, the thread for the wool. The essay this time was about how Ovid created a unified narrative in Book VI of Metamorphoses. My first problem came with reading too much about syntagmatic and paradigmatic structure and totally confusing myself. That’s pretty easy to do, believe me! So, I spent last week crying and flustering in a daze of ‘It’s not possible, I can’t do this,’ to this week typing any old rubbish just to clear the cobwebs. But I’ve a draft done now, bibliography and all, and tomorrow I shall read through it one last time before submitting it to the cyber-gods for divine judgement.
Then, a completely new proposition popped up to bite me – well, Princi – on the bum. She was called in for her first audition for an advert for the NSPCC. This came totally out of the blue. We had to quickly arrange a couple of hours off with her school (the call came through on the Tuesday lunchtime (21st Feb) for her to audition on the Wednesday afternoon), work out where we were going, and arrange train travel. She got there and dazzled them with her knowledge of Samuel Pepys and her ability to look sad. Then, on the Friday, we got the text telling us she had a recall. Wow, wow, wow! Again, didn’t expect that! So, back to Manchester on the Sunday, where she dazzled with her knowledge about Edward Jenner and her ability to look sad. And again we waited…
Well, the text came through on Wednesday evening (29th Feb), Princi has been pencilled in to do the advert pending being granted her performance licence. That in itself was a cause for stress as a form needed filling out, a letter from the headmistress was needed, as was a doctor’s note, a photocopy of her birth certificate and two passport photos. All of this had to be arranged right when I was finally in the flow of writing the essay, and photographing Princi is a pain in the bottom at the moment. While this news was a welcome yay, the jab in the finger from the shard of glass from the iPhone screen certainly wasn’t a yay. Princi had accidently dropped it on the Tuesday night during one of her difficult moments – I’d asked her to give the phone to me, and she decided she didn’t want to so she pulled the phone away from my hand and it slipped out of hers – and the screen had cracked. Argh! Not only was she counting on that phone for news about the audition, but it’s my emergency button for when I need help. A huge hoo-haa followed, with Princi first threatening to kill herself (that freaked me out somewhat!) and then saying that instead of that she was going to leave by running away after school the next day (that freaked me out just as much!). After all was sorted out (a punishment of no computer and DVD player until Monday), and a cuddle and long talk, Princi went off to bed still a little tearful.
Wednesday also bore the information that Princi needed a costume for school on Friday for their belated World Book Day dress-up. Crap. We went through the gamut of her favourite characters and finally settled on Edgar the Raven from Marcus Sedgwick’s The Raven Mysteries. Princi ended up wearing one of my tops because it had wing-like sleeves, black trousers and boots, and we found her old witch’s nose and painted that black.
Princi as Edgar the Raven.
So Friday came, as did costume day, the completion of licencing forms, and the completion of the first draft of my essay! Yay! And tomorrow I get my phone back and Princi’s punishment is completed. Woohoo! So no more Princi whining that she has nothing to watch. No more whining about how much she hates punishments and consequences. And no more whining that I am missing my phone!
On the peppermint train of happiness. December 12, 2011
Posted by phoenixaeon in A330, Christmas, Mythology, OU, The Principessa Files, TMA02.add a comment
In other words, I am chuffed to little mintballs! The results for TMA02 came in a little while ago, and I’m pleased to say I have exceeded my own expectations. It’s not often I’ll say that, but hell, that essay was a horror to write. And if you’re wondering what was the result that came back? 93%. Rock on! Now I just have to keep up that standard… Eeks!
As for other things, I’ve discovered that Princi has a friend who understands her craziness. It is so good to know that. She only gets to see her twice a week as she’s one of the girls she does Taekwondo with, but it still makes me happy. They were inseparable at the Christmas party on Saturday, running around like headless chickens, doing madcap dances that the Monty Python Ministry of Silly Walks would be proud of, and generally driving me crazy with silly jokes.
The cheeky chickies!
The cheeky chickies!
The cheeky chickies!
It was a brilliant night, and it allowed me to stop worrying that Princi is having trouble making friends. This is something I have been worried about for a while now, especially since her teacher had mentioned that she doesn’t really socialise at school. Princi has people who she’ll play with if she wants to, but otherwise she is quite content to play on her own. But now I’ve seen her in the environment that she is comfortable in and with kids who accept her for her, well, I feel less stressed about the whole situation. And it makes me laugh that Princi also appears to have a twin obsession, as she adores the teenage twin brothers that go to her TKD club and two of the kids she’ll play with at school are twin brothers too!
So, an essay I thought was a flop and a party I had worried about going to have both left me chuffing happy on the peppermint train. Choo-choo! And my Christmas shopping is all done, so another choo-choo for that too!
Divine whirlwinds and lightning-carrying eagles. October 17, 2011
Posted by phoenixaeon in A330, Mythology, OU, Pirate Penguin, Principessa art, The Principessa Files, TMA01.2 comments
Ganymede and the golden eagle of Zeus by Catherine H. Miller
As I’ve moaned about previously, I’m not writing – here on the blog (sorry! Meant to try and write more often) or creatively – but I am now writing academically. My current OU course, Myth in the Greek and Roman Worlds, is in full swing. This morning, I finally worked the nerve up to press the ‘Submit’ button on the first essay – a three source analysis of the myth of Ganymede. The picture there isn’t one of them, though!
Previous to this assignment, I’d known that Ganymede was something to do with mythology, that this was the alias that Shakespeare gave to Rosalind during her time in the forest of Arden, and through my teenage astronomy addiction that it is one of Jupiter’s moons. I didn’t know what the story was about, or even what it represented in Classical terms. So now to have studied they myth and understand its underlying socio-historic relevance, well… It’s a whole new level of understanding when looking at Ganymede in the forms I am familiar with, and the making of links and theories in my brain makes me happy! I am looking forward to diving deeper into the Classical world now.
So far, I am really enjoying the course. I’ve even met my tutor too, something that doesn’t happen often, but that’s my fault. I find reasons not to go to tutorials, so I’ve decided that I will make an effort to get to my tutorials this year. They are helpful, so I’m only spiting myself by not going.
But I’m not the only one indulging in ‘the arts’. Princi recently started drama classes, so she’s been coming home telling me how she had to imagine being a strawberry and other things. Over the last week she’s had to learn some poetry, particularly a poem called ‘Sock Song’ by Ian McMillan. I can’t believe how fast she remembers things, she read the poem twice and had it memorised! The same happened with three of the other four poems that were on the sheets she’d brought home. She really does amaze me. Anyway, she was asked to draw a picture of the poem too, so this is what she came up with:
I love that she’s managed to find a place for her latest obsession, with two ‘Pirate Penguin’-style penguins appearing on the picture. And just so you know what I’m on about, this is Pirate Penguin (vs. Ninja Chicken):
Pirate Penguin vs Ninja Chicken by Ray Friesen
So now, with TMA01 thrust on a wing and a prayer into the divine ether of the ‘net, it’s time for me to get reading Hippolytus. What mythic goodness (or tragedy, even) awaits me there?
Party party. September 22, 2011
Posted by phoenixaeon in Birthday, The Principessa Files.4 comments
Where are all the guests?
Yesterday, it was Princi’s seventh birthday. She had been excited since Monday as she knew she would be having a party – although the threat of having her birthday cancelled due to bad behaviour marred her excitement for about five minutes. Still, she bounced around in anticipation… Up until the half hour preceding the party.
“Mummy, where are all my guests? How can I have a party if it’s just me?”
She sat on the chair, thoroughly dejected. Uncle Gareth tried to distract her with a bowl of chocolate coins, telling her that when a guest arrived she should go to the door and say, ‘Welcome to my party, would you like a chocolate coin?’ That cheered her up for a few moments, but when no-one knocked at the door, the sad face came back.
Finally, a knock came. Princi grabbed her bowl of chocolate coins and tackled Uncle Gareth to the door, desperate to get her welcoming speech out. And then that was it; a happy Princi, friends, and balloon fights! Once the balloon battle was over, we all played sneak attack for cupcakes. I covered my eyes and the kids crept towards me, stopping and standing like statues if I uncovered my eyes. To say it felt like I had been ganged up on by a bunch of mini Weeping Angels would be an understatement! It was scary how quiet some of them were!
After a few more games, the food was unwrapped and descended upon. I had put some fruit on the table – pineapple fingers, apple slices, and grapes – fully expecting the kids not to touch it, overlooking the healthy stuff for the likes of crisps and jelly, but no. I was the fool. Nearly all the fruit was gone after the first visit to the table. Then the second surprise – the kids then took themselves off into the garden to sit at the patio table.
Uncle Gareth acted as a Pied Piper figure, the kids followed him about because he was being as loud and silly as they were. I have no clue what he was doing while they were eating their food, but there were loud screams and raucous laughter coming from the garden, so I can only imagine he was doing disgusting things like spitting out jelly or sucking jelly up through his nose!
Uncle Gareth also supervised the craziness that ensued when the piñata was unveiled.
Oi! Donkey! Gimmie my sweets!
Thankfully, there was only one slight bonk on the head when one of the girls, L, hefted the stick above her head and knocked the little boy, C, gently on the head. But wow! The kids were brutal with that wooden cosh!
Then it was time for the cake. This was the bit I’d been looking forward to, simply because Princi didn’t know she was getting a special cake. She is addicted to a game called Spore Hero Arena on the ‘Intendo DS, so it was my intendo to get a cake made with some of the Spore Creatures sat on top.
There were gasps of ‘Wow’ when the cake came out, and Princi was suitably stunned by it too.
After two hours of screaming children, the party was over. Phew! Everyone had fun, hands full of sweets, and bellies full of cake. All in all, a good time was had. And just before bed, Princi said,
“That was the best. Birthday. Ever. And Mummy, you are the best Mummy I could ever wish to have in the whole wide world.”
That pint’s got some legs! September 18, 2011
Posted by phoenixaeon in A330, Birthdays, Destroyer of Worlds, Mutant spider, OU, The Principessa Files.2 comments
Eeks!
I thought about putting this as my first Silent Sunday post, but I certainly was not silent! *shudder*
So, a new September. That can only mean a new course. A330 - Myth in the Greek and Roman Worlds – entered the building last week. I’ve been so excited to do this course, but now I have it I just can’t seem to muster up the concentration to get stuck in. I think I have hit the mid-degree (well, almost finished more like it) wall. I am hoping it’s simply because I don’t have the essay questions yet; the OU have stopped printing TMA booklets, so not knowing the specifics of what I need to work towards has left me feeling a bit blah. I’ve to wait until Wednesday before I can consult the Oracle known as the OU course page to find out my essay destiny. Sigh.
A new September also means that a little Munchkin will soon be a year older. And finally, at seven, she will have a birthday party. Yay! I think I’m more excited than she is. I’ve even ordered a special cake for her that will have a couple of Spore Creatures on (Spore Hero Arena is her favourite Nintendo DS game. She has a whole horde of imaginary creatures that follow her around and fight with her imaginary Sonic). I’m even anticipating helping her learn some magic tricks, as Nanny and Grandand have bought her a magic set. It will be a fun day, one that I am really looking forward to.
So, a simple update with a horrible critter. I will try harder on my next post, I promise.
*Sneak attack* August 7, 2011
Posted by phoenixaeon in A210, OU, The Principessa Files.6 comments
And the dread is back. I don’t know why, but I am suffering pre-blogging dread. I have made numerous attempts to post, only for the post to get caught in the back of my subconscious throat and choke me, forcing me to abandon any hope of an update. So today’s post is brought to you with the aid of an imaginary breathing tube.
So… Open university. Well, I passed my exam and managed to get the grade (pass 2. There was no chance of a distinction this time around) I wanted. When I say managed, I mean I pulled teeth, messed up the answers and limped out of the other end with a scraped knee and a hairdo like I’d been dragged through a privet backwards. There was a very loud sigh of relief when I found that I had only just collapsed across the line to achieve the grade I had worked hard for over the nine months previous. But yay! Done and dusted. I now have a month or so to dawdle about before the next course – Myth in the Greek and Roman Worlds – kicks off and the panic sets in again. Thankfully, there is no exam for this one, just an extended essay. But I can deal with those.
Princi… She is fabulous. As always. She finished school with a prize for 100% attendance and highest achiever in her class. She also had a shiny report and a teacher recounting her woes at not being able to teach Princi next year. It’s fair to say she had a good year at school. And she had a good result on her first ever visit to a dentist. She has perfect teeth. Yay! Although she came home and told Nanny that ‘some teeth are partially erupted and some are fully erupted.’ So now she doesn’t have teeth, but mini volcanoes. (As for me, I’m back to the dentist tomorrow for a filling. Not bad seeing as I haven’t seen a dentist for eighteen years.)
Other that that, not much has happened. Princi loved her first dizzying experience on the Liverpool Wheel (whilst Uncle Gareth and I got a little freaked out when the glass coffin we were locked in started rocking a little too much right up at the top!),
Princi on Liverpool Wheel
and her trip later the same day to the teddy bear workshop to get ‘Dog Venti’,
Princi and Dog Venti
whilst my cousin Kirst and I sung ourselves hoarse at a Deacon Blue gig at the Echo Arena (no pics, only had the iPhone and it doesn’t take good pictures at gigs). Which reminds me, must remember to book Blink 182 tickets.
So that is that. An update. Hopefully next time I can find some pazazz and not just bu-zumble along like a bee in a bottle. But that last OU course really has killed my creativity. Fingers crossed that the next course fires up my synapses… Maybe Zeus’s lightning bolts might come in useful there.
And today I felt like a proper Mum. June 23, 2011
Posted by phoenixaeon in The Principessa Files.6 comments
I finally had the opportunity to do Mummy/school duty today. Out of the numerous school ‘come in and see how the children are getting on’ letters I’ve received I’ve only ever made it into school twice, so when Grandand came home from picking Princi up from school yesterday and told me that there was a big assembly the next morning, I made damned sure I would be getting there.
And there was the triple pay-off:
- Princi’s happiness when I said that I would be there to see her play her Big Bad Pig role.
- Princi’s smile as we rolled through the streets to school – her on her scooter, Grandand pushing me in the wheelchair.
- The huge massive hug that I received from Princi after her class had finished the assembly.
It was brilliant! I felt like a real Mum, and not like the useless flobbledygook I usually feel like when I’m not able to get to school. For once, I didn’t let my baby down. And Princi was absolutely fabulous as the Big Bad Pig:
She'll huff and she'll puff, she's the Big ("colossal") Bad ("despicable") Pig ("EH?")!
(And I know it takes more than this to be a proper mum, but this is one area I’ve been sadly lacking in. But it made me happy that I’d made Princi happy.)
Should she stay or should she go? January 27, 2011
Posted by phoenixaeon in Schools, The Principessa Files.8 comments
Hmph. I’m not sure what to do…
Last night, I discovered that the things Princi has been saying about the way a girl in school has been treating her is true. She’s been saying it for a while now, and although I believed her I was certain it wasn’t as bad as she was saying. Now, it’s never stopped her from going to school – she loves school too much for that – but I’m worried it will at some point.
This girl, E, was her very best friend during nursery. Then, in Foundation, some aggro began to grow between them. Princi would come home every night saying that E had been hitting her and saying nasty things to her, then telling her that no-one else in the class liked her. It turned out that E had been going home and telling her mum that Princi had been hitting her, too. Her mother pulled Grandand up one evening and told him to keep Princi away from E as Princi was a bad influence on E. Cheeky bloody cow! Anyhow, Princi insisted that E was still her best friend and that she was going to try to convince her of that.
When Year 1 began, they were put into different classes, I reckon this was due to E’s mum complaining about Princi. For a few weeks Princi was fine, playing with the kids in her class and getting on with things. But Princi said she was missing E. So we invited her out with us for a trip to the Blue Planet for Princi’s birthday. All seemed fine, they had a good time, and while they were loud there was nothing untoward in the way they played together. So again, I wondered at the things Princi would tell me happened at school every day.
And it was EVERY DAY. ‘Mummy, E hit me today.’ ‘Mummy, E followed me around and pushed me and told me that J isn’t my friend.’
Well, I started getting suspicious that some of it must be true, so I asked Princi if she still liked her school. ‘Yes,’ came the answer. And the thing is, on the days I’ve said I wanted to keep her off because she’s had a bad night with a nasty cough, or she was ill the night before, Princi has always insisted on going to school and not wanting to miss a day. She really does make me proud.
But then last night happened. Grandand and Princi have been picking E up to take her to taekwondo for the last few weeks (yep, they go to the same club, but they were going on different nights until we had to swap one night because it clashed with football). Last week wasn’t so bad, but last night…
On the way home, Princi said to E, ‘Let’s play a game.’ E replied, ‘OK, but I want to play a horrible game.’ Princi said that she wanted to play a nice game, a counting game. But E said, ‘No! I want to play a horrible game and you are going to play it with me.’ And things spiraled downwards from there. Grandand was not impressed, saying that E was really nasty to Princi and that he would never offer to take E again, and Princi asked if she could stop going to taekwondo on a Wednesday and go on a Sunday instead. She has never before asked not to go. So, while taekwondo is easy to resolve, school isn’t. She loves her school, but I fear that E might end up killing her joy for it. And should I really look for another school just because of one kid? I think the answer might be yes, but there’s no guarantee that something similar wouldn’t happen at another school.
So what do I do? Is there any point in going to the school to complain? Or should I just bite the bullet and ask Princi if she would like to go to a new school, then start making enquiries? Or am I just being sensitive and over-protective?
