After another couple of days with 28 to 30 degrees C in this 'ere Continental WesShire, a pleasant mostly overcast Sunday with max 24 or 25°, much more bearable. Windows wide open, a nice cooling breeze, very welcome after last week. In this old, but lovely building from the 1850s, the warmth stored up during great heat days takes a while to dissipate.
Very calm and quiet and peaceful today as it seems, only interrupted by the noises of biggo motorbikes - what is it that motorbikes need to be that loud? I would have thought that the enjoyment of a ride would largely suffice, even without the acoustic mayhem!
Work has started again, actually a few weeks ago already, which means that I'm perhaps less often on the Ship, and rather more landlubbering away, now having them partake in my sheer incredible witticisms and bon-mots. Ehem. - I guess I'm a bon-mot-cyclist, then, and that can be a bit loud as well, at times.
Echoing Wesley J’s wishes for a relaxing day before the w**k week is upon us.
Lovely here today - about 15 degrees and sunny.
Ideal weather for what I laughably call “a run” and anyone else would call: “why is that man sweating so much when he has barely broken into a stroll?”
Still, all forms of exercise provide “calorie space” for CAKE, which is my primary objective
Calorie space for CAKE - what an excellent philosophy! Having had a nice amble yesterday evening, I'm planning on another one today.
It's a beautiful day here (17° and sunny) but it was unpleasantly hot in the Cathedral because some blithering idiot had closed the West doors. I blame the people who insist on sitting at the back (in the same pew their family has sat in since before the Reformation*) and complain there's a draught. Well, you can always put on a cardigan/coat; there's a limit to what I can take off (and surplices hold a hell of a lot of heat).
* well, not quite - the Cathedral was only built in 1853, but you get the idea ...
A nice, sunny, day here, too - 20 C or thereabouts, with a breeze, and some Interesting Cloud Formations.
Last weekend of the school holidays in this part of Ukland, so our little congregation was a bit sparse again. Hopefully, next week will see the Waifs and Strays returning from that mysterious place 'Away' .
September is usually a fairly busy month, as various things start up again, but I expect that's true of many churches.
We've got a national holiday tomorrow - Labour Day, which is also the last day of the school holidays here - so our congregation (and the choir) was a bit under-represented too.
I'm just home from our Church Welcome picnic - this is a picnic that we hold to welcome ex-pats from various countries, whose children go to the international school in Clermont. It's because we have the Michelin world HQ here, plus other multi-national companies that there are so many expats. There were nearly 100 people there.
Of course, being me, I only talked to people I knew, but there were lots of more outgoing people!! I ate far too much.
Last weekend of the school holidays in this part of Ukland, so our little congregation was a bit sparse again. Hopefully, next week will see the Waifs and Strays returning from that mysterious place 'Away' .
September is usually a fairly busy month, as various things start up again, but I expect that's true of many churches.
You should be so lucky. About half my church has gone, or is about to go, on holiday/weekends away/short breaks/weddings .... because it ISN'T officially the holiday season!
O dear. There never seems to be a Closed season in Away, does there?
Mind you, most of our Waifs and Strays have school-age kidz, so they won't disappear again until half-term.
Unless they go Shopping, or to Football, or (sadly all too common these days) both parents have to go to Work, leaving the kidz with grandparents who don't live anywhere nearby...
I suspect the nature of congregations (i.e. that they're generally Not Getting Any Younger) means that fewer of them are bound by school holidays, and, let's face it, travel is much cheaper once the kids go back!
After I'd left school, my parents had a motor-home that they took all over Europe, and they would always go away in September as there was a surcharge (IIRC it was 50%) in July and August on the Orkney ferry for vehicles above a certain height (which theirs was - it wouldn't fit under the side-aisles on the car deck). Also, they weren't really sun-worshippers, and they generally found European temperatures more convivial in the autumn, so win, win.
About a quarter of our congregation is under 18 (I think it was 120 kids at last count). We had a baby boom about 5 years ago when we had 15 babies born in the same year. But that probably reflects that our independent church is 25 years old and the main demographic is consequently middle aged couple with kids.
We normally have two identical services on Sunday mornings but for August we combine for one service as the summer holidays shrink the congregation considerably, what with the students being away as well.
I want to say here how grateful I am to the friend who paid for me to have a cleaner in - I'm going to tell her too, obviously! I've got someone coming to stay on Friday for the weekend, and Dormouse Towers gets very grubby and dusty - an old house + 4 cats + 2 people who loathe and abhor housework, AND I'm not in the best physical shape at the moment, with arthritis flare-ups.
I was just saying to my friend that I would have to pull up my big girls' knickers and get on with cleaning, when she said "let me pay for a cleaner! I'd like to!" So, Melissa came for 2.5 hours today (bathroom, study, two bedrooms, stairs (2 lots) clean and lovely and big downstairs room started) and will come for 2.5 hours tomorrow (dining room, kitchen, living room to do and big downstairs room to finish) I was doing stuff as well - things which mightn't've got done otherwise like clearing out baskets of junk. I'm knackered through what I did, so there's no way I could have done such a good job.
I am SO grateful!!!
As it's a public holiday here, the weather has followed Ancient Precedent™ and it's p*ssing with rain.
I think ambling may have to take a rain-check (see what I did there?). Autumn may be popping its head round the door: it's only 15° at the moment, and apart from a stickyish day on Wednesday, temperatures seem to be heading down towards the more piglet-friendly high teens and low 20s.
A few months of that would be lovely ... <sigh>
ION, I had the leftover Chinese for lunch today; as it was all mixed together I just threw it all into a frying pan with a little oil and a few extra nibbed almonds, and it was fine.
I'm feeling semi-virtuous because on Sunday and yesterday I finally got around to digging out some horrible grout in the bathroom, brushing an anti-mould treatment all over the walls and then replacing the grouting. Not a brilliant job but had to be done and I come a lot cheaper than a "professional".
@Piglet Yes, that method of dealing with Chinese leftovers works for me too - the sons call it my oriental surprise.
I made my first attempt at oeufs en cocotte (eggs baked in the oven) today, and proved once again that if you do what the blessèd Delia tells you, very little can go wrong. They were very nice - served with some cooked ham and a tomato - and really no more trouble than microwaving them would have been.
It's a lovely day (21° and sunny), so I think an amble might be in order.
The little darlings have gone back to school but we are taking a family interest again as our oldest grandson (at four years and twelve days) has started at school. He seems to have enjoyed it. Let's see how he reacts to going again today! I'm not sure he realises that he's going to be doing this for something like fifteen years.
OTOH the traffic has doubled. There is a primary school up the main road to the left and a large secondary school and a FE college up the main road and over the roundabout to the right. We need to squeeze into the traffic going right but usually find some nice motorist (even vans, taxis and buses cooperate) so we don't have to wait too long.
I'll be honest - if I had a child of four years and twelve days, I think I'd be inclined to wait until next year before sending him to school (unless it was nursery school). I was in the oldest class in my year at school, and the superiority we felt over the other classes was immeasurable.
It's a warm, sunny day (23°, feeling like 26), but we seem to be in the path of the tail-end of Hurricane Dorian, and the weekend's not looking great. It's a shame, as we were supposed to be having an outdoor service on Sunday, followed by a corn-boil on the green.
were we living in England, our son would have had to start School at 4yrs 1 month and been one of the youngest in his class. He would not have been ready.
As we live in Scotland, with its different bracket of when you go to school (and potentially also corresponding different attitudes towards what happens in that first year, in comparison to nursery) he went at 5yrs 1month and is in the middle of his class in terms of age
in Scotland, you start P1 if your 5th birthday falls between the March of that year until the February of the next - though you are also allowed to defer your "young" child until the following year if you think they're not ready at 4½ -
Some people defer, some don't, which is how you get the strange situation as my daughter does, where there are people in her class who have their 10th birthday, even before someone has their 9th
The 4 year starting age for school never had anything much to do with education and everything to do with reducing the government spend. If a 4 year old is in a nursery school the staffing ratio can be no more than 1 trained member of staff per 13 children: in a school that rises to 30; it is also recommended that each group has 1 trained teaching assistant, at least part time, and in practice this means most, if not all, nursery schools have a group of 13 staffed by 1 teacher and 1 TA.
My own chaps were small for their years and very, very lively, waking with the dawn until their age was in double figures. At 4 they still needed (and took without prompting) a post-lunch nap of at least an hour every day. We didn't start them at school until just before their 5th birthday because they wouldn't have been able to cope; as it was, they were completely knackered without the nap and bedtime was, at their request, brought forward.
The worst thing about starting children at school at 4 is that it has little, if any, effect on outcome: by the age of 9 children in Finland, who start school at 7, score better at literacy, numeracy and in general level of reasoning than their UK counterparts.
Interestingly the private sector, while having "school" at 4 for those parents who demand it, have a very different curriculum, by-and-large sticking to what they did for my age group and earlier generations: no really formal levels until Prep level (Year 3), learning through play before then.
I agree about school starting age. As a Boomer, our starting age was a lot later as there simply wasn't room. I was exactly fifteen months older than my grandson when I started school (in January 1963 after my fifth birthday in September 1962) and I still dozed off after lunch.
I was lucky in that I learned to read at home - older siblings and others plus my (then) severe asthma meant I stayed still and inside more than usual. But my memories of school before Prep stage are that the only difference between home and school was that I did the same things in a different place: sure, I was encouraged to read, and we played shops (maths), but it wasn't work. And we had mats which were rolled out on the floor - semi-padded affairs, like a thin futon - which we occupied after lunch while our teacher read to us, a fair number falling asleep.
The thing that struck me about the chaps' infant school was just how joyless it was - and they felt that keenly. That was slightly before the "improvement" in early years/ primary curriculum so God only knows what the regime is like now.
From Cardiff Council's website: "Children [in Wales] are entitled to a part-time nursery place from the start of the term after they have turned 3. They will stay in nursery school until the September after their fourth birthday when they start reception class in primary school". At least in Cardiff primary school children start only in September: there are no January or Easter starts (although there are for nursery-age children). I don't know if this applies right across Wales: it may do as education is devolved to the Welsh Government.
It may shock you to learn that in France, schooling is now compulsory from the age of three. I am one the large number of people who consider this policy absurd.
It’s not like they’re learning anything they can’t at home; I think they basically spend the day on things like colouring and singing songs, and as everyone likes to say here, “learning to tie their shoelaces”.
Another worrying thought: despite being a school teacher in the public system, husband en rouge is adamant that Captain Pyjamas is going to go to a private school. We’re hoping to get him into an English/French private school close to our home. It’s massively oversubscribed but I believe having an English-speaking parent gets him priority.
Your friendly neighbourhood cynic suggests that some of the motivation for earlier full-time education is the need for parents to go to work, whether they want to or not. I don't know how this applies to France and other countries but the cost of a home, whether you are renting or buying, has increased so much that running a home on one salary is tough. It is therefore necessary to have some more coming in, and God alone knows how single parents manage. Hence schooling is provided at an earlier age to enable parents to return to work, even if only on a part-time, term-time basis.
My daughter, whose birthday is in August, went to nursery class attached to the infants, starting in the September. She went for half days at first, but when I went back to work ( part time ) in March, they allowed her to stay full days. She began to sleep through the night for the first time in her life, so I am sure it was right for her, even overdue.
It’s great for children to start school at the age of 5 if, prior to that, they have a parent or other relative who can care for them and do positive things with them. But it often doesn’t work that way.
Not everyone can afford one parent taking time off work until their child is 5 (either from a financial or career point of view) and not everyone lives near other relatives who are capable of childcare. The alternatives are expensive day nurseries, which vary in quality (the one I used three days a week had good reviews, but I discovered afterwards there was subtle bullying by some nursery nurses when the manager wasn’t looking).
There are also many families where no adult is working, but the school environment is something you want to get the child into as soon as possible so that they have some experience of care from a responsible adult. Families where children are over an hour late to school and hungry because “mum and dad was pissed and we never got up” (quote from when I did supply teaching 20 years ago) or worse (I’m not passing on more recent tales from my current work in social services).
I think everyone's points have validity. When I was growing up, most of my friends' mothers didn't work outside of the home (apart from a few teachers and part-time shop assistants) - housing costs were sufficiently in line with incomes that they didn't need to. I appreciate that this is no longer the case: one of the reasons we chose to remain childless is that if we hadn't, I'd have had to either give up work or give most of my salary to a nanny.
We've just wasted spent an hour faffing about to apply for New Brunswick medical cards: assuming we've got all the paperwork right and our application is accepted, we should get them in a few weeks. This is un fat lot de bon if we want to see a doctor now, which is a pain, as D's been feeling a bit peaky since we came back from holiday. That's Canadian* bureaucracy for you ...
* Well, in this case, New Brunswick bureaucracy - when we were in Newfoundland we got medical cards straight away, even though we didn't have permanent residence.
There is a good point in sending children to pre-school and nursery, as they get used to the environment and learn social skills such as sharing things before they get to "proper school". But this must be play-learning, not forced academic stuff!
My grandson (20 months) has of necessity been going to nursery 2/3 times a week for nearly a year. I thought he was too young but he's thrived on it and, since it's near his mum's workplace, has also become a seasoned traveller on train, Tube and bus! He does have stay-home days too.
I’m on holiday in New York for a week. What a city! We spent the morning cycling round Central Park. An amazing oasis. 🌳
You are!?! What a great thing! You do realize that you are a mere 788 miles away? Then again, we have a hurricane on its way so maybe not the best time for a road trip. Have fun!
Exactly what I was thinking! Maybe I should go dust the guest bedroom in case they decide to drive up? That's a longish day's drive but quite doable with the highway systems for most of the trip.
I’m on holiday in New York for a week. What a city! We spent the morning cycling round Central Park. An amazing oasis. 🌳
You are!?! What a great thing! You do realize that you are a mere 788 miles away? Then again, we have a hurricane on its way so maybe not the best time for a road trip. Have fun!
Yes! We came really close to flying over you, I waved anyway!
On a completely different note, I walked home from music practice at church, through the village, at about 9.30. On the bit of common land near us, that we call 'Sheep and Chickens Green',* were gathered a multitude of sheep, very close together and quiet, with lookouts. Odd, I thought, and as I rounded the corner to where we park our cars I saw what I thought were a couple more, under the street light.
No - they were boar. At least two adults, and double figures of little ones ('humbugs' because of their stripes). I stopped and stared at them and they stared back. I was a bit unnerved since they were between me and the front gate, but when I lifted my big torch and shone it at them they turned silently and made off down the hill into the Deep Dark Forest. We checked all the gates very carefully after that!
*so-called because we got used to delivery drivers calling to say they couldn't find the cottage, and all they could see was a lot of sheep and chickens!
Blimey, How wonderful that would be!
Each and every year in our house my husband plays the "Let's see how long we go without putting on the heating game" so it's jumpers and gas fire in the sitting room only.
It has become a well known joke- the WhatsApp messages from friends and family enquiring about the state of play will begin later this month....
Thank goodness daughter and Little and Baby Beaky are coming to stay at half term because I know the heating will go on for them!
We prefer a cool house and have lap quilts (made at home, natch) if we feel cold. These may make us look old, but they are more classy than blankets and we don't care.
Comments
Very calm and quiet and peaceful today as it seems, only interrupted by the noises of biggo motorbikes - what is it that motorbikes need to be that loud? I would have thought that the enjoyment of a ride would largely suffice, even without the acoustic mayhem!
Work has started again, actually a few weeks ago already, which means that I'm perhaps less often on the Ship, and rather more landlubbering away, now having them partake in my sheer incredible witticisms and bon-mots.
Have a good and relaxing Sunday, one and all!
Lovely here today - about 15 degrees and sunny.
Ideal weather for what I laughably call “a run” and anyone else would call: “why is that man sweating so much when he has barely broken into a stroll?”
Still, all forms of exercise provide “calorie space” for CAKE, which is my primary objective
It's a beautiful day here (17° and sunny) but it was unpleasantly hot in the Cathedral because some blithering idiot had closed the West doors. I blame the people who insist on sitting at the back (in the same pew their family has sat in since before the Reformation*) and complain there's a draught. Well, you can always put on a cardigan/coat; there's a limit to what I can take off (and surplices hold a hell of a lot of heat).
* well, not quite - the Cathedral was only built in 1853, but you get the idea ...
Last weekend of the school holidays in this part of Ukland, so our little congregation was a bit sparse again. Hopefully, next week will see the Waifs and Strays returning from that mysterious place 'Away' .
September is usually a fairly busy month, as various things start up again, but I expect that's true of many churches.
Is it like the town in France, whose name appears so often on road-signs - 'Sortie'?
Of course, being me, I only talked to people I knew, but there were lots of more outgoing people!! I ate far too much.
Mind you, most of our Waifs and Strays have school-age kidz, so they won't disappear again until half-term.
Unless they go Shopping, or to Football, or (sadly all too common these days) both parents have to go to Work, leaving the kidz with grandparents who don't live anywhere nearby...
After I'd left school, my parents had a motor-home that they took all over Europe, and they would always go away in September as there was a surcharge (IIRC it was 50%) in July and August on the Orkney ferry for vehicles above a certain height (which theirs was - it wouldn't fit under the side-aisles on the car deck). Also, they weren't really sun-worshippers, and they generally found European temperatures more convivial in the autumn, so win, win.
We normally have two identical services on Sunday mornings but for August we combine for one service as the summer holidays shrink the congregation considerably, what with the students being away as well.
I was just saying to my friend that I would have to pull up my big girls' knickers and get on with cleaning, when she said "let me pay for a cleaner! I'd like to!" So, Melissa came for 2.5 hours today (bathroom, study, two bedrooms, stairs (2 lots) clean and lovely and big downstairs room started) and will come for 2.5 hours tomorrow (dining room, kitchen, living room to do and big downstairs room to finish) I was doing stuff as well - things which mightn't've got done otherwise like clearing out baskets of junk. I'm knackered through what I did, so there's no way I could have done such a good job.
I am SO grateful!!!
As it's a public holiday here, the weather has followed Ancient Precedent™ and it's p*ssing with rain.
I think ambling may have to take a rain-check (see what I did there?). Autumn may be popping its head round the door: it's only 15° at the moment, and apart from a stickyish day on Wednesday, temperatures seem to be heading down towards the more piglet-friendly high teens and low 20s.
A few months of that would be lovely ... <sigh>
ION, I had the leftover Chinese for lunch today; as it was all mixed together I just threw it all into a frying pan with a little oil and a few extra nibbed almonds, and it was fine.
I'm feeling semi-virtuous because on Sunday and yesterday I finally got around to digging out some horrible grout in the bathroom, brushing an anti-mould treatment all over the walls and then replacing the grouting. Not a brilliant job but had to be done and I come a lot cheaper than a "professional".
@Piglet Yes, that method of dealing with Chinese leftovers works for me too - the sons call it my oriental surprise.
It's a lovely day (21° and sunny), so I think an amble might be in order.
OTOH the traffic has doubled. There is a primary school up the main road to the left and a large secondary school and a FE college up the main road and over the roundabout to the right. We need to squeeze into the traffic going right but usually find some nice motorist (even vans, taxis and buses cooperate) so we don't have to wait too long.
Yea, even unto white vans.
It's a warm, sunny day (23°, feeling like 26), but we seem to be in the path of the tail-end of Hurricane Dorian, and the weekend's not looking great. It's a shame, as we were supposed to be having an outdoor service on Sunday, followed by a corn-boil on the green.
Oh well, if wet, in church hall ... ☔
As we live in Scotland, with its different bracket of when you go to school (and potentially also corresponding different attitudes towards what happens in that first year, in comparison to nursery) he went at 5yrs 1month and is in the middle of his class in terms of age
in Scotland, you start P1 if your 5th birthday falls between the March of that year until the February of the next - though you are also allowed to defer your "young" child until the following year if you think they're not ready at 4½ -
Some people defer, some don't, which is how you get the strange situation as my daughter does, where there are people in her class who have their 10th birthday, even before someone has their 9th
My own chaps were small for their years and very, very lively, waking with the dawn until their age was in double figures. At 4 they still needed (and took without prompting) a post-lunch nap of at least an hour every day. We didn't start them at school until just before their 5th birthday because they wouldn't have been able to cope; as it was, they were completely knackered without the nap and bedtime was, at their request, brought forward.
The worst thing about starting children at school at 4 is that it has little, if any, effect on outcome: by the age of 9 children in Finland, who start school at 7, score better at literacy, numeracy and in general level of reasoning than their UK counterparts.
Interestingly the private sector, while having "school" at 4 for those parents who demand it, have a very different curriculum, by-and-large sticking to what they did for my age group and earlier generations: no really formal levels until Prep level (Year 3), learning through play before then.
The thing that struck me about the chaps' infant school was just how joyless it was - and they felt that keenly. That was slightly before the "improvement" in early years/ primary curriculum so God only knows what the regime is like now.
It’s not like they’re learning anything they can’t at home; I think they basically spend the day on things like colouring and singing songs, and as everyone likes to say here, “learning to tie their shoelaces”.
Another worrying thought: despite being a school teacher in the public system, husband en rouge is adamant that Captain Pyjamas is going to go to a private school. We’re hoping to get him into an English/French private school close to our home. It’s massively oversubscribed but I believe having an English-speaking parent gets him priority.
I noticed it this morning, as it took me 40 minutes to get to Church for 930am Mass, instead of 15-20 minutes...
A somewhat autumnal feel to the day, too, with a chilly breeze, and with a few trees beginning to show their seasonal colours.
Not everyone can afford one parent taking time off work until their child is 5 (either from a financial or career point of view) and not everyone lives near other relatives who are capable of childcare. The alternatives are expensive day nurseries, which vary in quality (the one I used three days a week had good reviews, but I discovered afterwards there was subtle bullying by some nursery nurses when the manager wasn’t looking).
There are also many families where no adult is working, but the school environment is something you want to get the child into as soon as possible so that they have some experience of care from a responsible adult. Families where children are over an hour late to school and hungry because “mum and dad was pissed and we never got up” (quote from when I did supply teaching 20 years ago) or worse (I’m not passing on more recent tales from my current work in social services).
We've just wasted spent an hour faffing about to apply for New Brunswick medical cards: assuming we've got all the paperwork right and our application is accepted, we should get them in a few weeks. This is un fat lot de bon if we want to see a doctor now, which is a pain, as D's been feeling a bit peaky since we came back from holiday. That's Canadian* bureaucracy for you ...
* Well, in this case, New Brunswick bureaucracy - when we were in Newfoundland we got medical cards straight away, even though we didn't have permanent residence.
My grandson (20 months) has of necessity been going to nursery 2/3 times a week for nearly a year. I thought he was too young but he's thrived on it and, since it's near his mum's workplace, has also become a seasoned traveller on train, Tube and bus! He does have stay-home days too.
You are!?! What a great thing! You do realize that you are a mere 788 miles away? Then again, we have a hurricane on its way so maybe not the best time for a road trip. Have fun!
Yes! We came really close to flying over you, I waved anyway!
No - they were boar. At least two adults, and double figures of little ones ('humbugs' because of their stripes). I stopped and stared at them and they stared back. I was a bit unnerved since they were between me and the front gate, but when I lifted my big torch and shone it at them they turned silently and made off down the hill into the Deep Dark Forest. We checked all the gates very carefully after that!
*so-called because we got used to delivery drivers calling to say they couldn't find the cottage, and all they could see was a lot of sheep and chickens!
Mrs. S, a proper country-dweller
Blimey, How wonderful that would be!
Each and every year in our house my husband plays the "Let's see how long we go without putting on the heating game" so it's jumpers and gas fire in the sitting room only.
It has become a well known joke- the WhatsApp messages from friends and family enquiring about the state of play will begin later this month....
Thank goodness daughter and Little and Baby Beaky are coming to stay at half term because I know the heating will go on for them!