DWZI / this week i saw...

.... a check-in reminder from BA although i had asked the conference organisers for BMI flights.

who cares (except for the more inconvenient timings). so i checked in, got up at 4am to drive to the airport, went to the service desk & asked whether they could check me in for the return flight.

'of course madam'

'...except your booking is for a one-way flight'

so, off to the conference i went and once there, i asked the organisers to rectify their mistake

so then guess what i saw appear in my inbox: a check-in reminder for a swiss air flight for the next evening
.....to a different airport than where i had parked my car on departure.......

oh well. when i finally arrived home at about 1 in the morning, i saw the massive great big bandage they had put on my son's toe at A&E. he had dropped a box of frozen chicken stock on it (don't ask)

then all night i saw him throwing up every sip of water i gave him. i saw many, many, many clean towels get dirty. nothing to do with his toe. he just caught his sister's bug. i did not see (or feel, for that matter) my pillow

i saw to it that both kids are well looked after and managed to catch the eurostar i was booked on.
tonight, in paris, i'm seeing just the most delightful little hotel. you should all see it! check it out at

here, i'll soon jump into my lurvely great big double bed

Deze Week Zag Ik is een initiatief van Daan en Roos (geïnspireerd op Jills Today I saw)

nostalgie: vruchteloze zoektocht naar 'we gaan naar buiten'...

(klikkerdeklik)

DWZI / this week i saw... 120 students eating 480 chocolates

when my pc synchronised with my blackberry (or vice versa) it wiped a whole load of appointments from my diary. our director of studies received a pile of very angry emails from students who complained their year group had come in especially for my lecture - and i had not shown up. aaaarrgghhhh....... so i rescheduled for today and brought a few kilos of chocolates to pacify them. cheap, i know, but apparently it makes them love you just that little bit more (hate you just that little bit less??)....... that's that disaster sort of dealt with - at least, to the best of my ability.

next challenge, my babysitter tells me i'm meant to be away overnight on 17 June & she's looking after the kids. i'm clueless as to where i'm meant to be going..... and dreading the year ahead

Deze Week Zag Ik is een initiatief van Daan en Roos (geïnspireerd op Jills Today I saw)

does he love me i wanna know...

(klikkerdeklikkerdeklikkerdeklikklik on every pic...)

animals

today we went to the 'lambing event' at a local farm. they have 80 pregnant sheep plus a whole load of other animals, tractors, a mini train and a bouncy castle. i lured the kids along with the promise of the mini train and the tractor, hoping that to see a few lambs & calves being  born, and cowes being milked, might be educational. (yeah right)

it started off ok, with youngest holding a newborn lamb, then we saw 2 lambs being born (i confess the kids were starting to get a bit bored by then) and then there was the milking of the cows. however, eldest, being a true daughter of her mother's, soon started to complain about the smell .and basically, that was it. no more interest in animals no matter how many cows were milked, piglets or calves  were born, lambs swapped between mothers (they only have 2 teats, so if they have 3 lambs then the strongest gets given to a mother of  1 lamb) etc. the two highlights of the day were the fun fair (read: bouncy castle and merry-go-round) and supper at yo sushi!'s...

what can i say............................ grandchildren of their grandmother's that's for sure!

DWZI / this week I saw...

opa's impression of youngest on the cello

(klikkerdeklik)

eldest's summary

'there is not anumus at sceeyin and you must mac a peterspoon on skiing 

you must nevu evu leev your scees on wen your eetin'

or:

there are no animals at skiing and you must make a pizzapunt (pizza slice) when skiing.

you must never ever leave your skis on when you're eating.

(i had to be tought 'pizza punt' means snow plough - and apparently it's 'patat' for parallel skiing...)

we are the champions...

pasta pot

My youngest has spent about 10 years (OK, feels like) testing the boundaries. He is so switched on, you just know - give in now and pay for it for the rest of your life - yet it can all be so incredibly exhausting. I use two survival tools: 1) blowing up a balloon with the entire family and 2) the pasta pot.

blowing up a balloon is for when i'm about to explode. i say to the kids 'let's pretend we're blowing up a balloon' and slowly we blow; our arms indicating how big this balloon is getting. very therapeutic :-)

the pasta pot is just the best. every time they do something that makes me proud of them, or that i think is worthy of praise, or basically anything nice & positive, they get given a piece of pasta to put in their pasta pot. sometimes 2, or 3 even, if what they did was really special. i don't use it as bribery - i can surprise them by saying - gosh, you brushed your teeth all on your own initiative - i'm going to give you a pasta for that! it just makes them glow and you can see how proud they are - just adorable. in contrast, if after 3 warnings they still don't do as I say.......... oh dear. a pasta is taken out of the pasta pot. uh-oh............! when the pasta pot is full, they are allowed to choose a really nice present. (and by now i'm actually intrigued to find out what it is they'll go for)

at present, it appears youngest has exited the 'boundary testing' phase. today he came home from school stating he had been 'lief' all day. this was followed by him running the bath himself, getting undressed, putting all his clothes in the laundry basket, washing himself, tooth brushing, tidying away all his toys, etc etc. tons of pasta! what a lovely feeling to have 'turned a corner' (and long may it last......... :-))

DWZI / this week i saw...

In this country, interviewing potential students is part of the selection process. Today, I was meant to interview 3 spotty youths. Normally, the process involves you getting handed a form for each candidate with the predicted exam results, a letter from their head master detailing how wonderful they are, you interview them, they're really sweet & nervous, you think, 'gosh they're cute' and an hour later you get on with your day job.

Not today. One of my pieces of paper had a yellow sticky note on it: 'read'. So, good girl that I am, I did. Basically the candidate had already graduated, his marks were so low he did not come close to qualifying for our university, last year he had not shown up on the interview date, he had messed up in about 1000 other ways, in short, I honestly thought 'why am I interviewing this loser?'. I reprimanded myself that a loooooooooooooong time ago I had been young, too, and give the guy a break. Clearly someone in the pre-selection process thought he was worthy of an interview.

Then our admissions tutor marched into my office. 'I've come to take away one of your forms - you're not interviewing this guy'. So, conveniently & immediately forgetting my stern chat to myself, I said 'great, thanks, here you go' and handed him the loser guy form. At this, eyebrows were raised. No, not that one. The one with the three criminal convictions, including that knife stabbing incident for which he was convicted for assault resulting in gross bodily harm.

oh dear.

here you go.

our admissions tutor interviewed him. he's big, i'm not so big. still. i think he survived...