Good afternoon! For many in the UK this is back to school week – today hubby and teachers across the country have school inset training days, whilst the kids enjoy their final days of summer. The school uniform is bought, the pencil cases packed and soon the countdown will be on for Halloween.
This is the first year in about 18 years that school uniform hasn’t been bought in our house! The lovely girl has a very loose, smart “own clothes” code for the sixth form – although mum has a feeling that this could prove a lot more problematic!! The first line of the code made me both smile and sigh – “no underwear to be on show”……so no knicker skimming skirts, shorts need to be long and tailored, no bras or cleavages on show. How times have changed since my day – the only concession we got in the sixth form was girls didn’t have to wear blazers or ties; the boys had no concessions. Skirts above the knee….forget it! The girls have been out shopping – last week they visited the interesting God’s own Junkyard with its displays of neon lights amongst other places – and she did return with a skirt….it definitely doesn’t reach her knees!
The young engineer has been away at a festival this weekend, but it is far removed from those visited by his brother this year. I think an accurate description would be a “Geek” festival where like minded inquisitive souls meet up and CREATE! Never will you attend a camp with such power, high speed wifi and every imaginable technological gadget – one comment on instagram said “You know you are at @emfcamp #emfcamp and not any other festival when the guy in the tent next to you is running a server from the porch of his tent :)” It is based at Eastnor Castle in Herefordshire and this year additional power and wifi had to be installed, so my bet is the local villages will have the fastest internet connections in the whole UK!
Last year the young engineer and his friend built a giant (8 feet) version of Guitar Hero – wires and lights were arriving at our house for weeks before (you can see it on Youtube here: https://youtu.be/AOU09T3l9Kg). This year he has taken his better half who is a software engineer but frankly I’m not sure that he knows what he has let himself in for. They are due back later today…..
This week the young engineer officially becomes a Master of Engineering & Software when he graduates at the Royal Festival Hall. I am hoping that I will have some very embarrassing pictures to share of him wearing his gown and mortar board!
The first blog on today’s list is about the EMF camp, but if this doesn’t grab you then hopefully you can be inspired by the others on the list. I have found a post about an artisan Mead brewery (having seen them featured on a BBC programme), some timely back to school views from a teacher, and a new blog from a cyclist touring through Kyrgyzstan to Nepal. There are also some great life posts and my favourite title has to go to “The Special Stank of a Boy”!
https://hackaday.com/2018/08/14/looking-forward-to-electromagnetic-field-2018/
http://viking-mjod.no/apothecary-mead-legends-of-sherwood/
https://butismileanyway.com/2018/08/30/the-onset-of-inset-days-backtoschool-teacherslife/
https://inspiremystyle.com/2018/08/26/leading-a-fulfilled-and-healthy-life/
http://www.secondhand-life.com/2018/08/anxiety-storms-demons-on-the-boat/
http://janetgivens.com/at-seventy-seven-thoughts/
https://thewildreaderwithacat.wordpress.com/2018/09/02/beautiful-houses-%F0%9F%98%81/
https://butterflyinremission.com/2018/08/21/how-i-experienced-mindset-shift-motivation-life-change/
https://hotmessmemoir.com/2018/09/03/the-special-stank-of-a-boy/
I hope that you enjoy this great mixture of posts…..please like, comment and share!
Have a great week,
Claire x
I know people will say I should go to A&E and hubby has threatened that he will take me if it doesn’t calm down…..but we zebras have high pain thresholds and I’m not sure I can face hospital. I did visit my GP last week, who told me off as I had self diagnosed the pain around my eye to be migraine related. She did point out that as an ENT/head and neck nurse in a previous life, it should have crossed my mind that I have a sinus infection – so I came away with antibiotics and finally some iron, for an ever decreasing haemoglobin. Six more pills a day to add my collection!
Four years ago we would never have dreamt that life would have changed so much as hubby was driving miles to work six days per week. Yet here we are, hubby at home as my full time carer, a house husband (he hasn’t quite got the hang of housework – cleaner to be engaged!) and a sports teacher. We may be considerably poorer in a monetary sense – but I have never known him to be so relaxed or fulfilled! The dogs and the kids adore him and rumour has it that he scored a goal in the staff v year 6 football match this morning. He probably won’t be able to walk this evening…..
My own week felt pretty action packed too as friends and family rallied round knowing hubby was missing my birthday – I have been wined and dined and spoilt rotten. Incidentally it must mean something that National Martini Day fell on my birthday!! I have also watched more football than in the rest of my life – probably due to the politics student being home – and have become strangely entranced by the world Cup. I still have no idea of the various rules for off side, free kicks, fouls etc, but reckon I’m doing well to just know the terms. Yesterday I watched the whole England game surrounded by mainly young men at the games field of my old school – the actual event being a cricket match and BBQ. When the football draw was announced and we saw that an England match was on the day of our annual cricket match for Past versus Present, we knew that we had to screen the match. Not the easiest thing to position a screen outside in bright sunshine where four cricket teams and guests would all be able to see it. I have had dreams over the past week that the TV wouldn’t work and I feared it was premonition when I arrived to be told we didn’t have an aerial or a device to stream it – aghhhhh!!!
PainPalsBlog 