On a personal note I seem to be managing to shake this cold, although it lingers in my sinuses & deep down in my chest, so I sniff & I cough more than normal. Paracetamol helps as well.

So then – this weekend?
It was more prickly than usual, which was not so good. Bizarrely Jack, Esme & I went off to Manchester together as Jack was sort of determined to get out & Jude was determined to stay in – so that wasn’t going to work. Jude seemed obviously over tired – hard to say why as he seemed to have slept, but then he looked tired & had bags under his eyes & acted the grouch (more than usual; “Stupid, Idiotic” his main phrases). Not a lot we could do for him there really. Esme the whirlwind was fraying at his edges as well – she wants his attention one way or another – she wants to amuse herself & he’s always so willing to react (what better than to get a reaction?).
So – to satiate & to extricate we set off to Leeds (Huddersfield would be no good) . Just as well we missed the train or we would have ended up on the rail replacement service from Halifax onward which would have been no fun at all. Checking through the times online via Louise at home, the Manchester train was obligingly late, so we sauntered over to that platform & went the other way instead (plus I have, my pass – so I don’t need to pay).

Didn’t manage to get Jack a raincoat. The only thing that Millets had that was useful has a blue camouflage style pattern on it – which is not really what we want. Did get French & German dictionaries for school & had quite a pleasant time. I upset Esme a few times because I wouldn’t let her go wandering off in busy shops & so forth. She fell asleep in the end (of course you were tired Esme – there wouldn’t be such a need for the fuss if you weren’t so tired). Jack also managed to get more Terry Pratchet books & a Dr Who book.

While we were off swanning about Louise managed to persuade Jude & Eve down to the park. Amber came along as well – so they probably had a good play. Louise took a couple of snaps with her new phone, Eve managed to get her shoes & feet completely sodden (why she wouldn’t think that grass near a huge pool of water might be sodden & messy… Hmm… Eve & thinking…)

Eve does seem over defensive at the moment. She’s unreasonable & not really wanting to discuss anything. She strikes me as worried about things – especially her appearance & social standing, & yet she continually acts with a lack of thought or maturity (for her age). Then it struck me as we were chatting last night that Jack might have been a similar age to this at the end of Mrs Mitchell’s class (Eve is just starting with Mrs Mitchell). She is a good teacher, it’s our kids self awareness at a similar age which is the comparison point. At the moment Eve’s reaction to most things is to put one her whinge voice & complain about it all – which can get a bit wearing. Her confidence seems to be very low (which is the problem with the additional maths work – no confidence sets yourself up to fail – because you expect to fail) If she’d start it & then ask for help all would be fine – after all – this is what we expect of her, but because she’s worried about not getting it right it’s classed as too hard & not something she wants to think about doing because that just upsets her. How to set the approach more in her favour is something I’m still puzzling over – I don’t see a way as yet… I would voice my concerns to Mrs Mitchell, as (as I say) she’s a good teacher in that way (she cares). Getting past her self pity & getting her more confident in herself seems to be the best tack, but getting past that annoying, annoying whingeing is quite hard.