Archives: paul

Typing on the train home as i didn’t catch the usual train to work (missed it) & so was indulging in a little reading this morning.

Hot again today (or in tabloid speak, “Phor! What a scorcher!” – with accompanying photo opportunity).

I got The Spiderwick Chronicles for the weekend from the library for the kids to watch (& I rather hoped to watch a bit myself) but the kids were too busy to pay attention to the film & were off doing other things. Granted one of those things on Saturday was ‘watching a film’ – but nonetheless it’s a good thing, I guess.

Saturday we met Caroline on the train to Halifax/Bradford; Louise & myself, with Esme got off the train at Halifax in order to do a little shopping (mainly for Jack’s new uniform). Caroline stayed on with Jack, Eve & Jude & they all went on to the cinema in Bradford to watch Wall-E (something I wouldn’t have minded doing myself).  They all enjoyed the film & are reported as all being very good..

Jack has a blazer (made from recycled plastic bottles, (it says on the label) which fits him OK. Louise is worried that it’s not quite right, but we’ve plenty of time to change it (that’s one of the reasons for buying it from Marks & Spencers)

Annnd then there’s the den. On Friday night, before setting off on Friday, after getting home on Saturday, on Saturday night, on Sunday morning & various parts during the day on Sunday I was asked if I could go to the den; to help at the den & asked if permission was allowed for going over to the den. The den is back. he irony here is that as Jude is allowed to go now, he pesters Jack like Jack pesters me. Jude pesters me as well, but for the sake of a tiny bit of schedenfruede, I’ll say it again: Jack gets pestered.

Having been a little disparaging there I have to say that they are making reasonable progress this time. It’s in the same place as a couple of years ago (down the street, up the street over the wall behind.. there (why should I be specific). This is the same plot of unused ground that that other kids roam through from time to time (kids ‘adventure’ – so it’s hardly surprising). Thus far it has not been discovered by the elements that found it last year & demolished it & then caused further trouble accusing Jo of doing things that he didn’t (therefore getting him into trouble & allowing the chavvy parent to be sanctimonious). So – so far no vandalism & as a result they have concentrated on building & as i say, made good progress. They have a floor & some uprights. The ground is quite sloped, but the floor (even if ‘stepped’) is …reasonably level. How it will all pan out I dunno. I called Louise before leaving work (checking on groceries0 & Jack was in a grump & had left his tools over there (!) because he & Jude had a falling out getting back over the wall (I think Jack had climbed over & Jude was supposed expected (by Jack) to lift the bag up to him. As far as I know it’s stil there if it’s not been ‘found’)

Page one done – 2 more to do & a rejigging of the cover. might need to see if I can get a better copy of Steve’s centre spread
Comic page for LCC Sept 92 Originally uploaded by jinty

Eve is away for a couple of days staying over at Carolyn’s house with Katie & Benny, so Esme gets to sleep in Eve’s bed fo a couple of nights & there’s one less ego in the house to be considered. Unfortunately Louise will not be feeling any easing of the situation because she’s not feeling so well. Sore throat yesterday seems to have developed into a general grottiness of feeling this morning.

A pleasant change yesterday in that Jack & Jude were sent out together on their bikes to go to Morrisons to do some shopping. Jude really only wanted to go for the chance of getting some more water pistols; a price worth paying. I was already waiting at the shop having gone there arriving back in town from work. They needed to get a new chin for their bikes & managed to get something from The Millennium Store (as it was Tuesday & most shops are shut Tuesdays).

After the water pistol fight later tht muggy evening I noticed that a lot of the painted stones (Monday’s distraction) were down at Louis & Eva’s House (they have parents, but the ‘naming conventions come from the kids relating to the other kids on the street) so I arranged the stones around the base of the lamp post there. I’m curious to see if they are moved again & where they move (patterns of play on the back street).

I’m trying to get a little comics project completed at the moment It’ll only be 10 or so years since I started it; a little comics instruction leaflet that was devised for the London Cartoon Centre with Steve. It’s a bit late now he’s dead, but that’s sort of the point, as the Caption convention honours his name this year. It’s nice to see scraps of paper we devised wile sitting in Café’s etc. There’s quite a lot of messing about & scarce actual useful notes which is a little bit of a shame because I’m sure the text is not going to be what he envisaged…. but still – it actually feels good to be working on it. Jack is also keep to do a comic strip as well – he has a story planned out & is wanting my guiding hands… He still thinks quite statically with the information a comics page imparts so I’m probably overdoing the assistance a little bit (& not enough in other areas) but hopefully it’ll help him to pin ideas to paper better. He has a good imagination, but the pinning downof whys & wherefores & imparting this is a little vague. I’m the other way around – my imagination is a little timid but I’m strong on wanting reasoning, logic & structuring the information for understanding.

Train a few moments late this morning allowing me a few moments to get the Family Railcard sorted out – the first step to getting ready to go to Caption.

Jude didn’t get the water pistol fight he’d been hankering after most of the day yesterday – not through any especially deliberate ploy on my part, but just because he was off playing before it was time to come in & the day just ran out; no more day left to pay in. I also disappointed Jack later on by not doing comics stuff, but messing about updating thoseschroders blog. There’s a lot I could do on there – there’s a lot to ear about how it works & there’s a lot of tweaking I would like to do, but it’ll have to wait; trickle in, because there’s never enough time to do all that you want to do; that’s impossible.

Esme was tired again – it was a hot & weary day, but she kept going – possibly because of playing “footballer” (kicking the ball about on the backstreet – she loves it).

Beautiful morning – if I wasn’t on the train I’d be taking photographs here; it was still overcast in Todmorden, but the train moves on through the low right morning light & the humid air (obvious aerial perspective) makes everything all aglow. Good landscapes.

Well – we didn’t seemingly get that much done… Mind you where does this pressure to ‘get things done’ come from? I’ve no aspiration to have a list of jobs to complete, but I guess a sense of achievement does give a more tangible form of satisfaction – so that might be what I’m hankering after? It’s be a false illusion anyway – but still even a mirage of achievement might be good – perhaps I should make one up? (or would that be cheating?)

One thing I did manage late last night was to dig out some old cartooning work I’d promised myself to finish off. A little disappointed in the paucity of notes, but that’s not so surprising. Slightly more surprising (& delightful) were the doodlings & messing about that rakes the place of notes. Hm – perhaps less surprising that that’s what we did, but pleasantly surprising to find. Also disappointing was that I interrupted the chess game that Louise & Jack were playing (45 mins of play in). Louise was annoyed that Jack was paying more attention to the bits of paper I was rifling through that the game, but calling it a day at 23:00 hrs is probably a good thing anyway.

I’m hoping that I can piece things together & compete what was meant to have been a London Cartoon Centre fold out about drawing figures – I doubt myself as usual but really – it should be something I can manage.

Took the kids to see the new Narnian Film Prince Caspian yesterday (what happened to ‘A boy and His Horse?) & it was good. Quite a few battles in it – not too pleasant, some of them – which is a good thing because that sort of thing was never ‘pleasant’. Quite exciting & the kids enjoyed it a lot. Louise & Esme visited the rebuilt playground in Hebden Bridge while we watched the film, & then after wards we all went back again – Esme keen to show the way). Some misgivings still about it all, but the kids enjoyed it, so that’s the proper judgement.

More Yo-yo’s purchased today & more have died.

So, that was Jack’s last day at junior school yesterday. He’d been there since playgroup… It’s quite something when you think about it…

Summer holidays start today.

mm – might leave off this for some dull data sifting as I’m not quite sure where to go this morning.

Planting: we were planting yesterday when got home from work. Initially there were piles of schoolwork all over the place; they having brought work home accumulated over the year. Jude’s maths book is full of encouraging comments & lots of ticks (doesn’t seem to get much wrong, but did note he occasionally omitted bits). Esme was keen to be plying footballer (passing the football back & forth on the back street). Jack had a hankering to be doing something & Debra gave us some coriander that she’s been growing & could no longer keep, so Louse decided it was planting time; & lo, it was. Could have been more messy, could have gone more wrong, but all in all it was quite a success if you discount the fact that we used too much compost & it’s liable to dry out quickly rather than retaining water & consequently the plants are under risk of dehydrating…. but aside from that it worked fine. Jack even managed to go swimming! Not at home, obviously, but Eve was persuaded to go with him to the pool. They both like swimming & they are old enough to go on their own, so we do encourage them, but Jack has played too rough with Eve previously & she was not keen to go & be dunked & dragged into deep water, so she needed some cajoling & promises of better behavior before she was happy to agree.

Jude has a party day at school today so is allowed to wear party clothes or fancy dress… Louise was worried because she didn’t think he would be happy with the selection of clobber available, but we remembered that Vicky down the road has loads of dressing up clothes, so we checked with her & she was happy to let Jude borrow something for today. Batman is going to school – but not one I really recognise: he has quite tall ears,, mainly black, with a red logo & sort of wing things from the arms rather than a cape. Still Batman, but which one?

Back to some whittering a little. I don’t feel like I’m just whittering either – which, if I type every day, I tend to accumulate some perception of…

Mind you – if I do sort out the domain & the blog thing, then it looks like I might manage to type more because it’ll be a base of communication with the family. I called dad before Jack’s birthday & caught up on news I really should know – how my Aunties being not so well & how my dad has had his claws snipped (contracting tendons on his little fingers). Hmm.. became much more conscious that I’m a little isolated over here & I don’t call my parents enough.

Not that I’ve called since… but … I did speak to mum briefly when she called for Jack’s birthday. Jack had a long chat – I was quite pleased at that.

So – Jack’s birthday passed well – he got a camera (which he really wanted, but didn’t expect) & a tent. Taken pictures & spent Friday night in the tent (with Eve). Eve & Jude tried to do Saturday night in the tent, but found it impossible to settle & thus came back to their beds …late …& Esme was still awake… She was still awake because she had a snooze in the Imperial War Museum over Salford Quays way; not somewhere we had thought of going at the start if the day, but it was raining that Saturday & we thought it better to try to get out somewhere. Sort of an after birthday treat for Jack…

Jude was bored at the museum, impatient for some retail thrills & obstreperous, even rude… Didn’t chime well with my feeling of vague reverence for those that go to war, but he’s young & the centre of his universe (a notion we are continually trying to disabuse him from focusing: we are a family unit). Funnily enough he was a lot more accepting of things when he had taken a trawl through the shop & obtained some treasures for himself. Not that these worldly goods have been looked at much since then, you understand, but it’s that moment (it’s an age thing – or it’s a Jude thing – or both). Then if you can give him the feeling that you are paying attention t him, he’s lovely – yesterday was a good example – with Eve & Esme off at Lily’s party (over the road) Jude was able to feel that he wasn’t competing so much & I was able to give him more attention & he was a happy & loving lad – no rancour at all. He went off with Louise to the Library, the supermarket & into school (open evening) where he’s had a good 15 minutes with his new teacher for next year & hopefully set out with a good impression on both sides (Eve hasn’t had this teacher & Jack didn’t get along with her).

Another blessing to count is that Jack has not fallen foul of post birthday blues as he has done previous years. On the whole he handled his birthday very well… more mature, maybe? I’m not sure. Perhaps it was something of getting the camera; something he really wanted. He has accessories (more than me) to do things like animation with it as well (gorrilapod/tripod thing)

Eve might be more difficult at the moment. She’s really enjoyed this year of school with Mrs Wilde, but I guess she’s all too aware it’s coming to an end now – at least we guess that might be it, as her ego is a lot more fragile . She seems to enjoy the structure & social of school days & hasn’t adapted so well the last couple of years to the the big summer holidays. Louise is going to try to get her onto school holiday activity programmes for her ‘school fix’. Hopefully at will help her transition.