Hair today Gone tomorrow

Well yesterday it happened, I chopped it all off with a little help from Robynne and Andy.





























Here are all the dreads neatly bagged up. I was going to weigh them, but, our scales need a new battery in them ah well never mind.



I have raised just under £60 at the moment, but if anyone else would like to sponsor me then the page is still open.

It's been a while

It's been a while since I posted, things have been going well with the new Home Ed group, were now having a session of Mad Science going on over the next few weeks, with more possible in the new year.
Robynne is having fun at college, tho' she's now only doing the one course as all the others ended up cancelled or she found them irrelevant. Andy has started college too and he seems to be enjoying it.

And I am removing my dreads and shaving my head for Children in Need, I decided I had had enough of them, especially as have been having no end of neck problems, due to the weight of them and well I fancied a change, so new start all off and shall have some fun with wigs and hats till it grows back. So if you would like to sponsor me then please do. I have a link just below for you to click on and you'll get sent to my page. Oh and if you really want I'll send you a dread lol.

More College Madness

Just when I thought we had got all Robynne's courses all sorted out, we got a phone call today saying that some had been cancelled due to lack of numbers. So after a lengthly phone call we had Robynne moved to other dates and lost one course - Maths GCSE - which Robynne wasn't to sad about and we gained a new course - Science GCSE - which Robynne likes far better. The only downside tho' is that after getting a couple of tickets via EO for Joseph next week we now can't go, so before I email the organiser and let her know I shall see if a couple of Robynne's friends would like to go. If it wasn't her first night on the Art AS course we would still go, but, it's not worth going when it takes us two hours to get there and we would have to leave London by 4pm to get to Rochford for her to start her course at 6.30pm. It's a shame but there you go at least we hadn't paid for the tickets.

Well tomorrow is Thames Kids Club time again, I'll be taking along some wool and some French knitting dolls so we can try obviously French knitting and finger knitting, both are great fun. This time I shall remember my camera just in case there are any impromptu performances. Also I have printed of a sample of Zoom which is a musical based on the Hare and the Tortoise story. As Robynne and some of the others want to put on a musical and this one looks like a good one to start with and lots of parts for little children as well as the older children. So fingers crossed everyone will like to have a go. Then maybe next time we can do the other ones that Robynne wants to do. I'm so pleased that even after all her courses have swapped round to different days that she still gets to continue coming along and doing the things she wants to do with the Thames Kids Club.

TKC and College Madness

Well things have been interesting round here over the last few weeks. The launch party for Thames Kids Club went well, tho' it ended up being along day for us as we popped round and spent time with our elderly aunt afterwards. Which will now be a regular happening as the club is held just round the corner from where she lives. anyway, as I said first club meet went great, the second one which took place on the 12th wasn't so well attended, but we had great fun anyway. The highlight was when all the children plus Robynne put on there own interpretation of Little Red Riding Hood. For some reason they made Robynne the wolf, tho' I guess not really a big surprise as she was the biggest there. It was very sweet, they raided the dressing up area to get themselves all dressed up. I think the woodcutter was a little over enthusiastic in killing the wolf, Robynne had to run to get away. Sadly I didn't manage to get pic's of the play, shall be more prepared next time. Tho' I did get a couple from when they were dressing up.





I seem to remember taking a pic of Robynne dressed up, but, it appears to be missing from my camera, Shall check but it looks like Robynne may have sneakily deleted it. Ah found it some how it ended up in the pics I took when we went to see Wicked.



Speaking of Wicked we had a great time the show was awesome, tho' as we had already read the book it was a little confusing, but you can't really expect them to do everything that's in the book when making a musical. It was nice to see they had the Witch survive along with her fella tho'. Here's a couple of pic's of Robynne and her friends before the show.






Oh and sadly some of our friends who wanted to come with us couldn't so were going to try and arrange another trip to see Wicked later probably in the New Year now.

Ok now on to the College Madness, sadly Robynne didn't make it onto the course that she applied for - tho' she was told to ring in 6 weeks to see if anyone doesn't make it after the probationary period - so that meant we had to find something else for her to do until she can re apply next year. So we managed to get her on some Adult Learning courses she'll now be doing GCSE Maths and English on Tuesday and Wednesday Mornings on Canvey Island, a Drawing and Painting level 1 on a Monday afternoon in Basildon and an AS Level Art course Tuesday evenings in Rochford. Tho' she may drop the drawing and painting one as it's only equivalent to a D/F level GCSE and well if she gets on OK with the AS level course that would mean that instead of having to re apply for the course she missed out on this year she can skip to the next level next year and will be on track again. So here's hoping, I can't really see her having any major problems, but you never know.

Something Wicked this way comes....

So yesterday was Robynne's college interview. She had spent the last few days before hand getting her Portfolio together and with a little help it was all finished Weds evening. It seems she likes leaving things till the last minute. She had a lovely image on the front cover and as were walking through town, we got some interesting looks. Some of the pictures used for her portfolio can be found here

Anyway we got to the college about 3.30pm, as it's enrolment time we had no set appointment and well from experience going after 3pm is a quieter time. So we get signed in and waited for all of 5 mins, then it was up the stairs to talk to a tutor.

The course that Robynne is hoping to get onto is "Introductory Diploma in Art and Design". The guy we saw is the tutor for the next level, which if she gets in she will do next year. Anyway he was very impressed with her work and said he looks forward to her being on his course next year. Only thing standing in the way of that is her getting into this years course.
Basicly we now have to wait and see, the tutor doesn't get back till Tuesday as she's on a cruise. She only takes 25 students and at the moment we went there were 24 on her list, with quite a few waiting. So on Thursday next week they start the induction and if people don't return on the Friday, the tutor goes to her waiting list to fill up the course. So now we wait and see - and secretly hope that people drop out or get places elsewhere - which as Robynne said "it's the worst part". Which it is, I know if she doesn't get on the course it's not the worst thing in the world, but, it may feel like it and well there's always next year. It's just if she doesn't get in, we may have problems with WTC, but, will deal with that later. Were going to sign her up with connexions on Monday which will give us 20 weeks to work with with regards to WTC.

So College aside things are looking good, well apart from friends of ours moving out of the area, were sad to seem them go, but, at the end of the day it's what's best for them. I just hope that everything goes well for them all. The launch party for Thames Kids Club is all organized for next Friday 5th. Library meets start again on Wednesday 3rd - which incidentally is my birthday - and the week after on the 10th were of to see Wicked, not sure who's more excited about that, but, Robynne would probably beat me.

Well better go get on with something, not sure what yet, but, well lots to do.

Thames Kids Club

We had another meeting Monday evening in regards to the new H.E. group Thames Kids. Robynne showed all her designs for the publicity and they went down well as did the logo that I designed, we also agreed on the colours for the logo which is below.



Also that evening we sorted the money for the first month's hall fee's and I'm sure they have gone off to the relevant person now. The hall people wanted to see any advertising/publicity that we would be doing so copies of the poster, leaflet and bookmark were sent to them via email, the other day. I think were just waiting for the OK with that then we can advertise properly.

Everything seems to be going well with regards the group, have spoken to a few people so I know we will have some people there the first week. So fingers crossed for a good launch party.

OK also this week, Robynne received her interview for college, which is next week so hopefully she'll get onto the course that she wants to do. Were also hoping it's not going to stop her coming to the H.E. group as she is really looking forward to that. She has alot of ideas for the group that she wants to help with.

We have also decided that we are going to save up to move, as well as another of our friends has found out it's nigh on impossible getting a transfer with the Council, it's a shame but well the final straw has been broken. We live in a tower block and in the summer the drains are pretty awful and the smell flows up from below and comes out from all the plug holes, the toilet and the waste pipe on the balcony. This year has seemed worse than ever, add in that some charming people in the flats above have been throwing things out of windows - to smash windows open below - it has been happening before, but now the items have been becoming increasingly worse. I'm sure no-one wants me to say exactly what has been thrown I shall leave that to your imaginations. Needless it's not pleasant and I really don't want to have to put up with it anymore. So it's time to move on, even Robynne who has been totally resistant to moving has agreed that enough is enough, plus I'm sure she's hoping that we can get a dog again at some point.

Wicked

So today was spent more or less on the train, overland and underground as I went up to London to pick up tickets for Wicked. Which a group of us H.E. families are going to see on the 10th Sept for the matinee show. The seats aren't as great as I would have liked, but I'm sure we'll all have a great time. Now all I need to do is send off the tickets to P and G for them and their families as well I doubt we'll be seeing them before we go, but well you never know. Just need to arrange with S about her tickets and then all sorted.

Robynne and myself popped round to R & J's again last night for another planning meeting with regards to the new group that were setting up along with R. All this initial thing is going to drive me nuts lol and I'm bound to forget one day, just hope I don't get strung up for it. Anyway, the new group, we more or less have everything sorted now.... like name, venue - incidentally a lovely Quaker Meeting House - the main things that seem to be left to do now is to confirm booking etc, get the bank account sorted as until that's done we can't apply for a grant. Tho' once the grant application is all filled in and sent off we'll now in 8 weeks whether or not we were successful. We've also got the advertising worked out and a provisional date for the launch party, plus we've also been thinking ahead to activities and people we could have come in to entertain and educate the children and ourselves lol. The aim I think is as were going to run weekly to have something extra ie, speakers at least once a month.
All we need now is for people to come along and fingers crossed and anything else they will. Oh nearly forgot we've picked the name Thames Kids Club, so hopefully that's not taken elsewhere I did do a google search and nothing came up so. Anyway I guess that's about it for now, as not only do I need to rest my back after the various train rides today. Robynne wants to get on the computer and well as she's reworking my rough sketch into a poster I better let her get on.

Freetime

I know I know I've been really lax lately with my posting, see that always happens when I set myself goals lol. I really want to blog at least once a week, but, well basicly I forget then I think ooh must blog about such and such and then I get distracted.... which isn't that hard for me to do.

So since I last blogged we have had lovely weather, we've also had some lousy weather. We also had one of our chinchilla's die too. We had a lovely family time at HESFES our darling nephew greatly enjoyed himself, tho' he may have been a little annoyed at Robynne occasionally for daring to go off with her friends without him, but on the whole a great time was had by all. Now my sister is considering Home Ed for S when he gets to Senior School age. Right now he's at a lovely small village school, that caters for him extremely well, sadly when he gets to 11yr he'll end up at a very large school and the worry is that he may get lost in the crowd so to speak. We never know he may love it and thrive there. We are all just thankful that through H.E. there is another option if it is necessary, tho' he's only 8yr nearly 9yr so a few years yet to prepare.

Oh while we were at HESFES, we had to come back to Leigh for the folk festival, as Robynne was performing with the Leigh Mummers shall just hunt for a pic, it's not of the best quality so please bear with me....



.... obviously Robynne is the one wearing the very fetching cap, about to hit the poor guy on the chair around the head - it was part of the script - sadly we have no idea why the picture is so blue, it wasn't when taken. Strangely most of the pics that we had taken that week with my parents camera have all gone blueish when my sister sent them through to us.

We had a day out at Colchester Zoo while at HESFES too, which was great it rained a little, which frankly with the way the rest of the week had been if it hadn't rained a little while at the Zoo we would never have made it round. A couple of Robynne's friends came with us to the Zoo and we got a very interesting pic of a Daisybird not sure if I'm allowed to show that so will check later with Robynne before posting it. Anyway a couple of pics from HESFES and the zoo coming up next..



... myself being glomped by my lovely nephew...



...... Robynne and co .....



..... now somewhere among my old pics, I have a very similar photo to this of Robynne at the same age as her cousin - in the front - on the same tortoise statue with some school friends, taken on a school trip obviously about 8yrs ago. I remember taking the picture, but can't for the life of me find it anywhere...



..... that lab coat was bought just before we went to HESFES and I think she wore it everyday, actually she did wear it everyday...



...... oh and a red panda pic just because .....

I do have a few other animal pics and some of Robynne and friends on my cam somewhere, but right now not sure where I have put it away too lol and well frankly right now I don't fancy hunting for it.

Oh and well now I shall confess to why I haven't kept up with blogging lol, it's silly really but, well I am a Sim addict there I said it I am a Sim Addict ... yes it's sad I know but, well what can you do. You see after we had to rebuild our comps into one all our sim data was lost and we had to borrow Sims 2 to get it all reloaded back onto our machine, - we do have a copy of Sims 2, but to keep a long story short the first disc doesn't load so we can't use it - and all the expansion packs we have and well we bought the new one Freetime and well frankly it had to be played and played and well played. So there you have it if it takes me a while to reply to emails etc, or Robynne is away from msn for days at a time it doesn't necessarily mean we offline again lol, we could just be playing the Sims.



..... where else would you get a heavily pregnant lady doing ballet exercises....

A Eureka Moment

Well, internet is fixed finally, our two computers have been taken apart and rebuilt into one computer. So we now have a working computer, with a few minor bugs to sort out as some items were not quite compatible, but a few downloads and we should be all sorted, thanks to a friend of Andy's. So we have a happy child again lol, almost once we have the usb ports fixed and all that's needed to sort them is a card which Andy is gonna pop out to get sometime today.

We had a great time at our first local Home Ed camp the other week, I will admit I felt like a fish out of water to start with and compost toilets aren't as hard to get used as one would think - the hard part was the walk up to them lol - were looking forward now to the next one in September. Especially now we know how things work.

The whole family is looking forward to HESFES, even if there not into all that goes on there, it will be great to have a family holiday, we haven't done that in years.
While were there were taking it in turns with W to come back and check on all our animals between us we have 17 Chinchilla's, 2 rabbits, 2 rats and 4 cats. There's also the 3 dogs, but they come along to HESFES and we may be taking Sox, it just depends on how she copes with outside, she's getting on ok with her harness and lead but you never know, the only reason for taking her is she has the tendency to not eat while we are away.

Also while at HESFES we will be coming back here as Robynne is performing with The Leigh Mummers at The Leigh Folk Festival on the 29th June. There going to be at the Strand Wharf.

Well I better get on loads of things to be catching up with now were back in with the technology.

Coming to you via Wii

Well just a quick update today. After last week we had hoped things would be getting better round here, but, no the Gods have other plans for us it seems. Over the weekend our Internet went out again taking with it our old computer - well the Internet went out the old comp stopped working, so I drew the logical conclusion that the Internet was too blame - So now we are waiting for them to be fixed and so in the meantime, were having to use the Wii for email checking etc. thank the Gods for the Wii and wireless Internet. Unfortunately we can't do everything with the Wii - so no uploading off pics for the time being - poor Robynne is suffering withdrawal as she can no longer be on msn all day with her friends. It's a little sad ah, but actually it's been good as we have sat down and worked out what she wants to do next and how were going to go about it. She's going to be doing a mixture of Sonlight and OU courses until she's ready to go off to uni at 18. That's the plan for now anyway it may change later we'll see how it goes.

Our new chins Smokey and Rocky arrived Tues - pics in previous post - and are making themselves at home, it's caused a cage rethink, to happen, but when we get all the new cages we shall be converting their lovely 5' high cage into a play cage. Which will make things a little easier, well on Sox at least no more being chased by chins round the hallway, tho' personally she must like it or why else would she sneak in to join there play.

It was a great H.E. meet at the library again Weds, all about weather so lots of weather measuring equipment made by the children. Robynne was nabbed by the littlies and proceeded to read stories and play with them. She came over at one point with a huge grin and complained they had got her, then went back to them, methinks she doth protest to much as she was clearly having a great time.
While clearing up us mums worked out what to do for the next few meets, so that's May sorted. I have a few idea's in my head for later on, shall mention them to L next time. Robynne wants to do Blood typing, so will have to see how we go about that and what we'll need.

Well that's enough for now, as it takes quite a bit longer than usual doing this on the Wii and I'm not that adept at using it. Robynne would probably have taken less time, but, thats teens for you.

Well What a Week

As weeks go this past week has been a bit of a disaster, what with chin food deliveries that didn't happen, waiting for Robynne's new glasses. There was also internet going down, modem going wrong oh and yeah my handbag was stolen at our weekly H.E. meeting in our local library. On the plus side we are getting another couple of chinchilla's, Robynne has her glasses, the chin food finally arrived oh and I got my bag back and the perpetrator is now spending 3 months at Her Majesty's pleasure.

So where to start the beginning seems a good place Robynne went to specsavers three days running only to find her glasses hadn't arrived each time. The lenses finally arrived Weds morning so she was able to pick up her new glasses Weds afternoon.





I realised also that in my last post I mentioned she was getting two pairs of glasses, obviously my head was worse than I thought as I totally misunderstood. She only got the one pair with reaction lenses. Not two pairs one with reaction lenses and one pair plain, but we would of needed to pay another £40 and well she didn't really need two pairs.

Next we had the problems with our chinchilla food delivery, I made a mistake when it was first ordered, as they got the money, but not what was ordered so that delayed things that end. Then we had the delivery drivers who couldn't find us, which was really annoying we had to have someone stay in three days straight only to have no sign off delivery. Finally on Friday the 20kg sack of food arrived, hopefully it will be less drama next time round. Speaking of chinchilla's we are rehoming two more chinchilla's with us, so our little herd is now swelling too 12. I haven't seen them as yet, but Andy and Robynne went round to where were getting them from and spent two hours there and brought me back a couple of pics of them both. Till I see them better I'm not quite sure what colour they are, but, they look to be a female standard grey and a male beige or silver. Named Smokey and Rocky.

Smokey

Rocky

Smokey and Rocky

As usual they are really cute, Smokey is about a year old and Rocky is about 15/16months old. Smokey is the female and Rocky the male. Really looking forward to them coming over. We moved the other chins around yesterday as well. Harry has gone back in with Sally and Charlie, they all seem really happy to be back together again, tho' this is only temporary till our new cages arrive. We also moved Pumpkin in with Squeak and they are getting on brilliantly too. So now we have a small rat cage that is off down to the rubbish bins, I did think to keep it for maybe a sick chin's cage, but well Pumpkin as pretty much killed it lol. Besides with the new cage bank that were making we will have a couple of spare cages anyway for well new babies and separations if needed.

Then Tuesday evening the internet went down and what with power outages and modem problems, that didn't get sorted till late Thursday. Fingers crossed there'll be no more problems with the this well apart from random power outages. Which thankfully don't seem to happen that often.

I think that's about it for our stinky week oh well apart from the theft of my handbag on Weds afternoon, that was a fairly harrowing event. I was more worried about the loss of some. picture of Robynne than the money really. I mean it's a pain in the backside, but losing those would have been awful. Thankfully due to the quick thinking and brilliant observation of a couple of people in our group. The police were quickly called and the guy was chased down by the police. I got my back bag with everything in but my £50, but, I may still get that back eventually. as for the guy who took it well...



......... he's not going anywhere for a while.

Mmmm I really am hoping for a better time this coming week, you never know.

You would have Thought...

.... that a simple trip to Specsavers would be a nice simple thing to do. Pop in have eyes tested, order new glasses, then home for a cup of tea. Well that was before you add in my cold and stupid rules and regulations.

See I was feeling fairly crap anyway, what with the pounding in my head, lack of sleep - cute and fluffy don't cut it when you feel bad and they are keeping you awake - and feeling just generally urgh from this cold which now appears to be going to my head.

We get down to the Specsavers, and sit down so they can do all the form filling on the computer. Firstly Robynne's 16yr so supposedly she still goes in the student section, only we Home Educate and there's no slot for that. So we have no school to put her down as oh dear you have to pay for the eye test, I'm like what why, then remembering my lovely NHS Exemption card in my purse no we don't I said she's covered by this. Ummm actually she's not cause her names isn't on it. But, you can still use, just if they won't accept you get a £500 fine, mmm let's see pay £20 for test or use card and possibly get a fine. Ok we payed.

Now I suppose really I should be spending the afternoon getting intouch with the relevant people to complain, but, I just don't have the energy today. I'll get to it tomorrow honestly, just as soon as my head clears.

I guess the worse part was, that I only had a little money on me so we could pay extra if she need on her glasses. Tho' on the plus side for Robynne, she gets two new pairs of glasses - yes I fell into the £75 trap - one with reaction lenses, so get got what she wanted prescription sunglasses. Which she will have to wait till next week for us to get, but that's no biggie really. Mind you she has picked some really nice glasses, tho' on the way home she was a little worried that she would have no clothes to match with them.

I was fuming in the end tho' and Robynne said she felt guilty for costing so much money. So then I felt bad too lol and well as I said to Robynne it's not your fault how the rules are made. There's a smug person somewhere thinking they are real clever, but you know what someday I'll find them and rip them a new one...... or not.

ChinFest 2008

Ok as requested by Lisa today is ChinFest here on Othena so if your not into cute and furry look away now, as this post is heavy with the cute and fluffy ones.

There all growing well, tho' obviously not as rapidly as Pumpkin did last year - can't believe she's almost 8 months old now - what with there being three of them, I guess it's a little harder for them all to get in there now.

Well here comes the picture, run and hide now if you need too.



This was taken a few hours after they were all born, so their still a little damp looking, it didn't take long for them to become all fluffy.










These are one's of Tweak and Ninja, they are having a little exploration around the cage, under the watchful eye of Daddy Joe.

Tweak

The following where taken yesterday...

Drexl

Ninja

Tweak

Have you had enough yet or shall I save some for another day lol, ..... no ok then just a few more, then I'll stop honest.


This one's Daddy looking out and down at the babies being weighed on the table below. You can just catch Mummy in the background.


And now for some very odd shots not sure which ones are in any of these but the highly striped individual is Robynne..... (told you it was a bright top Carol)













































.... and now for some seriously cute pictures that well I just couldn't resist....






Well hope that's enough for you Lisa, I feel I may have to post more of them later lol, but, well I'll try to be a little more restrained.