Painting, Romanians, Bragging on my kids.
2012-03-09, 7:48 p.m.
Im guessing you�re all pretty bored with watching False Eyelash Opera by now, so here�s some more stuff:Back in the mists of time�.well, OK a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned having trouble starting a piece of kind-of artwork and having to get some help (and a proverbial kick up the backside) from annanotbob2. Well, I did actually get around to finishing it, so I guess I�d better show it to y�all now, huh, seeing I was banging on about it so much?
Here it is:
I don�t know how well it will show up on your viewing device, so here�s a couple of close-ups of the body type bit:
and the lumpy papier mache type bit:
Im not convinced that it�ll ever hang on the wall in my house, but as �art therapy� it definitely did what it said on the tin as its helped me to explain to myself what it feels like to have cancer and so has made it kind of easier to explain to other people, too. Only a few people have seen it so far (mostly family) but this weekend its being displayed in an exhibition and I think having people see it who aren�t �connected� with me might start to take away the raw-ness of how I feel about it now its finished and Im hoping that, over time, it�ll just turn into �a picture I did while I was sick�. Im interested to hear what interpretation you guys put on it, so feel free to leave me a comment/note - I know what each of the elements is supposed to represent but everyone�s seen it a different way so far. Whatever.
So, that�s enough of the sensible stuff. Where�s the knob-gags at today, hmm Stepfie? Alas, there are none atm, but if I think of one before this entry is out, rest assured I shall share it with you with due alacrity.
Wednesday night I went with my mum and dad and L to see Jooj and Treac in the school production of A Midsummer Night�s Dream, which I think is a pretty ambitious take-on for 11-16 year olds. Ive seen grown adults fall on their arses wrestling with Shakespeare and Im pleased to say the cast all made a bloody good fist of it. Jooj is playing Titania in my white and silver evening gown (and SO glad to have got a lead in her last production with that school before she moves on) and Treacle is a �rude mechanical�, in her first ever Shakespeare. She gets to represent �The Wall� in the play-within-a-play, complete with felt, loam-cast sandwich-board and bobbing flower pot on her head. Pleased to say no real duffers in the cast although they could all do with a little �Slow down, Speak up� drilling � then again, Ive seen that in professional productions so no real harm done.
As Wednesday was the first night (and Chigley is the very definition of �cultural void�) the audience was a little light, both in number and in �knowing when to clap/laugh/etc� but still, you cant have everything, can you? And the girls have assured me that last night�s audience were a bit more with it. Shagnasty went to see it last night with his mother � his parting shot to the girls was �I think me and grandma are a bit stupid for Shakespeare�.but YOU were both fabulous, girls!� Truly I had a lucky escape from that man. Tonight Sis and BiL are going with a few friends and Im pretty sure they will be leading the enthusiastic cheering et al. They�re also coming back here for a swift after-show snifter so Im going to go have a sensible lie-down in a bit, under the guise of �preparing for company�. The new cleaning lady has been in today so there�s no need for me to do anything else much � cushions have been plumped, Febrese has been squirted and, if I hadn�t made sweet and sour battered chicken for dinner tonight the house wouldn�t smell of frying oil but there�s not much I can/am willing to do about that now.
I love my new cleaning lady. She�s a wee Romanian girl who speaks like the possible offspring of The Count from Sesame Street and Magda off �Lead Balloon� � she�s super speedy and efficient and smiley and I think Im altogether lucky to have her, despite the obvious �I pay her more than I earn� disappointment.
Here�s her dad:
and her mum:
Yesterday was chemo day. L came with me and mum for the first time ever, so naturally we had an hour and a half wait before we got seen instead of the usual in-out-done that we get when its just me and mum. L was fairly twitchy by the time we got in to the chemo room but he settled down a bit and, once he started to get annoying (refusing to take his coat off even though it was boiling hot), mum took him off to the MacMill@n centre for a bit of soothing (and a cup of coffee) from tiny, elderly Sylvia and he came back in a bit better humour. So far not too many vile side effects so we�re still testing the �it was a non-connected lurgy and nothing to do with the Docetaxel� hypothesis.
Oooh, a bit more Jooj news! First off, should you happen to be in ChavVille tomorrow morning, you will find her and her funny little mates painting rainbow �war paint� on people�s faces and taking their photos to gain exposure and support for the LGBT+ support group they have set up at school as part of an extended Citizenship Project. I makes a nice change from the litter collecting/old people visiting/usual citizenship projects and whilst they have yet to have any actual sexually-troubled teens through the doors of their after-school drop-in service, I am still immeasurably proud that they thought this facility should exist in their school and that they have been brave enough to stick their necks out and research and run it � especially as it has involved toeing a lot of lines and making curly bows out of a lot of red-tape.
Secondly, Jooj has secured herself an unconditional offer of a Sixth Form place at one of the swankiest private schools in the area. (Ruby � it�s the one with the name of a potato!) This school told us that less than one percent of applicants get an unconditional offer so it really is fantastic achievement for her, particularly as there�s enough �stuff going on at home� for her to be justified in going off the rails a bit at the moment! They�ve also given us about a 97% bursary which means, in the first year, we get nearly �12k of education for about �400! Sometimes being poor has its advantages! Now all I have to do is persuade her that she should take the offer, as she�s still dithering over whether to go to the state 6th Form up the road, where you are allowed to have stupider hair but the chances of getting into Cambridge (her uni of choice) are slimmer. Of course, the ultimate choice must be hers but I think I can manage to manipulate that choice a bit � really its just TOO good an offer to pass up, AND it was her idea to apply there in the first place!
And while Im bragging on my kids, Treacle just got her first Progress Report from school. National guidelines say that children should make �2 levels of progress throughout the year� in order to be on target to pass a reasonable clutch of exams at the end of their secondary schooling. In every subject she has made two levels of progress in the FIRST TERM (semester, for those playing along in foreign climes) and in a couple of subjects she�s made four and six progress levels respectively! We�re gonna have to stop calling her �the pretty one� and start recognising that she may well move out from behind her sister�s shadow once Jooj leaves school and will start shining a nice bright light of her own. She seems to be excelling in the sciences, too, which is a nice change from Jooj who is all about the words and the essays.
I googled knob gags. There weren�t any.
Later
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