So we are deep into the Summer School Holidays. Actually in Yorkshire they should be rebranded as the ‘Are you kidding me, is this really supposed to be summer’ School Holidays.
Currently I’m thinking about some of the things Hawklad gets up to and contrasting them back to my school ‘summer’ holidays. Bearing in mind that this was before home computing and just prior to the mass dinosaur extinction. Back then my brain was officially switched off for 6 weeks. Sharks think they are so clever when they can shut down half the brain for sleep but keep the other part of the brain functioning so they can still swim. What’s really special is me shutting all of my brain down for the entire summer holiday and still managing to occasionally get out of bed by lunchtime. I didn’t need the brain to find Dads secret chocolate stash each day. That tin in his garage was always filled with chocolate cigarettes – wow how things have changed. I could also just about name Newcastle United’s upcoming fixtures. That was the sum of my holiday brain work.
Now contrast that with this ‘summer’ holiday. Hawklad is memorising the French kings and queens. He’s learning the outcome of every case that went before the Nuremberg War Trials. He’s also trying to improve his knowledge on UK Sea Birds. He has also been watching every season of the American version of The Office on the TV while at the same time also watching a YouTube series about the Roman Empire on his tablet. Apparently he can only get through both series in the 6 weeks if he watches them at the same time. That’s in between playing online with his friend who has covid and trying to build bridges to the outside world again.
Has he really got 50% of my genes or are those genes just heavily concentrated in his bushy eyelashes.
A Dad trying to cope with the loss of his Partner and becoming a single parent. 
I think the bushy eyebrows, lol. Is Hawklad doing this on his own initiative, or are some of these school projects? If for himself, way to go Hawklad! If for school, someone please assassinate that Minister of Education–he is a very perverse sort.
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Yes he just loves filling head with stuff that he wants to know about. For his exams in 2 years he is told to learn about Victorian Crime, American Cowboy stuff and Russian History. He is only interested in the last one.
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Exams 2 years from now? That”s absurd! Jack the Ripper and the James Gang (not the band), what does a kid need to know about them? Unless there is going to be a trivia contest. I used to love trivia contests. When I still had a memory…
As for Russian history, they became communists. We weren’t allowed to learn about vommunism–it might affect our brain cells, lol. My brain cells got affected anyway. I’m as anti-anything as as anyone can get.
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These kids are super clever, you’re is even more so.
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He’s brighter than his dad
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Of course. They all are.
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So true! Go on Hawklad
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Yep, very familiar with that teenage-simultaneous-screen thing…
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It’s a talent
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All I can say is that you are both very bright
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He is.
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It is crazy how different the holidays are from myself to my kids. I even saw a picture from our summer five years ago. That was even different. It is crazy!
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I bet that felt like a different world
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I never watched the American version of The Office, but generally speaking American television is dreadful . Tales of the Roman Empire much more interesting. I’m so old, I can’t remember Summer holidays!
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That’s the only fictional tv show he watches.
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Random teen memories: Sitting in the church’s lychgate when it rained; being chased by bullocks in the quarry on one scorching summer day; climbing the football lights; pushbike backy through the hospital ground and being chased by some nutter; making dens; climbing trees/hay stacks/sides of the quarry/farm machinery/walls…
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I remember climbing football lights as well.
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Hey G!
Are you going to publish our poem on your blog?
😀
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I am. Certainly am
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