Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 52 Comments

To be or not to be

So finally an announcement on schools. Then follows the inevitable confusion, lies and burying heads in the sand. Best summed up by

  • The independent expert scientific panel urging schools to not open as it is not safe,
  • The governments own expert scientific panel demanding schools to be closed as they are not safe in the current environment,
  • Then our so called PM announces that schools are completely safe, it’s people mixing outside of schools which is the problem.

The upshot appears to be that secondary schools will stay shut for a few more days. Most secondary children are expected to be back by the 18th January. By that time a team of volunteers will then oversea a mass virus testing exercise for all pupils. Some schools will stay closed longer but the government won’t say which ones. Most Primary schools will open on the 4th January as normal.

Ok…. I would not be filled with so much cynicism if any Government announcement wasn’t worked out on the back of a cigarette packet and it wasn’t accompanied by a tirade of lies.

Anyway different people are saying different things. Clearly some of the Government including the PM haven’t read the Government’s own policy. So many questions are being ignored. For example why are the schools for younger children staying open when others are closed? Are those children and teachers somehow mysteriously protected? Why are face masks required in public places but not in the classroom? Any person working with children has to be officially vetted yet that’s been dropped for the Covid testing programme. Is that safe? The covid test that will be used is problematic, doesn’t have the greatest accuracy and is difficult to self administer. So how is that going to work with pupils self administering the test in a large group with unqualified volunteers and teachers who have little medical experience? No mention of Special Schools – what do they do? How are schools going to fund the infrastructure required to set up the covid testing. Why are the Government refusing to promote online education for those that it would suit?

Many more questions but you get the picture. It’s a mess…..

Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 145 Comments

What happened to the Bank Holiday

It’s a Monday. According to my cute animal calendar it’s Bank Holiday Monday. But apparently it isn’t. This week because of VE Day commemorations it’s going to be a Bank Holiday Friday. I must have missed that memo. So our plans for a late start ended rather abruptly. Feels like it’s going to be another odd week. Most of today was actually spent trying to get my head into school mode and convince son that he can’t really do the whole day’s schooling from the comfort of his bed.

Little success on either…..

“Dads whose to know that I’m going to school in bed today. It’s not as if the headteacher has a Eye of Sauron all seeing power.”

If the schools stay too much longer under the control of the current Schools Minister then I wouldn’t put it past schools adopting that form of teaching.

“I can effectively enforce social distancing during lessons. Apart from pets and my cleaner, no one would dare venture into my bedroom”

Somedays even his cleaner tries to avoid venturing into that place.

“If a bed is good enough for Lennon to have a peace protest then it’s definitely acceptable as a comfy classroom.”

Eventually Son was enticed out of bed with cookies. An impending attack by a dog returning from playing out in a sodden garden also focused his mind….. But I must admit I quite like the idea of bed at present. Maybe Bed Parenting might work tomorrow. So while I warm up the hot water bottle, I want to say thank you to Claire and Riya.

Thank you Claire for the nomination for the Liebster Award.

We’ve struck up a great blogging friendship over the last few months even though she keeps beating me at our daily balancing challenge. I’m sure she’s cheating…. So here’s goes with answering her questions.

  1. If you could have had any job/career what would it have been?  As a toddler I wanted to be a captain in Captain Scarlet. As a kid I wanted to be an Astronomer or Dr Who. Then I wanted to be a mountaineer. Then it was to be a goalkeeper for Newcastle and finally to captain Yorkshire at cricket. Ended up being an Accountant – figure that one out.
  2. If you were stranded on a desert island what three items would you choose to have with you? A helicopter. A person called Bear and a nice house. Guess that’s not the answer you wanted so…. A Swiss Army Knife. A fishing rod. The Lord of the Rings omnibus.
  3. What the thing you like most about yourself? My eyelashes.
  4. If you could relive one day again, exactly as it was before, what day would it be and why? Think it was in 2013. We caught the train up to Kleine Scheidegg. On a gloriousday we then walked down Lauterbrunnen. We played all sorts of games with our 6 year old. It was the best two hours ever. So much laughter and views to die for.
  5. If you could only see one more band/singer live, who would it be? AC/DC, never seen them.
  6. What is your biggest achievement in your life so far? Son…
  7. What’s your favourite way to relax (keep it clean please!)? Climbing, but I’ve had to ditch that. So now it’s running, exercise and blogging. Least favourite being watching Newcastle United.
  8. You can have a superpower for a year. Which one would you choose? Captain Marvel stuff so I could travel the Cosmos.
  9. What’s your favourite time of day and why? Friday 3.30. Schools finish so Son is off for the weekend.
  10. What are you most afraid of? Snakes. Wasps. Spiders. Drowning. My brothers old punchbag with a boxers face on it. Alvin and The Chipmunks.
  11. What are your ‘words to live by?’ Name the three most important for you. Chips, Crisps, pizza. OR love, laughter and listen.

Also thanks to Riya for the Vincent Ehindero Blogger Award.

1. What’s the best thing you like about blogging? And your advice. Making friends. At present I don’t get to socialise much these days. Blogging allows me inflict my bad and make new friends. And I do mean real friendships. My only advice is always have hope …. if I can do this then YOU certainly can.

2. What do you do to relax? Climbing in the pre parenting days. Now it’s blogging and running.

3. What is that one thing you are very grateful for? Three things. Our Son. Spending part of my life with such a beautiful person as my partner. Having been brought up by the best possible mum.

4. What is your happiest moment? Being handed our son after he had just been born.

5. Would you prefer a Cat or Dog? Got to be careful as we have both and gerbils. Let’s base it on this morning. The Cat missed the litter tray with his poo and the dog got excited and wee’d all over the kitchen floor. So it has to be the Gerbils currently.

I won’t nominate anyone as I have a rather bad habit of nominating blogs that are then deleted within weeks of the nomination. The last time I did, it was something like 5 of the 8 blogs were gone within the month. So best not nominate. I’ve been so grateful for the nominations over the last few months. I really have. But I think the time has probably come to do no more of these. Don’t want to risk deleting my own blog.

Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 90 Comments

Poets Society

The feeding zone has been active today with the usual characters. Yes the characters are making a mess of the lawn but it’s always so good to see them. We don’t get too many human visitors these days so who is going to notice the rugby pitch of a lawn and I don’t think non-human visitors are that fussed.

Another largely sleepless night. One short dream, a viewing of the stunning yet grim Everest movie and a bout of late night blog catchup. While reading a friends post a thought entered my zonked out brain. How many other souls are struggling with sleep currently. We really deserve our own secret club. Maybe the name should be The Dead Tired Poets Society. Dead Poets Society is a truly stunning movie. If we want to be selective we could be the Dead Tired Parents Society.

But why stop there. We could have so many subgroups.

For the financially challenged – The Dead Broke Poets Society,

For the puzzled amongst us – The Dead Confused Poets Society,

For the bad cooks – The Dead if you eat this cake Poets Society,

For those feeling happy – The Dead Chuffed Poets Society,

For those who can regenerate – The Deadpool Poets Society,

For the rubbish Fortnite players – The Dead in five seconds Poets Society,

For the rubbish negotiators – The Deadlock Poets Society,

For the strong amongst us – The Deadlift Poets Society,

For the gardeners amongst us – The Deadheading Poets Society,

For the Monty Python lovers – The Dead Parrot Poets Society,

And for the impassive people – The Deadpan Poets Society.

Today was another fun day. Fun but with son’s anxieties bubbling just beneath the surface. I have emailed school to tip them off but deep down I know they won’t do anything. The teachers won’t be informed and if they were – what would actually happen. Not much. I’m not sure how much training this group of teachers have had in dealing with anxiety. They certainly have had little specialised training in areas like dyslexia and autism. Maybe that’s why my first questions to the teachers tends to be

You do know he has Aspergers and you do know he has Dyslexia and you do know he has Dyspraxia.

The look I get back with the generally vague replies suggests either they don’t or they do but given the 1000 things they are dealing with this is never going to be a priority. So my parenting anxieties are mounting again. That’s why having fun is so important. It’s great for my son and it’s such a release for me. A release which is even more important when sleep fails you. Can you guess what tonight’s insomniac movie is. I’ve dropped enough clues.

Dead Poets Society.

Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 56 Comments

Liebster

Thank you to Kristian for the Liebster nomination from his great site Tales from the mind of Kristian. Very kind of you.

The Rules

  • Acknowledge the blogger that gave it to you and display the award
  • Answer 11 questions that the blogger gives you
  • Give 11 random thoughts about yourself
  • Nominate 11 blogs and notify them of their nomination
  • Give these blogs 11 questions to answer

Because these are good questions, people are tending to stick with them.

The Questions:

11 questions

1)What is your biggest pet peeves?

Why do pets have to pull the Christmas tree down every two minutes. At least the dog hasn’t cocked his leg on it yet. The angel on top of the tree is genuinely looking like it needs to go into rehab after what the girl cat did to it this morning.

2)Where did you get the name for your blog?

I came up with the single most rubbish blog name ever. Can’t blame anybody else except me. It just sort of popped into my head.

3)If you could change your blogs name, what would it be?

The perfect family still together.

OR

Whatever Will Smith calls his blog.

4)What was your favourite show as a kid?

Too many to mention. Captain Scarlet was number 1 ScoobyDoo was number 2.

5)Do you have any weird habits?

Too many. Won’t eat the ends of a banana. If I read a newspaper I read it Japanese Manga Comic style, back to front. Turn into a wolf every full moon. Always give my car a name then say hello and goodbye to it when I drive. If I’m concentrating I tend to stick my tongue out. Could go on for pages.

6)Do you like fall scents/tastes?

Yes favourite time of year.

7)What is your favourite holiday and why?

SWITZERLAND. 🇨🇭 Stunning scenery, beautiful food, lovely friendly people, worlds greatest public transport system, MEMORIES

8)Do you prefer writing it down or typing it up?

My handwriting is so bad it has to be typing. Having said that I still can only type with two fingers.

9)Netflix or cable?

Prefer to buy cheap DVDs than watch TV these days.

10)If money didn’t matter, what would you do with your life?

Become the Yorkshire Batman. Would probably have to change my name to something like ‘Rhubarb Man’ or ‘The Yorkshire Pudding’.

11)What is your favourite thing about yourself?

Absolutely Nothing.

11 Things About Me

  1. As a kid I had a 3 legged tortoise called speedy who walked round in circles.
  2. A few years back I apparently looked like Harry Potters Dad. Not sure if that was before or after Voldermort made a mess of him.
  3. When I played football for the university my nickname was Bagpuss.
  4. I worked for a while at the Forensic Science Service. No idea why but one of the office sites was slap in the middle of the U.K.s atomic weapons research site. Many years ago. But then it was the U.K.s highest security site. Mad old place. Probably just broken the official secrets act – sorry Theresa
  5. I was born in Yorkshire but a couple of years later the government decided that my town couldn’t be in Yorkshire anymore. It’s the stuff of revolutions.
  6. I used to go fishing with some of my friends. I hated the thought of hurting a fish so I never put a hook on my line. Friends never found out.
  7. When I was a kid one of my favourite shows was ScoobyDoo. Back then I desperately wanted Velma to be my girlfriend.
  8. I’ve seen the following bands: Deep Purple, Motörhead, The Firm, Whitesnake, Tin Machine, Ozzy, Black Sabbath, Scorpions, Meatloaf, Blue Oyster Cult, Rory Gallagher, Magnum, Gary Moore, Saxon, Mountain, Eric Clapton, Asia, Bad Company, Dio, Marillion, Runrig, Blackfoot, Kirsty Macoll, Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, Neil Young, Extreme, Tina Turner, Brian Adams, Al Stewart, Suzy Quattro, Roy Harper, Hollywood Vampires, The Darkness, The Dammed, Iron Maiden. Plus because of my partner I have seen Ronan Keaton twice…….
  9. I got my first name from a famous American actor, who did a lot of cowboy movies and it’s not John Wayne.
  10. I was privileged to be in a crowd which was addressed by Nelson Mandela.
  11. I once spent time on a climbing wall with a someone who later went on to climb Everest.

Nominations

Open it up to anyone who fancies a crack at some of the same questions. It is ok to admit any lycanthropy tendencies – we are all friends here.