The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet - Aristotle

My son, who for the purposes of the blog wishes to be known as Will, went off to university a few weeks ago. He seemed concerned that there would be a tearful parting when we left him to settle in to his new halls, but I'm an old hand at this now, his older sisters thrived at university and I am sure that Will will do the same. He seemed a little disappointed when I reassured him that there would be no tears, just a hug and pleasant thoughts of a tidier house! 

The week before he went to university was busy uneventful - at at least that was the case until the Wednesday evening. We'd had a very nice family meal at the Chinese restaurant, to say goodbye to Will. I ate too much and by the time we got home I was starting to regret it but it had been a lovely evening and I felt happy and contented when we got home. 

I should have known it was too good to be true! Will vanished soon after we got home from the meal, he said goodnight, took his things and went upstairs leaving Robbie and me in the lounge. I thought no more about it until later on when I decided to go to bed. I'd been putting off going to the the loo until that point so I needed to go quite badly. I went upstairs with some degree of urgency and straight into the bathroom without putting the light on. As soon as I sat down I realised that the seat was sticky and I jumped up wondering what on earth it could be. When I turned on the light I saw what looked like the aftermath of a bad case of dysentery! On closer inspection I saw the tell tale signs that Will had dyed his hair, box sticking out of bin, container still on sink and dark brown marks everywhere! The white toilet seat was marked with abstract streaks reminiscent of zebra stripes and to my horror I realised that a mirror image of the design was imprinted on my rear end!! I tried my best to restore my skin to its usual colour but without success (it looked like a henna tattoo but it vanished after about a week) vanish very soon. I got Will out of bed to restore order in the bathroom. He had the good sense to be very apologetic so I managed not to harm him but it was a close call!

Will spent a large chunk of the next morning in the bathroom scrubbing, the marks clung stubbornly to the toilet seat, floor, walls and door. I had to deal with it myself, but it did me good to see Will scrubbing the floor!

Apparently these were essential supplies for uni! 

The remainder of the week passed in a blur. I ironed 13 shirts, 14 pairs of chinos, and countless t-shirts and sundry items. I replaced missing buttons, altered jeans, sewed decorative patches on his onesie, collected his suit and coats from the dry cleaners and folded and sorted all his clothes ready for packing. By the time the car was packed with food, cleaning stuff, iron, assorted gadgets and their chargers, books, stationary, bedding, clothes and random clutter I was exhausted. There were no tears as we drove away from the halls just a huge sigh of relief and a feeling that like Will, Robbie and I are also starting on a new chapter of our lives. 

The first step, my son, which one makes in the world, is the one on which depends the rest of our days - Voltaire

I'd had a rather challenging time at work yesterday and by the time I got home I was exhausted. As I sat down on the sofa with a welcome cup of tea, my daughter looked up from marking a pile of exercise books and asked if my son had told me about Northampton - he hadn't. Her face was serious and I felt a jolt of dread inside me as I asked if he'd heard about his university interview. My daughter told me that he had, then it seemed as if time stood still as I waited for her to tell me more. Then suddenly she was speaking again and her words "he got an offer" echoed inside my head.

I was so pleased for my son. Of course it is only the first step, now he has to work hard and get the required grades as well as getting as much classroom experience as he can in the next few months. Where did all those years go, it doesn't seem possible that my son can be making plans to go to university! It makes me feel very old, but I am very proud of him.

What to wear?

I had a stabbing pain in my chest while I was at work on Tuesday evening. I was busy so I tried to ignore it, but after about an however I couldn't tolerate it any longer, it was as if a knife was being forced through the wall of my chest. So I went to the bathroom to investigate and I found that the underwire in my bra had snapped and the rough end had forced it's way through the material and it was in the process of embedding itself into my skin. I removed the the broken underwire, it left me looking a bit lopsided for the rest of the evening but at least I had put a stop to the pain. It was one of my favourites and finding a comfortable replacement will be challenging, but that is a problem for another day.

On the subject of clothes, I was treated to a fashion show when I got home from work. My son was getting ready for his university interview the next day and he planned his outfit very carefully. We were consulted about his choice of shirt, the colour of his tie and then we were asked to help him choose the most suitable tie. I used to think that choosing what to wear was much easier for men, but now I am not so sure. I think he looked very smart and he worked very hard to ensure that he was well prepared for his interview so all we can do now is to keep our fingers crossed.

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire - William Butler Yeats

The other day I was looking back at old pieces of writing and I found a one day diary for 17th October 2006, I wrote it for a writing project that I was involved in. There was a paragraph about our chaotic morning routine

"Then my day kicked into a higher gear.  I had just five minutes to shower and vacate the bathroom.  I would love to wallow in the warm water, but time demands otherwise.  At 7am I wake my three children aged 17, 15 and 11, after a lull for a few minutes while they wake up suddenly there is chaos.  Everyone wants the bathroom at the same time, someone needs a button sewn on, daughter wants me to sign a slip for school, son can’t find an exercise book, older daughter wants money for a music book. Where have all the socks gone? Why hasn’t my rugby shirt been washed? The demands continue, son get sent back to do his teeth properly and at 7.55, only 5 minutes late, I leave with son packed into the passenger seat."

The diary went on to record the rest of the day, it seemed as if I spent my whole day rushing around trying to do my best for everyone and to somehow fit everything around my work. It still feels like that sometimes, but I think things are a little bit easier now - or at least the stresses are different! 

Camera Shy - (centre) look at those heels!

On Thursday I went to daughter number two's graduation, the 15 year old from the diary entry is now 21 and, just like her older sister she has worked very hard and done extremely well with her education. I feel very proud of both of them, not just because of their academic achievements but because they are hard workers and they have become capable and sensible young women.   I was so proud to be present at my daughter's graduation on Thursday and I wish her every success at Leicester University next year.

A Good Start in Life?

I love all my children very much, they are all different with different strengths and abilities, different ambitions and very different outlooks on life. My younger daughter has loads of ambition, she is clever, hard working and determined. She does things her way and she makes her own mind, in fact she is every bit as stubborn as me! All the children had the same start, going to church and Sunday school and growing up with strong values. However younger daughter has always taken a pride in being 'the token heathen' in our family. I was pleasantly surprised the other day when she mentioned that she was the only one in her seminar group at university who knew that a reference  to the plagues of Egypt related to the Bible and to Moses leading the Hebrew people out of Egypt. I was shocked because I thought most people would know that, but I was pleased that she still remembered. It was only then that she announced "I remembered watching it on the Rugrats". Oh well at least she remembered. It will make me think more kindly about American television in future, at least something good came out of it - but I still haven't forgiven them for Kenan and Kell, I detested it because it was loud and stupid but my children loved it!

A Very Special Day

Yesterday was Emily's graduation, it was a very special day and we all felt very proud of her as she received her degree. She wasn't impress with what she had to wear, the gown was OK, but Emily doesn't do head-wear and she really struggled with the cap, it sat on top of her head like a pimple and looked as if it would fall off with the slightest movement.

As always with important events it is always the trivial things that take on a greater significance than they should. I took a spare blouse because I have a bit of a reputation for spilling things and when we went for lunch I was extra careful. I really shouldn't have been tempted by the cheese and tomato panini, especially one containing red Leicester cheese. I kept my blouse spotless but a small blob of orange coloured cheese escaped onto my skirt right in the middle at the front where it would be obvious to everyone. Desperate times call for desperate measures, the only thing I had available was hand sanitiser, thankfully it worked well enough to leave hardly any trace of the stain and I was able to enjoy the ceremony without worrying about my skirt.

It was lovely that Robbie was able to be there to share in the day, an added bonus for him was a sighting of a particular kind of bus, it looked like any old bus to me, but Robbie went into a state of rapture when he saw it. As if trains weren't bad enough we have to cope with bus spotting as well!!

Fitting A Quart Into A Pint Pot

Robbie abandoned me in favour of a Deltic at the weekend so it was very quiet, but I had no time to relax. On Saturday morning I was up bright and early and before 9am Sam and I were heading for Leicester to perform 'mission impossible'. We had to transport three years worth of Emily's accumulated belongings back to Northampton. I may have a seven seater but a Pickfords lorry would have struggled to cope with that lot. Finally everything was crammed in somehow and we headed home. We are still facing the problem of how to fit all the stuff from the car into the house. Emily was very sorry to leave uni and say goodbye to all her friends, it is the end of an era, it really does seem as if those three years have gone past in the blink of an eye.

University

It was a busy day yesterday, Laura started university, she was only there for a couple of hours but it seemed to go well. Her greatest concern seems to be the her ID card, she hates the photo they took of her! I told her that it is traditional for passport and ID card photos to be unspeakable, but she is convinced that this is the most unflattering photo ever. I can't see anything wrong with it, in fact I have had worse photos myself and some of Robbie's ID card pictures have been seriously scary!

Sam was feeling unwell when he got home from school, he had a pounding headache and he was finding it impossible to stay awake. I could tell he was genuinely unwell because we went to Grandma's for tea and usually he loves to be there, but yesterday he just sat curled up on the sofa and he went to bed as soon as he got home. I expected him to be too unwell to go to school this morning, but he came down in his school uniform as usual, he looked dreadful and he said he had a pounding headache. I suggested that he should stay at home, but he was determined to go to school, he said he had coursework to hand in. Now I am convinced he is ill! The Sam I know would never pass up the chance of a day off school, maybe he is growing up at last!

Busy Getting Nowhere

Laura has her first A Level exam today, at least it is Geography, her favourite subject, but it is the start of an anxious few weeks for her. She will be leaving school for ever on Thursday and just going back for exams. I don't know where all the time has gone, it only seems like a couple of years since we had to choose a senior school for her and now her school days are over and university is on the horizon.

I feel as if I am busy getting nowhere this week. We are going on holiday on Saturday and as always I feel as if I am never going to be ready in time! As well as all the usual packing and planning I have to have everything ready for Laura's 18th birthday which is a couple of days after we get home.

The Big Attraction

Laura was very pleased with her university visit. When I picked them up from the station on Wednesday evening she excitedly told me about the student accommodation, she described three different locations and I couldn't help smiling when she described each one by the distance from her favourite clothes shop. Even the furthest away is only a ten minute walk, the university seems very good but I can't help thinking that the proximity to the city centre is a big attraction for Laura.

Pictures in My Mind

When Emily came home last weekend she asked where one of her old toys was. 2XL is an interactive robot that works with cassette tapes and he also plays ordinary cassette tapes and that was why she wanted him after so many years. Someone had lent her a set of Chaucer tapes and she had nothing to play them on because we have cd's now. Surprisingly I knew exactly where 2XL was because I had almost thrown him away last year, but Emily had loved him so much that I couldn't bring myself to part with him. After such a long time he needed a new set of batteries and he was a bit sluggish when he first started but he was soon chatting away in his robot voice, making corny jokes and asking endless questions. She took him back to university to play her Chaucer tapes and a couple of weeks ago I joked with her about listening to Chaucer spoken in a Robot voice with an American accent. It plays tapes normally except for the special robot ones but she said that the miller sounded very much like one of her uncles who has a strong Plymouth accent, he also has amazingly curly eyebrows so rather than Chaucer in a robot voice she is listening Chaucer with a strong Devon accent and amazing eyebrows!

The Wanderer Returns

On Sunday morning I didn't get an early call from Robbie, in fact I didn't get a call at all. In the end I sent him a text and shortly afterwards he phoned, it was clear that he had only just woken up, he wasn't making a lot of sense and breakfast seemed to be the only thing on his mind, so I left him to it and got on with my day.

I had to take Emily back to university and the first challenge was to cram everything into the car, then after a quick trip to the supermarket so that she could stock up we headed off to Leicester. On arrival the first test was to find a parking space sufficiently close to Emily's accommodation, having achieved that goal we then had to carry all her stuff up to her flat on the third floor. They have a lift, but most of the stuff was really heavy and by the time we had emptied the car I had to be revived with a nice cup of tea before heading home again.

Robbie got back in the afternoon and he talked non stop about his weekend, he'd had a brilliant time and he wanted to share every single detail of it with me. He was very impressed with the catering company and he described everything from the food they provided to the T-shirts they wore, he even sent me the link to the company website - typical of Robbie to be impressed by food! Part of the appeal of the rail tours is the route they take and apparently some people chose a tour just because they haven't travelled on that particular section of a line before. Robbie started to tell me every detail of the outward route and he was very disappointed when I told him that I already knew because I had looked on the website. He showed me pictures of the tour that had already been posted on YouTube and he was appalled when I said that Class 20's were not very pretty. With the air of exaggerated patients he explained in great detail that it was the sound that was so special and he then played several clips from the internet to prove his point! I have a feeling he will still be talking about his weekend for days.

Gravy Train Catering Spitfire Rail Tours

This morning we were slightly later than planned and Robbie was delayed further by another 'Incredible Hulk' episode. He tore the sleeve of a third shirt within a week! Twice may be considered a coincidence, but three times is stretching credibility. I suspect he has been plotting to justify buying new shirts, well, if he can't cope with long sleeves he will just have to put up with short sleeves!

Monday Morning Blues 21.01.08

Monday mornings seem to crop up far too frequently. This morning found me driving towards Kettering at just after 6am to get Emily back to Leicester in time for a 9am lecture. Robbie decided to travel to work via Leicester too, he says he likes a bit of variety in his life, but really I think he just wanted to be sure that Emily was OK. I got them to Kettering station in plenty of time, but there they stayed until just after 7.30am because a signalling problem was causing long delays. Emily still got to her lecture on time, but if Robbie's colleagues hoped for a peaceful morning without him they were doubly disappointed, he wasn't late in the end, and when he got there one of his colleagues made a serious error of judgement - he asked what Robbie did at the weekend! Apparently Robbie was still talking several hours later! It could have been worse, he could have worn that dreadful shirt. He wore it on Saturday, I didn't notice at first because he wore his waxed jacket done up tightly under his chin so that I couldn't see his shirt. This made him look rather like a character from that dreadful program that he likes so much - Kenny from South Park. The shirt looked every bit as bad as I had feared and I was cross with him for wearing it in public. Maybe he was wearing it for protection - to repel the Wild Woman, if so it worked! Come to think of it, it could well have been Robbie's shirt that distracted the lorry driver and caused the bridge bash on Saturday. He loves it, but I think it will look better after a mixed wash accident!!

Back to University 13.01.08

I had a busy day today, Robbie was busy having a 'man stress' about something or other so he was neither use nor ornament. Emily and her many belongings had to be taken back to university, you wouldn't believe that one student could possibly need so many 'essentials' and it is hard to imagine how they all fit into one room! I was better organised than last time and I had remembered to borrow my step father's trolley thing to carry the luggage from the car to her room, it made life a lot easier. There were almost enough text books to start her own library, her box of photos weighed a ton, she had so many clothes with her that she probably won't wear half of them, and her shoes took up a whole crate! The Galaxy was packed almost to bursting point but eventually we got it all safely stowed away in her room. I will miss her so much, but she was obviously happy to be back with her friends and it won't be long before she is home again.

Caught in the Act. 10.01.08

Emily has been busy with her work for university for days now, obviously the boys thought she needed some help. They are supposed to be banned from her room but they are a cunning pair.

Doing a spot of research.

All this thinking is exhausting.

Robbie's Rant 17.12.07

On Friday I went to collect Emily from university. She has to completely empty her flat at the end of every term so we came back with the Galaxy packed to capacity. I don't know where we are going to put all! As we get closer to Christmas I seem to be getting further away from being ready. Robbie is usually a great help at busy times but his mind is elsewhere at present, he goes through the motions of ordinary household tasks but he pauses in the middle of making a cup of tea or sorting out the laundry to resume his rant about Network Rail. I am becoming quite skilled at 'tuning out' but every so often the odd phrase intrudes into my consciousness, 'train paths' seem to crop up with monotonous regularity along with some unflattering observations about the mental capacity of the population in general and Network Rail in particular and there are the inevitable expletives. I find that my best 'Paddington Bear' stare silences him fairly effectively, but within an hour or two he is back on the old familiar theme again. He has loads of work to do on the next timetable this week, I think I may as well send him to work with his sleeping bag, because I don't expect to see much of him before Christmas!

He did find time for an illicit shopping trip on the way home on Friday. He smuggled an M&S bag into the house under cover of darkness. I thought it may contain Christmas presents but it was just another tie, when I asked why he needed yet another tie to add to his vast collection he claimed it was because this tie was like his blue tie that I had liked so much. I don't remember being especially impresses by a blue tie, but I am fond of blue, so I can't quite work out why he thought I would like the new tie, it is puce with multicoloured spots! Oh well, I have bought him a fun Christmas tie and that is predominantly blue and considerably more sober than his latest acquisition

Bad Planning 28.11.07

Well, once again it seems I can't win! Sam occasionally tells me off for embarrassing him by writing about him on the blog, but Emily was grumbling at the weekend because I haven't written about her for ages! Hopefully today's entry will put that right.

Emily seems to have settled into university life fairly happily, she is working very hard and always seems to have a deadline to meet. Her English course demands a lot of reading, she has always been an avid reader but I think she finds it hard to muster much enthusiasm about one or two of the set books. When I saw her at the weekend she was struggling with 'Mrs Dalloway' and she gave me a very complicated explanation about the style of writing and why she finds it hard to get into. It made me very grateful that I am free to read whatever I like these days. I'm a bit like Sam in some ways because I often prefer to read non fiction books, but I enjoy crime fiction of various kinds, Kathy Reichs is my favourite these days.

Emily is doing French as her second subject, and that requires a lot of reading too. Some of the French reading material looks really grim, but I'm probably being unfair, I hated French when I was at school but it was a compulsory subject up to 'O' Level so I just had to grin and bear it. I don't know where Emily got her flair for languages from, but it certainly wasn't me!

We are lucky because we see Emily most weekends. I think she misses Oreo more than the rest of us, but it is always nice to see her and to catch up with her news. On the subject of missing things, Oreo will be missing his manhood very soon, I rang the vet today to make an appointment for the 'deed to be done'. He will be six months old on 20th December but it doesn't seem long since he first came to live with us, he was such a cute little kitten. 20th December is also Sam's birthday (a bit of bad planning on my part!) and he will be a teenager at last. He has been telling me that he is almost a teenager for so long that is has almost become his theme tune. I have always felt sorry for Sam because his birthday and Christmas are so close together, but we try to make it special for him. I feel a bit sorry for myself too, because I have 5 family birthdays very close to Christmas, including Sam's and Emily's, it is a very expensive time of year!

Sweet and Innocent! 02.10.07

Emily left the following message about her first couple of days at university.

I registered with my department today and my supplementary subject got sorted as well so :D i am doing french as long as all is well. i got my safety bus pass today, and i have signed up for the english society and the concert band - it's one of those things where you go along and see if you like it and then join so :) i might need my flute though in this case! I've ordered my bus pass and just need to pick it up on friday. it's okay in the meantime though because the bus day saver is only three pounds - i used it today! :) i love you all and miss youuuuu!!! i hope my baby oreo is okay too!

Oreo is ok, but he nearly drove me mad earlier on. He had a very energetic few hours and when he had given up on tormenting the dog he started on me. He ran up my leg to steal my breakfast, kept stealing the washing as I sorted it into different loads, jumped right into the kitchen swing bin and kept hanging on to the iron lead while I was ironing. In the end I shut him out of the room and he kept jumping up at the door handle trying to get back in. He is a determined little devil. Finally he settled down and by the time I took these photos he look all sweet and innocent!

University At Last 01.10.07

Yesterday we made an early start. First there was the challenge of packing all of Emily's belongings in the car, we got it all in somehow (and we only forgot a couple of minor things). The journey to Leicester was relatively uneventful despite the inadequacy of the directions provided on the internet by one of the big motoring companies. It would be fair to say that we arrived at our destination in spite of the directions rather than because of them!

Emily's flat is lovely - I would happily have stayed there in her place! She has her own room with en-suite bathroom and she shares a really nice kitchen with 3 others. The accommodation is fairly new, it very well designed and it is in a nice area. She will have to travel by bus to the university campus, but she can buy a bus pass so it should work out well. Unloading the car proved a bit of a challenge and it put Robbie in a bad mood, but we got it all done and we left Emily surrounded by crates and packing cases with hours of unpacking ahead of her.

I expect she will be back as soon as she has a big enough load of washing, but it felt very odd to know that she wouldn't be at home full time anymore. I left her with a little box of things to remind her of home and I indulged my scrapbooking skills to make her a little tag style scrapbook with a few photos of friends and family inside. It always takes longer than I plan to make scrapbook layouts, but I was quite pleased with the finished result.

In the Driving Seat 24.09.2007

The car is in full working order again, that's more than I can say for my bank balance, the car cost nearer to £500 than £400!! It was the power steering and several associated parts. The mechanic saved the old parts to show me, I can't believe such insignificant little bits can cost so much. At least I now have a garage that treats me like a human being and gets the work done quickly so I mustn't moan too much.

We had a lovely day at my mum's yesterday, we had a family day to say goodbye to Emily before she goes off to university. As always my mum thought she was catering for a multitude and there was far too much food. Even Robbie left food on his plate at lunch time and that is very rare indeed. Robbie has been a bit out of sorts over the weekend, he fell over on Friday and as well as hurting himself it made him very cross with himself. Just to make matters worse I have been continuing with the reorganisation of the kitchen cupboards and Robbie hates change - unless it is him doing the changing! My greatest transgression was apparently to buy a new tea towel that cost the huge sum of £1 and is slightly different to our usual ones. He claims not to like it, but it does the job and I suspect his real objection is that he didn't choose it. I guess you have to be a bit obsessive to do the sort of job that Robbie does, but this is ridiculous!