Most Embarrassing Mum Ever

Here is a scanned photo of my beautiful daughter doing her "modern expressive" solo at a recent eisteddfod. She dances to Show me Heaven by Maria McKee.

Anyway, I think I may be a contender for the Most Embarrassing Mum ever. I always suspected that I would excel in this area, after all, my own mother was very embarrassing when I was a teenager!

At the eisteddfod, we were sitting quite close to the adjudicator. When it came time for the competitors in the classical ballet improvisation to listen to the music that they would have to dance to, I did a little classical-ballet-in-my-seat in time to the music. Just having fun! The adjudicator turned to me and said, "You've got the right idea! I hope some of the competitors dance like that!" It sounds all very tongue-in-cheek, but actually I'm sure that she was complimenting me on my excellent interpretive skills! I came back with, "Yes, next year I'm going to enter." To which she replied, "I'll lend you a tutu!" A lovely little exchange.

So, after the classical ballet improvisation competition was finished, it was time for the adjudicator to announce the winner. Before that though, she recounted the tale of how a mother that was sitting right near her had the right idea, and that this mother might even enter next year wearing a borrowed tutu!

My daughter turned to her father, and, with a roll of her eyes said very dryly, "That was Mum."

"I thought so." he replied.

So, are any of you guys contenders too?

Dear Fatty by Dawn French

Dear Fatty is a memoir written as a series of letters Dawn's nearest and dearest. Touchingly, many are written to her father, who died when she was only 19, to update him on what has been going on in her life since then. Dawn is known as a comic actress, and is one half of the comedy duo French and Saunders. Her reminiscences are so honest, and real, that they had me both laughing and crying.

Dawn's warmth, and immense love for her family and friends, comes through every page. Every embarrassing story is told with joy, and noone is spared her brutal honesty in the telling!

One of my favourite stories is the tale of the day that the Queen Mother visited the air force base that her family were living on, and her family had been chosen to receive her in their house. Dawn describes the flurry of dusting, mopping, new haircuts and new outfits; not to mention the curtsy practising. She describes her extreme disappointment that the Queen Mother's head was adorned with a hat, and not a crown. And, horror of horrors, the Queen Mother had black teeth! She was clearly a witch!

A very enjoyable read.

Nearly, nearly, nearly finished.

Here are the roses that my hubby bought me "just because". Isn't he a sweetheart? They are in a blue vase which you can't really see because I took the photo from above (standing on a chair). The background is the checkered tablecloth on my dining room table.

My final assignment for the semester is very close to finished. It is so very tempting to just submit it now so I don't have to look at it anymore. That's why I'm taking a little break; so I can resist the temptation and take a little more time to read over it and make sure that I'm super happy with what I've written.

Think I will make myself a cuppa and visit some blogs for a while...

Taking a little break from work.

Here is my beautiful daughter performing her classical ballet solo at a recent eisteddfod. My apologies about the scanned image, but I had to buy copies of the photos taken by the official eisteddfod photographer. They arrived in the mail yesterday.

Doesn't she look gorgeous!

At present she is watching the latest New Moon updates on YouTube. Of course, she should be doing her science project, or practising the piano...Much like I should be working on my uni assignment!

Only a few days to go, and all my assessment tasks for this semester will be finished!

What have I learned???

I'm struggling a bit with the second part of my ETL504 assignment, the bit where I need to discuss how my learning in a particular area has developed. I do get to choose which area I talk about, (from a list including 'quality management', 'innovation and change', 'conflict resolution'...) but I'm not sure that I have enough to say about any one of the choices! This is the part when I stop and think - so, what exactly did I learn? And it's all a bit of a blur...

I'm supposed to use my learning journal (this blog) to guide my discussion. I've been reading through my posts labelled ETL504, and I do say a lot! But can I demonstrate any real development of thought on any one topic? I feel that we have had so much to cover that it's been a bit like one of those tours where they say, "If it's Monday, then this must be Paris!". Except I'm saying, "If it's week 5 this must be 'negotiation'!".

I hope that you see my point. I'm saying that we have moved so quickly through so many different topics, that I'm finding it hard to chart my development on any particular topic.

I'm sure that I must have learned something! I just have to capture that learning and get it down onto paper.