Monday 20 February 2012

Skipping School, Book Review and a Dragon

T has been complaining of ear ache over the weekend but also admitted that the pain wasn't so bad as the crying she subjected us to.
She accepts that it is better to tell the truth and fix the problem than to tell a porkie and bawl your eyes out.
Despite this I still found myself collecting her from school with ear ache just before lunch today.
Her teacher said she wasn't sure if she was winging it but she hadn't been her usual self, she was quiet and I couldn't tell either but as I put her to bed her eye balls were spinning like waltzers.

So still to get to the bottom of it but it has been nice not having to do the school run this afternoon.


Also I finished reading a book!
Am I the first parent to manage it?

I am building a collection of books to read to my girls as they get older and this is one of them.


Ballet Shoes - Noel Streatfeild




I never read it as a child and although I only finished it in the last two weeks or so I will struggle to tell you what it is about because the brain is a sieve.

Basically Great Uncle Matthew has a huge house in the Cromwell Road stuffed with fossils brought back from far away lands. Somewhere in his travels he brings back an orphan to be looked after by his niece who is looking after the house.
Two trips later and you have three little girls and their names are all something beginning with P.


P calls this fairy "Tinkle" and she is holding a "Tink"



Well G.U.M sets off again leaving the niece, the nanny and the fossil sisters to get on with it and enough money for five years although like a typical man he is gone for longer than he said he would be and by the time the girls start school the money is running out.




So the niece and the nanny de clutter the house and open it up to boarders who all help with the education of the sisters along with the arrangement that the girls can have tuition at the local stage school providing that they work in the theater when old enough and give a percentage of their earnings back to the Madame
The money just about keeps a roof over their heads and the girls find that they have to work harder to juggle the budget to support their family through tough times.




You know what, it's a really good read if you want something quick and completely free of nasty and fear, I loved it and I finally have read a classic.

There is something about the detail I felt like I was in the house with them. There is a page talking about their Christmas Day and I think I might copy it because it was perfect, all toasted tea cakes, paper chains and open fires.

Just what a tired anxious brain requires before bed.


My girls love the film How To Train Your Dragon.

This is P pretending to be the dragon called Toothless.

Look at those stretched fingers!


Both girls are asleep, it's late afternoon which means I am in for a late night so I am going destroy the peace and gently wake them with brioche and milk.

Rumor has it the weather will be warmer at the end of the week!
CM

2 comments:

  1. Try Marigold in Godmother's House by Joyce Lankester Brisley - really magical.

    ReplyDelete
  2. BTW am not really anonymous - it's Jen, Matt's wife, and friend of the Hillwins. I just don't seem to have a signature!

    ReplyDelete