life has been busy. Work is at the overwhelming point - I have a presentation on Tuesday for an analysis that really isn't ready for it - I'm still waiting on a stack of data cleaning from one of the people that I'm presenting to, so it is going to be a delicate balancing act between pointing out the issues, and not being a whingy little nuisance. 

Youngest had Tiv today - went okay. Artisanat took zer to the morning rehearsal, and I wandered around the house. I had the goal of getting the kitchen counter(s) and the dining table clear simultaneously. Sadly, this was not to happen, although the counter was completely clear and wiped down, and then I used it for food prep, and glueing things back together, and that all needs to be cleared up. However, it is a lot better than it was this morning! I'm planning on doing a little more before bed, and maybe a bit in the morning.

Plus, there were multiple loads of washing (although the last may still be in the machine), and it was the right kind of weather that everything that was outside was dry enough to bring back in, though I have hung some on the indoor dryer in front of the heater to make sure, given that I think the dew was in the process of condensing when I started bringing it in. And I'm quite happy to have a reason to have the heater on - it has been bitter the last few nights, although apparently it was only 4C last night (it felt much much worse - I would have said it was colder than the night that we had frost). 

I gave in to temptation, and started a new crochet project - it is blue with black 'cow spots', and is about a metre wide, and about 8cm long at present. I'm not convinced that I'm going to like it - I'll see how it goes and then decide whether to pull it apart and do something different (I have a different project that I'm thinking I would like to work on instead, except I can't work out quite how to start with a rectangle and then end up with a square, and still do what I want to with the colours. I've promised myself that I will only work on it when working on patchwork isn't an option (eg. diving, dancing, gym, etc), and that it doesn't mean I don't have to spend some time sewing up the catherine wheel blanket (which was getting depressing with how long it is taking to finish). 

After Tiv we wandered up to East Perth, to a farewell for the visitor that we have had at work for the last five months. Pleasant hour or so, although the choice of food meant that some of my eating choices were questionable (unsure whether the mixed nuts were powdery or floury; blue cheese is very tasty and maybe not as bad for me as some of the other choices of cheese; four dried apricots is a bad idea, especially as they were sulphured, but five was definitely worse; dips could have any number of secret ingredients; just because the cake that I brought is safe doesn't mean it should be the bulk of my meal; can you make an entire side dish out of olives?; am I sure that those are the g-f rice crackers?). Brought some bits and pieces home for eldest, who had spent the day working on english homework due tomorrow - this was apparently a theme for today - those workmates who also have 14-yr-olds had also left them at home doing English assignments (one also doing a movie study, the other doing a study on an Australian poem where zie was supposed to point out all the references, to which my workmate comments that being a new zealander makes her greatly unhelpful here). In eldest's favour, it sounds like zie had done the most prep work through the week, it is just that zie is a reluctant writer, and takes forever to get started on these kinds of projects (and zie got stuck on some of the other homework as well - seems that algebra doesn't come naturally). 

and youngest and I spent some time watching a couple of the free italian 'teaching' videos on Yabla. I'm thinking that if zie is going to continue to be interested, then we might subscribe, and have an agreement that we each watch at least one each day (but that it doesn't have to be the same one). Each phrase has a time point in the video so you can go over and over it, there are italian and english texts below (and this can apparently be done in other languages as well), and supposedly you can slow down the speaking so that you can try and train your ear to hear it. 

and a last thing - went and saw 'Brave' yesterday (after discovering that ariaflame was interested, and youngest needed something quiet given that we went the the Feminist Collective birthday gathering on friday night, and took about an hour to leave after youngest pointed out it was late and zie was tired, and then zie had tiv today). I liked it, although artisanat thinks me whinging about the scarcity of female characters was a bit much, given that the main two characters are female and most of the conversations happen between them. I found the mother/daughter dynamic better than Rapunzel - at least there was redemption of the mother (and to some extent the daughter, although I have less faith in the staying power of her changes). But still, I found the mother to be oppressive, and manipulative, and there were quite emotionally blackmaily bits that I was quite underwhelmed by. One problem with film vs books, is that it is less obvious for me when I should be ascribing the story to an unreliable narrator - in this case, it very much was (Merida being said unreliable narrator), and if I had worked this out sooner, I would have been more forgiving. But I don't think that kids are going to pick up on that as much, which means that the overt-but-not-quite-the-message-I-want-kids-to-get is going to be the dominant one. Quick summary - world building: interesting; character: patchy; plot: basic tick the dots, although not boring; writing: hmm - I liked chunks of dialogue, but I think I would have to watch it again to be sure of what I really think of it. Maybe 6/10? Maybe 8/10?