The Inheritance To Do List

On the sad but not unexpected demise of Himself's Fairy Godmother (she was 94), we have come into a little money. Here is what we would like to do with it....

The Back Garden

• replace retaining wall

• add useable terraces

• repair/replace damaged paving around the pool

• replace and re-site all pool 'workings'

• replace/repair guttering

The Inside of The House

• replace flooring to study, front room, hall, stairs and possibly entrance hall.

• install gas heating to front room and study

• install a flue over the cook top

• replace lighting in kitchen adding bench lighting

• replace lighting in study and front room.

Here is what we have done so far:





Yes that is another boat in the background.
You can award me my halo or print 'Welcome' across my forehead anytime you like now.
You choose.

And Now For My Next Trick, I Will Fit 5 Employees into the Same Timetable!!!!

We have been in the throes of some major changes on the work front. Towards the end of last term, three girls with very little English applied to enrol at the school. They brought with them, $6000 worth of 'New Arrivals' funding which we are to use to give them intensive English lessons. With the incorporation of their 5 lessons a week into our already overloaded support timetable, I was faced with finding other staff members to fill the gaps. One has doubled her hours and another, a visiting tutor, has been put on 4 days a week! But that's not all!

In addition to our new ESL girls, we have a new little Autistic boy in Reception and a change in focus for our Down Syndrome girl. In summary, we have basically had to throw the timetable in the air and start again. It's been quite a jigsaw puzzle; although maybe more like one of those alphabet puzzles where you've got one free space and you have to move all the tiles around, one space at a time, to get them into alphabetical order!!

Our timetable is now so complicated one almost needs special glasses to view it!

With all this going on, we are still looking for a beefy male type to be on duty around our 'Oppositional Defiance Disordered' child, who is on reduced enrolment after having thwacked the teacher over the head with a pencil case. We thought we had the ideal guy: a nuggety Kiwi with a background working for a national football association training kids in schools, he was gentle yet intimidating. Unfortunately, after 2 weeks, he pulled the plug citing over commitment and demands of family. We were gutted.

Yesterday, we had a behavioural specialist in to observe said child (let's call him Gabriel). There was a relief teacher on the class which amped his behaviour up several notches and the specialist came out of the observation shocked and disturbed! She claimed he was the 'most severe' child she had ever observed!

Excellent.

As a staff we are being challenged daily by these kids who want to be in control. Whether they be autistic, abused or indulged, their agenda is identical. It's all about trying to get their hands on the Flaming Sword and, I gotta tell ya people, we can NOT afford to give it to them. This does not always make us popular. The mother of our newest autistic boy burst into tears as she saw him shouting and screaming at home time today. He didn't want to go home.
"Thanks for ruining my child" she spat at the astonished teacher, who had to walk the child to the car as he wouldn't go with mum.....

Kids do not really want to be in control.

In the meantime, we have come into some $$$$$$$$$! Well, more like $$$$$
I am going crazy ordering plumbers and carpenters, electricians and landscape designers. There is the small disappointment that Himself spent 20% of the inheritance buying a new boat and trailer!!! Cos we really needed a second boat!!!!! But I have decided not to let it bug me. On the other hand, I can't get overly excited either....:-(

Man Of Steel the Musical: Now With Added Sewing!

Finally got some photos at the theatre last night. Firstly, here's the all-in-one dress that looks like a shirt/ skirt combo, that I did for the Lois Lane character. This came from an old late 70s early 80s Simplicity pattern which I'd never got around to making for myself.I didn't like the jacket included in the pattern so I did this one instead.

I still need to get a good shot of it! Unlike the Annie extravanganza, we left the chorus kids to get their own costumes. As a result there was far less sewing for me to do. I did have to add a little length to a few dresses:and make up a full circle skirt or two (that's one in the background there in the blue). But my main headache was the outfit for 'Olga' who 'vonts to rule ze vorld'! When she first brought in the costume (an op shop bargain), it was an above the knee 'little black dress' which she paraded up and down and we thought would probably 'do'. We had ideas of a fur coat and so thought the dress was not overly important. Eventually we settled on the fur stole which meant the dress was more visible, and then the day of the dress rehearsal was upon us and 'Olga' started moving. In dismay we watched the fitted dress make its way higher and higher up 'Olga's thighs!!!! Emergency!!!!
I thought quickly and announced 'deep chiffon frill'??????
"Do it!" the director shrieked and I was off to Spotlight post haste, tearing through the doorway at 5.28pm, just in time to purchase the material. I tried valiantly to gather the stuff on the overlocker, and, although it did gather, it was nowhere near enough to give the weight of fabric I was looking for so it was back to the old time tried and true methods of basting and manual gathering. *sigh*. At 3am I had finished the job (I'd also finished the jacket on the same night). Everyone was very pleased with the result and declared the dress much improved by the addition. That night I watched with bated breath to see if the frill hung alright on stage. I had left it open at the back to give her leg room and I wasn't sure how it would look. It wasn't too bad. But again, as we watched in horror, the back seam began to creep open....higher and higher.....By the final curtain, Olga's virtue was only just covered! She was blissfully unaware as to how high the split had 'run' and assured me it would be fine. Her friend quickly informed her of the severity of the situation, "Duuuuude! You can almost see your BUTT!!!!"
Hurriedly she disrobed and handed the offending garment over. Now what was I supposed to do?
Obviously, redoing the seam would have been pointless as she would have just split it open again. After some consultation with the Strange Scottish Girl, I decided to put a reverse pleat into the gap. I had just done one on the back of the red skirt (pictured above) and in the end, the dress was only a costume, so I made it up as I went along. Happily, as you can see from the pictures, Olga is now decent and yet still flexible :-) Result!!

Oh and this is what I found on the end of my file of shots from the theatre. I ask you. It's a miracle I'm still sane....

Crafty Tuesday: A Stage Jacket

I've been busy sewing for the school musical this week. We're doing 'Man of Steel', a spoof on Superman, and this is the jacket I've made for the Lois Lane character...Rita Street. I also did a matching shirt/skirt dress which I have yet to shoot. This is a terrible picture as I had to take it without flash. I'll try and take a better one in the daylight.

The fabric is a faux suede which is alternately delightful and hideous to work with. I love the structure and weight of the material but you can't iron it directly with the result that, when asked, Himself pronounced the resulting garment 'rather lumpy'. It doesn't help that I left the iron at the theatre today :-)

Now to move on to my next project. The villainess of the piece wears a tight 'little black dress' with fur stole, Russian hat and long black gloves. When she first brought the dress to us we thought it was fine, as indeed it is when she is stationary. Unfortunately the moment she begins to move it starts to creep up her thighs. Waaaay up. Not appropriate :-) I am about to attempt to attach a length of gathered chiffon to the bottom of the thing in order that her modesty be preserved.

Wish me luck!

As always, Crafty Tuesday happens over at Carrie's place today. Click over and see what people have to share.

Kangaroo Island Birthday Bash 2011 Style: Part I

This post has been hanging around for two weeks now :-(
It's going to be flung together now for the sake of getting it out of my 'drafts' folder.





You probably don't remember but this time last year we were on Kangaroo Island celebrating the Small Boy's 12th birthday.
Here he is last year (right), looking all of 12 years old with one of his mates. The whole birthday went so well that Himself decided we should do it again. Only this time we took two of his friends.

It was meant to be a nice 'get away' for me, but really, with 3 12/3 year olds to entertain, did I really think I was going to get to relax? Fortunately, they were absolutely fine. They spent some time at the local skate park and vegged around in bed for hours watching cartoons. At night, as we waited for dinner in the restaurant, we played charades and on one night I got them into a very competitive game of 'Racing Demons', my all time favourite card game. In a hard fought match, the birthday boy won!




Here they are on the ferry on the way over (left).
I'm actually not seeing any major changes in the Small Boy there. They are coming though. Oh. Yes. They. Are. Coming. I know that one day he will open the door and be taller than me and I will go back to being the smallest person in the family.




We might be getting a bit blase about the island nowadays, having visited so regularly. We always stay in the same place, as Himself does work for them (and this holiday was no exception), and we have established a few routines: breakfast and dinner in the restaurant or bistro, mini golf, walks down to the beach


to see if there are any penguins (there aren't, the seals ate them);
walks out to the landmark, Frenchman's Rock looking a bit sad nowadays since the storms have washed most of it away;

observing island architecture: old and new,
sunsets;



and rainy afternoons curled up in our cabins


reading or watching Foxtel!


The other big venture we have taken to is sand boarding. There is this phenomenal place on Kangaroo Island called 'Little Sahara'


which is basically a 2 sq km area of massive sand dunes. You can hire boards at a shop, 8 kms away, and then you are on your own to walk into the slopes and try your luck.



Yes, of course I did.


Actually, to be honest, these shots are taken whilst I was pretty stationary. The kids were having trouble getting the boards to slide on the rather damp sand.

Didn't stop them jumping though.

After my stationary attempts at sliding, I tried waxing the board up thoroughly. I put the wax on its side like a crayon and shaded the entire bottom of the board. The boys were sceptical, and a little sullen if truth be told. Apparently they had tried EVERYTHING and there was no way that fuddy old step mum was going to get the board going. Well, I have tried to load the video proof but blogger won't let me....suffice to say that their reactions were a picture. They were galvanised into action and waxed their boards into oblivion, sliding happily away for some hours afterwards.(Me about to show them how.....)

Crafty Tuesday aka Thursday aka Friday: The Wishful Thinking Dress

I call this my Wishful Thinking dress as a) I am wishing it was warmer and b) I am wishing I could fit into it.

I have let myself go completely of late and, despite a contract with my beloved Middle Sis, aimed at getting both of us down to an ideal weight before her arrival in October, do not seem to be able to do anything about it. Consequently, this dress is a little tight around the tummy, but I am determined to be back into it by Summer. As a result of my lack of fit, I have not rushed to sew up the hem. But that is another story.

I had intended to post this for Crafty Tuesday but we seem to be in the middle of a vicious vortex of activity which leaves me alternately a) so busy at night that I don't get near the computer or b) asleep on the couch at 9pm. We are very excited to have The Strange Scottish Girl staying with us at present. I started following her (now defunct) blog, 'Wake Up It's Tuesday', in late 2007 as she was the colleague of A Free Man (the much missed music, fatherhood and science blogger; he's taking a lengthy bloggin' break to get on with life) and left many a witty comment on his site. After A Free Family moved to Adelaide to join us in the real world, we kept in touch with the SSG as she agonised over life choices such as job changes and university study. Frequently, A Free Man would tease her about coming over to Oz to babysit for him so imagine our delight when he informed us that she actually was coming!

The SSG has been staying with the Free Family since May now, during which time we have been delighted to get to know her in person. With the arrival of 4 o/s friends of the DVDs, a spare bed was required and we were delighted to accommodate her at Chez Arizaphale. She has fitted into our dysfunctional family unit like a hand into a glove. She brings a ready smile and intelligent conversation into our rather mundane world.

And she's a sew-er!!!!!!!! (as opposed to a drain for the removal of effluent which was my first spelling of the word!)

The SSG has been making a quilt out of patchwork denim that she's cut up out of old jeans. It is dead impressive and a work of art really. I will take a photo and post it on another Crafty Tuesday (and claim it as mine).


Meanwhile. Here's my summer 'wishful thinking' dress.

Would You Believe....?

School is always good for a laugh when you work with Special Needs kids. We have a Downs' Syndrome girl at school, in year 8, who is at that difficult stage where she has discovered BOYS but, thankfully, doesn't quite know what to do with them. Naturally, she fixates on one and follows him around at lunchtime. It does not take very long for this to deteriorate into 'kiss chasey', with said boy and his mates hiding in the toilets and Emma (not her real name) lying in wait for them as they emerge. It's a bit like what we all did when we were 9 or 10 except they are 13 and 14.

What?
You mean you didn't do that? It was just me?
Oh well....

Anyway, there she is lurking outside the toilets and there's much hilarity from the boys inside, until one of them decides to hold his friend so that Emma can get to him. Now I don't know if you're aware, but Downs' Syndrome kids can be really strong and when Emma gets hold of you it is quite an effort to disengage. In all the wrestling and so forth that ensued, Boy 1's jumper was ripped, Boy 2 (the holder) got roughly jostled into a wall and Boy 3 hurt Emma's hand when he tried to pull her off Boy 1.
The whole lot of them ended up in the Office of the Head of Student Welfare having to explain themselves.
Part of my role is to debrief Emma after these situations and make sure she understands what is appropriate and acceptable behaviour so that she will be able to operate successfully in society. When she came cheerfully up to my office the next morning I had to sit her down for a chat.
"So Emma, can you tell me about what happened yesterday?"
(thinks hard)"Ummmm, yes, I got a lot of 'good's in my diary"
"Yes, that's wonderful that you were good in class Em but what about lunchtime? Did anything happen at lunchtime yesterday?"
(I am now about to get a lesson in asking euphemistic questions of people with intellectual disabilities.)
"Nothing happened yesterday."
"OK Em, when I ask you if anything happened yesterday, I actually know what happened but I just want you to tell me about it. Tell me about what went wrong at lunchtime yesterday. Why did you get into trouble?"
Emma's face fell, not into a canvas of remorse but rather into a Hieronymus Bosch-like darkened oil painting of deviation. I could almost see the cogs turning. 'How do I get out of this?'
"Well.." she started," John Smith was hurting my hand."
"Yes, Emma, but he was pulling your hand off Tom wasn't he?"
"Yes. But I never touched Tom's jumper. He was being nasty to me."
"I see. But you did touch Tom's jumper didn't you Em because that's how it got ripped."
(Eyes dart sideways, cogs turn.)
"Yes. But Tom was hurting my feelings. He mumblemumblemumble..."
Like many people with Downs', Emma's speech is sometimes hard to understand, but I thought I had heard her correctly.
"What did Tom do Emma?" I asked with some incredulity.
"Tom Brown killed my grandfather." she announced. And then for good measure:
"With a GUN."

Sometimes it's very hard to keep a straight face in this job.