I’m a bit fed up at the moment. 
Sick of all the unpleasantness and knowing that there is such “stuff” in the world.
Anyone got any good news? The wedding at the soup kitchen sounded fun. I’ve always wanted to try matzo ball soup. One day, I will. I hope the bag o crap has good crap.
Tell me something cheery…
Please?
I’ve got a new project which seems like it can be cool, and I’ve already located housing. The agency has done something I’ve only encountered once before and which has me really beffuddled though: they go into a ton of detail on how they may give me warning and when and by how long… but the notion of me saying “btw, hasta la vista and may that be nunca” is not even contemplated. Still interviewing for an internal, end-client position, these being what us every-monday-in-the-airport consultants call “retirement”.
The Little Nephew is back in school; him and the other kid whose birthday is on December 23rd are the youngest, but he’s got a whole head on her (they’ll be turning 4 this year). They have seen each other often during the summer, but they belly-tackled each other like they hadn’t seen each other for months. He’s very happy that his cousin is also in the same class again (to be expected when both of you have the same lastname and it begins by A; she’s officially his third-cousin though, their grandfathers were first-cousins, and I should know because I get the complete explanation every time the cousin is mentioned).
The Big Nephew is settling in well in his own school. He’s attending school in SW France this year; it’s close enough to go home every two weeks and whenever they get a week off (which in France is a lot more often than in Spain). He’s having the expected problems following lessons in French but has already figured out resources he can use to fill up his notes and so forth.
The Niece is still feeling capital-W Weird that her brother isn’t there. Given how used she is to relying on him, it’s got to be like suddenly finding yourseld in the rain without an umbrella. I hope this will give her a much-needed maturity boost.
And it’s bloody cold, but the sun is shining.
Big Nephew will pick it all up pretty quickly. It’s a great opportunity to get more fluent.
I’ve never understood how people could send their children to boarding school. It would be like your niece feels, just gone. Maybe absence makes the heart grow fonder and they like each other better during school holidays.
I’d love to go somewhere. They put ads on the telly of cruises up the German rivers or Norwegian fjords. I’d love to go there…
Well, in this case boarding school is a great opportunity for Big Nephew to gain fluency 
And he’s a very independent kid, he’s always been one of the class leaders. The first time away from home without your parents can be scary but it’s also SO good to be able to try out your own boundaries and limits, play with a set of rules which both for his parents and mine is a lot more forgiving than the ones at home. And in this case one of the things the organization bangs and bangs and bangs into the heads of parents is that the kids’ grades will go down so, since both PerfectionistMan and ControlWoman are on board with the idea, it won’t be the end of the world if and when his grades do indeed go down.
The stay aborad is part of a network of schools which back in the day used to be mostly boarding (or at least, heftily-boarding), my own uncle used to be a boarder in our “home” high school, which both my brothers and I attended as regular students. For the school it’s a way to put back to use the old dorms (now with decent heating!), and for both the receiving students and the boarding ones it’s a good way to hear about how things are done Elsewhere and to look at your own culture and its routines from the outside for a while.
I’d have liked to go to boarding school. I loved school 
It would be strange being one of those British families where the kids go off and you only see them during the holidays. Very different to having them right there every day. It’s probably different now, with skype and all that, you could talk to them as if they were home, unlike in the “olden days” where it was all letters.
I worked with a woman who’d done a student exchange to America. She stayed with a television producer and had a great time. It’s only for a short while, though, maybe a year?
Yes, a year. And like I said it’s really close by. Regarding modern comunications, one of the rules of all these schools is that there is a “cellphone curfew”, not so much because of the kids but because of the parents. My own SiL has needed to be reminded several times that “he’s not going to have his cell at this time, my love” when she wanted to call him at 2330 to ask if he’d done his homework (yes he has FFS!); Bro fesses he’s also needed to remind himself of the same but says it’s nice to know that if he Whatsapps a “good morning” before leaving for his own job, Big Nephew will see it when he switches on the phone.
Will he get much opportunity to go places, sight-see? Does the school have excursions? Sounds like such fun.
The town itself is a tourist spot and has been since the 19th century (Biarritz), it’s silly-gorgeous. There are quite a few nice excursions that you can do even with public transportation: inter-village buses, can’t call them intercity when the villages are as small as some of those. San Sebastíán AKA Donosti (Spanish / Basque), very close across the Gulf of Biscay, used to be one of the vacation spots for Spanish royalty and high nobility while Napoleon III, his Spanish wife and their court vacationed in Biarritz.
So, now I’m asking you back, Mr I’m hiding behind all of Australia Where would I have to go if I wanted to pay you a beer? (Or other drink of your choice) What are the prettiest sights, and the spots that you love and a tourist would be likely to miss?
Looks like it has mostly stopped raining.
I like the sconce for the upstairs bathroom that came from Etsy yesterday.
The trazodone seems to be working.
My hands, so bruised by my pony going crazy on me that I could not use them for much this week, are a lot better this morning.
My husband and I staked out the ground for our new barn yesterday.
West Coast (Perth). Tourists don’t get to miss much, the tourism people have pretty good information. Mostly they’d just have to choose what they can fit in. Most places are a long way from other places, so you either need a lot of time (and petrol money) to drive or a lot of money to pay for flights.
Rottnest is a nice place, if you like the beach. It’s an island off the coast. There’s nothing there except beaches, a few historical sites, holiday cottages and facilities, and quokkas (they are like wallabies, only smaller, really cute little animals, quite friendly) https://soperth.com.au/roger-federer-breaks-instagram-with-a-quokka-selfie-20005. It’s very picturesque. If you don’t like the beach, don’t come to Australia 
(j/k, there’s lots of nice places other than the beach.) One of the beaches at Rottnest is called “The Basin” and it’s a hole in the middle of a circular (semi-circular) reef. http://www.westernaustralia-travellersguide.com/the-basin-rottnest.html
[quote=“Sage_Rat, post:9, topic:822100”]
[/QUOTE]Love it, so clever from such a simple design
What did he do? :eek:
How big is it? A big barn? Will animals live there, or is it for “stuff”?
Give to me your Garmonbozia.
It’s friday!!!
What’s nicer than that?!
Pony, whose previous 12 years are unknown to us, was proceeding quite nicely with training to pull a cart, when she suddenly started blowing up without warning. This was the “last chance” training session. I was on the ground but I stupidly tried to catch her as she raced madly around the training pen trying to buck her brand new $1200 harness off. That’s how I hurt my hands. Mostly I was concerned for my harness! (She did not manage to break it. Credit to those Amish harness makers).
She’s headed off to reform school (a mustang trainer). She’s way above both my skill level and my physical daring. I’m not afraid of animals, I trained my riding horse just fine, but this pony has Issues.
This is a stuff barn. We already have an animal barn but it is full of animals and our stuff is sitting outside. Horse trailer, tractor, tractor attachments, wagon, log splitter, concrete mixer, tiller/chipper, etc etc. Plus it will have a roomy insulated plumbed wired farm shop inside. We imagine it will have about a 52’ x 30’ footprint. Medium size.
That’s damn pretty, but I see you guys are also suffering from “someone needs to hire a copywriter” syndrome 
That basin better not be waste-deep!
It’s Friday, AND payday! Woo!
Sure, you can have it. It’s all yours.
Saturday?
I hope he can settle her down.
haha, that’s a beauty. Actually, it’s crystal clear in summer when it’s calm. You can see all the fish swimming about (no poo)
Nice stuff in my life:
My granddaughter has started on solid (such as it is) food and she lurves her veggies!
My daughter is transitioning nicely from being a teacher to being an engineering technician - if only she’d figured this out when she started college, but better late than hating your job forever!
In less than 2 months, my husband and I will be on a cruise, including an in-and-out of the Panama Canal - we are very excited!
Plus, yeah, Friday and payday - yay!!
There are significant signs that it may actually not rain today. This will be the first time in weeks that has occurred, so we’re pretty jazzed about it.