Marie's Web Log

So pressed for time lately. Am I getting old? Wo lao le (just slipping in a little Chinese practice). A selection of things from the past week:

Sunday: morning: held the Mandarin playgroup at our place for the second week in a row; afternoon: took Amelia to Abi's birthday party.

Monday: Ian went to Bournemouth overnight (where he is starting his PhD), so I took Amelia to and from nursery on the bus, which takes 1.5 hours each time, double the usual time. In between, tried to get caught up on business stuff, like doing taxes.

Tuesday: With Amelia all day. Abi came over to play in the afternoon.

Wednesday: With Amelia again. Took her with us to visit a school. We have to apply in November for a place for her for next year. The school was a Church of England school. (Don't even get me started on the way they mix church and the school system over here. It's ridiculous. I know there are Catholic schools in Canada, but it's not the same. Church of England schools are considered almost the default school here, and every school (even non-religious ones) has to teach religious education.) Very nice, new building, but the person showing us around (the deputy headmistress) had the slick patter of a salesperson, and the children were all eerily quiet. The Stepford children.

Thursday: Went to see another school (without Amelia this time). Non-church school. Nice headmistress (what a quaint title - usually they are just referred to as 'heads') - perhaps I was charmed by her Scottish accent. Sat with us for over an hour, and the conversation focussed much more on the children, which is as it should be. Lots of great facilities too, like a kitchen with tiny counters at child-height, and a music room for which they've just ordered a (what is the collective noun here?) bunch of ukeleles -apparently they borrowed some last year and the children loved them. Much more genuine-seeming environment, lots of happy enthusiasm and the staff seemed cheerful - which can be unusual. Also, all the classes we saw had several non-white children in them - very unusal for Exeter. If we are still here next year, we will probably send her there. Evening: Chinese lesson.

Friday: morning: went to Honeylands Children's Centre for the report on Amelia's four-week assessment. It's been a really comprehensive process and at least we feel we've done all we can to look into what her issues might be. The upshot was that she does have some sensory difficulties, which we knew, but she is not on the autistic spectrum, which is definitely a good thing. Their view is that her lack of social participation comes from a lack of confidence, especially physical confidence, as she still has some problems with certain gross motor activities. There were a few other outcomes, including the results of the IQ test, which I'll tell you about another time. Afternoon: went to get my hair cut. Shorter than I've had it for quite a few years. If only I had a digital camera to take a photo...

Saturday: We all drove up to Bath, about 1.5 hours from here. I had booked to go on a writing course: writing short stories for women's magazines. Ian wanted to take Amelia for a day out, but although the morning went well, she fell asleep for an hour after lunch, and then woke up in a foul mood, had a tantrum and refused to get out of the car for 3 hours. She's going through quite a negative stage at the moment, everything is "No!" and "My don't want to!"

Today: Celebrated Chinese autumn moon festival (very like Canadian Thanksgiving). The actual date was Friday. Had organised with a friend a party for our local international adoption group (SWAN), and had to go up at 10 to the rented space to decorate and set up. Was a great event, everyone brought delicious food and all pitched in and helped so that the whole thing went off really well. Except that I got a parking ticket because I left the car in one place too long. £50. Ouch!

Plus: worked all week on the SWAN newsletter, and e-mailed it out on Friday night. And, tried to deal with two work enquiries, plus setting up a meeting of the local editors' association.

Signing off...