Adventures of Tintin - Ben's reading like a man possessed!

Yippee, put the flags out, whoo hooo, "smile, smile" - you get the picture. Ben has discovered the "Adventures of Tintin" books at the library and finally (I never thought it would ever happen), he's reading, reading and further reading, finishing books left, right and centre. I know he's reading them because, (a) we hear him laughing as he reads, (b) he tells us about the stories, (c) he talks about the characters, (d) "blistering barnacles" or "thundering typhoons" are expressions added to his everyday exclamations and (e) he keeps asking to buy more books or find more at the library.

So, you've probably worked out

Other things:

Katie has started a poster all about plants and how to care for them, grow them (by taking cuttings etc.) and how to grow an avocado from seed (which we have yet to do). The kitchen is slowly turning into a greenhouse. Actually, it's slowly turning into a dumping ground (sorry, creative room) as inbetween planting cuttings and repotting etc., she's making new model horse displays, rugs, tack etc., so there's also glue (or water and flour which she prefers to use), paint, lengths of silk, material (and all the tools needed to go with these items) on the work surfaces. I probably spend more and more time each day insisting that she clears up something before moving on to something else (and crush her creative skills!). The thing is, her bedroom is now so lovely and fresh I guess she doesn't want to mess it up!

This morning I spent a good two hours clearing up because we had an appointment with a chap from "bmrb" to come and do a "Parents and Children" survey with me and Katie. A little apprehensive when he first appeared on our doorstep a couple of weeks ago and said we'd been chosen (from a list of names/addresses held by the post office - never heard of this before), and that it was for the "department for children, schools and families". We decided to do it because our answers are (or should be) confidential and our details won't be passed on to anyone(!). Oh, we did each get £7 in shopping vouchers which isn't bad. Katie's going to buy another plant - she spyed a nice trailing one in a DIY shop recently. So I had a relatively clean house by 10.30 this morning, ready for this chap. The survey was fine - he said afterwards it was lovely to come across a family which tries to keep to tradition - eating and doing things together, actually knowing a bit about our children, discussing problems with them rather than letting them go off the rails etc., etc. Katie was a little taken aback answering questions on drugs, drink, stealing etc., but it was aimed at 11 - 19 year olds. It's pretty sad if a child her age is drawn into these things (or any age really).

"Work" (as we know it) seems to be off the agenda for the rest of today. Ben's done some piano practise and we've reorganised all his Lego into compartments inside his desk so it's all off the floor. Both are busy building on Lego City on the PC at the moment so that's quite educational.

I've found a way of blocking 11 email addresses that persist on sending messages to me on s*x toys and pills and PC software. I'd love to know how I've suddenly been targetted (I don't actually surf for these things on the net - honestly), and a lot of the messages aren't actually addressed to my email address - some just have part of my email address in it. Let's hope the blocking system works.

Oh, and finally, on the gardening side of things, the row of garlic bulbs that I planted are beginning to show signs of life.


"I'm chuffed" - http://sig.graphicsfactory.com/