Monday, January 29, 2007

Well a fair bit is going on here at the moment. The big news first. Jessica received a letter from Blue Peter. They've awarded her a Blue Peter Badge!!! This was for a model of a Tudor house she built with Deb (they were doing Tudors at school before Christmas). We emailed some pictures to Blue Peter ages ago (October?) and had given up on them. Then out of the blue a letter arrived for Jessica on Saturday with a badge. She's over the moon about it.

News number 2. I've spent most of last week off work having pulled my back. Lots of pain and most of the week spent lying flat out on the sofa. I'm still not quite sorted, but I'll have to go to work on Monday regardless - I can't afford to have any more time off.

News number 3. The storms the week before last seemed to hit the area quite badly. Quite a few houses lost tiles. Including us. To be honest, it wasn't that dramatic. We lost of load of mortar from the front gable end but no actual tiles. On the side a tile that was already a little loose came fully out. And one tile on the ridge line looked distinctly iffy, but didn't actually come away. Anyway, 'phoned the insurance company and they'll cover the cost but we had to arrange for the work to be done. After much asking around for a firm with a good reputation (and after having number turn us down because they were too busy) we got a quote - and then they turned up suddenly on Saturday. They went straight up the roof and pulled the first three ridge tiles off. Must have been loose anyway... Still, it's all sorted now.

News number 4. I've mentioned before that we were trying Alex on a new drug called Strattera. Well it's been a complete disaster. I'll make a separate post about this to make it easier for any other parents out there to find our experience. Needless to say he's now off the drug but it's knocked him off target a little in school.

So plenty going on in the Harrison household.

Oh, and Jessica and me finished Lego Star Wars. Very cool.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

HillaryClinton.com - Welcome



So Hillary's in, is she? Hmm...I always thought she was the more impressive politician than Bill. I worry though that she will be prey to her past in a presidential race - and also that she doesn't have the ability to empathise with the public in the same way as the great communicator Bill. Still, she'd probably get my vote - despite her support for the war in Iraq. I remember Clinton getting elected in 1992 partly on the basis that Hillary would bring a considerable intellect to the job of First Lady - and not just be someone who stayed home and "baked cookies". I also remember feeling disappointed at the treatment she got from the Republicans who subsequently forced her to withdraw from the prominent political role she seemed to be hoping for. I think she's got a good chance of the nomination - but there may well be Republicans out there who think she's their best chance of a surprise win in the 2008 contest.





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Wednesday, January 17, 2007

ActionAid International : fighting poverty together :



Forgot to mention a while ago that we now sponsor a child. This was a decision we made over Christmas - particularly after watching a number of Blue Peter shows featuring AIDS orphans in Malawi. I'll post all the details another time, but she lives in Tanzania. Reading the blurb on the Action Aid website, it covers a lot of the points that normally concern me about this kind of thing. In particular, the money from sponsorship is used to fund sustainable projects within the community which are then handed over to local people to manage. It also talks about lobbying locally and nationally for the community's rights and interests. Something I feel I can be a little more committed to than my usual stance to charity work of this nature (ie. time to lobby the governments and proverbially change the world rather than using charity to prop up the existing system).





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Performancing | Firefox Add-ons | Mozilla Corporation

I'm considering changing to this Firefox extension for much of my blogging. I haven't removed Deepest Sender as yet, but Performancing looks a bit more advanced. Found out about if from an article in the current Linux Format, which I subscribe to (Birthday Present from Deborah). This update was posted using Performancing. We'll see how we go.

Jessica is currently hiding upstairs in a grump after being shouted at for refusing to tidy her room. Hey ho.

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Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Letters to the Guardian

Fame at last! I emailed this to the Guardian following the Ruth Kelly story. I feel quite strongly that with a bit of perserverance and willingness to work together on both sides then mainstream can work for special needs. Alex's experience has not been perfect, but he has made progress. The school have worked well with us, there has been commitment on both sides. Kelly argued that she made the decision in the best interests of her child. I don't know enough to comment about that. But I wonder how much effort she put in to working with the local primary...

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Amazon.co.uk: Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years: Books: Michael Palin:
This is my current reading material. Deb bought it for me to read over Christmas. I was a little reluctant as I don't normally read this sort of thing. But it's turned out to be rather interesting. Not just for the insight into Monty Python, but also for the life of a moderate celebrity in the 70's, and for 70's life in general. He chronicles, for instance, the very hot summer of 1976, when I remember visiting London at the age of 5 with my parents - and having an experience probably very similar to ours with Jessica and Alex in London in 2006 (a little fraught, quite stressful, but overall enjoyable). Palin himself comes across as quite a bland, normal person. And yet there is still the odd flash of one of the creators of Python. Much more interesting than I thought it would be.

Haven't really made a post about Christmas yet, so here it is.

I took quite a long time off over Christmas this year - from when the kids finished on the 21st through to the New Year. This was mainly to make sure there was someone to look after the kids, as Deb continues to have problems getting the time off she wants from her employer. (She's supposed to only work during term time, but they keep making it difficult for her, but that's another story.)

Went to visit one of my sisters on the Saturday - she had rented a cottage in the Yorkshire Dales. It made a lovely trip out, especially as I hadn't seen her for ages. It was great for the children to see her again - and means that for the first time in living memory I've actually seen my whole family at some point during the year. (My parents visited in December, and we met my other sister in London in October.)

On Christmas Eve we made our now traditional visit to the cinema. Went to see Happy Feet, about dancing penguins. Alex lasted half an hour before running out and spent the rest of the movie running around the foyer, with me in attendance. Needless to say, this may not last to next year as a Harrison family tradition.

Christmas Day was a visit to Deb's parents in the morning and then home. We made the mistake of having a light lunch when we got back. Deb then cooked the full monty dinner for tea, but by that stage none of us really fancied it. I was a bit grumpy - not helped by the fact that I was coming down with a cold. Jessica was very happy with all her presents (Lego Star Wars from us - both physical lego, and games for her Gamecube and DS). Alex unfortunately was disappointed. We'd made the mistake of taking him to Hattons a few weeks earlier - and he'd set his heart on a Flying Scotsman engine and a few other things - none of which, of course, we'd planned for Father Christmas to provide. He spent most of the day asking why Father Christmas hadn't read the note he'd left out. Real tearjerker stuff - although he did cheer up eventually. So the day itself was a bit of a damp squib really.

By Boxing Day I was into a full-on head cold, really nasty one. So I don't think I left the house for the next 3 days. Deb gradually came down with it too, and we were flat out until the New Year.

Nice New Year though. I made a Japanese miso noodle soup and a rice and noodle hotpot (from the Wagamama) cookbook, plus some sushi rolls (with smoked salmon). It was fun to be doing strange experimental cooking again. They watched telly with the kids all afternoon. Can't remember what we watched - probably just BBC1 all the way through.

And that was it. Back to work on the 2nd. My new team starts on the 8th. I'm not as downbeat about it as I was, but it's still going to be a struggle. Keep you posted.