Helen Monkton

Pause.

I feel like I hit the pause button at the end of the 24-7 reception last week and it's only now that I feel like taking it off.

The event itself felt, well for me anyway, very calm. I didn't get stressed and managed to see that everything came right in the end. I think it was 'successful' and I'm just glad that a lot of hard work from many people was appreciated by all who came.

I took a rain check on the swimming gala I was meant to be in on Saturday. I really hate backing out of commitments, but just don't think my body would have coped with a sweltering hot pool and a few fast lengths. While I felt really guilty for not being there for my other team mates, I decided that health and general well being had to come first... maybe I have learnt something in the past few years!

Lying?

Today, my class of 8 and 9 year olds were discussing good and evil. I know, a HUGE topic  but it was absolutely fascinating to see their perspective on it. Starting with the story of Rama and Sita from the Hindu tradition we talked about the characters in the story and how they were good or evil and what made them so. Wanting to bring it a little closer to home, they brainstormed all the things that we do to make us good and evil. These mainly consisted of 'being nice', 'pullling hair' and 'bullying', all relevant to their worldviews. I decided to then conduct an experiment. I gave them a idea i.e. stealing, and they had to stand on an imaginary line at a given point as to how 'bad' they thought it was. 1 was not at all bad, 10 being the worst possible thing you could do. We did a few of these before I said ' what about lying?' The children all moved accordingly and I asked a few why they were standing in a particular place in the line. A beautifully sweet, curly haired girl was standing right at the 'it's not serious' end of the line. I tentatively asked her for her reasons for being there...

" well, "

she said

" having a bit of a lie down isn't really serious, not if you're tired."

Snorts erupted from both my teaching assistants as they attempted (badly) to stifle laughs at this poor girl's expense.

Oh, they are so sweet!

   

Without Wires

It's not until something breaks that you realise how much you rely on it. I went to switch on my computer today for it to tell me that there was no wireless card. It was there yesterday! Where's it gone?

A call to the  PC 'doc' Wardy couldn't solve the problem and calling technical support (supprisingly quick for a technical line!) diagnosed a need to visit the hospital for sick computers. The wireless card is probably floating around somewhere inside or totally bust.

It's always at the time when you need your computer most. As I had to keep running up and down the stairs to check on things, I realised just how much I take it for granted just checking on those little details. Maybe a few days with me having to consciously think about what I'm using the net for will hone my usage. We wait and see.

Oh dear!

I seem to constantly find myself writing that I haven't written for ages! Every time I think 'Must blog about that' things seem to take over and I forget. Maybe I think it's not 'blogworthy'. Still It doesn't take much to jot down a few thoughts or notes about an event.

When I first started this blog, Carla reccomended that I write every day for the first week. Maybe I need to take myself back to that discipline. Make time to reach out into cyberspace!