unoriginal_liz

- and that threshold is quite high.

Having dinner with Bruv and Bruv's girlfriend (pocket-sized, possessed of adorable glasses), a silence eventually fell. Nana took it upon herself to fill this void. With Brendan Grace jokes. One hokey one about an old man, a nun and a doctor with a limited understanding of doctor-patient confidentiality ("Of course she's not pregnant - but it cured her hiccups, didn't it?") was followed by...

...a joke about a man with gout who used viagra-induced erections as a means of ensuring the bedsheet never touched his feet.

This does not do justice to Nana's inimitable style of telling it. It was like being thrust into a scene starring Betty White, without warning. We are still reeling. This is the woman who watches Countdown every day, so that she can keep a tally of how short the presenter's skirt is, and judge her for it.

A more sedate evening followed, during which she spoke at length of the religious atmosphere of Lourdes.

( Monkee Meme part 2 )

Today, I went for a walk without my coat.

This may not sound momentous, but it sure felt it. I was there, standing outside my car, with my coat on, and as I began to walk, the thought snailed into my head, '...I...don't...think...I...need...this...coat.' My body nearly PHYSICALLY rejected the thought, like a recently donated organ. But I was warm! It was like pulling off a layer of skin, leaving that coat behind, but the rain and capricious breeze never took their revenge - though I was an open target!

...or am I overtired and somewhat overinvested in the mathematical attainments of seven year olds?

I tell you, there is no feeling even close to the relief you feel when a child starts with the units, smoothly carries a ten over onto the tens side and then adds the tens correctly.

Likewise, there is nothing like the soul-rending despair you feel when a child puts the ten onto the tens side BEFORE EVEN ADDING THE UNITS. It's like a physical pain. Still progress is being made...slowly. The kicking and screaming has died down, and I don't cry as much in class, anymore :)

Also, threeish weeks before the First Communion.

My coping mechanism has been a full fledged spinning into fannishness via The Monkees. Oh my GOD, I cannot begin to tell you how much I LOVE and ADORE this show. Okay, I could, but poor pheobep has already had to bear the brunt of my enthusiasm.

I feel a bit ghoulish, because my original interest was sparked by Davy Jones' passing, but I ordered the DVDs and ohmygosh, THIS SHOW HAS EVERYTHING!! Cute, funny lead characters - zany situations - kidnappings - INSANE ROMPS SET TO MUSIC! - writers who think the answer to everything is 'dress the boys up in goofy, adorable costumes' (THEY ARE NOT WRONG!).

HENCE - a meme! Snurched from rose_of_pollux, but cut to spare non-Monkee fans and the disinterested :)

( Monkee Meme part 1 )

Today in our comprehension question, the children read a passage about money, and about how people - like nurses, teachers and doctors - work for money. One little girl raised her hand and said, "Teacher - does this mean you get PAID to look after us?"

I asked her what she thought.

"No." (INNOCENCE!)

I had to regretfully inform her that yes, I do get paid to teach.

"So," she said, suddenly eyeing me with suspicion, "This is just a job to you?"

Aw - I remember being a kid and watching repeats of The Monkees on RTE - RIP, Davy Jones. Just watching the theme song still makes me feel goofy and happy.

The stockpile of books is slowly but surely diminishing! Also, adopting DEAR into the classroom turned out to be a really good thing - five minutes guaranteed extra reading time for me as well as the kids during the course of the school day!

( pirates, Medicis, diamonds, blood, dead explorers, ghosts, music, and bike messengers )

...or I kind of sucked at posting here for quite some time.

Clearly, I am just a fandom-centric livejournal-er, since falling out of Life with Derek fandom stopped all my livejournal activity cold. I didn't stop like, eating sandwiches and speaking to other people or anything, but without the excuse of fandom, documenting the sandwich-eating and the people-speaking seemed kind of silly...

Pre Life with Derek, I was pretty much a silent-but-enthusiastic lurker, like a mime who seems PASSIONATELY INTO walking against the wind. And my replacement fandom, Pros, is again a call to dig out the false moustache and the face-concealing hat and return to lurker-dom. I love Pros, but not at all in a create-stuff way.

Nuff whingery. Have some Victoria Wood and costume drama parody :)

So, I have fallen prey to Downton Abbey - not just prey in the 'detached enjoyment of Edwardian soap opera' way, but full on fannish engagement. I HAVE ICONS NOW!

And the thing is, it is SUCH a soap opera, and it does not hesitate to pile on the ham and melt cheese on top of that. But but but - in spite of that, I am HOOKED.

( spoilery stuff about Downton Abbey )

I just saw 'The Shop Around the Corner' - and it may just be the sweetest thing ever! :) Look!

I spent most of the day ripping the entire Mrs Brown dvd collection (obviously called Mrs Brown's Box). This pretty much sums up my feelings on the whole thing -




This is even more pout-inducing than the time my significant other left me, cleaned out our joint account...and there was no milk in :(