Lots of changes have been going on here and if all goes well I will be blogging much more in the near future!
One of the biggest changes has been that I’ve decided to switch from Etsy to Folksy, where I’ve been focussing on my Sindy fashion. My sparkling new Sindy and Barbie fashion shop, Xavier and Xenobia, is now open for business!
Sindy Heralds in the Festive Season
I am busy updating Lexicopoly 1, which has now been officially released, and my Etsy shop, where I’ll be selling my hand-made bags. I am hoping to get the whole site shipshape very soon!
I got this from the Feminist Law Professors’ blog and wanted to spread the word:
Sexual Assault Prevention Tips Guaranteed to Work!
1. Don’t put drugs in people’s drinks in order to control their behavior.
2. When you see someone walking by themselves, leave them alone!
3. If you pull over to help someone with car problems, remember not to assault them!
4. NEVER open an unlocked door or window uninvited.
5. If you are in an elevator and someone else gets in, DON’T ASSAULT THEM!
6. Remember, people go to laundry to do their laundry, do not attempt to molest someone who is alone in a laundry room.
7. USE THE BUDDY SYSTEM! If you are not able to stop yourself from assaulting people, ask a friend to stay with you while you are in public.
8. Always be honest with people! Don’t pretend to be a caring friend in order to gain the trust of someone you want to assault. Consider telling them you plan to assault them. If you don’t communicate your intentions, the other person may take that as a sign that you do not plan to rape them.
9. Don’t forget: you can’t have sex with someone unless they are awake!
10. Carry a whistle! If you are worried you might assault someone “on accident”you can hand it to the person you are with, so they can blow it if you do.
And on this note, I am so disappointed the Edinburgh Slut Walk has been planned for 4th June as I am busy that day and can’t participate. Next time, eh? Next time…
Yesterday, Young Sir was yelling up the stairs to me as we were getting ready to go out.
Himself: Mammy, do you believe in God?
Me: I believe in the power of the universe, diddums.
Himself: Do you believe in chairs, Mammy?
Me: Yes, I do, darling.
Himself: Do you believe in sun shining through windows?
Me: Yes.
Himself: Do you believe in a potato with liddle arms an’ legs an’ a liddle smiling face an’ it’s running around an’ singing a song?
Me: Uh. I’d believe it if I saw it…!
Well, it’s Census Time in Scotland on Sunday, March 27th, as with the rest of the UK, so I decided to make a lesson on it for my class. I’ve made the lesson in the style of my forthcoming English Language Resource book, Lexicopoly 1, with a vocabulary bingo game, activity ideas, a word puzzle and worksheets on a relevant grammar structure and language function – in this case Active and Passive Voice, and expressions about recording current situations. There are also worksheets for structured practice and free practice of the target vocab, grammar and language.
Here’s where the lesson can be downloaded, and here’s a link directly to the PDF.
I was so excited to receive my proof copies of Lexicopoly 1 a few weeks ago. Less excited to open the shiny cover and realise I knew next to nothing about formatting a book! A quick crash course later and I am looking forward to presenting a beautifully-formatted Lexicopoly 1 to the world very soon!
Happy Censusing, Darlings!
As I type this, I am in the process of uploading my PDF files for Lexicopoly 1 to Lulu. I need to check that my source file margins are set properly, that none of my formatting has slipped, get my cover together, then Bob’s Your Uncle! Revising Lexicopoly and getting it up online is such a huge and positive milestone for me – it’s taken me ages but the end result is one I’m happy with. Watch this space!
My offspring and I were walking home from school yesterday.
Young Sir: Mammy, do you want to hear the world’s shortest joke?
Me: Ooh, go on then.
Young Sir: Knock knock.
Me: Who’s there?
S I L E N C E
Young Sir: BWAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH!
Not only have I had the alarming saga, this week, of having rat-chewed groceries delivered to my house, but nobody – and here I’m talking Tesco, pest control, Food Health and Safety – apparently cares! Weird. When I lived in Japan and Australia the connection between rats and, you know, serious disease and stuff was taken much more seriously. Is the relaxed attitude in UK some kind of memetic throwback to the era that spawned the bubonic plague?
Anyway, if the rat wasn’t bad enough, last night I was woken up by a mouse scurrying around my bedroom! It was hiding in my wardrobe and peeping out at me then eventually took itself downstairs and I could hear its little weight going plop-plop-plot from one stair to the next.
It’s only Wednesday and I’m already fed up of vermin.
Apart from Rastamouse!
My little darling discovered Rastamouse on the Cbeebies iPlayer last night and we were both glued to it. I especially loved the Rasta ethics at the end!
Dear Sir/Madam
Last night, I had an online order of food shopping from Tesco delivered to my house. As I was unpacking the shopping in my kitchen, I noticed that there were only two chillies in the pack of chillies that I had bought. On further inspection, the plastic packet had a large hole gnawed out of it and showed visible teethmarks. Please see the photos below. I recognised the damage as the type that a mouse does except that it was on a larger scale. I could only, therefore, conclude that the packet had been gnawed open by a rat. I called Tesco Customer Service, and spoke to O, who, while sympathetic and helpful to a limited degree, appeared reluctant to believe that a rat had been into my groceries. When I said I could send photos of the gnawed merchandise O laughed and said: “There’s no need to do that,” then suggested – on no apparent evidence – that the delivery staff had chewed the packet open as a joke with each other. He did refund the 50p cost of the chillies.
I am extremely concerned by Tesco’s lack of concern over my report of rat-chewed groceries. I have a week’s worth of food sitting in my kitchen, food which includes loose lemons, sweet potatoes and onions, that I am afraid to eat in case it has been urinated on by vermin. Moreover, I am obviously reluctant to give this food to my 5-year-old child. Today I emailed Tesco’s managing director but have not yet received a response. I strongly feel Tesco’s vans and food storage areas need to be investigated for rats and pest control called in – but this is not something they appear to take seriously. Please let me know what I can do.
**********
Unsatisfactory response from Council Food Safety
**********
Dear __________
I ordered my shopping from the central Tesco.com website. The receipt gives no information about which particular shop the food came from, although the van number is given. I assumed they had a warehouse dedicated to online orders and that the rat was either in there or had got into the van.
Rodent toothmarks can clearly been seen on the packet itself, which may not come across in the photo. I am familiar with vermin-chewed packaging after having mice in my kitchen last year, and this damage is on a larger scale than that. As far as visible rat evidence goes, none of the other food had been gnawed. I am tempted to ask how much evidence is required for Food Health and Safety to investigate the presence of a rat amongst food – one gnawed packet, two, ten? Reported by one person, two, ten?
The evidence is sufficient for me, and I have done my duty by reporting this rat activity to those who are capable of taking action. In future, I will simply shop at a different supermarket which I trust will have a stricter approach towards vermin.
Yours sincerely
**********
Update: 4th February 2011
**********
Both Tesco and the Council Food Safety contacted me yesterday and said they are going to investigate. Tesco asked me to return the rat-gnawed packaging to them so that they can show it to Rentokil. I’m still amazed at the sluggish and laidback response to this – am I the only person who remembers the bubonic plague?! But at least they are finally doing something. Not so sure I’ll be back to Tesco in the near future, mind you…
My little darling was invited to a party last week and the birthday girl, who was going as Jessie the Yodeling Cowgirl, requested that he dress up as Woody.
The problem was that Young Sir is absolutely and utterly freaked out by Toy Story, ever since we saw Toy Story 3 featuring the spectacle of the Bad Teddy a.k.a. “Lots-O’-Huggin Bear”. It was a case of “Lots-O’-Screamin” from my darling when Lotso made his appearance, upon which we probably should have left the cinema. Naively I kept reassuring him: “The teddy will turn nice in the end!” not anticipating the incinerator scene and the travesty of Lotso staying bad, which I am still being quizzed about to this day. Being tied to a dump truck for all eternity, it seems, is not punishment enough for Lotso’s treacherous ways.
Needless to say, I didn’t want to “go there” with Toy Story 3 so I decided to make a generic cowboy outfit for Young Sir. I had a half-formed idea that I would pop along to Cath Kidston and get a metre of her cowboy fabric – until I realised it was £18.00 a metre! Cath, I could buy a complete Woody costume from the Early Learning Centre of all places for less than that! But, as said, we were giving Toy Story a wide berth, so I did an online search for cowboy fabric and almost immediately came across a lovely blue Robert Kaufman cowboy print in Stitch Me Lane’s fabric shop on Folksy. 
Stitch Me Lane sells material by fat quarter but also cuts longer continuous lengths if required and I believe the prices are pretty reasonable for a beautiful print like this. I had a few questions for her and was really impressed by the speed and helpfulness of her replies – and even more so when the cowboy fabric arrived only one working day later!
I got cracking and sewed Young Sir a waistcoat, “desperado neck-chief” and a holster for his Playmobil man (note how 30 years ago a cowboy outfit wouldn’t have been complete without a couple of cap-guns but having your 5-year-old tote pistols nowadays will have you marked out instantly as a psycho…).
I made up the patterns myself and adjusted them to fit him. I’m going to make more holsters and will substantially alter the design as we found this one was too long and got in the way when Monsieur Cowboy was galloping around, and also the elastic loop I’d made to keep the Playmobil man in wasn’t enough to stop him leaping out at every opportunity and that made Young Sir nervous that he would lose him.
The cowboy hat was courtesy of the toy shop along the road and Young S wore a plain white shirt, his brown boots, and a pair of blue jeans, which are his ordinary weekend clothes. The hobby horse was kindly given to him by a friend of a friend’s son and finished the outfit off nicely! I was so pleased at how this costume turned out as I am new to sewing.
My little darling went to his party looking quite the part and his friend was delighted.
Stitch Me Lane has put these photos and more on her blog, including a little slideshow, which Young Sir was happy to see!
