Arianna's thread

You can see the latest photos of the new baby at ariannasthread.com. But even if you aren't interested in babies, it's a nice web site.

Breakfast

Breakfast - the quietest time of the day. I love the muslei I make with pumpkin and sunflower seeds. I soak them overnight in fruit juice so that they just start to sprout at breakfast time, crunchy but delicate with extra flavour. I chew them a little bit longer to get all the flavour. mmm. I take a big spoonful.

"Mum!"

I mumble a response. "Is it d-tunnel, that proxy?" "mm-mm", I reply, still savouring but teenage daughter blithely carries on.
"How do you spell it?"
I try to gesticulate at her that my mouth is full, but her back is turned!
"How do you spell it?" she insists as she butters her bread.
"Mm-mm-mm-mm-mm-mnte" (meaning "I'll tell you in a minute")) I answer hopefully, but she goes "What?"

I'm now stressed and not enjoying what remains of this poorly chewed mouthful. She doesn't get a contentful answer. I think she'll probably ask me another question so there's no point in continuing eating now, so I go and tidy and wipe the kitchen. Neither of us talk for 10 minutes. She takes my newspaper and reads it while I clear up.

Now she's gone to school, I'll go and finish breakfast in solitary peace.

Poppies

Granddaughter's year group at Elmhurst school embroidered a plate of poppies and displayed it in our local church.

Divali

Knock at door at 8.30 this morning. Nice neighbour, Kenyan Asian lady with her two younger children on their way to school smilingly offered me a present and "Happy Divali!". I've never had a Divali present before. Aren't I lucky?

They are sweet cakes and I've brought them into the office to share around. There are never many people in on a Friday so it's nice to be sociable and have something to share.

Paying for university

I thought it was bad enough that the government gave so few years warning that my children would have to pay to go to university. I don't see it as unfair to have to pay, but would have liked to have known when they were much younger. Son is now building up his debt, having a living expenses loan of £3000 a year, and £3000 a year paid to the university. So that's a lot at the end of a four year course.

He applied to five universities, and now his sister is going through the UCAS process and applying to study maths at Oxford, Bristol, Bath, Warwick and Surrey. Their aunt in the states has just emailed to ask

"Do you have to pay to apply to universities in Britain? (Son) paid about $300.00 per application."

Thank goodness that's one expense that we don't have to pay yet.

Daughter has an interview at Surrey next week, an acknowledgement from Bristol and Oxford, but not yet Warwick and the offer of an interview at Bath in January.

Essay writing

Son might come home this weekend to see the new baby, but he says he has heaps of work, including an essay to write. He informs me he needs a day to write this essay:

"No, two days because I have to get the books."

Middle Step Daughter is also studying part time for her surveyor qualifications, and she tells me she's taking a day off work next week to write and essay.

I'm impressed by their discipline and the speed with which they write essays.