ICE

Look at the ice -


isn't it pretty ?

isn't it lovely?

Yes. But not when you are driving your Mum's car and hit a patch of black ice sending the car spinning like a waltzer to bounce off one kerb and end up at an angle of 45 degrees up a bank on the opposite side. That was our unwanted excitement on Sunday afternoon. The car is now a write off, and I am feeling very guilty about the whole thing, even though I wasn't driving fast or recklessly. But, as eveyone keeps saying - neither A or me was hurt, and there were no other cars involved, and that is the important thing. I just feel bad about all the hassle this is causing my Mum :-(

We did manage to get some sledging in with some friends on Friday (see below), and had a lovely night with some other friends on Saturday.

I sat and did my response to the government_consultation on home education yesterday. I had been putting it off because it seems so daunting and there's so much I wanted to say, but I finally got round to setting a couple of hours aside to really focus on it, and felt quite pleased with what I got down. I used Carlotta's draft_response a lot for reference (she is so on the case), but managed to get what I wanted down quite clearly and concisely (I hope).

A received her first copy of National_Geographic_Kids magazine, which my brother and his family subscribed to for her as a birthday present. Very impressive!

She has also been glued to another of her birthday gifts (from some friends) - Benjamin Zephaniah's Wicked_World. A had come across a couple of his poems in another book - an anthology of poems she has - and really liked them. She now reads his book every night and usually falls asleep holding on to it. I'm definately going to have to get some more of his books for her.

We did watch that new programme on Channel 4: Boys_and_Girls_Alone, the sort of programme about which my Mum would say "for goodness sake K, how can you watch this shit?". It is horribly fascinating, although I'm not comfortable at all about the ethics of making a programme like this with children, and cant understand why any parent would allow their child to participate, but it was certainly a good basis for discussions with A.

Before I finish I would just like to urge everyone to look at Debs' new site: Scarves_For_Survivors, a brilliant idea and a very worthy cause.